Sermon Illustrations for Proper 23 | Ordinary Time 28 (2021)
Illustration
Job 23:1-9,16-17
Seeking to vindicate himself as a righteous human being, Job found himself alone. Augustine would not be surprised. In his view, to focus on oneself (one’s righteousness) leads to emptiness:
Accordingly, to exist in himself, that is to be his own satisfaction after abandoning God is not quite to become a nonentity; but to approximate to that. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.2, p. 273)
Martin Luther made a similar point:
This is the greatest idolatry that has been practiced up to now, and it is still prevalent in the world... It concerns only that conscience which seeks help, comfort, and salvation in its own works and presumes to wrest heaven from God. (The Book of Concord, p.367)
If we are right with God, we will not think so highly of ourselves. The 17th-century French intellectual Blaise Pascal well explained the paradox implicit in this lesson:
Man’s greatness comes from knowing he is wretched... Thus, it is wretched to know that one is wretched, but there is greatness in knowing one is wretched. (Pensees, p.59)
Mark E.
* * *
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
There have been times in my life when I did not feel the presence of God, when I felt isolated and alone. I will admit that in most of those times and cases, I was feeling like I had sinned or done something wrong — or when I was denying that I had done something wrong, denying my culpability. This is Job’s lament. He cannot feel the presence of God. He cannot hear God’s response to his prayers. Have you ever felt that way? I was reminded by a colleague I love and admire that God never moves away from us. Rather we move or turn away from God, we fail to seek out or perhaps to feel the presence of God due to our own behaviors. Job later learns that God has always been present. In those lost moments of my life, I have eventually felt the presence of God as well. That is the hope I cling to in times of distress.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 4:12-16
I found this story from the March 1990 edition of the “American Bible Society Record”. It speaks to the transformative power of the word of God. Gaylord Kambarami, the general secretary of the Bible Society in Zimbabwe, tried to give a New Testament to a belligerent man. The man angrily insisted he would roll the pages and use them to make cigarettes. Mr. Kambarami said, “I understand that, but at least promise to read the page of the New Testament before you smoke it.” The man finally agreed, and the two went their separate ways.
Fifteen years later, the two men met at a convention in Zimbabwe. The scripture-smoking man had come to know Jesus and was now a full-time evangelist. He told the audience, “I smoked Matthew, and I smoked Mark, and I smoked Luke. But when I got to John 3:16, I couldn’t smoke anymore. My life was changed from that moment.”
The word of God is far more than words on paper. The writer of Hebrews knew that and expressed the power the Scripture has to transform lives in verses 12 and 13.
Bill T.
* * *
Hebrews 4:12-16
The letter to the Hebrews gives me a headache. It’s not because the book itself is a headache. It’s because it’s not easy. The Greek is difficult. The meaning doesn’t jump off the page but requires reflection. The problem is with me, not the text. So, if I want to get to the bottom of a passage I have to take a deep dive.
According to this passage, before God “no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” I’m going to focus in on the word in this passage translated as “laid bare.” This is one long wordin the Greek: tetrachelismena. In some sense the term “laid bare” can mean “made clear,” but the root has to do with the neck. It gave some of the early Greek Fathers a fit. In the previous verse we’re told that the word of God “divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow….” In this light, some wondered if this language alluded to animal sacrifice, where the neck is exposed and the victim dispatched, or if it referred to some horrible form of execution, where one is hung by the neck and flayed, or some other brutal form of dispatching an unfortunate. Other commentators noted that the term referred to wrestlers who exposed the neck of their opponent and having put them in a vulnerable position, is able to cast them down. The opponent is rendered defenseless and at their assailant’s mercy.
These various interpretations require the victim to be conquered against their will, but the author of Hebrews is aware that the sacrifice of Jesus was voluntary, in obedience to God. Some have therefore noted the use of the word “neck” by an unknown writer of antiquity whose work was discovered in the ruins of Pompeii and deciphered by the archaeologist Wilhelm Cronert. It was a biography of Philoides, who lived somewhere in the period of 175-150 BC. Of him it was said that for “the most beloved of his relatives and friends he would readily stake his neck.” Now that willingness to expose oneself to harm for the benefit of those who are beloved, we can truly look to Jesus, the High Priest, as described throughout the New Testament. This is what it means to be “laid bare.”
