Sermon Illustrations on Creation (human)

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Even the Almighty took seven

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 15:23, Proverbs 16:1, Ecclesiastes 3:1, James 1:19, Proverbs 25:11, Genesis 1:

Franklin D. Roosevelt had hoped the Yalta conference (which discussed the future of Europe and Germany post-WWII) wouldn’t last more than five or six days. Winston Churchill, however, remarked, “I do ...

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We Are Dust

Author

Luke A. Powery

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Psalm 103:14, Job 42:5-6, Joel 2:12-13, Hebrews 12:1-3, Romans 3:20-26, Ecclesiastes 3:20

At the beginning of this season of Lent, on this Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we will return. We are reminded of human fragility and failure. We are reminded that we are...

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Joining the Human Race

Author

Parker J. Palmer

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 42:3, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Romans 8:22-23, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Hebrews 4:15

As the darkness began to descend on me in my early twenties, I thought I had developed a unique and terminal case of failure. I did not realize that I had merely embarked on a journey toward joining t...

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Food Didn’t Have to Be This Good!

Author

A. J. Swoboda

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:17, Romans 8:19, Matthew 7:11, Ecclesiastes 3:13, Psalm 104:24, Genesis 1:31

There is an Indian restaurant in my neighborhood called Bollywood Theatre. I once went to lunch with my friend Todd Miles, a theologian at a local seminary. Taking in our first few bites, he blurted o...

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“Do it Again”

Author

G. K. Chesterton

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:28, Psalm 90:2, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Psalm 136:1, Genesis 8:22, Matthew 18:3

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it...

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Util and Frui

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:10, Hebrews 10:24-25, Psalm 8:, Genesis 1:31, Psalm 19:1, Ecclesiastes 3:11

Two Latin words are used to describe useful and beautiful things: util and frui. Util means useful, beneficial, helpful. Frui means enjoyable, pleasurable, and delightful. The created world is both fr...

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False Narrative: You Are An Accident

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:26-27, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Job 33:4 , John 1:1-4, Colossians 1:16-17, Psalm 139:13-16

The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy describes a view (not his own view, because Tolstoy was a Christian) of the human person, based on a theory of reality he saw emerging in his day. It is a narrative that...

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Famous Atheist Richard Dawkins Argues that You are an Accident

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:7, Jeremiah 1:5 , Ecclesiastes 3:11, John 1:3-4, Colossians 1:16-17, Psalm 139:13-14

The atheist author Richard Dawkins, who wrote, “The universe, at the bottom, has no design, no purpose, no evil, and no other good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor care...

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Why Did God Make This World?

Author

Joe Rigney

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:17, Psalm 145:16, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, Psalm 104:24, Genesis 1:31, Psalm 19:1

To ask our (not so) simple question in another way: Why did God make this world? Why did he make a world for his own glory in Christ and then fill it to the brim with pleasures—physical pleasures, sen...

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Just a stain in the soil

Author

William Rowley

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Ecclesiastes 3:20, Genesis 18:27, James 4:14, Psalm 90:12, Psalm 39:4, 1 Peter 2:24-25, Psalm 90:10, Psalm 78:39, 1 Chronicles 29:15, Psalm 39:5, Psalm 144:4, Job 14:1, Psalm 103:15-16, Job 7:6-7, Genesis 2:7

I love a British TV show called Time Team. Hosted by Tony Robinson, a team of archeologists descend on a site in Britain and excavate for three days. Inevitably, the archeologists unearth the dead...

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A Contrast to the Realm of Eternity

Author

A. J. Swoboda

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 57:15, Psalm 90:4, Revelation 1:4, Exodus 20:8-11, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Genesis 2:2-3

The framework of seven days is rich with divine intention. Certainly, in biblical numerology, the number seven symbolizes divine perfection. But perhaps it goes deeper than that. Echoing church father...

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The Eternal Question: “Why?”

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Job 38:42 , Exodus 3:1–14 , Ecclesiastes 3:1–14, Romans 11:33–36, John 14:5–6 , Psalm 139:1–6

If you’ve been around a kid who’s just learned to ask “why?”, it can be a bit much. You’ll be asked, “why is grass green?” “Why do birds fly?” “Why do I get hungry?” and much, much, more. Pa...

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Use what the World Gives You

Author

Shauna Niequist

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1–2 , Leviticus 23:39–41 , Ruth 2:2–3 , Galatians 6:9 , John 4:35–36, Psalm 126:5–6

Use what you have, use what the world gives you. Use the first day of fall: bright flame before winter's deadness; harvest; orange, gold, amber; cool nights and the smell of fire. Our tree-lined s...

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Francis Collins’ Search for the Divine

Author

Francis S. Collins

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:11, Isaiah 55:1-3 , Exodus 33:18-23, Romans 8:22-23 , John 4:13-14 , Psalm 42:1-2

While the search for the divine has been somewhat crowded out in modern times by our busy and overstimulated lives, it is still one of the most universal of human strivings. C. S. Lewis describes this...

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So Much Straw

Author

Don McCullough

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 3:5-6, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Psalm 145:3, 1 Corinthians 2:10-11, Job 11:7-9, Romans 11:33-34, Isaiah 55:8-9

Thomas Aquinas, the famous medieval theologian, created one of the greatest intellectual achievements of Western civilization in his Summa Theologica. It’s a massive work: thirty-eight treatises, thre...

