Sermon Illustrations for Advent 1 (2020)
Illustration
Isaiah 64:1-9
With all the trials Americans endured in 2020, there is a sense of hopelessness floating in the air. A University of Chicago poll in April that found two in three Americans felt hopeless. A June Pew Research Center poll reported almost the same results on the question of fear about the state of the nation. The presidential election has not changed the American mood that much. Martin Luther once captured these feelings well while interpreting this lesson. He claimed that all our power and influence are like “a drop in the bucket” (Luther’s Works, Vol.17, p.20). Life itself seems pretty meaningless for many of us. But this lesson offers a word of hope. Commenting on this text, John Calvin nicely expressed this hope:
But when despair seizes us, we must lay hold on this altar of consolation, that “since God has been pleased to elect us to be His children, we ought to expect salvation from Him, even when matters are at the worst.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.VIII/2, p,371)
There is biological evidence that faith in God enhances hope. A recent study of the workings of the human brain led by Patty Van Cappellen, a social psychologist at Duke University found that the brain chemical oxytocin is associated with spiritual experiences. And this chemical, also associated with snuggling and nursing, likewise seems to nurture positive emotions like awe, gratitude, and hope. Martin Luther was right. “Hope arises only from the fact that God has mercy upon us and instills it into us...” (What Luther Says, p.668)
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 64:1-19
I have never been a fan of the vengeful, wrath-filled God, but Isaiah reminds the people of his day that God offers both welcome when we are aligned with God and distance when we are not. I wonder though if God really moves. Rather I think we move, turn away from God and move into isolation from God. It feels like God is being quiet, but I think we simply may have stopped listening. Sometimes we are self-centered rather than God-centered and we miss the still, small voice of God. This Advent, I am going to spend some quiet time with God, listening rather than speaking. Maybe you might choose to do the same.
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
The apostle Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth. He supported his ministry there repairing and making tents in the marketplace alongside his friends Priscilla and Aquila. He seems to have had a great personal affection for the Corinthian Christians, so he knew them well enough to not only be aware of their faults, but also to bring them to the forefront. The letters of Paul to Corinth are blunt and biting at times, soaring to poetic heights, and descending into the trenches for sharp conflict.
I think it’s interesting that when Paul speaks, in verse 6, that “…the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you,” (confirmed in some translations) he uses the Greek word bebaios, which is a legal term, used as a guarantee of security that the terms of a legal contract will be honored. It is used with regards to leases, sales, and transfer of property. As a tentmaker, Paul had a business relationship in the city and with the people, and perhaps he used the term here to demonstrate their witness to Christ is guaranteed with the cross as the security.
Many people have taken an economic hit during this year of the pandemic. This first Sunday of Advent it is important to remember that our Savior Jesus Christ is himself the security that guarantees that regardless of what we can afford and what we’ll do without this season, the gift of the Christ Child is coming into our midst. Kind of like that line from How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss: “He hadn’t stop Christmas from coming! It came! Somehow or other, it came just the same.”
Frank R.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018. Hawking was a theoretical physicist. He was also admired by the public because of his accomplishments while he suffered from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease. He may be best known to the public for his book A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Talk show host Larry King once asked Hawking, the cosmologist, “What puzzles him the most in all the universe?” Without hesitation Hawking replied, “Women.”
Ron L.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
God is faithful. It is a little phrase that conveys a big message. Eric Wyse, of Lifeway, shares a bit of background on a famous hymn.
Thomas Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky, in 1866. Despite not having a formal education, he became a schoolteacher at the age of sixteen. Later, he became a newspaper man. After a few years of that, Chisholm became a pastor. Failing health, however, forced him to leave the ministry. After a time of recuperation, he moved to New Jersey to work as an insurance agent. Throughout his varied career, Chisholm wrote poems. In 1923, he sent a collection of his poems to his friend William Runyan, a musician associated with Chicago's Moody Bible Institute, who also worked for a hymnal publishing company. The result? The popular hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”
In 1941, Chisholm said of writing those lyrics, "My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness."