(Because of the difficulty in translating this passage, I first sought light on the word itself by consulting Vocabulary of the New Testament as Illustrated by the Papyri and Other Non-literary Sources, by J.H. Moulton and G. Milligan, which led me to the classic early commentary on papyri, Adolf Deissmann’s Light on the Ancient Near East, pp 117-118. I also took advantage of several commentaries.)
Frank R.
* * *
Mark 10:17-31
Inheritances become the topic again in this verse as the rich young man asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. The response is to obey the commandments – followed by another response to give all his riches to the poor. This passage is often interpreted as if wealth, in and of itself, was evil or sinful. But it is the love of money, the love of wealth, that is evil and sinful. The idolatry of loving wealth and money is a barrier to people truly knowing God. Truly knowing God assists us in moving into a deeper relationship with God, with Jesus and our neighbor. The Holy Spirit empowers us and enables this connection to be possible. For that, I am truly thankful.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 10:17-31
It is tempting for middle-class and lower-class Americans to think that this text does not apply to them. But we need to remember how high the standard of living is for us compared to the generations of our great and great-great grandparents. Jesus’ point here is that the wealth we have and pursue is a distraction. American author and philanthropist Joshua Becker puts it this way:
Those who chase riches have misplaced their greatest potential and traded it to the highest bidder.
Social analyst Nicholas Carr has observed that modern life in general is distracted – moving from one distraction to the next. Life on the internet is about distraction too. Carr also observes that when you live in this distracted mode, it does things to your brain. The front parts of our brains become inert (The Shallows, pp.111-129, 213). And it so happens that the part of our brain which becomes inert when distracted (the prefrontal cortex) is the part of our brain which is activated in spiritual activities (Dean Hamer, The God Gene, pp.121-123). No wonder it is difficult to enter the kingdom of God for us distracted chasers of wealth and other distractions. Out pursuits shut down the very parts of our brains so essential in a vibrant faith!
Mark E.
Seeking to vindicate himself as a righteous human being, Job found himself alone. Augustine would not be surprised. In his view, to focus on oneself (one’s righteousness) leads to emptiness:
Accordingly, to exist in himself, that is to be his own satisfaction after abandoning God is not quite to become a nonentity; but to approximate to that. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.2, p. 273)
Martin Luther made a similar point:
This is the greatest idolatry that has been practiced up to now, and it is still prevalent in the world... It concerns only that conscience which seeks help, comfort, and salvation in its own works and presumes to wrest heaven from God. (The Book of Concord, p.367)
If we are right with God, we will not think so highly of ourselves. The 17th-century French intellectual Blaise Pascal well explained the paradox implicit in this lesson:
Man’s greatness comes from knowing he is wretched... Thus, it is wretched to know that one is wretched, but there is greatness in knowing one is wretched. (Pensees, p.59)
Mark E.
* * *
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
There have been times in my life when I did not feel the presence of God, when I felt isolated and alone. I will admit that in most of those times and cases, I was feeling like I had sinned or done something wrong — or when I was denying that I had done something wrong, denying my culpability. This is Job’s lament. He cannot feel the presence of God. He cannot hear God’s response to his prayers. Have you ever felt that way? I was reminded by a colleague I love and admire that God never moves away from us. Rather we move or turn away from God, we fail to seek out or perhaps to feel the presence of God due to our own behaviors. Job later learns that God has always been present. In those lost moments of my life, I have eventually felt the presence of God as well. That is the hope I cling to in times of distress.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 4:12-16
I found this story from the March 1990 edition of the “American Bible Society Record”. It speaks to the transformative power of the word of God. Gaylord Kambarami, the general secretary of the Bible Society in Zimbabwe, tried to give a New Testament to a belligerent man. The man angrily insisted he would roll the pages and use them to make cigarettes. Mr. Kambarami said, “I understand that, but at least promise to read the page of the New Testament before you smoke it.” The man finally agreed, and the two went their separate ways.
Fifteen years later, the two men met at a convention in Zimbabwe. The scripture-smoking man had come to know Jesus and was now a full-time evangelist. He told the audience, “I smoked Matthew, and I smoked Mark, and I smoked Luke. But when I got to John 3:16, I couldn’t smoke anymore. My life was changed from that moment.”
The word of God is far more than words on paper. The writer of Hebrews knew that and expressed the power the Scripture has to transform lives in verses 12 and 13.
Bill T.
* * *
Hebrews 4:12-16
The letter to the Hebrews gives me a headache. It’s not because the book itself is a headache. It’s because it’s not easy. The Greek is difficult. The meaning doesn’t jump off the page but requires reflection. The problem is with me, not the text. So, if I want to get to the bottom of a passage I have to take a deep dive.
According to this passage, before God “no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” I’m going to focus in on the word in this passage translated as “laid bare.” This is one long wordin the Greek: tetrachelismena. In some sense the term “laid bare” can mean “made clear,” but the root has to do with the neck. It gave some of the early Greek Fathers a fit. In the previous verse we’re told that the word of God “divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow….” In this light, some wondered if this language alluded to animal sacrifice, where the neck is exposed and the victim dispatched, or if it referred to some horrible form of execution, where one is hung by the neck and flayed, or some other brutal form of dispatching an unfortunate. Other commentators noted that the term referred to wrestlers who exposed the neck of their opponent and having put them in a vulnerable position, is able to cast them down. The opponent is rendered defenseless and at their assailant’s mercy.
These various interpretations require the victim to be conquered against their will, but the author of Hebrews is aware that the sacrifice of Jesus was voluntary, in obedience to God. Some have therefore noted the use of the word “neck” by an unknown writer of antiquity whose work was discovered in the ruins of Pompeii and deciphered by the archaeologist Wilhelm Cronert. It was a biography of Philoides, who lived somewhere in the period of 175-150 BC. Of him it was said that for “the most beloved of his relatives and friends he would readily stake his neck.” Now that willingness to expose oneself to harm for the benefit of those who are beloved, we can truly look to Jesus, the High Priest, as described throughout the New Testament. This is what it means to be “laid bare.”
(Because of the difficulty in translating this passage, I first sought light on the word itself by consulting Vocabulary of the New Testament as Illustrated by the Papyri and Other Non-literary Sources, by J.H. Moulton and G. Milligan, which led me to the classic early commentary on papyri, Adolf Deissmann’s Light on the Ancient Near East, pp 117-118. I also took advantage of several commentaries.)
Frank R.
* * *
Mark 10:17-31
Inheritances become the topic again in this verse as the rich young man asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. The response is to obey the commandments – followed by another response to give all his riches to the poor. This passage is often interpreted as if wealth, in and of itself, was evil or sinful. But it is the love of money, the love of wealth, that is evil and sinful. The idolatry of loving wealth and money is a barrier to people truly knowing God. Truly knowing God assists us in moving into a deeper relationship with God, with Jesus and our neighbor. The Holy Spirit empowers us and enables this connection to be possible. For that, I am truly thankful.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 10:17-31
It is tempting for middle-class and lower-class Americans to think that this text does not apply to them. But we need to remember how high the standard of living is for us compared to the generations of our great and great-great grandparents. Jesus’ point here is that the wealth we have and pursue is a distraction. American author and philanthropist Joshua Becker puts it this way:
Those who chase riches have misplaced their greatest potential and traded it to the highest bidder.
Social analyst Nicholas Carr has observed that modern life in general is distracted – moving from one distraction to the next. Life on the internet is about distraction too. Carr also observes that when you live in this distracted mode, it does things to your brain. The front parts of our brains become inert (The Shallows, pp.111-129, 213). And it so happens that the part of our brain which becomes inert when distracted (the prefrontal cortex) is the part of our brain which is activated in spiritual activities (Dean Hamer, The God Gene, pp.121-123). No wonder it is difficult to enter the kingdom of God for us distracted chasers of wealth and other distractions. Out pursuits shut down the very parts of our brains so essential in a vibrant faith!
Mark E.
