MTP Sermon Resources

Exodus 8:1-15 April 30, 2017 • Mount Pleasant UMC This may come as a surprise to my family, but I have a streak of stubbornness in me. I know, I know, it’s shocking, but it’s true. But I get it honestly; it was inherited, a fact I saw very clearly when my Dad took me out to teach me how to drive. We had a 1977 Chevy Chevette, with a manual transmission (most of the kids here have no idea what that is). So Dad took me out to the country roads around Sedalia, of which they are many, and put me behind the wheel. Now, I had never driven anything in my life, but that didn’t stop me from thinking that I knew everything about how to do it. He showed me the clutch, the gas pedal and the brake pedal, but impatient me acted like I already knew what was what. I was ready to go while Dad was trying to tell me how to do certain things—like avoiding collisions. But I wasn’t having it. I knew it all, as we all tend to when we are teenagers. So Dad was giving instructions and I’m prett...

Mark 16:1-8 April 16, 2017 (Easter) • Mount Pleasant UMC I enjoy going to zoos, and when the kids were younger, we would hit up the zoo in just about any city we visited. Several years ago, I chaperoned Christopher’s class trip to the Indianapolis Zoo, and I was assigned to a small group of boys who all were, shall we say, very energetic. We saw the whole zoo…twice. And we ate lunch along the way. It truly was the ADD version of the Indy Zoo; I could barely keep up! But what makes the zoo safe for us to visit, for schoolchildren to run through without any worries? How are we able to go and view all these wild animals, many creatures we would be afraid of if we ran into them in the wild? It’s because of the bars, the cages. We know we’re safe because the animals are contained. But what if they got loose? What if the bars of the cages suddenly swung open? What would happen then? There would be mass chaos. People would run, most of them frightened, some of them just trying...

Mark 15:6-15, 25-32 April 14, 2017 (Good Friday) • Mount Pleasant UMC It was a horrible way to die. It was intended to be. It was a punishment meant to terrify people, to keep them in line lest they find themselves next in line. One writer of the time said that if you knew there was a chance you might be arrested and put to death by crucifixion, it would be better to commit suicide. Another called it the “extreme and ultimate punishment of slaves” and the “cruelest and most disgusting penalty.” A third writer called it “the most pitiable of deaths” (Hamilton, 24 Hours That Changed the World , pg. 96). It was so horrible that, early on in the Christian faith, no one represented this faith by placing a cross around their necks or in their places of worship, just as no one would do with an electric chair today. In fact, crosses were not represented in Christian art until everyone who had ever seen a real crucifixion was long gone. The main purpose of a crucifixion was...

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 April 13, 2017 (Maundy Thursday) • Mount Pleasant UMC The day was over and the evening was quite pleasant, but it wasn’t the weather that had him in such a good mood. Tonight was the night they would gather and celebrate. He made his way through the city streets of Corinth to the home of their hosts, a very spacious home by Corinthian standards. That was why they met there, because as the group had grown, they needed more space to be able to all be together. This home was perfect. Most of the group could gather in the central courtyard, which was partially open to the sky, and others would spill into the surrounding rooms. As he made his way to the home, he saw others he knew arriving—some coming from the baths, some coming from the market, some coming from work as he was. No matter what their place in life, they came together this night on equal footing. Everyone was welcome, and everyone was included. This was the night when they worshipped and ...