Sermon Illustrations for Proper 14 | OT 19 (2019)
Illustration
Isaiah 1:1,10-20
As Isaiah challenged Judah’s morality, this might be a time to challenge American morality too. Psychologist Jean Twenge wrote a book about the Generation X’ers whose title says it all about our nation today — Generation Me. Narcissism and self-fulfillment are what life is all about for those born since World War II. An analysis of our situation by political scientist Patrick Deneen well characterizes the American ethos in our century:
Society today has been organized around the ... principle that “everything is allowed,” as long as it does not result in measurable (mainly physical) harm. It is a society organized for the benefit of the strong. A society can be shaped for the benefit of most people by emphasizing mainly informal norms and customs that secure the path to flourishing of most human beings; or it can be shaped for the benefit of the extraordinary and powerful by liberating from the constraint of custom. (Why Liberalism Failed, p.148)
Moral values are in the interests of common people. Deneen proceeds to explain that in abolishing moral codes it has been in the interests of the elite. The breakdown of marital norms has “made” Donald Trump and his policies of cutting taxes for the rich. It’s no accident that a 2017 Gallup Poll revealed that nearly half the American public thinks our moral values are poor, and a 2017 Pew Research Center poll revealed that nearly half of us now characterize ourselves as spiritual, not religious, or as neither, entailing that our worldviews and values are no longer shaped by common standards, but that we observe our own “sacred cows” (most of which we’ve made up). Little wonder that a society not moored by common standards widens the wage gap between rich and poor (51% of the wealth owned by the top 10% of rich households while the remaining 90% of us divvy up the remaining 49% of the wealth, according to 2015 and 2017 US Census Bureau statistics).
Isaiah’s critique of Judah indeed refers to us. To our quest for a self-fulfilling spirituality (what I believe must meet my needs), John Calvin has some tough, prophetic words:
When men venture to take such liberties as to invent new modes of worship, that is superstition. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVI/1, p.59)
And regarding overcoming poverty, Martin Luther King Jr.’s words in his last Sunday sermon in 1968 still ring true today:
... this is America’s opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The question is whether America will do it. There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques to find the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will. (A Testament of Hope, p.274)
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Empty offerings and sacrifices dishonor God. What God seeks is a contrite heart and our ability to do good: seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. God is calling on Israel to move back into loving relationship with God and with the least among the people — those in deep need of justice, compassion, defense and care. Coming with offerings and sacrifices are not enough. We are to be people of God in the world. This is a call for us contemporary Christians as well. Coming into worship, offering a gift or a tithe, praying and singing and seeking the presence of God is not enough. We are called to go into the world and be the church in action in the world, making a difference in the lives of people. My dear friend, Rev. Dr. Michael Piazza, says “we come into the church wearing our bibs to be fed. But when we go out of the church, we take off our bibs and put on our aprons to serve.” Is this how you live your faith?
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Martin Luther said: "Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible. Then, it accepts the impossible, does without the indispensable and bears the intolerable."
During the terrible days of the Blitz in London in 1940, a father, holding his small son by the hand, ran from a building that had been struck by a bomb. In the front yard they found a shell hole. Seeking shelter as quickly as possible, the father jumped into the hole and held up his arms for his son to follow. Terrified, yet hearing his father's voice telling him to jump, the boy replied, "I can't see you!"
The father, looking up against the sky tinted red by the burning buildings, called to the silhouette of his son, "But I can see you. Jump!"
That’s the essence of faith. The writer of Hebrews defines it well. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” May we, in our times of difficulty, emulate the faith of Abraham who couldn’t see how it might work out, but trusted God. Do you believe that God sees you?
Bill T.
* * *
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Gary Sinise is an American actor, director and musician. In his career, he is known for his comedic and dramatic roles. He has won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is probably best known for playing Lt. Dan Taylor in the movie Forest Gump. Sinise has become involved in the Snowball Express program that ministers to Gold Star families. It works in cooperation with Disney and American Airlines. These are families that have lost a loved one in military service. For Christmas 2018, Sinise sponsored 1,700 Gold Star families to a four-day stay at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Explaining why he did this, the 63-year-old actor said, “We want to provide a healing opportunity by bringing them all together.”
Ron L.
* * *
Luke 12:32-40
We have the wrong idea of what constitutes a treasure. That is a problem for faith, because what we treasure has our heart. And as Martin Luther once noted:
Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your hole heart. As I have often said, it is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol. (The Book of Concord [2000 ed.], p.386)
American greed is evident in the statistics. According to a 2018 FINRA Investor Education Foundation study 55% of Americans report spending about the same or more than their income each month. Of course you’ve got to have that latest gadget, piece of furniture, latest fashion, or the large home your family does not need in order to prove your worth (to yourself). We’ve been “educated” to think that happiness and meaning are found in what we acquire. Explaining how advertising works to socialize us into this mad quest for more, famed social analyst Christopher Lasch wrote:
It [Advertising] “educates” the masses into an unappeasable appetite, not only for goods but for new experiences and personal fulfillment. It upholds consumption as the answer to the age-old discontents of loneliness, sickness, weariness... at the same time it creates new forms of discontent peculiar to the modern age. (The Culture of Narcissism, pp.137-138)
We need to be prepared for Christ to come into our lives in order to break this cycle, Jesus warns in this lesson. If not, we’ll keep on clinging to our messed-up values. Martin Luther, who believed we are in the End Times, nicely made this point:
That’s the way things will be, says Christ, when judgment day nears. The whole world will act secure. Don’t let this disturb you, Christ admonishes, do not follow them... Nor be afraid; keep your head high, and see to it that, when I come down from heaven, I shall be able to find you! Then you will experience no distress, for I shall come to deliver you. (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.38)
In preparing for Christ, we have the assurance that the judgment at the end will be “Not Guilty!” Living with the future in view, in preparation for it, and with this sort of hopefulness that our deliverance by Christ is a sure thing, contributes to happiness and emotional health. Neurobiologists have discerned that hopefulness leads to the relaxation of muscles, slower heartbeat, and the release of the feel-good brain chemical dopamine (Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, esp. p.58).
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 12:32-40
First century Christians thought Jesus would return during their lifetimes. Here we are centuries later and the second coming has not yet occurred. Jesus tried to be clear. The question wasn’t when he would return, but would we be prepared? Would our lives be in order? Would our lives be anchored in faith?
I have a friend who is always late — she has good intentions, but she gets distracted and thinks she can accomplish one more thing before she has to leave her home. She is prepared but is unfocused on the priority of getting somewhere on time. As a child my father always allowed an extra 20 minutes of travel time and as a result I was, and continue to be, early — in most cases. It’s not travel Jesus wants us to be prepared for, but eternity. So, are we in right relationship with our family, our friends and our God? If Jesus returned tomorrow would our hearts be ready?
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 12:32-40
What if you were given all the Hawaiian Islands if you would give sacrificially to those in great need. I can see the Hawaiian Islands in my photo album. I have been there and they are fantastic. I can also see the great needs of others in our country and all over the world who desperately need our help. Every day we get mail appealing for contributions to some “worthy” cause, but we don’t just throw our money at them. Some of the causes we are begged to help may be phony. We need to find out before we give.
I have appealed to our church for contributions to my many friends in Nepal where I served as a missionary. The main reason I receive money from my friends is because those who contribute know me personally. I send them photos I took of the churches I helped. My friends can see in those photos all those who came to know the Lord because of the work of the seminary students I taught. One of my “seminary boys” came to visit us here in Colorado when he came to visit my church here. When our members saw him and heard him tell what he was doing, they gave him a couple thousand dollars to take back with him.
Is this text telling us to put aside some of our wealth so we will survive? God does not want us to join the poor and give away all we have. He is just asking us to share what God has given us.
My wife and I were invited to the homes of some of the new pastors. They fed and waited on us. We wondered why they kept asking if we wanted more. It was embarrassing when we realized that they would not feed their own family until we had been fed. That is just one reason we shared our income with them.
Our church and our church publications help us know where we should sacrifice and know that it is going for God’s work.
Bob O.
As Isaiah challenged Judah’s morality, this might be a time to challenge American morality too. Psychologist Jean Twenge wrote a book about the Generation X’ers whose title says it all about our nation today — Generation Me. Narcissism and self-fulfillment are what life is all about for those born since World War II. An analysis of our situation by political scientist Patrick Deneen well characterizes the American ethos in our century:
Society today has been organized around the ... principle that “everything is allowed,” as long as it does not result in measurable (mainly physical) harm. It is a society organized for the benefit of the strong. A society can be shaped for the benefit of most people by emphasizing mainly informal norms and customs that secure the path to flourishing of most human beings; or it can be shaped for the benefit of the extraordinary and powerful by liberating from the constraint of custom. (Why Liberalism Failed, p.148)
Moral values are in the interests of common people. Deneen proceeds to explain that in abolishing moral codes it has been in the interests of the elite. The breakdown of marital norms has “made” Donald Trump and his policies of cutting taxes for the rich. It’s no accident that a 2017 Gallup Poll revealed that nearly half the American public thinks our moral values are poor, and a 2017 Pew Research Center poll revealed that nearly half of us now characterize ourselves as spiritual, not religious, or as neither, entailing that our worldviews and values are no longer shaped by common standards, but that we observe our own “sacred cows” (most of which we’ve made up). Little wonder that a society not moored by common standards widens the wage gap between rich and poor (51% of the wealth owned by the top 10% of rich households while the remaining 90% of us divvy up the remaining 49% of the wealth, according to 2015 and 2017 US Census Bureau statistics).
Isaiah’s critique of Judah indeed refers to us. To our quest for a self-fulfilling spirituality (what I believe must meet my needs), John Calvin has some tough, prophetic words:
When men venture to take such liberties as to invent new modes of worship, that is superstition. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVI/1, p.59)
And regarding overcoming poverty, Martin Luther King Jr.’s words in his last Sunday sermon in 1968 still ring true today:
... this is America’s opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The question is whether America will do it. There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques to find the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will. (A Testament of Hope, p.274)
Mark E.
* * *
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Empty offerings and sacrifices dishonor God. What God seeks is a contrite heart and our ability to do good: seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. God is calling on Israel to move back into loving relationship with God and with the least among the people — those in deep need of justice, compassion, defense and care. Coming with offerings and sacrifices are not enough. We are to be people of God in the world. This is a call for us contemporary Christians as well. Coming into worship, offering a gift or a tithe, praying and singing and seeking the presence of God is not enough. We are called to go into the world and be the church in action in the world, making a difference in the lives of people. My dear friend, Rev. Dr. Michael Piazza, says “we come into the church wearing our bibs to be fed. But when we go out of the church, we take off our bibs and put on our aprons to serve.” Is this how you live your faith?
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Martin Luther said: "Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible. Then, it accepts the impossible, does without the indispensable and bears the intolerable."
During the terrible days of the Blitz in London in 1940, a father, holding his small son by the hand, ran from a building that had been struck by a bomb. In the front yard they found a shell hole. Seeking shelter as quickly as possible, the father jumped into the hole and held up his arms for his son to follow. Terrified, yet hearing his father's voice telling him to jump, the boy replied, "I can't see you!"
The father, looking up against the sky tinted red by the burning buildings, called to the silhouette of his son, "But I can see you. Jump!"
That’s the essence of faith. The writer of Hebrews defines it well. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” May we, in our times of difficulty, emulate the faith of Abraham who couldn’t see how it might work out, but trusted God. Do you believe that God sees you?
Bill T.
* * *
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Gary Sinise is an American actor, director and musician. In his career, he is known for his comedic and dramatic roles. He has won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is probably best known for playing Lt. Dan Taylor in the movie Forest Gump. Sinise has become involved in the Snowball Express program that ministers to Gold Star families. It works in cooperation with Disney and American Airlines. These are families that have lost a loved one in military service. For Christmas 2018, Sinise sponsored 1,700 Gold Star families to a four-day stay at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Explaining why he did this, the 63-year-old actor said, “We want to provide a healing opportunity by bringing them all together.”
Ron L.
* * *
Luke 12:32-40
We have the wrong idea of what constitutes a treasure. That is a problem for faith, because what we treasure has our heart. And as Martin Luther once noted:
Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your hole heart. As I have often said, it is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol. (The Book of Concord [2000 ed.], p.386)
American greed is evident in the statistics. According to a 2018 FINRA Investor Education Foundation study 55% of Americans report spending about the same or more than their income each month. Of course you’ve got to have that latest gadget, piece of furniture, latest fashion, or the large home your family does not need in order to prove your worth (to yourself). We’ve been “educated” to think that happiness and meaning are found in what we acquire. Explaining how advertising works to socialize us into this mad quest for more, famed social analyst Christopher Lasch wrote:
It [Advertising] “educates” the masses into an unappeasable appetite, not only for goods but for new experiences and personal fulfillment. It upholds consumption as the answer to the age-old discontents of loneliness, sickness, weariness... at the same time it creates new forms of discontent peculiar to the modern age. (The Culture of Narcissism, pp.137-138)
We need to be prepared for Christ to come into our lives in order to break this cycle, Jesus warns in this lesson. If not, we’ll keep on clinging to our messed-up values. Martin Luther, who believed we are in the End Times, nicely made this point:
That’s the way things will be, says Christ, when judgment day nears. The whole world will act secure. Don’t let this disturb you, Christ admonishes, do not follow them... Nor be afraid; keep your head high, and see to it that, when I come down from heaven, I shall be able to find you! Then you will experience no distress, for I shall come to deliver you. (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.38)
In preparing for Christ, we have the assurance that the judgment at the end will be “Not Guilty!” Living with the future in view, in preparation for it, and with this sort of hopefulness that our deliverance by Christ is a sure thing, contributes to happiness and emotional health. Neurobiologists have discerned that hopefulness leads to the relaxation of muscles, slower heartbeat, and the release of the feel-good brain chemical dopamine (Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, esp. p.58).
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 12:32-40
First century Christians thought Jesus would return during their lifetimes. Here we are centuries later and the second coming has not yet occurred. Jesus tried to be clear. The question wasn’t when he would return, but would we be prepared? Would our lives be in order? Would our lives be anchored in faith?
I have a friend who is always late — she has good intentions, but she gets distracted and thinks she can accomplish one more thing before she has to leave her home. She is prepared but is unfocused on the priority of getting somewhere on time. As a child my father always allowed an extra 20 minutes of travel time and as a result I was, and continue to be, early — in most cases. It’s not travel Jesus wants us to be prepared for, but eternity. So, are we in right relationship with our family, our friends and our God? If Jesus returned tomorrow would our hearts be ready?
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 12:32-40
What if you were given all the Hawaiian Islands if you would give sacrificially to those in great need. I can see the Hawaiian Islands in my photo album. I have been there and they are fantastic. I can also see the great needs of others in our country and all over the world who desperately need our help. Every day we get mail appealing for contributions to some “worthy” cause, but we don’t just throw our money at them. Some of the causes we are begged to help may be phony. We need to find out before we give.
I have appealed to our church for contributions to my many friends in Nepal where I served as a missionary. The main reason I receive money from my friends is because those who contribute know me personally. I send them photos I took of the churches I helped. My friends can see in those photos all those who came to know the Lord because of the work of the seminary students I taught. One of my “seminary boys” came to visit us here in Colorado when he came to visit my church here. When our members saw him and heard him tell what he was doing, they gave him a couple thousand dollars to take back with him.
Is this text telling us to put aside some of our wealth so we will survive? God does not want us to join the poor and give away all we have. He is just asking us to share what God has given us.
My wife and I were invited to the homes of some of the new pastors. They fed and waited on us. We wondered why they kept asking if we wanted more. It was embarrassing when we realized that they would not feed their own family until we had been fed. That is just one reason we shared our income with them.
Our church and our church publications help us know where we should sacrifice and know that it is going for God’s work.
Bob O.
