Sermon Illustrations for Fourth Sunday of Advent (2023)
Illustration
2 Samuel 7:1-11,16
The story of God’s plans to have his temple built not by David but by David’s son is another instance of how God fulfills his promises in ways we do not expect. It is as evangelical author and radio host Joni Eareckson Toda once put it: “God never closes a door without opening a window.” Martin Luther notes how this way of God working pertains also to Christ, that he does not show up as one would expect him to be. In one of his sermons, Luther notes, “Yes, but what the Lord God has in mind is this man; you ought to accept Christ just as God sends him, not as you want him to be.” (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.81)
When we apply these insights directly to Jesus, we can better understand why it is so crucial for us that he is both divine and human, embodies the very miracle we celebrate this evening. Luther again offers most thoughtful reflections:
It is because of his [Christ’s] humanity and his Incarnation that Christ becomes sweet to us. Let us therefore begin to ascend step by step from Christ’s crying in his swaddling clothes up to his passion. Then we shall easily know God. I am saying this so that you do not begin to contemplate God from the top. But start with the weak elements. (Luther’s Works, Vol.17, p.331)
The incarnation is also essential to our salvation, because if Jesus were not divine God would not be our Savior, and if not human, he cannot have borne our sin.
Mark E.
* * *
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
David is reminded that he is not the one who decides what God wants. Just because he is living in a house and God’s ark is in a tent, does not mean that David is called to build the temple of the Lord. That is for someone else to do. Have you ever been in a leadership position where you want to make all the decisions? I have. My downfall as a leader is delegation and sharing of the work and the learning with others. I like to be in charge, and I like to carry through with all projects. What I have discovered is that not delegating work is a denial of others using their gifts, partnering in the journey toward our goals. Like David, I need to learn that all things, all projects, all next steps do not belong to me. They belong to God and to others God equips.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Romans 16:25-27
You may have heard of “Plastic Jesus.” Billy Idol sang “Plastic Jesus” in 2005. The lyrics include:
I don't care if it rains or freezes
Long as I've got my plastic Jesus
Ridin' on the dashboard of my car
Through my trials and tribulations
And my travels through the nation
With my plastic Jesus I'll go far.
This dashboard or plastic Jesus became a cultural phenomenon. Paul Newman sang the first lines of the song in the movie Cool Hand Luke. Many people, it seems, are attracted to a Jesus that they can control, put where they want and doesn’t demand much of them.
That isn’t the Jesus Pual is writing about in this passage. He notes that it is the proclamation of Jesus Christ that leads to the obedience of faith (vs. 26). The Jesus Paul writes of cannot be contained or kept in check by man. Charles Stanley once said, “There is only one secure foundation: a genuine, deep relationship with Jesus Christ, which will carry you through any and all turmoil. No matter what storms are raging all around, you'll stand firm if you stand on his love.” You can’t stand firm on a plastic Jesus. You have to have the real thing. You have to have the rock.
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 16:25-27
I like Romans 16, the whole chapter, as much as anything I encounter in this book (except perhaps that bit at the end of chapter 8 about how nothing, not height nor depth nor angels nor principalities, etc., can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.) Much of this chapter is given over to the greetings and commendations of the women and men who are Paul’s co-workers, deacons, servants, leaders of house churches, and apostles. There’s also an important admonition to keep the gospel ahead of all the normal contentions and disagreements that occur when people come together — including Christians. You might lift up and analyze some of these relationships because relationships do get strained during the holiday season.
