Sermons & Worship by Rev. Laurie DeMott (Page 25)

Mark 16:1-8 A few years ago, a group of ministers and church-goers toured Jerusalem and when they came to the hill outside of the city that archaeologists have identified as the possible site of the crucifixion, their guide said to them, “This may be the hill called Golgotha where Jesus died.”  He then stopped for a moment and added, “I’m wondering if I have said that properly.  In my faith, if I were talking about Abraham I would say, Abraham…

Mark 11:15-19 Jesus entered Jerusalem. He had been heading for Jerusalem for weeks now and finally he had arrived with palm branches and cheering crowds (mostly cheering because they just loved a parade and not because they really knew what was going on) and the first place that Jesus went to that first day after entering the city was to the Temple. Now, that wasn’t so unusual for a good Jewish boy. There was, after all, only one Temple for…

Mark 10:46-52 In case you hadn’t noticed, our country is in the middle of a presidential campaign and over the course of a long campaign it’s easy for candidates to begin to lose their focus. The NY Times last week tallied 49 subjects that have been brought up at least once during the candidates’ debates, topics ranging from income inequality and immigration to hand size.(1) Some of you may remember back in 1992, Bill Clinton’s campaign director James Carville hung…

Mark 10:13-16 The first year my daughter Stacy started track practice, she told me that when I came to pick her up at the school, I should text her when I arrived and she would come out to the parking lot to find me.  Dutifully, that first afternoon I pulled up to the school and typed into my phone, “I am here,” and then I added, “I am here, I am here, I am here! Yopp!”  When Stacy emerged from…

Mark 9:14-29 One of the youth group’s favorite games is a card game called “Scruples.”  In this game, a player is presented with an ethical dilemma and asked how he or she would respond to it.  For example, a card might read, “The clerk at a store gives you too much change.  Do you pocket the extra money without saying anything?”  After the player answers the question, the rest of the group can either accept their answer or challenge it,…

[This sermon is more of a reflection on the scripture than a sermon in the classic sense. Throughout this reflection, I will be using the word, “I” but I ask you to hear this “I” as a symbol for the ordinary Christian. When I say, “I”, hear “you, me, every person who professes to be a disciple of Christ.”] Jesus needed some time alone. Maybe he was just worn out from the noise of the crowds or the constant travel…

Mark 4:26-29 The subject of today’s sermon was to be humility. In fact, I have sitting right now on my desk at home a brilliant exposition on the subject of humility, a sermon that I wrote to explain the the positive results that one can experience from living a humble life, based on what I myself have obtained through my own mastery of humility. I won’t be preaching that sermon, however, because after re-reading my discerning and perceptive work, I…

Mark 2:23-3:6 Abraham Lincoln once said, “As we keep or break the Sabbath, we nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope by which man rises.” Lincoln tells us that if we keep the Sabbath, we can save the world and if we break the Sabbath, we take away all hope for humankind. Makes you think twice about answering those work-related emails this afternoon, doesn’t it? Keeping the Sabbath, Lincoln said, can save the world, and breaking it can…

Mark 2:1-12(with a shout out to I Corinthians 13) This past September, the movie “Captive” was released in theaters. The movie told the true story of a woman named Ashley Smith who, ten years ago, was held hostage in her apartment at gunpoint for seven hours by Brian Nichols, an escaped prisoner who had killed four people. At the time, Ashley was a 25 year old waitress with a serious drug habit. Her husband had been murdered in a bar…

Mark 1:16-20; 3:13-19 There was once a young man who led a wild life. He cared little for the feelings of others, cultivating their favor when it suited his needs and casting them aside when he was ready for other pleasure. This selfish lifestyle concerned his elderly neighbor not only because the old man had to endure the noise of late night parties, and the ill tempers of the youth, but also because the neighbor truly cared about the young…