Sermon Illustrations for Lent 4 (2024)
Illustration
Numbers 21:4-9
I recall one lunch drenched in guilt when I was a first grader. Hoping no one was watching, I committed the terrible sin of tossing perfectly good food in the trash can. It was bologna on white bread with mayonnaise, and there was nothing wrong with the sandwich, except that my mother had packed the same thing for lunch every day for months. It was something I liked at the time so she thought she was doing me a favor. I think later I asked her gently for a change and got peanut butter and jam. To this day I can’t abide mayonnaise, but jam is just fine.
So I sympathize with the Israelites who grew tired of manna. According to Exodus 16:31, manna tasted “…like wafers made with honey.” That’s sounds pretty tasty, but in this passage the people have had enough of it. The phrase translated as “…we detest this miserable food” is built around the root n-f-sh, from which comes the life-giving word nefesh, (translated as ‘breath,’ ‘life,’ ‘being,’ and sometimes even as ‘soul’). However in this sentence the same three letter root implies something like “gullet.” Robert Alter suggests retching and vomiting is implied. Think of a time when you started to eat something and realized that there was no way it was going down, no matter who you were about to offend.
Which brings me to my central thought – when it comes to donations to food banks, some people give out of date food, or especially unpalatable things they don’t want, or packaged food that is unusable because it requires extra ingredients like milk or butter that might be unavailable. Sometimes even the requirement of cooking makes it unusable for those people who need food assistance. It’s not a question of ingratitude. It’s more a matter of just how many times can you eat canned spinach before you simply cannot stomach the leavings that some people donate.
Frank R.
* * *
Numbers 21:4-9
In the October 10, 2023, issue of The Guardian, there is a review of a television show called “Don’t Look Down.” The show, which was shot in London, features ten celebrities who will learn to walk a tightrope. The proceeds from the show go to support “Stand Up For Cancer.” The ten celebrities will be trained by expert high-wire walker Jade Kindar-Martin. The whole premise of the show is summed up in the title, “Don’t Look Down.”
There is something about humans that is fearful of falling from high places. Many people get squeamish when they see pictures of someone standing on a narrow ledge of a skyscraper. Looking down and seeing just how far one might fall only intensifies the fear. For God’s people, the message is to not look down, but to look up. When God’s people sinned and spoke against him, she sent poisonous snakes among them. Many were bitten and died. After Moses prayed, the remedy for the sin was given. A bronze serpent was hung on a pole. When the people were bitten, they would look up at the bronze snake to live.
Just look up. It is interesting that references this account when talking about his own crucifixion. His act of being lifted up on the cross would provide forgiveness of sin and a chance to live. Whenever we are weighed down by the guilt and stain of sin, we need to look up. Look to the cross of Jesus. That’s where new life is found.
Bill T.
* * *
Ephesians 2:1-10
“…by grace you have been saved,” Paul writes. Grace is a difficult concept for most of us. Grace, offered freely and without any expectation, is foreign to human nature. How many times have I failed to offer grace to another? More times than I can count. More times than I like to remember or think about. Yet, even when I fail miserably, God offers grace, mercy, compassion, and reconciliation. What a gift grace is! It is a gift offered to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It is a gift offered to us from our Creator who loves us in each moment of each day. What peace and joy can come from this knowledge. I pledge to find more ways to offer grace to others. Will you join me?
Bonnie B.
* * *
Ephesians 2:1-10
The famed early Church African theologian St. Augustine spoke of sin in terms of passions of the flesh (v.3), designating sin as concupiscence (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.5, pp.273-274). Concupiscence literally refers to abnormal sexual desire, to a lust which drives the sex addict to seek pleasure no matter what the partner desires. Augustine believed that we act as sex addicts in everything we do, in the sense that in all our deeds we are seeking pleasure regardless of the outcome. Consequently, even our good deeds are sinful because they are motivated by the quest for personal pleasure, not really motivated by helping others. So deeply mired we are in this perversion, that we can only be saved by God’s action, by grace (vv.5,8). Augustine also made this point, when he wrote:
There is no remedy so powerful against the heat of concupiscence as the remembrance of our Savior’s passion. In all my difficulties I never found anything so efficacious as the wounds of Christ: In them I sleep secure; from them I derive new life.
Paul says that with this grace we are created for good works (v.10). Christ comes to take over, to govern our lives. Martin Luther made this point in one of his lectures:
Our empty law is ended by Christ who fills the vacuum first by being outside of us, because through faith Christ dwells in him and pours his grace into him, through which it comes about that a man is governed, not by his own spirit but by Christ’s. (Luther’s Works, Vol.27, p.238)
Mark E.
