Sermon Illustrations for Christmas 2 (2021)
Illustration
Jeremiah 31:7-14
In 1975, William de Rijk, an unemployed schoolteacher, cut dozens of zigzag lines in Rembrandt’s famous painting “Night Watch.” Rijk slashed the painting with a knife before he was wrestled by the guards. The day before, de Rijk had been turned away from the museum because he arrived after closing time. After the event, he was identified with a mental disorder; he was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
The painting, however, was not removed but restored, publicly in six months. The painting was too much a treasure to not restore it.
In 1986, a man "wishing to take revenge on abstract art" cut with a knife the painting “Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III” by Barnett Newman. The restoration took five years and cost over four hundred thousand dollars. Again, the masterpiece was deemed too valuable not to restore.
Some things, it seems, are too precious to not be restored if they are damaged. It’s true of paintings, statues and, according to this text, people.
This passage celebrates God’s restoration of his people. “For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord” (verses 11-12). The restoration of lost or damaged things is a source of joy. The restoration of lost or damaged people is a cause for celebration. God has redeemed and restored his broken, lost people. Share and celebrate the news.
Bill T.
* * *
Jeremiah 31:7-14
It’s worth noting in the midst of all the joyful dancing and music making in this passage, in the midst of all the celebration and homecoming, that they come with weeping (31:9). To me this is a reminder that though we preach a gospel of joy, people with PTSD, those with depression, and chronic pain, are still suffering, even as we celebrate all around them. They may wear a smile for our benefit, but their pain is real and must be acknowledged.
Frank R.
* * *
Ephesians 1:3-14
This reading is a reminder that God has had eternal plans for the universe, to gather all things together in him. Christ is in everything, and everything is in him. Modern Roman Catholic theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin well expressed this heavenly, mystical vision:
You Who are Yourself the ... fullness of created being Lord Jesus, are also the ... fullness of my own personal being, and of all living creatures who accept Your dominion. In You and in You alone... our powers can launch forth into activity and... can plunge into love and into wild abandon of love with the certainty of finding in your depths... no shallows of pettiness, no current of perverted truth. (Hymn of the Universe, p.146)
God coming into the universe in Christ means that all of us are caught up in Christ and his love. Medieval mystic Meister Eckhart offered some similar sentiments:
In this Word the Creator speaks my spirit, your spirit, and the spirit of every person who resembles the Word. And in this utterance you and I are true sons and daughters of God, as the Word itself is child of the Creator.
Note that there is no reference in the lesson to God excluding some, predestining some to unfaith and hell. English Puritan Anthony Burgess nicely explained what to make of the text’s silence about damnation: “For no man is damned precisely because God hath not chosen him, because he is not elected, but because he is a sinner, and doth willfully refuse the means of grace offered.” (A Puritan Golden Treasury, p.88)
Mark E.
* * *
Ephesians 1:3-14
There is a cliche about counting your blessings instead of sheep when you cannot fall asleep. How many of us do that? I wonder. My usual remedy for sleeplessness is to try reading, or to count backwards from 300. Perhaps counting my blessings would be more beneficial? There are many: family, friends, work I love, the earth on which I walk, the home in which I live…many, many blessings. I have so very many blessings. Paul reminds the church in Ephesus that the first blessing from God is the Christ, the one who came, lived, died, and rose again to save us, to reconnect us across time and space with our Creator. Through Jesus we are once more united with God, inheritors of all God has to offer. Oh, that truly is a blessing! Maybe the next time I cannot sleep, I will simply dwell on this blessing and rest in the peaceful arms of God.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 1:(1-9) 10-18
John Ortberg, in his book, God is Closer Than You Think, writes about Father Damian. It’s a powerful story.
Father Damien was a priest who became famous for his willingness to serve lepers. He moved to Kalawao, a village on the island of Molokai in Hawaii that had been quarantined to serve as a leper colony. For sixteen years he lived in their midst. He learned to speak their language. He bandaged their wounds, embraced the bodies no one else would touch, preached to hearts that would otherwise have been left alone. He organized schools, bands, and choirs. He built homes so that the lepers could have shelter. He built two thousand coffins by hand so that when they died, they could be buried with dignity. Slowly, it was said, Kalawao became a place to live rather than a place to die, for Father Damien offered hope.
Father Damien was not careful about keeping his distance. He did nothing to separate himself from his people. He dipped his fingers in the poi bowl along with the patients. He shared his pipe. He did not always wash his hands after bandaging open sores. He got close. For this the people loved him.
Then one day he stood up and began his sermon with two words: “We lepers. …”
Now he wasn’t just helping them. Now he was one of them. From this day forward he wasn’t just on their island; he was in their skin. First he had chosen to live as they lived; now he would die as they died. Now they were in it together.
I love that story and am moved by it. What an incredible thing for Father Damian to do! It humbles me. Then, as I read the words of the first chapter of John, I am even more humbled. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). Jesus took on himself human flesh and lived as we live and died so that we wouldn’t have to. Incredible. Amazing. Love.
