Sermon Illustrations for Easter 6 (2022)
Illustration
Acts 16:9-15
Famed modern theologian Karl Barth notes that like the Gentile encountered in Macedonia, the lives of all human beings are in the hands of God:
Whether they aware of it or not, their whole being and striving and existence utters the cry of the Macedonian... To be sure, they do not realize that they await and need what the community of Jesus Christ can do and is called to do for them if God acknowledges its activity... and this is true of every man, since none can evade what God is and had done for him. (Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/3 Second Half, p.778)
Faith is not our own, according to Martin Luther. It is the Spirit who makes us cling to God’s Word. The reformer writes:
... the Holy Spirit, the real teacher, comes and gives power to the word so that it takes hold. (Weimar Ausgabe, Vol.17II, p. 460 [translation mine])
In another context he notes:
As a hen broods her eggs, keeping them warm in order to hatch her chicks, and, as it were, to bring them to life through her, so scripture says that the Holy Spirit brooded, as it were, on the waters to bring life to those substances which were quickened and adorned. For it is the office of the Holy Spirit to make alive. (Luther’s Works, Vol.1, p.9)
Mark E.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5
I came across this anecdote while reading some of Michael Shannon’s writing for Preaching.com. Cyrus Teed was a Chicago physician who founded Koreshan Unity, a communal colony at Estero, near Ft. Myers, Florida in 1894. At that time, members gave up all worldly possessions and practiced celibacy. Teed believed the earth was round, but he believed we were on the inside of it, not the outside. He planned a city of ten million, that he called “New Jerusalem.” Today, no one is left. A few buildings and artifacts remain, but no one lives in what Teed called New Jerusalem.
Clearly, Teed’s “New Jerusalem,” was nothing like what the real “New Jerusalem” will be. Can there be any more inspiring, encouraging words than, “But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants[g] will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever?” That’s the “New Jerusalem” we await.
Bill T.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5
People often talk about getting back to the garden, meaning the Garden of Eden, as a way of getting back to the beginning, but in this passage we are really getting back to the real beginning. In Genesis 1, God brings order to the universe. We don’t actually see God create the waters and the earth. They are already there, in chaotic form. The Hebrew word bara’, usually translated “create,” really means “to bring order.” The first thing God does is create light. God does not create the sun and moon until later. The reason for that is in most ancient religions the sun and the moon are gods, each ruling over the realms of day and night. By creating light, and in the process day, independent of other gods, God is depicted as the supreme only God. Now in Revelation, when John looks down from the high mountain and sees the New Jerusalem, he reports “…the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (21:23) We are looking beyond sun, moon, and stars, to the source of light, order, and creation. I like the fact that if the glory of God is the light, “…its lamp is the lamb.” Speaking of Genesis, the first chapter of John corresponds to the first chapter of Genesis — “In the beginning….” And the word, who will be revealed as Jesus, the Lamb of God, is present from the beginning, is a collaborator in creation, and is the light of the world.
Frank R.
* * *
John 14:23-29
John Calvin noted how difficult it is to do the kind of loving which Jesus calls us to do in this lesson. As the Genevan Reformer put it, “we are altogether alienated from God, and that we are infected and filled with hatred of him, until he changes our hearts.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XVIII/1, p. 98)Martin Luther said much the same thing (regarding our dependence on God in Christ in order to do good works.
Everything depends, you see, on our being attached to Christ; there’s no other way. (Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 181)
Luther proceeded further in another sermon to comment on the role of the Holy Spirit in faith and its abolition of works demanded by the law:
Thus, all human works and laws vanish, yea even the law of Moses; for such a being [the Holy Spirit] is superior to all law... We must not confine faith to ourselves but must let it break forth in action. (Complete Sermons, Vol. 2/1, p. 280)
Thus, we owe everything to God, John Calvin contends:
... It is noticeable that yet he [the writer of Psalm 67] traces all the blessings they received to God’s free favour; and from this we may learn, that so long as we are here, we owe our happiness, our success, and prosperity, entirely to the same cause. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. V/2, p.2)
Mark E.
