Sermon Illustrations for Proper 27 | OT 32 (2018)
Illustration
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Some of the nicest things in life are surprises. Whom you fall in love with is a surprise. It’s like Russian author Boris Pasternak once put it: “Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” Ruth’s happy ending is a surprise.
That God works in surprising ways is in line with who he is. Paul Tillich claimed that God’s revelation is a mystery, as he notes that whatever transcends ordinary cognition (like revelation does) is a mystery (Systematic Theology, Vol.1, p.108). The founder of Existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard, spoke of the paradoxical character of Christian faith. He sees this as a function of the audacious, absurd Christian claim that “the eternal truth has come into being in time, that God has come into being, has been born, has grown up, and so forth, precisely like any other human being.” (Concluding Unscientific Postscript, pp.186-187) No wonder God’s word and work are so surprising. Famed Reformed theologian Karl Barth suggests that it may be because of the Bible. “The Bible [he says] may seem absurd to us because it is not about us but about God.” (Word of God & Word of Man, p.43) No wonder the ways of God seem so surprising in our secular world!
Mark E.
* * *
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 and Psalm 127
Evidently it was acceptable in some countries to marry someone in a close relationnship, even one who had been a servant. In Nepal it was common for parents to selecct your marriage partner. Sometimes that was good. We met a couple from India who had just been married and they were both univercity graduates in similar fields. They were talking ecitedly about thrir future. It seemed like a good match -- better than some I have seen where they chose their own partner mostly out of physical attraction, affection and desire.
It sounds in this passage that they could even have been bed partners before the ceremony. That is true in many cases today even if it might be considered unacceptable for Christians. The main difference is that Ruth was supposed to jump in before she was invited. It seems like the other way around for some of today's presidents and other officials.
In any case they are not talking about architecture. God, not parents or yourself, should be the one who plans and designs your future. We must accept who has the arrows. We must also make sure that God is our architect. We need our church to help us plan and build.
I had been single for over five years when I asked the Lord to either send me a partner or make me a monk. The next Sunday he sent me a prospective mate. I went to visit her with my evangelism chairman the next day as I usually did. After we left her house, my evangelism chairman told me to go back alone next time. He was my best man one year later when we married. We have been happily married for over 30 years. We both felt that the lord had planned it.
Bob O.
* * *
Psalm 127
An awful lot in life seems so vain, of little use. Commenting on this psalm, Augustine once wrote: “So great weariness did here possess me that my soul did close the door against all comfort.” (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol.1:8, p.361) John Calvin tells us why we may feel this way:
It behoves us to remember what I have just now touched upon, that since the minds of men are commonly possessed with such headstrong arrogance as leads them to despise God, and to magnify beyond measure their own means and advantages, nothing is of more importance than to humble them, in order to their being made to perceive that whatever they undertake it shall dissolve into smoke, unless God in the exercise of pure grace cause it to prosper. (Calvin’s Commentaries,
Vol.VI/2, p.105)
Paul Tillich well describes the hope described in this psalm as we face life’s meaninglessness:
In the state of despair there is nobody and nothing that accepts.
But there is the power of acceptance itself which is experienced. Meaninglessness, as long as it is experienced, includes an experience of the "power of acceptance". To accept this power of acceptance consciously is the religious answer of absolute faith, of a faith which has been deprived by doubt of any concrete content, which nevertheless is faith and the source of the most paradoxical manifestation of the “courage to be.”
With this kind of faith, the psalmist promises, none will be put to shame (v.5).
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 127
How hard are you working these days? If you are like most Americans, you are working harder and longer and are pretty anxious about what you can’t get done. I was recently reminded to ask the question, “why” more often. Why am I anxious? Why am I stressed? Why am I not accomplishing the things I most want to accomplish? Paul asked, “For what I want to do I do not want to do. But what I hate, I do” (Romans 14).
The psalmist reminds us that anxious toil does not accomplish what we hope. Rather, being empowered by God, allowing God to guard and direct us can relieve the anxiety we are feeling. Now relying on God won’t remove the workload or the chores we need to accomplish, but the anxiety all the work facing us induces can be alleviated. I, these days, am focusing on why I do what I am doing, as I am following Jesus. Where is God in the work I have to do and what would please God? I still have too much to do, but the anxiety is being relieved.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 9:24-28
The author of Hebrews wants us to remember that there is a difference between the shadow and the real thing. It may be that at the time this letter was written the Temple in Jerusalem had already been destroyed, or it may have still been in existence. Either way many of his readers had either been there or wished they had gone. The writer emphasizes that the temple, whether it was still in existence or not, was a copy. It was never the real thing. This is a theme that is echoed in Revelation, where the Lamb of God bearing the marks of slaughter is the Temple. There are still those, Jewish and Christians, who believe it is incumbent upon them to rebuild the temple. Scripture makes it clear the temple is going to be rebuilt by God, not us.
