Sermon Illustrations for Proper 19 | Ordinary Time 24 (2019)
Illustration
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Nature sometimes unleashes violent and devastating power that can wreak havoc on people. One such occurrence happened near where I live. On May 22, 2011, Joplin, Missouri was hit by a massive EF5 tornado, 200-plus mph winds pummeling brick and mortar, land and life. The tornado gouged a path through the center of Joplin, killing 161 people, injuring 1,000, and destroying 7,500 homes and business. The city has since rebuilt, but no one who was around then has forgotten that day.
A display of incredible power has a way of being remembered. In our text in Jeremiah 4, we encounter a power more awesome than that of an EF5 tornado. Looking at verses 23-26 we see that with prophetic insight, Jeremiah considers the might and power of God. According to J.A. Thompson, “It was as if the earth had been ‘uncreated’ and reverted back to its erstwhile primeval chaos. Order seemed to return to confusion.”
The point for Jerusalem and Judah was plain: The God who could devastate the entire earth by his presence and fierce anger could easily bring judgment to them through an invading army. They needed to remember the greatness of the God they had offended. It’s a challenge for us, too. God’s mercy and goodness are frequently talked about and with good reason. However, God’s judgment and power are real, too. This passage ends on a hopeful note. Though judgment will come, God says, “yet I will not make a full end.”
Bill T.
* * *
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
In July 2018, 63 years after the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi, the federal government has reopened the case. Till, an African-American, who was from Chicago and visiting relatives in Money, was accused of touching Carolyn Bryant, a white, 21-year-old female store clerk. Emmett was kidnapped and killed days later, his body tethered to a cotton gin fan with barbed wire and then cast into a river. Till was murdered by Carolyn’s husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam. Both men were found not guilty by an all-white jury, after which they did confess to the murder. Carolyn repeatedly changed her story, then recanted it altogether. When Emmett’s body was returned to Chicago for burial, his mother insisted on an open coffin so the nation could view racial violence. It was that photograph of the mutilated body of Emmett lying in the coffin that galvanized the nation to the pass laws to end segregation and racial violence. The case — gruesome and shocking — became a catalyst for the broader civil rights movement. Roy and J.W. are now dead. Most cases of racial violence have passed the date of the statute of limitations. Any attack before 1968 cannot be judged under a federal hate crime law. The Justice Department told Congress last year, “Even with our best efforts, investigations into historic cases are exceptionally difficult, and rarely will justice be reached inside of a courtroom.”
Ron L.
* * *
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
One is familiar with the image of separating the wheat from the chaff from New Testament parables. The harvested grain is tossed up and down. The wind blows away the useless chaff. The life-giving grain settles back down into a blanket. In the same way we see that good people will be separated from evil people at the judgment. But in this passage Jeremiah reminds us that when the Sirroco winds strike (Robert Alter translates this as “parching wind” in his new translation of the Hebrew scriptures) both wheat and chaff get blown away. In the crisis that is brewing, in the judgment to come, everyone, good and evil, will be destroyed.
The second part of this passage is even more striking. The language of creation in the first chapter of Genesis is used as order is reversed and reverts to chaos. Tohu and Bohu, two ancient Canaanite gods of chaos (the words are often translated "formless and void") are made irrelevant when the Spirit of God blows over the face of the waters in the first verses of Genesis. But in this passage the chaos gods Formless and Void return, and the earth, the heavens, the light, the animals, and the works of human hands are all uncreated as a result of human sinfulness.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
John Wesley claimed that this text testifies that Jesus came to save “all sinners without exception” (Commentary On the Bible, p.554). This includes Paul, who says that he is the foremost of all sinners (v.15). Martin Luther intends this point in calling on Christians to be brave sinners; real saints are stout sinners, he claims (Luther’s Works, Vol.69, p.101). And in one sermon he proclaimed:
Therefore it is the sweetest righteousness of God the Father that He does not save imaginary, but rather real sinners, sustaining us in spite of our sins and accepting works and our lives which are deserving of rejection... (Luther’s Works, Vol.31, p.63)
Indeed he adds that “... we never correctly praise God unless we first disparage ourselves.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.10, p.162) “The greater the iniquity, the greater the grace.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.28, p.245)
Mark E.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
We seem to live in a world where judgment is our first response to the actions of another. We often don’t even pause to consider the lives of other people, their stresses and challenges, the pain they feel or the fear they experience. Drivers who cut us off may be in deep distress, not being egotistical and rude. People who ignore us in the grocery store may be distracted by an ill family member, not trying to snub us. We judge. Isn’t it a marvelous gift that mercy and compassion are the first response of God, that forgiveness overcomes judgment? I am reminded in this letter that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness. What, I wonder, would our world be like if we each, like God does, offered grace, mercy and compassion as our first response?
