Sermon Illustrations For Epiphany 6 | Ordinary Time 6 (2023)
Illustration
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Americans seem to have a rather law-oriented version of Christianity. A 2020 poll conducted by Arizona Christian University found that more than one in two American Christians believe that you must do good works in order to be saved. Obviously, we need to preach more against this. But then the question becomes, what good is the law of God, an issue raised in this lesson. The Lutheran Formula of Concord (The Book of Concord [2000 ed.], pp.430-431) offers a sound response:
These [commandments] are not trifles of men but the commandments of the Most High God, who watches over them with great earnestness, who vents wrath upon those who despise them...
Martin Luther helpfully amends these comments, taking into account how for those justified the commandments play a different role. He wrote:
The Commands of the New Testament [and of the old] are directed to those who are justified and are new men in the Spirit. Nothing is taught or commanded there except what pertains to believers, who do everything spontaneously, not from necessity or contrary to their own will. (Luther’s Works, Vol.9, p.179)
Another Lutheran, 20th-century German Helmut Thielicke, puts it this way: “The Christian stands, not under the dictatorship of a legalistic ‘you ought,’ but in the magnetic field of Christian freedom, under the empowering of ‘you may’.” In the same spirit, famed medieval mystic Meister Eckhart wrote:
Outward as well as inward morality helps to form the idea of a true Christian freedom. We are to lay stress on inwardness, but in this world there is no inwardness without an outward expression.
Mark E.
* * *
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
One of my favorite poems is Robert Frost’s “Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood.” I learned the poem as a song. Here are a few of the stanzas.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The last stanza is the one that resonates with me. The roads we choose to take make all the difference. God’s people had a choice as this passage explains. Moses implored them, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him.” The choice was theirs then and ours today. Our choices make all the difference.
Bill T.
* * *
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
I have always been amazed by the opinions that bad things, sad things, and tragedies don’t happen to the faithful. This passage seems to allude to the fact that the faithful will be protected. I believe that to be true, but it is our spirits that our protected. The bad things of the world, the challenges of the world are something we all face – believers and non-believers. We all face the trials of the world. The benefit of faith is that we know we are not alone. We know God walks with us. We can focus on the presence of God and that is our protection against hopelessness in the face of difficulty. The prosperity of our spirit is anchored in God. I am thankful for feeling the presence of God in all my challenges. I hope you are as well.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Sirach 15:15-20
A 2021 Gallup poll found that at least 40% of Americans still feel our nation’s morality can improve. This seems to be the position of the text. But it must be balanced by an awareness that we are in bondage. Martin Luther vigorously condemns the idea of free will:
For man cannot but be seeking his own advantages and love himself above all things. And this is the sum of all his iniquities. Hence even in good things and virtues men seek themselves, that is, they seek to please themselves and applaud themselves... I say now that no one should doubt that all our good works are mortal sins if they are judged according to God’s judgment and severity and not accepted as good by God alone. (Luther’s Works, Vol.25, p.222)
Internationally famous 19th- century English Baptist and abolitionist preacher Charles Spurgeon nicely rebuts Sirach’s perspective and that of nearly half of America. He wrote:
It always seems inexplicable to me that those who claim free will so very boldly for man should not also allow some free will to God. Why should not Jesus Christ have the right to choose his own bride?
Mark E.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
There are leadership lessons to be learned from bees. I know, that sounds unusual, but it’s true. Bees live in hives with clear social organization. Each hive has three types of bees that do specific work. The queen is responsible for laying eggs, the male drones for fertilizing them, and the female workers for gathering food and caring for the hive.
The fascinating thing is that the workers change their duties as they get older. Worker bees start by feeding the larvae; then they ventilate and cool the hive by fanning it with their wings; then they clean the hive and finally they leave on food-collecting expeditions. Bees of different ages conduct all these varied tasks at any one time. By working together in this way, the life for the bees is much better.
Working together matters. Paul understood that process with respect to the Christian faith. Paul chided the Corinthians for choosing sides. He acknowledged that he and Apollos were servants. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (vs. 6). Every Christian has a part to play in God’s kingdom. God is the one that makes it all happen. Our responsibility is to do what we can do and trust God for the rest.
