Sermon Illustrations for Advent 2 (2013)
Illustration
Object:
Isaiah 11:1-10
In the summer of 2013 the Madame Tussauds wax museums in Berlin and Amsterdam added a life-size figure of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank. Re-created from photographs, Anne is sitting at her desk in her house of hiding in Amsterdam, writing in her diary. The museums are best known for their entertaining wax figures, but the curator cautioned, "It is important for Madame Tussauds that we don't just entertain but also play a role in educating people and help them learn from history."
Application: Isaiah said we are to have "the spirit of wisdom and understanding."
Ron L.
Isaiah 11:1-10
According to Prairie Overcomer the story is told of Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot confederacy in southern Alberta, who gave the Canadian Pacific Railway permission to cross the Blackfoot land. One of the promises he received in return was a printed lifetime railroad pass. The chief put it in a leather case and carried it around his neck for the rest of his life. There is no record that he ever used the free pass to travel anywhere on the CPR train. He only used it for decoration.
Isaiah promises the people of Judah that they are the chosen people and from them the hope of redemption would come. Isaiah announces the promise of the Prince of Peace, the Messiah of humanity, the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ!
*Source of story: www.tanBible.comtol_:ill/godpromisesof.htm
Derl K.
Isaiah 11:1-10
The text makes clear that the Messiah is concerned with justice, especially for the poor. We don't have much time to think of the poor in the weeks leading up to Christmas, what with all the money we wildly spend (on gifts that most recipients won't use or care much about this time next year). We are inclined to overlook U.S. Census Bureau statistics indicating that while 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty, only 1 in 8 whites endure this fate while 1 in 4 black Americans are impoverished. The evils of poverty are clearly exacerbated by such racial injustice.
Latin American liberation theologian Rubem Alves offers profound insights about how Christ and his future-oriented word overturns poverty and injustice. The greed and powers that keep people in poverty do not have a chance, he contends. Christ and the promise of the future "relativizes, desacrilizes, judges, and ultimately abrogates the ultimate messianic pretensions of the powers that dominate the established order" (A Theology of Hope, pp. 113-114). The messiahs of society who seek power over the poor lose their power when the true Messiah comes. Saint Augustine reminds us why poverty and injustice have no validity in light of Christian faith: "The poor and the rich are made of one clay; the same earth supports alike the poor and the rich" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7, p. 47). John Wesley well describes the Christian vision for overcoming poverty, a vision inspired by Pentecost and by the coming Messiah:
For as many as are possessed of lands or houses will sell them; and distribution will be made to every man, according as he has need… There will be partiality -- while, they are all one heart and soul, and only love informs the whole.
(Works of John Wesley, Vol. 6, p. 284)
Mark E.
Romans 15:4-13
The instruction book for life is our Bible. We will never learn about life until we read and even memorize parts of that instruction book. I once laid the Bible aside, unread, on my coffee table as a decoration. My folks had given me a little sentence from that book that I let stand on my dresser, which encouraged me to dig deeper. It told me to seek and I would find and to knock and it would be opened. I knocked hard but no answer came until I glanced at that Bible, and something told me that was where God was answering me. What a surprise when the passages I read answered my questions! I kept reading and more answers came, until it led me back to the church and then to the seminary where I gave my life to the author of that book!
At last I found some hope, and it led me to join a group who also believed in that book. It is called a church. Only through a church can we speak with unity! I read more and had passages explained to me from the pulpit and Bible classes. It helped me learn about life! It taught me patience, but it was hope that gave me that patience. We should be in a fellowship that also believes!
If our children realize that their patience may bring them on a trip to Disney World, they would endure. The reward for Christians is much greater. Advent reminds us of that future reward and encourages us to have patience.
It is love for our Lord that gives us hope. If we know that God loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us, then we can endure patiently just as he did! We can hope in a God who would make that kind of sacrifice for us!
For most of us today, we can have hope because of this passage, which is addressed to Gentiles! We were the hated ones. The Pharisees did not want even the shadow of one to touch his robe! We were the outsiders, according to some readings of scripture. But since the coming of our Lord, we have become "children of Abraham" also.
It is mainly through faithful participation in the group of fellow believers that we can grow and that we will find the ability to endure suffering. We need the support of others whom the Lord has given us in his church to endure.
This patience and endurance only comes through faithful attendance and not just on Christmas and Easter! Our baptism is essential, but it is not an insurance policy we can put away until we need it. We need group support. The book of instruction may be the start, but the book tells us that the next step is to find others who can help support us. Then we will be filled with joy!
Bob O.
Matthew 3:1-12
John the Baptist called his followers, calls us, to repentance! New Testament scholar Eduard Schweizer tells us that repentance is the surrender of all false securities (The Good News According to Matthew, pp. 49-50). It involves surrendering the self and all the "stuff" we've accumulated or want. We badly need repentance in our context, chararcterized as it is by insidious self-seeking and self-love. A study conducted as recently as 2011 showed that 30% of U.S. college students exhibited narcissistic characteristics. Out-of-wedlock births now amount to 48% of the total number of babies born in America.