Frank R.
* * *
Hebrews 9:24-28
Abraham Lincoln has become one of the most revered presidents in the history of our country. It is fascinating that Lincoln never once had a day as president in which there wasn’t a crisis or war taking place. South Carolina seceded from the Union just a bit more than a month after the election of 1860 and by the time Lincoln was inaugurated in March of 1861, six other states had joined them. He faced one of the darkest hours this nation has ever known. A February 11, 2011 New York Times article notes, “On one Virginia plantation, a group of slaves celebrated Lincoln’s inauguration by proclaiming their freedom on marching off the owner’s estate.” When Lincoln was elected, many slaves thought it was the beginning of the Year of Jubilee. The Los Angeles Times on April 11, 2015 wrote about Lincoln’s death, “Shot on Good Friday, Lincoln was mourned in churches across the North on Easter Sunday as a Christ-like savior who died for his nation's sins and who would rise into American mythology.” Among other assorted items about Lincoln’s death, I ran across this. “When Lincoln’s body was brought from Washington to Illinois, it passed through Albany and it was carried through the street. A black woman stood upon the curb and lifted her little son as far as she could reach above the heads of the crowd and was heard to say to him, ‘Take a long look, honey. He died for you.’”
“He died for you.” It applied to Abraham Lincoln in a sense. It applies even more to our High Priest Jesus Christ. Take a good look at the one on the center cross. He died for you.
Bill T.
* * *
Hebrew 9:24-28
Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770. He was a classical German and romantic composer. He is considered one of the greatest composers in the history of music. His dedication and gift for music can be best understood when we realize the he continued to compose even while losing his hearing, and created some of his greatest works after becoming totally deaf. When he was a young man, he was an ambitious man. At a music reception, when he was still only known as a young pianist, he asked a publicist about getting the same music contract as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and George Friedrich Handel. This contract would permit the publisher to hold the rights to all musical compositions in perpetuity, and in return the composer would receive a lifetime income. The publisher replied, “My dear young man, you must not complain, for you are neither a Goethe or a Handel, and it is not expected of you that you will ever be, for such masters will not be born again.”
Application: With our salvation does come being born again. With our salvation we all have a new life and a new future.
Ron L.
* * *
Mark 12:38-44
Jesus is pretty tough on the scribes, the lawyers. It seems like we in the world are hard on them as well. It’s not the law we have problems with. It is the actions of the lawyers. Why and what are the lawyers doing? Are they acting on behalf of the least of the people? Are they seeking justice for the widows and the orphans, for the oppressed and the downtrodden? Caring for those among us is important, more important than our education or our status or our profession. Just like the scribes of old, it wasn’t their education, their role, or their status that Jesus was complaining about. It was their actions.
How are you acting in the world? Are you caring for the least among us? How are your actions caring for justice and mercy for the oppressed, the hungry, the lost and the least? It’s actions that make the difference, not for our redemption of course. Jesus has taken care of our redemption. Rather we act on behalf of the gratitude we feel for the redemption, the blessings, the grace, the mercy and the love we have been offered. And friends, even lawyers and scribes can act with gratitude.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 12:38-44
Times are not good for philanthropy in America, especially not for the churches. A 2017 study of Indiana University’s Lily School of Philanthropy noted that while the growth in giving to philanthropic organizations grew by 6.6% from 1996 to 2005, from 2006 to 2016, the growth had been a miniscule 1.6%. Statistics in 2017 were even lower. We are not increasing our generosity, despite economic growth. And a late 2016 study conducted by Giving USA found that while in 1990 60% of charitable contributions in American went to religious organizations, by the middle of this decade only 32% of these contributions targeted churches and synagogues. The numbers add up to a lot less money in the collection plates.
And part of the problem is the decline in giving by ordinary people. IRS statistics indicated that lower and middle income donors to national public charities (defined as those families making less than $100,000 annually) have declined by as much as 25% between 2005 and 2015. These are the people who have traditionally been good givers.
Augustine offers a helpful antidote to these trends. In his view the purpose of material goods is to meet the basic needs of human beings. When these goods become superfluous they are no longer rightly owned. Thus in his view not sharing with the poor is the equivalent of fraud (Works of St. Augustine, Vol.III/6, p.107). To this, early church theologian Archelaus contended that the text does not rule out the gifts of the rich, but the giving is all too little if it is by the rich alone (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol.6, p.217). This lesson is about the importance of stewardship offerings by the poor and middle-class. It’s not just up to the rich!