Bill T.
In 1975, William de Rijk, an unemployed schoolteacher, cut dozens of zigzag lines in Rembrandt’s famous painting “Night Watch.” Rijk slashed the painting with a knife before he was wrestled by the guards. The day before, de Rijk had been turned away from the museum because he arrived after closing time. After the event, he was identified with a mental disorder; he was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
The painting, however, was not removed but restored, publicly in six months. The painting was too much a treasure to not restore it.
In 1986, a man "wishing to take revenge on abstract art" cut with a knife the painting “Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III” by Barnett Newman. The restoration took five years and cost over four hundred thousand dollars. Again, the masterpiece was deemed too valuable not to restore.
Some things, it seems, are too precious to not be restored if they are damaged. It’s true of paintings, statues and, according to this text, people.
This passage celebrates God’s restoration of his people. “For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord” (verses 11-12). The restoration of lost or damaged things is a source of joy. The restoration of lost or damaged people is a cause for celebration. God has redeemed and restored his broken, lost people. Share and celebrate the news.
Bill T.
* * *
Jeremiah 31:7-14
It’s worth noting in the midst of all the joyful dancing and music making in this passage, in the midst of all the celebration and homecoming, that they come with weeping (31:9). To me this is a reminder that though we preach a gospel of joy, people with PTSD, those with depression, and chronic pain, are still suffering, even as we celebrate all around them. They may wear a smile for our benefit, but their pain is real and must be acknowledged.
Frank R.
* * *
Ephesians 1:3-14
This reading is a reminder that God has had eternal plans for the universe, to gather all things together in him. Christ is in everything, and everything is in him. Modern Roman Catholic theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin well expressed this heavenly, mystical vision:
You Who are Yourself the ... fullness of created being Lord Jesus, are also the ... fullness of my own personal being, and of all living creatures who accept Your dominion. In You and in You alone... our powers can launch forth into activity and... can plunge into love and into wild abandon of love with the certainty of finding in your depths... no shallows of pettiness, no current of perverted truth. (Hymn of the Universe, p.146)
God coming into the universe in Christ means that all of us are caught up in Christ and his love. Medieval mystic Meister Eckhart offered some similar sentiments:
In this Word the Creator speaks my spirit, your spirit, and the spirit of every person who resembles the Word. And in this utterance you and I are true sons and daughters of God, as the Word itself is child of the Creator.
Note that there is no reference in the lesson to God excluding some, predestining some to unfaith and hell. English Puritan Anthony Burgess nicely explained what to make of the text’s silence about damnation: “For no man is damned precisely because God hath not chosen him, because he is not elected, but because he is a sinner, and doth willfully refuse the means of grace offered.” (A Puritan Golden Treasury, p.88)
Mark E.
* * *
Ephesians 1:3-14
There is a cliche about counting your blessings instead of sheep when you cannot fall asleep. How many of us do that? I wonder. My usual remedy for sleeplessness is to try reading, or to count backwards from 300. Perhaps counting my blessings would be more beneficial? There are many: family, friends, work I love, the earth on which I walk, the home in which I live…many, many blessings. I have so very many blessings. Paul reminds the church in Ephesus that the first blessing from God is the Christ, the one who came, lived, died, and rose again to save us, to reconnect us across time and space with our Creator. Through Jesus we are once more united with God, inheritors of all God has to offer. Oh, that truly is a blessing! Maybe the next time I cannot sleep, I will simply dwell on this blessing and rest in the peaceful arms of God.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 1:(1-9) 10-18
John Ortberg, in his book, God is Closer Than You Think, writes about Father Damian. It’s a powerful story.
Father Damien was a priest who became famous for his willingness to serve lepers. He moved to Kalawao, a village on the island of Molokai in Hawaii that had been quarantined to serve as a leper colony. For sixteen years he lived in their midst. He learned to speak their language. He bandaged their wounds, embraced the bodies no one else would touch, preached to hearts that would otherwise have been left alone. He organized schools, bands, and choirs. He built homes so that the lepers could have shelter. He built two thousand coffins by hand so that when they died, they could be buried with dignity. Slowly, it was said, Kalawao became a place to live rather than a place to die, for Father Damien offered hope.
Father Damien was not careful about keeping his distance. He did nothing to separate himself from his people. He dipped his fingers in the poi bowl along with the patients. He shared his pipe. He did not always wash his hands after bandaging open sores. He got close. For this the people loved him.
Then one day he stood up and began his sermon with two words: “We lepers. …”
Now he wasn’t just helping them. Now he was one of them. From this day forward he wasn’t just on their island; he was in their skin. First he had chosen to live as they lived; now he would die as they died. Now they were in it together.
I love that story and am moved by it. What an incredible thing for Father Damian to do! It humbles me. Then, as I read the words of the first chapter of John, I am even more humbled. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). Jesus took on himself human flesh and lived as we live and died so that we wouldn’t have to. Incredible. Amazing. Love.
Bill T.
