Sermon Illustrations for Advent 3 (2013)
Illustration
Object:
Isaiah 35:1-10
"Desert" often referred to spiritual desolation. It sounds like God will redeem his people and bring joy in place of despair and a way from desolation. Maybe some in the congregation are suffering from depression for one reason or another. In some cases there is no reason, which can make it even worse because there is nothing to fix. But God can send help to strengthen and heal all the physical and mental and spiritual suffering, even if we don't know what it is.
It is true that the Christmas season can bring joy and relief from spiritual ills for many. We know that God has sent someone to rescue us. We know whom God sent, but Isaiah is looking ahead to that day when everything will change for the better -- when Jesus comes.
If you are sick or out of a job or in debt you may feel hopeless, but Isaiah is telling us that God is sending a solution to all our problems. Our Lord can overcome evil for us. He can turn obstacles into opportunities. He can turn the burning ground into a bubbling spring! Our church is an avenue of that restoration and healing. Sometimes the church and its members will bring help: financially or with food and physical help. Just knowing that they are there to help can lift the spirits!
You can interpret the ferocious beasts as a collection agency, an order to court, a serious doctor's report -- even, as in some cases, a faulty computer when we are in a hurry. When we are "down," sometimes the smallest thing like a car ahead of us creeping along at the speed limit can infuriate us.
Even mundane things like that, God can overcome for us. Just knowing that God is in charge and that Jesus loves us can lift our spirits and we can sing with joy. God can overcome all the efforts of the devil to hurt us. When we are the redeemed, we never need to worry again.
Bob O.
James 5:7-10
We have all heard that patience is a virtue. It is, as Martin Luther once claimed, "the most excellent of virtues… Although philosophers also greatly praise it, they are nevertheless ignorant of its foundation and cannot base it on the will and help of God" [like we do] (What Luther Says, p. 1024). We surely need more patience. A 2006 poll by the Associated Press (and little has changed since then) found that 1 in 4 Americans lose their patience waiting in the grocery line and that five minutes on hold on the phone and fifteen minutes in line are about all we will tolerate. We surely could use more patience at this time of year as we await Christmas and all the gifts awaiting us.
But Christ comes to give us patience. Saint Augustine says that this patience is a kind of wisdom. Patience is wisdom, because it keeps us away from anger. An ancient second-century Christian text, The Shepherd of Hermas, said it well:
You see, then, that patience is sweeter than honey and useful to God, and the Lord dwells in it. But anger is bitter and useless. Now, if anger be mingled with patience, the patience is polluted.
(Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 23)
Anger pollutes everything. It is not good for our health or relationships. But when we are patient and control our anger, the prefrontal cortex of the brain is activated, which controls the animal sensations and brain dynamics that give rise to anger. And then the brain is bathed with the good-feeling brain chemical dopamine (Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, pp. 81, 114-117, 211). Patience feels good. Then thanks to the patience God gives us, we can sing with the inspiring medieval nun Teresa of Avila: "Let nothing dismay thee… Patience attains all that it strives for. He who has God finds he lacks nothing." When you have God, as Christmas reminds us, you have all you'll ever need and that awareness makes patience, not letting the little things bug us, come easy.
Mark E.
James 5:7-10
Most people I know do not have the virtue known as patience. Our Western culture does not see it as a viable commodity. The word "rush" appears to thoroughly dominate us. Even when it comes to prayer, we want God to answer us quickly. The scripture suggests that we "stand firm" and not rush. It communicates that this is an action of real strength. This makes patience "much more than passively waiting for time to pass" (Kistemaker). To wait patiently on the Lord… his will, his answer, his direction… gives us our spiritual power to overcome temptation, sin, and Satan.
We should live today in Christ's presence, aware that he is near and sustains us, as we patiently wait for his direction in our lives!
Derl K.
James 5:7-10
It is documented that hymn singing continued to be a part of worship throughout the span of the early church. Around the year AD 112, Emperor Trajan of Pontus-Bithynia (which is now Turkey) wanted to bring criminal charges against Christians. He assigned Pliny the Younger to be the lead prosecutor in the inquisition. Through interrogations and torture Pliny the Younger relayed his findings to Emperor Trajan. He reported that Christians "on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ…" Thus, we learn that the early church worshiped with music sung in antiphons, by call and response.
