Sermon Illustrations for Proper 22 | Ordinary Time 27 (2023)
Illustration
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
When I was in Sunday school, which for me as a Roman Catholic in those days, was offered during the school day once a week, I remember that we had to memorize the Ten Commandments. Sometimes it felt like we were actually trying to carry the tablets Moses carried — at least when we were struggling to remember them. As I moved in the protestant church, I talked about the Ten Commandments with Sunday school classes and spoke about them more relationally than we had in my youth. We spoke about our relationship with God and our relationships with our neighbors and we linked them with Jesus sharing his view of the two most important commandments. You remember them: Love God with your whole self and your neighbor as yourself. While it’s good to do the memorizing, it’s so much better to live by the commandments. No carrying stone tablets but carrying the love of God and our neighbor in our hearts and through our actions.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
The section of scripture we call the Ten Commandments is stretched across thirteen sentences in Jewish versions. In Christian versions, there are sixteen sentences. As it says in a footnote to The Torah: A Modern Commentary (Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 1981), “In most Jewish versions the commandments regarding murder, adultery, theft, and false witness all are part of verse 13, while in Christian versions they are numbered 13-16.” It’s not clear from the Hebrew where the first commandment begins, and the second, and so on. For instance, in the older versions “I am the Lord your God” is the first commandment, and “You shall have no other gods before me” is the second, but most p;rotestant versions, as well as the New Jewish Publication Society translation put those two together. In some Christian versions, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house” and “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” are two separate commandments, and in others they are one.
And if all this weren’t confusing enough, the commandment to keep the Sabbath is a different rationale in Deuteronomy than in Exodus. In Exodus we rest because God rested. In Deuteronomy, it is so the people can have the rest denied to them in Egypt.
The key thing is to worry less about the exact numbering and maybe practice the sort of living we are called towards in the ten commandments. And if that’s too complicated, don’t forget Jesus condensed the ten to two greatest commandments. Either way, it works.
Frank R.
* * *
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
The lesson is all about the giving of the ten commandments. But what good are they? What good is the law? John Wesley nicely explained how God has the authority to issue these commands. He wrote:
Because God is the Lord, Jehovah, self-existent, independent, eternal and the fountain of all being and power. Therefore, he has an incontestable right to command. (Commentary On the Bible, p.77)
Interpreting the commandment against theft, Martin Luther notes that it demands a lot more of us and American society than we have been led to believe. In his Small Catechism, he wrote:
We are to fear and love God, so that we neither take our neighbors’ money or property not acquire them by using shoddy merchandise or crooked deals, but instead help them to improve and protect their property and income. (The Book of Concord [2000 edition], p.353)
And about the commandment on bearing false witness, he further points out how often we break this one:
We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead, we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light. (The Book of Concord [2000 edition], p.353)
Luther also does great job explaining what good the law (ten commandments) is in helping us recognize that we need Christ and grace:
42. Therefore the law (just like the gospel) must, without distinction, be preached to the pious as well as to the impious;
43. To the impious, that in terror they may recognize their sin, death, and inevitable wrath of God, which is to humble them;
44. To the pious, that they may be admonished to crucify their flesh with its lusts and evil desires, lest they become secure. (What Luther Says, pp.771-772)
Mark E.
* * *
Philippians 3:4b-14
People tend to give gifts to graduates of both high school and college. I remember a gift my mother gave me for my high school graduation more than forty years ago. It was a poem. I came across this poem when searching for stories about this passage. It is an anonymous poem that says:
Nothing in the world
Can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not;
Nothing is more common
Than unsuccessful men
With talent.
Genius will not:
Unrewarded genius
Is almost a proverb.
Education will not;
The world is full of
Educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination
Alone are important.
I thought about that poem again as I read this familiar passage. Paul was educated and important. In the end, though, he was “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” He was willing to press on “toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (vs. 13-14). Another anonymous work provides good perspective. “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”
Bill T.
* * *
Philippians 3:4b-14
If you go to YouTube you can find videos that show runners — bless their hearts, they trained hard for this day — who were leading in an exhausting race, having given their all not only in running that day but in training diligently for years in preparation for the race — who began to celebrate before they reached the finish line. In these videos you will see someone else spring past them as they raise their arms in joy and victory. One is tempted to laugh, I suspect, but I am heart sick for those who couldn’t focus on the finish line just a second or two more.
Athletics were every bit as important in the Graeco-Roman world as they are in our society, and that’s why in Philippians 3:12-14 Paul tells us strain towards what lies ahead, pressing on toward the goal, “the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” (4:14) Like athletes, the Christian has suffered various trials and temptations in their pursuit of the heavenly calling. But the distractions of their inner turmoil, the arguments they were unleashing on each other, threatened to cause them to lose focus.
Do not lost sight of the goal — keep striving!
