Sermon Illustrations for Proper 4 | OT 9 (2016)
Illustration
Object:
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
Sarah was nearing the completion of an internship in the office of her state representative. Sarah was impressed by this fellow’s ability to satisfy the constituency in an enormously diverse district. He was a very skilled, hard-working, popular politician who had a remarkable ability to agree with everyone without offending anyone. When he heard one side of a controversial issue, he typically smiled, nodded knowingly, and closed the conversation by saying, “I agree with you. You are right.” When he heard the other side he repeated the same response: “You are right. I agree 100%.”
During her exit interview, Sarah asked her boss about this. He responded by saying, “Yes, Sarah, I do that. You are right. It is not, however, that I am simply pandering to maintain my popularity. I just happen to be a very open-minded person. When people talk to me about things they sincerely believe, I listen carefully and understand. It doesn’t matter where they stand on the issue, I can see truth in what they say. In fact, I am so open-minded that sometimes I believe strongly on both sides of the issue. Frankly, it is not a comfortable way to be.”
Indeed, it is not comfortable. In this time of enormous diversity it is essential that we be open to understand those who differ. It is possible, however, to be so open-minded that only strong cold winds blow though an otherwise empty mind. Elijah states the problem this way: “How long will you go limping on two different opinions?” (1 Kings 18:4).
R. Robert C.
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
Mike Ditka began his professional football career as a player with the Chicago Bears under coach George Halas. Ditka was later traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and then the Dallas Cowboys. After the conclusion of his playing career, Ditka was an assistant coach for the Cowboys. During a game against the Bears, Ditka learned that Halas, who no longer coached but now ran the Bears from the owner’s box, was extremely disappointed with his team’s performance. After Dallas defeated Chicago that day, Ditka felt he was on the wrong sideline. Ditka wrote Halas, saying, “I would like to be considered for the opportunity to fulfill my dream of bringing the Bears back to the days of glory when you were the coach and I was the player.” Halas asked Ditka to describe his coaching philosophy, to which Ditka replied: “My coaching philosophy is the same as yours: I want to win.” Ditka was given the position of head coach of the Chicago Bears.
Application: Ditka was focused on one thing, and that was winning. It is the same in our lesson: we are to be focused on one God.
Ron L.
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
A 2008 survey found that two in five Americans believe that God is not engaged in everyday life (Paul Froes and Christopher Bader, America’s Four Gods). Ask the congregation if they have ever read a novel or seen a movie when they felt like they knew the characters, that they could talk to them. Perhaps they have been part of a family or group where they felt like they knew the elders, even if those elders had died before they were born. Then you know how to find God, to see him engaged in everyday life. The formula, reflected in what Elijah did in this lesson, is worship, reading the Bible, or retelling its stories. God is not far away when we get involved in his stories.
Mark E.
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
Miracles and signs seem to be so prevalent in the Hebrew scriptures, in the teaching and works of the prophets. Human beings in search of proof seem to need miracles and signs. Elijah certainly provides both in this passage. The people are uncertain whom they should worship -- the one true God of Elijah or Baal, who had many more prophets proclaiming his divinity. Elijah is the last of the Hebrew prophets. He stands alone among the competition and relies on God to perform the sign, to show the people the way. God provides -- bringing fire to consume the animal offering, the seed offering, the wood, the dust, and even the water. All are consumed, and the people finally understand that the God of Elijah is the one true God.
Yet what signs are there for us in the 21st century? Who is providing the miracles now? Natalie Grant recently recorded a song, “Be One,” in which we are all reminded not to wait for miracles but to be miracles in the world: “It’s time to get our hands dirty /
Be love, there’s a whole lot of hurting / Calling all hearts, calling all hands, calling all feet to take a stand / Why sit around and wait for a miracle to come when we can be one?”
Who in your life needs a miracle today? Go ahead. Get your hands dirty. Go out and serve in the name of Jesus. Proclaim the good news of God’s love and be a miracle.
Bonnie B.
Galatians 1:1-12
Good News, the Gospel, the Word -- all names for our sacred writings and sacred stories of the Christian faith. What is this other gospel that Paul is writing about? What other Good News is there?
At the risk of challenging some and annoying others, I think one of those other gospels is the prosperity gospel -- the gospel that proclaims that if you believe in and act in a certain way God will only bless you -- and that if you are not blessed then you do not believe hard enough or are being punished. This seems pretty Deuteronomical to me -- thinking that if you are blessed it is because you are good, and if you have pain and difficulty then it was because you are bad. It’s not a gospel I can profess or follow.
My Good News is that even when evil is seen and felt, even when bad things happen, even when lives are lost, even when all seems darkest -- God is there. That is the Good News. We are children of a Living God who loves us and blesses us and forgives us and is always present to strengthen us in the dark days. That is the light of the Good News, the Gospel, the Word of which Paul writes. That is the one true gospel.
Bonnie B.
Galatians 1:1-12
Sinclair Lewis wrote a stinging critique of religious hucksters in his 1927 book Elmer Gantry. While Lewis took a dim view of the attitudes and actions of Christians in that time period (a view that I don’t necessarily share), he does present a protagonist who preaches a form of the gospel. Elmer Gantry, simply put, says a lot of “right” things, but his actions and words don’t match. He does not really preach the gospel.
In Galatians 1 Paul is warning the Galatians about abandoning the gospel message they’d been preached to follow a “different” gospel. He may have been trying to counter the influence of the Judaizers, who preached that to be a Christian you had to become a Jew first and follow the law, especially circumcision. Paul’s warning is sharp. He who would preach or change the gospel should be accursed. There are those today who, like the fictional Gantry or the Judaizers, would want to change the gospel message. They can be wonderful speakers and use enticing words. They can present a gospel that is problem-free, worry-free, and cross-free. As you sort through the religious cacophony of noise, remain true to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Bill T.
Galatians 1:1-12
When the New Testament discusses the divide between Jewish believers and Gentile believers, there’s a tendency to see this in simplistic terms. You’re either one or the other. Of course, the matter is much more complicated. There were many different categories of Jewish folks, and plenty of different ethnic, racial, and cultural subgroups in that Gentile category.
Take Paul’s letter to the Celts. You may know it better as his letter to the Galatians. Galat was the Latin word for “Celts,” a complicated, multi-faceted ethnic group that stretched across northern Europe and across the channel to the British Isles. The Romans considered them illiterate because they didn’t write books, instead preserving a rich oral tradition of myth and legend. They were resourceful -- responsible for the invention of rich dyes and the process of curing hams. Famed for their eye salve, they may have first met Paul when he developed a serious illness involving his eyes.
They believed that the line between the divine and human realms was thin and permeable, so it was no problem for them to believe what Paul had told them -- that his gospel was not learned from other believers, but through an encounter with the already risen Jesus. This story became their story as well, and that is part of the reason Paul is so disturbed by their actions in turning to another gospel -- which is no gospel at all, as he tells them.
Frank R.
Galatians 1:1-12
Paul always starts his epistles something like this. What about a pastor? I hope we are called by God, but we are also sent by men (by synod). We wouldn’t be accepted unless our call came from the church, and you wouldn’t believe our message unless we came officially from the church. I also hope we are not preaching just to please the people in the congregation, though that is a temptation. Pastors should all have started with a call from God and not from an ad in the church paper about a good job serving his church!
Paul is saying that he did not come to them just because he got a call from the official church in Israel. He was not sent out by them, but by God! It resulted from Paul’s experience on that trip -- where he was struck blind and then received his sight by a Christian in Damascus. He was not called as the other apostles were called. He had a special call.
I think almost all the people sitting in our pews are there because God assured us that our church preached the gospel of truth. We were not led astray by some folks knocking at our door, telling us that they had the true message from God and so we should give up what we had learned originally and listen to their message. But aren’t we always looking for something new? What a struggle our church had when we had to decide whether those with a little different sexual orientation were fellow Christians and that we were not preaching a new or different gospel. We had to decide if that message was from God or from men. Some are still struggling with that issue. It is only one of many that the church faces (and we face!).
Sometimes others did not condemn all of what we believed. They claimed that they had something new to add to it. Paul says, “Don’t believe them!” That is why we need our church and our pastor to help us struggle with these issues.
Messages that seem to pull us away from God’s gospel can also come from our church. Do you recognize anything in the words you hear that doesn’t sound like it came from God? I heard some things in seminary written by other pastors and professors who seemed to twist God’s message. Some came from great scholars! I’m sure any pastor will know what I mean and can even quote some of them. One scholar even had a problem with miracles in the Bible and whether they were real.
I had an experience from the Lord that turned my life around and sent me to seminary to study for the ministry. It confused me when I visited one seminary. I told the dean that I had an experience with the Lord. He looked at me puzzled, as though he was thinking “Lutherans don’t have experiences with the Lord!” He felt a little better when I told him it came from reading the Bible. I still knew that it was God who called me. That helped me recognize that some messages I was hearing came from God and others were just written to please men.
Think how many have been lost when they heard that a man named Muhammad (or Joseph Smith) had gotten a message right from God or one of his angels that was a bit different from the one God had given us.
Be careful when you hear something that is supposed to be a new gospel!
Bob O.
