Sermon Illustrations for Epiphany 5 (2014)
Illustration
Object:
Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
Isaiah realized that the people of God had lost their impact upon society because they had misplaced their focus. They had become busy people with insignificant spiritual power. That is much like the church of today. Pope Francis wrote not only for the Catholic church but also for Protestants when he said: "I see clearly that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle... The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you" ("A Big Heart Open to God" in America magazine).
Derl K.
Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
This is a text that links the quest for social justice with worship (vv. 6-7). Martin Luther seems to see things that way:
… the performance of all the works of the Second Table of the Ten Commandments, such as honoring father and mother, living a patent, chaste, and decent life, is worshiping God. For he who leads such a life is serving and honoring the same God.
(What Luther Says, p. 1547)
John Calvin echoes these sentiments, contending that without God we are not likely to give our neighbors what we need:
… the love which we owe to our neighbors cannot be sincerely cultivated unless we love them in God… indeed the love of our neighbor does not thrive where the Spirit of God does not reign.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. VIII/2, p. 232)
In the modern era, Mark Labberton has written a book whose title (The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God's Call to Justice) clearly conveys these themes. He writes:
Worship is to be the one activity that sums up the scope of our lives.... The hope we are offered and are meant to offer others is that the gospel of Jesus Christ fundamentally alters the context in which we live.
We need to help our parishioners to stop trying to separate religion and politics, faith and justice. Research on the human brain indicates that in both activities the brain's prefrontal cortex is activated and the back part of the brain (the parietal lobe) becomes passive (Dean Hamer, The God Gene, pp. 72ff; Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, esp. pp. 111ff). Worship and seeking justice are obviously biologically related, so let's start bringing them together in our spiritual lives.
Mark E.
Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
During the Crimean War (1854-1856), Florence Nightingale organized a corps of nurses to tend to the medical needs of the wounded soldiers. During the night, while all the soldiers were asleep, she would walk among the beds to check on each of their conditions. As not to disturb anyone, she did so by carrying a single lamp. Because of this she fondly became known as "The Lady with a Lamp."
Application: We are instructed that our light should break forth like the dawn, giving new life to all.
Ron L.
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)
We got our highfalutin' words of wisdom from seminary, but we had to translate them for the people in the pews. Some were even proud of those seminary words because they showed how learned we were. We got more respect for showing off our degrees and using fancy language!
When I was in Nepal, my seminary students could barely understand English! I had to translate some of those high-level words into simple English for my boys. With the help of God's Spirit, his message can be understood in any language. It came to us in Hebrew and Greek! We had to find words in English that carried the same meaning. Imagine the time we had translating eros, philios, storgey, and agape when we had only one word: "love." We have words like "philosophy" that are not translated from the Greek.
We should all know nothing but Jesus Christ and his crucifixion and resurrection. It can be humbling but that is what God wants from us.
Fancy words may be okay in college, but when we have a message about Christ for the common people, we need the Spirit of Christ to give us the right vocabulary so that people see Christ and not us. The pastor I served with in my first parish refused an honorary D.D. He felt that "pastor" was a more important title than "doctor."
There are members of almost every church who can reach out to others through the power of the Spirit of Christ, and sometimes they have more success than a pastor. They might win people without a single word -- just by acts of kindness and love.
Sometimes the most learned have trouble understanding the message of Christ. Their minds block it out. My son just got his Ph.D. and is still recovering his faith. One of my professor's sons said that his son got his doctorate and it would take a while for him to recover. He started one sermon given to a farming community by saying, "Of course all of you have read the play by Moliere." Then he looked out and saw the blank looks on the farmer's faces and proceeded, "Perhaps some of you have read the play by Moliere." He still got blank looks so he concluded; "There is a play by a writer named Moliere" (and then he went on to explain what Moliere had written). We sometimes assume that we are talking to a different audience or congregation than the one we had in mind when we were organizing our sermon.
God's wisdom is different than ours! We need the mind of Christ and his wisdom!
Bob O.
Matthew 5:13-20
With the advancement of higher education and the need to specialize, the age of "professionalism" began in the late 1800s. Physicians, architects, engineers, lawyers, just to name a few professions, were required to take licensing examinations. This was also a time when those who were involved in academic studies also became more specialized in such fields as geography, sociology, psychology, chemistry, and mathematics, just to name a few of the affected disciplines. The advantage of this was the increased proficiency of each professional. The great disadvantage was the ceasing of sharing knowledge between disciplines.
