Sermon Illustrations for Lent 3 (2018)
Illustration
Exodus 20:1-17
One black pastor I knew said that this passage made his faith solid. He had faith only in God. He said that God was still helping him survive prejudice and race hatred.
Can money be a God to some? How many other things in our life can become gods? What about a stupid thing like a football game? Do some “worship” a hero? Maybe we don’t even realize that we are putting something before our God!
In some churches the members kneel before a religious statue. Are they praying to the statue or to the one that the statue represents? God knows!
When I was a prison chaplain, I met many prisoners whose parents and even grandparents had served time or paid for their dishonesty in other ways. What if it is as simple a thing as being unfaithful in our church? Are we bringing up our children to be unfaithful also?
What does that passage mean for someone who swears? Even Christians swear sometimes! Can this also apply to those who swear on the Bible that they are telling the whole truth (and don’t do it)?
What about the C & E Christians who only come twice a year? What about nurses and doctors who sometimes are working at their hospitals on Sunday -- maybe to save someone’s life? Didn’t our Lord excuse a person for pulling his horse out of a well on the Sabbath? Do those who work on Sunday use another day to worship? Is that OK? Isn’t that up to God to make the judgment whether a person’s faith in genuine?
We may be innocent of most of the flagrant commandments, but the one is often broken: thou shalt not covet (that list could go on forever). It is also true, that we sometimes lie about our neighbor? Is that commandment broken especially by politicians?
This passage could go on and on. We need our church to help us avoid any of these!
Bob O.
Exodus 20:1-17
The commandments are full of covenantal relationships: God with us, us with God, and us with our neighbor. In this passage, the first eleven verses are all about our covenant with God -- our relationship with God. We are called into relationship with God in particular ways: to know God as the only object of our worship and adoration, to use God’s name for praise but not for curse, and to keep holy a Sabbath day to honor God. The next six verses are about our relationship with our family and our neighbors. No less important than the first eleven verses, the last six are specific about out treatment of one another and how our actions toward each other reflect our love of and relationship with God.
In Matthew 22 Jesus says, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” This is our reminder that in all times and in all places commandments are routed in love as the most important concept. If we do nothing else than act in love, we are following the directions and commands of God who is the author of love. Maybe doing more acts of love during Lent could be our focus.
Bonnie B.
Exodus 20:1-17
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been banned from practicing their religion in Russia. Although the Jehovah’s Witnesses promote a nonviolent message it has been labeled as an extremist group. One reason for this is that its headquarters is in the United States, which makes Russian officials concerned that they cannot not control the organization. Another reason is President Putin’s desire to promote the Russian Orthodox church to create national unity. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have 170,000 worshipers in Russia who must now seek deliverance.
Application: A strong message in our lectionary reading is the constant need for religions to seek deliverance from enslavement and persecution.
Ron L.
Exodus 20:1-17
Martin Luther nicely observed what The Ten Commandments teach us:
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
When Paul writes: “…but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles …(1 Corinthians 1:23)” it is because the the cross is so virulently offensive to his contemporaries. Why would someone embrace a symbol of horror and despair? Think of a recent atrocity that’s been in the news, a mass shooting or a heinous murder. Would you wear a symbol that depicted details of a horrifying event?
I was taught back in the 1970s that the cross did not appear in Christian art until more than five hundred after the crucifixion, and over the decades following found little evidence to change my mind on that matter. However, in recent years, scholar Larry Hurtado has discovered something interesting in certain manuscripts of the New Testament. The Greek word for cross is “stauros.” Sometimes the second letter, a tau, which looks like our capital T, and the rho, which is the letter R but looks like our capital P, are superimposed. The top of the rho looks like the head of a person hanging from a cross. These “Staurograms,” as he calls them, appear between a hundred and fifty and two hundred years earlier than the earliest depiction of the cross in Christian art that we are aware of!
And what it does is turn the word for cross into a vivid depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus! Instead of a sanitized depiction of a cross we are reminded of what truly happened to Jesus.
