Smithereens - A Collection of Sermons

The Greatest Love
 (All Saints Sunday)

 Matthew 22: 34-46 34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. 

36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”  37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  38 This is the greatest and first commandment.  39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” The Question about David’s Son 41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question:  42 “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?”  They said to him, “The son of David.”  43 He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, 44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
    until I...

Render to God

 Matthew 22: 15 - 22 15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.  16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality.  17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites?  19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.  20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?”  21 They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”  22 When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away. Introduction 
There are few verses in Scripture that have been quoted more, and ...

Come to the Party Matthew 22: 1-14 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.  3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.  4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’  5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.  7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.  8 Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.  9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’  10 Those slaves went out into the stre...

Christ, the Cornerstone Matthew 21: 33 - 46   33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away.  34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.  35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.  36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way.  37 Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’  38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’  39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.  40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”  41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard...