Sermon Illustrations for Ash Wednesday (2013)
Illustration
Object:
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Martin Luther began his famed Ninety-Five Theses with this statement: "... the entire life of believers [is] to be one of repentance" (Luther's Works, Vol. 31, p. 25).
Luther also makes clear why we need daily repentance, for we never escape sin on this side of the Christ's second coming: "The original sin in a man is like his beard, which though shaved off today so that a man is very smooth around his mouth, yet grows again by tomorrow morning" (Tischreden, No. 138).
We need this reminder of the need to repent daily because, as a German proverb Luther quotes makes clear, we prefer to deny our sin: "All men are pleased with what they do. A world of fools I'm telling you" (Weimar Ausgabe, Vol. 48, p. 10).
Of course, repentance is not something we must do on our own. John Calvin reminds us that the love of God comes to us, and like a fiery flame, sets us on fire to repent (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. V/1, p. 302)!
Mark E.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Martin Luther King Jr. affirmed the majesty of God in a telling speech. King thundered forth: "At times we need to know that the Lord is a God of justice. When slumbering giants of injustice emerge in the earth, we need to know that there is a God of power who can cut them down like the grass and leave them withering like green herb. When our most tireless efforts fail to stop the surging sweep of oppression, we need to know that in this universe is a God whose matchless strength is a fit contrast to the sordid weakness of man." It is in the God who can swing the sickle that often becomes our basis for hope.
"Blow the trumpet of Zion!" The inhabitants of the earth are to tremble before the God of justice.
Ron L.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
There are 193 ambassadors from other countries to the United States. We have ambassadors sent to these countries also. Ambassadors hold very important, influential positions. Their job is essentially to represent the interests of their respective home country to the countries to which they have been assigned and in which they now live. The ambassador is the spokesperson for the home country, speaking on behalf of the leader and government of the home country. There is always need for ambassadors to serve. In an interview with our ambassador to Fiji, the following question was asked: "What do you like about what you do?" His response was this: "I think in part it's that I do get to move from place to place, learn new skills, gain a new depth of knowledge, test myself in new ways; that keeps me stimulated. And so I enjoy that. There's a lot of interaction with a variety of peoples around the world. I think that's good. I think the United States tries to do good works in the world and I'm happy to be part of that." Similar comments could be made regarding ambassadorship for Christ.
Mark M.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
When we think of Jesus as having no sin and yet being tempted in every way that we are, I think of President Carter losing a lot of support when he confessed, "I have lusted." If Jesus was temped in every way that we are temped, then he must have looked at a pretty girl and even wanted her. Maybe it was Mary Magdalene, as that one terrible book suggested. He must also have been tempted to broadcast his message as Satan suggested by jumping off the temple roof and having the angels catch him. That would have won him the election!
When I think of all the temptations I have had it is hard to imagine Jesus having all those temptations and resisting them all. As it says, we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. Most of us would be proud to say we have not sinned in deed but haven't we played with some temptations in our mind and enjoyed them? That "thought" part is what bothers me the most!
Our hope is in God's grace! He will give us the strength to resist not only deeds but thoughts. I know I can't overcome temptation without God's help!
We need to beg for God's grace so that we set a good example and not hurt God's image.
One of the first reasons we want to set an example is for our family. I am conscious of this when I visit my kids. When I was a kid, I heard some of those who worked with my dad say that they never heard him swear. I never forgot that and I wanted to set the same kind of example for my kids.
As a pastor I wanted to set a good example for my parishioners also. I wanted to drive carefully and treat store clerks respectfully -- especially when I was wearing my clerical collar!
On the mission field everyone knew we were Christians, so everything we said or did was noted by them. One missionary rented a huge mansion to live in when he ministered, and we heard many complain about those rich Americans flaunting their wealth. When he hired servants to help around the house it was even worse. I lived in one room of a three-story building, with other missionaries living on other levels! We also wore blue jeans and tennis shoes! We didn't even own a bicycle to get around and we had to walk long distances for almost everything we needed.
We stopped to talk with the down and out and even helped them with some support. (We couldn't have helped all of the poor or we would have been broke! Almost everyone was poor there.) The people who came to church had little more than the clothes on their back. We treated all as fellow Christians and tried to live humbly as they lived.
What kind of example are you setting? Ask God's help!
Bob O.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Jesus never spoke of equality with God. That would be established by the early church fathers at the Council of Nicaea, 325 ACE, when the Doctrine of Consubstantiation was adopted, meaning God and Jesus were "of one substance." It was a sufficient witness for the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that Jesus as the Son of God was the perfect revelation of God. It was the testimony that to know Jesus was to know God. Perhaps most importantly, Jesus trusted in the one affectionately called "Abba," which means "Daddy." This is why when Jesus taught us to pray he opened to us a universal God by directing us to begin with the salutation "Our Father, who art in heaven."
When understanding God as Daddy, we do not practice our piety in public as if God is our king; instead we do it discreetly as we live within the family of God.
Ron L.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Jesus is right. Our piety is full of hypocrisy. John Calvin spoke of this hypocrisy in terms of our wanting credit for our goodness: "But, as hypocrisy is always ambitious, we need not wonder that it is blind" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p. 312). Saint Augustine made a similar point: "[We are] a people curious to know of other's lives, but slow to correct our own" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, p. 142).
But as we come to be humbled by these insights, God forgives us, Martin Luther contends: "This is a description or definition of God that is full of comfort: that in his true form God is a God who loves the afflicted, has mercy of the humbled, forgives the fallen, and revives the drooping. How can any more pleasant picture be painted of God?" (Luther's Works, Vol. 12, p. 406).
