Sermon Illustrations for Advent 3 (2019)
Illustration
Isaiah 35:1-10
Leslie B. Flynn told the story of an orphaned boy who was living with his grandmother. Their house caught fire, and the grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, perished in the flames. The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drainpipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck.
Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen all gave the reasons they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a home. But as they talked, the lad’s eyes remained focused on the floor. Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing severe scars on them. As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. With a leap, the boy threw his arms around the man’s neck and held on for dear life. The other men silently walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone. Those marred hands had settled the issue.
Isaiah 35, quoted by Jesus to John’s messengers about the Messiah, is a powerful poetic word of comfort for the mourning Judahite exiles, who lost their temple, land, and sovereignty. Their suffering is manifested in “weak hands” (verse 3), “feeble knees” (verse 3), a “fearful heart” (verse 4), obscured vision (verse 5), hindered hearing (verse 5), broken bodies (verse 6), and silent tongues (verse 6). The good news is that the God of Jacob does not abandon God’s people to their despair. Their redeemer, God will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. The message is clear for then and now: He will come and save you.
Bill T.
* * *
Isaiah 35:1-10
We usually think of the “prosperity gospel” as the latest trend in theology. We also think that it is reserved for pastors of megachurches to preach. In fact, the prosperity gospel had its origins in the late nineteenth-century. Essek William Kenyon had a great influence on the movement. He devoted 55 years of his life as a revivalist, educator and evangelist, devoting himself to promoting the prosperity gospel, also known as the gospel of “health and wealth.” Kenyon began his ministry in 1893. According to Kenyon, after the ascension of Jesus, Jesus transferred his “power of attorney” to all those believers who use his name. Prayer now took on binding legal qualities as believers followed Jesus’ formula: “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:14) Kenyon replaced the word “ask” to “demand,” since petitioners were entitled to the legal benefits of his name.
Ron L.
* * *
Isaiah 35:1-10
“…no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.” (Isaiah 35:8)
There was a commercial some years ago about a product that was so easy “even a caveman could do it.” The caveman, far more sophisticated than he was given credit for, was insulted. Robert Alter, in his new translation of the Hebrew scriptures, has a note that “the use of the term ‘fools’ is rather odd.” We are insulted if the term is applied to us. But it is used here to suggest that the road back from exile will be so easy even we can’t get lost. The exiles will return with God’s guidance. In our age of GPS and smart phones, we act as though it’s nearly impossible for us to get lost, but still, we do. This verse suggests that with God’s good will those of us marching to Zion will get there, no matter how we insist we’re not going to ask for directions.
Frank R.
* * *
James 5:7-10
It’s hard to be patient with Christmas just two weeks away. Hard to be patient waiting for those presents and reunions that are about to happen. Americans are not very patient according to a 2015 Fifth Third poll. It found that over 50% of us will hang up the phone after just 60 seconds of being on hold. And 71% of us speed while driving to get where we are going sooner. Impatience leads to bad things. Well-known behavioral scientist Steve Maraboli hit the nail on the head when he observed, “What good has impatience ever brought? It has only served as the mother of mistakes and the father of irritation.”
"Patience is the companion of wisdom," St. Augustine once wrote. You’re not as likely to say and do dumb things when you’re patient. Neurobiologists teach use that when we are patient, we control our animal instincts and anger with an activated prefrontal cortex in the front of our brains. And when that part of the brain is activated, the result is the secretion of the brain chemical dopamine, an amphetamine which give you a high (Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, pp.81,114-117,211). Patience minimizes anxiety.
Martin Luther elaborates on this point:
We should learn to cling to the word with patience and not let go of it even though the period of waiting for help last a hundred years. For God delays action out of grace in our best interest, that our faith may become strong and great and He may give the more abundantly what he has promised. (What Luther Says, p.391)
It makes sense that we be patient since God is patient with us. Want some help with patience? Neurobiologist Andrew Newberg suggests we try yawning. It apparently lowers tension and optimizes the parts of the brain which facilitate self-awareness and introspection, slows us down and so helps us deal with passions which interfere with patience (How God Changes Your Brain, pp.185-189). Next time you’re anxious about Christmas, impatient with God’s ways, have a yawn and calm down – and celebrate God’s patience with you.
Mark E.
* * *
James 5:7-10
I have never been very patient. How about you? I am fond of reminding people that my prayers for patience have often resulted in situations that test and challenge my patience. It’s as if patience is a muscle that must be developed through situations that test and challenge it. Does it seem that way for you?
I like that James uses the example of a farmer planting seeds and waiting for the crops to grow. As a child, I loved to plant seeds, but was very impatient to see them grow. As I got older, I often put plants, rather than seeds, in the garden so it seemed I had immediate gratification. One year I planted asters from seed in my garden and impatiently watched them grow, weeding and nurturing them. As the buds showed up on the flowers, I got excited waiting for them to bloom. Sometime that week a neighbor’s cows got out and ate the tops off all the plants. I was devastated. I thought I would have to dig the plants up, but my Mom told me to wait and see what would happen — in other words — to have patience. Several weeks later the buds returned, more of them, and the flowers were wonderful. They actually bloomed after the frost and the snow began to fall. When I get really impatient, I think of this and remember the gift that patience, and a little tolerance for the actions of cows, gave me that fall.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Matthew 11:2-11
You may remember Coca-Cola’s slogan, “It’s the real thing.” That ad campaign was a way of consolidating the large number of changes being made to the brand in the early 1970s. Coke’s then brand manager, Ira C Herbert, heralded it as a new direction that “responds to research which shows that young people seek the real, the original and the natural as an escape from phoniness.”
1970’s young people wanted something real and original. They had little patience for phoniness. I’m thinking some things don’t change. Millennials are also demanding authenticity. That’s what we see in this text, too. John is in prison. He’s spent his life preaching and preparing the way for the Messiah. Now, at this low point, he wants to make sure that Jesus is the real thing. Jesus tells John’s messengers to report what they see. What Messiah is prophesied (in Isaiah) to do is happening. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.
Jesus wants John to know that he is the real thing. He’s the one to come. John’s work was not in vain and he should not give up or become discouraged. In today’s culture that demands authenticity, Jesus exclaims, “I am the one.”
Bill T.
* * *
Matthew 11:2-11
The Washington Post on November 6, 2019, published a lengthy article titled “The Moral Dilemma of Volunteer Tourism.” It was written by Ken Budd. He combined his personal account of being a short-term volunteer in mission with a discussion that these volunteers can unknowingly cause problems for a third world nation. They were originally called “volunteer vacations,” as individuals from developed countries would use their vacation days to become short-term volunteer in missions to a developing country. The program is now better known as “voluntourism.” The name change came because those who participated in global volunteering were frequently criticized as privileged, unqualified first worlders, many of whom had a “white-savior complex.” Dressed in affluence, even if they were in work clothes, and the unending devotion they had to pose for selfies, these first worlders were regarded by the indigenous people more as tourists than missionaries.
Ron L.
* * *
Matthew 11:2-11
The poem America, (better known by its title in the musical setting, “America the Beautiful”) was penned by the prolific writer Katherine Lee Bates, a professor and social activist. In 1893, she took a train trip from her native Massachusetts to Colorado, which included a stop at the top of Pikes Peak. From the top of that mountain one can see “the purple mountains majesty” looking west, while in the opposite direction one sees the wheat fields of Kansas with its “amber waves of grain.”
Anyone who has traveled through Kansas has seen seemingly endless fields of grain waving in the wind. The image of “a reed shaken by the wind,” used by Jesus in this passage, would have been as familiar a sight to people not only in the Holy Land, but throughout Middle East in that era. Reeds and rushes grew profusely in rivers, and were harvested for their use in sewing, in medicine, in bedding, for thatching in houses, among many other uses. Of course, Jesus is not suggesting that John the Baptist is anything at all like a reed. In asking his listeners if that’s what they came to see he is suggesting just the opposite. John is like Malachi, whose words he uses to describe the Baptist, the messenger sent ahead to prepare the way.
What are we — reeds that shake against the wind, whatever direction it blows, or stalwart prophets who, as Malachi spoke about, have been tested and found to be pure?
Frank R.
Leslie B. Flynn told the story of an orphaned boy who was living with his grandmother. Their house caught fire, and the grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, perished in the flames. The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drainpipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck.
Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen all gave the reasons they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a home. But as they talked, the lad’s eyes remained focused on the floor. Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing severe scars on them. As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. With a leap, the boy threw his arms around the man’s neck and held on for dear life. The other men silently walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone. Those marred hands had settled the issue.
Isaiah 35, quoted by Jesus to John’s messengers about the Messiah, is a powerful poetic word of comfort for the mourning Judahite exiles, who lost their temple, land, and sovereignty. Their suffering is manifested in “weak hands” (verse 3), “feeble knees” (verse 3), a “fearful heart” (verse 4), obscured vision (verse 5), hindered hearing (verse 5), broken bodies (verse 6), and silent tongues (verse 6). The good news is that the God of Jacob does not abandon God’s people to their despair. Their redeemer, God will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. The message is clear for then and now: He will come and save you.
Bill T.
* * *
Isaiah 35:1-10
We usually think of the “prosperity gospel” as the latest trend in theology. We also think that it is reserved for pastors of megachurches to preach. In fact, the prosperity gospel had its origins in the late nineteenth-century. Essek William Kenyon had a great influence on the movement. He devoted 55 years of his life as a revivalist, educator and evangelist, devoting himself to promoting the prosperity gospel, also known as the gospel of “health and wealth.” Kenyon began his ministry in 1893. According to Kenyon, after the ascension of Jesus, Jesus transferred his “power of attorney” to all those believers who use his name. Prayer now took on binding legal qualities as believers followed Jesus’ formula: “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:14) Kenyon replaced the word “ask” to “demand,” since petitioners were entitled to the legal benefits of his name.
Ron L.
* * *
Isaiah 35:1-10
“…no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.” (Isaiah 35:8)
There was a commercial some years ago about a product that was so easy “even a caveman could do it.” The caveman, far more sophisticated than he was given credit for, was insulted. Robert Alter, in his new translation of the Hebrew scriptures, has a note that “the use of the term ‘fools’ is rather odd.” We are insulted if the term is applied to us. But it is used here to suggest that the road back from exile will be so easy even we can’t get lost. The exiles will return with God’s guidance. In our age of GPS and smart phones, we act as though it’s nearly impossible for us to get lost, but still, we do. This verse suggests that with God’s good will those of us marching to Zion will get there, no matter how we insist we’re not going to ask for directions.
Frank R.
* * *
James 5:7-10
It’s hard to be patient with Christmas just two weeks away. Hard to be patient waiting for those presents and reunions that are about to happen. Americans are not very patient according to a 2015 Fifth Third poll. It found that over 50% of us will hang up the phone after just 60 seconds of being on hold. And 71% of us speed while driving to get where we are going sooner. Impatience leads to bad things. Well-known behavioral scientist Steve Maraboli hit the nail on the head when he observed, “What good has impatience ever brought? It has only served as the mother of mistakes and the father of irritation.”
"Patience is the companion of wisdom," St. Augustine once wrote. You’re not as likely to say and do dumb things when you’re patient. Neurobiologists teach use that when we are patient, we control our animal instincts and anger with an activated prefrontal cortex in the front of our brains. And when that part of the brain is activated, the result is the secretion of the brain chemical dopamine, an amphetamine which give you a high (Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, pp.81,114-117,211). Patience minimizes anxiety.
Martin Luther elaborates on this point:
We should learn to cling to the word with patience and not let go of it even though the period of waiting for help last a hundred years. For God delays action out of grace in our best interest, that our faith may become strong and great and He may give the more abundantly what he has promised. (What Luther Says, p.391)
It makes sense that we be patient since God is patient with us. Want some help with patience? Neurobiologist Andrew Newberg suggests we try yawning. It apparently lowers tension and optimizes the parts of the brain which facilitate self-awareness and introspection, slows us down and so helps us deal with passions which interfere with patience (How God Changes Your Brain, pp.185-189). Next time you’re anxious about Christmas, impatient with God’s ways, have a yawn and calm down – and celebrate God’s patience with you.
Mark E.
* * *
James 5:7-10
I have never been very patient. How about you? I am fond of reminding people that my prayers for patience have often resulted in situations that test and challenge my patience. It’s as if patience is a muscle that must be developed through situations that test and challenge it. Does it seem that way for you?
I like that James uses the example of a farmer planting seeds and waiting for the crops to grow. As a child, I loved to plant seeds, but was very impatient to see them grow. As I got older, I often put plants, rather than seeds, in the garden so it seemed I had immediate gratification. One year I planted asters from seed in my garden and impatiently watched them grow, weeding and nurturing them. As the buds showed up on the flowers, I got excited waiting for them to bloom. Sometime that week a neighbor’s cows got out and ate the tops off all the plants. I was devastated. I thought I would have to dig the plants up, but my Mom told me to wait and see what would happen — in other words — to have patience. Several weeks later the buds returned, more of them, and the flowers were wonderful. They actually bloomed after the frost and the snow began to fall. When I get really impatient, I think of this and remember the gift that patience, and a little tolerance for the actions of cows, gave me that fall.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Matthew 11:2-11
You may remember Coca-Cola’s slogan, “It’s the real thing.” That ad campaign was a way of consolidating the large number of changes being made to the brand in the early 1970s. Coke’s then brand manager, Ira C Herbert, heralded it as a new direction that “responds to research which shows that young people seek the real, the original and the natural as an escape from phoniness.”
1970’s young people wanted something real and original. They had little patience for phoniness. I’m thinking some things don’t change. Millennials are also demanding authenticity. That’s what we see in this text, too. John is in prison. He’s spent his life preaching and preparing the way for the Messiah. Now, at this low point, he wants to make sure that Jesus is the real thing. Jesus tells John’s messengers to report what they see. What Messiah is prophesied (in Isaiah) to do is happening. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.
Jesus wants John to know that he is the real thing. He’s the one to come. John’s work was not in vain and he should not give up or become discouraged. In today’s culture that demands authenticity, Jesus exclaims, “I am the one.”
Bill T.
* * *
Matthew 11:2-11
The Washington Post on November 6, 2019, published a lengthy article titled “The Moral Dilemma of Volunteer Tourism.” It was written by Ken Budd. He combined his personal account of being a short-term volunteer in mission with a discussion that these volunteers can unknowingly cause problems for a third world nation. They were originally called “volunteer vacations,” as individuals from developed countries would use their vacation days to become short-term volunteer in missions to a developing country. The program is now better known as “voluntourism.” The name change came because those who participated in global volunteering were frequently criticized as privileged, unqualified first worlders, many of whom had a “white-savior complex.” Dressed in affluence, even if they were in work clothes, and the unending devotion they had to pose for selfies, these first worlders were regarded by the indigenous people more as tourists than missionaries.
Ron L.
* * *
Matthew 11:2-11
The poem America, (better known by its title in the musical setting, “America the Beautiful”) was penned by the prolific writer Katherine Lee Bates, a professor and social activist. In 1893, she took a train trip from her native Massachusetts to Colorado, which included a stop at the top of Pikes Peak. From the top of that mountain one can see “the purple mountains majesty” looking west, while in the opposite direction one sees the wheat fields of Kansas with its “amber waves of grain.”
Anyone who has traveled through Kansas has seen seemingly endless fields of grain waving in the wind. The image of “a reed shaken by the wind,” used by Jesus in this passage, would have been as familiar a sight to people not only in the Holy Land, but throughout Middle East in that era. Reeds and rushes grew profusely in rivers, and were harvested for their use in sewing, in medicine, in bedding, for thatching in houses, among many other uses. Of course, Jesus is not suggesting that John the Baptist is anything at all like a reed. In asking his listeners if that’s what they came to see he is suggesting just the opposite. John is like Malachi, whose words he uses to describe the Baptist, the messenger sent ahead to prepare the way.
What are we — reeds that shake against the wind, whatever direction it blows, or stalwart prophets who, as Malachi spoke about, have been tested and found to be pure?
Frank R.
