Sermon Illustrations

Wayne Dyer, motivational speaker and writer, likes to tell an ancient story about a woman who finds a valuable stone in a river. She places the stone in a bag. Later a traveler comes to the woman and asks for something to eat. While she is reaching in the bag for a crust of bread, the traveler sees the valuable stone. He asks her to give him the stone. She readily does so and throws in some bread, as well.

Randall Richardson decided to change his ways radically. He never had been an affectionate person, so his 2010 New Year's resolution was to hug 1,000 people.

Upon entering a little country store, the stranger noticed a sign saying "DANGER! BEWARE OF DOG!" posted on the glass door. Inside, he noticed a harmless old hound dog asleep on the floor near the cash register.

F. Duane Lindsey writes, "When Crowfoot, the great chief of the Blackfoot confederacy in southern Alberta, gave the Canadian Pacific Railroad permission to cross the Blackfoot land from Medicine Hat to Calgary, he was given in return a lifetime railroad pass."

We take English for granted; but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

An old legend tells of a parish priest who found a branch of a thorn tree twisted around so that it resembled a crown of thorns. Thinking it a symbol of the crucifixion of Christ, he took it to his chapel and placed it on the altar on Good Friday.

The inimitable Dr. Seuss in his book, I Had Trouble Getting to Solla Sellew, wrote these simple words that can give us courage:

The crowded cafeteria sported a large sign reading: "Watch Your Hat and Overcoat."

In a church marketing newsletter just a few years ago, a campaign was suggested to attract people to church during the season of Easter. In this public relations campaign, it was suggested the cross be removed from the altar. According to the author, a survey has revealed the cross is one of those symbols the new generation of churchgoers considered too churchy. One pastor interviewed for the campaign gave his wholehearted endorsement. "We are going to attempt to concentrate on the resurrection, and not the death of Jesus."

In his day, Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin was one of the most powerful men on earth. Bukharin was a Russian Communist leader who took part in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda and was a member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science were big sellers.