Repentance, being in the presence of the coming Christ, represents a break with these trends. Famed modern theologian Karl Barth well described what is involved in how Christ changes us through repentance: He speaks of a "free detachment." It is, he says: "A detachment which is not in order that we may -- please ourselves" (The Epistle to the Romans, p. 524).
Barth proceeds to affirm and we know from our own experience that renouncing our own pleasures is a krisis. But it is a krisis, he claims, of freedom as well as detachment: "He [Christ] makes the strong to be strong to the glory of God. He also leads them again to the weak to the glory of God" (The Epistle to the Romans, p. 526).
Repentance, relying on God and not seeking ourselves, leads us to care for the weak and marginalized.
Mark E.
Matthew 3:1-12
The renegade prophet/preacher used his human voice to articulate a message from God. The tone of his voice modulated with emotion as he looked into the eyes of his wilderness congregation. There were times that his voice was filled with righteous anger because sin filled the people's lives. At other moments there was a cry emanating from his vocal cords because of the hurt inside his heart over the spiritual immaturity of his listeners. His voice also contained a sound of laughter and joy because of the hope he had in God's redemption.
John never pulled any punches when it came to preaching the truth to a dying world. Dr. William McCumber writes, "… every messenger worth his salt must be like John the Baptist, a voice, not a mere echo of popular and palatable thought" (Beacon Bible Expositions, Vol. 1, p. 24). Are you a voice for God?
Derl K.
Matthew 3:1-12
Carol Klein, with schoolbooks under one arm and a sheet of music under the other, got off the express train from Brooklyn to Manhattan. The year was 1957 and the fifteen-year-old was determined to be a singing sensation. Wearing bobby socks, white sneakers, and a black skirt with a pink poodle embroidered on it, she opened the New York City telephone book. Starting with the "A"s in the directory, she would visit every music industry executive until she found one who would record her songs.
After being turned away by several recording studios, ABC-Paramount invited her to record four songs. Five decades later we know her as Carole King, who has over twenty solo albums to her credit. At the age of 71, King was the first woman, on May 22, 2013, to receive the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. (The award is named after the music-writing team of George and Ira Gershwin.)
Application: For decades Carole King has been preparing the way for us with inspiring music.
Ron L.
In the summer of 2013 the Madame Tussauds wax museums in Berlin and Amsterdam added a life-size figure of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank. Re-created from photographs, Anne is sitting at her desk in her house of hiding in Amsterdam, writing in her diary. The museums are best known for their entertaining wax figures, but the curator cautioned, "It is important for Madame Tussauds that we don't just entertain but also play a role in educating people and help them learn from history."
Application: Isaiah said we are to have "the spirit of wisdom and understanding."
Ron L.
Isaiah 11:1-10
According to Prairie Overcomer the story is told of Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot confederacy in southern Alberta, who gave the Canadian Pacific Railway permission to cross the Blackfoot land. One of the promises he received in return was a printed lifetime railroad pass. The chief put it in a leather case and carried it around his neck for the rest of his life. There is no record that he ever used the free pass to travel anywhere on the CPR train. He only used it for decoration.
Isaiah promises the people of Judah that they are the chosen people and from them the hope of redemption would come. Isaiah announces the promise of the Prince of Peace, the Messiah of humanity, the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ!
*Source of story: www.tanBible.comtol_:ill/godpromisesof.htm
Derl K.
Isaiah 11:1-10
The text makes clear that the Messiah is concerned with justice, especially for the poor. We don't have much time to think of the poor in the weeks leading up to Christmas, what with all the money we wildly spend (on gifts that most recipients won't use or care much about this time next year). We are inclined to overlook U.S. Census Bureau statistics indicating that while 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty, only 1 in 8 whites endure this fate while 1 in 4 black Americans are impoverished. The evils of poverty are clearly exacerbated by such racial injustice.
Latin American liberation theologian Rubem Alves offers profound insights about how Christ and his future-oriented word overturns poverty and injustice. The greed and powers that keep people in poverty do not have a chance, he contends. Christ and the promise of the future "relativizes, desacrilizes, judges, and ultimately abrogates the ultimate messianic pretensions of the powers that dominate the established order" (A Theology of Hope, pp. 113-114). The messiahs of society who seek power over the poor lose their power when the true Messiah comes. Saint Augustine reminds us why poverty and injustice have no validity in light of Christian faith: "The poor and the rich are made of one clay; the same earth supports alike the poor and the rich" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7, p. 47). John Wesley well describes the Christian vision for overcoming poverty, a vision inspired by Pentecost and by the coming Messiah:
For as many as are possessed of lands or houses will sell them; and distribution will be made to every man, according as he has need… There will be partiality -- while, they are all one heart and soul, and only love informs the whole.