(Want to know more. See Larry Hurtado’s article in the March/April 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeological Review. Hurtado has also written about this in other books and scholarly articles)
Frank R.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Billy Graham spoke about attending a meeting at the United Nations building in New York in 2007. He told about how his host took him to the little room that had been designated a prayer room. Graham said, “I went into the semidarkness and noticed there was something missing. Immediately I recognized that there was no cross in that room. Here was religion without a cross … a testimony that the nations of the world are deeply religious, but have not yet come to the point where they are willing to accept Christ and Him crucified.” Graham concluded the people of the world stumble on blindly toward eventual judgment and destruction, not realizing that they are rejecting Christ and Him crucified, which is the only hope for salvation.
The people of Corinth, in a similar fashion, were blind to Christ crucified and what it meant. To them, his death in this manner was foolishness. The Greek word for “foolishness” is moria, which literally means “idiocy.” Out of this Greek word comes the word moron. This is how the Corinthians evaluated the crucifixion of Christ. It did not make sense that salvation would be accomplished by such a horrendous and bloody act. It was indeed foolishness to those who were proud and boastful. It was ridiculous to those who thought the wisdom of the world was vested in them.
What does the cross mean to you?
Bill T.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Doris Roberts was an actress who is best remembered for her role as the beloved mother on the television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. Roberts career spanned six decades during which she earned five Emmy awards. Four of those Emmys were for her role as Raymond’s meddling mom Marie Barone. In the show Marie is intrusive, controlling, manipulative and over-nurturing. She is a housewife who excels in cooking, cleaning, and other things dealing with keeping a good home and family. Marie and her husband Frank live across the street from Raymond and his wife Debra in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York, which often irritates the younger couple. Yet, Marie’s humor and the passion in which she adored her family won the hearts of viewers. Roberts was a grandmother of three when she competed against 100 other actresses for the role of Marie Barone. Everybody Loves Raymond aired from 1995 to 2005. Roberts real triumph in life was the stamina she displayed after her second husband, William Goyen, died of leukemia in 1982. His death left her devastated, but she was determined to move forward with her life, despite the pain of her loss. Roberts said, “you either lie down with him or you go on.” And by going on Roberts secured the role of Marie Barone.
Application: We are told in our reading that “God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” That is to say, sometimes we think more of ourselves than we should. But, if are able to recognize the power that God does have over us, then we can “go on” in whatever situation we may find ourselves.
Ron L.
John 2:13-22
Business seems to permeate all aspects of American life, including religion and the church. Sociologist Richard Sennett has observed how our globalized economy and its stress on flexibility is negatively impacting the character of those of us living in Western culture (The Corrosion of Character, esp.10). For this reason, it is wise if the Church steers clear of the ways of business, does not practice commercialism (the buying and selling of goods as a means of raising money for congregational budgets). The words of the Lutheran Church in America (a predecessor body of today’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) still ring true:
John 2:13-22
In the first century and in the days before the Temple Tax was to be paid in a specific form of currency and there were specific animals utilized for specific offerings. As such, money was changed and animals were sold at the outside doors of the Temple proper on the Temple Mount. This was also the place where the impure and the ill could worship. Jesus is furious that the human marketplace had found its way onto the Temple Mount. Don’t think Jesus was concerned about the Temple Tax or the animal offerings so much as he was that the marketing of such things had come to seem more important and more obvious than approaching the Temple in a state of prayer.
This doesn’t translate into church fundraising being evil or forbidden. Rather the emphasis of all church activities needs to focus on worshipping God and caring for our neighbor. What does your church raise money for? How much and why? Do you tithe the earnings for mission or ministry? Thinking about what we do at places of worship is important, but the truly important thing is worshipping God. Let’s be about that.
Bonnie B.
John 2:13-22
Are we selling anything at our churches today that we hope will bring people closer to God? I doubt that we buy anything to use as an offering to God! That is the difference. Are we trying to earn something from the Lord by our weekly offering? Aren’t we giving out of gratitude for all the lord has given us? Our church is not a market place where we earn or buy God’s blessings!
