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Poor Little Ted

Children's Story
Jack had a huge plastic bag full of conkers. He spent the whole of one evening with a skewer boring a hole in the conkers and threading each one on a piece of string. When he went to school next day he spent every spare minute in the playground playing conkers with his friends. He lost quite a few to start with, but he soon became very proficient, and watched with delight as his opponents' conkers gradually smashed and disappeared.

Jim had spent a long time searching for conkers and managed to find enough to fill a small paper bag. He too threaded his conkers on string and went off to play. He had a lot of fun in the playground, and although he nearly lost the lot, eventually he began to win until he too was regarded as a something of a champion.

Little Ted forgot to go searching for conkers. When he realised all the other children were playing with conkers at school, he rushed home to try and find some for himself. But almost all the conkers were gone, and little Ted only found a few. He bored holes in them and threaded them on to string, but he was so afraid of losing the only conkers he had that he refused to play with them. That night little Ted hid the conkers under his pillow where no one could find them.

Jack had a big canvas bag full of marbles given to him for his birthday. He loved to play marbles with all his friends, and he got better and better at the game. He lost quite a few to start with, but soon he found he was winning nearly every game, and so his collection of marbles grew bigger and bigger.

Jim had some marbles too. They weren't exactly his own, he'd borrowed them from his older brother. He played a lot with his marbles and had a lot of fun. At one point he nearly lost the lot, but eventually he began to gain marbles from the other children, until he was able to give back his brother's marbles because he'd gained so many of his own.

Little Ted had just six marbles in a little plastic container. His granny had given them to him. He loved his marbles so much that he was terrified of losing any of them, so he refused to play with them. That night little Ted hid the marbles under his pillow where no one could find them.

Jack grew up to be a brilliant businessman. He started in a small way and made lots of mistakes in the early days, but as his confidence grew he expanded his business until he became a millionaire.

Jim grew up to find a steady job. He had to search for a long time before he found work he loved, and it was all very uncertain at first. But he had a lot of fun. He was always the life and soul of the party, and people loved to be near him.

Little Ted couldn't find a job when he grew up. He didn't dare look, in case people told him he was no good. He did have one pleasure in life. He married a beautiful wife whom he loved very much. But he was terrified of losing her, and so he hid her away at home where no one could find her.

One day his beautiful wife left him because she couldn't bear her restricted life any longer. Little Ted shrivelled up inside and hated the whole world. Poor little Ted. He tried so hard to keep what he loved most just to himself, that he lost everything. And he never, ever, had any fun.
UPCOMING WEEKS
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Epiphany 3 (OT 3)
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35 – Children's Sermons / Resources
22 – Worship Resources
29 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
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Epiphany 4 (OT 4)
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180+ – Illustrations / Stories
31 – Children's Sermons / Resources
20 – Worship Resources
33 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Epiphany 5 (OT 5)
31 – Sermons
180+ – Illustrations / Stories
39 – Children's Sermons / Resources
24 – Worship Resources
33 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Plus thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...

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CSSPlus

John Jamison
Object: A 2025 calendar.

* * *

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! This is a story about something that happened after Jesus was baptized when he went back to his hometown of Nazareth to visit his family and friends. While he was visiting, he went to the service at the synagogue, just like we come to our church service. During the service, they asked Jesus to read the scripture, so he stood up and read. He said:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

The Immediate Word

Mary Austin
Dean Feldmeyer
Christopher Keating
Thomas Willadsen
George Reed
Katy Stenta
For January 26, 2025:

Emphasis Preaching Journal

Wayne Brouwer
It seems everybody knows about Victor Hugo’s greatest novel, even if few have actually read it. He called his masterpiece, Les Miserables, and said that it was “a religious work.” So it is. The story echoes the gospel message at nearly every turn.

The main character, Jean Valjean, has been beaten hard by the cruel twists of fate. He has seen the sham of hypocrisy on all sides. So he casts the name of the Lord to the ground like a curse. What does God know of him, and what does it matter?
Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez
Bonnie Bates
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

StoryShare

Frank Ramirez
Did you ever notice in most of the old movies how the credits are at the front and they don’t share much information? Take the classic The Wizard of Oz. The overture begins with a rousing fanfare, followed by musical allusions to the key songs in the show. Visually, we see the Metro Goldwyn Mayer logo featuring the roaring lion and the words “Metro Goldwyn Mayer presents,” and of course the title of the film.