God is faithful in the big things and in the day to day things. Paul prayed he would strengthen the believers in Corinth and trusted that he would. He can do the same for you. “Great is thy faithfulness, O God my father.”
Bill T.
* * *
Mark 13:24-37
Jesus’ message about the urgency of preparing for the end of the age is a crucial word for us as we prepare for Christmas and the New Year. It is so easy to forget the wonder of post-Thanksgiving November and the first half of December in the midst of all our Christmas planning. Too often, all year long, we don’t live in the moment, but just remain stuck in our usual patterns. (We’ve managed to get ourselves in new “ruts” of routine since the pandemic.) French intellectual Blaise Pascal well describes the ruts we are in most of the time:
We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and we’re trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay it’s too rapid flight...
We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus, we never actually live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so. (Pensées, p.43)
Of course, Jesus does not say forget the future, but his sense of the end is that it is on the horizon, that we need to be ready. American author J. Jackson Brown, Jr., famed for his composition, Life’s Little Instruction Book, offers advice right in line with what Jesus proclaims: “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” Time is precious. Be sure you are using it to God’s glory, not just what the system and the media want from you. Famed American poet and journalist Carl Sandberg had it right when he wrote:
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
Be careful that the American economy’s vision of Christmas does not rob you of time getting ready for Jesus and his coming.
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 13:24-37
Keep awake. Be aware. Pay attention. I am reminded of these words in the gospel as I think about the days ahead. So much has changed in 2020. We have a global pandemic, a pandemic of racism, more divisiveness than ever before…but then I read these words and wonder. Is the world really so very different now than it was in the first century? We all fail to pay attention to the most important things – faith, family, love, mission, compassion, kindness. We all need the reminder that the Son of God is coming. We don’t know when. We know we will culminate this season with the celebration of Christ’s birth, but do we know when Jesus is coming into our hearts, into our lives, into our world? I’m not sure we do. Some of the differences and separations we feel may be of our own making. We do not know when Jesus is coming, but we can invite Him. Perhaps that will be my actions this Advent; to invite Jesus deeply into my heart.
Bonnie B.
With all the trials Americans endured in 2020, there is a sense of hopelessness floating in the air. A University of Chicago poll in April that found two in three Americans felt hopeless. A June Pew Research Center poll reported almost the same results on the question of fear about the state of the nation. The presidential election has not changed the American mood that much. Martin Luther once captured these feelings well while interpreting this lesson. He claimed that all our power and influence are like “a drop in the bucket” (Luther’s Works, Vol.17, p.20). Life itself seems pretty meaningless for many of us. But this lesson offers a word of hope. Commenting on this text, John Calvin nicely expressed this hope:
But when despair seizes us, we must lay hold on this altar of consolation, that “since God has been pleased to elect us to be His children, we ought to expect salvation from Him, even when matters are at the worst.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.VIII/2, p,371)
There is biological evidence that faith in God enhances hope. A recent study of the workings of the human brain led by Patty Van Cappellen, a social psychologist at Duke University found that the brain chemical oxytocin is associated with spiritual experiences. And this chemical, also associated with snuggling and nursing, likewise seems to nurture positive emotions like awe, gratitude, and hope. Martin Luther was right. “Hope arises only from the fact that God has mercy upon us and instills it into us...” (What Luther Says, p.668)
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 64:1-19
I have never been a fan of the vengeful, wrath-filled God, but Isaiah reminds the people of his day that God offers both welcome when we are aligned with God and distance when we are not. I wonder though if God really moves. Rather I think we move, turn away from God and move into isolation from God. It feels like God is being quiet, but I think we simply may have stopped listening. Sometimes we are self-centered rather than God-centered and we miss the still, small voice of God. This Advent, I am going to spend some quiet time with God, listening rather than speaking. Maybe you might choose to do the same.
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
The apostle Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth. He supported his ministry there repairing and making tents in the marketplace alongside his friends Priscilla and Aquila. He seems to have had a great personal affection for the Corinthian Christians, so he knew them well enough to not only be aware of their faults, but also to bring them to the forefront. The letters of Paul to Corinth are blunt and biting at times, soaring to poetic heights, and descending into the trenches for sharp conflict.