Application: If we are to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, we cannot have a myopic view of life but must have one that is cosmopolitan.
Ron L.
Matthew 5:13-20
Jesus wants his disciples to be the salt of the earth (v. 13). John Calvin nicely explains the significance of this image:
… that it is their [Christians'] office to salt the earth because men have nothing in them but what is tasteless, till they have been seasoned with the salt of heavenly doctrine.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p. 270)
Human beings, sinners that we are, do not taste very good apart from the salt of Christian doctrine. All the more reason we should not get too carried away with our importance in salting the earth. In fact, salt is not the main course for a good meal. People can still live good lives without getting salted by us. In fact, some foods are ruined by our salt or are pre-salted. So it is wise that we not get carried away by our importance as salt for the earth. Come to think of it, Calvin has an even more powerful reminder. In the preceding quotation he makes clear that we are not even the salt people need. The real salt is the salt of Christian doctrine, and we are just the waiters/waitresses who serve it.
Mark E.
Matthew 5:13-20
Disciples influence the world as salt affects food. Salt suggests three characteristics: purity, preservation, and seasoning.
The purity of salt originates from the process of using sea water and sun to acquire salt. The Romans believed that salt was the purest of all things because it came from the purest of objects -- the sun and the sea. Christians are to be morally and ethically pure because the purity comes from the purest object -- God!
Salt prevented meat from spoiling by keeping it fresh when there was no refrigeration. Living in a corrupt world, the Christian must become a preservative of God's righteousness. A pure heart has God in focus.
Seasoning is salt's greatest quality. Without salt, food tends to be bland. Christians bring seasoning to life. Christ's followers are not to be prudes or bores, but sparkle with the seasoning of God. Christians need to laugh, smile, sing, and bring the joy of the Lord to a flavorless society. This way the world will discover genuine life!
(Adult Bible Study S-O-N, 2013 Volume 37, Number 1 [Word Action Publishing], pp. 12-13, Derl Keefer, Lesson Author)
Derl K.
Isaiah realized that the people of God had lost their impact upon society because they had misplaced their focus. They had become busy people with insignificant spiritual power. That is much like the church of today. Pope Francis wrote not only for the Catholic church but also for Protestants when he said: "I see clearly that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle... The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you" ("A Big Heart Open to God" in America magazine).
Derl K.
Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
This is a text that links the quest for social justice with worship (vv. 6-7). Martin Luther seems to see things that way:
… the performance of all the works of the Second Table of the Ten Commandments, such as honoring father and mother, living a patent, chaste, and decent life, is worshiping God. For he who leads such a life is serving and honoring the same God.
(What Luther Says, p. 1547)
John Calvin echoes these sentiments, contending that without God we are not likely to give our neighbors what we need:
… the love which we owe to our neighbors cannot be sincerely cultivated unless we love them in God… indeed the love of our neighbor does not thrive where the Spirit of God does not reign.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. VIII/2, p. 232)
In the modern era, Mark Labberton has written a book whose title (The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God's Call to Justice) clearly conveys these themes. He writes:
Worship is to be the one activity that sums up the scope of our lives.... The hope we are offered and are meant to offer others is that the gospel of Jesus Christ fundamentally alters the context in which we live.
We need to help our parishioners to stop trying to separate religion and politics, faith and justice. Research on the human brain indicates that in both activities the brain's prefrontal cortex is activated and the back part of the brain (the parietal lobe) becomes passive (Dean Hamer, The God Gene, pp. 72ff; Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, esp. pp. 111ff). Worship and seeking justice are obviously biologically related, so let's start bringing them together in our spiritual lives.
Mark E.
Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
During the Crimean War (1854-1856), Florence Nightingale organized a corps of nurses to tend to the medical needs of the wounded soldiers. During the night, while all the soldiers were asleep, she would walk among the beds to check on each of their conditions. As not to disturb anyone, she did so by carrying a single lamp. Because of this she fondly became known as "The Lady with a Lamp."
Application: We are instructed that our light should break forth like the dawn, giving new life to all.
Ron L.