Bill T.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Many of us see the first century church with twenty-first century eyes. We see the word “church” in the New Testament, and we think of a building kind of like the one we enter every Sunday, filled with people who look like us. When Paul addresses the church in Corinth he was not writing to one congregation meeting in a cathedral-like building, but to at least four if not more house churches. There’s a Paul church, an Apollos church, a Peter church, and a Christ church. Probably many of us say, oh, the Christ church has it right, named after our Savior instead of a mere human being, but it’s possible the sin of the Christ church is their belief they’ve got the corner of the Christ market and the other house churches don’t measure up. In this passage Paul tells us we are “God’s coworkers, working together” and what we’re working in is “God’s field,” and what we’re building is “God’s building.”
It's not about us. It’s about all of us.
Speaking of working together, when you plant your vegetable and flower gardens you’re counting on pollinating insects, like honeybees, to do their part. And they are depending on your flowers and blossoms — and on plants you may not care about, like dandelions and the other perennials that you may try to get rid of in an effort to have a so-called perfect lawn. As a beekeeper the best thing I can do is to leave the hive alone and let the bees do their hard work – but I keep in mind sources of water the bees can access, and occasionally feed them with sugar water if there’s a slow start to spring. The honey is golden and sweet, and the honey I harvest is usually given away to family and friends, but this is a gift from the bees, not me. I can’t take too much credit as a beekeeper, even though there is work, and a few stings, that go with beekeeping. The bees work tirelessly because that’s who they are. And these are God’s fields, not mine, or the bees.
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 5:21-37
Estimates of the 2022 divorce rate were thought to be at least 44.2%. This is based on a marriage rate of 6.1 people per 1,000 total population and a divorce rate of 2.7 people per 1,000 total population. [xii] So for every 6.1 people who get married, 2.7 will be divorced. On the other hand, marriage seems to be good for us. Married couples seem healthier and live longer. Bachelors tend to have mortality rates 250% greater than married men, and single women have mortality rates 50% higher than married women (Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher, The Case for Marriage). Married people also poll as happier than the public (or at least higher than single people in their salary range) (Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, pp.333-334). We need to put this data before our congregations and the public in general.
Martin Luther has some good Christian marital advice, injecting notes of realism in all the bliss of marriage. He wrote:
It is a great thing if a man can love a woman always for the devil rarely permits it. When they are apart, the man cannot bear it; when they are together he again cannot bear it, as they are wont today: I can live neither with you nor without you. Therefore, one must diligently pray for constancy for love. I have observed many couples coming together in such great passion that they were ready to devour each other for love, but after half a year the one ran away from the other. (What Luther Says, p.899)
It is the highest grace of God when love continues to flourish in married life. The first love is ardent, is an intoxicating love, so that we are blinded and are drawn to marriage. After we have slept off our intoxication, sincere love remains in the married life of the godly; but the godless are sorry they ever married. (Ibid.)
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 5:21-37
How often have you heard someone be very judgmental about the use of vulgar language, yet throw around God’s name as it if were nothing? By God? My God? And combining God with any number of other inappropriate words? Here Jesus seems to be going beyond the commandment against taking the name of God in vain and get to the heart of making God a co-signer on your actions by swearing an oath in God’s name.
To swear by God, or by heaven, that such and such will be done, whether it is good or evil, is to make God a co-signer in that oath, obligated to carry out whatever doom or weal we may have promised, regardless of God’s will. At the very least, that seems a little presumptuous.
Really, what this does is force us to take a very serious view about the spoken word. How often have you heard someone say something hurtful, and then add, “Just kidding?” How often have you made a spoken promise but defended not following through by saying there was no contract. It doesn’t count. The spoken word is very important.
There are those Christians who refuse to take an oath for this reason. They will affirm, rather than swear by God in a court of law. Whether this is something all Christians should consider is a difficult thing, but consider this. During his trial for his life, Matthew tells us, “…the high priest said to him, “I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God’ (Matthew 26:63).” Jesus refuses to answer that question, instead responding, “’You have said so,” and quoting from the book of Daniel.
(Adapted from the author’s book No Room for The Inn, CSS 2022)
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 5:21-37
Following the sharing of the Beatitudes, Jesus shares lessons about appropriate behaviors. The accents are on the commandments that shame and abandon women, that lie and testify falsely against our neighbors, and the swearing about our own power. In the times of Jesus, to divorce a woman was to abandon her to begging, prostitution or, perhaps if she had family, simply the shame of divorce and a return to her father’s house. To lie about a neighbor might mean shunning or arrest or even death. Presuming our own power was to lack the humility to come before God seeking God’s blessing and power. It seems to me that these are lessons for us today. Not that divorce might not happen, but concern must be given to those most challenged by it, usually women and children. A failure to love our neighbor breaks up the relationships that we need to be successful and healthy in our faith, our work, and our life. Some lessons translate more easily into our current time, This passage is one.
