Sermon Illustrations For Proper 19 | Ordinary Time 24 (2017)
Illustration
Exodus 14:19-31
Two weeks ago, we wondered at Moses and his unwillingness to fulfill the call of God on his life. Now we see Moses leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt and to safety beyond the Red Sea. We see the power of God in this story -- God has kept the promise to lead the people from slavery into freedom.
There are all sorts of scientific rationales and reasons to debunk this story as true and as an act of God. My question is: “Does this narrative need to be factual in order to be true?” You and I were not at the banks of the Red Sea. We were not with Moses, and as such cannot be firsthand eyewitnesses to the facts of the story. But as one who has been delivered from the slavery of grief, the slavery of brokenness, or the slavery of hopelessness, I can attest to God’s ability to free me -- sometimes through prayer, sometimes through the presence of another person, and sometimes through grace alone. Proving the narrative is not the point. Understanding the power of God to impact our lives, our spirits, and our futures is the point. I can tell you that is true!
Bonnie B.
Exodus 14:19-31
Let’s back up just a bit in Exodus, to the passage just before this lectionary selection. Many translations agree with the NRSV in rendering Exodus 14:6: “So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him” -- the “he” being Pharaoh, of course. But according to the Hebrew text (and the JPS Torah commentary for Exodus), the Hebrew word means literally that Pharaoh “hitched his chariot.” Pharaoh is evidently so eager to chase and destroy the Israelites that he performs manual labor -- something absolutely stunning, which must have shocked his officers, much less the common soldiers. Or perhaps it excited them -- Pharaoh is so eager to kill these miserable slaves that he can’t wait for someone to hitch his chariot. He does it himself! This hatred can blind the oppressors, who never think that anything can prevent them from destroying life. Egyptian theology assumed that individuals like Pharaoh who were powerful on earth would be powerful in the next life. The rituals of embalming and entombing their deceased rulers with treasure beyond measure is the exact opposite of the Biblical attitude that God takes the side of the oppressed, the poor, the enslaved, the struggling, the marginalized of society! The irony of the rout of the Red Sea that brings glory to the Lord God is that with a little more measured patience, Pharaoh and his army might have paused before crossing between two sheer walls of water without any divine sanction and struck at a more strategic moment.
Of course, we assume that God would still have intervened.
Frank R.
Exodus 14:19-31
When we see trouble ahead, we need to place the solution into God’s hands. Then we just move ahead. We only look back to see how God has solved our problems. When we see how he has solved them, we will be amazed. We never march alone. Our fellow church members should be with us, encouraging us.
First we have to decide if we are going in the direction God wants us to go.
God called his people back to Israel in the last century. They got there safely, but are still looking back on the “Egyptians” (Palestinians) behind them who are not yet being drowned in the waters.
In a war we are always looking ahead to the possible trouble that awaits us, but we dare not look back unless we see the enemy lying dead behind us.
We always seem to be pursued by something, so outside of running away from it, we need to be in prayer for God to deliver us. It could be the IRS or other government agencies, or it could be some who hate us and are trying to hurt us.
As a missionary to Nepal (where it had been illegal to be a Christian), it seemed as though there were always Christians in trouble. One problem was if they were trying to invite friends to church -- that could result in a six-year sentence! We saw many saved by trusting in the Lord.
Some of those we think are pursuing us are imaginary -- and for these our church can help us know that we must learn to trust in our God, whether our problem is real or imaginary.
So the message is for us to trust in the Lord!
Bob O.
Romans 14:1-12
I found a list on the internet (it has to be true, right?) called “The 25 Stupidest Things Kids Fight About.” I thought I’d share with you the top ten:
1. Who gets to sit in the front seat of the car on the way to school -- or anywhere else.
2. Who got a bigger birthday present.
3. Who has played with the kitten/puppy/rabbit for “too long.”
4. Who scribbled on the other child’s artwork first. “She started it.” “No, he touched mine first.”
5. Who gets to watch their favorite television program first.
6. Who didn’t pack away the toys. “I did my share.” “She/he didn’t do anything.”
7. Who put the car window down while you are traveling if you forgot the “lock windows” function on your control panel.
8. Who started whatever argument they are embroiled in.
9. Whether mom or dad has the best car. Even if they are matching models, they will find points of difference.
10. Which song should be played in the car or at home.
As I look at this list, I’m not surprised. I’ve been around enough kids to know that there is a lot of truth to these, and maybe a whole lot more could be added to the list.
I thought about that list as I read through this passage in Romans 14. I wonder how many times we, as adult Christians, fight about things that are really matters of opinion. How many bitter feelings have been left after two Christians have “had it out”? How many broken relationships are there because two Christians both believed they were “right”? We look at this list of ten things kids fight about and shake our heads. Boy, kids need to grow up. Maybe we all do.
Bill T.
Romans 14:1-12
In many European countries, early on Easter Monday girls come out of their homes wearing traditional red, black, and white folkloric dress. Young men walk down the streets, also in traditional dress of high black boots, black hats, white shirts, and cream-colored trousers. Older men follow, playing instruments, and the women have prepared a cornucopia of food. A young lady is pulled from the crowd and held by two young men, as a third throws a bucket of ice-cold water just drawn from a well on her. This Easter rite is called “sprinkling.” The purpose is to secure beauty, health, and even love for the young lady. When the ritual has been completed everyone gathers for a community banquet. Sadly, as Europe has become increasingly secularized this Christian religious ritual of community acceptance and fellowship is only practiced in small villages.
Application: A strong message in our reading is the need for the church to promote fellowship and be accepting of all individuals.
Ron L.
Romans 14:1-12
Death is so lonely. Writing in 1897 in The Medical Brief, the periodical’s editor J.J. Lawrence wrote: “Alone we were born, alone we must live, labor, and die.” Research conducted by Greg Norman and his colleagues has that found loneliness is bad for your health (Biological Psychology [March 2011]). Our lesson reminds us that we are not alone, that Christ is with us whether we live or die. Mother Teresa’s reflections on death make that clear: “Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity.” Death is like the child going to sleep in the car in his mother’s arms while on a family trip, all safe and secure, not alone, and then waking up in the morning in his own bed at home.
Mark E.
Matthew 18:21-35
Forgiveness isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong,” says Mahatma Gandhi in All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections. Where does the strength to forgive come from? I believe it comes from God.
Forgiveness isn’t an instinct. We are more likely to seek revenge or vengeance. The reality is, however, that forgiveness benefits us much more than it does the one we forgive. Imagine this. What if as we walked through life we picked up a stone every time we were hurt or angry? Unless we forgive the individual who has hurt or angered us, we are destined to carry that stone with us. As we move through our life we continue to collect stones. The stones get heavier and heavier, until they are all we can think about. They have become a burden too big to allow us to fully live. I think that’s the way it is with us when we fail to forgive. If we can forgive, we put down the stone. We lift the weight from us and can move through life more freely and with grace. That’s the path I prefer. What about you?
Bonnie B.
Matthew 18:21-35
Peter is asking Jesus a numerical question about the number of times one must forgive another. Seven times seems like a lot, and certainly at some point we’ve had enough, but having answered that seven times 70 is not enough, Jesus points to the extravagant forgiveness offered by God by telling the extraordinarily ridiculous story of a master who would lend one of his slaves 10,000 talents, which might be worth around 200,000 years’ worth of daily wages for an ordinary laborer. Don’t forget that a slave does not even qualify as an ordinary laborer. So people listening would have laughed at the idea of a master lending a slave that amount.
The image of a wonderful master forgiving that level of debt would stun the listeners, who struggled to pay off their own debts. But when the slave refuses to forgive the much smaller debt, 100 days of wages for a day laborer, they would have been shocked that someone who had been forgiven so much would refuse to forgive a much smaller debt.
Of course, don’t some people understand smaller amounts better than big amounts? Three people who die of a strange disease in a distant land can seem like a huge number when fear is injected into the equation. People understand three deaths. When they are told that the chances of catching the disease are something like one in 50 million they don’t feel any better, because they have no conception of what a million is! They may not understand waste in a business amounting to a million dollars, but 20 missing pencils -- that they understand!
Frank R.
Matthew 18:21-35
This reading brings up a political question: How many times should we forgive the Russians, the Syrians, the Iranians, the Turks, etc.? I hear complaints that Obama kept forgiving and never taking action, though he did do other things to hurt our enemies.
I read a story about a woman who was raped but forgave the perpetrator. Another story told about forgiving a thief.
There were several Christians in Nepal who forgave the jailors who tortured and beat them. Sometimes they converted them.
Sometimes my wife or I don’t forgive each other -- at least until much later, even though we pray the Lord’s Prayer together (forgive us our trespasses)!
This passage seems to be telling us that God will forgive us in the same way we forgive others (or don’t forgive them).
A banker in one of my churches owed another member some money. It was not much, but he begged the other member to forgive him or at least give him enough time to repay him. It was not that much, so he forgave him completely. But when the member owed some to the bank, the member he helped could not or would not forgive him and demanded the money.
Even a minuscule example -- one son begged his father to forgive the money he owed him, and he did; but when his brother begged to be forgiven what he had lent him a while before he demanded the money!
When we ask God to forgive us our sins against him, his word says that he will; but what if one of his children dies, he won’t forgive his Lord. He won’t forgive anyone else who has hurt him!
Our church should help us forgive, as we have been forgiven.
Bob O.
Two weeks ago, we wondered at Moses and his unwillingness to fulfill the call of God on his life. Now we see Moses leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt and to safety beyond the Red Sea. We see the power of God in this story -- God has kept the promise to lead the people from slavery into freedom.
There are all sorts of scientific rationales and reasons to debunk this story as true and as an act of God. My question is: “Does this narrative need to be factual in order to be true?” You and I were not at the banks of the Red Sea. We were not with Moses, and as such cannot be firsthand eyewitnesses to the facts of the story. But as one who has been delivered from the slavery of grief, the slavery of brokenness, or the slavery of hopelessness, I can attest to God’s ability to free me -- sometimes through prayer, sometimes through the presence of another person, and sometimes through grace alone. Proving the narrative is not the point. Understanding the power of God to impact our lives, our spirits, and our futures is the point. I can tell you that is true!
Bonnie B.
Exodus 14:19-31
Let’s back up just a bit in Exodus, to the passage just before this lectionary selection. Many translations agree with the NRSV in rendering Exodus 14:6: “So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him” -- the “he” being Pharaoh, of course. But according to the Hebrew text (and the JPS Torah commentary for Exodus), the Hebrew word means literally that Pharaoh “hitched his chariot.” Pharaoh is evidently so eager to chase and destroy the Israelites that he performs manual labor -- something absolutely stunning, which must have shocked his officers, much less the common soldiers. Or perhaps it excited them -- Pharaoh is so eager to kill these miserable slaves that he can’t wait for someone to hitch his chariot. He does it himself! This hatred can blind the oppressors, who never think that anything can prevent them from destroying life. Egyptian theology assumed that individuals like Pharaoh who were powerful on earth would be powerful in the next life. The rituals of embalming and entombing their deceased rulers with treasure beyond measure is the exact opposite of the Biblical attitude that God takes the side of the oppressed, the poor, the enslaved, the struggling, the marginalized of society! The irony of the rout of the Red Sea that brings glory to the Lord God is that with a little more measured patience, Pharaoh and his army might have paused before crossing between two sheer walls of water without any divine sanction and struck at a more strategic moment.
Of course, we assume that God would still have intervened.
Frank R.
Exodus 14:19-31
When we see trouble ahead, we need to place the solution into God’s hands. Then we just move ahead. We only look back to see how God has solved our problems. When we see how he has solved them, we will be amazed. We never march alone. Our fellow church members should be with us, encouraging us.
First we have to decide if we are going in the direction God wants us to go.
God called his people back to Israel in the last century. They got there safely, but are still looking back on the “Egyptians” (Palestinians) behind them who are not yet being drowned in the waters.
In a war we are always looking ahead to the possible trouble that awaits us, but we dare not look back unless we see the enemy lying dead behind us.
We always seem to be pursued by something, so outside of running away from it, we need to be in prayer for God to deliver us. It could be the IRS or other government agencies, or it could be some who hate us and are trying to hurt us.
As a missionary to Nepal (where it had been illegal to be a Christian), it seemed as though there were always Christians in trouble. One problem was if they were trying to invite friends to church -- that could result in a six-year sentence! We saw many saved by trusting in the Lord.
Some of those we think are pursuing us are imaginary -- and for these our church can help us know that we must learn to trust in our God, whether our problem is real or imaginary.
So the message is for us to trust in the Lord!
Bob O.
Romans 14:1-12
I found a list on the internet (it has to be true, right?) called “The 25 Stupidest Things Kids Fight About.” I thought I’d share with you the top ten:
1. Who gets to sit in the front seat of the car on the way to school -- or anywhere else.
2. Who got a bigger birthday present.
3. Who has played with the kitten/puppy/rabbit for “too long.”
4. Who scribbled on the other child’s artwork first. “She started it.” “No, he touched mine first.”
5. Who gets to watch their favorite television program first.
6. Who didn’t pack away the toys. “I did my share.” “She/he didn’t do anything.”
7. Who put the car window down while you are traveling if you forgot the “lock windows” function on your control panel.
8. Who started whatever argument they are embroiled in.
9. Whether mom or dad has the best car. Even if they are matching models, they will find points of difference.
10. Which song should be played in the car or at home.
As I look at this list, I’m not surprised. I’ve been around enough kids to know that there is a lot of truth to these, and maybe a whole lot more could be added to the list.
I thought about that list as I read through this passage in Romans 14. I wonder how many times we, as adult Christians, fight about things that are really matters of opinion. How many bitter feelings have been left after two Christians have “had it out”? How many broken relationships are there because two Christians both believed they were “right”? We look at this list of ten things kids fight about and shake our heads. Boy, kids need to grow up. Maybe we all do.
