Sermon Illustrations for Proper 10 | OT 15 (2022)
Illustration
Amos 7:7-17
We are reminded in this lesson, that Christian faith and politics always stand in tension. This point was so well made by the great social ethicist of the last century Reinhold Niebuhr. He once wrote:
According to the Christian faith, life is and always will be fragmentary, frustrating, and incomplete... There are no simple congruities in life or history. (Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life, p.131)
The church always has to be in tension with the affairs of state, always reminding the state that there is more to life than what politics and the laws of the state offer. For no matter how good and fair our laws seem to be, they are never fair enough. Faith needs always to be in dialogue with issues of injustice oppression, and poverty.
Twentieth-century Black intellectual Howard Thurman, an influence on many leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, once wrote:
The masses of men... are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. What does our religion say to them? The issue is not what it counsels them to do for others whose need may be greater, but what religion offers to meet their own needs. The search for an answer to this question is perhaps the most important religious quest of modern life. (Jesus and the Disinherited, p. 3)
Martin Luther King offered similar comments:
Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 82
Commenting on v. 3 of the psalm, John Calvin observes that:
We are here briefly taught that a just and well-regulated government will be distinguished for maintaining the rights of the poor and afflicted... From these remarks, it is very obvious why the causes of the poor and needy is here chiefly commended to rulers... (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. V/2, pp. 331,332)
Calvin the free-market capitalist would seem to favor government infrastructure projects creating jobs for the poor and working class. With reference to v.1 and its comment about God standing in the midst of the gods and of all things, Augustine helpfully comments:
It is not indeed easy to make this clear because it cannot be denied that not a bodily but a spiritual presence of God, agreeable to his nature, exists with created things in a wonderful manner, and one which but a few do understand, and that imperfectly... (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Fist Series, Vol. 8, p. 395)
Mark E.
* * *
Colossians 1:1-14
I came across this story on the Imperial War Museum’s website, a site that features British war history. Alexander Cumine Russell was born in 1833 and as a young officer, only 18 years old, he was being transported on the HMS Birkenhead to South Africa after his training. Because he was young and an officer, he was put in charge of a cutter full of women and children. As they were rowing away from the wreck, one of the women in the boat saw her husband struggling in the water. Without any hesitation, Russell jumped out of the boat, helped the sailor into it and then swam behind the cutter. Barely five minutes after entering the water he was attacked and killed by sharks. The Glenalmond Chronicle reported the unveiling of his memorial in 1899 and declared, "I see not how any boy of Glenalmond can ever do a deed that shall better his!"
Stories of rescue and sacrifice are always appealing. Paul notes in this passage how God rescued his people from the power of darkness and enabled us, through the sacrifice of Jesus, to be a part of his kingdom. May we do as Paul suggested the Colossians do; “lead lives worthy of the Lord” (vs. 10).
Bill T.
* * *
Colossians 1:1-14
Evidently this letter to the house churches of Colossae was bundled with the letter to Philemon. One of those house churches met in his no doubt extensive villa. Paul is in prison, probably in Rome, perhaps facing execution, and he knows that in sending Onesimus, one of Philemon’s escaped slaves, as a courier back to his master -- he may be sending him to torture and death. Now remember that all letters were read out loud to the entire congregation. These were not private letters. Paul gave greetings in the letter to Philemon to many people and included greetings from some heavy hitters (including Mark and Luke, two evangelists!)
And in this first chapter of Colossians, Paul slaps Philemon in the face. The Colossians learned about the basics of the Good News of Jesus from Epaphras, described in the Greek as Paul sundoulos, often translated as fellow servant, but literally “fellow slave.” Slave is a denigrating term. All slaves are liars, cheats, lazy, useless – in the eyes of their owners, but not God’s eyes. Paul insists on defining our relationship to Jesus and to each other as slaves. It’s an ugly way to identify people in the first century, and it should feel ugly to us too. But remember, in his letter to the Philippians, Paul said that Jesus was obedient, like a slave, obedient even to a cross.
So, while you may not hear it, the first salvo in the slave chronicles is fired directly at Philemon. You, the rich owner of a villa that serves as a house church, are a slave too.
Think about it. Think about it.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 10:25-37
Pope Francis nicely summarizes what the parable of the Good Samaritan is all about: “Christian love is loving without counting the cost. This is the lesson of the Good Samaritan; this is the lesson of Jesus.” Martin Luther further elaborates on what is involved in loving God:
Learn what it means to love God. This Samaritan loves God. Not that he gave anything to God, but he showed his love in that he helped the poor, wounded man as much as he could. For thus says God: If you want to love me and serve me, give your neighbor loving service; he needs it, I do not. (What Luther Says, p. 823)
Augustine suggests that the inn to which the Good Samaritan brought the man beaten by robbers is the church, where healing happens for the sick (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 503). Being a Good Samaritan is not a job for loners; we don’t serve our neighbor alone.
