Sermon Illustrations for Proper 26 | Ordinary Time 31 (2018)
Illustration
Ruth 1:1-18
On December 7, 1988, an earthquake devastated the northwestern section of Armenia, killing an estimated 25,000 persons. In one small town, directly after the earthquake, a father rushed to his son’s school only to find that the school had been flattened and there was no sign of life. He, though, had no thought of turning back. He’d often told his son, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you when you need me!”
Though things appeared hopeless, he began feverishly removing rubble from where he believed his son’s classroom had been. Other parents wailed hopelessly: “My son!” “My daughter!” Some told the father to go home, that there was no chance that any of the children could be alive. The father merely replied, “I made my son a promise that I’d be there for him anytime he needed me. I must continue to dig.”
Courageously, he proceeded alone. No one volunteered to help him. He simply had to know for himself: “Is my boy alive or is he dead?” With strength and endurance, the father continued to dig... for 8 hours... for 12 hours... 24 hours... 36 hours. Then in the 38th hour, as he heaved away a heavy piece of rubble, he heard voices. “Armand!” he screamed. A child’s voice responded: “Dad! It’s me... Armand! I told the other kids not to worry. I told ’em that if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved. You promised you would always be there for me! You did it, Dad!”
Ruth’s words, in this text, speak of loyalty, faithfulness and love.
Bill T.
* * *
Ruth 1:1-18 and Psalm 146
Ruth’s statement to Naomi -- “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people; and your God my God. Where you die, I will die -- there I will be buried.” -- is breathtaking in its breadth and depth. Although these words are often repeated during a joyful wedding ceremony, they were originally spoken in the context of desperation. With the death of all the males in the family, Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth are destitute, with seemingly nothing to offer to each other.
But the really shocking part of this passage is often overlooked -- Naomi’s response to these words. She says nothing. This certainly isn’t the response you expect. No thanksgiving, no expression of love on her part. Just silence. Was Naomi thinking to herself, “What will people think when I arrive home with a Moabite in tow?” God’s people were forbidden to marry Moabites. And when Naomi returns to Bethlehem she doesn’t say, “Meet my daughter-in-law Ruth who is going to help me set up a home.” Naomi tells everyone to call her Mara, which means Bitter.
Yet, as we shall see, it is Ruth, who understands the law of Leviticus about gleaning following the first harvest by the landowner who first brings hope to this odd couple. And it is Ruth who will be prove, in the words of the villagers, to be worth more to Naomi than seven sons.
Frank R.
* * *
Hebrews 9:11-14
In my faith tradition, the first Sunday of October is World Communion Sunday. On this day we celebrate the many people, nations and ecumenical partners who partake of bread and cup in the name of the risen Christ. Usually the breads are varied, the prayers are from a variety of traditions, the remembrances are inclusive of all our Christian brothers and sisters. Hebrews calls us to this memory, the memory that through Jesus we are all brothers and sisters, all children of God, all welcome.
We are also reminded that awe is the appropriate response to an almighty God who sees us as only a little less than heavenly beings. We are imbued with gifts and talents, faith and compassion, grace and blessings from God. We are called, therefore, to share those gifts and talents as we express the compassion, grace and blessings of God to others. May it be so today and every day.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 9:11-14
Without blood, we can’t exist physically or humanly, but without the blood of Christ, we can’t live spiritually. We don’t get his blood the way we can get human blood if we need it. Someone has to give it to us often through a spiritual blood bank. One blood bank, is, of course, our church.
It is not easy to understand spiritual blood as it is not visible except as the scripture says, in wine. Jesus blood bank is his own blood which physically has long since disappeared. So we must accept symbolic blood.
We can get transfusions from our church every Sunday. It comes not only through the wine at communion, but also though the words of scripture which needle us. Yes, sometimes even spiritual needles can hurt in the process of my giving him lifesaving spiritual blood.
I counselled a member who said that his wife said she couldn’t be physically intimate for a while because of some surgery after the birth of their child. He was tempted with an opportunity to have sex with another member whose husband had died. I told him that as painful as it might be he should remain faithful to his wife.
There are many other temptations like not having enough money for essentials like food or for support for a child in college.
There were many ways, one member told me, to get money, maybe legally, but by immoral means. My transfusion of God’s words hurt him, but saved his spiritual life.
The list could go on and on. The price our Lord paid was far more than the price in cash that that member was asked to pay.
In Nepal the price they paid for their future was very great. It might cost them their job, their citizenship, or even their family ties and sometimes their life. But if some did make great sacrifices, they realized that Christ’s sacrifice was the greatest.
Bob O.
* * *
Hebrews 9:11-14
We already know that America offers less health care to its citizens than any other industrialized nation in the world. As of the first of the year CNBC reported that 12.3% of Americans, 3.2 million of us, lacked health insurance. That represents a 1.3% increase in the uninsured since the end of the Obama Presidency. As we go to the polls this week and decide for whom to vote, it is good to be reminded how our society is clearly bound by assumptions of independence and do for yourself which renders us oblivious to our neighbors’ health-care needs.
Martin Luther well describes the bondage in which sin and selfishness, manifest in our attitude to those without health care, hold us: “For since it [an evil conscience] cannot change a sin committed in the past and in any way avoid the future wrath it cannot escape being distressed and troubled, no matter where it turns.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.29, p.209) The reformer then proceeds to proclaim forgiveness: “But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us, not because of the deeds of righteousness we did but according to his own mercy.” (Ibid., p.211) But God did not purify our consciences to remain passive, the text suggests (v.14). John Calvin said this well: “... for we are not washed by Christ, that we may plunge ourselves again into new filth, but that our purity may serve to glorify God.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XXII/1, p.205) Christ sets us free from our sin, not to wallow in the old neighbor-be-damned policies, but to care a bit more about our neighbors’ health.
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 12:28-34
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770. He was a great German composer of music. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, his great Mass, the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. He once dismissed a housekeeper who had taken excellent care of him. He dismissed her for she told him a lie to shield him from an unpleasantness. Regarding her dismissal Beethoven said, “Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart and cannot make pure soup.”
Application: The Great Commandment calls us to have a pure heart.
Ron L.
* * *
Mark 12:38-44
Sight and sound. Most of us can picture the sights of that day in the Temple when the widow gave her two tiny coins, outspending all the fat cats with their big gifts that didn’t measure up to hers. But don’t forget the sounds! Nobody wrote a check, and there was no such thing as paper money. Those people made their gifts with coins that clanged and banged as they were tossed into the trumpet mouthed depositories. The more coins, the bigger the coins, the more noise.
The widow’s mite was a soundless offering. It was also a needless offering. Women, widows or otherwise, were not required to pay the temple tax. But Jesus made sure nobody missed the significance of her gift. Two thousand years later we hear it more loudly than any other given at that time.
Frank R.
* * *
Mark 12:28-34
In January of 1996 Readers Digest ran this news article. Though it is over two decades old, the story still resonates. Mary Ann Dennis was walking her bull mastiff, Buzz, in New York City’s Riverside Park when an elderly man told her, “That guy robbed me.” The suspect, in black jeans and tank top, was fleeing. Dennis urged the victim to help her follow the robber, but the man couldn’t run. So, five-foot-two Dennis went it alone. With Dennis and Buzz in pursuit, the suspect raced out of the park, ran one block and hailed a cab.
“I was screaming and waving my hands,” Dennis says, “but a taxi picked him up.”
Dennis kept running. Just as she was losing hope, a white van pulled up beside her. After she explained the situation, the driver said, “Get in!” When they caught up with the cab, its passenger was gone. The driver told Dennis the man had fled toward Broadway. She and Buzz picked up the chase on foot. Spotting him hopping into another cab, Dennis leaped in front of it, shouting, “Stop! That man robbed somebody.” The thief jumped out and threatened Dennis before running to a third taxi. Dennis jumped in front just before the traffic light changed. Within moments the police arrived and handcuffed the suspect, who was charged with third-degree robbery and criminal possession of stolen property. Would Dennis do it again? “Definitely! Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself. If the whole world lived that way, this wouldn’t be a cold city.”
