Sermon Illustrations For Ash Wednesday (2017)
Illustration
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
What does it mean to repent? That’s a question that is asked a lot. I saw an example on the playground at the school near my home, of all places. A young mother was there with her two children. Her son was a bit older than his sister, but they were close in age. I was walking on the track and noticed them. The kids were playing on a slide in one of those newer playground areas with the rubber mats on the ground, while the mom was sitting nearby. As I rounded the corner nearest the playground, I saw the boy push his sister out of the way so he could climb the ladder up the slide. As I could’ve predicted, the girl started to cry. The mom came over, and after a few words of conversation with her daughter she called her son over. She explained to him that pushing his sister was wrong. I heard her tell him to tell his sister that he was sorry. I knew what was coming. He said, “Sorry,” but it was real fast and not too sincere. His mom thought so too. She told him, “You can’t just say the words. You have to really mean them.” I walked on down the track, thinking that the mom had done the right thing. You can’t just say the words and expect that will suffice. You must mean them.
That’s the message in this passage from the prophet Joel. “Rend your hearts and not your clothing” is what the Lord says through Joel. I wonder how many times we’re like that boy I saw on the playground. We do something we know we shouldn’t and are frustrated that we’ve been caught. We say we’re sorry, but the wrongness of what we’ve done hardly sinks in. We just try to do what we should do and get it over. That’s not repentance. Sorry isn’t sorry until you mean it. I heard that from a young mom and from the Lord.
Bill T.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
In July 2011, the government of India mandated that Hinduism be taught in all of the country’s public schools, especially the Bhagavad Gita, the book of Hindu scripture. The government’s argument for doing this was so that students would learn “good values” for life. The Christian church in India protested this directive, stating that the government’s real reason was to promote nationalism. Rev. Manohar Chandra Prasad, a prominent activist in the Christian church, said: “There is a hidden agenda behind teaching the Gita in schools. It is to impose the orthodox Hindu system and strengthen the Hindu ideology.”
Application: We need to learn from Joel that there are times we must take on the role of being a prophet and speak out.
Ron L.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
John Calvin describes the kind of relationship the prophet calls us to have with God, claiming it entails that “we ought not to place our safety in anything else than in the Presence of God; for if he be absent, we shall either shudder with fear, or become stupid or run headlong like drunkards” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. VIII/1, pp. 323-324). George Eliot well explained our stupidity, an unwillingness to repent as Ash Wednesday calls us to do: “No evil deems us so hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.”
When you do not want to escape the evil you have been doing, it represents an effort on your part to find safety in something other than God. When we sink this low in our sinfully drunken stupidity, we need a friend. In line with our lesson’s theme, John Wesley says we have one in God: “Whatever enemies we have, if we can but make God our friend, we are well enough. They that by faith have power in heaven have thereby as much power on earth as they have occasion for” (Commentary on the Bible, p. 53).
Mark E.
Isaiah 58:1-12
John Calvin offered some telling insights about human nature as revealed in this lesson: he says that we are people who “have abused God’s goodness and vainly boast of his name.” We are hypocrites holding out “an empty show of holiness” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. VIII/2, p. 224). Martin Luther described the human condition described in this text in a related way: “So today the enemies of the gospel pass judgment on God as if he were not God. They want to get control of God” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 17, p. 283).
Luther insists, along with this lesson, that it is important to recognize our sin. We need to let Christ be our Savior, and so he claims: “Figure it out yourself. If you want to abolish sin, you are not only wrong sin but you also want to trespass on the office of Christ.... This is the sin supreme. For God’s sake, do not try it! Rather let Christ remain Christ; let him keep his office” (What Luther Says, pp. 1314-1315). “The more you disparage yourself the more you praise God, and the more you displease yourself, the more he pleases you, and vice versa” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 11, p. 316).
