Sermon Illustrations For Lent 2 (2023)
Illustration
Genesis 12:1-4a
Have you ever heard a call from God, a direct command to go forth in a new way? I recall when my life was anchored in the business and non-profit world, when I was trying to ignore a call on my life to move into pastoral ministry. I volunteered to do many things as a laywoman in the church before I succumbed to hearing and following the call of God. The call has come again and again as I have changed churches and roles within the ministry. Each time I struggled with understanding the call, and yet, the call of God has led me to places where I am clearly gifted to serve and gifted by serving. I wonder if this is how Abram felt — called to go to a strange land at a strange time of his life. Are you feeling or hearing a call from God? Are you listening? Are you following? I hope so.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Genesis 12:1-4a
A 2020 poll conducted by the Barna Research Institute found that a majority of Americans no longer believe that Christ is the way to salvation. A general faith combined with works, they say, will do the trick. We need to study this account of God’s call of Abraham in order to counter these trends, at least Martin Luther seems to think so. About the text he wrote:
The passage is important as proof for the doctrine of grace over against the worth of merits and works, which reason extols so highly. (Luther’s Works, Vol.2, p.246)
Note that the stress here is on grace, not faith. Our faith is not strong enough to save us. It is as John Calvin once observed:
We see many persons zealous for a short time, who afterwards become frozen; whence is this but because they build without a foundation? (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.1/1, p.344)
And so, Calvin makes it very clear that it is not faith that made Abraham righteous. It is not faith that saves us, but the grace of God:
... when Moses says that faith was imputed to Abram for righteousness, he does not mean that faith was the first cause of righteousness which is called the efficient, but only the formal cause... For it is especially to be observed that faith borrows a righteousness elsewhere, of which we, in ourselves, are destitute. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.1/1, p.407)
Mark E.
* * *
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
You may have heard the story as a child. A train carrying loads of toys for children is stuck on one side of a huge hill. It needs an engine to pull it over the hill to the other side. Three large engines refuse to pull the heavy train for various reasons. Finally, a little engine steps up to tackle the job. With determination, might, and an “I think I can” attitude, the little engine gets the train over the hill. That story is, of course, The Little Engine that Could.
Belief matters, but it is much deeper than just believing in oneself. Abraham demonstrates that in this text. Abraham believed God. That’s what mattered. God made a covenant with Abraham and Abraham trusted God would keep his word. God honored that and credited to him as righteousness. R.C. Sproul once said, “The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in.” Will you not only believe in God, but believe him?
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
In both the Common English Bible and the NRSV, Abraham is described as our “ancestor.” The NIV translates the word as forefather. The Message, I think, gets a little closer to the Greek word propator with the phrase: “our first father in the faith.” I dragged my battered copy of the Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon down from the high shelf where it venerably rests, and read that in the larger Greek culture it is translated “first founder of a family,” in the way folks used to say that “Washington is the father of our country.” It can also be used for those who founded a branch of the arts or sciences. Abraham, according to Paul, ranks right up there with not only George, but Galileo, as the founder of telescope astronomy, or Robert Johnson, the founding father of modern music.
The question that Paul wants to investigate, is whose father is he and the answer is – everyone’s! That’s why he says “…for he is made the father of all of us….” (v. 16)
Frank R.