* * *
John 3:14-21
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” is probably the most quoted and remembered in the Christian scriptures. We are redeemed through the actions of Jesus, through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. As we walk through these days of Lent, it is important to remember that surrender was an important part of the legacy of Jesus. Jesus surrendered to pain, to arrest, to humiliation, to death without retaliation, without spite or hate. Jesus modeled for us how we need to encounter our life challenges. We do not surrender to evil; rather we surrender to the knowledge that we are the beloved of God, protected and redeemed, recipients of the legacy of eternal life – even though we do not deserve it. We can overcome all that is earthly, because we hold to the faith in the eternal.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 3:14-21
Evangelist Dwight L. Moody shared this story at many of his revival meetings in the late 1800’s. When the California gold fever broke out, a man went there to seek his fortune, leaving his wife in New England with his boy. As soon as he was successful, he sent for them. His wife’s heart leaped for joy. She took her boy to New York, got on board a Pacific steamer, and headed to San Francisco. They had not been long at sea before the cry of “Fire! fire!” rang through the ship. There was a powder magazine on board, and the captain knew the moment the fire reached the powder, every man, woman, and child would die.
They got out the lifeboats, but they were too small and too few. In no time at all they were overcrowded. The last one was just pushing away, when the mother begged them to take her and her boy. “No,” they said, “we have got as many as we can hold.” She pleaded with them so passionately that at last they said they would take one more. She seized her boy, gave him one last hug, kissed him, and dropped him over into the boat. “My son,” she said, “if you live to see your father, tell him that I died in your place.”
I cannot vouch for the veracity of the story, only that Moody told it. The final words of the mom to her son resonate, especially in light of this passage. A mother would have to love her child to give her life for him. God loved the world, too. So much so that “he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (vs. 16). Life was offered because love reigned. May we never forget the incredible, awesome, amazing love of God expressed to us in the person of Jesus.
Bill T.
* * *
John 3:14-21
In this passage Jesus makes a reference to the Numbers lectionary passage, in which the complaints of the people about manna results in a plague of snakes and ultimately to the creation of a bronze serpent raised high above the scene – like Jesus predicts will happen to him on the cross – bringing healing in the midst of death.
Try to picture the scene from Numbers. It had to have been a confusing and noisy sight, with people dying horribly, and Moses acting frantically to fashion the serpent and then to raise it up a la Iwo Jima, the sight of which brought life and hope, so too we must remember that when Jesus was lifted up on the cross in the midst of the confusion, the women wailing, coarse men jeering, nails pounding, and the screams of the crucified men as they are raised up jerkily to rise up above the crowd and made a spectacle of – we must remember that this is also a sight, as horrifying as it is to think about, that also brings life, eternal life, to all of us who with the eyes of our heart force ourselves to gaze steadfastly at this scene.
Who could look upon such a scene? Someone did. Someone reported the details that made it into our four gospels. And then there are the words of the woman known as Julian of Norwich, who in May of 1373 lay dying, when a priest, believing she was dying as well, lowered a crucifix close to her face so that she could see it better. Suddenly, to her eyes it came alive, and she experienced in her heart the crucifixion, and felt the love her Lord felt for her, that he would die for her. After her recovery she wrote The Revelations of Divine Love the first book written in English by a woman, in which she said,
“I thought: ‘Is there any pain like this?’ And I was answered in my reason: ‘Hell is another kind of pain: for there lies the pain of despair. But of all pains that lead to salvation this is the worst pain, to see your Lord suffer. How might any pain be worse for me than to see him that is all my life, all my bliss, and all my joy, suffer?’ Here I felt sincerely that I loved Christ so much more than myself that there was no pain that could be felt like that sorrow that I had to see him in agony.” (Revelations of Divine Love, translated by Grace Warrack, modernized by Yolande Clarke, SPCK, p.56)
Frank R.
* * *
John 3:14-21
Martin Luther called v.16 “the Gospel in miniature.” But the majority of Americans do not believe this, according to a 2020 poll undertaken by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, only one-third of American adults (35%) continue to embrace the traditional biblical view that salvation comes through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and a majority (52%) of Christians say we get right with God through works. Martin Luther also explained why this is the case. In a sermon he proclaimed:
This shows how foolish and crazy the world is, and so possessed of the devil that it does not take delight in such a gift, unwilling even to take hold and accept what is offered. Were it a gulden or a new coat, the world would grab it with both hands and be happy. But since it is the Son of God himself, everyone acts as though he had no need of the likes of Him. (Complete Sermons, Vol.6, p.199)
Augustine well described what this great biblical text can do to us. He wrote:
Run, my brethren, lest the darkness lay hold of you... Awake, then, while it is day; the day shines, Christ is the day. He is ready to forgive sins... (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.7, p.86)
John Calvin well describes why God so loved the world. As the Genevan reformer wrote, “Nor does he say that God was moved to deliver us, because he perceived in us something that was worthy of so excellent a blessing, but ascribes the glory of our deliverance entirely to his love.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/2, p.123)
Mark E.
