Sermon Illustrations for Proper 27 | OT 32 (2012)
Illustration
Object:
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Ted Geisel of Springfield, Massachusetts, wanted to be a writer. He especially wanted to write for children, but his fantasies were a bit weird. He gravitated to drawing cartoons. Then he put his ideas into a book and went to Manhattan and made the rounds of the leading publishers. He hit a wall of rejection. No less than 27 publishing houses turned him down. The most frequent explanation was that his work was "too different" from other children's books.
Geisel was crushed, and he decided to burn his manuscript. As he walked along Madison Avenue he was hailed by Mike McClintock who had been a year behind him at Dartmouth College. Mike asked Ted what he had under his arm, and he was told it was a manuscript Ted was on his way home to burn. McClintock told his former classmate that he had just been made juvenile editor at Vanguard Press, and he would take a look at it. He said later that he liked it. The fabulous "Dr. Seuss" books were off and running.
Ted Geisel "just happened" to meet his former classmate. Boaz "just happened" to meet Ruth in the field.
Richard H.
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
The whole story of Ruth is full of surprises. The surprising loyalty to a mother-in-law. The surprising re-marriage for the widow. The surprise that this Gentile woman become the ancestor of a Hebrew king: David! Of course this fits God's style: his surprising coming in the ordinary man Jesus, his surprising birth by a virgin, his surprising resurrection from the dead.
Surprises are nice things. This is why God operates through surprises. It is like the famed Russian poet Boris Pasternak once put it: "Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us." Confronting surprise causes the brain to make new neural connections. That leads to healthier, happier outlooks on life, as in forging the new brain connections, the good feeling brain chemical dopamine is released (Stefan Klein, The Science of Happiness, pp. 35-37, 56-58, 197). Don't miss any of God's loving surprises this week.
Mark E.
Hebrews 9:24-28
Al-jen Poo, 38, is the daughter of pro-democracy immigrants from Chiang Kai-shek's Taiwan. Coming to New York City, she continued her parents' advocacy for human rights. She became aware that female housekeepers, who are unskilled and uneducated workers, were treated as expendable commodities. Though they have been given the responsibility of caring for children, the elderly, and the ill, they are treated with contempt. To promote their cause for better wages and working conditions, Al-jen founded the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She says her goal is "peace and justice in the home."
Application: The author of Hebrews tells us that Christ shall return and will "save those who are eagerly waiting him." Part of eagerly awaiting the coming of Christ is to be involved in his ministry this day. Working day-to-day for Christ is a testimony to our eagerness for his coming.
Ron L.
Hebrews 9:24-28
The church I attend in retirement meets in a storefront sanctuary. It has met there for over twenty years. When someone asked the pastor when he was going to build a church, he answered, "We are building one -- all over the world." Too often we think of church as a building. Jesus did not enter a sanctuary built by human hands. We don't build our own salvation. It has been established for us by our Lord once and for all by the sacrifice of his own blood. We like to look for material things that we can touch and see and feel. A scientist once told me that he couldn't believe in anything he can't experiment with. But the most important things in life can't be examined under a microscope -- things like love, honor, hope, faith, joy, and peace. God's greatest gifts can only be seen in our heart.
Bob O.
Hebrews 9:24-28
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (part of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis), the lion Aslan trades his life to the witch to be slain on the table in place of the boy Edmund, who had treacherously betrayed his family. The witch thinks she has struck quite a deal, for with the lion dead there will be nothing to stop her from ruling Narnia. However, this sacrifice of Aslan's was more than she bargained for. Aslan explains: "Though the witch knew the deep magic, there is a magic deeper still... When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the table would crack and death itself would start working backward."
Mark M.
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mrs. Edwards had a passion for teaching. As a history teacher, she was forever challenging her students to read about past events and those who made them. In Sunday school, she encouraged her youth to recall the stories and heroes of the Bible, as in each country's history there were martyrs like Joan of Arc, burned at the stake for her loyalty and faith. Then wicked men like Idi Amin, whose atrocities shocked the world. A brutal dictator of Uganda for seven years, Amin was called the "Butcher," executing as many as 500,000 people during his reign.