Famed modern theologian Karl Barth notes that like the Gentile encountered in Macedonia, the lives of all human beings are in the hands of God:
Whether they aware of it or not, their whole being and striving and existence utters the cry of the Macedonian... To be sure, they do not realize that they await and need what the community of Jesus Christ can do and is called to do for them if God acknowledges its activity... and this is true of every man, since none can evade what God is and had done for him. (Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/3 Second Half, p.778)
Faith is not our own, according to Martin Luther. It is the Spirit who makes us cling to God’s Word. The reformer writes:
... the Holy Spirit, the real teacher, comes and gives power to the word so that it takes hold. (Weimar Ausgabe, Vol.17II, p. 460 [translation mine])
In another context he notes:
As a hen broods her eggs, keeping them warm in order to hatch her chicks, and, as it were, to bring them to life through her, so scripture says that the Holy Spirit brooded, as it were, on the waters to bring life to those substances which were quickened and adorned. For it is the office of the Holy Spirit to make alive. (Luther’s Works, Vol.1, p.9)
Mark E.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5
I came across this anecdote while reading some of Michael Shannon’s writing for Preaching.com. Cyrus Teed was a Chicago physician who founded Koreshan Unity, a communal colony at Estero, near Ft. Myers, Florida in 1894. At that time, members gave up all worldly possessions and practiced celibacy. Teed believed the earth was round, but he believed we were on the inside of it, not the outside. He planned a city of ten million, that he called “New Jerusalem.” Today, no one is left. A few buildings and artifacts remain, but no one lives in what Teed called New Jerusalem.
Clearly, Teed’s “New Jerusalem,” was nothing like what the real “New Jerusalem” will be. Can there be any more inspiring, encouraging words than, “But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants[g] will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever?” That’s the “New Jerusalem” we await.
Bill T.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5
People often talk about getting back to the garden, meaning the Garden of Eden, as a way of getting back to the beginning, but in this passage we are really getting back to the real beginning. In Genesis 1, God brings order to the universe. We don’t actually see God create the waters and the earth. They are already there, in chaotic form. The Hebrew word bara’, usually translated “create,” really means “to bring order.” The first thing God does is create light. God does not create the sun and moon until later. The reason for that is in most ancient religions the sun and the moon are gods, each ruling over the realms of day and night. By creating light, and in the process day, independent of other gods, God is depicted as the supreme only God. Now in Revelation, when John looks down from the high mountain and sees the New Jerusalem, he reports “…the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (21:23) We are looking beyond sun, moon, and stars, to the source of light, order, and creation. I like the fact that if the glory of God is the light, “…its lamp is the lamb.” Speaking of Genesis, the first chapter of John corresponds to the first chapter of Genesis — “In the beginning….” And the word, who will be revealed as Jesus, the Lamb of God, is present from the beginning, is a collaborator in creation, and is the light of the world.
Frank R.
* * *
John 14:23-29
John Calvin noted how difficult it is to do the kind of loving which Jesus calls us to do in this lesson. As the Genevan Reformer put it, “we are altogether alienated from God, and that we are infected and filled with hatred of him, until he changes our hearts.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XVIII/1, p. 98)Martin Luther said much the same thing (regarding our dependence on God in Christ in order to do good works.
Everything depends, you see, on our being attached to Christ; there’s no other way. (Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 181)
Luther proceeded further in another sermon to comment on the role of the Holy Spirit in faith and its abolition of works demanded by the law:
Thus, all human works and laws vanish, yea even the law of Moses; for such a being [the Holy Spirit] is superior to all law... We must not confine faith to ourselves but must let it break forth in action. (Complete Sermons, Vol. 2/1, p. 280)
Thus, we owe everything to God, John Calvin contends:
... It is noticeable that yet he [the writer of Psalm 67] traces all the blessings they received to God’s free favour; and from this we may learn, that so long as we are here, we owe our happiness, our success, and prosperity, entirely to the same cause. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. V/2, p.2)
Mark E.
