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| Summer time is sometimes a time when other activities on the weekend cause people to miss worship, or when vacations have us away from home. I just want to let you know that if you miss worship at St. Martin’s this summer you just might be missing one of The Greatest Sermons Ever Preached! Before you think that I have become too immodest let me share with you that last Summer I wrote a series of messages based upon a wonderful book compiled by Trace Lawrence entitled, “The Greatest Sermons Ever Preached.” What Lawrence did was to collect some of the most famous speeches of all time into one place as a collected source of rich inspiration. Well, this summer I have compiled a collection of several of my own “Greatest Sermons” which I would have included in my own compilation of messages if I had published my own book of this sort. On my list of Greatest Sermons Ever for the coming Sundays is a message from our beloved Evangelical theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr (who by the way was born in Wright City, MO.). You may not known Niebuhr but I bet you know the Serenity Prayer which he wrote: God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Also on my list of greatest sermons for the summer will be the message which UCC Pastor, William Sloan Coffin preached at the funeral of his son Alex who died tragically in 1983 |
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in an auto accident at the age of just twenty-four. Coffin’s, “Eulogy for Alex” has long been considered a poetic and profound statement about life and death, and the will of God. It is definitely one of my favorites.
No list of Great Sermons would be complete, in my opinion, without a submission from Martin Luther King Jr. Everyone is familiar with his “I Have a Dream” speech but lately I have been thinking about another sermon which King preached on April 4, 1967 interestingly enough at Riverside Church in New York where William Sloan Coffin would later become the Pastor! The Great Sermon of Dr. King that I have included on my list is a message in which he outlined his vision of world peace. King called this message a “passionate plea for the soul of his beloved nation…” Finally then, perhaps you will indulge me one reference to my past, in that I will include in my list of Greatest Sermons a message from the Methodist founder, John Wesley. In my opinion Wesley’s Greatest Sermon was a message he called, “Catholic Spirit” in which he made a plea for people who hold strong opinions to hold them still, but hold an even stronger commitment to the love of God which breaks barriers down. This seems like an important message for our generation!
So, there you have it. Please come to worship this summer so I can share a great sermon with you!
Love, Pastor Scott
Pastor’s New Pager #: 636-818-7709, type in your number for a return call.
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