Sermon Illustrations For Epiphany 6 | Ordinary Time 6 (2020)
Illustration
Sirach 15:15-20
Choices. Life is all about choices. Jean-Paul Satre said, “We are our choices.” Sirach says the same. The choices we make affirm our life or lead to death — not always literally, but always spiritually. When we choose to move toward God, toward love of God, toward the footsteps and leadership of Jesus, then we are choosing life. We are choosing the consolation of connection and relationship with God. When we choose to turn away from God, away from caring for our neighbor, away from justice and mercy, then we move toward death, toward the desolation of being without God.
There is an illustration about a person being given a choice between heaven and hell. As the individual travels with the saint to see hell, he encounters vast tables of foods, treats, desserts. People sit at the long tables with long handled spoons, so long that they cannot bend their arms to feed themselves. The people are weeping.
As the individual travels with the saint to see heaven, he encounters the same vast tables of foods, treats, desserts. People sit at the long tables with long handled spoons, so long that they cannot bend their arms to feed themselves. The man looks at the saint and asks why the people in heaven are happy.
As he asks the question, the man notices that the people at the table are taking turns feeding each other. The saint replies, “You see my child, in heaven we feed each other and all are satisfied.” 1
Choices. Life is all about choices.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Sirach 15:15-20
This is a text that teaches free will and so seems just right for American ears. In fact this is a dangerous text if not read in light of the New Testament, the way both St. Augustine and Martin Luther interpreted it. Augustine taught that “our will does not accomplish the result, unless it receive the divine assistance.” God’s mercy “actually anticipates him in order that he may run...” (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.5, p.174) And Luther writes:
We thus learn from Ecclesiasticus [Sirach] that man is divided between two kingdoms, in one in which he is directed by his own choice and counsel, apart from any precepts and commandments of God, namely, in his dealing with the lower creatures...
In the other kingdom, however, man is not left in the hand of his own counsel, but is directed and led by the choice and counsel of God... (Luther’s Works, Vol.33, p.119)
When it comes to serving God, Augustine is right. Nothing gets done without God. The sailboat sails, but it gets nowhere without the wind. The automobile drives, but not without gas. That’s the sense in which it is up to us to do good.
Mark E.
* * *
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Martin Luther nicely explained what the Commandments of God are and what good they are:
The commandments are not, however, either inappropriate or purposeless, but are given in order that a blind, self-confident man may through them come to know his own diseased state of impotence if he attempts to do what is commanded. (Luther’s Works, Vol.33, p.128)
This does not entail that God is not loving and forgiving. Methodist founder John Wesley says of the God depicted in this lesson that he is “a being most amiable.” Then Wesley adds that this God “sweetens life by His comfort and completes all in life everlasting.” (Commentaries On the Bible, p.147) A God who condemns us with the Law is still a God who loves and comforts us.
Mark E.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
The Christians of Corinth are divided on many fronts. We tend to picture the churches addressed by Paul in his letters as single congregations gathering in a building designed for worship, when in fact they consisted of several house churches. Earlier, in the first chapter, we discovered that the names of Paul, Peter, Apollos, and Christ had been given to the house churches of Corinth, which are contributing to their divisions. These house churches used these names to suggest they were the most important and had a corner on the truth. One took Paul’s name. Paul was not flattered. He will point out he baptized almost none of them. One took the name of Peter, representing the original apostles, though it is doubtful that Peter ever traveled to Corinth. One took the name of Apollos, the disciple who’d been tutored by Paul’s friends Priscilla and Aquila, perhaps representing the larger ethnic church. Most alarming to Paul was that one of them borrowed the name Christ. You would think that would be the most appropriate name, but Paul may be alarmed that they are acting like they have the corner on Jesus, much as some denominations act as if they are the only true expression of the Christian faith.
Paul wants them to grow up, to transcend such childish things, things of the flesh, and become the spiritual beings who see things differently. Paul may well be hearkening back to two very influential works, Hesiod’s “Work and Days” and Virgil’s “Georgics,” familiar treatises on farming, which laid out the proper times and methods for successfully growing the good things of the earth. By using agricultural imagery he may also be hearkening back to the idea of the people as God’s field, such as is suggested in the parable of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-7. Paul points out that each of them have a part in planting, watering, and nurturing Christian growth, but it is God who harvests, and who is the owner of the field. We are God’s field. Also, missing metaphors, Paul identifies us as God’s building, a word that is appropriate since these are house churches, and each household is a separate economy working for the well-being of all. The word for house, oikodomia, is related to the word for fellowship and economy, and that we have adapted for our word ecumenical, oikonomia.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
I’m a fan of Charles Schultz’s “Peanuts” cartoons. In one that saw again recently, Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn't. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.
