Sermon Illustrations for Christmas 2 (2022)
Illustration
Jeremiah 31:7-14
In line with this lesson, Rick Warren has claimed that God is lover and liberator. As redeemer, he sets us free. Famed 19th-century English Baptist Charles Spurgeon winsomely explains how God redeems us:
Oh, the stoop of the redeemer’s amazing love! Let us henceforth, contend how low we can go side by side with him, but remember when we have gone to the lowest he descends lower still, so that we can truly feel that the lowest place is too high for us, because he has gone lower still.
There is a promise in the lesson that God will redeem/free the faithful (v.11). About such freedom, Latin American liberation theologian Rubem Alves writes:
Man is then made free to be like a child who accepts today in a total liberation from anxiety about tomorrow. Man is free for the simple things of life, things that will not make headlines or change the world. Free to chat, to drink and eat, to remain inactive in pure contemplation, to enjoy the sex game, to play... It is really a good gift to be accepted and enjoyed with thanksgiving. (A Theology of Human Hope, p.157)
Mark E.
* * *
Sirach 24:1-12
Martin Luther understood v.8 of the lesson to entail that by the common mode of speaking, the land is here taken literally. It was blessed and glorified by Christ’s advent and birth...” (Luther’s Works, Vol.11, p.154) This is a lesson to help us celebrate how blessed we and the earth are by the fact that Christ/wisdom has been present in it. The lesson praises Lady Wisdom. Thomas Aquinas says that “wisdom is about good things better than men, things necessary and divine.” (Philosophical Texts, p.363) This is why wisdom is often associated with Christ, and perhaps should be in this lesson.
Martin Luther offered some thoughtful insights about wisdom:
For experienced men have declared that matters can be settled better by wisdom and judgment than by force of might and weapons. If we want to be wise, we must become fools and let God’s Word be the eternal truth. (What Luther Says, pp.1454,1455)
In line with the lesson’s identification with wisdom (and so presumably Christ) as female, the first reformer compared Christ to a mother hen, who like the hen changes her voice as the chicks have need (Complete Sermons, Vol.1/1, p.234).
Mark E.
* * *
Ephesians 1:3-14
As we begin the new year, it’s important to be reminded of just who we are and how blessed that makes us. In this text, Paul reminds the Christians of Ephesus and the surrounding area that they are “destined for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.” (vs. 5) What a wonderful reminder for them and for us.
We, too, are adopted into God’s family through Jesus. As his children, we are heirs to so many wonderful things. Being adopted matters. I came across a wonderful story from Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ by R. Kent Hughes.
A young mother wrote: “I stayed with my parents for several days after the birth of our first child. One afternoon, I remarked to my mother that it was surprising our baby had dark hair, since both my husband and I are fair. “She said, ‘Well, your daddy has black hair.’ “But, Mama, that doesn’t matter because I’m adopted." "With an embarrassed smile, she said the most wonderful words I’ve ever heard: ‘I always forget!” We are children of God and heirs of a glorious inheritance. God does not consider us as anything but his own.
Bill T.
* * *
Ephesians 1:3-14
In Ephesian 1:13 the apostle reminds the believers that they were “marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.” I’m interested in the Greek word spragidzo, which is translated “marked” or “sealed.” We’re familiar with the idea of pressing a seal into wax, serving as a signature of authenticity. But in papyrus letters involving commerce, there are examples of this verb that suggest it also involved sealing a sample of an upcoming shipment of grain or fruit, almost like a down payment. The shipment is not fully delivered, but here’s a guarantee that more is on the way. When we are marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, there’s a sense in which this is only the down payment, the keys to ownership. When we are fully transformed by the Holy Spirit, when we become a new creation, then heavenly delivery will have taken place. Until then this sample of who we are becoming in Christ will have to do.
Frank R.
* * *
John 1:(1-9) 10-18
Preaching on this lesson, Augustine offers thoughtful reflections on what Christ does for us:
Therefore my brethren, I would desire to have impressed this upon your hearts; if you wish to live in a pious and Christian manner, cling to Christ according to that which he became for us, that you may arrive at him according to which is... he approached, that for us he might become this; because he became for us, on which the weak may be borne and cross the sea of this world and reach their native country; where there will be no need of a ship, for no sea is crossed. (Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.7, p.14)
He elaborates further on how Christ’s being born a human being elevates humanity:
Marvel not, then, O man, that thou art made a son by grace, that thou art born of God according to his word. The word himself first chose to be born of man, that thou mightiest be born of God unto salvation, , and say to thyself, Not without reason did God wish to be born of man, but because he counted me of some importance, that he might make me immortal, and for me be born as a mortal man. (Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.7, p.18)
The African Father’s devoted theological heir Martin Luther offered reflections on what this text and its message might mean as we go through trails and temptations:
We must treasure this text and take comfort from it in hours of temptation. Whoever lays hold of it in faith is lifted out of his distress, for he is a child of eternal bliss. (Luther’s Works, Vol.22, p.115)
Mark E.