When the non-Christian officials in Nepal were bribing or taking money illegally, should we reject their efforts to bribe us as our first goal? There are even a few officials in our country who have been known to use bribery. Jesus was destroying the work of those who should know better! We should know even better than the leaders of the synagogue because we know the one Lord who we worship in our church. What is a pastor doing to encourage members to give more? Is it for benefits we should get for giving or do we only give out of gratitude for what God has given us.
We have to be careful when we take the Bible literally. Sometimes the message is symbolic, as Jesus was not talking about a building when he spoke. The whole Bible is full of messages that can’t be taken literally, though some can be close to the line. Some say that the earth was created in seven 24 hour days as it says in Genesis, but the Bible also says that a day to the Lord is as a thousand years! Some then say that God created the world in 7000 years! We have to be careful how we interpret many parts of God’s Word! Those Pharisees were interpreting Jesus words literally, but He was talking about Himself. We need His Spirit to guide us.
Bob O.
One black pastor I knew said that this passage made his faith solid. He had faith only in God. He said that God was still helping him survive prejudice and race hatred.
Can money be a God to some? How many other things in our life can become gods? What about a stupid thing like a football game? Do some “worship” a hero? Maybe we don’t even realize that we are putting something before our God!
In some churches the members kneel before a religious statue. Are they praying to the statue or to the one that the statue represents? God knows!
When I was a prison chaplain, I met many prisoners whose parents and even grandparents had served time or paid for their dishonesty in other ways. What if it is as simple a thing as being unfaithful in our church? Are we bringing up our children to be unfaithful also?
What does that passage mean for someone who swears? Even Christians swear sometimes! Can this also apply to those who swear on the Bible that they are telling the whole truth (and don’t do it)?
What about the C & E Christians who only come twice a year? What about nurses and doctors who sometimes are working at their hospitals on Sunday -- maybe to save someone’s life? Didn’t our Lord excuse a person for pulling his horse out of a well on the Sabbath? Do those who work on Sunday use another day to worship? Is that OK? Isn’t that up to God to make the judgment whether a person’s faith in genuine?
We may be innocent of most of the flagrant commandments, but the one is often broken: thou shalt not covet (that list could go on forever). It is also true, that we sometimes lie about our neighbor? Is that commandment broken especially by politicians?
This passage could go on and on. We need our church to help us avoid any of these!
Bob O.
Exodus 20:1-17
The commandments are full of covenantal relationships: God with us, us with God, and us with our neighbor. In this passage, the first eleven verses are all about our covenant with God -- our relationship with God. We are called into relationship with God in particular ways: to know God as the only object of our worship and adoration, to use God’s name for praise but not for curse, and to keep holy a Sabbath day to honor God. The next six verses are about our relationship with our family and our neighbors. No less important than the first eleven verses, the last six are specific about out treatment of one another and how our actions toward each other reflect our love of and relationship with God.
In Matthew 22 Jesus says, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” This is our reminder that in all times and in all places commandments are routed in love as the most important concept. If we do nothing else than act in love, we are following the directions and commands of God who is the author of love. Maybe doing more acts of love during Lent could be our focus.
Bonnie B.
Exodus 20:1-17
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been banned from practicing their religion in Russia. Although the Jehovah’s Witnesses promote a nonviolent message it has been labeled as an extremist group. One reason for this is that its headquarters is in the United States, which makes Russian officials concerned that they cannot not control the organization. Another reason is President Putin’s desire to promote the Russian Orthodox church to create national unity. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have 170,000 worshipers in Russia who must now seek deliverance.
Application: A strong message in our lectionary reading is the constant need for religions to seek deliverance from enslavement and persecution.
Ron L.
Exodus 20:1-17
Martin Luther nicely observed what The Ten Commandments teach us:
For man cannot but seek his own advantages and love himself above all things. 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. (Luther’s Works, Vol.25, p.222)The American economy well illustrates Luther’s observations as the rich and even those in the middle drive the poor more and more into poverty. The growth of the impoverished has now reached the suburbs it seems, as the number of poor in the suburbs is soaring from 1 million in 1990 to over 17 million in a 15 years. Why? It is the same dynamic as we find in the cities. All the new jobs being created are low wage, while manufacturing and service-sector jobs that pay better are declining. Online retailing success entails that shopping-mall jobs are shrinking. Luther was very explicit about how economic dynamics like this violate the commandments, for they are theft. He wrote:
You farmers and townsmen are, almost all of you, thieves and skin-flints!... Don’t think that God established the market to be a den of thieves. It is a market, not a skin game. (Luther’s Works, Vol.51, p.156)Luther as well as the Catholic Church also taught that the commandment against theft entails the charge to help others improve and protect their property and income (The Book of Concord, p.353, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2404ff). This seems to imply a call for the redistribution of wealth, one made by several of America’s Founders, including Alexander Hamilton:
Happy it is when the interests which the government has in the preservation of its own power coincides with a proper distribution of the public burdens and tends to guard the least wealthy part of the community from oppression. (The Federalist Papers, pp.222-223)Mark E.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
When Paul writes: “…but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles …(1 Corinthians 1:23)” it is because the the cross is so virulently offensive to his contemporaries. Why would someone embrace a symbol of horror and despair? Think of a recent atrocity that’s been in the news, a mass shooting or a heinous murder. Would you wear a symbol that depicted details of a horrifying event?
I was taught back in the 1970s that the cross did not appear in Christian art until more than five hundred after the crucifixion, and over the decades following found little evidence to change my mind on that matter. However, in recent years, scholar Larry Hurtado has discovered something interesting in certain manuscripts of the New Testament. The Greek word for cross is “stauros.” Sometimes the second letter, a tau, which looks like our capital T, and the rho, which is the letter R but looks like our capital P, are superimposed. The top of the rho looks like the head of a person hanging from a cross. These “Staurograms,” as he calls them, appear between a hundred and fifty and two hundred years earlier than the earliest depiction of the cross in Christian art that we are aware of!
And what it does is turn the word for cross into a vivid depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus! Instead of a sanitized depiction of a cross we are reminded of what truly happened to Jesus.
(Want to know more. See Larry Hurtado’s article in the March/April 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeological Review. Hurtado has also written about this in other books and scholarly articles)
Frank R.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Billy Graham spoke about attending a meeting at the United Nations building in New York in 2007. He told about how his host took him to the little room that had been designated a prayer room. Graham said, “I went into the semidarkness and noticed there was something missing. Immediately I recognized that there was no cross in that room. Here was religion without a cross … a testimony that the nations of the world are deeply religious, but have not yet come to the point where they are willing to accept Christ and Him crucified.” Graham concluded the people of the world stumble on blindly toward eventual judgment and destruction, not realizing that they are rejecting Christ and Him crucified, which is the only hope for salvation.
The people of Corinth, in a similar fashion, were blind to Christ crucified and what it meant. To them, his death in this manner was foolishness. The Greek word for “foolishness” is moria, which literally means “idiocy.” Out of this Greek word comes the word moron. This is how the Corinthians evaluated the crucifixion of Christ. It did not make sense that salvation would be accomplished by such a horrendous and bloody act. It was indeed foolishness to those who were proud and boastful. It was ridiculous to those who thought the wisdom of the world was vested in them.
What does the cross mean to you?
