Sermon: No Soil Maps in the Kingdom of Heaven – Luke 8:4-15, Isaiah 55:9-13

May 11, 2021

A sower went out to sow.  That is one crazy wasteful parable.   Didn’t Jesus mean to say, “A sower went out to sow.  He saw the path, and he didn’t sow any seed there.  He saw the rocks and he didn’t sow any seed there.  He saw the thistles and he didn’t sow any seed there.  And then he saw the good soil, and that’s where he planted all his seeds!” And how much crazier this might have sounded to the people Jesus was telling this story to.  In Jesus’ day, they sowed the grain by hand…

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Evening Prayer: Night Sounds

May 11, 2021

Thank you God for night sounds;

frogs singing in the spring,

crickets chirping to their mates,

dry leaves rustling,

winter winds howling,

the plaintive call of a train whistle,

the wail of a siren,

the sound of my own breath.

God, you are in the night sounds.

Tune my ears to the pitch of your voice

calling to me in the darkness.  Amen.

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Morning Prayer: The Race Before Us

May 11, 2021

At the starting line of this day,

we call on your name, God of grace.

As we run the race you have set before us,

help us to keep our eyes on your goals, not our own.

When we falter, give us fresh strength and courage.

When we are fleet-footed, let us give you the glory.

Keep us from wanting to win at other’s expense

or to count ourselves better than those at our side.

All runners are your children.

In the race You imagine,

each one is a winner.

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Sermon: Come and See! What are we expecting from Jesus? – John 1:35-42, Psalm 66:1-5

May 11, 2021

What about you?  What are you looking for?   I tell you, my brothers and sisters, that the only thing worth looking for is Jesus. You can get caught up in looking for a nicer building, or a more full building, or younger people in the building, or better music in the building, but if we spend our time looking for that, we might miss something essential. What we are looking for is Jesus. We are looking to see the power of God working in this community, through us in this city and this world.

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Sermon: Supersize it! God in a Box – I Corinthians 13, Isaiah 40:12, 28-31, Job 12:7-10

May 11, 2021

As human beings we are bound to make “scale errors” when it comes to God, because our knowledge is incomplete. We see this in theology. The church in a certain century has a view of God that they think is extremely important…several centuries later, the church realizes that maybe that wasn’t as big and important as they thought it was. Conversely, something considered a little theological issue for a thousand years suddenly looms large. We can see this in our own lives as well.

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Sermon: There’s a Wideness in God’s Table – Luke 9:12-17, Matthew 9:11, Acts 11:3, Psalm 23

May 11, 2021

Five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand people! But today I want to turn our attention away from the five loaves and two fishes and think for a while of the other miracle. It’s the same story, but a different focus.These people ate together. That might not seem like a very big miracle to you, but I assure you, in that time and that place, that was a miracle.There was an ancient near eastern proverb which went, “See me eat, know who I am.”

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Sermon: Deliverance Before, After and In Between – Exodus 15:1-21, Psalm 105:26-38; Luke 4:18

May 11, 2021

Deliverance. I don’t know where you are at this morning.  Some of you are in a place of peace.  There is a before and after in your life.  God has delivered you, and you are so grateful for that change in your life.  Maybe it’s deliverance from pain, or from grief, or from addiction, or from sickness, or from danger, from sin. Like the Israelites liberated from Egypt, you rejoice. You have a before and after story and you thank God fervently that you are in the after part of your story.

But for others, you are stuck….

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Come! A Call to Worship

May 11, 2021

And Jesus said, “Come!”

To the light-hearted and the heavy-hearted:  he said, “Come!”

To the well-off and the cast-off:  he said, “Come!”

To the youngsters and the oldsters:  he said, “Come!”

To the faithful and the faithless:  he said, “Come!”

“Come unto me all ye who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-29)

Jesus, we long to meet you in this hour of worship,
we hear your call.

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Corners of My Mind

May 11, 2021

Here’s a prayer for the corners of my mind

littered with unfinished business—

hopes squashed decades ago,

orphan words that never had a listening ear,

yearnings unhinged, glances missed,

potential unrealized,

torn maps of roads not taken.

In lonely moments, if you listen closely,

you can hear regret gnawing away there

sharpening its teeth on yesterday’s sorrows.

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About Carol Penner

I am a Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. I’ve served congregations in Ontario and most recently, Alberta.

I love to write and to lead worship! If you are finding my writing helpful, I would love to hear from you! Feel free to use or adapt the material here, it is all written by me. If printing material, please credit “Copyright Carol Penner www.leadinginworship.com” (and say whether you modified it). If publishing, please contact me for permission. Contact me at carol@leadinginworship.com

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