Bonnie B.
Americans seem to have a rather law-oriented version of Christianity. A 2020 poll conducted by Arizona Christian University found that more than one in two American Christians believe that you must do good works in order to be saved. Obviously, we need to preach more against this. But then the question becomes, what good is the law of God, an issue raised in this lesson. The Lutheran Formula of Concord (The Book of Concord [2000 ed.], pp.430-431) offers a sound response:
These [commandments] are not trifles of men but the commandments of the Most High God, who watches over them with great earnestness, who vents wrath upon those who despise them...
Martin Luther helpfully amends these comments, taking into account how for those justified the commandments play a different role. He wrote:
The Commands of the New Testament [and of the old] are directed to those who are justified and are new men in the Spirit. Nothing is taught or commanded there except what pertains to believers, who do everything spontaneously, not from necessity or contrary to their own will. (Luther’s Works, Vol.9, p.179)
Another Lutheran, 20th-century German Helmut Thielicke, puts it this way: “The Christian stands, not under the dictatorship of a legalistic ‘you ought,’ but in the magnetic field of Christian freedom, under the empowering of ‘you may’.” In the same spirit, famed medieval mystic Meister Eckhart wrote:
Outward as well as inward morality helps to form the idea of a true Christian freedom. We are to lay stress on inwardness, but in this world there is no inwardness without an outward expression.
Mark E.
* * *
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
One of my favorite poems is Robert Frost’s “Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood.” I learned the poem as a song. Here are a few of the stanzas.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The last stanza is the one that resonates with me. The roads we choose to take make all the difference. God’s people had a choice as this passage explains. Moses implored them, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him.” The choice was theirs then and ours today. Our choices make all the difference.
Bill T.
* * *
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
I have always been amazed by the opinions that bad things, sad things, and tragedies don’t happen to the faithful. This passage seems to allude to the fact that the faithful will be protected. I believe that to be true, but it is our spirits that our protected. The bad things of the world, the challenges of the world are something we all face – believers and non-believers. We all face the trials of the world. The benefit of faith is that we know we are not alone. We know God walks with us. We can focus on the presence of God and that is our protection against hopelessness in the face of difficulty. The prosperity of our spirit is anchored in God. I am thankful for feeling the presence of God in all my challenges. I hope you are as well.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Sirach 15:15-20
A 2021 Gallup poll found that at least 40% of Americans still feel our nation’s morality can improve. This seems to be the position of the text. But it must be balanced by an awareness that we are in bondage. Martin Luther vigorously condemns the idea of free will:
For man cannot but be seeking his own advantages and love himself above all things. And this is the sum of all his iniquities. Hence even in good things and virtues men seek themselves, that is, they seek to please themselves and applaud themselves... I say now that no one should doubt that all our good works are mortal sins if they are judged according to God’s judgment and severity and not accepted as good by God alone. (Luther’s Works, Vol.25, p.222)
Internationally famous 19th- century English Baptist and abolitionist preacher Charles Spurgeon nicely rebuts Sirach’s perspective and that of nearly half of America. He wrote:
It always seems inexplicable to me that those who claim free will so very boldly for man should not also allow some free will to God. Why should not Jesus Christ have the right to choose his own bride?
Mark E.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
There are leadership lessons to be learned from bees. I know, that sounds unusual, but it’s true. Bees live in hives with clear social organization. Each hive has three types of bees that do specific work. The queen is responsible for laying eggs, the male drones for fertilizing them, and the female workers for gathering food and caring for the hive.
The fascinating thing is that the workers change their duties as they get older. Worker bees start by feeding the larvae; then they ventilate and cool the hive by fanning it with their wings; then they clean the hive and finally they leave on food-collecting expeditions. Bees of different ages conduct all these varied tasks at any one time. By working together in this way, the life for the bees is much better.
Working together matters. Paul understood that process with respect to the Christian faith. Paul chided the Corinthians for choosing sides. He acknowledged that he and Apollos were servants. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (vs. 6). Every Christian has a part to play in God’s kingdom. God is the one that makes it all happen. Our responsibility is to do what we can do and trust God for the rest.
Bill T.
* * *
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Many of us see the first century church with twenty-first century eyes. We see the word “church” in the New Testament, and we think of a building kind of like the one we enter every Sunday, filled with people who look like us. When Paul addresses the church in Corinth he was not writing to one congregation meeting in a cathedral-like building, but to at least four if not more house churches. There’s a Paul church, an Apollos church, a Peter church, and a Christ church. Probably many of us say, oh, the Christ church has it right, named after our Savior instead of a mere human being, but it’s possible the sin of the Christ church is their belief they’ve got the corner of the Christ market and the other house churches don’t measure up. In this passage Paul tells us we are “God’s coworkers, working together” and what we’re working in is “God’s field,” and what we’re building is “God’s building.”