I recall one lunch drenched in guilt when I was a first grader. Hoping no one was watching, I committed the terrible sin of tossing perfectly good food in the trash can. It was bologna on white bread with mayonnaise, and there was nothing wrong with the sandwich, except that my mother had packed the same thing for lunch every day for months. It was something I liked at the time so she thought she was doing me a favor. I think later I asked her gently for a change and got peanut butter and jam. To this day I can’t abide mayonnaise, but jam is just fine.
So I sympathize with the Israelites who grew tired of manna. According to Exodus 16:31, manna tasted “…like wafers made with honey.” That’s sounds pretty tasty, but in this passage the people have had enough of it. The phrase translated as “…we detest this miserable food” is built around the root n-f-sh, from which comes the life-giving word nefesh, (translated as ‘breath,’ ‘life,’ ‘being,’ and sometimes even as ‘soul’). However in this sentence the same three letter root implies something like “gullet.” Robert Alter suggests retching and vomiting is implied. Think of a time when you started to eat something and realized that there was no way it was going down, no matter who you were about to offend.
Which brings me to my central thought – when it comes to donations to food banks, some people give out of date food, or especially unpalatable things they don’t want, or packaged food that is unusable because it requires extra ingredients like milk or butter that might be unavailable. Sometimes even the requirement of cooking makes it unusable for those people who need food assistance. It’s not a question of ingratitude. It’s more a matter of just how many times can you eat canned spinach before you simply cannot stomach the leavings that some people donate.
Frank R.
* * *
Numbers 21:4-9
In the October 10, 2023, issue of The Guardian, there is a review of a television show called “Don’t Look Down.” The show, which was shot in London, features ten celebrities who will learn to walk a tightrope. The proceeds from the show go to support “Stand Up For Cancer.” The ten celebrities will be trained by expert high-wire walker Jade Kindar-Martin. The whole premise of the show is summed up in the title, “Don’t Look Down.”
There is something about humans that is fearful of falling from high places. Many people get squeamish when they see pictures of someone standing on a narrow ledge of a skyscraper. Looking down and seeing just how far one might fall only intensifies the fear. For God’s people, the message is to not look down, but to look up. When God’s people sinned and spoke against him, she sent poisonous snakes among them. Many were bitten and died. After Moses prayed, the remedy for the sin was given. A bronze serpent was hung on a pole. When the people were bitten, they would look up at the bronze snake to live.
Just look up. It is interesting that references this account when talking about his own crucifixion. His act of being lifted up on the cross would provide forgiveness of sin and a chance to live. Whenever we are weighed down by the guilt and stain of sin, we need to look up. Look to the cross of Jesus. That’s where new life is found.
Bill T.
* * *
Ephesians 2:1-10
“…by grace you have been saved,” Paul writes. Grace is a difficult concept for most of us. Grace, offered freely and without any expectation, is foreign to human nature. How many times have I failed to offer grace to another? More times than I can count. More times than I like to remember or think about. Yet, even when I fail miserably, God offers grace, mercy, compassion, and reconciliation. What a gift grace is! It is a gift offered to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It is a gift offered to us from our Creator who loves us in each moment of each day. What peace and joy can come from this knowledge. I pledge to find more ways to offer grace to others. Will you join me?
Bonnie B.
* * *
Ephesians 2:1-10
The famed early Church African theologian St. Augustine spoke of sin in terms of passions of the flesh (v.3), designating sin as concupiscence (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.5, pp.273-274). Concupiscence literally refers to abnormal sexual desire, to a lust which drives the sex addict to seek pleasure no matter what the partner desires. Augustine believed that we act as sex addicts in everything we do, in the sense that in all our deeds we are seeking pleasure regardless of the outcome. Consequently, even our good deeds are sinful because they are motivated by the quest for personal pleasure, not really motivated by helping others. So deeply mired we are in this perversion, that we can only be saved by God’s action, by grace (vv.5,8). Augustine also made this point, when he wrote:
There is no remedy so powerful against the heat of concupiscence as the remembrance of our Savior’s passion. In all my difficulties I never found anything so efficacious as the wounds of Christ: In them I sleep secure; from them I derive new life.
Paul says that with this grace we are created for good works (v.10). Christ comes to take over, to govern our lives. Martin Luther made this point in one of his lectures:
Our empty law is ended by Christ who fills the vacuum first by being outside of us, because through faith Christ dwells in him and pours his grace into him, through which it comes about that a man is governed, not by his own spirit but by Christ’s. (Luther’s Works, Vol.27, p.238)
Mark E.