Mark E.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Jesus turned the world upside-down. As we read this passage from the letter of Paul to the church in Corinth, we see the “upside-down-ness” of a life of faith. Paul says it all: “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see -- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
We live in a world where power is given to the rich, where hate seems to overcome love, and where violence is used as a means toward peace. That is not the view of faith, the direction faith leads us. In our faith, the meek are empowered, love always wins, suffering and sacrifice lead to peace. As we enter this Lenten season, may we focus on the “downside-up-ness” of faith and follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Bonnie B.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Paul utilized a message of failure to place all the glory and credit for the success of our shared message of reconciliation in God. Members of the Greco-Roman society were keenly aware of their status. They seethed over every slight, gloated over every victory. They agonized over every loss of honor in a society founded upon honor. The nobility had three separate names to clarify ancestry and social position, while slaves had a single name -- and that name was recognizably a slave name, like “Lucky” or “Useful.”
Paul redefined honor and shame by owning and claiming his failures as well as his successes, fortunate events, and calamities, so that it might be clear that in whatever circumstance we might find ourselves we are not separated from God’s saving action, nor can we give credit to anyone but God for our blessings. Quoting Isaiah, Paul suggests that the time for our decision is now -- because now is the acceptable time for that salvation.
Regardless what people say about Paul (and us), regardless of our failures or successes, we have the power to change lives and draw all humanity to God through the cross of Christ. This first day in Lent, with our confession of sins we should be willing to surrender all to receive all.
Frank R.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
There is an expression in sports that says, “Act like you’ve been there before.” Television commentators use it when a player is engaging in a flamboyant celebration after having done something good on the field. In 2011 Bob Costas penned an essay for NBC Sports in which he said: “We live in a culture that in many ways grows more stupid and graceless by the moment. Sports both reflects and influences that sorry trend, so on playing fields everywhere true style is in decline, while mindless exhibitionism abounds.” What Costas wrote in 2011 is even more prevalent today -- and in more than just the sports arena. There is a tendency now for people to flaunt and make public their own actions or successes. I suppose it is even possible to find spiritual arrogance in our churches.
Against this backdrop of self-promotion, we find the words of Jesus recorded for us in Matthew 6. “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” and when you fast, don’t tell anyone “that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret.” Jesus is challenging his hearers and us today to not get caught up in promoting ourselves or trying to impress people with how spiritual we appear. He desires humble followers. To sum it up in that sports colloquialism, “Act like you’ve been there before.”
Bill T.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Elaborating on the nature of sin that we lament this day and which Jesus critiques in our lesson, 18th-century French intellectual Blaise Pascal summarized our manner of behavior and outlook on life: inconstancy, boredom, anxiety (Pensees, p. 24). We always have something about which to complain. As St. Augustine once described our condition, we are “a people curious to know of other’s lives, but slow to correct our own” (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1, p. 142). In adversity we desire prosperity, and in prosperity fear adversity Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1, p. 153). We are never satisfied.
All this can change when we are encountered by Christ and the Spirit. In a sermon Martin Luther spoke of the Spirit writing into the hearts of the faithful, “making them different beings, making them creatures who loved and willingly obeyed God.... They became new creatures aware of possessing altogether different minds and different tendencies” (Collected Sermons, Vol. 4/2, p. 331).
John Calvin makes a point in the same vein, asserting how God’s grace can change our condition: “Those who have been mercifully recovered from their falls will feel inflamed by the common law of charity to extend a helping hand to their brethren” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. 5/1, p. 302).
Mark E.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The Mercator map of 1569 was for centuries the standard map of the world -- the map pictured in books and hung in classrooms across the nation. But the problem with a world map is accurately depicting a round world on a flat surface. Thus the Mercator map represented the size of many countries disproportionately. On the Mercator map Greenland and China appear to be the same size, when in fact China is four times larger than Greenland. This problem of relative size was corrected with the Peters projection world map of 1974. The problem with this map, however, is that the continents appeared distorted, though their relative size to one another is accurate.
Application: When it comes to stewardship, we may have a distorted image of what we are really doing.