Luke 7:1-10
Human beings are curious creatures. On the one hand, we are created in the image of God, a little less than the angels. Consequently, we have great capacity for good. On the other hand, we also have the capacity for doing things that are simply not consistent with being created in the image of God. As Paul explains, all of us have fallen short.
Perhaps it would be easier to deal with this conundrum if folks fit nicely into groups labeled “good people” and “bad people.” That way we could avoid the bad and hang out with the good. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Otherwise good people can surprise us by doing terrible things, and bad people can startle us by their capacity for beneficence.
In Luke 7, Jesus encounters a Roman centurion, a member of the hated army of occupation. This man owns at least one slave. With a little imagination, we could find plenty in the description of this religious and political outsider to label him one of the “bad” folks. On the other hand, the centurion loves the Jewish community and even helped build the synagogue. He also cares so deeply about his sick slave that he seeks Jesus’ help in healing him. Consequently, our Lord commends this man -- whose professional work was dedicated to terror, oppression, and death to those conquered by Rome. Yet Jesus commends the centurion on the basis of his loving behavior toward his slave and others.
Again we are confronted by this eternal truth: the test of discipleship is whether or not one acts lovingly toward others.
R. Robert C.
Luke 7:1-10
Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff in the Obama administration, was responsible for getting Obama’s signature health care reform act passed. After finishing yet another meeting at which he discussed the problems of the program with its opponents, he emerged and said, “I’ve just had too much humble pie. That was the last slice. I’m full.” McDonough then changed his tactics. He would no longer discuss the problems of the program, but only its attributes.
Application: The centurion came to Jesus in humility, and with his position it was humble pie that he had to eat. But once the centurion had his fill of it, he was able to focus on the good that Jesus could do.
Ron L.
Luke 7:1-10
We need to be careful of a story like this which exalts faith. Social psychologist Jean Twenge has noted that narcissism is widely prevalent in the millennial generation (Generation Me, especially pp. 68-71, 244). That’s not surprising in view of the media values with which they grew up -- the narcissism celebrated in hits like Jersey Shore, The Bad Girls Club, and Sex in the City -- along with a lot of parental and educational concern about the millennials’ self-esteem. Christian writer Max Lucado has a good formula for describing faith in such a context, to be sure that we don’t reduce it and this gospel story to a vehicle for what we want: “Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.” Martin Luther made a similar point. For him, faith is just an empty hand, valuable only because it is the gift of God (What Luther Says, pp. 491-492).
Mark E.
Sarah was nearing the completion of an internship in the office of her state representative. Sarah was impressed by this fellow’s ability to satisfy the constituency in an enormously diverse district. He was a very skilled, hard-working, popular politician who had a remarkable ability to agree with everyone without offending anyone. When he heard one side of a controversial issue, he typically smiled, nodded knowingly, and closed the conversation by saying, “I agree with you. You are right.” When he heard the other side he repeated the same response: “You are right. I agree 100%.”
During her exit interview, Sarah asked her boss about this. He responded by saying, “Yes, Sarah, I do that. You are right. It is not, however, that I am simply pandering to maintain my popularity. I just happen to be a very open-minded person. When people talk to me about things they sincerely believe, I listen carefully and understand. It doesn’t matter where they stand on the issue, I can see truth in what they say. In fact, I am so open-minded that sometimes I believe strongly on both sides of the issue. Frankly, it is not a comfortable way to be.”
Indeed, it is not comfortable. In this time of enormous diversity it is essential that we be open to understand those who differ. It is possible, however, to be so open-minded that only strong cold winds blow though an otherwise empty mind. Elijah states the problem this way: “How long will you go limping on two different opinions?” (1 Kings 18:4).
R. Robert C.
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
Mike Ditka began his professional football career as a player with the Chicago Bears under coach George Halas. Ditka was later traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and then the Dallas Cowboys. After the conclusion of his playing career, Ditka was an assistant coach for the Cowboys. During a game against the Bears, Ditka learned that Halas, who no longer coached but now ran the Bears from the owner’s box, was extremely disappointed with his team’s performance. After Dallas defeated Chicago that day, Ditka felt he was on the wrong sideline. Ditka wrote Halas, saying, “I would like to be considered for the opportunity to fulfill my dream of bringing the Bears back to the days of glory when you were the coach and I was the player.” Halas asked Ditka to describe his coaching philosophy, to which Ditka replied: “My coaching philosophy is the same as yours: I want to win.” Ditka was given the position of head coach of the Chicago Bears.
Application: Ditka was focused on one thing, and that was winning. It is the same in our lesson: we are to be focused on one God.
Ron L.