I think it’s interesting that when Paul speaks, in verse 6, that “…the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you,” (confirmed in some translations) he uses the Greek word bebaios, which is a legal term, used as a guarantee of security that the terms of a legal contract will be honored. It is used with regards to leases, sales, and transfer of property. As a tentmaker, Paul had a business relationship in the city and with the people, and perhaps he used the term here to demonstrate their witness to Christ is guaranteed with the cross as the security.
Many people have taken an economic hit during this year of the pandemic. This first Sunday of Advent it is important to remember that our Savior Jesus Christ is himself the security that guarantees that regardless of what we can afford and what we’ll do without this season, the gift of the Christ Child is coming into our midst. Kind of like that line from How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss: “He hadn’t stop Christmas from coming! It came! Somehow or other, it came just the same.”
Frank R.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018. Hawking was a theoretical physicist. He was also admired by the public because of his accomplishments while he suffered from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease. He may be best known to the public for his book A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Talk show host Larry King once asked Hawking, the cosmologist, “What puzzles him the most in all the universe?” Without hesitation Hawking replied, “Women.”
Ron L.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
God is faithful. It is a little phrase that conveys a big message. Eric Wyse, of Lifeway, shares a bit of background on a famous hymn.
Thomas Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky, in 1866. Despite not having a formal education, he became a schoolteacher at the age of sixteen. Later, he became a newspaper man. After a few years of that, Chisholm became a pastor. Failing health, however, forced him to leave the ministry. After a time of recuperation, he moved to New Jersey to work as an insurance agent. Throughout his varied career, Chisholm wrote poems. In 1923, he sent a collection of his poems to his friend William Runyan, a musician associated with Chicago's Moody Bible Institute, who also worked for a hymnal publishing company. The result? The popular hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”
In 1941, Chisholm said of writing those lyrics, "My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness."
God is faithful in the big things and in the day to day things. Paul prayed he would strengthen the believers in Corinth and trusted that he would. He can do the same for you. “Great is thy faithfulness, O God my father.”
Bill T.
* * *
Mark 13:24-37
Jesus’ message about the urgency of preparing for the end of the age is a crucial word for us as we prepare for Christmas and the New Year. It is so easy to forget the wonder of post-Thanksgiving November and the first half of December in the midst of all our Christmas planning. Too often, all year long, we don’t live in the moment, but just remain stuck in our usual patterns. (We’ve managed to get ourselves in new “ruts” of routine since the pandemic.) French intellectual Blaise Pascal well describes the ruts we are in most of the time:
We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and we’re trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay it’s too rapid flight...
We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus, we never actually live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so. (Pensées, p.43)
Of course, Jesus does not say forget the future, but his sense of the end is that it is on the horizon, that we need to be ready. American author J. Jackson Brown, Jr., famed for his composition, Life’s Little Instruction Book, offers advice right in line with what Jesus proclaims: “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” Time is precious. Be sure you are using it to God’s glory, not just what the system and the media want from you. Famed American poet and journalist Carl Sandberg had it right when he wrote:
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
Be careful that the American economy’s vision of Christmas does not rob you of time getting ready for Jesus and his coming.
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 13:24-37
Keep awake. Be aware. Pay attention. I am reminded of these words in the gospel as I think about the days ahead. So much has changed in 2020. We have a global pandemic, a pandemic of racism, more divisiveness than ever before…but then I read these words and wonder. Is the world really so very different now than it was in the first century? We all fail to pay attention to the most important things – faith, family, love, mission, compassion, kindness. We all need the reminder that the Son of God is coming. We don’t know when. We know we will culminate this season with the celebration of Christ’s birth, but do we know when Jesus is coming into our hearts, into our lives, into our world? I’m not sure we do. Some of the differences and separations we feel may be of our own making. We do not know when Jesus is coming, but we can invite Him. Perhaps that will be my actions this Advent; to invite Jesus deeply into my heart.
Bonnie B.