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)
We got our highfalutin' words of wisdom from seminary, but we had to translate them for the people in the pews. Some were even proud of those seminary words because they showed how learned we were. We got more respect for showing off our degrees and using fancy language!
When I was in Nepal, my seminary students could barely understand English! I had to translate some of those high-level words into simple English for my boys. With the help of God's Spirit, his message can be understood in any language. It came to us in Hebrew and Greek! We had to find words in English that carried the same meaning. Imagine the time we had translating eros, philios, storgey, and agape when we had only one word: "love." We have words like "philosophy" that are not translated from the Greek.
We should all know nothing but Jesus Christ and his crucifixion and resurrection. It can be humbling but that is what God wants from us.
Fancy words may be okay in college, but when we have a message about Christ for the common people, we need the Spirit of Christ to give us the right vocabulary so that people see Christ and not us. The pastor I served with in my first parish refused an honorary D.D. He felt that "pastor" was a more important title than "doctor."
There are members of almost every church who can reach out to others through the power of the Spirit of Christ, and sometimes they have more success than a pastor. They might win people without a single word -- just by acts of kindness and love.
Sometimes the most learned have trouble understanding the message of Christ. Their minds block it out. My son just got his Ph.D. and is still recovering his faith. One of my professor's sons said that his son got his doctorate and it would take a while for him to recover. He started one sermon given to a farming community by saying, "Of course all of you have read the play by Moliere." Then he looked out and saw the blank looks on the farmer's faces and proceeded, "Perhaps some of you have read the play by Moliere." He still got blank looks so he concluded; "There is a play by a writer named Moliere" (and then he went on to explain what Moliere had written). We sometimes assume that we are talking to a different audience or congregation than the one we had in mind when we were organizing our sermon.
God's wisdom is different than ours! We need the mind of Christ and his wisdom!
Bob O.
Matthew 5:13-20
With the advancement of higher education and the need to specialize, the age of "professionalism" began in the late 1800s. Physicians, architects, engineers, lawyers, just to name a few professions, were required to take licensing examinations. This was also a time when those who were involved in academic studies also became more specialized in such fields as geography, sociology, psychology, chemistry, and mathematics, just to name a few of the affected disciplines. The advantage of this was the increased proficiency of each professional. The great disadvantage was the ceasing of sharing knowledge between disciplines.
Application: If we are to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, we cannot have a myopic view of life but must have one that is cosmopolitan.
Ron L.
Matthew 5:13-20
Jesus wants his disciples to be the salt of the earth (v. 13). John Calvin nicely explains the significance of this image:
… that it is their [Christians'] office to salt the earth because men have nothing in them but what is tasteless, till they have been seasoned with the salt of heavenly doctrine.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p. 270)
Human beings, sinners that we are, do not taste very good apart from the salt of Christian doctrine. All the more reason we should not get too carried away with our importance in salting the earth. In fact, salt is not the main course for a good meal. People can still live good lives without getting salted by us. In fact, some foods are ruined by our salt or are pre-salted. So it is wise that we not get carried away by our importance as salt for the earth. Come to think of it, Calvin has an even more powerful reminder. In the preceding quotation he makes clear that we are not even the salt people need. The real salt is the salt of Christian doctrine, and we are just the waiters/waitresses who serve it.
Mark E.
Matthew 5:13-20
Disciples influence the world as salt affects food. Salt suggests three characteristics: purity, preservation, and seasoning.
The purity of salt originates from the process of using sea water and sun to acquire salt. The Romans believed that salt was the purest of all things because it came from the purest of objects -- the sun and the sea. Christians are to be morally and ethically pure because the purity comes from the purest object -- God!
Salt prevented meat from spoiling by keeping it fresh when there was no refrigeration. Living in a corrupt world, the Christian must become a preservative of God's righteousness. A pure heart has God in focus.
Seasoning is salt's greatest quality. Without salt, food tends to be bland. Christians bring seasoning to life. Christ's followers are not to be prudes or bores, but sparkle with the seasoning of God. Christians need to laugh, smile, sing, and bring the joy of the Lord to a flavorless society. This way the world will discover genuine life!
(Adult Bible Study S-O-N, 2013 Volume 37, Number 1 [Word Action Publishing], pp. 12-13, Derl Keefer, Lesson Author)
Derl K.