"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."
"Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. He then looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?"
Unity and working together matters. We all know that, but sometimes that can be difficult in the church. Paul found divisions in the church at Corinth and it troubled him, showing their immaturity. He wanted them to break free from the divided camps they were in and recognize that “For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (vs. 9)
Herman Edwards, the former coach of my favorite team, the Kansas City Chiefs, said it this way. “The players that play on this football team will play for the name on the side of the helmet and not the name on the back of the jersey.” Which name are we most concerned about, God’s or another?
Bill T.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
When we hear the name Carry Nation, we immediately associate it with prohibition. She was born as Carrier Amelia Moore in November 1846, in the state of Kentucky. After the war, when she was 21-years-old, her family moved to Missouri. There she married a young doctor, Charles Gloyd. Charles served with the Union in the Civil War, and on his return he was alcoholic. His alcoholism went to such an extreme that he could no longer support Carry. When Carry became pregnant she left Charles and returned to live with her parents. A few months after her daughter was born, Charlien, named after her father, died. Carry was able to rebuild her life, becoming a school teacher and marrying a lawyer — David Nation.
Over the years the scar of alcoholism left upon Nation’s soul did not leave her soul. She began to have visions and became increasingly religious. After David Nation became a pastor, the family moved once again, this time to Kansas. It was in Kansas that Carry Nation organized the local chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance League.
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1874, and its goal was to abolish the sale of alcohol because of the suffering it caused to families, specifically to women and children whose husbands and fathers drank to excess. At a time when women lacked legal rights and recourse and had to depend on male breadwinners for some or all of the family income, an alcoholic spouse, and perhaps violent alcoholic spouse, seriously endangered the household. But the anti-alcohol crusade quickly came to also encompass other perceived sources of social “impurity,” such as smoking and sexual promiscuity. The union proposed to cure these vices through empowering women to vote and through the social ministrations of middle-class white women.
Nation took a more direct-action approach to the prohibition crusade. On December 27, 1900, she used a hatchet to smash up the bar at the Carey Hotel in Wichita. She was arrested, but was released shortly after the incident. Though she now became famous and front-page news as the prohibitionist who carried a hatchet and wrecked a saloon.
Nation, who was almost six feet tall, used her imposing presence to promote her movement and her brand. She also moved outside of Kansas, where the sale of alcohol was already technically illegal, and brought her vision, and her hatchet, to other saloons.
Her behavior provoked a tremendous uproar and sent her to jail repeatedly for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. Her fines were paid by the sale of pewter hatchet pins. Nation wielded her voice as effectively as her hatchet, eloquently speaking her mind and inspiring others. She was able to support herself from her speaking fees.
Nation and her husband divorced in 1901. After the divorce she continued, for the rest of her life, her prohibition campaign. The speaking fees she received enabled her to buy a small farm in Arkansas. The purpose of the farm was to turn into a prohibition school to teach other campaigners. However, she died in January 1911, before the school could be completed and almost a decade before the Eighteenth Amendment was passed.
Ron L.
* * *
Matthew 5:21-37
Divorce and remarriage remains fairly common in America, despite Jesus’ position in our Gospel. Pew Research Centre found that as recently as 2013 40% of new marriages are a remarriage. 23% of those married had been previously married. The divorce rate is down due to the postponement of marriage by millennials, but it still seems that at least 40% of marriages in the United States end in divorce. Martin Luther offered some advice about marriage:
It is impossible to keep men and women in family life if they do not condone and overlook each other’s faults but watch everything to the smallest point. For who does not at times offend? Thus many things must be overlooked; very many things must be ignored. (Luther’s Works, Vol.5, p.32)
Benjamin Franklin offered similar wisdom: “You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your own wife?” (Writings, p.1259)
There are a lot of benefits to long-term marriage, and this seems to have been what Jesus had in mind. Married people poll as happier than the general public (or at least happier than single people in their pay range) (Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, pp.332-334). Married couples also seem to be healthier, with a longer life expectancy than the unmarried (Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher, The Case for Marriage). The happiness associated with marriage also seems to have an impact on health. Happy people have lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that depresses immune function (Richard Davidson, J. Kabat-Zinn, et al, Psychosomatic Medicine 65 [2003], pp.564-570). No wonder Jesus wants couples to stay together!
