Example Sermons
Test-Driving a New Sermon Structure
Trying something new for the first time is always a little uncomfortable. Sermon structures are no different. The first time you test-drive a shiny new sermon structure, it’s easy to feel like you are slightly out of control. Your natural cadence, your expectations, your anticipation of what your hearers will do next, your flow–all of […]
You ARE His Witnesses
I had a chance to sit down with a preacher after I listened to his sermon. I find the conversation about preaching can be fascinating, and really helpful for those who face the art, craft, and challenge of preaching on a regular basis. The text for the sermon came from the assigned readings for Ascension, […]
The Dead Sea and the River of Life
by Justin Rossow The following sermon is based on the vision recorded in Ezekiel 47:1-12. Revelation 22:1-7a and John 4 were also used in worship that day. We often think of metaphor as using something we know to help us understand something we don’t know. While that may often be the case, it’s hardly a […]
Heading in the Right Direction
Metaphors shape the way we think. Metaphors shape how we make decisions. Metaphors allow us to experience one thing in terms of something else. The following is a sermon produced by a student in a course I teach on metaphor theory. The assignment was to put the basic elements of metaphor theory to use in […]
Mark Sermon Structures
By Justin Rossow In 2015 we preached through the Gospel of Mark between January and Easter. And it was *awesome.* Looking back over so many weeks in the same book of the Bible, following the same story line, preaching on the Gospel Lesson week after week after week, I am deeply grateful for the training […]
My Prodigal Father: A Story to Upset the World
by Michael Zeigler, Pastor, Epiphany Lutheran Church, St. Louis, MO In Luke 15 Jesus tells the story of a prodigious, extravagant, reckless, and—in the eyes of some—wasteful father. Of course, the story itself is fictitious; as Jesus was inclined to do, the Lord just made it up. Nevertheless, this story has the ring of truth. […]
Paul and Lydia
By Justin Rossow Sometimes you preach a metaphor IN the text. And sometimes you preach a metaphor FOR the text. In Acts 16, Paul meets Lydia at a river. A literal river. Nothing metaphorical about it. But the sermon below takes the image of a river–of tubing and whitewater rafting on a river–as a metaphor […]
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