But these particular verses are a doxology, a “word of glory,” and a chief part of that glory is that the mystery is being revealed. The Greek word mustserion refers to sacred rites, ceremonies, and knowledge which were arcane, obscure, and kept secret — but no longer. Those words which we read in the prophets and reinterpret as referring to Jesus — are made clear in the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and it all begins with the arrival of a baby. Babies refocus our attention on what’s important — love and life and legacy — and the child in the manger is especially intriguing and alluring. Here’s our chance as God’s people to make it clear just who this infant is and what he means for us. All of us.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 1:26-38
Celebrating the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus to Mary, leads us to consider the importance of his having a human mother, of the importance of the virgin birth. We must grapple with the question of how Jesus could be born of a woman, with only God as the source of Mary’s pregnancy. Sheer nonsense unless you know cutting-edge biology. It seems that human beings and other living things have cells which have their own voltage, and that this electricity signals our brains how we develop and heal. It seems that this operates in the human birth process. The sperm does not just add the male genome to the egg. It also activates with electric waves a membrane in the egg which triggers a calcium current which allows the egg to turn into an embryo. This entails that if you inject the right calcium current into an egg, it can get excited and turn into an embryo without a sperm — a kind of virgin birth! The process has already been used in cloning mammals (Sally Adee, We Are Electric, esp. p.196). Can this exciting finding not help us understand the virgin birth of Jesus, how Mary’s egg became the embryo which became Jesus without Joseph’s sperm? It is no less a miracle to think this way, but it certainly adds some plausibility to the claims we Christians make about Jesus.
The unambiguously human character of Jesus, recognizing that he has a body like ours, developed humanly from a human egg like we have, led Martin Luther to draw an exciting conclusion about how Jesus is our brother, how we share family with him. As the reformer put it, Christ takes our births and absorbs them into his own so that “every Christian may rejoice and glory in Christ’s death as if he had himself been born of Mary...” (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.82) And John Calvin adds:
This gives us good reason for growing confidence, that we may venture more freely to call God our Father; because his only Son, in order that we might have a Father in common with Him, chose to be our brother. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVI, p.43)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 1:46b-55
This passage often called the Magnificat is proclamation from Mary about her relationships with God. So often we hear of the encounters and experiences men have with God, their learnings about God. Rarely do we hear the experience and song of women. This passage reminds me that we ALL, no matter our status or experience, have a proclamation to make about our relationship with God. We need to hear the faith stories of those on the margins, those usually excluded. Who is the “other” you have failed to listen to? They likely have a song of praise to share about their knowledge of and relationship with God. Let us open our hearts and minds to hear their stories.
Bonnie B.
The story of God’s plans to have his temple built not by David but by David’s son is another instance of how God fulfills his promises in ways we do not expect. It is as evangelical author and radio host Joni Eareckson Toda once put it: “God never closes a door without opening a window.” Martin Luther notes how this way of God working pertains also to Christ, that he does not show up as one would expect him to be. In one of his sermons, Luther notes, “Yes, but what the Lord God has in mind is this man; you ought to accept Christ just as God sends him, not as you want him to be.” (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.81)
When we apply these insights directly to Jesus, we can better understand why it is so crucial for us that he is both divine and human, embodies the very miracle we celebrate this evening. Luther again offers most thoughtful reflections:
It is because of his [Christ’s] humanity and his Incarnation that Christ becomes sweet to us. Let us therefore begin to ascend step by step from Christ’s crying in his swaddling clothes up to his passion. Then we shall easily know God. I am saying this so that you do not begin to contemplate God from the top. But start with the weak elements. (Luther’s Works, Vol.17, p.331)
The incarnation is also essential to our salvation, because if Jesus were not divine God would not be our Savior, and if not human, he cannot have borne our sin.
Mark E.
* * *
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
David is reminded that he is not the one who decides what God wants. Just because he is living in a house and God’s ark is in a tent, does not mean that David is called to build the temple of the Lord. That is for someone else to do. Have you ever been in a leadership position where you want to make all the decisions? I have. My downfall as a leader is delegation and sharing of the work and the learning with others. I like to be in charge, and I like to carry through with all projects. What I have discovered is that not delegating work is a denial of others using their gifts, partnering in the journey toward our goals. Like David, I need to learn that all things, all projects, all next steps do not belong to me. They belong to God and to others God equips.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Romans 16:25-27
You may have heard of “Plastic Jesus.” Billy Idol sang “Plastic Jesus” in 2005. The lyrics include:
I don't care if it rains or freezes
Long as I've got my plastic Jesus
Ridin' on the dashboard of my car
Through my trials and tribulations
And my travels through the nation
With my plastic Jesus I'll go far.