Ron L.
What does it mean to repent? That’s a question that is asked a lot. I saw an example on the playground at the school near my home, of all places. A young mother was there with her two children. Her son was a bit older than his sister, but they were close in age. I was walking on the track and noticed them. The kids were playing on a slide in one of those newer playground areas with the rubber mats on the ground, while the mom was sitting nearby. As I rounded the corner nearest the playground, I saw the boy push his sister out of the way so he could climb the ladder up the slide. As I could’ve predicted, the girl started to cry. The mom came over, and after a few words of conversation with her daughter she called her son over. She explained to him that pushing his sister was wrong. I heard her tell him to tell his sister that he was sorry. I knew what was coming. He said, “Sorry,” but it was real fast and not too sincere. His mom thought so too. She told him, “You can’t just say the words. You have to really mean them.” I walked on down the track, thinking that the mom had done the right thing. You can’t just say the words and expect that will suffice. You must mean them.
That’s the message in this passage from the prophet Joel. “Rend your hearts and not your clothing” is what the Lord says through Joel. I wonder how many times we’re like that boy I saw on the playground. We do something we know we shouldn’t and are frustrated that we’ve been caught. We say we’re sorry, but the wrongness of what we’ve done hardly sinks in. We just try to do what we should do and get it over. That’s not repentance. Sorry isn’t sorry until you mean it. I heard that from a young mom and from the Lord.
Bill T.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
In July 2011, the government of India mandated that Hinduism be taught in all of the country’s public schools, especially the Bhagavad Gita, the book of Hindu scripture. The government’s argument for doing this was so that students would learn “good values” for life. The Christian church in India protested this directive, stating that the government’s real reason was to promote nationalism. Rev. Manohar Chandra Prasad, a prominent activist in the Christian church, said: “There is a hidden agenda behind teaching the Gita in schools. It is to impose the orthodox Hindu system and strengthen the Hindu ideology.”
Application: We need to learn from Joel that there are times we must take on the role of being a prophet and speak out.
Ron L.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
John Calvin describes the kind of relationship the prophet calls us to have with God, claiming it entails that “we ought not to place our safety in anything else than in the Presence of God; for if he be absent, we shall either shudder with fear, or become stupid or run headlong like drunkards” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. VIII/1, pp. 323-324). George Eliot well explained our stupidity, an unwillingness to repent as Ash Wednesday calls us to do: “No evil deems us so hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.”
When you do not want to escape the evil you have been doing, it represents an effort on your part to find safety in something other than God. When we sink this low in our sinfully drunken stupidity, we need a friend. In line with our lesson’s theme, John Wesley says we have one in God: “Whatever enemies we have, if we can but make God our friend, we are well enough. They that by faith have power in heaven have thereby as much power on earth as they have occasion for” (Commentary on the Bible, p. 53).
Mark E.
Isaiah 58:1-12
John Calvin offered some telling insights about human nature as revealed in this lesson: he says that we are people who “have abused God’s goodness and vainly boast of his name.” We are hypocrites holding out “an empty show of holiness” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. VIII/2, p. 224). Martin Luther described the human condition described in this text in a related way: “So today the enemies of the gospel pass judgment on God as if he were not God. They want to get control of God” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 17, p. 283).
Luther insists, along with this lesson, that it is important to recognize our sin. We need to let Christ be our Savior, and so he claims: “Figure it out yourself. If you want to abolish sin, you are not only wrong sin but you also want to trespass on the office of Christ.... This is the sin supreme. For God’s sake, do not try it! Rather let Christ remain Christ; let him keep his office” (What Luther Says, pp. 1314-1315). “The more you disparage yourself the more you praise God, and the more you displease yourself, the more he pleases you, and vice versa” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 11, p. 316).