Mark E.
Martin Luther began his famed Ninety-Five Theses with this statement: "... the entire life of believers [is] to be one of repentance" (Luther's Works, Vol. 31, p. 25).
Luther also makes clear why we need daily repentance, for we never escape sin on this side of the Christ's second coming: "The original sin in a man is like his beard, which though shaved off today so that a man is very smooth around his mouth, yet grows again by tomorrow morning" (Tischreden, No. 138).
We need this reminder of the need to repent daily because, as a German proverb Luther quotes makes clear, we prefer to deny our sin: "All men are pleased with what they do. A world of fools I'm telling you" (Weimar Ausgabe, Vol. 48, p. 10).
Of course, repentance is not something we must do on our own. John Calvin reminds us that the love of God comes to us, and like a fiery flame, sets us on fire to repent (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. V/1, p. 302)!
Mark E.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Martin Luther King Jr. affirmed the majesty of God in a telling speech. King thundered forth: "At times we need to know that the Lord is a God of justice. When slumbering giants of injustice emerge in the earth, we need to know that there is a God of power who can cut them down like the grass and leave them withering like green herb. When our most tireless efforts fail to stop the surging sweep of oppression, we need to know that in this universe is a God whose matchless strength is a fit contrast to the sordid weakness of man." It is in the God who can swing the sickle that often becomes our basis for hope.
"Blow the trumpet of Zion!" The inhabitants of the earth are to tremble before the God of justice.
Ron L.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
There are 193 ambassadors from other countries to the United States. We have ambassadors sent to these countries also. Ambassadors hold very important, influential positions. Their job is essentially to represent the interests of their respective home country to the countries to which they have been assigned and in which they now live. The ambassador is the spokesperson for the home country, speaking on behalf of the leader and government of the home country. There is always need for ambassadors to serve. In an interview with our ambassador to Fiji, the following question was asked: "What do you like about what you do?" His response was this: "I think in part it's that I do get to move from place to place, learn new skills, gain a new depth of knowledge, test myself in new ways; that keeps me stimulated. And so I enjoy that. There's a lot of interaction with a variety of peoples around the world. I think that's good. I think the United States tries to do good works in the world and I'm happy to be part of that." Similar comments could be made regarding ambassadorship for Christ.
Mark M.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
When we think of Jesus as having no sin and yet being tempted in every way that we are, I think of President Carter losing a lot of support when he confessed, "I have lusted." If Jesus was temped in every way that we are temped, then he must have looked at a pretty girl and even wanted her. Maybe it was Mary Magdalene, as that one terrible book suggested. He must also have been tempted to broadcast his message as Satan suggested by jumping off the temple roof and having the angels catch him. That would have won him the election!
When I think of all the temptations I have had it is hard to imagine Jesus having all those temptations and resisting them all. As it says, we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. Most of us would be proud to say we have not sinned in deed but haven't we played with some temptations in our mind and enjoyed them? That "thought" part is what bothers me the most!
Our hope is in God's grace! He will give us the strength to resist not only deeds but thoughts. I know I can't overcome temptation without God's help!
We need to beg for God's grace so that we set a good example and not hurt God's image.
One of the first reasons we want to set an example is for our family. I am conscious of this when I visit my kids. When I was a kid, I heard some of those who worked with my dad say that they never heard him swear. I never forgot that and I wanted to set the same kind of example for my kids.
As a pastor I wanted to set a good example for my parishioners also. I wanted to drive carefully and treat store clerks respectfully -- especially when I was wearing my clerical collar!
On the mission field everyone knew we were Christians, so everything we said or did was noted by them. One missionary rented a huge mansion to live in when he ministered, and we heard many complain about those rich Americans flaunting their wealth. When he hired servants to help around the house it was even worse. I lived in one room of a three-story building, with other missionaries living on other levels! We also wore blue jeans and tennis shoes! We didn't even own a bicycle to get around and we had to walk long distances for almost everything we needed.
We stopped to talk with the down and out and even helped them with some support. (We couldn't have helped all of the poor or we would have been broke! Almost everyone was poor there.) The people who came to church had little more than the clothes on their back. We treated all as fellow Christians and tried to live humbly as they lived.
What kind of example are you setting? Ask God's help!
Bob O.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Jesus never spoke of equality with God. That would be established by the early church fathers at the Council of Nicaea, 325 ACE, when the Doctrine of Consubstantiation was adopted, meaning God and Jesus were "of one substance." It was a sufficient witness for the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that Jesus as the Son of God was the perfect revelation of God. It was the testimony that to know Jesus was to know God. Perhaps most importantly, Jesus trusted in the one affectionately called "Abba," which means "Daddy." This is why when Jesus taught us to pray he opened to us a universal God by directing us to begin with the salutation "Our Father, who art in heaven."
When understanding God as Daddy, we do not practice our piety in public as if God is our king; instead we do it discreetly as we live within the family of God.
Ron L.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Jesus is right. Our piety is full of hypocrisy. John Calvin spoke of this hypocrisy in terms of our wanting credit for our goodness: "But, as hypocrisy is always ambitious, we need not wonder that it is blind" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p. 312). Saint Augustine made a similar point: "[We are] a people curious to know of other's lives, but slow to correct our own" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, p. 142).
But as we come to be humbled by these insights, God forgives us, Martin Luther contends: "This is a description or definition of God that is full of comfort: that in his true form God is a God who loves the afflicted, has mercy of the humbled, forgives the fallen, and revives the drooping. How can any more pleasant picture be painted of God?" (Luther's Works, Vol. 12, p. 406).
Mark E.