Do their stories impact our lives today? Could their example (good/bad) enable you to stand up against injustice and oppression? Or can you name people like Lois or Dennis, or Aunt Doris, unknown believers who suffered in silence? Their faithfulness during their struggles witnessed their hope. Because Jesus is alive, so shall we, joined through faith in him, be alive eternally.
Cynthia C.
Mark 12:38-44
Our lesson is all about giving, not about how much to give, but the spirit of giving. No doubt the donations of the wealthy were more substantial than what the widow whom Jesus praised gave (vv. 41b-44). Martin Luther provides a stimulating image for understanding a proper Christian attitude toward stewardship and what we possess. He claims we are to use the possessions we have the way a guest uses a room and its furnishings in a hotel. The guest uses the room and all that is in it while staying there. But it is all on loan, not the guest's to keep. And then Luther adds: "The temporal goods you have, God has given them to you for this life. He does permit you to use them... But you should not fasten or hang your heart on them..." (Luther's Works, Vol. 21, p. 13). John Wesley also reminds us that all our worldly goods are entrusted by God, that even our stewardship is by God's grace (The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 6, pp. 133, 148-149). Don't take any credit for your generosity.
Mark E.
Mark 12:38-44
Billy Sunday was a major league baseball player turned evangelist. He was known for his sensational and acrobatic preaching, which made him the most prominent American evangelist during the first half of the twentieth century. He was fearless in challenging what he considered weak forms of Christianity in his day. His pugnacious style of evangelism was especially directed at pompous preachers.
Sunday compared many preachers of his time with the scribes of Jesus' day, "who liked to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces." The evangelist put it this way: "You must remember that Jesus tells us to shine for God. The trouble with some people and preachers is that they try to shine rather than letting their light shine. Some preachers put such a big capital 'I' in front of the cross that the sinner can't see Jesus. They want the glory."
Richard H.
Ted Geisel of Springfield, Massachusetts, wanted to be a writer. He especially wanted to write for children, but his fantasies were a bit weird. He gravitated to drawing cartoons. Then he put his ideas into a book and went to Manhattan and made the rounds of the leading publishers. He hit a wall of rejection. No less than 27 publishing houses turned him down. The most frequent explanation was that his work was "too different" from other children's books.
Geisel was crushed, and he decided to burn his manuscript. As he walked along Madison Avenue he was hailed by Mike McClintock who had been a year behind him at Dartmouth College. Mike asked Ted what he had under his arm, and he was told it was a manuscript Ted was on his way home to burn. McClintock told his former classmate that he had just been made juvenile editor at Vanguard Press, and he would take a look at it. He said later that he liked it. The fabulous "Dr. Seuss" books were off and running.
Ted Geisel "just happened" to meet his former classmate. Boaz "just happened" to meet Ruth in the field.
Richard H.
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
The whole story of Ruth is full of surprises. The surprising loyalty to a mother-in-law. The surprising re-marriage for the widow. The surprise that this Gentile woman become the ancestor of a Hebrew king: David! Of course this fits God's style: his surprising coming in the ordinary man Jesus, his surprising birth by a virgin, his surprising resurrection from the dead.
Surprises are nice things. This is why God operates through surprises. It is like the famed Russian poet Boris Pasternak once put it: "Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us." Confronting surprise causes the brain to make new neural connections. That leads to healthier, happier outlooks on life, as in forging the new brain connections, the good feeling brain chemical dopamine is released (Stefan Klein, The Science of Happiness, pp. 35-37, 56-58, 197). Don't miss any of God's loving surprises this week.
Mark E.