The greatest commandments? Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.
Bill T.
On December 7, 1988, an earthquake devastated the northwestern section of Armenia, killing an estimated 25,000 persons. In one small town, directly after the earthquake, a father rushed to his son’s school only to find that the school had been flattened and there was no sign of life. He, though, had no thought of turning back. He’d often told his son, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you when you need me!”
Though things appeared hopeless, he began feverishly removing rubble from where he believed his son’s classroom had been. Other parents wailed hopelessly: “My son!” “My daughter!” Some told the father to go home, that there was no chance that any of the children could be alive. The father merely replied, “I made my son a promise that I’d be there for him anytime he needed me. I must continue to dig.”
Courageously, he proceeded alone. No one volunteered to help him. He simply had to know for himself: “Is my boy alive or is he dead?” With strength and endurance, the father continued to dig... for 8 hours... for 12 hours... 24 hours... 36 hours. Then in the 38th hour, as he heaved away a heavy piece of rubble, he heard voices. “Armand!” he screamed. A child’s voice responded: “Dad! It’s me... Armand! I told the other kids not to worry. I told ’em that if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved. You promised you would always be there for me! You did it, Dad!”
Ruth’s words, in this text, speak of loyalty, faithfulness and love.
Bill T.
* * *
Ruth 1:1-18 and Psalm 146
Ruth’s statement to Naomi -- “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people; and your God my God. Where you die, I will die -- there I will be buried.” -- is breathtaking in its breadth and depth. Although these words are often repeated during a joyful wedding ceremony, they were originally spoken in the context of desperation. With the death of all the males in the family, Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth are destitute, with seemingly nothing to offer to each other.
But the really shocking part of this passage is often overlooked -- Naomi’s response to these words. She says nothing. This certainly isn’t the response you expect. No thanksgiving, no expression of love on her part. Just silence. Was Naomi thinking to herself, “What will people think when I arrive home with a Moabite in tow?” God’s people were forbidden to marry Moabites. And when Naomi returns to Bethlehem she doesn’t say, “Meet my daughter-in-law Ruth who is going to help me set up a home.” Naomi tells everyone to call her Mara, which means Bitter.
Yet, as we shall see, it is Ruth, who understands the law of Leviticus about gleaning following the first harvest by the landowner who first brings hope to this odd couple. And it is Ruth who will be prove, in the words of the villagers, to be worth more to Naomi than seven sons.
Frank R.
* * *
Hebrews 9:11-14
In my faith tradition, the first Sunday of October is World Communion Sunday. On this day we celebrate the many people, nations and ecumenical partners who partake of bread and cup in the name of the risen Christ. Usually the breads are varied, the prayers are from a variety of traditions, the remembrances are inclusive of all our Christian brothers and sisters. Hebrews calls us to this memory, the memory that through Jesus we are all brothers and sisters, all children of God, all welcome.
We are also reminded that awe is the appropriate response to an almighty God who sees us as only a little less than heavenly beings. We are imbued with gifts and talents, faith and compassion, grace and blessings from God. We are called, therefore, to share those gifts and talents as we express the compassion, grace and blessings of God to others. May it be so today and every day.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 9:11-14
Without blood, we can’t exist physically or humanly, but without the blood of Christ, we can’t live spiritually. We don’t get his blood the way we can get human blood if we need it. Someone has to give it to us often through a spiritual blood bank. One blood bank, is, of course, our church.
It is not easy to understand spiritual blood as it is not visible except as the scripture says, in wine. Jesus blood bank is his own blood which physically has long since disappeared. So we must accept symbolic blood.
We can get transfusions from our church every Sunday. It comes not only through the wine at communion, but also though the words of scripture which needle us. Yes, sometimes even spiritual needles can hurt in the process of my giving him lifesaving spiritual blood.
I counselled a member who said that his wife said she couldn’t be physically intimate for a while because of some surgery after the birth of their child. He was tempted with an opportunity to have sex with another member whose husband had died. I told him that as painful as it might be he should remain faithful to his wife.
There are many other temptations like not having enough money for essentials like food or for support for a child in college.