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
There were many years when I deserted the Lord, but I discovered that he forgave my ignorance and all the mistakes I made. When I look back on my life I see a wonderful, loving God who forgave me for my many sins because of his love for me. Sometimes we can only see God’s work in us when we look back. Jesus even forgave those who tortured him and nailed him to that terrible cross. If he forgave that, then I have confidence he will forgive me.
Most of us must have experienced love and forgiveness as children if we had normal Christian parents who were faithful church goers. They helped us see when we did wrong in their sight.
Our church even goes further in pointing out the many things the Bible shows us are sin. Even our thoughts can be sinful. Thoughts can lead to sin. I have counseled some who thought that they saw a beautiful woman who tempted them and thought there might be a way to enjoy her company without anyone, including their wives, finding out.
If we just look at the Ten Commandments we might feel innocent, but when the Bible analyzes those ten, we might think again.
Bob O.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
I came across an interesting blog post called, “My Child Got Lost at Disney…It Can Happen to You.” Like a lot of people, I’ve been to the big amusement parks in Florida and California and I agree with the writer when she says, “Disney is crowded. We aren’t talking about your local park or zoo crowded…Disney is crowded! Sometimes in certain areas it feels like it is just wall to wall people. On top of that, if you are in a crowd that is moving, you have people that are trying to dodge in between people.”
I understand how someone could get lost in a place like that. Even though the writer took as many precautions as she could, her child still got lost, even if it was only for a short time. What I thought interesting was her descriptions of how they felt. She wrote, “Disneyland went from the happiest place on earth to the scariest place on earth during those five minutes.” She described the event as “the scariest moment of her life.”
Losing a child, even for a brief time, is terrifying for parents. There is utter relief and joy when a lost child is found. In the two parables Jesus tells of the sheep and coin, when the shepherd and the woman find what is lost, there is rejoicing. The point isn’t lost. Just as a woman who loses a coin is happy to find it; just a shepherd who loses a sheep celebrates its return; just as distraught parents breathe again when a missing child is back in the fold; God rejoices of lost sinners coming home. That which is lost needs to be found.
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
In the New Testament the word for salvation is soteria. Originally it was a secular word used by the Greeks to denote health, safety, security. In Greek mythology Soteria was the daughter of Zeus, the ruler of all gods. She was the personification of safety, recovery and deliverance. Her image could only be looked upon by the priests. The word took on theological significance when it was used to inquire about the welfare of one’s soul. Combined with Latin we derive the word “salvation.” It was into this cultural milieu of Judaism that Jesus came that we may know that God is not found in the dictates of the Law, but in the Spirit of one’s heart and soul. According to Paul, “God has sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Ron L.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
We often transfer our cultural assumptions — our own personal geography, the manner of our living — to the parables of Jesus, without even thinking of it. Whether we live in close proximity to others, in an apartment complex, dormitory, or crowded neighborhood, or whether we live further apart, in the countryside, or are so far removed we are in isolation from other people, we think of ourselves as living as individuals or individual families.
The community and communal nature of the one room house, open to the public, is essential to understanding how this prelude to three parables, the woman with the lost coin, the shepherd with the lost sheep, and the story of the prodigal son, his enabling father, and his overcompensating brother, operates. Jesus did not share a meal in a private dining room or closed home. There were long wide windows in dwellings designed for better ventilation, and people thought nothing of looking inside to see who was eating with who.
Now the woman searching for the lost coin would have lived in a single room home shared with extended family and animals. The community may have shared central ovens, used the same ritual baths, and walked in and out of each others spaces as a natural thing.
Others in the neighborhood would have known what she’d lost, what she was doing to find it, and when she found the lost coin. The celebration would have been a public one, with neighbors and others rejoicing together.
Shepherding may not have been nearly as isolating an experience as we think of, since the flock were not all that apart, and the society of shepherds would have meant that other shepherds may have watched the other 99 while the seeking shepherd went out looking for the other. So this parable also happened in community.
