Other Sources of sermon material

1. Comments on the Revised Lectionary, Sunday by Sunday, have been kindly made available to us by the Diocese of Montreal, to whom we are most grateful. This material, which includes introductions to the Sunday readings, needs no password.

2. More positive comments and help have been coming in, the latest being another free cornucopia of sermon material, from the horn of plenty of Richard Fairchild.

3. RCL Readings for the next 18 months may be had from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library website.

4. At Grace (Episcopal) Cathedral, San Francisco, one can sign up for a weekly mailing This Week on Grace On-line, which provides links to on-line forums, sermons (including archives), their Labyrinth ministry, and many other resources. (Thanks to Brian Colgate for the last two pointers.)

5. John Cathcart’s website at Fredericton is dedicated to helping lay people (and clergy) read and memorize large chunks of Scripture and is presented in a format that invites viewers to meditate on what they are reading.

6. John Gishler has kindly shared his own sermon barrel.

7. And for a bit of fun, try this one

No excuse now for “just two minutes from the chancel steps”! There is clearly a wealth of scholarly material around to help with the writing of sermons.

Please me if any of these links cease to work.

I can’t resist passing on a story that was going the rounds at The RAF College, Cranwell, when I was No 2 Chaplain there. A previous senior chaplain prided himself – and pride is the right word – on never taking a single scrap of paper into the pulpit. Everything came to him directly from the Holy Spirit. However, there were occasional transmission glitches between the third person of the Trinity and himself, so he would stall for time by saying, ever so sincerely, “and then again . . God so loved the world . . so loved the world . . that he gave His only Son . . His only Son . .”. Then he was off again, recycling his couple of dozen well-worn clichés and bible texts. Until the day when a little 7-year old girl broke loose and ran up and down the side aisle at the back of the church, calling out gaily "and then again . . . and then again . . . and then again . .”.
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings . . .