Sermon Illustrations for Proper 16 | OT 21 (2019)
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Jeremiah 1:4-10
I cannot tell you how many times I have encountered really gifted individuals who are afraid to use their gifts. They think standing in public to advocate a cause, playing an instrument, singing a solo, leading a ministry team — these are all beyond the giftedness they have been given. Yet, those who know them see those gifts. Jeremiah is reluctant to be a prophet for God. He is, after all, just a boy. He is not ready. He is not able. God assures Jeremiah, and thus assures us, that if we are called, God will equip and prepare us for the work laid before us. We are not alone. It is not self-centeredness of ego to step into a role God has provided for us. Rather, it is obedience. When you are called, respond with the gifts you have been given. You, too, are gifted beyond your own imagination.
Bonnie B.
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Jeremiah 1:4-10
The hesitancy Jeremiah exhibits in this lesson about doing the Lord’s works is like the hesitancy we all feel when asked or called to work for the church or to do ministry. John Calvin once nicely noted how God overcomes such hesitations, as he observed that “... God, who penetrates into the hearts of men, and knows all their hidden feelings and motives, heals... timidity...” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.IX/1, p.41) This does not mean that we should criticize Jeremiah or our own hesitancy and timidity. For then we are clear that anything that happens in ministry, anything the church does, is really God’s work. Calvin adds:
... for Jeremiah briefly describes how a true call may be ascertained when anyone understands the office of a teacher in the church; it is ascertained even by this — when he brings nothing of his own... Let us, then, know that whatever proceeds from the wit of man, ought to be disregarded; for God wills this honour to be conceded to him alone. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.IX/1, pp.42-43)
Martin Luther made a similar point about the comfort of knowing we are elect:
The human doctrine of free will and of our spiritual powers is futile. The matter does not depend on our will but on God’s will and election. (What Luther Says, p. 461)
Mark E.
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Jeremiah 1:4-10
This passage seems to tell us that God has a plan for your life. As for me and my fellow pastors we each had a feeling that God was leading us into the ministry or we would have given up trying. The proof of our calling would come out in the years we spent in parishes. There are always a few who failed the test and misunderstood the “call.” God must look into our hearts and know that we will succeed when and if he calls us. The most important thing is to be sensitive to God’s voice in our heart.
We all have an invisible feeling called love which determines who we will marry and how long it will last.
I must confess that one of the reasons my wife and I went to Nepal was the thought of an exciting travel experience. That was not the main reason. But some missionaries I have talked to had other reasons also. One told me he was going because his grandfather was a missionary and his folks wanted him to be one also. Because he had no other call, another told me.
My grandfather was a missionary from Denmark to American Danes and my folks wanted me to be a pastor. I became a pastor, but it was almost 50 years later after I retired that I became a missionary.
Sometimes we need an encouragement from our church whether to seek parish ministry or the mission field. Sometimes God’s call is not clear and obvious, and we may all have met one who we were not at all sure had the call from God.
I should not say this, but I have had the feeling that a president or some other politician did not appear to have his or her call from God. Yes, our faith is also involved in politics.
Our church can help us determine if our call is from God or just from an inner appeal for adventure or from a desire to build our ego and pride.
Bob O.
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Hebrews 12:18-29
I found a fascinating blog that gives practical advice on how to get the most of your first visit to the Grand Canyon. Though I haven’t been before, I’ve heard lots of people talk about the awesomeness, majesty and splendor of this wonder. The blog seems to indicate that’s what you ought to expect. Ash, a park ranger there, writes this blog. She begins, “Hey there! Are you ready to plan an unforgettable trip to the Grand Canyon? Encompassing miles and miles of the most spectacular display of erosion anywhere on this planet, this park is absolutely inspiring. One look into this magnificent and massive chasm in the earth’s crust is all it takes to discover what beauty truly is. As a young girl seeing the canyon for the first time, I felt as though my heart would beat right out of my chest!”
As amazing as the Grand Canyon is, I don’t think it can compare to the description of God in this passage from Hebrews. The powerful and majestic attributes of God are clearly displayed. It is not a surprise that the passage ends that we, as his people, “worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.”
To visit some of the wonders of this world can be breathtaking. How much more so is it to worship the incredible, powerful one true God?
Bill T.
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Hebrews 12:18-29
Handle creation with care! The thread running through this passage is the consuming nature of fire — fire on Mount Sinai, apocalyptic fire, the divine fire of a God who is a consuming fire!
Do people always handle fire with care? If you live in the country it's not uncommon to see people burning leaves, or tires, and garbage, the open flames leaping to the sky, and hopefully not carried on the wind. Who hasn't seen film of some of the out of control fires in the west, consuming homes and business and people, as well as trees, brush, and the animals. The author talks about "...the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (12:21)," language that might call to mind the words of John the Revelator in the last chapters of his book. But how does one get there? A hint might come in the verse quoted in 12:26: "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but the heaven." The author is quoting only a portion of Haggai 2:6, words of apocalyptic cataclysm that foresee the nations coming to the heavenly city with their wealthy gifts meant to adorn this future fulfillment of what God has in mind for Jerusalem.
