Sermon Illustrations for New Year's Day (2015)
Illustration
Object:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
The Byrds were inspired by this text as they sang "To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn." But they failed to convey how this is a text not of peace (until the last verse), but about the meaninglessness of life. French philosopher Albert Camus well captures the meaningless of life while quoting the ancient Greek thinker Epicurus: "We can take precautions against all sorts of things; but so far as death is concerned, we all of us live like the inhabitants of the defenseless citadel" (The Rebel, p. 28).
On the meaninglessness of life described so compellingly in this text, John Wesley wrote:
... all vicissitudes which happen in the world, whether comforts or calamities, come to pass. Which is here added to prove the principal proposition that all things below are vain, and happiness is not to be found in them, because of their great uncertainty and mutability and transitoriness...
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 314)
Martin Luther adds similar observations with a word of hope echoed in the lesson's final verse:
All human works and efforts have a certain and definite time of acting, of beginning, and of ending, beyond human control... It is not up to us to prescribe the time, the manner, or the effect of the things that are to be done; and so it is obvious that here our strivings and efforts are unreliable.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 15, p. 49)
There is nothing better for a man in such a disastrous business than to enjoy the things that are present and to have a happy and joyful heart, without anxiety and care about the future. But the ability to do this is a gift of God.
(Ibid., p. 54)
This is a lesson about gallows humor that by the grace of God we can enjoy life even if it does ultimately lead to chaos and nothingness. That's a vision that might be worth a New Year's toast.
Mark E.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
Elisabeth Moss, who plays hardworking advertising copywriter Peggy Olson, on the television show Mad Men, was asked after the completion of filming for the seventh and final season what was her most memorable scene. Moss replied that it was during Season 7A, when she realizes she has done everything she has wanted to do but still seems unsatisfied. She asks Don Draper the universal question: "What did I do wrong?"
Application: There is a season, a time for everything in life but we often miss it for we focus on the wrong meaning of success.
Ron L.
Revelation 21:1-6a
I am not a fan of camping! I have had too many bad experiences and I enjoy the comforts of life too much. Craig Larson says that motor homes have allowed us to put all of the conveniences of home on wheels. I read that a camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping bags, cooking over an open fire, or hauling water from a stream. With the motor home, one can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line, and electricity. Now they come equipped with digital electronics as well.
Motor homes are bought with the hope of seeing new places, new sights, and new areas of the land. Yet they are decked out with the same furnishings as in our homes. Nothing really changes. One may drive to a new place, set oneself in new surroundings, but the newness goes unnoticed, for one only has carried along the old settings.
This New Year brings with it a new adventure of life in Jesus Christ as the old patterns of life are left behind.
(Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching by Craig Larson, editor [Baker Books, 1993], p. 153)
Derl K.
Revelation 21:1-6a
We must be careful not to take this passage too literally. That is true of much of the book of Revelation. All we can be sure of is that there will be a great change -- and it will be for the good of all believers. It seems like there will only be room for the "chosen" ones. As Jesus said, the road is narrow and the way is hard and only a few will pass through. Some people -- even Christians -- feel that a loving God would not allow any of his creation to be lost forever (some call it universal salvation).
If it is true that only a few will make it to this new heaven and earth, then it would seem we have a great responsibility to reach out to the world and preach the good news so that few will be lost. It is our responsibility -- with God's help. Every year is another opportunity to fulfill this responsibility.
We know that God is already living with us in our hearts, but this passage seems to say that he will be living in a new tabernacle that he has given us. A tabernacle is different from a temple in that it goes with us wherever we go -- wherever God sends us. It is not stationary.
There won't be any more crying. That will be mainly because there will be no more death, which is our greatest fear -- and pain. Our Lord will make everything new. The old order will pass away. Complete change will be seen if we look in our spiritual mirror.
The main difficulty I have with this passage is that it is in the now. It is not some future dream. The things God does for us are beyond our imagining. God became a part of us in our baptism and will always be with us as long as we don't force him out -- which he has given us the power to do. We may already be part of this new earth as long as we don't move.
It is the old things that will pass away. There are some things in our life that we would want to pass away and others that are so much a part of us that we want them with us always. Every Sunday we should see both the old that we want to leave behind us and the new that we will always want to be with us. Those thoughts should stay with us all week and not just on Sunday. We should look at a New Year as a new opportunity to strengthen God's Spirit in us.