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 21:33-46
I’ve heard this story in several different varieties, but the message resonates. Back in the days when the old west was being settled, there were a lot of pioneers who made their way over the Oregon Trail. When they got to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, they found a stream too wide to cross in one step. So, they hopped across using an ugly rock sticking up out of the water in the middle of the stream.
As the years passed, and pioneers settled in the area, a man built his cabin near that same stream. To help keep his door closed, he took that ugly rock out of the stream and used it to hold his door. More years passed, and railroads were built across the nation. More people moved west, and modern cities sprang up. A nephew of the old pioneer went east to study geology at a large university. He returned home during vacation. One day he noticed that the rock wasn’t just a rock. It was a lump of pure gold, the largest gold nugget ever discovered on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
It had been there for three generations, but everybody saw it differently. People see Jesus differently, too. They did while he walked this earth and they do today. To some, he is a teacher. To others, he is more myth than man. To others, he is the cornerstone upon whom all of eternity is built. What is he to you?
Bill T.
* * *
Matthew 21:33-46
I wonder how many people hearing this story thought about God as the vineyard owner and Jesus as his beloved son. The prophets, workers in the vineyard were killed. The followers of the owner were killed. Sin changed the face of the relationship with God. How many of us persecute people for their way of following God, for believing a little differently, for practicing their faith differently — or even not being Christian? The world is the vineyard of God, and it is placed in our care. Will we let our sin, our jealousy, or lack of compassion or sympathy mar all that God has created.? I pray not.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Matthew 21:33-46
John Calvin gets right to the point of this gospel story when, while commenting on it he wrote:
This doctrine partly instructs us to give ourselves up gently, with a mild and tractable heart, to the dominion of Christ, and partly fortifies us against the obstinacy and furious attacks of the wicked... (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/1, p.38)
Martin Luther King, Jr. nicely described how the message of this text offers comforting assurance to those who have been victimized by the majority or those with clout. King noted, “And I can hear a voice crying out through the eternities. ‘I accept you, you are a recipient of My grace...’” (A Knock at Midnight, p.198) In the same spirit, concerning who this Jesus is, King observed:
A voice out of Bethlehem 2,000 years ago said that all men are equal. It said right would triumph. Jesus of Nazareth wrote no book; he owned no property to endow him with influence. He had no friends in the courts of the powerful. But he changed the course of humankind with only the poor and the despised. (A Testament of Hope, p.328)
Mark E.
When I was in Sunday school, which for me as a Roman Catholic in those days, was offered during the school day once a week, I remember that we had to memorize the Ten Commandments. Sometimes it felt like we were actually trying to carry the tablets Moses carried — at least when we were struggling to remember them. As I moved in the protestant church, I talked about the Ten Commandments with Sunday school classes and spoke about them more relationally than we had in my youth. We spoke about our relationship with God and our relationships with our neighbors and we linked them with Jesus sharing his view of the two most important commandments. You remember them: Love God with your whole self and your neighbor as yourself. While it’s good to do the memorizing, it’s so much better to live by the commandments. No carrying stone tablets but carrying the love of God and our neighbor in our hearts and through our actions.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
The section of scripture we call the Ten Commandments is stretched across thirteen sentences in Jewish versions. In Christian versions, there are sixteen sentences. As it says in a footnote to The Torah: A Modern Commentary (Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 1981), “In most Jewish versions the commandments regarding murder, adultery, theft, and false witness all are part of verse 13, while in Christian versions they are numbered 13-16.” It’s not clear from the Hebrew where the first commandment begins, and the second, and so on. For instance, in the older versions “I am the Lord your God” is the first commandment, and “You shall have no other gods before me” is the second, but most p;rotestant versions, as well as the New Jewish Publication Society translation put those two together. In some Christian versions, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house” and “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” are two separate commandments, and in others they are one.
And if all this weren’t confusing enough, the commandment to keep the Sabbath is a different rationale in Deuteronomy than in Exodus. In Exodus we rest because God rested. In Deuteronomy, it is so the people can have the rest denied to them in Egypt.
The key thing is to worry less about the exact numbering and maybe practice the sort of living we are called towards in the ten commandments. And if that’s too complicated, don’t forget Jesus condensed the ten to two greatest commandments. Either way, it works.
Frank R.
