Sermon Illustrations for Proper 13 | Ordinary Time 18 (2020)
Illustration
Genesis 32:22-31
A 2019 Gallup poll found that more than three in ten Americans have doubts about God. Like Jacob, they/we wrestle with God. Martin Luther once noted that this text “is regarded by all as among the most obscure passages of the whole Old Testament.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.6, p.125) Luther seems to regard wrestling with God as the temptation to despair (Luther’s Works, Vol.6, pp.131, 134). His spiritual son Søren Kierkegaard, founder of existentialism, contended that we encounter this despair just by confronting the eternality of God. And yet this despair gets us nearer to salvation (Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death, esp. pp.194-196)! As he puts it:
So it appears that every aesthetic view of life is despair, and that everyone who lives aesthetically is in despair, whether he knows it or not. But when one knows it (and you indeed know it), a higher form of existence is an imperative requirement. (Either /Or, Vol.2, p.197)
When we wrestle with God, we recognize our misery and that creates a climate in which we are ready to abandon our self-destructive ways and leap into the arms of a loving God. Despair and wrestling with God are good for your faith and way of life. But John Calvin wants to be sure we are clear that in this wrestling with despair it is not that we overcome God. Any victory gained is God’s doing:
For we do not fight against Him, except by His own power, and with His own weapons; for He having challenged us to the contest, at the same time furnished us with the means of resistance, so that He both fights against us and for us. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.I/2, p.196)
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 55:1-5; Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Have you ever had a conversation with someone about your faith? Have you ever talked with someone who is not a believer? I often talk with my young adult grandson about faith. He considers himself “non-religious” which I suppose is his word for agnostic or atheist. As many of his generation, God seems a foreign concept – a cosmic presence he hasn’t or can’t experience. Still I talk with him about my faith. Mostly though, I listen and wait for his questions and answer them. He bemoans the fact that I am the only believer who doesn’t simply tell him he is going to hell if he doesn’t believe. I witness to him, but as the psalmist writes about the Lord, I try to be gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. I still speak of my faith, but I also simply love my grandson as he grapples with his own faith.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Romans 9:1-5
Charles Spurgeon, in a sermon he noted that John Bunyan said he often felt while preaching that he could give his own salvation for the salvation of his hearers. Spurgeon concluded, “and I pity the man who has not felt the same.”
“The South Florida Sun Sentinel” reported on July 16, 1994, “When workers recently removed marble wainscoting from the lobby of the Washington Monument, they found the meticulously carved declaration of a 19th-century graffiti artist on the wall beneath. Now on public view is this three-line statement cut into a white marble block: "Whoever is the human instrument under God in the conversion of one soul, erects a monument to his own memory more lofty and enduing [sic) than this." It is signed BFB.
No one knows who BFB is, but his/her thoughts still resonate. Paul was passionate for his people, the Jews. He recognizes that they have so much history and connection with God. He longs that they would see Jesus as the Messiah. How passionately do we desire that others come to know Jesus?
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 9:1-5
Bobby McFerrin is best known to us for his iconic 1988 feel-good hit song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Since then he has received ten Grammy Awards. McFerrin’s love of music came from his childhood. Whenever he was sick his mother would give him two things, medicine for his illness and “she’d give me music for my spirit.” He went on to say, “Music does have incredible power to rearrange your insides, rearrange your thoughts, heal your body.”
McFerrin is later released in 2013 his album titled spirityouall. This reads as “spirit you all,” which is Mcferrin’s personal testament of faith. The album includes his adaptations of traditional African American spirituals and devotional songs that he composed. McFerrin believes that music has a transcendent spiritual power saying, “It elicits so many emotions. Music has a way of communicating … that language does not. It can go past language.”
The song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” begins with these words:
Here's a little song I wrote you might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry be happy
In every life we have some trouble but when you worry you make it double
Don't worry be happy
Don't worry be happy now
Ron L.
* * *
Romans 9:1-5
I have to admit I cringe when I hear a preacher, Sunday School teacher, or children’s story teller use the term “the Jews,” as in “the Jews” did not accept Jesus, or “the Jews” didn’t understand who Jesus was, I cringe. Students of scripture are aware that the term “the Jews” may mean “Jewish religious leaders,” or “Jewish political leaders,” or “Judeans.” Don’t forget that most of the people we meet in the gospels who accept the message of Jesus are Jews.
At the time when Jesus lived, Judaism was as multifaceted a faith as Christianity is now. There are many different theological, cultural, and ethnic expressions of Christianity. The same is and was true of Judaism.
Let’s not forget that Paul considered himself Jewish to his dying day and practiced his cultural heritage, even while insisting that it was not necessary for Romans, Greeks, Celts, and other ethnic identities to adopt his practices.
In these five difficult verses, Paul is interpreted by some as condemning all Jews, but that’s not at all the case. He is recognizing that some oppose his interpretation of the Jewish Messianic hope shared by some Jews as fulfilled in Jesus.
When you encounter a cringeworthy passage, it’s probably more helpful to direct these verses to us as twenty-first century Christians. We are not perfect as a church, denomination, nation, family, or people. We must deal with the fact that we are not perfect. There are things that make us cringe that we once said, our families used to do, our churches practiced, our nation did. And there are things being said and practiced now that bear no resemblance that turn the teaching of Jesus on its head.
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 14:13-21
A 2016 Barna Research poll found that 66% of Americans still believe in miracles. That number may have declined in view of the phenomenal growth of the religiously unaffiliated segment of the American population. More than three in ten of us do not believe in miracles. Sermons on this Lesson can provide reassurance for those who are struggling.
Martin Luther made clear that the strength of faith does not matter. In a sermon he claimed:
We might compare this to two persons who possess a hundred guldens. The one may carry them in a paper sack, the other may keep them in an iron chest. But for all that, both possess the entire treasure. Thus the Christ whom you and I own is one and the same, regardless of the strength or the weakness of your faith or of mind. (Luther’s Works, Vol.23, p.28)
Faith does not save, he claims elsewhere. It is just the ring enclosing the Gem Who is Christ (Luther’s Works, Vol.26, p.132). Don’t worry if your faith in the Bible’s miracles is not so strong. As for believing this particular miracle (the Feeding of the Five Thousand) the first reformer has some advice to make faith easier. His advice to us is to open our eyes and note that miracles like this are happening all the time:
We are so accustomed to find that grain grows out of the earth annually, and we are so blinded by this that we pay no attention to it; for what we daily see and hear we do not consider a miracle. And yet it is as great a miracle... as Christ’s feeding the multitude with seven loaves. (What Luther Says, p.954)
Open your eyes this week to all the miracles, and faith will get easier.
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 14:13-21
I really love this parable. This parable reminds us of the abundance in our midst, that even when we think we don’t have enough, there really is plenty. In my work with churches, I often have to remind people that our God is a God of abundance rather than scarcity. As I entered seminary, I made a commitment to tithe at a time when my expenses were high. My pastor questioned my ability to do so, but I made that commitment. Amazingly, when it came time to put my check in the offering plate, there was always enough. Perhaps that was a coincidence, but I truly believe it was God reminding me that there was enough – enough to live, enough to have, enough to share. Whether it was cosmic blessing that multiplied the loaves and fishes or the sharing of the people from their own lunches that created the abundance – there was abundance. There is abundance. We have enough.
Bonnie B.
A 2019 Gallup poll found that more than three in ten Americans have doubts about God. Like Jacob, they/we wrestle with God. Martin Luther once noted that this text “is regarded by all as among the most obscure passages of the whole Old Testament.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.6, p.125) Luther seems to regard wrestling with God as the temptation to despair (Luther’s Works, Vol.6, pp.131, 134). His spiritual son Søren Kierkegaard, founder of existentialism, contended that we encounter this despair just by confronting the eternality of God. And yet this despair gets us nearer to salvation (Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death, esp. pp.194-196)! As he puts it:
So it appears that every aesthetic view of life is despair, and that everyone who lives aesthetically is in despair, whether he knows it or not. But when one knows it (and you indeed know it), a higher form of existence is an imperative requirement. (Either /Or, Vol.2, p.197)
When we wrestle with God, we recognize our misery and that creates a climate in which we are ready to abandon our self-destructive ways and leap into the arms of a loving God. Despair and wrestling with God are good for your faith and way of life. But John Calvin wants to be sure we are clear that in this wrestling with despair it is not that we overcome God. Any victory gained is God’s doing:
For we do not fight against Him, except by His own power, and with His own weapons; for He having challenged us to the contest, at the same time furnished us with the means of resistance, so that He both fights against us and for us. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.I/2, p.196)
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 55:1-5; Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Have you ever had a conversation with someone about your faith? Have you ever talked with someone who is not a believer? I often talk with my young adult grandson about faith. He considers himself “non-religious” which I suppose is his word for agnostic or atheist. As many of his generation, God seems a foreign concept – a cosmic presence he hasn’t or can’t experience. Still I talk with him about my faith. Mostly though, I listen and wait for his questions and answer them. He bemoans the fact that I am the only believer who doesn’t simply tell him he is going to hell if he doesn’t believe. I witness to him, but as the psalmist writes about the Lord, I try to be gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. I still speak of my faith, but I also simply love my grandson as he grapples with his own faith.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Romans 9:1-5
Charles Spurgeon, in a sermon he noted that John Bunyan said he often felt while preaching that he could give his own salvation for the salvation of his hearers. Spurgeon concluded, “and I pity the man who has not felt the same.”