Bob O.
Matthew 25:31-46
Roger Cohen wrote an article for the New York Times in which he discussed that as a child he could not understand why his mother would howl and often be absent from the home for lengthy periods of time. As an adult he began to search for answers and discovered that after the birth of his sister his mother suffered from depression. He was able to secure her records from the sanatorium where she was hospitalized on several occasions. Cohen was dismayed when he saw her listed as patient #9413. He also realized that while he was growing up her mental illness was kept a secret, because of the societal taboos that surrounded this illness. Because of what he was able to learn from the plight of his mother he ended his article with these words: "Acceptance -- it comes down to that."
Application: We need to see Jesus with those who are mentally ill as well as others who we regulate as outcasts of society.
Ron L.
Matthew 25:31-46
Over 46 million Americans live in poverty. But a poll conducted by the Center for American Progress found that 25% of us (1 in 4 Americans) say that the poor are to blame for the poverty in which they are mired. What Martin Luther once said about the social trends in his day seems to apply to us:
But now all the world seems to be learning nothing else than how to estimate values, to rake and scrape, to rob and steal by lying, deceiving, usury, overcharging, overrating, and the like; and every man treats his neighbor, not as though he were his friend, much less his brother in Christ, but as his mortal enemy, and as though he intended to snatch all things to himself and begrudge everything to others.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, pp. 384-385)
John Calvin pointed out that the text reminds us that "believers ought not to think their condition too hard" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVII/1, p. 176). He also sets things right about this text: "... believers are called to the possession of the kingdom of heaven, so far as relates to good works, but not because they deserved them through the righteousness of works..." (Ibid., pp. 178-179).
Calvin also adds that we never are to let people's poverty put us off about helping them: "So then, whenever we are reluctant to assist the poor, let us place before our eyes the Son of God to whom it would be base sacrilege to refuse anything" (Ibid., p. 181).
In this sense we should heed the advice of the famed French existentialist Albert Camus: "Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day." That's a good New Year's resolution.
Mark E.
The Byrds were inspired by this text as they sang "To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn." But they failed to convey how this is a text not of peace (until the last verse), but about the meaninglessness of life. French philosopher Albert Camus well captures the meaningless of life while quoting the ancient Greek thinker Epicurus: "We can take precautions against all sorts of things; but so far as death is concerned, we all of us live like the inhabitants of the defenseless citadel" (The Rebel, p. 28).
On the meaninglessness of life described so compellingly in this text, John Wesley wrote:
... all vicissitudes which happen in the world, whether comforts or calamities, come to pass. Which is here added to prove the principal proposition that all things below are vain, and happiness is not to be found in them, because of their great uncertainty and mutability and transitoriness...
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 314)
Martin Luther adds similar observations with a word of hope echoed in the lesson's final verse:
All human works and efforts have a certain and definite time of acting, of beginning, and of ending, beyond human control... It is not up to us to prescribe the time, the manner, or the effect of the things that are to be done; and so it is obvious that here our strivings and efforts are unreliable.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 15, p. 49)
There is nothing better for a man in such a disastrous business than to enjoy the things that are present and to have a happy and joyful heart, without anxiety and care about the future. But the ability to do this is a gift of God.
(Ibid., p. 54)
This is a lesson about gallows humor that by the grace of God we can enjoy life even if it does ultimately lead to chaos and nothingness. That's a vision that might be worth a New Year's toast.
Mark E.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
Elisabeth Moss, who plays hardworking advertising copywriter Peggy Olson, on the television show Mad Men, was asked after the completion of filming for the seventh and final season what was her most memorable scene. Moss replied that it was during Season 7A, when she realizes she has done everything she has wanted to do but still seems unsatisfied. She asks Don Draper the universal question: "What did I do wrong?"
Application: There is a season, a time for everything in life but we often miss it for we focus on the wrong meaning of success.
Ron L.
Revelation 21:1-6a
I am not a fan of camping! I have had too many bad experiences and I enjoy the comforts of life too much. Craig Larson says that motor homes have allowed us to put all of the conveniences of home on wheels. I read that a camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping bags, cooking over an open fire, or hauling water from a stream. With the motor home, one can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line, and electricity. Now they come equipped with digital electronics as well.