Mark E.
Some of the nicest things in life are surprises. Whom you fall in love with is a surprise. It’s like Russian author Boris Pasternak once put it: “Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” Ruth’s happy ending is a surprise.
That God works in surprising ways is in line with who he is. Paul Tillich claimed that God’s revelation is a mystery, as he notes that whatever transcends ordinary cognition (like revelation does) is a mystery (Systematic Theology, Vol.1, p.108). The founder of Existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard, spoke of the paradoxical character of Christian faith. He sees this as a function of the audacious, absurd Christian claim that “the eternal truth has come into being in time, that God has come into being, has been born, has grown up, and so forth, precisely like any other human being.” (Concluding Unscientific Postscript, pp.186-187) No wonder God’s word and work are so surprising. Famed Reformed theologian Karl Barth suggests that it may be because of the Bible. “The Bible [he says] may seem absurd to us because it is not about us but about God.” (Word of God & Word of Man, p.43) No wonder the ways of God seem so surprising in our secular world!
Mark E.
* * *
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 and Psalm 127
Evidently it was acceptable in some countries to marry someone in a close relationnship, even one who had been a servant. In Nepal it was common for parents to selecct your marriage partner. Sometimes that was good. We met a couple from India who had just been married and they were both univercity graduates in similar fields. They were talking ecitedly about thrir future. It seemed like a good match -- better than some I have seen where they chose their own partner mostly out of physical attraction, affection and desire.
It sounds in this passage that they could even have been bed partners before the ceremony. That is true in many cases today even if it might be considered unacceptable for Christians. The main difference is that Ruth was supposed to jump in before she was invited. It seems like the other way around for some of today's presidents and other officials.
In any case they are not talking about architecture. God, not parents or yourself, should be the one who plans and designs your future. We must accept who has the arrows. We must also make sure that God is our architect. We need our church to help us plan and build.
I had been single for over five years when I asked the Lord to either send me a partner or make me a monk. The next Sunday he sent me a prospective mate. I went to visit her with my evangelism chairman the next day as I usually did. After we left her house, my evangelism chairman told me to go back alone next time. He was my best man one year later when we married. We have been happily married for over 30 years. We both felt that the lord had planned it.
Bob O.
* * *
Psalm 127
An awful lot in life seems so vain, of little use. Commenting on this psalm, Augustine once wrote: “So great weariness did here possess me that my soul did close the door against all comfort.” (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol.1:8, p.361) John Calvin tells us why we may feel this way:
It behoves us to remember what I have just now touched upon, that since the minds of men are commonly possessed with such headstrong arrogance as leads them to despise God, and to magnify beyond measure their own means and advantages, nothing is of more importance than to humble them, in order to their being made to perceive that whatever they undertake it shall dissolve into smoke, unless God in the exercise of pure grace cause it to prosper. (Calvin’s Commentaries,
Vol.VI/2, p.105)
Paul Tillich well describes the hope described in this psalm as we face life’s meaninglessness:
In the state of despair there is nobody and nothing that accepts.
But there is the power of acceptance itself which is experienced. Meaninglessness, as long as it is experienced, includes an experience of the "power of acceptance". To accept this power of acceptance consciously is the religious answer of absolute faith, of a faith which has been deprived by doubt of any concrete content, which nevertheless is faith and the source of the most paradoxical manifestation of the “courage to be.”
With this kind of faith, the psalmist promises, none will be put to shame (v.5).
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 127
How hard are you working these days? If you are like most Americans, you are working harder and longer and are pretty anxious about what you can’t get done. I was recently reminded to ask the question, “why” more often. Why am I anxious? Why am I stressed? Why am I not accomplishing the things I most want to accomplish? Paul asked, “For what I want to do I do not want to do. But what I hate, I do” (Romans 14).
The psalmist reminds us that anxious toil does not accomplish what we hope. Rather, being empowered by God, allowing God to guard and direct us can relieve the anxiety we are feeling. Now relying on God won’t remove the workload or the chores we need to accomplish, but the anxiety all the work facing us induces can be alleviated. I, these days, am focusing on why I do what I am doing, as I am following Jesus. Where is God in the work I have to do and what would please God? I still have too much to do, but the anxiety is being relieved.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Hebrews 9:24-28
The author of Hebrews wants us to remember that there is a difference between the shadow and the real thing. It may be that at the time this letter was written the Temple in Jerusalem had already been destroyed, or it may have still been in existence. Either way many of his readers had either been there or wished they had gone. The writer emphasizes that the temple, whether it was still in existence or not, was a copy. It was never the real thing. This is a theme that is echoed in Revelation, where the Lamb of God bearing the marks of slaughter is the Temple. There are still those, Jewish and Christians, who believe it is incumbent upon them to rebuild the temple. Scripture makes it clear the temple is going to be rebuilt by God, not us.
