Sermon Illustrations for Easter 5 (2025)
Illustration
Acts 11:1-18
Who do we exclude? In the days of the early church, everything was about purity, about the acts that made one a member of the Jewish community first and then a part of “the way” of Jesus. Imagine the horror among the crowds of the faithful when Peter traveled to the Gentiles, to those who did not believe in the one true God before Jesus came into the world. Yet, Peter is clear. He has had a vision and, in that vision, was declared, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” God ordains who is included, not people.
When Peter comes among the Gentiles, he experiences the Holy Spirit coming upon them – how can he question their welcome into God’s community if God’s Spirit has already welcomed them? We sometimes think we have a right to choose who is included and who is excluded, who is judged, who is saved, who is loved. Not so, my friends. God make those choices. If someone walks into the faith community, they are to be welcomed, nurtured and loved, for God has called them to that place – whether they know it or not. God has invited them. Who, therefore, are we to exclude?
Bonnie B.
* * *
Acts 11:1-18
With all the popularity of immigrant-bashing and closing our borders, Americans are not handling diversity very well. John Wesley saw this text as a witness to the fact that the church may never exclude anyone (Commentary On the Bible, p.481). John Calvin speaks of the wonderful goodness of God in connection with this text. He notes:
This is assuredly the wonderful goodness of God, who maketh men ministers of life, who have nothing by matter of death in themselves, and which are not only subject to death in themselves, but are also deadly to others. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVIII/2, p.460)
Medieval mystic Meister Eckhart elaborates nicely on this goodness. He observes that “Goodness is another name for compassion.” Calvin further elaborates on this point, making clear that our lesson is all about grace:
So it shall come to pass, that the hope and assurance of salvation shall rest upon the free mercy of God alone, and that the forgiveness of sin shall, notwithstanding, be no cause of sluggish security… For it is a work proper to God alone to fashion and to beget man again, that they may begin to be new creatures. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVIII/2, p.464)
Mark E.
* * *
Revelation 21:1-6
Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”(Revelation 21 5)
A few taps on the keyboard and we’ve written words. It happens so easily for us, and if we want to press the backspace key a few times those words are gone. Then with a quick tap the words can be launched out into the social media universe.
At the time the revelator lived, writing had a sense of permanence because of the effort involved. Inscriptions were hammer and chiseled in stone. Inks were made by hand. Parchment meant scraping, drying, and stretching animal skins, cleansing and cleaning them. Papyrus was manufactured painstakingly from the reeds gathered in the Nile, dried, and woven into the equivalent of paper. Scriptures, official documents, imperial proclamations, even personal letters, everything was carefully written out by hand. When the so-called dishonest steward of Luke 16 oversaw the rewriting of loan documents, their new values were the amount of money owed, regardless of the earlier agreements.
By contrast, how many of us would assume words are trustworthy and true simply because they are written down? But in scripture, they are!
Frank R.
* * *
Revelation 21:1-6
I read an account of a wounded veteran and his family getting a new home from the group Operation Finally Home. The article was published on March 2, 2022. Jonathan Stephenson and his family received a new home that was built to accommodate his injuries. Retired Marine Jonathan Stephenson was injured in Afghanistan by an IED in 2012. The home he, his wife Alexandria, and their three kids had before made it difficult for him to get around. The new home, however, was built to accommodate his injuries. The story on the web also had a video of the excited family visiting the new home. The kids squealed with glee, and Stephenson and his wife cried tears of joy.
Being in a new home is a thrilling experience. It is difficult to explain the joy. I can only imagine the joy and wonder that God’s people will experience being in his presence. Revelation 21 describes that new home. “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and be their God; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (vs. 3-4). Can you imagine a place where there is no more tears, sorrow, suffering, pain or death? Today we call it heaven. We look forward to the day when we call it home.
Bill T.
* * *
John 13:31-35
The film Pay It Forward, released in 2000, follows a seventh-grade boy who is given an assignment to develop a plan to make the world better. His plan is that when someone does something nice for you, pay it forward by doing something nice for three other people. The seventh grader, played by Haley Joel Osment, hopes to lead the world in becoming a better place.