Motor homes are bought with the hope of seeing new places, new sights, and new areas of the land. Yet they are decked out with the same furnishings as in our homes. Nothing really changes. One may drive to a new place, set oneself in new surroundings, but the newness goes unnoticed, for one only has carried along the old settings.
This New Year brings with it a new adventure of life in Jesus Christ as the old patterns of life are left behind.
(Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching by Craig Larson, editor [Baker Books, 1993], p. 153)
Derl K.
Revelation 21:1-6a
We must be careful not to take this passage too literally. That is true of much of the book of Revelation. All we can be sure of is that there will be a great change -- and it will be for the good of all believers. It seems like there will only be room for the "chosen" ones. As Jesus said, the road is narrow and the way is hard and only a few will pass through. Some people -- even Christians -- feel that a loving God would not allow any of his creation to be lost forever (some call it universal salvation).
If it is true that only a few will make it to this new heaven and earth, then it would seem we have a great responsibility to reach out to the world and preach the good news so that few will be lost. It is our responsibility -- with God's help. Every year is another opportunity to fulfill this responsibility.
We know that God is already living with us in our hearts, but this passage seems to say that he will be living in a new tabernacle that he has given us. A tabernacle is different from a temple in that it goes with us wherever we go -- wherever God sends us. It is not stationary.
There won't be any more crying. That will be mainly because there will be no more death, which is our greatest fear -- and pain. Our Lord will make everything new. The old order will pass away. Complete change will be seen if we look in our spiritual mirror.
The main difficulty I have with this passage is that it is in the now. It is not some future dream. The things God does for us are beyond our imagining. God became a part of us in our baptism and will always be with us as long as we don't force him out -- which he has given us the power to do. We may already be part of this new earth as long as we don't move.
It is the old things that will pass away. There are some things in our life that we would want to pass away and others that are so much a part of us that we want them with us always. Every Sunday we should see both the old that we want to leave behind us and the new that we will always want to be with us. Those thoughts should stay with us all week and not just on Sunday. We should look at a New Year as a new opportunity to strengthen God's Spirit in us.
Bob O.
Matthew 25:31-46
Roger Cohen wrote an article for the New York Times in which he discussed that as a child he could not understand why his mother would howl and often be absent from the home for lengthy periods of time. As an adult he began to search for answers and discovered that after the birth of his sister his mother suffered from depression. He was able to secure her records from the sanatorium where she was hospitalized on several occasions. Cohen was dismayed when he saw her listed as patient #9413. He also realized that while he was growing up her mental illness was kept a secret, because of the societal taboos that surrounded this illness. Because of what he was able to learn from the plight of his mother he ended his article with these words: "Acceptance -- it comes down to that."
Application: We need to see Jesus with those who are mentally ill as well as others who we regulate as outcasts of society.
Ron L.
Matthew 25:31-46
Over 46 million Americans live in poverty. But a poll conducted by the Center for American Progress found that 25% of us (1 in 4 Americans) say that the poor are to blame for the poverty in which they are mired. What Martin Luther once said about the social trends in his day seems to apply to us:
But now all the world seems to be learning nothing else than how to estimate values, to rake and scrape, to rob and steal by lying, deceiving, usury, overcharging, overrating, and the like; and every man treats his neighbor, not as though he were his friend, much less his brother in Christ, but as his mortal enemy, and as though he intended to snatch all things to himself and begrudge everything to others.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, pp. 384-385)
John Calvin pointed out that the text reminds us that "believers ought not to think their condition too hard" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVII/1, p. 176). He also sets things right about this text: "... believers are called to the possession of the kingdom of heaven, so far as relates to good works, but not because they deserved them through the righteousness of works..." (Ibid., pp. 178-179).
Calvin also adds that we never are to let people's poverty put us off about helping them: "So then, whenever we are reluctant to assist the poor, let us place before our eyes the Son of God to whom it would be base sacrilege to refuse anything" (Ibid., p. 181).
In this sense we should heed the advice of the famed French existentialist Albert Camus: "Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day." That's a good New Year's resolution.
Mark E.
