Sermon Illustrations for Proper 19 | Ordinary Time 24 (2022)
Illustration
Luke 15:1-10
I’m a fan of corn mazes, but sometimes they can be tough to get out of. The Cool Patch Pumpkins corn maze in Dixon, near Sacramento California, spanned 63 acres this year, twenty more acres than last year. It was named the largest corn maze in the Guinness Book of World records. It is such a difficult and large maze that, many times, frustrated searchers in the maze will call 911 or the local sheriff’s office for help on getting out. Matt Cooley who has been running the maze for over twelve years and said that the 911 calls might be a sign that the labyrinth has become too large for people to explore. He also added that sometimes people are lost in the maze for more than four hours and long into the night.
I can imagine the sense of being lost in a giant corn maze, afraid of never getting out. It must be a tremendous relief to be found and shown the way out.
Finding things that are lost bring joy and excitement. In these two parables, Jesus discusses a lost sheep and a lost coin. Once both are noticed as being lost, the shepherd and the woman search until it is found. Once it is recovered, there is joy and celebration. Lost things must be found. That’s true for sheep, coins, and people.
Bill T.
* * *
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Revelation 7:1 shows four angels holding back the fierce winds that would otherwise lay waste to the world. This is a common meme to be found in other apocalyptic literature, such as Enoch and Jubilees. Jeremiah pictures these winds let loose on the world. These hot, scorching winds were a familiar feature of life for God’s people, but the belief was that God, through the angels under his command, held their full power back. There was always some restraint. However, in times of judgement, the full wrath of God and the full wrath of the winds would finally be loosed with destructive consequences. This image is meant to allude to the power of the nations that might be loosed by God’s judgement on God’s people.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
How appropriate on this day of sad remembrance that our text reminds us of sin and forgiveness. Like Paul in our text, Martin Luther declared that we cannot avoid the fact that we are as sinful as everyone (even as sinful as the 9/11 perpetrators). Then we will be brave sinners (Luther’s Works, Vol. 48, pp. 281-282). This awareness makes us yearn for and prepares us for the comforting word of forgiveness in this lesson. As Luther once remarked:
We should not become despondent or despair because of our sin and because we are great sinners; for God has caused the forgiveness of sins to be publicly proclaimed to all who honestly recognize and confess their sins and to be offered to everybody, no one excluded: Nor will he change his mind (Weimar Ausgabe Tischreden, Vol. 6, p. 105).
Perhaps you or your flock will still think that you are not as bad as the 9/11 perpetrators, as bad as Putin and his Russian warlords, for you do many good and loving things. But then recall the insights of neurobiology. When we do good deeds or practices, we are rewarded by the secretion in our brains of a good-feeling chemical, dopamine (Dean Hamer, The Gene Gene, pp. 72ff). Even in our best deeds we are selfish, seeking pleasure at least subliminally; our good deeds are not pure after all.
Mark E.
* * *
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28, Psalm 14
The Madera Tribune on August 16, 1961, reports a tragic story. Edwin Cooper died of cancer in Denver, CO earlier that week at the age of 41. Hardly anyone knew him by the name Edwin Cooper, though. He was more commonly known as “Bozo the Clown.” The newspaper reported, “He was a natural comic, a sight to see in his greasepaint, chalk while, red and blue full-length costume with the big ruffle on it. He made children of all ages laugh. In addition to entertaining both young and old, Cooper had a message for his ‘buddies and partners’ every week: get checked for cancer. He knew it could mean their life or death. Bozo, however, was so busy warning everybody else about cancer checkups that he neglected to lake his own advice. By the time it was discovered it was too late.”
Ignorance of what is happening can be deadly. Tragically, it was for Edwin Cooper. It was for the Israelites, too. The words that describe them in this passage foreshadow devastating consequences. Foolish, stupid, no understanding, and no knowledge point to God’s judgment and a dire situation. Proverbs 16:20 notes, “Those who are attentive to a matter will prosper, and happy are those who trust in the Lord.”
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
It’s interesting that in the parable of the lost coin it is the woman in this household who seems to be the money manager. Interesting, but not surprising. In the third world women are almost always the recipients of microloans, often given in cash amounts of a hundred dollars or less, which are designed to give the poorest of the poor the capital to start home businesses that can lay the foundation for financial success and escape from poverty. Studies have shown that men who receive microloans will spend the money on a party for their friends, eating and drinking the loan on its way to default. Women, on the other hand, will purchase something like a sewing machine, a grill, or a manufacturing device, which they use to make a product so they can sell the fruits of their labors, pay off the loan, and get a larger loan so that they can expand their business. Their goal is to strengthen their family. This woman in the story Jesus tells has amassed ten coins, each representing a day’s wage. Whether this is money she and her husband have earned, he as a day laborer, she in the craft she operates out of her home or it is the amount she has saved simply from her own earnings, is not made clear, and hardly matters. The point is, she knows exactly how much money she should have, and therefore if a coin is missing.