* * *
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
The lesson is all about the giving of the ten commandments. But what good are they? What good is the law? John Wesley nicely explained how God has the authority to issue these commands. He wrote:
Because God is the Lord, Jehovah, self-existent, independent, eternal and the fountain of all being and power. Therefore, he has an incontestable right to command. (Commentary On the Bible, p.77)
Interpreting the commandment against theft, Martin Luther notes that it demands a lot more of us and American society than we have been led to believe. In his Small Catechism, he wrote:
We are to fear and love God, so that we neither take our neighbors’ money or property not acquire them by using shoddy merchandise or crooked deals, but instead help them to improve and protect their property and income. (The Book of Concord [2000 edition], p.353)
And about the commandment on bearing false witness, he further points out how often we break this one:
We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead, we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light. (The Book of Concord [2000 edition], p.353)
Luther also does great job explaining what good the law (ten commandments) is in helping us recognize that we need Christ and grace:
42. Therefore the law (just like the gospel) must, without distinction, be preached to the pious as well as to the impious;
43. To the impious, that in terror they may recognize their sin, death, and inevitable wrath of God, which is to humble them;
44. To the pious, that they may be admonished to crucify their flesh with its lusts and evil desires, lest they become secure. (What Luther Says, pp.771-772)
Mark E.
* * *
Philippians 3:4b-14
People tend to give gifts to graduates of both high school and college. I remember a gift my mother gave me for my high school graduation more than forty years ago. It was a poem. I came across this poem when searching for stories about this passage. It is an anonymous poem that says:
Nothing in the world
Can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not;
Nothing is more common
Than unsuccessful men
With talent.
Genius will not:
Unrewarded genius
Is almost a proverb.
Education will not;
The world is full of
Educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination
Alone are important.
I thought about that poem again as I read this familiar passage. Paul was educated and important. In the end, though, he was “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” He was willing to press on “toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (vs. 13-14). Another anonymous work provides good perspective. “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”
Bill T.
* * *
Philippians 3:4b-14
If you go to YouTube you can find videos that show runners — bless their hearts, they trained hard for this day — who were leading in an exhausting race, having given their all not only in running that day but in training diligently for years in preparation for the race — who began to celebrate before they reached the finish line. In these videos you will see someone else spring past them as they raise their arms in joy and victory. One is tempted to laugh, I suspect, but I am heart sick for those who couldn’t focus on the finish line just a second or two more.
Athletics were every bit as important in the Graeco-Roman world as they are in our society, and that’s why in Philippians 3:12-14 Paul tells us strain towards what lies ahead, pressing on toward the goal, “the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” (4:14) Like athletes, the Christian has suffered various trials and temptations in their pursuit of the heavenly calling. But the distractions of their inner turmoil, the arguments they were unleashing on each other, threatened to cause them to lose focus.
Do not lost sight of the goal — keep striving!
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 21:33-46
I’ve heard this story in several different varieties, but the message resonates. Back in the days when the old west was being settled, there were a lot of pioneers who made their way over the Oregon Trail. When they got to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, they found a stream too wide to cross in one step. So, they hopped across using an ugly rock sticking up out of the water in the middle of the stream.
As the years passed, and pioneers settled in the area, a man built his cabin near that same stream. To help keep his door closed, he took that ugly rock out of the stream and used it to hold his door. More years passed, and railroads were built across the nation. More people moved west, and modern cities sprang up. A nephew of the old pioneer went east to study geology at a large university. He returned home during vacation. One day he noticed that the rock wasn’t just a rock. It was a lump of pure gold, the largest gold nugget ever discovered on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
It had been there for three generations, but everybody saw it differently. People see Jesus differently, too. They did while he walked this earth and they do today. To some, he is a teacher. To others, he is more myth than man. To others, he is the cornerstone upon whom all of eternity is built. What is he to you?
Bill T.
* * *
Matthew 21:33-46
I wonder how many people hearing this story thought about God as the vineyard owner and Jesus as his beloved son. The prophets, workers in the vineyard were killed. The followers of the owner were killed. Sin changed the face of the relationship with God. How many of us persecute people for their way of following God, for believing a little differently, for practicing their faith differently — or even not being Christian? The world is the vineyard of God, and it is placed in our care. Will we let our sin, our jealousy, or lack of compassion or sympathy mar all that God has created.? I pray not.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Matthew 21:33-46
John Calvin gets right to the point of this gospel story when, while commenting on it he wrote:
This doctrine partly instructs us to give ourselves up gently, with a mild and tractable heart, to the dominion of Christ, and partly fortifies us against the obstinacy and furious attacks of the wicked... (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/1, p.38)
Martin Luther King, Jr. nicely described how the message of this text offers comforting assurance to those who have been victimized by the majority or those with clout. King noted, “And I can hear a voice crying out through the eternities. ‘I accept you, you are a recipient of My grace...’” (A Knock at Midnight, p.198) In the same spirit, concerning who this Jesus is, King observed:
A voice out of Bethlehem 2,000 years ago said that all men are equal. It said right would triumph. Jesus of Nazareth wrote no book; he owned no property to endow him with influence. He had no friends in the courts of the powerful. But he changed the course of humankind with only the poor and the despised. (A Testament of Hope, p.328)
Mark E.