Mark E.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Jesus turned the world upside-down. As we read this passage from the letter of Paul to the church in Corinth, we see the “upside-down-ness” of a life of faith. Paul says it all: “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see -- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
We live in a world where power is given to the rich, where hate seems to overcome love, and where violence is used as a means toward peace. That is not the view of faith, the direction faith leads us. In our faith, the meek are empowered, love always wins, suffering and sacrifice lead to peace. As we enter this Lenten season, may we focus on the “downside-up-ness” of faith and follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Bonnie B.
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Paul utilized a message of failure to place all the glory and credit for the success of our shared message of reconciliation in God. Members of the Greco-Roman society were keenly aware of their status. They seethed over every slight, gloated over every victory. They agonized over every loss of honor in a society founded upon honor. The nobility had three separate names to clarify ancestry and social position, while slaves had a single name -- and that name was recognizably a slave name, like “Lucky” or “Useful.”
Paul redefined honor and shame by owning and claiming his failures as well as his successes, fortunate events, and calamities, so that it might be clear that in whatever circumstance we might find ourselves we are not separated from God’s saving action, nor can we give credit to anyone but God for our blessings. Quoting Isaiah, Paul suggests that the time for our decision is now -- because now is the acceptable time for that salvation.
Regardless what people say about Paul (and us), regardless of our failures or successes, we have the power to change lives and draw all humanity to God through the cross of Christ. This first day in Lent, with our confession of sins we should be willing to surrender all to receive all.
Frank R.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
There is an expression in sports that says, “Act like you’ve been there before.” Television commentators use it when a player is engaging in a flamboyant celebration after having done something good on the field. In 2011 Bob Costas penned an essay for NBC Sports in which he said: “We live in a culture that in many ways grows more stupid and graceless by the moment. Sports both reflects and influences that sorry trend, so on playing fields everywhere true style is in decline, while mindless exhibitionism abounds.” What Costas wrote in 2011 is even more prevalent today -- and in more than just the sports arena. There is a tendency now for people to flaunt and make public their own actions or successes. I suppose it is even possible to find spiritual arrogance in our churches.
Against this backdrop of self-promotion, we find the words of Jesus recorded for us in Matthew 6. “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” and when you fast, don’t tell anyone “that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret.” Jesus is challenging his hearers and us today to not get caught up in promoting ourselves or trying to impress people with how spiritual we appear. He desires humble followers. To sum it up in that sports colloquialism, “Act like you’ve been there before.”
Bill T.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Elaborating on the nature of sin that we lament this day and which Jesus critiques in our lesson, 18th-century French intellectual Blaise Pascal summarized our manner of behavior and outlook on life: inconstancy, boredom, anxiety (Pensees, p. 24). We always have something about which to complain. As St. Augustine once described our condition, we are “a people curious to know of other’s lives, but slow to correct our own” (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1, p. 142). In adversity we desire prosperity, and in prosperity fear adversity Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1, p. 153). We are never satisfied.
All this can change when we are encountered by Christ and the Spirit. In a sermon Martin Luther spoke of the Spirit writing into the hearts of the faithful, “making them different beings, making them creatures who loved and willingly obeyed God.... They became new creatures aware of possessing altogether different minds and different tendencies” (Collected Sermons, Vol. 4/2, p. 331).
John Calvin makes a point in the same vein, asserting how God’s grace can change our condition: “Those who have been mercifully recovered from their falls will feel inflamed by the common law of charity to extend a helping hand to their brethren” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. 5/1, p. 302).
Mark E.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The Mercator map of 1569 was for centuries the standard map of the world -- the map pictured in books and hung in classrooms across the nation. But the problem with a world map is accurately depicting a round world on a flat surface. Thus the Mercator map represented the size of many countries disproportionately. On the Mercator map Greenland and China appear to be the same size, when in fact China is four times larger than Greenland. This problem of relative size was corrected with the Peters projection world map of 1974. The problem with this map, however, is that the continents appeared distorted, though their relative size to one another is accurate.
Application: When it comes to stewardship, we may have a distorted image of what we are really doing.
Ron L.