Bill T.
Romans 14:1-12
In many European countries, early on Easter Monday girls come out of their homes wearing traditional red, black, and white folkloric dress. Young men walk down the streets, also in traditional dress of high black boots, black hats, white shirts, and cream-colored trousers. Older men follow, playing instruments, and the women have prepared a cornucopia of food. A young lady is pulled from the crowd and held by two young men, as a third throws a bucket of ice-cold water just drawn from a well on her. This Easter rite is called “sprinkling.” The purpose is to secure beauty, health, and even love for the young lady. When the ritual has been completed everyone gathers for a community banquet. Sadly, as Europe has become increasingly secularized this Christian religious ritual of community acceptance and fellowship is only practiced in small villages.
Application: A strong message in our reading is the need for the church to promote fellowship and be accepting of all individuals.
Ron L.
Romans 14:1-12
Death is so lonely. Writing in 1897 in The Medical Brief, the periodical’s editor J.J. Lawrence wrote: “Alone we were born, alone we must live, labor, and die.” Research conducted by Greg Norman and his colleagues has that found loneliness is bad for your health (Biological Psychology [March 2011]). Our lesson reminds us that we are not alone, that Christ is with us whether we live or die. Mother Teresa’s reflections on death make that clear: “Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity.” Death is like the child going to sleep in the car in his mother’s arms while on a family trip, all safe and secure, not alone, and then waking up in the morning in his own bed at home.
Mark E.
Matthew 18:21-35
Forgiveness isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong,” says Mahatma Gandhi in All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections. Where does the strength to forgive come from? I believe it comes from God.
Forgiveness isn’t an instinct. We are more likely to seek revenge or vengeance. The reality is, however, that forgiveness benefits us much more than it does the one we forgive. Imagine this. What if as we walked through life we picked up a stone every time we were hurt or angry? Unless we forgive the individual who has hurt or angered us, we are destined to carry that stone with us. As we move through our life we continue to collect stones. The stones get heavier and heavier, until they are all we can think about. They have become a burden too big to allow us to fully live. I think that’s the way it is with us when we fail to forgive. If we can forgive, we put down the stone. We lift the weight from us and can move through life more freely and with grace. That’s the path I prefer. What about you?
Bonnie B.
Matthew 18:21-35
Peter is asking Jesus a numerical question about the number of times one must forgive another. Seven times seems like a lot, and certainly at some point we’ve had enough, but having answered that seven times 70 is not enough, Jesus points to the extravagant forgiveness offered by God by telling the extraordinarily ridiculous story of a master who would lend one of his slaves 10,000 talents, which might be worth around 200,000 years’ worth of daily wages for an ordinary laborer. Don’t forget that a slave does not even qualify as an ordinary laborer. So people listening would have laughed at the idea of a master lending a slave that amount.
The image of a wonderful master forgiving that level of debt would stun the listeners, who struggled to pay off their own debts. But when the slave refuses to forgive the much smaller debt, 100 days of wages for a day laborer, they would have been shocked that someone who had been forgiven so much would refuse to forgive a much smaller debt.
Of course, don’t some people understand smaller amounts better than big amounts? Three people who die of a strange disease in a distant land can seem like a huge number when fear is injected into the equation. People understand three deaths. When they are told that the chances of catching the disease are something like one in 50 million they don’t feel any better, because they have no conception of what a million is! They may not understand waste in a business amounting to a million dollars, but 20 missing pencils -- that they understand!
Frank R.
Matthew 18:21-35
This reading brings up a political question: How many times should we forgive the Russians, the Syrians, the Iranians, the Turks, etc.? I hear complaints that Obama kept forgiving and never taking action, though he did do other things to hurt our enemies.
I read a story about a woman who was raped but forgave the perpetrator. Another story told about forgiving a thief.
There were several Christians in Nepal who forgave the jailors who tortured and beat them. Sometimes they converted them.
Sometimes my wife or I don’t forgive each other -- at least until much later, even though we pray the Lord’s Prayer together (forgive us our trespasses)!
This passage seems to be telling us that God will forgive us in the same way we forgive others (or don’t forgive them).
A banker in one of my churches owed another member some money. It was not much, but he begged the other member to forgive him or at least give him enough time to repay him. It was not that much, so he forgave him completely. But when the member owed some to the bank, the member he helped could not or would not forgive him and demanded the money.
Even a minuscule example -- one son begged his father to forgive the money he owed him, and he did; but when his brother begged to be forgiven what he had lent him a while before he demanded the money!
When we ask God to forgive us our sins against him, his word says that he will; but what if one of his children dies, he won’t forgive his Lord. He won’t forgive anyone else who has hurt him!
Our church should help us forgive, as we have been forgiven.
Bob O.