Even though Pay It Forward is a sentimental movie that may hit hard on the emotions, at its core, it is a movie that powerfully depicts loving others and demonstrating it. It is not inherently Christian, but the importance of loving others is exactly what Jesus taught.
Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (vs. 34-35). We have the opportunity to show others the love of Jesus Christ nearly every day. Will the world know that you love Jesus by how you demonstrate love to others?
Bill T.
* * *
John 13:31-35
There was a time before we could create our own playlists and listen only to music we liked. Back then we were prisoners of local radio stations. Sometimes a popular song like “Hey Jude” would be played over and over again and that was pretty cool. Other times you were stuck with something annoyingly and diabetically inducingly sweet like “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” Make it stop!
I’ve noticed there are times in the lectionary where you’re going to get selections from the same chapters two or three times in quick succession and you have to hope it’s one you like and can work with.
Some Christmas and Epiphany seasons you get almost exactly the same verses from the first chapter of Mark three times within a short period of time. This year get this same passage from the last discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John, which is pretty foundational, both on Maundy Thursday, as the capstone to the reading about feet washing, and the nature of servanthood, and here during the Easter season. The grittiest, even the most nauseating of tasks, given to the lowest of the low, is the way Jesus defines love. And in this repeat – “Hey, I know this song!” – in the same liturgical season, it is revisited, and should remind us that not only is that oldie but goodie worth resurrecting, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love,” but we also need reminding about the tough things we do for love. Sometimes I am suspicious of the type of preaching where one projects single verses out of context to “prove” that a non-biblical thingy is really biblical, but since Jesus is insisting that the way they’ll know we are believers has nothing to do with a creedal statement, liturgical choices, or our favorite pew, but with love, it might not hurt to draw in lines from 1 Corinthians 13 to remind us what love (agape) is and most emphatically what love is not, Psalm 33:5, “…the earth is full of the steadfast love (chesed) of the Lord,” and “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13). After all, to quote from the top forty back in the old days again, “All You Need is Love.”
Frank R.
* * *
John 13:31-35
Jesus gives a new commandment - to love one another. Oh, how I wish simply saying it would make it so. As a follower of Jesus, I seek to love, I try to love, and yet, I often fail at love. I’m pretty good at loving family and friends. I love my dog. I even love some of the pastors and congregations I support and work with. You’ll note that I said some. I struggle with love sometimes. Do you? I have a hard time loving those who are angry and hateful, those who seem toxic in their behaviors. I have a hard time loving the folks who believe the exact opposite I do politically and economically, those who don’t see injustice the same way I do.
And yet, Jesus didn’t say love those who agree with you, who are related to you, who are nice to you. Jesus said, “Love one another.” There was no category, no exclusion. There is only the command to love one another. We human beings sometimes struggle with love as a feeling, a feeling we choose to have. Yet, Jesus commands love. Love is not a choice. Love is a commandment. So, I will try. I will pray for the strength I need to love one another – to love all those created by God. I cannot do it alone – but God willing, Jesus and the Holy Spirit will lead and strengthen me in this goal.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 13:31-35
American life is infected by the malady of self-promotion and the belief that we are all on an equal playing field so that everyone must succeed on their own. What Christopher Lasch once said about modern American life is still true today:
Today men seek the kind of approval that applauds not their actions but their personal attributes. They wish to be not so much esteemed as admired. They crave not fame but the glamour and excitement of celebrity. They want to be envied rather than respected. (The Culture of Narcissism, pp.116-117)
Is this your ticket to the presidency in some recent elections?
In response to our times, Jesus offers the new commandment (vv.34-35). Concerning this commandment, Martin Luther observes:
Truly, if faith is there he [the Christian] cannot hold back; he proves himself, breaks out into good works… Everything that he lives and does is directed to his neighbor’s profit, in order to help him – not only in the attainment of his grace, but also in body, property, and honor. (Luther’s Works, Vol.35, p.361)
We cannot help but serve our neighbor. Elsewhere, the first reformer speaks of the gospel intoxicating us to good:
Since these promises of God are holy, true, righteous, free, and peaceful words, full of goodness, the soul that clings to them with a firm faith will be so closely united with them and altogether absorbed by them that he not only will share in all their power but will be saturated and intoxicated by them. (Luther’s Works, Vol.31, p.349)
Mark E.
