Sermon Illustrations for Baptism of Our Lord (2020)
Illustration
Isaiah 42:1-9
Mainline Christian denominations in American are losing ground. A Gallup poll noted that church membership in America has dropped from 70% in 1937 to 50% of Americans in 2018. Meanwhile the religiously unaffiliated (the so-called Nones) are the fastest-growing segment of the American population. This Lesson testifies to the Servant (Christ) as the light of the world (vv.7-8), and so seems to be about how to remedy these dynamics – through evangelism.
Martin Luther nicely expresses why Christians should do evangelism:
To believe in Christ secretly in your heart and to praise Him in a private corner, is not true faith. You must confess openly with your lips before everyone what you believe in your heart. (Luther’s Works, Vol.52, p.277)
Famed Christian author C. S. Lewis makes a similar point:
The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.
In evangelism we are just shining the light of Christ. That changes others. Famed Anti-Apartheid leader in South Africa Nelson Mandela well expresses how our doing this can make a difference for others: “”And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” Evangelism is a nutshell: Shining the light of Christ is just being who we are and inviting others to be themselves.
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 42:1-9
It’s a new year. What have you planned or resolved for this year? Isaiah proclaims to the people that God’s servant has come to bring justice, to faithfully bring forth justice. Do any of your resolutions have to do with making the world a better place, a different place, a more just place?
Often our resolutions are about losing weight, about exercise, maybe even about saving money. Rarely do I talk to a person whose resolutions have to do with making the world a more just place. And yet, God’s call on us is this: “I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”
Perhaps the new thing Isaiah proclaims that God is doing is empowering us to make a difference — to walk into the world with righteousness, compassion, and God’s love. To follow this guidance would be a great way to live into the new year.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
John Wesley Work Jr. was a professor of Latin and history at Fisk College. Fisk College, which is now a university, is a historic black college located in Nashville, Tennessee. John’s wife, Agnes, was the music teacher for the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The group travelled throughout the North and the South, including England and Europe, singing Negro spirituals.
John is known as the first collector of African-American folk songs and spirituals. An endeavor that he shared with his wife Agnes. As blacks were illiterate, their songs were never written down. The songs passed from one generation to the next in the oral tradition. It is not known how John discovered the spiritual Go Tell It on the Mountain. When he did, he transferred the song to sheet music.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers, a ten-member touring ensemble, began to sing Go Tell It on the Mountain at their concerts. On October 6, 1871, they departed for an eighteen-month tour. To this day, October 6, is celebrated annually as Jubilee Day on the campus.
The song is about a lone slave standing in a cotton field. It was after the birth of Jesus. This anonymous slave imagined the emotions that the shepherds, standing in their field, and what they felt as a powerful light from heaven that shown upon them. Frightened by a power they could not understand, they were greeted by an angelic choir trumpeting the birth of a Savior. Having visited the manger an having seen the Messiah, the shepherds spread the message throughout the land.
Ron L.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
I ran across this humorous but pointed story. Two apples up in a tree were looking down on the world. The first apple said, "Look at all those people fighting, robbing, and rioting. No one seems willing to get along with his fellow man. Someday we apples will be the only ones left. Then we'll rule the world."
The second apple looked down on the people below and back up to his friend hanging on the tree. He cleared his throat and then asked, "Which of us — the reds or the greens?”
In our text Peter comes to understand that Gentiles have a place in God’s kingdom. “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (verses 34-35). It’s an important lesson then and now. Prejudice has no place in God’s kingdom and doesn’t belong in the heart of his people. Billy Graham once wrote, “Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death.” Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
Though it is common to speak of Paul as the Apostle to the Gentiles, it is Peter, responding clumsily to the vision granted him of the unclean animals followed by the invitation from Cornelius the Centurion, with no prior authorization from whatever apostolic authority that exists in Jerusalem, to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit among this household of Gentiles, and to baptize them. Later, when he seeks to justify his actions, he asserts in this passage that God shows no partiality, creates no boundaries, recognizes no limitations on grace and mercy.
Two things come to mind. First is the saying, “It's easier to ask for forgiveness than wait for permission.” Peter goes full speed ahead and argues about it later. No matter what the church leaders thought, in a way it was too late. The inclusion of Gentiles, of the nations, was a done deal! I’ve quoteed this saying on more than one occasion. I had always thought it had been created by the late Senator Mark Mansfield, but recently I’ve seen a couple pages on the internet that suggest it was first stated by US Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, a computer science pioneer who pushed boundaries when it came to expanding the role of women in the military as well as the use of computer code among service personnel. Sometimes we need to do God’s work, and patch things up later.