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
Call to Worship:

The Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus as he worshipped in the synagogue at Nazareth. Let us ask God's Spirit to fill us as we worship in church today.

Invitation to Confession:

Jesus, when we are unaware of your Spirit within us,
Lord, have mercy.

Jesus, when we deny your Spirit within us,
Christ, have mercy.

Jesus, when we reject or damage your Spirit within us,
Lord, have mercy.

Reading:

Luke 4:14-21

SermonStudio

Stephen P. McCutchan
Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
-- Luke 4:21

Constance Berg
David led us the two blocks from our church to his place of worship: a synagogue. We all gathered around him to hear what he was saying. The mid-week church school students had been studying the Jewish faith for three weeks, and now it was time to visit a synagogue!

David's job was to help the rabbi, who could only come to town periodically. David spoke with much pride of the customs that have been handed down for centuries and that he now espoused.
Robert F. Crowley
Theme

Is the body of Christ able to work together in harmony because the spirit of the Lord is upon it, or is it meant to operate like any other organization?

Summary

Pastor Ralph needs some work on his car and he is also dealing with differing factions in his church. He is not having a good day. Earl, his friend and mechanic, gives him some good advice on taking care of his car and then relates it to his church -- get all the parts working together; after all, they all have the same manufacturer -- the Holy Spirit.

Playing Time
Dennis Koch
Gospel Theme:
An overture for the oppressed

Gospel Note:
Luke's moving of Jesus' hometown sermon from later in his ministry (as in Mark) to its inception makes it a kind of programmatic overture for the Master's entire career. Jesus' choice of passage (from Tito-Isaiah) to define his objective is as sobering today as it was then, for the recipients of the good news are to be, not the comfortable and contented, but the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, the oppressed.

Liturgical Color:
Green

Suggested Hymns:
O God Of Light
James Evans
Psalm 19 celebrates two different media through which God is revealed: nature and the law.

The first part of the psalm calls our attention to the presence of God in nature -- "The heavens are telling the glory of God." The word "glory" is the Hebrew kabod and literally means weight or heaviness. The derived meaning is something akin to "reputation." God's reputation is evident in the heavens.

But reputation for what?

Elizabeth Achtemeier
We live in a society in which right and wrong have become largely a matter of personal opinion. All individuals are seen as a law unto themselves, and what is right for one person is not necessarily right for anyone else. Indeed, if any person tries to impose their ethical standards on another, the response is usually defensive anger. "Don't try to impose your middle-class morality on me," goes the complaint. "I know what is right for me, and you have no business trying to meddle in my life!"
Gary L. Carver
I shall never forget the night that Mae June came to church. Mae June was a workingwoman who, in our little community, was often seen in the late hours of the night in some of the darker places of our little town.

Harry N. Huxhold
In the Sundays of the Epiphany we are reminded in our worship how God continually reveals God's Person. That, of course, is done most clearly in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to be one of us. Today the emphasis of the Lessons is on how God is revealed in the Word. In the Holy Gospel, Jesus himself points out how he is revealed in the word, or the word is revealed in him, but the people do not seem to understand. That is always a problem in communication. The words can be ever so clear, but do people get the message?
Robert S. Crilley
Let me offer you a hypothetical situation. Suppose you had a friend who was unfamiliar with the church. The person had never attended a worship service or sat in on a Sunday school class. He or she had never participated in any of the midweek fellowship activities or volunteered to help out with one of the mission trips. In effect, Christianity was a complete mystery to him/her. And so, more out of curiosity than anything else, the person asks you, "What exactly is the church?"
Julia Ross Strope
A single song is being inflected through all the colorations of the human choir.
The way to become human is to recognize the lineaments of God in all the wonderful modulations of the face [of humankind].
-- Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Call To Worship
Leader: Welcome! Together we'll explore ancient stories about a public reading, the awesomeness of Creation, satisfying life together, and we will claim our God-given abilities.

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