Sermon Illustrations for Proper 15 | OT 20 (2019)
Illustration
Isaiah 5:1-7
In the passage from Isaiah, God is the owner of the vineyard, which represents God's people. The coming destruction (verses 5-6) results from the people's failure to do what God "expected," and hoped for (verses 2, 4, 7). That is, the failure to enact and embody justice and righteousness invites catastrophe.
God’s judgment is just and would ultimately come for the recipients of the prophecy by means of the Assyrians (if the recipients were, as many suggest, the Northern Kingdom).
I was thinking about how God’s judgment is announced and how people receive it. I heard this story and thought it was relevant.
A fire broke out backstage in a theater. A clown came out quickly to inform the public who were seated in the theater. However, they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated his warning, but they laughed and clapped even louder.
Søren Kierkegaard once said, “So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.”
It was no joke to God’s people (likely the northern kingdom) at the time of Isaiah and it isn’t to God’s people today.
Bill T.
* * *
Isaiah 5:1-7
Who is singing this song of the vineyard, in which the whole history of Israel is told from the standpoint of a country metaphor?
It is written as a love ballad sung on behalf of a distant friend. At that time, it was not uncommon for a bridegroom to send his best friend to communicate with his bride. This meant that the friend would carry a message from the bridegroom to the bride while they were separated from each other. This message is about a vineyard — especially essential to people like Isaiah, the prophet through whom this message is transmitted, and King Ahaz, who represents the people, who with the prophet and the king are residents of the big city, Jerusalem. Unlike the countryside, where moving water would be much purer, water purity in the city is an iffy thing. Wine with alcohol would kill bacteria and was a purer drink for the city dweller. Wine in this period was an important commodity and linked city dweller with the country.
The friend explains to the bride that the beloved had done everything required to insure a successful vineyard. Now comes the awkward question — what more could have been done to insure a good crop? There is no answer because — there is no answer for what happened.
That's when we learn that Isaiah the prophet is the good friend who is relaying the message to the bride — Israel (and by extension, us) from the bridegroom, God.
(This illustration is based on “Country Seer, City Prophet” by Robert W. Neff and Frank Ramirez, Brethren Press, 2007)
Frank R.
* * *
Isaiah 5:1-7
On October 29, 2017 Kevin Spacey was accused of sexually assaulting Anthony Rapp in 1986, when Rapp was 14-years-old. Since then 25 other men, from both the United States and England, spoke of Spacey sexually assaulting them. With the accusation Netflix removed Spacey from the series House of Cards on November 3, 2017, and filmed the sixth and final season without him. The show began with Spacey playing Frank Underwood, a Democratic congressman from South Carolina and House majority whip. As the series progresses Underwood becomes the President of the United States. He is not seen in the final and sixth season, but it is made known to the audience that he was murdered. Spacey disappeared from public view for more than a year, when on Christmas Eve 2018, the 59-year-old actor released a video. He spoke with the accent of his House of Cards character Frank Underwood. In the video he said, “I know what you want, you want me back.” Netflix had no comment on the video.
Frank R.
* * *
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
Most Americans think of faith as something they have freely chosen. This is why we hear rhetoric regarding “my faith,” or its strength. But such an understanding of faith sets us up for failure, for we can never be strong enough to make faith happen through or our own sincerity of commitment or free will. Commenting on this lesson and its celebration of the faith of Old Testament figures, John Calvin noted that the Church “has always been preserved by God’s hand through faith, so at this day there is no other way by which we may know His kindness toward us.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XXII/1, p.303) In the same spirit, making clear that faith changes us, but is a work of the Holy Spirit, Martin Luther once observed:
So faith, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, makes the mind and the thinking of a person different and thereby makes an entirely new man of him. Faith, then, is an active, independent and powerful thing; and if we want truly to evaluate it, we should call it an influence on us rather than an act performed by us. For it changes our souls and our views. (What Luther Says, p.477)
Famed modern German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg gets in dialogue with The Big Bang Theory as he defines the Holy Spirit as divine energy (Toward a Theology of Nature, pp.140ff.).
This entails that we can think of the Holy Spirit as providing the energy we need in order to believe.
Mark E.
* * *
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
I am not a runner and have never been. I did, several years ago, walk in my first 5K. I finished — last — but I finished. This was a feat for me. I spend way too much time sitting and driving, and way too little time moving this body God has given me. Luckily, this isn’t the race the author of Hebrews is writing about. This race is the race of our life, a life we are called to live in accordance with the precepts of our faith. This life laid before us is a gift and we are reminded to treat it as such, to move through life as people of faith, taking the circumstances which come, and will likely not include being stoned to death, sawn in two, killed by the sword or being destitute, persecuted, tormented by those who believe differently. Compared to the courage of faith these witnesses exemplified, our courage may seem less strong — but just as my first 5K demonstrated my strength and persistence, so too do our expressions of faithfulness in our circumstances. Our best is enough.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
By faith we can do what our Lord wants us to do. The main thing we need is faith. Part of our faith is built on what we know the Lord has already done for us and what we have seen him do for others.
Will a wall be built on the Mexico border by faith if it is really needed? Will faith restore our country’s financial collapse, and restore jobs that were lost? Our country has conquered nations like Hitler’s Germany and some places in South America controlled by Spain.
The Bible has one story after another about military victories back in those days.
My mother had faith that I would become a pastor someday, but she had to wait over 30 year for it to happen.
Faith may require patience. One of our Nepali friends had faith that he could find enough money to build a church. He had to send many emails all over asking for help. He finally got the money he needed. It shows that you need more than just faith. God may want us to do something to have our faith needs answered.
We can also look back and see what God has done for others who faced great trials. Some of my Nepali friends were sent to jail for being Christians. Some were tortured and were beaten and still came out alive. You could see the bruises on their body. Others who were not Christian did not always make it.
Our soldiers were retreating through a valley while the enemy was shooting at them from a surrounding hill. Our soldiers dodged and ran and survived, but when the enemy chased after them, many were blown up by buried bombs that our soldiers had buried and managed to avoid. The chaplain had prayed for them, they told me.
We should never fear obeying our Lord’s commands. That may take accourage, but when we survive and look back on what might have happened, it can build our faith.
Even though death is inevitable, we can still face it with courage when we know that joy that has been set before us by our Lord and his sacrifice.
Church is a place where our faith can grow by reading and hearing about what our Lord did for other believers.
Bob O.
* * *
Luke 12:49-56
Joe Pierre, in a September 5, 2018 article in Psychology Today, writes, “For many of us these days, it feels as if the United States has never been less united. The nation, it seems, has become irrevocably fractured along political and ideological lines — Republican/Democrat, liberal/conservative, red/blue, and a host of other divisions. Sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner with family has never been more uncomfortable and the admonition to avoid discussing religion or politics in polite company has never been more appropriate.”
With an entire series of articles dedicated to it, the Associated Press reports, “Americans are more divided than ever, gridlocked over social issues, race, gender and the economy.”
I agree with these observations. We live in a culture that is divided. You know that, too. These divisions are harsh and often about things that don’t really have eternal significance. There is often a push for people to unify, but it’s hard. In our text for today, Jesus talks about the division that he brings. It is a division worth having. This is, in my opinion, one of the hard teachings of Jesus. Steve Gaines, on preaching.com, notes, “He came to divide, not bring peace.” How can this be? The text makes it clear. Regarding following Jesus, either you are with him or you aren’t. Individual peace with God is possible but following Jesus will always divide a culture. It always has.
The challenge, I think, is clear. There’s only one thing worth taking a firm stand on: Jesus.
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 12:49-56
In his book, "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" Jared Diamond examines possible reasons why Western culture developed science and technology before other cultures. One reason he rejects is the false theory that there is something superior about one race over another. An example he gives involves the time he spent with people in Papua New Guinea. At one point they served him mushrooms they harvested in the wild. Alarmed, he asked them how they could be sure they were not poisonous. They looked at him with a puzzled expression. They could identify by sight every kind of mushroom in their environment, distinguishing poisonous from healthy varieties. Everyone, he realized, is very intelligent in things that matter to them.
Jesus knows that his contemporaries, practicing agriculture and fishing in a Mediterranean environment, knew that prevailing weather patterns dictated rain coming out of the west from the sea and hot winds coming off the desert that lay to the south and west. They were intelligent in those things that mattered to them pertaining to agriculture and fishing. What he criticized was the unwillingness to utilize another kind of intelligence — the spiritual smarts to look up and see the signs of the time!
How is that like us? We are tech savvy, and it's not unusual to see a group of people staring at their phones, texting each other rather than talking even though they're standing side by side. Yet do we look up as we cross the street, with traffic barreling down on us? Are we just as unable to see God's unmistakable signs that all is not well with us, and judgment is coming?
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 12:49-56
In the newspaper comic strip Blondie, Dagwood Bumstead is an office manager for J.C. Dithers Construction Company. His boss, Julius Dithers, creates an unfriendly work environment as he barks orders to employees and places his desire for money above caring for those who work for him. Dagwood is a particular problem for Dithers because of his tendency to sleep at his desk. In one particular episode Dagwood is sitting at the breakfast table drinking morning coffee with his wife Blondie. Dagwood begins the day’s conversation, “The boss called me a snoozer loser when I nodded off at work yesterday.” Blondie, always trying to be a supporting and encouraging spouse replies, “Cheer up, dear…deep down, your boss loves you like a son.” She continues her encouragement as she goes on to say in the next frame, “It’s not like he sits around all day thinking up words to zing you with.” Reassured, they kiss at the door as Dagwood leaves for work, when he answers, “I guess you’re right, honey.” In the last frame we see Dithers sitting at his office desk with his secretary dutifully standing behind him. She has completed her assignment and reads from her memo pad, “Here it is…synonyms for ‘slacker’: dead weight, loafer, sloth…” With an angry voice that hides his delight Dithers screams out, “That’s it!!! SLOTH!”
Ron L.
In the passage from Isaiah, God is the owner of the vineyard, which represents God's people. The coming destruction (verses 5-6) results from the people's failure to do what God "expected," and hoped for (verses 2, 4, 7). That is, the failure to enact and embody justice and righteousness invites catastrophe.
God’s judgment is just and would ultimately come for the recipients of the prophecy by means of the Assyrians (if the recipients were, as many suggest, the Northern Kingdom).
I was thinking about how God’s judgment is announced and how people receive it. I heard this story and thought it was relevant.
A fire broke out backstage in a theater. A clown came out quickly to inform the public who were seated in the theater. However, they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated his warning, but they laughed and clapped even louder.
Søren Kierkegaard once said, “So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.”
It was no joke to God’s people (likely the northern kingdom) at the time of Isaiah and it isn’t to God’s people today.
Bill T.
* * *
Isaiah 5:1-7
Who is singing this song of the vineyard, in which the whole history of Israel is told from the standpoint of a country metaphor?
It is written as a love ballad sung on behalf of a distant friend. At that time, it was not uncommon for a bridegroom to send his best friend to communicate with his bride. This meant that the friend would carry a message from the bridegroom to the bride while they were separated from each other. This message is about a vineyard — especially essential to people like Isaiah, the prophet through whom this message is transmitted, and King Ahaz, who represents the people, who with the prophet and the king are residents of the big city, Jerusalem. Unlike the countryside, where moving water would be much purer, water purity in the city is an iffy thing. Wine with alcohol would kill bacteria and was a purer drink for the city dweller. Wine in this period was an important commodity and linked city dweller with the country.
The friend explains to the bride that the beloved had done everything required to insure a successful vineyard. Now comes the awkward question — what more could have been done to insure a good crop? There is no answer because — there is no answer for what happened.
That's when we learn that Isaiah the prophet is the good friend who is relaying the message to the bride — Israel (and by extension, us) from the bridegroom, God.
(This illustration is based on “Country Seer, City Prophet” by Robert W. Neff and Frank Ramirez, Brethren Press, 2007)
Frank R.
* * *
Isaiah 5:1-7
On October 29, 2017 Kevin Spacey was accused of sexually assaulting Anthony Rapp in 1986, when Rapp was 14-years-old. Since then 25 other men, from both the United States and England, spoke of Spacey sexually assaulting them. With the accusation Netflix removed Spacey from the series House of Cards on November 3, 2017, and filmed the sixth and final season without him. The show began with Spacey playing Frank Underwood, a Democratic congressman from South Carolina and House majority whip. As the series progresses Underwood becomes the President of the United States. He is not seen in the final and sixth season, but it is made known to the audience that he was murdered. Spacey disappeared from public view for more than a year, when on Christmas Eve 2018, the 59-year-old actor released a video. He spoke with the accent of his House of Cards character Frank Underwood. In the video he said, “I know what you want, you want me back.” Netflix had no comment on the video.
Frank R.
* * *
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
Most Americans think of faith as something they have freely chosen. This is why we hear rhetoric regarding “my faith,” or its strength. But such an understanding of faith sets us up for failure, for we can never be strong enough to make faith happen through or our own sincerity of commitment or free will. Commenting on this lesson and its celebration of the faith of Old Testament figures, John Calvin noted that the Church “has always been preserved by God’s hand through faith, so at this day there is no other way by which we may know His kindness toward us.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XXII/1, p.303) In the same spirit, making clear that faith changes us, but is a work of the Holy Spirit, Martin Luther once observed:
So faith, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, makes the mind and the thinking of a person different and thereby makes an entirely new man of him. Faith, then, is an active, independent and powerful thing; and if we want truly to evaluate it, we should call it an influence on us rather than an act performed by us. For it changes our souls and our views. (What Luther Says, p.477)
Famed modern German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg gets in dialogue with The Big Bang Theory as he defines the Holy Spirit as divine energy (Toward a Theology of Nature, pp.140ff.).
This entails that we can think of the Holy Spirit as providing the energy we need in order to believe.
Mark E.
* * *
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
I am not a runner and have never been. I did, several years ago, walk in my first 5K. I finished — last — but I finished. This was a feat for me. I spend way too much time sitting and driving, and way too little time moving this body God has given me. Luckily, this isn’t the race the author of Hebrews is writing about. This race is the race of our life, a life we are called to live in accordance with the precepts of our faith. This life laid before us is a gift and we are reminded to treat it as such, to move through life as people of faith, taking the circumstances which come, and will likely not include being stoned to death, sawn in two, killed by the sword or being destitute, persecuted, tormented by those who believe differently. Compared to the courage of faith these witnesses exemplified, our courage may seem less strong — but just as my first 5K demonstrated my strength and persistence, so too do our expressions of faithfulness in our circumstances. Our best is enough.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
By faith we can do what our Lord wants us to do. The main thing we need is faith. Part of our faith is built on what we know the Lord has already done for us and what we have seen him do for others.
Will a wall be built on the Mexico border by faith if it is really needed? Will faith restore our country’s financial collapse, and restore jobs that were lost? Our country has conquered nations like Hitler’s Germany and some places in South America controlled by Spain.
The Bible has one story after another about military victories back in those days.
My mother had faith that I would become a pastor someday, but she had to wait over 30 year for it to happen.
Faith may require patience. One of our Nepali friends had faith that he could find enough money to build a church. He had to send many emails all over asking for help. He finally got the money he needed. It shows that you need more than just faith. God may want us to do something to have our faith needs answered.
We can also look back and see what God has done for others who faced great trials. Some of my Nepali friends were sent to jail for being Christians. Some were tortured and were beaten and still came out alive. You could see the bruises on their body. Others who were not Christian did not always make it.
Our soldiers were retreating through a valley while the enemy was shooting at them from a surrounding hill. Our soldiers dodged and ran and survived, but when the enemy chased after them, many were blown up by buried bombs that our soldiers had buried and managed to avoid. The chaplain had prayed for them, they told me.
We should never fear obeying our Lord’s commands. That may take accourage, but when we survive and look back on what might have happened, it can build our faith.
Even though death is inevitable, we can still face it with courage when we know that joy that has been set before us by our Lord and his sacrifice.
Church is a place where our faith can grow by reading and hearing about what our Lord did for other believers.
Bob O.
* * *
Luke 12:49-56
Joe Pierre, in a September 5, 2018 article in Psychology Today, writes, “For many of us these days, it feels as if the United States has never been less united. The nation, it seems, has become irrevocably fractured along political and ideological lines — Republican/Democrat, liberal/conservative, red/blue, and a host of other divisions. Sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner with family has never been more uncomfortable and the admonition to avoid discussing religion or politics in polite company has never been more appropriate.”
With an entire series of articles dedicated to it, the Associated Press reports, “Americans are more divided than ever, gridlocked over social issues, race, gender and the economy.”
I agree with these observations. We live in a culture that is divided. You know that, too. These divisions are harsh and often about things that don’t really have eternal significance. There is often a push for people to unify, but it’s hard. In our text for today, Jesus talks about the division that he brings. It is a division worth having. This is, in my opinion, one of the hard teachings of Jesus. Steve Gaines, on preaching.com, notes, “He came to divide, not bring peace.” How can this be? The text makes it clear. Regarding following Jesus, either you are with him or you aren’t. Individual peace with God is possible but following Jesus will always divide a culture. It always has.
The challenge, I think, is clear. There’s only one thing worth taking a firm stand on: Jesus.
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 12:49-56
In his book, "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" Jared Diamond examines possible reasons why Western culture developed science and technology before other cultures. One reason he rejects is the false theory that there is something superior about one race over another. An example he gives involves the time he spent with people in Papua New Guinea. At one point they served him mushrooms they harvested in the wild. Alarmed, he asked them how they could be sure they were not poisonous. They looked at him with a puzzled expression. They could identify by sight every kind of mushroom in their environment, distinguishing poisonous from healthy varieties. Everyone, he realized, is very intelligent in things that matter to them.
Jesus knows that his contemporaries, practicing agriculture and fishing in a Mediterranean environment, knew that prevailing weather patterns dictated rain coming out of the west from the sea and hot winds coming off the desert that lay to the south and west. They were intelligent in those things that mattered to them pertaining to agriculture and fishing. What he criticized was the unwillingness to utilize another kind of intelligence — the spiritual smarts to look up and see the signs of the time!
How is that like us? We are tech savvy, and it's not unusual to see a group of people staring at their phones, texting each other rather than talking even though they're standing side by side. Yet do we look up as we cross the street, with traffic barreling down on us? Are we just as unable to see God's unmistakable signs that all is not well with us, and judgment is coming?
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 12:49-56
In the newspaper comic strip Blondie, Dagwood Bumstead is an office manager for J.C. Dithers Construction Company. His boss, Julius Dithers, creates an unfriendly work environment as he barks orders to employees and places his desire for money above caring for those who work for him. Dagwood is a particular problem for Dithers because of his tendency to sleep at his desk. In one particular episode Dagwood is sitting at the breakfast table drinking morning coffee with his wife Blondie. Dagwood begins the day’s conversation, “The boss called me a snoozer loser when I nodded off at work yesterday.” Blondie, always trying to be a supporting and encouraging spouse replies, “Cheer up, dear…deep down, your boss loves you like a son.” She continues her encouragement as she goes on to say in the next frame, “It’s not like he sits around all day thinking up words to zing you with.” Reassured, they kiss at the door as Dagwood leaves for work, when he answers, “I guess you’re right, honey.” In the last frame we see Dithers sitting at his office desk with his secretary dutifully standing behind him. She has completed her assignment and reads from her memo pad, “Here it is…synonyms for ‘slacker’: dead weight, loafer, sloth…” With an angry voice that hides his delight Dithers screams out, “That’s it!!! SLOTH!”
Ron L.