This dashboard or plastic Jesus became a cultural phenomenon. Paul Newman sang the first lines of the song in the movie Cool Hand Luke. Many people, it seems, are attracted to a Jesus that they can control, put where they want and doesn’t demand much of them.
That isn’t the Jesus Pual is writing about in this passage. He notes that it is the proclamation of Jesus Christ that leads to the obedience of faith (vs. 26). The Jesus Paul writes of cannot be contained or kept in check by man. Charles Stanley once said, “There is only one secure foundation: a genuine, deep relationship with Jesus Christ, which will carry you through any and all turmoil. No matter what storms are raging all around, you'll stand firm if you stand on his love.” You can’t stand firm on a plastic Jesus. You have to have the real thing. You have to have the rock.
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 16:25-27
I like Romans 16, the whole chapter, as much as anything I encounter in this book (except perhaps that bit at the end of chapter 8 about how nothing, not height nor depth nor angels nor principalities, etc., can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.) Much of this chapter is given over to the greetings and commendations of the women and men who are Paul’s co-workers, deacons, servants, leaders of house churches, and apostles. There’s also an important admonition to keep the gospel ahead of all the normal contentions and disagreements that occur when people come together — including Christians. You might lift up and analyze some of these relationships because relationships do get strained during the holiday season.
But these particular verses are a doxology, a “word of glory,” and a chief part of that glory is that the mystery is being revealed. The Greek word mustserion refers to sacred rites, ceremonies, and knowledge which were arcane, obscure, and kept secret — but no longer. Those words which we read in the prophets and reinterpret as referring to Jesus — are made clear in the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and it all begins with the arrival of a baby. Babies refocus our attention on what’s important — love and life and legacy — and the child in the manger is especially intriguing and alluring. Here’s our chance as God’s people to make it clear just who this infant is and what he means for us. All of us.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 1:26-38
Celebrating the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus to Mary, leads us to consider the importance of his having a human mother, of the importance of the virgin birth. We must grapple with the question of how Jesus could be born of a woman, with only God as the source of Mary’s pregnancy. Sheer nonsense unless you know cutting-edge biology. It seems that human beings and other living things have cells which have their own voltage, and that this electricity signals our brains how we develop and heal. It seems that this operates in the human birth process. The sperm does not just add the male genome to the egg. It also activates with electric waves a membrane in the egg which triggers a calcium current which allows the egg to turn into an embryo. This entails that if you inject the right calcium current into an egg, it can get excited and turn into an embryo without a sperm — a kind of virgin birth! The process has already been used in cloning mammals (Sally Adee, We Are Electric, esp. p.196). Can this exciting finding not help us understand the virgin birth of Jesus, how Mary’s egg became the embryo which became Jesus without Joseph’s sperm? It is no less a miracle to think this way, but it certainly adds some plausibility to the claims we Christians make about Jesus.
The unambiguously human character of Jesus, recognizing that he has a body like ours, developed humanly from a human egg like we have, led Martin Luther to draw an exciting conclusion about how Jesus is our brother, how we share family with him. As the reformer put it, Christ takes our births and absorbs them into his own so that “every Christian may rejoice and glory in Christ’s death as if he had himself been born of Mary...” (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.82) And John Calvin adds:
This gives us good reason for growing confidence, that we may venture more freely to call God our Father; because his only Son, in order that we might have a Father in common with Him, chose to be our brother. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVI, p.43)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 1:46b-55
This passage often called the Magnificat is proclamation from Mary about her relationships with God. So often we hear of the encounters and experiences men have with God, their learnings about God. Rarely do we hear the experience and song of women. This passage reminds me that we ALL, no matter our status or experience, have a proclamation to make about our relationship with God. We need to hear the faith stories of those on the margins, those usually excluded. Who is the “other” you have failed to listen to? They likely have a song of praise to share about their knowledge of and relationship with God. Let us open our hearts and minds to hear their stories.
Bonnie B.