“The South Florida Sun Sentinel” reported on July 16, 1994, “When workers recently removed marble wainscoting from the lobby of the Washington Monument, they found the meticulously carved declaration of a 19th-century graffiti artist on the wall beneath. Now on public view is this three-line statement cut into a white marble block: "Whoever is the human instrument under God in the conversion of one soul, erects a monument to his own memory more lofty and enduing [sic) than this." It is signed BFB.
No one knows who BFB is, but his/her thoughts still resonate. Paul was passionate for his people, the Jews. He recognizes that they have so much history and connection with God. He longs that they would see Jesus as the Messiah. How passionately do we desire that others come to know Jesus?
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 9:1-5
Bobby McFerrin is best known to us for his iconic 1988 feel-good hit song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Since then he has received ten Grammy Awards. McFerrin’s love of music came from his childhood. Whenever he was sick his mother would give him two things, medicine for his illness and “she’d give me music for my spirit.” He went on to say, “Music does have incredible power to rearrange your insides, rearrange your thoughts, heal your body.”
McFerrin is later released in 2013 his album titled spirityouall. This reads as “spirit you all,” which is Mcferrin’s personal testament of faith. The album includes his adaptations of traditional African American spirituals and devotional songs that he composed. McFerrin believes that music has a transcendent spiritual power saying, “It elicits so many emotions. Music has a way of communicating … that language does not. It can go past language.”
The song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” begins with these words:
Here's a little song I wrote you might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry be happy
In every life we have some trouble but when you worry you make it double
Don't worry be happy
Don't worry be happy now
Ron L.
* * *
Romans 9:1-5
I have to admit I cringe when I hear a preacher, Sunday School teacher, or children’s story teller use the term “the Jews,” as in “the Jews” did not accept Jesus, or “the Jews” didn’t understand who Jesus was, I cringe. Students of scripture are aware that the term “the Jews” may mean “Jewish religious leaders,” or “Jewish political leaders,” or “Judeans.” Don’t forget that most of the people we meet in the gospels who accept the message of Jesus are Jews.
At the time when Jesus lived, Judaism was as multifaceted a faith as Christianity is now. There are many different theological, cultural, and ethnic expressions of Christianity. The same is and was true of Judaism.
Let’s not forget that Paul considered himself Jewish to his dying day and practiced his cultural heritage, even while insisting that it was not necessary for Romans, Greeks, Celts, and other ethnic identities to adopt his practices.
In these five difficult verses, Paul is interpreted by some as condemning all Jews, but that’s not at all the case. He is recognizing that some oppose his interpretation of the Jewish Messianic hope shared by some Jews as fulfilled in Jesus.
When you encounter a cringeworthy passage, it’s probably more helpful to direct these verses to us as twenty-first century Christians. We are not perfect as a church, denomination, nation, family, or people. We must deal with the fact that we are not perfect. There are things that make us cringe that we once said, our families used to do, our churches practiced, our nation did. And there are things being said and practiced now that bear no resemblance that turn the teaching of Jesus on its head.
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 14:13-21
A 2016 Barna Research poll found that 66% of Americans still believe in miracles. That number may have declined in view of the phenomenal growth of the religiously unaffiliated segment of the American population. More than three in ten of us do not believe in miracles. Sermons on this Lesson can provide reassurance for those who are struggling.
Martin Luther made clear that the strength of faith does not matter. In a sermon he claimed:
We might compare this to two persons who possess a hundred guldens. The one may carry them in a paper sack, the other may keep them in an iron chest. But for all that, both possess the entire treasure. Thus the Christ whom you and I own is one and the same, regardless of the strength or the weakness of your faith or of mind. (Luther’s Works, Vol.23, p.28)
Faith does not save, he claims elsewhere. It is just the ring enclosing the Gem Who is Christ (Luther’s Works, Vol.26, p.132). Don’t worry if your faith in the Bible’s miracles is not so strong. As for believing this particular miracle (the Feeding of the Five Thousand) the first reformer has some advice to make faith easier. His advice to us is to open our eyes and note that miracles like this are happening all the time:
We are so accustomed to find that grain grows out of the earth annually, and we are so blinded by this that we pay no attention to it; for what we daily see and hear we do not consider a miracle. And yet it is as great a miracle... as Christ’s feeding the multitude with seven loaves. (What Luther Says, p.954)
Open your eyes this week to all the miracles, and faith will get easier.
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 14:13-21
I really love this parable. This parable reminds us of the abundance in our midst, that even when we think we don’t have enough, there really is plenty. In my work with churches, I often have to remind people that our God is a God of abundance rather than scarcity. As I entered seminary, I made a commitment to tithe at a time when my expenses were high. My pastor questioned my ability to do so, but I made that commitment. Amazingly, when it came time to put my check in the offering plate, there was always enough. Perhaps that was a coincidence, but I truly believe it was God reminding me that there was enough – enough to live, enough to have, enough to share. Whether it was cosmic blessing that multiplied the loaves and fishes or the sharing of the people from their own lunches that created the abundance – there was abundance. There is abundance. We have enough.
Bonnie B.