Frank R.
Nature sometimes unleashes violent and devastating power that can wreak havoc on people. One such occurrence happened near where I live. On May 22, 2011, Joplin, Missouri was hit by a massive EF5 tornado, 200-plus mph winds pummeling brick and mortar, land and life. The tornado gouged a path through the center of Joplin, killing 161 people, injuring 1,000, and destroying 7,500 homes and business. The city has since rebuilt, but no one who was around then has forgotten that day.
A display of incredible power has a way of being remembered. In our text in Jeremiah 4, we encounter a power more awesome than that of an EF5 tornado. Looking at verses 23-26 we see that with prophetic insight, Jeremiah considers the might and power of God. According to J.A. Thompson, “It was as if the earth had been ‘uncreated’ and reverted back to its erstwhile primeval chaos. Order seemed to return to confusion.”
The point for Jerusalem and Judah was plain: The God who could devastate the entire earth by his presence and fierce anger could easily bring judgment to them through an invading army. They needed to remember the greatness of the God they had offended. It’s a challenge for us, too. God’s mercy and goodness are frequently talked about and with good reason. However, God’s judgment and power are real, too. This passage ends on a hopeful note. Though judgment will come, God says, “yet I will not make a full end.”
Bill T.
* * *
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
In July 2018, 63 years after the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi, the federal government has reopened the case. Till, an African-American, who was from Chicago and visiting relatives in Money, was accused of touching Carolyn Bryant, a white, 21-year-old female store clerk. Emmett was kidnapped and killed days later, his body tethered to a cotton gin fan with barbed wire and then cast into a river. Till was murdered by Carolyn’s husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam. Both men were found not guilty by an all-white jury, after which they did confess to the murder. Carolyn repeatedly changed her story, then recanted it altogether. When Emmett’s body was returned to Chicago for burial, his mother insisted on an open coffin so the nation could view racial violence. It was that photograph of the mutilated body of Emmett lying in the coffin that galvanized the nation to the pass laws to end segregation and racial violence. The case — gruesome and shocking — became a catalyst for the broader civil rights movement. Roy and J.W. are now dead. Most cases of racial violence have passed the date of the statute of limitations. Any attack before 1968 cannot be judged under a federal hate crime law. The Justice Department told Congress last year, “Even with our best efforts, investigations into historic cases are exceptionally difficult, and rarely will justice be reached inside of a courtroom.”
Ron L.
* * *
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
One is familiar with the image of separating the wheat from the chaff from New Testament parables. The harvested grain is tossed up and down. The wind blows away the useless chaff. The life-giving grain settles back down into a blanket. In the same way we see that good people will be separated from evil people at the judgment. But in this passage Jeremiah reminds us that when the Sirroco winds strike (Robert Alter translates this as “parching wind” in his new translation of the Hebrew scriptures) both wheat and chaff get blown away. In the crisis that is brewing, in the judgment to come, everyone, good and evil, will be destroyed.
The second part of this passage is even more striking. The language of creation in the first chapter of Genesis is used as order is reversed and reverts to chaos. Tohu and Bohu, two ancient Canaanite gods of chaos (the words are often translated "formless and void") are made irrelevant when the Spirit of God blows over the face of the waters in the first verses of Genesis. But in this passage the chaos gods Formless and Void return, and the earth, the heavens, the light, the animals, and the works of human hands are all uncreated as a result of human sinfulness.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
John Wesley claimed that this text testifies that Jesus came to save “all sinners without exception” (Commentary On the Bible, p.554). This includes Paul, who says that he is the foremost of all sinners (v.15). Martin Luther intends this point in calling on Christians to be brave sinners; real saints are stout sinners, he claims (Luther’s Works, Vol.69, p.101). And in one sermon he proclaimed:
Therefore it is the sweetest righteousness of God the Father that He does not save imaginary, but rather real sinners, sustaining us in spite of our sins and accepting works and our lives which are deserving of rejection... (Luther’s Works, Vol.31, p.63)
Indeed he adds that “... we never correctly praise God unless we first disparage ourselves.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.10, p.162) “The greater the iniquity, the greater the grace.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.28, p.245)
Mark E.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
We seem to live in a world where judgment is our first response to the actions of another. We often don’t even pause to consider the lives of other people, their stresses and challenges, the pain they feel or the fear they experience. Drivers who cut us off may be in deep distress, not being egotistical and rude. People who ignore us in the grocery store may be distracted by an ill family member, not trying to snub us. We judge. Isn’t it a marvelous gift that mercy and compassion are the first response of God, that forgiveness overcomes judgment? I am reminded in this letter that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness. What, I wonder, would our world be like if we each, like God does, offered grace, mercy and compassion as our first response?