* * *
John 3:1-17
Nicodemus sneaks into the respite place of Jesus to try to understand what Jesus has been teaching, what he has been saying about being born anew, born again. We all can wonder about the renewal of life through faith. Nicodemus is afraid of what the church establishment will think about his conversations with Jesus so he hides his visit from them. How often do you keep your faith a secret, your questions about your faith a secret? Now I am not calling you all to be prophets or teachers, but I am calling you to feel comfortable sharing your faith. There is a caveat though. Sharing your faith is not about demeaning someone else for the difference sin their faith. It may be sharing your experience and asking questions about another’s experience. A conversation about faith brings understanding and relationship, and Jesus was all about building community and relationship. May it be so for us.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 3:1-17
Martin Luther offers a compelling image for understanding the lesson’s great testimony to God’s love. He wrote:
God Himself is love, and his being is nothing but pure love. Therefore if anyone wanted to draw and picture God in a telling way, he would have to draw a picture that showed nothing but love as though the divine nature were nothing but an intense fire and fervor of a love that has filled heaven and earth. (What Luther Says, p.819)
John Calvin nicely noted the wonderful security and boldness that such faith in a God who loves like Luther described it affords. He noted:
True indeed, we must hold this principle, that our faith be founded on God. But when we have God as our security, we ought, like persons elevated above the heavens, boldly to tread the whole world under our feet, or regard it with lofty disdain. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.VII/2, p.118)
Famed modern reformed theologian Karl Barth profoundly proclaims how this love is for the world (for all):
As electing love, it [God’s love] can never be hatred or indifference, but always love. And the active demonstration of that love is this: God loved the world. It is certain that election is a work in which God meets the world neither in indifference not in enmity, but in which at the very highest and lowest level... He is for this man Jesus, and in him for the whole race, and therefore for the world. (Church Dogmatics, Vol.II/2, p.26)
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
In this passage Peter, perhaps just a little nervous in the face of Moses and Elijah during the Transfiguration, says they ought to build three structures to honor the event. The Greek word is skene. It’s the basis for the English word “skin,” as in animal skins used to make tents, so it also means “tents,” It’s also the word from we derive the word “scene”, as in Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Why? Because in those days, animal skins were painted to provide a scenic backdrop for ancient theatricals.
That’s appropriate because this is indeed a dramatic scene, a turning point in the gospels when Jesus is revealed as fully divine and fully human before his death and resurrection. The offer to build three tents is an appropriate way to provide for the comfort of three honored personages. The tents also called to mind what is sometimes referred to as the tabernacle, a word that hides the fact that the ark of the covenant and the presence of God were housed in a tent that traveled with the slaves freed from Egypt as they travelled through the desert, even when their sins stretched the journey to forty years. Perhaps these tents were also a way of creating historical markers for this amazing event. I also wonder if Peter mentions the skene because he felt like he had to fill the space with talking, even though an awed silence might have been more appropriate.
But I think at its heart this was an attempt by Peter to pin down the holy experience to this one spot, as if we could return to a certain place and summon God. All that became moot when the heavenly voice spoke and knocked them senseless. Which was a way of knocking some sense into them.
The description — and meaning in part — of this extraordinary event is encapsulated in these words from the second letter of Peter:
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the majestic glory, saying, “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:16-18)
(This and certain other installments of Emphasis and Charting the Course are adapted from the author’s book No Room For The Inn, published by CSS.)
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
John Calvin provides some good reasons why God elected in this event to have Christ be seen in all his glory. He provides insight as to why we too often take God for granted, and also offers some advice as how this Bible story can remedy our unfaith:
God intended that these disciples should be struck with this terror, in order to impress more fully on their hearts the remembrance of the vision, Yet we see how great is the weakness of our nature, which trembles in this manner at hearing the voice of God. If ungodly men mock at God, or despise him without concern, it is because God does not address them so as to cause his presence to be felt; but the majesty of God, as soon as we perceive him, must unavoidably cast us down. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XV1/2, p.315)
Famed French Catholic theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin offers other reflections on what can happen to us when we come into the presence of the glorified Christ:
When your presence, Lord, has flooded me with its light I hoped that within it I might find ultimate reality at its most tangible.
But now that I have in fact laid hold on you, who are utter consistency, and feel myself borne by you, I realize that my deepest hidden desire was not to possess you but to be possessed. (Hymn of the Universe, p.78)
Martin Luther also offers thoughtful reflections on the power of the majestic love revealed in the Transfiguration. He wrote:
And so this sermon, [is a] message about believing in the forgiveness of sins through the Son of God... for the Holy Spirit does not wish us to fear in such way that we are overwhelmed by fear and despair... but he wills that you should fear and so escape pride or presumption, and you should rejoice and so escape despair... [Then you will] fear God not as a tyrant, but as children fear their parents, with respect. (Luther’s Works, Vol.12, p.75)
Mark E.