In line with this lesson, Rick Warren has claimed that God is lover and liberator. As redeemer, he sets us free. Famed 19th-century English Baptist Charles Spurgeon winsomely explains how God redeems us:
Oh, the stoop of the redeemer’s amazing love! Let us henceforth, contend how low we can go side by side with him, but remember when we have gone to the lowest he descends lower still, so that we can truly feel that the lowest place is too high for us, because he has gone lower still.
There is a promise in the lesson that God will redeem/free the faithful (v.11). About such freedom, Latin American liberation theologian Rubem Alves writes:
Man is then made free to be like a child who accepts today in a total liberation from anxiety about tomorrow. Man is free for the simple things of life, things that will not make headlines or change the world. Free to chat, to drink and eat, to remain inactive in pure contemplation, to enjoy the sex game, to play... It is really a good gift to be accepted and enjoyed with thanksgiving. (A Theology of Human Hope, p.157)
Mark E.
* * *
Sirach 24:1-12
Martin Luther understood v.8 of the lesson to entail that by the common mode of speaking, the land is here taken literally. It was blessed and glorified by Christ’s advent and birth...” (Luther’s Works, Vol.11, p.154) This is a lesson to help us celebrate how blessed we and the earth are by the fact that Christ/wisdom has been present in it. The lesson praises Lady Wisdom. Thomas Aquinas says that “wisdom is about good things better than men, things necessary and divine.” (Philosophical Texts, p.363) This is why wisdom is often associated with Christ, and perhaps should be in this lesson.
Martin Luther offered some thoughtful insights about wisdom:
For experienced men have declared that matters can be settled better by wisdom and judgment than by force of might and weapons. If we want to be wise, we must become fools and let God’s Word be the eternal truth. (What Luther Says, pp.1454,1455)
In line with the lesson’s identification with wisdom (and so presumably Christ) as female, the first reformer compared Christ to a mother hen, who like the hen changes her voice as the chicks have need (Complete Sermons, Vol.1/1, p.234).
Mark E.
* * *
Ephesians 1:3-14
As we begin the new year, it’s important to be reminded of just who we are and how blessed that makes us. In this text, Paul reminds the Christians of Ephesus and the surrounding area that they are “destined for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.” (vs. 5) What a wonderful reminder for them and for us.
We, too, are adopted into God’s family through Jesus. As his children, we are heirs to so many wonderful things. Being adopted matters. I came across a wonderful story from Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ by R. Kent Hughes.
A young mother wrote: “I stayed with my parents for several days after the birth of our first child. One afternoon, I remarked to my mother that it was surprising our baby had dark hair, since both my husband and I are fair. “She said, ‘Well, your daddy has black hair.’ “But, Mama, that doesn’t matter because I’m adopted." "With an embarrassed smile, she said the most wonderful words I’ve ever heard: ‘I always forget!” We are children of God and heirs of a glorious inheritance. God does not consider us as anything but his own.
Bill T.
* * *
Ephesians 1:3-14
In Ephesian 1:13 the apostle reminds the believers that they were “marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.” I’m interested in the Greek word spragidzo, which is translated “marked” or “sealed.” We’re familiar with the idea of pressing a seal into wax, serving as a signature of authenticity. But in papyrus letters involving commerce, there are examples of this verb that suggest it also involved sealing a sample of an upcoming shipment of grain or fruit, almost like a down payment. The shipment is not fully delivered, but here’s a guarantee that more is on the way. When we are marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, there’s a sense in which this is only the down payment, the keys to ownership. When we are fully transformed by the Holy Spirit, when we become a new creation, then heavenly delivery will have taken place. Until then this sample of who we are becoming in Christ will have to do.
Frank R.
* * *
John 1:(1-9) 10-18
Preaching on this lesson, Augustine offers thoughtful reflections on what Christ does for us:
Therefore my brethren, I would desire to have impressed this upon your hearts; if you wish to live in a pious and Christian manner, cling to Christ according to that which he became for us, that you may arrive at him according to which is... he approached, that for us he might become this; because he became for us, on which the weak may be borne and cross the sea of this world and reach their native country; where there will be no need of a ship, for no sea is crossed. (Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.7, p.14)
He elaborates further on how Christ’s being born a human being elevates humanity:
Marvel not, then, O man, that thou art made a son by grace, that thou art born of God according to his word. The word himself first chose to be born of man, that thou mightiest be born of God unto salvation, , and say to thyself, Not without reason did God wish to be born of man, but because he counted me of some importance, that he might make me immortal, and for me be born as a mortal man. (Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.7, p.18)
The African Father’s devoted theological heir Martin Luther offered reflections on what this text and its message might mean as we go through trails and temptations:
We must treasure this text and take comfort from it in hours of temptation. Whoever lays hold of it in faith is lifted out of his distress, for he is a child of eternal bliss. (Luther’s Works, Vol.22, p.115)
Mark E.