There were many ways, one member told me, to get money, maybe legally, but by immoral means. My transfusion of God’s words hurt him, but saved his spiritual life.
The list could go on and on. The price our Lord paid was far more than the price in cash that that member was asked to pay.
In Nepal the price they paid for their future was very great. It might cost them their job, their citizenship, or even their family ties and sometimes their life. But if some did make great sacrifices, they realized that Christ’s sacrifice was the greatest.
Bob O.
* * *
Hebrews 9:11-14
We already know that America offers less health care to its citizens than any other industrialized nation in the world. As of the first of the year CNBC reported that 12.3% of Americans, 3.2 million of us, lacked health insurance. That represents a 1.3% increase in the uninsured since the end of the Obama Presidency. As we go to the polls this week and decide for whom to vote, it is good to be reminded how our society is clearly bound by assumptions of independence and do for yourself which renders us oblivious to our neighbors’ health-care needs.
Martin Luther well describes the bondage in which sin and selfishness, manifest in our attitude to those without health care, hold us: “For since it [an evil conscience] cannot change a sin committed in the past and in any way avoid the future wrath it cannot escape being distressed and troubled, no matter where it turns.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.29, p.209) The reformer then proceeds to proclaim forgiveness: “But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us, not because of the deeds of righteousness we did but according to his own mercy.” (Ibid., p.211) But God did not purify our consciences to remain passive, the text suggests (v.14). John Calvin said this well: “... for we are not washed by Christ, that we may plunge ourselves again into new filth, but that our purity may serve to glorify God.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XXII/1, p.205) Christ sets us free from our sin, not to wallow in the old neighbor-be-damned policies, but to care a bit more about our neighbors’ health.
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 12:28-34
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770. He was a great German composer of music. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, his great Mass, the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. He once dismissed a housekeeper who had taken excellent care of him. He dismissed her for she told him a lie to shield him from an unpleasantness. Regarding her dismissal Beethoven said, “Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart and cannot make pure soup.”
Application: The Great Commandment calls us to have a pure heart.
Ron L.
* * *
Mark 12:38-44
Sight and sound. Most of us can picture the sights of that day in the Temple when the widow gave her two tiny coins, outspending all the fat cats with their big gifts that didn’t measure up to hers. But don’t forget the sounds! Nobody wrote a check, and there was no such thing as paper money. Those people made their gifts with coins that clanged and banged as they were tossed into the trumpet mouthed depositories. The more coins, the bigger the coins, the more noise.
The widow’s mite was a soundless offering. It was also a needless offering. Women, widows or otherwise, were not required to pay the temple tax. But Jesus made sure nobody missed the significance of her gift. Two thousand years later we hear it more loudly than any other given at that time.
Frank R.
* * *
Mark 12:28-34
In January of 1996 Readers Digest ran this news article. Though it is over two decades old, the story still resonates. Mary Ann Dennis was walking her bull mastiff, Buzz, in New York City’s Riverside Park when an elderly man told her, “That guy robbed me.” The suspect, in black jeans and tank top, was fleeing. Dennis urged the victim to help her follow the robber, but the man couldn’t run. So, five-foot-two Dennis went it alone. With Dennis and Buzz in pursuit, the suspect raced out of the park, ran one block and hailed a cab.
“I was screaming and waving my hands,” Dennis says, “but a taxi picked him up.”
Dennis kept running. Just as she was losing hope, a white van pulled up beside her. After she explained the situation, the driver said, “Get in!” When they caught up with the cab, its passenger was gone. The driver told Dennis the man had fled toward Broadway. She and Buzz picked up the chase on foot. Spotting him hopping into another cab, Dennis leaped in front of it, shouting, “Stop! That man robbed somebody.” The thief jumped out and threatened Dennis before running to a third taxi. Dennis jumped in front just before the traffic light changed. Within moments the police arrived and handcuffed the suspect, who was charged with third-degree robbery and criminal possession of stolen property. Would Dennis do it again? “Definitely! Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself. If the whole world lived that way, this wouldn’t be a cold city.”
The greatest commandments? Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.
Bill T.
