Sermons For Sundays And Some Other Holidays Of The Christian Year

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Almost every month in the year has a secular holiday -- and on those "special" Sundays, preachers need to balance honoring the occasion with maintaining their focus on the proclamation of God's Word. It can be a challenging task, but it also presents a great opportunity to uncover the religious significance of our civic celebrations. In this extensive volume of inspiring messages, Alex Gondola draws on the rich variety of American culture and scriptural insight to remind us that holidays truly are holy days. Great for personal reading, adult study groups, or fresh sermon ideas, Holidays Are Holy Days is a versatile resource that you'll draw on throughout the year. Sermons are included for: - New Year's Day - Martin Luther King Day - Super Bowl Sunday - Valentine's Day - Presidents' Day - St. Patrick's Day - April Fool's Day - Earth Day - Mother's Day - Memorial Day - Father's Day - Independence Day - Labor Day - Grandparent's Day - Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day - Halloween/All Saints - Reformation Sunday - Veterans' Day - Thanksgiving - Christmas How does one avoid simplistic, even overly sentimental, preaching and yet address themes that are important to many American churchgoers? In this book Alex Gondola masterfully navigates his way into insightful sermons on themes which often tax the imagination of excellent preachers. Novice and seasoned preachers will benefit from this book, and all persons who read it will be inspired. Benjamin Griffin President Emeritus Andover Newton Theological School This is biblical preaching in the best sense: informative, creatively theological, challenging, invitational, occasionally wry, always participatory, and faithful to the God whose interests inform every page. In these sermons Gondola weaves hard data, history, and practical theology in the service of challenging Christians to live faithfully in the 21st century. Nancy S. Taylor Minister and President Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ Designed for those special days in our "civil religion" that preachers often find challenging, these expertly crafted sermons make an intelligent, creative use of scripture that demonstrates the relevance of those ancient texts to the present day. Filled with stories from everyday life, they reach both the head and the heart, and they have a social conscience. Kenneth Cauthen John Price Crozer Griffith Professor of Theology Emeritus Colgate-Rochester-Crozer Divinity School Author of Rejoicing in Life's "Melissa Moments" Alex A. Gondola Jr., is senior pastor of St. Paul United Church of Christ in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He previously served Dennis Union Church in Dennis, Massachusetts. A graduate of Allegheny College (B.A.), Andover Newton Theological School (M.Div.), and Colgate Rochester Divinity School (D.Min.), Gondola has also studied at Hartford Seminary and the New College of Divinity of the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). He is the author of Come As You Are, Pray Like This... and Don't Forget The Child (CSS), and also contributed several stewardship sermons to the CSS anthology From Every Angle.

Pastors face a perennial challenge in deciding how to treat special days in the calendar. For days marked in the church year, the challenge is how to speak a fresh word about a familiar theme or story. For days marked in the civil calendar, the challenge is to discern within secular celebrations appropriate connections with the Christian gospel. In Preaching the Calendar, masterful preacher J. Ellsworth Kalas discusses the importance of embracing holidays and special days as occasions when sermons can enlarge and deepen spiritual yearnings. His words of wisdom demonstrate how this type of preaching can be done well and serve as valuable sources of stories and sermon illustrations for pastors eager to help people find new and renewed relationships with God.