Have you ever heard a call from God, a direct command to go forth in a new way? I recall when my life was anchored in the business and non-profit world, when I was trying to ignore a call on my life to move into pastoral ministry. I volunteered to do many things as a laywoman in the church before I succumbed to hearing and following the call of God. The call has come again and again as I have changed churches and roles within the ministry. Each time I struggled with understanding the call, and yet, the call of God has led me to places where I am clearly gifted to serve and gifted by serving. I wonder if this is how Abram felt — called to go to a strange land at a strange time of his life. Are you feeling or hearing a call from God? Are you listening? Are you following? I hope so.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Genesis 12:1-4a
A 2020 poll conducted by the Barna Research Institute found that a majority of Americans no longer believe that Christ is the way to salvation. A general faith combined with works, they say, will do the trick. We need to study this account of God’s call of Abraham in order to counter these trends, at least Martin Luther seems to think so. About the text he wrote:
The passage is important as proof for the doctrine of grace over against the worth of merits and works, which reason extols so highly. (Luther’s Works, Vol.2, p.246)
Note that the stress here is on grace, not faith. Our faith is not strong enough to save us. It is as John Calvin once observed:
We see many persons zealous for a short time, who afterwards become frozen; whence is this but because they build without a foundation? (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.1/1, p.344)
And so, Calvin makes it very clear that it is not faith that made Abraham righteous. It is not faith that saves us, but the grace of God:
... when Moses says that faith was imputed to Abram for righteousness, he does not mean that faith was the first cause of righteousness which is called the efficient, but only the formal cause... For it is especially to be observed that faith borrows a righteousness elsewhere, of which we, in ourselves, are destitute. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.1/1, p.407)
Mark E.
* * *
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
You may have heard the story as a child. A train carrying loads of toys for children is stuck on one side of a huge hill. It needs an engine to pull it over the hill to the other side. Three large engines refuse to pull the heavy train for various reasons. Finally, a little engine steps up to tackle the job. With determination, might, and an “I think I can” attitude, the little engine gets the train over the hill. That story is, of course, The Little Engine that Could.
Belief matters, but it is much deeper than just believing in oneself. Abraham demonstrates that in this text. Abraham believed God. That’s what mattered. God made a covenant with Abraham and Abraham trusted God would keep his word. God honored that and credited to him as righteousness. R.C. Sproul once said, “The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in.” Will you not only believe in God, but believe him?
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
In both the Common English Bible and the NRSV, Abraham is described as our “ancestor.” The NIV translates the word as forefather. The Message, I think, gets a little closer to the Greek word propator with the phrase: “our first father in the faith.” I dragged my battered copy of the Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon down from the high shelf where it venerably rests, and read that in the larger Greek culture it is translated “first founder of a family,” in the way folks used to say that “Washington is the father of our country.” It can also be used for those who founded a branch of the arts or sciences. Abraham, according to Paul, ranks right up there with not only George, but Galileo, as the founder of telescope astronomy, or Robert Johnson, the founding father of modern music.
The question that Paul wants to investigate, is whose father is he and the answer is – everyone’s! That’s why he says “…for he is made the father of all of us….” (v. 16)
Frank R.