Hebrews 9:24-28
Al-jen Poo, 38, is the daughter of pro-democracy immigrants from Chiang Kai-shek's Taiwan. Coming to New York City, she continued her parents' advocacy for human rights. She became aware that female housekeepers, who are unskilled and uneducated workers, were treated as expendable commodities. Though they have been given the responsibility of caring for children, the elderly, and the ill, they are treated with contempt. To promote their cause for better wages and working conditions, Al-jen founded the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She says her goal is "peace and justice in the home."
Application: The author of Hebrews tells us that Christ shall return and will "save those who are eagerly waiting him." Part of eagerly awaiting the coming of Christ is to be involved in his ministry this day. Working day-to-day for Christ is a testimony to our eagerness for his coming.
Ron L.
Hebrews 9:24-28
The church I attend in retirement meets in a storefront sanctuary. It has met there for over twenty years. When someone asked the pastor when he was going to build a church, he answered, "We are building one -- all over the world." Too often we think of church as a building. Jesus did not enter a sanctuary built by human hands. We don't build our own salvation. It has been established for us by our Lord once and for all by the sacrifice of his own blood. We like to look for material things that we can touch and see and feel. A scientist once told me that he couldn't believe in anything he can't experiment with. But the most important things in life can't be examined under a microscope -- things like love, honor, hope, faith, joy, and peace. God's greatest gifts can only be seen in our heart.
Bob O.
Hebrews 9:24-28
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (part of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis), the lion Aslan trades his life to the witch to be slain on the table in place of the boy Edmund, who had treacherously betrayed his family. The witch thinks she has struck quite a deal, for with the lion dead there will be nothing to stop her from ruling Narnia. However, this sacrifice of Aslan's was more than she bargained for. Aslan explains: "Though the witch knew the deep magic, there is a magic deeper still... When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the table would crack and death itself would start working backward."
Mark M.
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mrs. Edwards had a passion for teaching. As a history teacher, she was forever challenging her students to read about past events and those who made them. In Sunday school, she encouraged her youth to recall the stories and heroes of the Bible, as in each country's history there were martyrs like Joan of Arc, burned at the stake for her loyalty and faith. Then wicked men like Idi Amin, whose atrocities shocked the world. A brutal dictator of Uganda for seven years, Amin was called the "Butcher," executing as many as 500,000 people during his reign.
Do their stories impact our lives today? Could their example (good/bad) enable you to stand up against injustice and oppression? Or can you name people like Lois or Dennis, or Aunt Doris, unknown believers who suffered in silence? Their faithfulness during their struggles witnessed their hope. Because Jesus is alive, so shall we, joined through faith in him, be alive eternally.
Cynthia C.
Mark 12:38-44
Our lesson is all about giving, not about how much to give, but the spirit of giving. No doubt the donations of the wealthy were more substantial than what the widow whom Jesus praised gave (vv. 41b-44). Martin Luther provides a stimulating image for understanding a proper Christian attitude toward stewardship and what we possess. He claims we are to use the possessions we have the way a guest uses a room and its furnishings in a hotel. The guest uses the room and all that is in it while staying there. But it is all on loan, not the guest's to keep. And then Luther adds: "The temporal goods you have, God has given them to you for this life. He does permit you to use them... But you should not fasten or hang your heart on them..." (Luther's Works, Vol. 21, p. 13). John Wesley also reminds us that all our worldly goods are entrusted by God, that even our stewardship is by God's grace (The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 6, pp. 133, 148-149). Don't take any credit for your generosity.
Mark E.
Mark 12:38-44
Billy Sunday was a major league baseball player turned evangelist. He was known for his sensational and acrobatic preaching, which made him the most prominent American evangelist during the first half of the twentieth century. He was fearless in challenging what he considered weak forms of Christianity in his day. His pugnacious style of evangelism was especially directed at pompous preachers.
Sunday compared many preachers of his time with the scribes of Jesus' day, "who liked to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces." The evangelist put it this way: "You must remember that Jesus tells us to shine for God. The trouble with some people and preachers is that they try to shine rather than letting their light shine. Some preachers put such a big capital 'I' in front of the cross that the sinner can't see Jesus. They want the glory."
Richard H.