Mark E.
1 Rabbi Haim of Romshishok
Choices. Life is all about choices. Jean-Paul Satre said, “We are our choices.” Sirach says the same. The choices we make affirm our life or lead to death — not always literally, but always spiritually. When we choose to move toward God, toward love of God, toward the footsteps and leadership of Jesus, then we are choosing life. We are choosing the consolation of connection and relationship with God. When we choose to turn away from God, away from caring for our neighbor, away from justice and mercy, then we move toward death, toward the desolation of being without God.
There is an illustration about a person being given a choice between heaven and hell. As the individual travels with the saint to see hell, he encounters vast tables of foods, treats, desserts. People sit at the long tables with long handled spoons, so long that they cannot bend their arms to feed themselves. The people are weeping.
As the individual travels with the saint to see heaven, he encounters the same vast tables of foods, treats, desserts. People sit at the long tables with long handled spoons, so long that they cannot bend their arms to feed themselves. The man looks at the saint and asks why the people in heaven are happy.
As he asks the question, the man notices that the people at the table are taking turns feeding each other. The saint replies, “You see my child, in heaven we feed each other and all are satisfied.” 1
Choices. Life is all about choices.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Sirach 15:15-20
This is a text that teaches free will and so seems just right for American ears. In fact this is a dangerous text if not read in light of the New Testament, the way both St. Augustine and Martin Luther interpreted it. Augustine taught that “our will does not accomplish the result, unless it receive the divine assistance.” God’s mercy “actually anticipates him in order that he may run...” (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.5, p.174) And Luther writes:
We thus learn from Ecclesiasticus [Sirach] that man is divided between two kingdoms, in one in which he is directed by his own choice and counsel, apart from any precepts and commandments of God, namely, in his dealing with the lower creatures...
In the other kingdom, however, man is not left in the hand of his own counsel, but is directed and led by the choice and counsel of God... (Luther’s Works, Vol.33, p.119)
When it comes to serving God, Augustine is right. Nothing gets done without God. The sailboat sails, but it gets nowhere without the wind. The automobile drives, but not without gas. That’s the sense in which it is up to us to do good.
Mark E.
* * *
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Martin Luther nicely explained what the Commandments of God are and what good they are:
The commandments are not, however, either inappropriate or purposeless, but are given in order that a blind, self-confident man may through them come to know his own diseased state of impotence if he attempts to do what is commanded. (Luther’s Works, Vol.33, p.128)
This does not entail that God is not loving and forgiving. Methodist founder John Wesley says of the God depicted in this lesson that he is “a being most amiable.” Then Wesley adds that this God “sweetens life by His comfort and completes all in life everlasting.” (Commentaries On the Bible, p.147) A God who condemns us with the Law is still a God who loves and comforts us.
Mark E.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
The Christians of Corinth are divided on many fronts. We tend to picture the churches addressed by Paul in his letters as single congregations gathering in a building designed for worship, when in fact they consisted of several house churches. Earlier, in the first chapter, we discovered that the names of Paul, Peter, Apollos, and Christ had been given to the house churches of Corinth, which are contributing to their divisions. These house churches used these names to suggest they were the most important and had a corner on the truth. One took Paul’s name. Paul was not flattered. He will point out he baptized almost none of them. One took the name of Peter, representing the original apostles, though it is doubtful that Peter ever traveled to Corinth. One took the name of Apollos, the disciple who’d been tutored by Paul’s friends Priscilla and Aquila, perhaps representing the larger ethnic church. Most alarming to Paul was that one of them borrowed the name Christ. You would think that would be the most appropriate name, but Paul may be alarmed that they are acting like they have the corner on Jesus, much as some denominations act as if they are the only true expression of the Christian faith.
Paul wants them to grow up, to transcend such childish things, things of the flesh, and become the spiritual beings who see things differently. Paul may well be hearkening back to two very influential works, Hesiod’s “Work and Days” and Virgil’s “Georgics,” familiar treatises on farming, which laid out the proper times and methods for successfully growing the good things of the earth. By using agricultural imagery he may also be hearkening back to the idea of the people as God’s field, such as is suggested in the parable of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-7. Paul points out that each of them have a part in planting, watering, and nurturing Christian growth, but it is God who harvests, and who is the owner of the field. We are God’s field. Also, missing metaphors, Paul identifies us as God’s building, a word that is appropriate since these are house churches, and each household is a separate economy working for the well-being of all. The word for house, oikodomia, is related to the word for fellowship and economy, and that we have adapted for our word ecumenical, oikonomia.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
I’m a fan of Charles Schultz’s “Peanuts” cartoons. In one that saw again recently, Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn't. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.