Application: Music has always strengthened our hearts as we have waited for the coming of our Lord.
Ron L.
Matthew 11:2-11
Don't we like to be sure? Was John an agnostic? Did he doubt who Jesus was? He may have sent his disciples to Jesus for their benefit, so they could hear for themselves what John already knew. Or as he was suffering in the jail, was he having a few doubts?
Don't we all sometimes have a few doubts? When some come to us and ask how we can know for sure that Jesus is Lord, do we do what the disciples did and tell them to come (go) and see? We should want them to find out for themselves and not just take our word.
When you have had a miraculous experience with the Lord, it can be just an interesting story to our friends. They must have it for themselves to convince them of its truth. I was healed from asthma when I was 42 by prayers in a Bible study in Ogden, Utah. It has not come back in over forty years! My wife had doubts about healings until we went for our mission in Nepal and she saw people healed there before her eyes. I have seen many healed in our country -- yes, even in Lutheran meetings! Lutherans sometimes have more trouble with miracles and dump it all on the Pentecostals! All we can say is "Go and see"!
When our minds are filled with "science," it can be a stumbling block to believing in what God can do. It is much easier for new believers here or in the mission field to believe.
Pastors may be the John the Baptists today. We may not dress like John, but we are called to bring others to know the Lord. We were called to prepare the way! We may suffer for it, but if even one is brought to know the Lord because of us, we have accomplished something. But again we need to say, "Don't just believe us because of what we say, go and meet God in scripture and prayer and he will come to you. See what God is doing in this world." That was Jesus' answer: Look and see what I am doing. See the miracles performed before your eyes. Then you will believe. Then go tell John or our family or friends!
We sometimes vainly look for praise and honor for ourselves while we are alive, but as great as John the Baptist was, he is nothing compared to those in heaven. Let that be our goal and let us humbly seek to be among those whom our Lord will usher into his heavenly home.
Bob O.
"Desert" often referred to spiritual desolation. It sounds like God will redeem his people and bring joy in place of despair and a way from desolation. Maybe some in the congregation are suffering from depression for one reason or another. In some cases there is no reason, which can make it even worse because there is nothing to fix. But God can send help to strengthen and heal all the physical and mental and spiritual suffering, even if we don't know what it is.
It is true that the Christmas season can bring joy and relief from spiritual ills for many. We know that God has sent someone to rescue us. We know whom God sent, but Isaiah is looking ahead to that day when everything will change for the better -- when Jesus comes.
If you are sick or out of a job or in debt you may feel hopeless, but Isaiah is telling us that God is sending a solution to all our problems. Our Lord can overcome evil for us. He can turn obstacles into opportunities. He can turn the burning ground into a bubbling spring! Our church is an avenue of that restoration and healing. Sometimes the church and its members will bring help: financially or with food and physical help. Just knowing that they are there to help can lift the spirits!
You can interpret the ferocious beasts as a collection agency, an order to court, a serious doctor's report -- even, as in some cases, a faulty computer when we are in a hurry. When we are "down," sometimes the smallest thing like a car ahead of us creeping along at the speed limit can infuriate us.
Even mundane things like that, God can overcome for us. Just knowing that God is in charge and that Jesus loves us can lift our spirits and we can sing with joy. God can overcome all the efforts of the devil to hurt us. When we are the redeemed, we never need to worry again.
Bob O.
James 5:7-10
We have all heard that patience is a virtue. It is, as Martin Luther once claimed, "the most excellent of virtues… Although philosophers also greatly praise it, they are nevertheless ignorant of its foundation and cannot base it on the will and help of God" [like we do] (What Luther Says, p. 1024). We surely need more patience. A 2006 poll by the Associated Press (and little has changed since then) found that 1 in 4 Americans lose their patience waiting in the grocery line and that five minutes on hold on the phone and fifteen minutes in line are about all we will tolerate. We surely could use more patience at this time of year as we await Christmas and all the gifts awaiting us.