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God is a Gentleman

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 11:2, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Matthew 7:12, Philippians 2:3-4, Psalm 138:6

Frank Buchman, an American Lutheran who founded the First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921, later renamed the Oxford Group in 1928, was known for his belief in divine guidance. One evening, Presid...

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Our Problem with Time

Author

Dorothy C. Bass

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Colossians 3:23-24, Matthew 6:33-34, Genesis 2:2-3, Psalm 90:12, Ecclesiastes 3:1

We delude ourselves into believing that if we can just get everything done, if we can only tie up all the loose ends, if we can even once get ahead of the crush, we will prove our worth and establish ...

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Different Seasons, Different Challenges

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Luke 15:11-32, Proverbs 20:29, Psalm 90:10-12

Someone once quipped that we spend the first half of our lives struggling with the sixth commandment ( Thou shalt not commit adultery ) and the second half of our lives struggling with the fifth comma...

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The God I Want

Author

Graham Tomlin

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:11, Romans 11:33-34, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 46:10, 1 Corinthians 1:18, Isaiah 55:8-9

Some while ago, I picked up a book in a second hand bookshop. It was an old, slightly faded paperback with what looked like an intriguing title: The God I Want. Published in the late 1960s, it was a c...

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Discerning Sense of Call By Paying Attention to Our Bodies

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 1:9, Ecclesiastes 3:1, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Psalm 23:3, Philippians 2:13, Romans 12:1-2

As I have worked to clarify my calling, I have learned to pay attention to my energy levels in response to different activities. If I experience a particular activity as being inordinately draining, I...

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“Does My Ash Look All Right?”

Author

Tish Harrison Warren

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Job 42:5-6, Ezekiel 9:4, Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 3:20, Daniel 9:3

One Ash Wednesday a decade ago, when I was new to Anglicanism, I knelt at a rail as Fr. Thomas, my priest, smeared a black cross on each forehead. “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall ret...

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Through the Seasons

Author

Gene Edwards

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, John 15:1-2, Psalm 1:3, Galatians 6:9, Genesis 8:20-22, Mark 4:26-29, James 5:7-8, 2 Timothy 4:1-7, Hosea 6:3, Daniel 2:21, Acts 1:7, Psalm 104:19, Genesis 1:14

I have observed through the years that most Christians have little understanding of the word ‘season’. Our Lord is a seasonal God; He comes, He departs. His faithfulness never changes, but His seasons...

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Ash Wednesday & A Public Faith

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Joel 2:12-13, Romans 3:20-26, Job 42:5-6, Ezekiel 9:4, Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 3:20

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always enjoyed the public nature of Ash Wednesday. That is to say, what happens when we leave an Ash Wednesday service and there is the sign of the cross, for all who ...

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Stein's Law

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, James 4:13-15, Matthew 24:42, Psalm 90:

Have you ever heard of "Stein’s Law"? Named after University of Virginia economics professor Herbert Stein, it states: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." Do you...

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If This isn’t Nice, What is?

Author

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, Nehemiah 8:10, Genesis 2:8-9, 15, Philippians 4:4-7 , Luke 10:38-42 , Psalm 118:24

In a commencement speech at Rice University around the turn of the century (the 21st century to be precise) the author Kurt Vonnegut shared some of the wisdom of his life. He went on to share a story ...

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What is the Meaning of Life?

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:10, Luke 12:15, Matthew 5:14, Proverbs 3:5-6, Ecclesiastes 3:11

Recently I was watching a children’s television show on YouTube with my kids, when the host asked, “What is the meaning of Life?” His response was typical: “I don’t know,” but what he said next made m...

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Autumn: The Conclusion of our Ordinary Time in the Land

Author

Sylvie Vanhoozer

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1–2, Leviticus 23:39–41, Ruth 2:2–3, Galatians 6:9, John 4:35–36, Psalm 126:5–6

And so we arrive at autumn, the conclusion of our ordinary time in the land. The seeds planted at the start of our pilgrimage have produced a harvest in fields, homes, and towns. Farms display God’s a...

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Sad Will Be The Day

Author

Phillips Brooks

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:11, 2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 11:16, Psalm 42:1, Isaiah 6:8, Romans 12:2, Philippians 3:14

Sad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life he is living, with the thoughts that he is thinking, with the deeds that he is doing, when there is not forever bea...

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The Importance of Selective Change

Author

Jared Diamond

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1, Romans 12:2, Isaiah 43:19, Hebrews 12:27, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, James 1:2-4

Crises, and pressures for change, confront individuals and their groups at all levels, ranging from single people, to teams, to businesses, to nations, to the whole world. Crises may arise from extern...

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Soon and Very Soon?

Author

Mia Levetan

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1, Genesis 18:10–14, Habakkuk 2:3, 2 Peter 3:8, Luke 2:25–32, Psalm 90:4

My kids are still young enough that they ask cute questions. My youngest is still learning what all the measurements mean. He’ll ask, “Mom, how long until we leave?” “15 minutes.” “Is that long?” “No,...

Sermon Illustrations on creation (human)

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