Sermon Illustrations for Proper 12 | OT 17 (2015)
Illustration
Object:
2 Samuel 11:1-15
King David’s affair with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband so disappoints us. How can a great and good man like David be a sinner?
It happens all the time -- in our own lives. Sin permeates all we do, for we are all selfish. This is a well-established scientific fact. Genetic research indicates that human bodies seek to maximize production of their DNA. This has led researcher Richard Dawkins to speak of the “selfish gene.” Even altruism serves this selfishness (The Selfish Gene). In all we do, even in our so-called good deeds, we are exhibiting selfish, sinful behavior. Why would we want to highlight such an awareness? Martin Luther tells us why: “This should serve God’s purpose to break our pride and keep us humble. He has reserved to himself this prerogative, that if anybody boasts of his goodness and despises others... he will find that he is no better than others, that in the presence of God all men must humble themselves and be glad that they can attain forgiveness” (The Book of Concord, p. 432).
Elsewhere the first Reformer added a word about God’s forgiving love for a world full of Davids like us: “This is in truth what the world is: it is a stable full of wicked, shameful people who misuse all creatures of God in the most disgraceful matter, who blaspheme God and inflict everything evil on him. These shameful people God loves. This is love supreme (What Luther Says, p. 821).
Mark E.
Ephesians 3:14-21
But how doth Christ dwell in the hearts?...What he means is this. Although the love of Christ lies above the reach of all human knowledge, yet shall ye know it, if he shall have Christ dwelling in you, yea, not only shall know from him this, but shall even “be filled unto all the fullness of God”; meaning by the “fullness of God” either the knowledge how God is worshiped in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, or else urging them thus to use every effort in order to be filled with all virtue of which God is full.
(St. John Chrysostom, “Homilies on Ephesians,”Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers [First Series, Volume XIII], pp. 81-82)
Frank R.
John 6:1-21
Martin Luther’s version of the Feeding of the 5,000 offers most profound insights on the significance of this text for today. As he puts it, we are reminded that faith is under constant siege between mammon and wealth on one side and poverty on the other. Both rich and poor threaten God’s Word. In this lesson Christ exhorts a middle course, “teaching that we must come to rely on God, trust in him in every need, and learn to be content with what he daily provides.” The poor will not starve, for God will see to it. In death, the rich have no more than the average Christian (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, pp. 344-345). The great philosopher Aristotle had a similar bias toward middle-class life: “The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class,” he wrote (Politics).
The middle class is in decline. It has endured more than three decades of stagnant wages and has shrunk from two-thirds of the population in 1973 to just 44% today. At the same time, 14.5% of us are in poverty. How are to cope with these new circumstances? Martin Luther offers sound advice for our time: “We should, therefore, learn contentment and not become impatient and angry with God because we are not wealthy. Were we rich we might well become meaner and more sinful” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 348).
An anonymous English saying found in an inn in Lancaster further communicates this carefree life that we can enjoy even if our resources are shrinking, a reminder that God feeds us and gives us life:
Give us Lord, a bit o’ sun,
A bit o’ work and bit o’ fun;
Give us all in the struggle and sputter
Our daily bread and a bid o’ butter.
Studies conducted by economist Angus Deaton and psychologist Daniel Kahneman have revealed that bread, butter, a place to live, and people to love are all the goods God needs to provide to guarantee well-being and happiness. Nobody gets happier with a higher household income level than $75,000 if they have all those things (Gallup Business Journal, Nov. 17, 2011).
Mark E.
King David’s affair with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband so disappoints us. How can a great and good man like David be a sinner?
It happens all the time -- in our own lives. Sin permeates all we do, for we are all selfish. This is a well-established scientific fact. Genetic research indicates that human bodies seek to maximize production of their DNA. This has led researcher Richard Dawkins to speak of the “selfish gene.” Even altruism serves this selfishness (The Selfish Gene). In all we do, even in our so-called good deeds, we are exhibiting selfish, sinful behavior. Why would we want to highlight such an awareness? Martin Luther tells us why: “This should serve God’s purpose to break our pride and keep us humble. He has reserved to himself this prerogative, that if anybody boasts of his goodness and despises others... he will find that he is no better than others, that in the presence of God all men must humble themselves and be glad that they can attain forgiveness” (The Book of Concord, p. 432).
Elsewhere the first Reformer added a word about God’s forgiving love for a world full of Davids like us: “This is in truth what the world is: it is a stable full of wicked, shameful people who misuse all creatures of God in the most disgraceful matter, who blaspheme God and inflict everything evil on him. These shameful people God loves. This is love supreme (What Luther Says, p. 821).
Mark E.
Ephesians 3:14-21
But how doth Christ dwell in the hearts?...What he means is this. Although the love of Christ lies above the reach of all human knowledge, yet shall ye know it, if he shall have Christ dwelling in you, yea, not only shall know from him this, but shall even “be filled unto all the fullness of God”; meaning by the “fullness of God” either the knowledge how God is worshiped in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, or else urging them thus to use every effort in order to be filled with all virtue of which God is full.
(St. John Chrysostom, “Homilies on Ephesians,”Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers [First Series, Volume XIII], pp. 81-82)
Frank R.
John 6:1-21
Martin Luther’s version of the Feeding of the 5,000 offers most profound insights on the significance of this text for today. As he puts it, we are reminded that faith is under constant siege between mammon and wealth on one side and poverty on the other. Both rich and poor threaten God’s Word. In this lesson Christ exhorts a middle course, “teaching that we must come to rely on God, trust in him in every need, and learn to be content with what he daily provides.” The poor will not starve, for God will see to it. In death, the rich have no more than the average Christian (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, pp. 344-345). The great philosopher Aristotle had a similar bias toward middle-class life: “The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class,” he wrote (Politics).
The middle class is in decline. It has endured more than three decades of stagnant wages and has shrunk from two-thirds of the population in 1973 to just 44% today. At the same time, 14.5% of us are in poverty. How are to cope with these new circumstances? Martin Luther offers sound advice for our time: “We should, therefore, learn contentment and not become impatient and angry with God because we are not wealthy. Were we rich we might well become meaner and more sinful” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 348).
An anonymous English saying found in an inn in Lancaster further communicates this carefree life that we can enjoy even if our resources are shrinking, a reminder that God feeds us and gives us life:
Give us Lord, a bit o’ sun,
A bit o’ work and bit o’ fun;
Give us all in the struggle and sputter
Our daily bread and a bid o’ butter.
Studies conducted by economist Angus Deaton and psychologist Daniel Kahneman have revealed that bread, butter, a place to live, and people to love are all the goods God needs to provide to guarantee well-being and happiness. Nobody gets happier with a higher household income level than $75,000 if they have all those things (Gallup Business Journal, Nov. 17, 2011).
Mark E.