(Works of John Wesley, Vol. 6, p. 284)
Mark E.
Romans 15:4-13
The instruction book for life is our Bible. We will never learn about life until we read and even memorize parts of that instruction book. I once laid the Bible aside, unread, on my coffee table as a decoration. My folks had given me a little sentence from that book that I let stand on my dresser, which encouraged me to dig deeper. It told me to seek and I would find and to knock and it would be opened. I knocked hard but no answer came until I glanced at that Bible, and something told me that was where God was answering me. What a surprise when the passages I read answered my questions! I kept reading and more answers came, until it led me back to the church and then to the seminary where I gave my life to the author of that book!
At last I found some hope, and it led me to join a group who also believed in that book. It is called a church. Only through a church can we speak with unity! I read more and had passages explained to me from the pulpit and Bible classes. It helped me learn about life! It taught me patience, but it was hope that gave me that patience. We should be in a fellowship that also believes!
If our children realize that their patience may bring them on a trip to Disney World, they would endure. The reward for Christians is much greater. Advent reminds us of that future reward and encourages us to have patience.
It is love for our Lord that gives us hope. If we know that God loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us, then we can endure patiently just as he did! We can hope in a God who would make that kind of sacrifice for us!
For most of us today, we can have hope because of this passage, which is addressed to Gentiles! We were the hated ones. The Pharisees did not want even the shadow of one to touch his robe! We were the outsiders, according to some readings of scripture. But since the coming of our Lord, we have become "children of Abraham" also.
It is mainly through faithful participation in the group of fellow believers that we can grow and that we will find the ability to endure suffering. We need the support of others whom the Lord has given us in his church to endure.
This patience and endurance only comes through faithful attendance and not just on Christmas and Easter! Our baptism is essential, but it is not an insurance policy we can put away until we need it. We need group support. The book of instruction may be the start, but the book tells us that the next step is to find others who can help support us. Then we will be filled with joy!
Bob O.
Matthew 3:1-12
John the Baptist called his followers, calls us, to repentance! New Testament scholar Eduard Schweizer tells us that repentance is the surrender of all false securities (The Good News According to Matthew, pp. 49-50). It involves surrendering the self and all the "stuff" we've accumulated or want. We badly need repentance in our context, chararcterized as it is by insidious self-seeking and self-love. A study conducted as recently as 2011 showed that 30% of U.S. college students exhibited narcissistic characteristics. Out-of-wedlock births now amount to 48% of the total number of babies born in America.
Repentance, being in the presence of the coming Christ, represents a break with these trends. Famed modern theologian Karl Barth well described what is involved in how Christ changes us through repentance: He speaks of a "free detachment." It is, he says: "A detachment which is not in order that we may -- please ourselves" (The Epistle to the Romans, p. 524).
Barth proceeds to affirm and we know from our own experience that renouncing our own pleasures is a krisis. But it is a krisis, he claims, of freedom as well as detachment: "He [Christ] makes the strong to be strong to the glory of God. He also leads them again to the weak to the glory of God" (The Epistle to the Romans, p. 526).
Repentance, relying on God and not seeking ourselves, leads us to care for the weak and marginalized.
Mark E.
Matthew 3:1-12
The renegade prophet/preacher used his human voice to articulate a message from God. The tone of his voice modulated with emotion as he looked into the eyes of his wilderness congregation. There were times that his voice was filled with righteous anger because sin filled the people's lives. At other moments there was a cry emanating from his vocal cords because of the hurt inside his heart over the spiritual immaturity of his listeners. His voice also contained a sound of laughter and joy because of the hope he had in God's redemption.
John never pulled any punches when it came to preaching the truth to a dying world. Dr. William McCumber writes, "… every messenger worth his salt must be like John the Baptist, a voice, not a mere echo of popular and palatable thought" (Beacon Bible Expositions, Vol. 1, p. 24). Are you a voice for God?
Derl K.
Matthew 3:1-12
Carol Klein, with schoolbooks under one arm and a sheet of music under the other, got off the express train from Brooklyn to Manhattan. The year was 1957 and the fifteen-year-old was determined to be a singing sensation. Wearing bobby socks, white sneakers, and a black skirt with a pink poodle embroidered on it, she opened the New York City telephone book. Starting with the "A"s in the directory, she would visit every music industry executive until she found one who would record her songs.
After being turned away by several recording studios, ABC-Paramount invited her to record four songs. Five decades later we know her as Carole King, who has over twenty solo albums to her credit. At the age of 71, King was the first woman, on May 22, 2013, to receive the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. (The award is named after the music-writing team of George and Ira Gershwin.)
Application: For decades Carole King has been preparing the way for us with inspiring music.
Ron L.