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
There were many years when I deserted the Lord, but I discovered that he forgave my ignorance and all the mistakes I made. When I look back on my life I see a wonderful, loving God who forgave me for my many sins because of his love for me. Sometimes we can only see God’s work in us when we look back. Jesus even forgave those who tortured him and nailed him to that terrible cross. If he forgave that, then I have confidence he will forgive me.
Most of us must have experienced love and forgiveness as children if we had normal Christian parents who were faithful church goers. They helped us see when we did wrong in their sight.
Our church even goes further in pointing out the many things the Bible shows us are sin. Even our thoughts can be sinful. Thoughts can lead to sin. I have counseled some who thought that they saw a beautiful woman who tempted them and thought there might be a way to enjoy her company without anyone, including their wives, finding out.
If we just look at the Ten Commandments we might feel innocent, but when the Bible analyzes those ten, we might think again.
Bob O.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
I came across an interesting blog post called, “My Child Got Lost at Disney…It Can Happen to You.” Like a lot of people, I’ve been to the big amusement parks in Florida and California and I agree with the writer when she says, “Disney is crowded. We aren’t talking about your local park or zoo crowded…Disney is crowded! Sometimes in certain areas it feels like it is just wall to wall people. On top of that, if you are in a crowd that is moving, you have people that are trying to dodge in between people.”
I understand how someone could get lost in a place like that. Even though the writer took as many precautions as she could, her child still got lost, even if it was only for a short time. What I thought interesting was her descriptions of how they felt. She wrote, “Disneyland went from the happiest place on earth to the scariest place on earth during those five minutes.” She described the event as “the scariest moment of her life.”
Losing a child, even for a brief time, is terrifying for parents. There is utter relief and joy when a lost child is found. In the two parables Jesus tells of the sheep and coin, when the shepherd and the woman find what is lost, there is rejoicing. The point isn’t lost. Just as a woman who loses a coin is happy to find it; just a shepherd who loses a sheep celebrates its return; just as distraught parents breathe again when a missing child is back in the fold; God rejoices of lost sinners coming home. That which is lost needs to be found.
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
In the New Testament the word for salvation is soteria. Originally it was a secular word used by the Greeks to denote health, safety, security. In Greek mythology Soteria was the daughter of Zeus, the ruler of all gods. She was the personification of safety, recovery and deliverance. Her image could only be looked upon by the priests. The word took on theological significance when it was used to inquire about the welfare of one’s soul. Combined with Latin we derive the word “salvation.” It was into this cultural milieu of Judaism that Jesus came that we may know that God is not found in the dictates of the Law, but in the Spirit of one’s heart and soul. According to Paul, “God has sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Ron L.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
We often transfer our cultural assumptions — our own personal geography, the manner of our living — to the parables of Jesus, without even thinking of it. Whether we live in close proximity to others, in an apartment complex, dormitory, or crowded neighborhood, or whether we live further apart, in the countryside, or are so far removed we are in isolation from other people, we think of ourselves as living as individuals or individual families.
The community and communal nature of the one room house, open to the public, is essential to understanding how this prelude to three parables, the woman with the lost coin, the shepherd with the lost sheep, and the story of the prodigal son, his enabling father, and his overcompensating brother, operates. Jesus did not share a meal in a private dining room or closed home. There were long wide windows in dwellings designed for better ventilation, and people thought nothing of looking inside to see who was eating with who.
Now the woman searching for the lost coin would have lived in a single room home shared with extended family and animals. The community may have shared central ovens, used the same ritual baths, and walked in and out of each others spaces as a natural thing.
Others in the neighborhood would have known what she’d lost, what she was doing to find it, and when she found the lost coin. The celebration would have been a public one, with neighbors and others rejoicing together.
Shepherding may not have been nearly as isolating an experience as we think of, since the flock were not all that apart, and the society of shepherds would have meant that other shepherds may have watched the other 99 while the seeking shepherd went out looking for the other. So this parable also happened in community.
Frank R.