It's not about us. It’s about all of us.
Speaking of working together, when you plant your vegetable and flower gardens you’re counting on pollinating insects, like honeybees, to do their part. And they are depending on your flowers and blossoms — and on plants you may not care about, like dandelions and the other perennials that you may try to get rid of in an effort to have a so-called perfect lawn. As a beekeeper the best thing I can do is to leave the hive alone and let the bees do their hard work – but I keep in mind sources of water the bees can access, and occasionally feed them with sugar water if there’s a slow start to spring. The honey is golden and sweet, and the honey I harvest is usually given away to family and friends, but this is a gift from the bees, not me. I can’t take too much credit as a beekeeper, even though there is work, and a few stings, that go with beekeeping. The bees work tirelessly because that’s who they are. And these are God’s fields, not mine, or the bees.
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 5:21-37
Estimates of the 2022 divorce rate were thought to be at least 44.2%. This is based on a marriage rate of 6.1 people per 1,000 total population and a divorce rate of 2.7 people per 1,000 total population. [xii] So for every 6.1 people who get married, 2.7 will be divorced. On the other hand, marriage seems to be good for us. Married couples seem healthier and live longer. Bachelors tend to have mortality rates 250% greater than married men, and single women have mortality rates 50% higher than married women (Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher, The Case for Marriage). Married people also poll as happier than the public (or at least higher than single people in their salary range) (Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, pp.333-334). We need to put this data before our congregations and the public in general.
Martin Luther has some good Christian marital advice, injecting notes of realism in all the bliss of marriage. He wrote:
It is a great thing if a man can love a woman always for the devil rarely permits it. When they are apart, the man cannot bear it; when they are together he again cannot bear it, as they are wont today: I can live neither with you nor without you. Therefore, one must diligently pray for constancy for love. I have observed many couples coming together in such great passion that they were ready to devour each other for love, but after half a year the one ran away from the other. (What Luther Says, p.899)
It is the highest grace of God when love continues to flourish in married life. The first love is ardent, is an intoxicating love, so that we are blinded and are drawn to marriage. After we have slept off our intoxication, sincere love remains in the married life of the godly; but the godless are sorry they ever married. (Ibid.)
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 5:21-37
How often have you heard someone be very judgmental about the use of vulgar language, yet throw around God’s name as it if were nothing? By God? My God? And combining God with any number of other inappropriate words? Here Jesus seems to be going beyond the commandment against taking the name of God in vain and get to the heart of making God a co-signer on your actions by swearing an oath in God’s name.
To swear by God, or by heaven, that such and such will be done, whether it is good or evil, is to make God a co-signer in that oath, obligated to carry out whatever doom or weal we may have promised, regardless of God’s will. At the very least, that seems a little presumptuous.
Really, what this does is force us to take a very serious view about the spoken word. How often have you heard someone say something hurtful, and then add, “Just kidding?” How often have you made a spoken promise but defended not following through by saying there was no contract. It doesn’t count. The spoken word is very important.
There are those Christians who refuse to take an oath for this reason. They will affirm, rather than swear by God in a court of law. Whether this is something all Christians should consider is a difficult thing, but consider this. During his trial for his life, Matthew tells us, “…the high priest said to him, “I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God’ (Matthew 26:63).” Jesus refuses to answer that question, instead responding, “’You have said so,” and quoting from the book of Daniel.
(Adapted from the author’s book No Room for The Inn, CSS 2022)
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 5:21-37
Following the sharing of the Beatitudes, Jesus shares lessons about appropriate behaviors. The accents are on the commandments that shame and abandon women, that lie and testify falsely against our neighbors, and the swearing about our own power. In the times of Jesus, to divorce a woman was to abandon her to begging, prostitution or, perhaps if she had family, simply the shame of divorce and a return to her father’s house. To lie about a neighbor might mean shunning or arrest or even death. Presuming our own power was to lack the humility to come before God seeking God’s blessing and power. It seems to me that these are lessons for us today. Not that divorce might not happen, but concern must be given to those most challenged by it, usually women and children. A failure to love our neighbor breaks up the relationships that we need to be successful and healthy in our faith, our work, and our life. Some lessons translate more easily into our current time, This passage is one.
Bonnie B.