But Christ comes to give us patience. Saint Augustine says that this patience is a kind of wisdom. Patience is wisdom, because it keeps us away from anger. An ancient second-century Christian text, The Shepherd of Hermas, said it well:
You see, then, that patience is sweeter than honey and useful to God, and the Lord dwells in it. But anger is bitter and useless. Now, if anger be mingled with patience, the patience is polluted.
(Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 23)
Anger pollutes everything. It is not good for our health or relationships. But when we are patient and control our anger, the prefrontal cortex of the brain is activated, which controls the animal sensations and brain dynamics that give rise to anger. And then the brain is bathed with the good-feeling brain chemical dopamine (Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, pp. 81, 114-117, 211). Patience feels good. Then thanks to the patience God gives us, we can sing with the inspiring medieval nun Teresa of Avila: "Let nothing dismay thee… Patience attains all that it strives for. He who has God finds he lacks nothing." When you have God, as Christmas reminds us, you have all you'll ever need and that awareness makes patience, not letting the little things bug us, come easy.
Mark E.
James 5:7-10
Most people I know do not have the virtue known as patience. Our Western culture does not see it as a viable commodity. The word "rush" appears to thoroughly dominate us. Even when it comes to prayer, we want God to answer us quickly. The scripture suggests that we "stand firm" and not rush. It communicates that this is an action of real strength. This makes patience "much more than passively waiting for time to pass" (Kistemaker). To wait patiently on the Lord… his will, his answer, his direction… gives us our spiritual power to overcome temptation, sin, and Satan.
We should live today in Christ's presence, aware that he is near and sustains us, as we patiently wait for his direction in our lives!
Derl K.
James 5:7-10
It is documented that hymn singing continued to be a part of worship throughout the span of the early church. Around the year AD 112, Emperor Trajan of Pontus-Bithynia (which is now Turkey) wanted to bring criminal charges against Christians. He assigned Pliny the Younger to be the lead prosecutor in the inquisition. Through interrogations and torture Pliny the Younger relayed his findings to Emperor Trajan. He reported that Christians "on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ…" Thus, we learn that the early church worshiped with music sung in antiphons, by call and response.
Application: Music has always strengthened our hearts as we have waited for the coming of our Lord.
Ron L.
Matthew 11:2-11
Don't we like to be sure? Was John an agnostic? Did he doubt who Jesus was? He may have sent his disciples to Jesus for their benefit, so they could hear for themselves what John already knew. Or as he was suffering in the jail, was he having a few doubts?
Don't we all sometimes have a few doubts? When some come to us and ask how we can know for sure that Jesus is Lord, do we do what the disciples did and tell them to come (go) and see? We should want them to find out for themselves and not just take our word.
When you have had a miraculous experience with the Lord, it can be just an interesting story to our friends. They must have it for themselves to convince them of its truth. I was healed from asthma when I was 42 by prayers in a Bible study in Ogden, Utah. It has not come back in over forty years! My wife had doubts about healings until we went for our mission in Nepal and she saw people healed there before her eyes. I have seen many healed in our country -- yes, even in Lutheran meetings! Lutherans sometimes have more trouble with miracles and dump it all on the Pentecostals! All we can say is "Go and see"!
When our minds are filled with "science," it can be a stumbling block to believing in what God can do. It is much easier for new believers here or in the mission field to believe.
Pastors may be the John the Baptists today. We may not dress like John, but we are called to bring others to know the Lord. We were called to prepare the way! We may suffer for it, but if even one is brought to know the Lord because of us, we have accomplished something. But again we need to say, "Don't just believe us because of what we say, go and meet God in scripture and prayer and he will come to you. See what God is doing in this world." That was Jesus' answer: Look and see what I am doing. See the miracles performed before your eyes. Then you will believe. Then go tell John or our family or friends!
We sometimes vainly look for praise and honor for ourselves while we are alive, but as great as John the Baptist was, he is nothing compared to those in heaven. Let that be our goal and let us humbly seek to be among those whom our Lord will usher into his heavenly home.
Bob O.