* * *
John 3:1-17
Nicodemus sneaks into the respite place of Jesus to try to understand what Jesus has been teaching, what he has been saying about being born anew, born again. We all can wonder about the renewal of life through faith. Nicodemus is afraid of what the church establishment will think about his conversations with Jesus so he hides his visit from them. How often do you keep your faith a secret, your questions about your faith a secret? Now I am not calling you all to be prophets or teachers, but I am calling you to feel comfortable sharing your faith. There is a caveat though. Sharing your faith is not about demeaning someone else for the difference sin their faith. It may be sharing your experience and asking questions about another’s experience. A conversation about faith brings understanding and relationship, and Jesus was all about building community and relationship. May it be so for us.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 3:1-17
Martin Luther offers a compelling image for understanding the lesson’s great testimony to God’s love. He wrote:
God Himself is love, and his being is nothing but pure love. Therefore if anyone wanted to draw and picture God in a telling way, he would have to draw a picture that showed nothing but love as though the divine nature were nothing but an intense fire and fervor of a love that has filled heaven and earth. (What Luther Says, p.819)
John Calvin nicely noted the wonderful security and boldness that such faith in a God who loves like Luther described it affords. He noted:
True indeed, we must hold this principle, that our faith be founded on God. But when we have God as our security, we ought, like persons elevated above the heavens, boldly to tread the whole world under our feet, or regard it with lofty disdain. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.VII/2, p.118)
Famed modern reformed theologian Karl Barth profoundly proclaims how this love is for the world (for all):
As electing love, it [God’s love] can never be hatred or indifference, but always love. And the active demonstration of that love is this: God loved the world. It is certain that election is a work in which God meets the world neither in indifference not in enmity, but in which at the very highest and lowest level... He is for this man Jesus, and in him for the whole race, and therefore for the world. (Church Dogmatics, Vol.II/2, p.26)
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
In this passage Peter, perhaps just a little nervous in the face of Moses and Elijah during the Transfiguration, says they ought to build three structures to honor the event. The Greek word is skene. It’s the basis for the English word “skin,” as in animal skins used to make tents, so it also means “tents,” It’s also the word from we derive the word “scene”, as in Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Why? Because in those days, animal skins were painted to provide a scenic backdrop for ancient theatricals.
That’s appropriate because this is indeed a dramatic scene, a turning point in the gospels when Jesus is revealed as fully divine and fully human before his death and resurrection. The offer to build three tents is an appropriate way to provide for the comfort of three honored personages. The tents also called to mind what is sometimes referred to as the tabernacle, a word that hides the fact that the ark of the covenant and the presence of God were housed in a tent that traveled with the slaves freed from Egypt as they travelled through the desert, even when their sins stretched the journey to forty years. Perhaps these tents were also a way of creating historical markers for this amazing event. I also wonder if Peter mentions the skene because he felt like he had to fill the space with talking, even though an awed silence might have been more appropriate.
But I think at its heart this was an attempt by Peter to pin down the holy experience to this one spot, as if we could return to a certain place and summon God. All that became moot when the heavenly voice spoke and knocked them senseless. Which was a way of knocking some sense into them.
The description — and meaning in part — of this extraordinary event is encapsulated in these words from the second letter of Peter:
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the majestic glory, saying, “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:16-18)
(This and certain other installments of Emphasis and Charting the Course are adapted from the author’s book No Room For The Inn, published by CSS.)
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
John Calvin provides some good reasons why God elected in this event to have Christ be seen in all his glory. He provides insight as to why we too often take God for granted, and also offers some advice as how this Bible story can remedy our unfaith:
God intended that these disciples should be struck with this terror, in order to impress more fully on their hearts the remembrance of the vision, Yet we see how great is the weakness of our nature, which trembles in this manner at hearing the voice of God. If ungodly men mock at God, or despise him without concern, it is because God does not address them so as to cause his presence to be felt; but the majesty of God, as soon as we perceive him, must unavoidably cast us down. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XV1/2, p.315)
Famed French Catholic theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin offers other reflections on what can happen to us when we come into the presence of the glorified Christ:
When your presence, Lord, has flooded me with its light I hoped that within it I might find ultimate reality at its most tangible.
But now that I have in fact laid hold on you, who are utter consistency, and feel myself borne by you, I realize that my deepest hidden desire was not to possess you but to be possessed. (Hymn of the Universe, p.78)
Martin Luther also offers thoughtful reflections on the power of the majestic love revealed in the Transfiguration. He wrote:
And so this sermon, [is a] message about believing in the forgiveness of sins through the Son of God... for the Holy Spirit does not wish us to fear in such way that we are overwhelmed by fear and despair... but he wills that you should fear and so escape pride or presumption, and you should rejoice and so escape despair... [Then you will] fear God not as a tyrant, but as children fear their parents, with respect. (Luther’s Works, Vol.12, p.75)
Mark E.