Frank R.
I’m a fan of corn mazes, but sometimes they can be tough to get out of. The Cool Patch Pumpkins corn maze in Dixon, near Sacramento California, spanned 63 acres this year, twenty more acres than last year. It was named the largest corn maze in the Guinness Book of World records. It is such a difficult and large maze that, many times, frustrated searchers in the maze will call 911 or the local sheriff’s office for help on getting out. Matt Cooley who has been running the maze for over twelve years and said that the 911 calls might be a sign that the labyrinth has become too large for people to explore. He also added that sometimes people are lost in the maze for more than four hours and long into the night.
I can imagine the sense of being lost in a giant corn maze, afraid of never getting out. It must be a tremendous relief to be found and shown the way out.
Finding things that are lost bring joy and excitement. In these two parables, Jesus discusses a lost sheep and a lost coin. Once both are noticed as being lost, the shepherd and the woman search until it is found. Once it is recovered, there is joy and celebration. Lost things must be found. That’s true for sheep, coins, and people.
Bill T.
* * *
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Revelation 7:1 shows four angels holding back the fierce winds that would otherwise lay waste to the world. This is a common meme to be found in other apocalyptic literature, such as Enoch and Jubilees. Jeremiah pictures these winds let loose on the world. These hot, scorching winds were a familiar feature of life for God’s people, but the belief was that God, through the angels under his command, held their full power back. There was always some restraint. However, in times of judgement, the full wrath of God and the full wrath of the winds would finally be loosed with destructive consequences. This image is meant to allude to the power of the nations that might be loosed by God’s judgement on God’s people.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
How appropriate on this day of sad remembrance that our text reminds us of sin and forgiveness. Like Paul in our text, Martin Luther declared that we cannot avoid the fact that we are as sinful as everyone (even as sinful as the 9/11 perpetrators). Then we will be brave sinners (Luther’s Works, Vol. 48, pp. 281-282). This awareness makes us yearn for and prepares us for the comforting word of forgiveness in this lesson. As Luther once remarked:
We should not become despondent or despair because of our sin and because we are great sinners; for God has caused the forgiveness of sins to be publicly proclaimed to all who honestly recognize and confess their sins and to be offered to everybody, no one excluded: Nor will he change his mind (Weimar Ausgabe Tischreden, Vol. 6, p. 105).
Perhaps you or your flock will still think that you are not as bad as the 9/11 perpetrators, as bad as Putin and his Russian warlords, for you do many good and loving things. But then recall the insights of neurobiology. When we do good deeds or practices, we are rewarded by the secretion in our brains of a good-feeling chemical, dopamine (Dean Hamer, The Gene Gene, pp. 72ff). Even in our best deeds we are selfish, seeking pleasure at least subliminally; our good deeds are not pure after all.
Mark E.
* * *
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28, Psalm 14
The Madera Tribune on August 16, 1961, reports a tragic story. Edwin Cooper died of cancer in Denver, CO earlier that week at the age of 41. Hardly anyone knew him by the name Edwin Cooper, though. He was more commonly known as “Bozo the Clown.” The newspaper reported, “He was a natural comic, a sight to see in his greasepaint, chalk while, red and blue full-length costume with the big ruffle on it. He made children of all ages laugh. In addition to entertaining both young and old, Cooper had a message for his ‘buddies and partners’ every week: get checked for cancer. He knew it could mean their life or death. Bozo, however, was so busy warning everybody else about cancer checkups that he neglected to lake his own advice. By the time it was discovered it was too late.”
Ignorance of what is happening can be deadly. Tragically, it was for Edwin Cooper. It was for the Israelites, too. The words that describe them in this passage foreshadow devastating consequences. Foolish, stupid, no understanding, and no knowledge point to God’s judgment and a dire situation. Proverbs 16:20 notes, “Those who are attentive to a matter will prosper, and happy are those who trust in the Lord.”
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
It’s interesting that in the parable of the lost coin it is the woman in this household who seems to be the money manager. Interesting, but not surprising. In the third world women are almost always the recipients of microloans, often given in cash amounts of a hundred dollars or less, which are designed to give the poorest of the poor the capital to start home businesses that can lay the foundation for financial success and escape from poverty. Studies have shown that men who receive microloans will spend the money on a party for their friends, eating and drinking the loan on its way to default. Women, on the other hand, will purchase something like a sewing machine, a grill, or a manufacturing device, which they use to make a product so they can sell the fruits of their labors, pay off the loan, and get a larger loan so that they can expand their business. Their goal is to strengthen their family. This woman in the story Jesus tells has amassed ten coins, each representing a day’s wage. Whether this is money she and her husband have earned, he as a day laborer, she in the craft she operates out of her home or it is the amount she has saved simply from her own earnings, is not made clear, and hardly matters. The point is, she knows exactly how much money she should have, and therefore if a coin is missing.
Frank R.