Also, I’ve been thinking about a book, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, by geneticist Adam Rutherford. Things like skin color, race, nationality, that we think are so important, are not significant factors at all when it comes to our genetic makeup. Of course God shows no partiality. There are no significant differences between us, despite our egregious sins of racism and nationalism.
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 3:13-17
What good is baptism? Martin Luther tells us it is the essence of Christian life:
Thus a Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism, begun once and continuing ever after. For we must keep at it without ceasing, always purging whatever pertains to the old Adam, so that whatever belong to the new creature may come forth. (Book of Concord [2000 ed.], p.465
To appreciate this point you need to think about baptism as a new birth, as being born again. What happens on the day of our birth is life-determining, not just in giving life, but we came out of the womb with certain genetic dispositions and potential skills. The natural athlete, the musically talented, the man or woman with good looks are born with those attributes. But with most genetic inheritances, it is a case of “use it or lose it.” You have to work with your athletic or musical skills and practice hard to do anything with them. In baptism we are reborn as people who are meant to deny ourselves for the sake of rising for God and our neighbors. Like the natural-born athlete and musician we will want to spend our lives doing what we love. In describing what happens to us as a result of baptism, Luther put it well:
In the first place you give yourself up to the Sacrament of Baptism and to what it signifies. That is, you desire to die, together with your sins, and to be made new at the last day... from that hour He [God] begins to make a new person. He pours into you His grace and Holy Spirit Who begins to slay nature and sin, and to prepare you for death and the resurrection at the Last Day. (Luther’s Works, Vol.35, p.33)
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 2:13-23
As an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ it has been my privilege to officiate at a variety of baptism services. Perhaps one of the most meaningful was for two young girls who stopped into the church I was serving. As I left a meeting, I could hear singing in the sanctuary. The two sisters were singing hymns in the front pew of the church. During our conversation, they asked if they could be baptized. We called their mother who agreed. We talked about what baptism would mean. The church members with whom I had been working gathered with the girls at the baptismal font and we celebrated their baptism.
Just as those whom John baptized, they had sought this sacrament of connection and inclusion. It seems odd that Jesus would come to be baptized. Yet, all his life Jesus strove to live in the way of God, connecting us in relationship with God through his faithfulness. That connection was celebrated the night the girls were baptized. It was celebrated at the River Jordan. It is celebrated each time we remember.
Bonnie B.
Mainline Christian denominations in American are losing ground. A Gallup poll noted that church membership in America has dropped from 70% in 1937 to 50% of Americans in 2018. Meanwhile the religiously unaffiliated (the so-called Nones) are the fastest-growing segment of the American population. This Lesson testifies to the Servant (Christ) as the light of the world (vv.7-8), and so seems to be about how to remedy these dynamics – through evangelism.
Martin Luther nicely expresses why Christians should do evangelism:
To believe in Christ secretly in your heart and to praise Him in a private corner, is not true faith. You must confess openly with your lips before everyone what you believe in your heart. (Luther’s Works, Vol.52, p.277)
Famed Christian author C. S. Lewis makes a similar point:
The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.
In evangelism we are just shining the light of Christ. That changes others. Famed Anti-Apartheid leader in South Africa Nelson Mandela well expresses how our doing this can make a difference for others: “”And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” Evangelism is a nutshell: Shining the light of Christ is just being who we are and inviting others to be themselves.
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 42:1-9
It’s a new year. What have you planned or resolved for this year? Isaiah proclaims to the people that God’s servant has come to bring justice, to faithfully bring forth justice. Do any of your resolutions have to do with making the world a better place, a different place, a more just place?
Often our resolutions are about losing weight, about exercise, maybe even about saving money. Rarely do I talk to a person whose resolutions have to do with making the world a more just place. And yet, God’s call on us is this: “I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”
Perhaps the new thing Isaiah proclaims that God is doing is empowering us to make a difference — to walk into the world with righteousness, compassion, and God’s love. To follow this guidance would be a great way to live into the new year.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
John Wesley Work Jr. was a professor of Latin and history at Fisk College. Fisk College, which is now a university, is a historic black college located in Nashville, Tennessee. John’s wife, Agnes, was the music teacher for the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The group travelled throughout the North and the South, including England and Europe, singing Negro spirituals.
John is known as the first collector of African-American folk songs and spirituals. An endeavor that he shared with his wife Agnes. As blacks were illiterate, their songs were never written down. The songs passed from one generation to the next in the oral tradition. It is not known how John discovered the spiritual Go Tell It on the Mountain. When he did, he transferred the song to sheet music.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers, a ten-member touring ensemble, began to sing Go Tell It on the Mountain at their concerts. On October 6, 1871, they departed for an eighteen-month tour. To this day, October 6, is celebrated annually as Jubilee Day on the campus.