Who do we exclude? In the days of the early church, everything was about purity, about the acts that made one a member of the Jewish community first and then a part of “the way” of Jesus. Imagine the horror among the crowds of the faithful when Peter traveled to the Gentiles, to those who did not believe in the one true God before Jesus came into the world. Yet, Peter is clear. He has had a vision and, in that vision, was declared, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” God ordains who is included, not people.
When Peter comes among the Gentiles, he experiences the Holy Spirit coming upon them – how can he question their welcome into God’s community if God’s Spirit has already welcomed them? We sometimes think we have a right to choose who is included and who is excluded, who is judged, who is saved, who is loved. Not so, my friends. God make those choices. If someone walks into the faith community, they are to be welcomed, nurtured and loved, for God has called them to that place – whether they know it or not. God has invited them. Who, therefore, are we to exclude?
Bonnie B.
* * *
Acts 11:1-18
With all the popularity of immigrant-bashing and closing our borders, Americans are not handling diversity very well. John Wesley saw this text as a witness to the fact that the church may never exclude anyone (Commentary On the Bible, p.481). John Calvin speaks of the wonderful goodness of God in connection with this text. He notes:
This is assuredly the wonderful goodness of God, who maketh men ministers of life, who have nothing by matter of death in themselves, and which are not only subject to death in themselves, but are also deadly to others. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVIII/2, p.460)
Medieval mystic Meister Eckhart elaborates nicely on this goodness. He observes that “Goodness is another name for compassion.” Calvin further elaborates on this point, making clear that our lesson is all about grace:
So it shall come to pass, that the hope and assurance of salvation shall rest upon the free mercy of God alone, and that the forgiveness of sin shall, notwithstanding, be no cause of sluggish security… For it is a work proper to God alone to fashion and to beget man again, that they may begin to be new creatures. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVIII/2, p.464)
Mark E.
* * *
Revelation 21:1-6
Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”(Revelation 21 5)
A few taps on the keyboard and we’ve written words. It happens so easily for us, and if we want to press the backspace key a few times those words are gone. Then with a quick tap the words can be launched out into the social media universe.
At the time the revelator lived, writing had a sense of permanence because of the effort involved. Inscriptions were hammer and chiseled in stone. Inks were made by hand. Parchment meant scraping, drying, and stretching animal skins, cleansing and cleaning them. Papyrus was manufactured painstakingly from the reeds gathered in the Nile, dried, and woven into the equivalent of paper. Scriptures, official documents, imperial proclamations, even personal letters, everything was carefully written out by hand. When the so-called dishonest steward of Luke 16 oversaw the rewriting of loan documents, their new values were the amount of money owed, regardless of the earlier agreements.
By contrast, how many of us would assume words are trustworthy and true simply because they are written down? But in scripture, they are!
Frank R.
* * *
Revelation 21:1-6
I read an account of a wounded veteran and his family getting a new home from the group Operation Finally Home. The article was published on March 2, 2022. Jonathan Stephenson and his family received a new home that was built to accommodate his injuries. Retired Marine Jonathan Stephenson was injured in Afghanistan by an IED in 2012. The home he, his wife Alexandria, and their three kids had before made it difficult for him to get around. The new home, however, was built to accommodate his injuries. The story on the web also had a video of the excited family visiting the new home. The kids squealed with glee, and Stephenson and his wife cried tears of joy.
Being in a new home is a thrilling experience. It is difficult to explain the joy. I can only imagine the joy and wonder that God’s people will experience being in his presence. Revelation 21 describes that new home. “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and be their God; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (vs. 3-4). Can you imagine a place where there is no more tears, sorrow, suffering, pain or death? Today we call it heaven. We look forward to the day when we call it home.
Bill T.
* * *
John 13:31-35
The film Pay It Forward, released in 2000, follows a seventh-grade boy who is given an assignment to develop a plan to make the world better. His plan is that when someone does something nice for you, pay it forward by doing something nice for three other people. The seventh grader, played by Haley Joel Osment, hopes to lead the world in becoming a better place.
Even though Pay It Forward is a sentimental movie that may hit hard on the emotions, at its core, it is a movie that powerfully depicts loving others and demonstrating it. It is not inherently Christian, but the importance of loving others is exactly what Jesus taught.
Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (vs. 34-35). We have the opportunity to show others the love of Jesus Christ nearly every day. Will the world know that you love Jesus by how you demonstrate love to others?
Bill T.
* * *
John 13:31-35
There was a time before we could create our own playlists and listen only to music we liked. Back then we were prisoners of local radio stations. Sometimes a popular song like “Hey Jude” would be played over and over again and that was pretty cool. Other times you were stuck with something annoyingly and diabetically inducingly sweet like “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” Make it stop!
I’ve noticed there are times in the lectionary where you’re going to get selections from the same chapters two or three times in quick succession and you have to hope it’s one you like and can work with.
Some Christmas and Epiphany seasons you get almost exactly the same verses from the first chapter of Mark three times within a short period of time. This year get this same passage from the last discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John, which is pretty foundational, both on Maundy Thursday, as the capstone to the reading about feet washing, and the nature of servanthood, and here during the Easter season. The grittiest, even the most nauseating of tasks, given to the lowest of the low, is the way Jesus defines love. And in this repeat – “Hey, I know this song!” – in the same liturgical season, it is revisited, and should remind us that not only is that oldie but goodie worth resurrecting, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love,” but we also need reminding about the tough things we do for love. Sometimes I am suspicious of the type of preaching where one projects single verses out of context to “prove” that a non-biblical thingy is really biblical, but since Jesus is insisting that the way they’ll know we are believers has nothing to do with a creedal statement, liturgical choices, or our favorite pew, but with love, it might not hurt to draw in lines from 1 Corinthians 13 to remind us what love (agape) is and most emphatically what love is not, Psalm 33:5, “…the earth is full of the steadfast love (chesed) of the Lord,” and “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13). After all, to quote from the top forty back in the old days again, “All You Need is Love.”
Frank R.
* * *
John 13:31-35
Jesus gives a new commandment - to love one another. Oh, how I wish simply saying it would make it so. As a follower of Jesus, I seek to love, I try to love, and yet, I often fail at love. I’m pretty good at loving family and friends. I love my dog. I even love some of the pastors and congregations I support and work with. You’ll note that I said some. I struggle with love sometimes. Do you? I have a hard time loving those who are angry and hateful, those who seem toxic in their behaviors. I have a hard time loving the folks who believe the exact opposite I do politically and economically, those who don’t see injustice the same way I do.
And yet, Jesus didn’t say love those who agree with you, who are related to you, who are nice to you. Jesus said, “Love one another.” There was no category, no exclusion. There is only the command to love one another. We human beings sometimes struggle with love as a feeling, a feeling we choose to have. Yet, Jesus commands love. Love is not a choice. Love is a commandment. So, I will try. I will pray for the strength I need to love one another – to love all those created by God. I cannot do it alone – but God willing, Jesus and the Holy Spirit will lead and strengthen me in this goal.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 13:31-35
American life is infected by the malady of self-promotion and the belief that we are all on an equal playing field so that everyone must succeed on their own. What Christopher Lasch once said about modern American life is still true today:
Today men seek the kind of approval that applauds not their actions but their personal attributes. They wish to be not so much esteemed as admired. They crave not fame but the glamour and excitement of celebrity. They want to be envied rather than respected. (The Culture of Narcissism, pp.116-117)
Is this your ticket to the presidency in some recent elections?
In response to our times, Jesus offers the new commandment (vv.34-35). Concerning this commandment, Martin Luther observes:
Truly, if faith is there he [the Christian] cannot hold back; he proves himself, breaks out into good works… Everything that he lives and does is directed to his neighbor’s profit, in order to help him – not only in the attainment of his grace, but also in body, property, and honor. (Luther’s Works, Vol.35, p.361)
We cannot help but serve our neighbor. Elsewhere, the first reformer speaks of the gospel intoxicating us to good:
Since these promises of God are holy, true, righteous, free, and peaceful words, full of goodness, the soul that clings to them with a firm faith will be so closely united with them and altogether absorbed by them that he not only will share in all their power but will be saturated and intoxicated by them. (Luther’s Works, Vol.31, p.349)
Mark E.