Mark E.
We are reminded in this lesson, that Christian faith and politics always stand in tension. This point was so well made by the great social ethicist of the last century Reinhold Niebuhr. He once wrote:
According to the Christian faith, life is and always will be fragmentary, frustrating, and incomplete... There are no simple congruities in life or history. (Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life, p.131)
The church always has to be in tension with the affairs of state, always reminding the state that there is more to life than what politics and the laws of the state offer. For no matter how good and fair our laws seem to be, they are never fair enough. Faith needs always to be in dialogue with issues of injustice oppression, and poverty.
Twentieth-century Black intellectual Howard Thurman, an influence on many leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, once wrote:
The masses of men... are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. What does our religion say to them? The issue is not what it counsels them to do for others whose need may be greater, but what religion offers to meet their own needs. The search for an answer to this question is perhaps the most important religious quest of modern life. (Jesus and the Disinherited, p. 3)
Martin Luther King offered similar comments:
Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 82
Commenting on v. 3 of the psalm, John Calvin observes that:
We are here briefly taught that a just and well-regulated government will be distinguished for maintaining the rights of the poor and afflicted... From these remarks, it is very obvious why the causes of the poor and needy is here chiefly commended to rulers... (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. V/2, pp. 331,332)
Calvin the free-market capitalist would seem to favor government infrastructure projects creating jobs for the poor and working class. With reference to v.1 and its comment about God standing in the midst of the gods and of all things, Augustine helpfully comments:
It is not indeed easy to make this clear because it cannot be denied that not a bodily but a spiritual presence of God, agreeable to his nature, exists with created things in a wonderful manner, and one which but a few do understand, and that imperfectly... (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Fist Series, Vol. 8, p. 395)
Mark E.
* * *
Colossians 1:1-14
I came across this story on the Imperial War Museum’s website, a site that features British war history. Alexander Cumine Russell was born in 1833 and as a young officer, only 18 years old, he was being transported on the HMS Birkenhead to South Africa after his training. Because he was young and an officer, he was put in charge of a cutter full of women and children. As they were rowing away from the wreck, one of the women in the boat saw her husband struggling in the water. Without any hesitation, Russell jumped out of the boat, helped the sailor into it and then swam behind the cutter. Barely five minutes after entering the water he was attacked and killed by sharks. The Glenalmond Chronicle reported the unveiling of his memorial in 1899 and declared, "I see not how any boy of Glenalmond can ever do a deed that shall better his!"
Stories of rescue and sacrifice are always appealing. Paul notes in this passage how God rescued his people from the power of darkness and enabled us, through the sacrifice of Jesus, to be a part of his kingdom. May we do as Paul suggested the Colossians do; “lead lives worthy of the Lord” (vs. 10).
Bill T.
* * *
Colossians 1:1-14
Evidently this letter to the house churches of Colossae was bundled with the letter to Philemon. One of those house churches met in his no doubt extensive villa. Paul is in prison, probably in Rome, perhaps facing execution, and he knows that in sending Onesimus, one of Philemon’s escaped slaves, as a courier back to his master -- he may be sending him to torture and death. Now remember that all letters were read out loud to the entire congregation. These were not private letters. Paul gave greetings in the letter to Philemon to many people and included greetings from some heavy hitters (including Mark and Luke, two evangelists!)
And in this first chapter of Colossians, Paul slaps Philemon in the face. The Colossians learned about the basics of the Good News of Jesus from Epaphras, described in the Greek as Paul sundoulos, often translated as fellow servant, but literally “fellow slave.” Slave is a denigrating term. All slaves are liars, cheats, lazy, useless – in the eyes of their owners, but not God’s eyes. Paul insists on defining our relationship to Jesus and to each other as slaves. It’s an ugly way to identify people in the first century, and it should feel ugly to us too. But remember, in his letter to the Philippians, Paul said that Jesus was obedient, like a slave, obedient even to a cross.
So, while you may not hear it, the first salvo in the slave chronicles is fired directly at Philemon. You, the rich owner of a villa that serves as a house church, are a slave too.
Think about it. Think about it.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 10:25-37
Pope Francis nicely summarizes what the parable of the Good Samaritan is all about: “Christian love is loving without counting the cost. This is the lesson of the Good Samaritan; this is the lesson of Jesus.” Martin Luther further elaborates on what is involved in loving God:
Learn what it means to love God. This Samaritan loves God. Not that he gave anything to God, but he showed his love in that he helped the poor, wounded man as much as he could. For thus says God: If you want to love me and serve me, give your neighbor loving service; he needs it, I do not. (What Luther Says, p. 823)
Augustine suggests that the inn to which the Good Samaritan brought the man beaten by robbers is the church, where healing happens for the sick (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 503). Being a Good Samaritan is not a job for loners; we don’t serve our neighbor alone.
Mark E.