* * *
John 3:14-21
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” is probably the most quoted and remembered in the Christian scriptures. We are redeemed through the actions of Jesus, through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. As we walk through these days of Lent, it is important to remember that surrender was an important part of the legacy of Jesus. Jesus surrendered to pain, to arrest, to humiliation, to death without retaliation, without spite or hate. Jesus modeled for us how we need to encounter our life challenges. We do not surrender to evil; rather we surrender to the knowledge that we are the beloved of God, protected and redeemed, recipients of the legacy of eternal life – even though we do not deserve it. We can overcome all that is earthly, because we hold to the faith in the eternal.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 3:14-21
Evangelist Dwight L. Moody shared this story at many of his revival meetings in the late 1800’s. When the California gold fever broke out, a man went there to seek his fortune, leaving his wife in New England with his boy. As soon as he was successful, he sent for them. His wife’s heart leaped for joy. She took her boy to New York, got on board a Pacific steamer, and headed to San Francisco. They had not been long at sea before the cry of “Fire! fire!” rang through the ship. There was a powder magazine on board, and the captain knew the moment the fire reached the powder, every man, woman, and child would die.
They got out the lifeboats, but they were too small and too few. In no time at all they were overcrowded. The last one was just pushing away, when the mother begged them to take her and her boy. “No,” they said, “we have got as many as we can hold.” She pleaded with them so passionately that at last they said they would take one more. She seized her boy, gave him one last hug, kissed him, and dropped him over into the boat. “My son,” she said, “if you live to see your father, tell him that I died in your place.”
I cannot vouch for the veracity of the story, only that Moody told it. The final words of the mom to her son resonate, especially in light of this passage. A mother would have to love her child to give her life for him. God loved the world, too. So much so that “he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (vs. 16). Life was offered because love reigned. May we never forget the incredible, awesome, amazing love of God expressed to us in the person of Jesus.
Bill T.
* * *
John 3:14-21
In this passage Jesus makes a reference to the Numbers lectionary passage, in which the complaints of the people about manna results in a plague of snakes and ultimately to the creation of a bronze serpent raised high above the scene – like Jesus predicts will happen to him on the cross – bringing healing in the midst of death.
Try to picture the scene from Numbers. It had to have been a confusing and noisy sight, with people dying horribly, and Moses acting frantically to fashion the serpent and then to raise it up a la Iwo Jima, the sight of which brought life and hope, so too we must remember that when Jesus was lifted up on the cross in the midst of the confusion, the women wailing, coarse men jeering, nails pounding, and the screams of the crucified men as they are raised up jerkily to rise up above the crowd and made a spectacle of – we must remember that this is also a sight, as horrifying as it is to think about, that also brings life, eternal life, to all of us who with the eyes of our heart force ourselves to gaze steadfastly at this scene.
Who could look upon such a scene? Someone did. Someone reported the details that made it into our four gospels. And then there are the words of the woman known as Julian of Norwich, who in May of 1373 lay dying, when a priest, believing she was dying as well, lowered a crucifix close to her face so that she could see it better. Suddenly, to her eyes it came alive, and she experienced in her heart the crucifixion, and felt the love her Lord felt for her, that he would die for her. After her recovery she wrote The Revelations of Divine Love the first book written in English by a woman, in which she said,
“I thought: ‘Is there any pain like this?’ And I was answered in my reason: ‘Hell is another kind of pain: for there lies the pain of despair. But of all pains that lead to salvation this is the worst pain, to see your Lord suffer. How might any pain be worse for me than to see him that is all my life, all my bliss, and all my joy, suffer?’ Here I felt sincerely that I loved Christ so much more than myself that there was no pain that could be felt like that sorrow that I had to see him in agony.” (Revelations of Divine Love, translated by Grace Warrack, modernized by Yolande Clarke, SPCK, p.56)
Frank R.
* * *
John 3:14-21
Martin Luther called v.16 “the Gospel in miniature.” But the majority of Americans do not believe this, according to a 2020 poll undertaken by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, only one-third of American adults (35%) continue to embrace the traditional biblical view that salvation comes through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and a majority (52%) of Christians say we get right with God through works. Martin Luther also explained why this is the case. In a sermon he proclaimed:
This shows how foolish and crazy the world is, and so possessed of the devil that it does not take delight in such a gift, unwilling even to take hold and accept what is offered. Were it a gulden or a new coat, the world would grab it with both hands and be happy. But since it is the Son of God himself, everyone acts as though he had no need of the likes of Him. (Complete Sermons, Vol.6, p.199)
Augustine well described what this great biblical text can do to us. He wrote:
Run, my brethren, lest the darkness lay hold of you... Awake, then, while it is day; the day shines, Christ is the day. He is ready to forgive sins... (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.7, p.86)
John Calvin well describes why God so loved the world. As the Genevan reformer wrote, “Nor does he say that God was moved to deliver us, because he perceived in us something that was worthy of so excellent a blessing, but ascribes the glory of our deliverance entirely to his love.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/2, p.123)
Mark E.
