MTP Sermon Resources

Mark 15:16-20; Isaiah 53:3-6 March 13, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC An old man walks down a path surrounded by tall trees. His hair is gray and he wears a light blue windbreaker over a golf shirt. He walks with great intent and purpose, as if he’s looking for someone or something. His family is behind him, but they seem to sense this is a journey he must take by himself, and so they let him go ahead alone. When he finally finds the area he is looking for, he emerges onto a vast lawn filled with white crosses. They seem to extend to the horizon, and though he knows which one he’s looking for, he still hesitates. As he approaches the single cross in the field he has been looking for, he wipes his eyes. Then he begins talking, muttering and, as his wife approaches, he turns to her. “Tell me I’ve lived a good life,” he says. She’s confused by his request, and so she stammers, “What?” “Tell me I’m a good man,” he says clearly, and this time she is just as clear. “You are,” she says...

Mark 15:1-15 March 6, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC He never planned to be here. In fact, he never thought he would be a free man again. This morning, he expected that, very shortly, he would be dead. When the guards woke him up early this morning, he knew this was it. In very short order, he would be hanging on a Roman cross, another victim of swift Roman justice. That was all right. He was guilty. He had done everything they accused him of and more. Which was why he couldn’t figure out why he was now walking away while some other man, some other Jesus, was being led away to face crucifixion. None of it made sense, especially when he looked into the face of the other man. He didn’t look like a criminal. But he had heard the cries with his own ears. “Give us Barabbas!” the crowd had said. He couldn’t believe it then, and he couldn’t believe it now. Nor could he believe what he heard next. When the governor asked what to do with the other man, the crowd had said, “Crucify him!” ...

Mark 14:53-65 February 28, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC It was snowing heavily, like it was here a couple of weeks ago, and it was blowing to the point that visibility was almost zero when the young lady got off work. She made her way to her car and wondered how she was going to make it home through the snow. She sat in her car as it warmed up, and she remembered her dad's advice that if she got caught in a blizzard she should wait for a snow plow to come by and follow it. That way she would not get stuck in a snow drift. Sure enough, after a little while, a snow plow came by and she pulled out to follow it. She even smiled a bit and started to feel kind of smug because she was not having any problems with the blizzard conditions. After an hour had passed, the snowplow stopped, the driver got out and came back to her car, signaling for her to roll down her window. He asked if she was all right. “You’ve been following me for a long time,” he said. “I’m fine,” she assured him, a...

Mark 14:32-42 February 21, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC About this time last year, we were very vividly learning the meaning of the word “wait.” Our new appointment to Mount Pleasant had been announced and so had the new pastor who was coming in after me, and we were caught in between. We were making trips to Terre Haute, living in Portage and trying to figure out exactly where we were most days! We were in the process of buying a house here, but hadn’t started packing there yet, knowing that we still had to live there until June when we would move here. We were waiting, and learning how hard it can be. But you know that. You know about waiting. There are not too many things harder to do than to wait. One author says, “Waiting can be the most intense and poignant of all human experiences” (Vanstone, qtd. in Garland, NIV Application Commentary: Mark, pg. 553). Sometimes we’re waiting for something good, like the birth of a new baby or the beginning of a new job. And in times l...