Bill T.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Doris Roberts was an actress who is best remembered for her role as the beloved mother on the television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. Roberts career spanned six decades during which she earned five Emmy awards. Four of those Emmys were for her role as Raymond’s meddling mom Marie Barone. In the show Marie is intrusive, controlling, manipulative and over-nurturing. She is a housewife who excels in cooking, cleaning, and other things dealing with keeping a good home and family. Marie and her husband Frank live across the street from Raymond and his wife Debra in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York, which often irritates the younger couple. Yet, Marie’s humor and the passion in which she adored her family won the hearts of viewers. Roberts was a grandmother of three when she competed against 100 other actresses for the role of Marie Barone. Everybody Loves Raymond aired from 1995 to 2005. Roberts real triumph in life was the stamina she displayed after her second husband, William Goyen, died of leukemia in 1982. His death left her devastated, but she was determined to move forward with her life, despite the pain of her loss. Roberts said, “you either lie down with him or you go on.” And by going on Roberts secured the role of Marie Barone.
Application: We are told in our reading that “God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” That is to say, sometimes we think more of ourselves than we should. But, if are able to recognize the power that God does have over us, then we can “go on” in whatever situation we may find ourselves.
Ron L.
John 2:13-22
Business seems to permeate all aspects of American life, including religion and the church. Sociologist Richard Sennett has observed how our globalized economy and its stress on flexibility is negatively impacting the character of those of us living in Western culture (The Corrosion of Character, esp.10). For this reason, it is wise if the Church steers clear of the ways of business, does not practice commercialism (the buying and selling of goods as a means of raising money for congregational budgets). The words of the Lutheran Church in America (a predecessor body of today’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) still ring true:
Commercialism... fails to bear testimony to the mission of church and creates a false image of the church... (1) It involves the church in other than its true business of giving -- giving the gospel to all men. (b) It is used instead of giving...(Commercialism)If preachers instead wish to focus on the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and John’s identification of Christ’s body with the Temple, Martin Luther’s comments on the subject are most relevant:
Whoever wished to call upon God or come before Him had to come to the Temple in Jerusalem or turn his face toward it... for in Jerusalem was the abode of God. But today, in the New Testament, God has established another temple for His residence: The precious humanity of Lord Jesus Christ. There and nowhere else God wants to be found. (Luther’s Works, Vol.22, p.233)Mark E.
John 2:13-22
In the first century and in the days before the Temple Tax was to be paid in a specific form of currency and there were specific animals utilized for specific offerings. As such, money was changed and animals were sold at the outside doors of the Temple proper on the Temple Mount. This was also the place where the impure and the ill could worship. Jesus is furious that the human marketplace had found its way onto the Temple Mount. Don’t think Jesus was concerned about the Temple Tax or the animal offerings so much as he was that the marketing of such things had come to seem more important and more obvious than approaching the Temple in a state of prayer.
This doesn’t translate into church fundraising being evil or forbidden. Rather the emphasis of all church activities needs to focus on worshipping God and caring for our neighbor. What does your church raise money for? How much and why? Do you tithe the earnings for mission or ministry? Thinking about what we do at places of worship is important, but the truly important thing is worshipping God. Let’s be about that.
Bonnie B.
John 2:13-22
Are we selling anything at our churches today that we hope will bring people closer to God? I doubt that we buy anything to use as an offering to God! That is the difference. Are we trying to earn something from the Lord by our weekly offering? Aren’t we giving out of gratitude for all the lord has given us? Our church is not a market place where we earn or buy God’s blessings!
When the non-Christian officials in Nepal were bribing or taking money illegally, should we reject their efforts to bribe us as our first goal? There are even a few officials in our country who have been known to use bribery. Jesus was destroying the work of those who should know better! We should know even better than the leaders of the synagogue because we know the one Lord who we worship in our church. What is a pastor doing to encourage members to give more? Is it for benefits we should get for giving or do we only give out of gratitude for what God has given us.
We have to be careful when we take the Bible literally. Sometimes the message is symbolic, as Jesus was not talking about a building when he spoke. The whole Bible is full of messages that can’t be taken literally, though some can be close to the line. Some say that the earth was created in seven 24 hour days as it says in Genesis, but the Bible also says that a day to the Lord is as a thousand years! Some then say that God created the world in 7000 years! We have to be careful how we interpret many parts of God’s Word! Those Pharisees were interpreting Jesus words literally, but He was talking about Himself. We need His Spirit to guide us.
Bob O.