"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."
"Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. He then looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?"
Unity and working together matters. We all know that, but sometimes that can be difficult in the church. Paul found divisions in the church at Corinth and it troubled him, showing their immaturity. He wanted them to break free from the divided camps they were in and recognize that “For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (vs. 9)
Herman Edwards, the former coach of my favorite team, the Kansas City Chiefs, said it this way. “The players that play on this football team will play for the name on the side of the helmet and not the name on the back of the jersey.” Which name are we most concerned about, God’s or another?
Bill T.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
When we hear the name Carry Nation, we immediately associate it with prohibition. She was born as Carrier Amelia Moore in November 1846, in the state of Kentucky. After the war, when she was 21-years-old, her family moved to Missouri. There she married a young doctor, Charles Gloyd. Charles served with the Union in the Civil War, and on his return he was alcoholic. His alcoholism went to such an extreme that he could no longer support Carry. When Carry became pregnant she left Charles and returned to live with her parents. A few months after her daughter was born, Charlien, named after her father, died. Carry was able to rebuild her life, becoming a school teacher and marrying a lawyer — David Nation.
Over the years the scar of alcoholism left upon Nation’s soul did not leave her soul. She began to have visions and became increasingly religious. After David Nation became a pastor, the family moved once again, this time to Kansas. It was in Kansas that Carry Nation organized the local chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance League.
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1874, and its goal was to abolish the sale of alcohol because of the suffering it caused to families, specifically to women and children whose husbands and fathers drank to excess. At a time when women lacked legal rights and recourse and had to depend on male breadwinners for some or all of the family income, an alcoholic spouse, and perhaps violent alcoholic spouse, seriously endangered the household. But the anti-alcohol crusade quickly came to also encompass other perceived sources of social “impurity,” such as smoking and sexual promiscuity. The union proposed to cure these vices through empowering women to vote and through the social ministrations of middle-class white women.
Nation took a more direct-action approach to the prohibition crusade. On December 27, 1900, she used a hatchet to smash up the bar at the Carey Hotel in Wichita. She was arrested, but was released shortly after the incident. Though she now became famous and front-page news as the prohibitionist who carried a hatchet and wrecked a saloon.
Nation, who was almost six feet tall, used her imposing presence to promote her movement and her brand. She also moved outside of Kansas, where the sale of alcohol was already technically illegal, and brought her vision, and her hatchet, to other saloons.
Her behavior provoked a tremendous uproar and sent her to jail repeatedly for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. Her fines were paid by the sale of pewter hatchet pins. Nation wielded her voice as effectively as her hatchet, eloquently speaking her mind and inspiring others. She was able to support herself from her speaking fees.
Nation and her husband divorced in 1901. After the divorce she continued, for the rest of her life, her prohibition campaign. The speaking fees she received enabled her to buy a small farm in Arkansas. The purpose of the farm was to turn into a prohibition school to teach other campaigners. However, she died in January 1911, before the school could be completed and almost a decade before the Eighteenth Amendment was passed.
Ron L.
* * *
Matthew 5:21-37
Divorce and remarriage remains fairly common in America, despite Jesus’ position in our Gospel. Pew Research Centre found that as recently as 2013 40% of new marriages are a remarriage. 23% of those married had been previously married. The divorce rate is down due to the postponement of marriage by millennials, but it still seems that at least 40% of marriages in the United States end in divorce. Martin Luther offered some advice about marriage:
It is impossible to keep men and women in family life if they do not condone and overlook each other’s faults but watch everything to the smallest point. For who does not at times offend? Thus many things must be overlooked; very many things must be ignored. (Luther’s Works, Vol.5, p.32)
Benjamin Franklin offered similar wisdom: “You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your own wife?” (Writings, p.1259)
There are a lot of benefits to long-term marriage, and this seems to have been what Jesus had in mind. Married people poll as happier than the general public (or at least happier than single people in their pay range) (Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, pp.332-334). Married couples also seem to be healthier, with a longer life expectancy than the unmarried (Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher, The Case for Marriage). The happiness associated with marriage also seems to have an impact on health. Happy people have lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that depresses immune function (Richard Davidson, J. Kabat-Zinn, et al, Psychosomatic Medicine 65 [2003], pp.564-570). No wonder Jesus wants couples to stay together!
Mark E.
1 Rabbi Haim of Romshishok