Frank R.
* * *
Hebrews 9:24-28
Abraham Lincoln has become one of the most revered presidents in the history of our country. It is fascinating that Lincoln never once had a day as president in which there wasn’t a crisis or war taking place. South Carolina seceded from the Union just a bit more than a month after the election of 1860 and by the time Lincoln was inaugurated in March of 1861, six other states had joined them. He faced one of the darkest hours this nation has ever known. A February 11, 2011 New York Times article notes, “On one Virginia plantation, a group of slaves celebrated Lincoln’s inauguration by proclaiming their freedom on marching off the owner’s estate.” When Lincoln was elected, many slaves thought it was the beginning of the Year of Jubilee. The Los Angeles Times on April 11, 2015 wrote about Lincoln’s death, “Shot on Good Friday, Lincoln was mourned in churches across the North on Easter Sunday as a Christ-like savior who died for his nation's sins and who would rise into American mythology.” Among other assorted items about Lincoln’s death, I ran across this. “When Lincoln’s body was brought from Washington to Illinois, it passed through Albany and it was carried through the street. A black woman stood upon the curb and lifted her little son as far as she could reach above the heads of the crowd and was heard to say to him, ‘Take a long look, honey. He died for you.’”
“He died for you.” It applied to Abraham Lincoln in a sense. It applies even more to our High Priest Jesus Christ. Take a good look at the one on the center cross. He died for you.
Bill T.
* * *
Hebrew 9:24-28
Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770. He was a classical German and romantic composer. He is considered one of the greatest composers in the history of music. His dedication and gift for music can be best understood when we realize the he continued to compose even while losing his hearing, and created some of his greatest works after becoming totally deaf. When he was a young man, he was an ambitious man. At a music reception, when he was still only known as a young pianist, he asked a publicist about getting the same music contract as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and George Friedrich Handel. This contract would permit the publisher to hold the rights to all musical compositions in perpetuity, and in return the composer would receive a lifetime income. The publisher replied, “My dear young man, you must not complain, for you are neither a Goethe or a Handel, and it is not expected of you that you will ever be, for such masters will not be born again.”
Application: With our salvation does come being born again. With our salvation we all have a new life and a new future.
Ron L.
* * *
Mark 12:38-44
Jesus is pretty tough on the scribes, the lawyers. It seems like we in the world are hard on them as well. It’s not the law we have problems with. It is the actions of the lawyers. Why and what are the lawyers doing? Are they acting on behalf of the least of the people? Are they seeking justice for the widows and the orphans, for the oppressed and the downtrodden? Caring for those among us is important, more important than our education or our status or our profession. Just like the scribes of old, it wasn’t their education, their role, or their status that Jesus was complaining about. It was their actions.
How are you acting in the world? Are you caring for the least among us? How are your actions caring for justice and mercy for the oppressed, the hungry, the lost and the least? It’s actions that make the difference, not for our redemption of course. Jesus has taken care of our redemption. Rather we act on behalf of the gratitude we feel for the redemption, the blessings, the grace, the mercy and the love we have been offered. And friends, even lawyers and scribes can act with gratitude.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 12:38-44
Times are not good for philanthropy in America, especially not for the churches. A 2017 study of Indiana University’s Lily School of Philanthropy noted that while the growth in giving to philanthropic organizations grew by 6.6% from 1996 to 2005, from 2006 to 2016, the growth had been a miniscule 1.6%. Statistics in 2017 were even lower. We are not increasing our generosity, despite economic growth. And a late 2016 study conducted by Giving USA found that while in 1990 60% of charitable contributions in American went to religious organizations, by the middle of this decade only 32% of these contributions targeted churches and synagogues. The numbers add up to a lot less money in the collection plates.
And part of the problem is the decline in giving by ordinary people. IRS statistics indicated that lower and middle income donors to national public charities (defined as those families making less than $100,000 annually) have declined by as much as 25% between 2005 and 2015. These are the people who have traditionally been good givers.
Augustine offers a helpful antidote to these trends. In his view the purpose of material goods is to meet the basic needs of human beings. When these goods become superfluous they are no longer rightly owned. Thus in his view not sharing with the poor is the equivalent of fraud (Works of St. Augustine, Vol.III/6, p.107). To this, early church theologian Archelaus contended that the text does not rule out the gifts of the rich, but the giving is all too little if it is by the rich alone (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol.6, p.217). This lesson is about the importance of stewardship offerings by the poor and middle-class. It’s not just up to the rich!
Mark E.