Frank R.
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Hebrews 12:18-29
Danny Nicholson is the president of Connie Maxwell Children’s Home in Greenwood, South Carolina. Nicolson is a sought-after speaker who has completed two Boston marathons. On February 1, 2019, he published his autobiography titled My Own Backyard: A Lifetime Collection of Stories, Poems and Songs. Each chapter begins with a verse from the Bible, and interwoven in the stories he tells are original songs and poems that were written about his life, to his children and about his faith. The last chapter is written to his future grandchildren. Throughout the book he describes incidents in his life that were “holy moments.” A story in the book described a holy moment when a young African-American boy in the restaurant was a foster child. He came and sat in his wife’s lap, and before leaving he asked her, “Will you come to me in my dreams?” When the boy left, Nicholson told his wife that he didn’t know what had just happened, but he knew their lives would never be the same. Nicholson said he hopes his book helps readers to remember the “little miracles or holy moments” in their lives and encourages them to “look deeper within themselves to see their life and their ‘parade of holy moments.’” Nicholson described the meaning of My Own Backyard when he wrote in the book, “Geographical boundaries separate backyards, but the memories we make in them create a sameness and familiarity that renders the distance between them non-existent. Backyards are set apart by their location, but they are made of the same stuff — or, even better, we are made of the same stuff.”
Ron L.
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Luke 13:10-17
Famed modern theologian Karl Barth found in this story of Jesus’ healing of the crippled woman that Christ “is at the side of man... that that which causes suffering to man as his creatures is also and above all painful and alien and antithetical to himself.” (Church Dogmatics, Vol.IV/2, p.225) Jesus is at our side. This is an important insight in view of the social isolation Americans have brought on themselves. Two decades ago, Robert Putnam wrote a book titled Bowling Alone, which documented how social organizations, community organizations, and even informal social gatherings were in marked decline in America since the 1950s and 1960s. And psychologist Jean Twenge has found that even today’s super-connected youth born since the 1990s are increasingly isolated, and poll as less happy (iGen, pp.69ff.). Facebook “friends,” it seems, are not friends who’ll stick with you through thick and thin.
Social isolation does not make for happiness. It’s like American author David Leviathan put it is in his book, Are We There Yet?:
Here’s what I think. We all want someone to build a fort with. We want somebody to swap crayons with and play hide-and-seek with and live out imaginary stories with... what we want is a companion. And we make it so hard to find.
Jesus is that companion, overcoming our isolation, always at our side. It’s like the famed 17th-
century French intellectual Blaise Pascal put it:
... Then Jesus Christ comes to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves, that it is their passions that cut them off from God, that he has come to destroy these passions... (Pensées, 433)
Mark E.
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Luke 13:10-17
Sabbath is a gift. Those of us who work in ministry rarely have our Sabbath on Sunday. It was confusing to someone who read my autoreply email message on a Friday, to read, “Friday is my Sabbath Day.” In fact, more than one person has asked, “What religion is she? Doesn’t she worship on Sunday like the rest of us Christians?” Of course, I worship on Sunday, but because I am often leading worship, preaching, officiating at special events and rituals of the church, Sunday becomes a workday for me. Yet, I too, need Sabbath. Jesus is reminding the leaders of the synagogue that he, too, works when people need him — on Sabbath or on other days. It is not the day that matters — what matters is the quiet time with God in prayer, study and reflection. I will confess that sometimes my Sabbath day is full of personal chores and appointments — but I do try to begin Sabbath with quiet prayer and reflection. How are you keeping your Sabbath time?
Bonnie B.
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Luke 13:11-17
Would you worry if your doctor said he could not help you if you were sick or hurt in an accident on a Sunday because it was the Lord’s day and no one should work.
Yes, there may be things that we should not do on a Sunday. One athlete said he could not compete on the Sabbath. Some praised him, but some condemned him. Don’t some watch football games on a Sunday? But most would not want to go to their job on a Sunday unless it was vital to life, like a medical emergency. Even fellow Christians will delight in us if we spent part of a Sabbath helping a neighbor in need even if it were shoveling their drive way so they could go to church.
One fellow from another denomination told me that it was sinful to drink alcohol. I tried to tell him that we used wine at communion because Jesus used it at the last supper. At one time he even converted water into wine for a wedding feast. Another told me that it was sinful to even stare out the window on Sunday.
Jesus’ only warning was that we should not overdo the use of alcohol. There are many things we should not overdo. Some who are overweight should not consume food to the extreme.
One seminary professor told me that a sermon should not last much over 20 minutes.
There could be many things we should not carry to extremes. We might listen to critics, but be more concerned what God says than what others tell you. Some even complain if you vote for the “wrong” party.
Listen to God and not man. A church can be the main source of “advice.”
Bob O.