The song is about a lone slave standing in a cotton field. It was after the birth of Jesus. This anonymous slave imagined the emotions that the shepherds, standing in their field, and what they felt as a powerful light from heaven that shown upon them. Frightened by a power they could not understand, they were greeted by an angelic choir trumpeting the birth of a Savior. Having visited the manger an having seen the Messiah, the shepherds spread the message throughout the land.
Ron L.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
I ran across this humorous but pointed story. Two apples up in a tree were looking down on the world. The first apple said, "Look at all those people fighting, robbing, and rioting. No one seems willing to get along with his fellow man. Someday we apples will be the only ones left. Then we'll rule the world."
The second apple looked down on the people below and back up to his friend hanging on the tree. He cleared his throat and then asked, "Which of us — the reds or the greens?”
In our text Peter comes to understand that Gentiles have a place in God’s kingdom. “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (verses 34-35). It’s an important lesson then and now. Prejudice has no place in God’s kingdom and doesn’t belong in the heart of his people. Billy Graham once wrote, “Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death.” Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
Though it is common to speak of Paul as the Apostle to the Gentiles, it is Peter, responding clumsily to the vision granted him of the unclean animals followed by the invitation from Cornelius the Centurion, with no prior authorization from whatever apostolic authority that exists in Jerusalem, to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit among this household of Gentiles, and to baptize them. Later, when he seeks to justify his actions, he asserts in this passage that God shows no partiality, creates no boundaries, recognizes no limitations on grace and mercy.
Two things come to mind. First is the saying, “It's easier to ask for forgiveness than wait for permission.” Peter goes full speed ahead and argues about it later. No matter what the church leaders thought, in a way it was too late. The inclusion of Gentiles, of the nations, was a done deal! I’ve quoteed this saying on more than one occasion. I had always thought it had been created by the late Senator Mark Mansfield, but recently I’ve seen a couple pages on the internet that suggest it was first stated by US Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, a computer science pioneer who pushed boundaries when it came to expanding the role of women in the military as well as the use of computer code among service personnel. Sometimes we need to do God’s work, and patch things up later.
Also, I’ve been thinking about a book, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, by geneticist Adam Rutherford. Things like skin color, race, nationality, that we think are so important, are not significant factors at all when it comes to our genetic makeup. Of course God shows no partiality. There are no significant differences between us, despite our egregious sins of racism and nationalism.
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 3:13-17
What good is baptism? Martin Luther tells us it is the essence of Christian life:
Thus a Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism, begun once and continuing ever after. For we must keep at it without ceasing, always purging whatever pertains to the old Adam, so that whatever belong to the new creature may come forth. (Book of Concord [2000 ed.], p.465
To appreciate this point you need to think about baptism as a new birth, as being born again. What happens on the day of our birth is life-determining, not just in giving life, but we came out of the womb with certain genetic dispositions and potential skills. The natural athlete, the musically talented, the man or woman with good looks are born with those attributes. But with most genetic inheritances, it is a case of “use it or lose it.” You have to work with your athletic or musical skills and practice hard to do anything with them. In baptism we are reborn as people who are meant to deny ourselves for the sake of rising for God and our neighbors. Like the natural-born athlete and musician we will want to spend our lives doing what we love. In describing what happens to us as a result of baptism, Luther put it well:
In the first place you give yourself up to the Sacrament of Baptism and to what it signifies. That is, you desire to die, together with your sins, and to be made new at the last day... from that hour He [God] begins to make a new person. He pours into you His grace and Holy Spirit Who begins to slay nature and sin, and to prepare you for death and the resurrection at the Last Day. (Luther’s Works, Vol.35, p.33)
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 2:13-23
As an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ it has been my privilege to officiate at a variety of baptism services. Perhaps one of the most meaningful was for two young girls who stopped into the church I was serving. As I left a meeting, I could hear singing in the sanctuary. The two sisters were singing hymns in the front pew of the church. During our conversation, they asked if they could be baptized. We called their mother who agreed. We talked about what baptism would mean. The church members with whom I had been working gathered with the girls at the baptismal font and we celebrated their baptism.
Just as those whom John baptized, they had sought this sacrament of connection and inclusion. It seems odd that Jesus would come to be baptized. Yet, all his life Jesus strove to live in the way of God, connecting us in relationship with God through his faithfulness. That connection was celebrated the night the girls were baptized. It was celebrated at the River Jordan. It is celebrated each time we remember.
Bonnie B.