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
A 2008 survey found that two in five Americans believe that God is not engaged in everyday life (Paul Froes and Christopher Bader, America’s Four Gods). Ask the congregation if they have ever read a novel or seen a movie when they felt like they knew the characters, that they could talk to them. Perhaps they have been part of a family or group where they felt like they knew the elders, even if those elders had died before they were born. Then you know how to find God, to see him engaged in everyday life. The formula, reflected in what Elijah did in this lesson, is worship, reading the Bible, or retelling its stories. God is not far away when we get involved in his stories.
Mark E.
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
Miracles and signs seem to be so prevalent in the Hebrew scriptures, in the teaching and works of the prophets. Human beings in search of proof seem to need miracles and signs. Elijah certainly provides both in this passage. The people are uncertain whom they should worship -- the one true God of Elijah or Baal, who had many more prophets proclaiming his divinity. Elijah is the last of the Hebrew prophets. He stands alone among the competition and relies on God to perform the sign, to show the people the way. God provides -- bringing fire to consume the animal offering, the seed offering, the wood, the dust, and even the water. All are consumed, and the people finally understand that the God of Elijah is the one true God.
Yet what signs are there for us in the 21st century? Who is providing the miracles now? Natalie Grant recently recorded a song, “Be One,” in which we are all reminded not to wait for miracles but to be miracles in the world: “It’s time to get our hands dirty /
Be love, there’s a whole lot of hurting / Calling all hearts, calling all hands, calling all feet to take a stand / Why sit around and wait for a miracle to come when we can be one?”
Who in your life needs a miracle today? Go ahead. Get your hands dirty. Go out and serve in the name of Jesus. Proclaim the good news of God’s love and be a miracle.
Bonnie B.
Galatians 1:1-12
Good News, the Gospel, the Word -- all names for our sacred writings and sacred stories of the Christian faith. What is this other gospel that Paul is writing about? What other Good News is there?
At the risk of challenging some and annoying others, I think one of those other gospels is the prosperity gospel -- the gospel that proclaims that if you believe in and act in a certain way God will only bless you -- and that if you are not blessed then you do not believe hard enough or are being punished. This seems pretty Deuteronomical to me -- thinking that if you are blessed it is because you are good, and if you have pain and difficulty then it was because you are bad. It’s not a gospel I can profess or follow.
My Good News is that even when evil is seen and felt, even when bad things happen, even when lives are lost, even when all seems darkest -- God is there. That is the Good News. We are children of a Living God who loves us and blesses us and forgives us and is always present to strengthen us in the dark days. That is the light of the Good News, the Gospel, the Word of which Paul writes. That is the one true gospel.
Bonnie B.
Galatians 1:1-12
Sinclair Lewis wrote a stinging critique of religious hucksters in his 1927 book Elmer Gantry. While Lewis took a dim view of the attitudes and actions of Christians in that time period (a view that I don’t necessarily share), he does present a protagonist who preaches a form of the gospel. Elmer Gantry, simply put, says a lot of “right” things, but his actions and words don’t match. He does not really preach the gospel.
In Galatians 1 Paul is warning the Galatians about abandoning the gospel message they’d been preached to follow a “different” gospel. He may have been trying to counter the influence of the Judaizers, who preached that to be a Christian you had to become a Jew first and follow the law, especially circumcision. Paul’s warning is sharp. He who would preach or change the gospel should be accursed. There are those today who, like the fictional Gantry or the Judaizers, would want to change the gospel message. They can be wonderful speakers and use enticing words. They can present a gospel that is problem-free, worry-free, and cross-free. As you sort through the religious cacophony of noise, remain true to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Bill T.
Galatians 1:1-12
When the New Testament discusses the divide between Jewish believers and Gentile believers, there’s a tendency to see this in simplistic terms. You’re either one or the other. Of course, the matter is much more complicated. There were many different categories of Jewish folks, and plenty of different ethnic, racial, and cultural subgroups in that Gentile category.
Take Paul’s letter to the Celts. You may know it better as his letter to the Galatians. Galat was the Latin word for “Celts,” a complicated, multi-faceted ethnic group that stretched across northern Europe and across the channel to the British Isles. The Romans considered them illiterate because they didn’t write books, instead preserving a rich oral tradition of myth and legend. They were resourceful -- responsible for the invention of rich dyes and the process of curing hams. Famed for their eye salve, they may have first met Paul when he developed a serious illness involving his eyes.
They believed that the line between the divine and human realms was thin and permeable, so it was no problem for them to believe what Paul had told them -- that his gospel was not learned from other believers, but through an encounter with the already risen Jesus. This story became their story as well, and that is part of the reason Paul is so disturbed by their actions in turning to another gospel -- which is no gospel at all, as he tells them.
Frank R.
Galatians 1:1-12
Paul always starts his epistles something like this. What about a pastor? I hope we are called by God, but we are also sent by men (by synod). We wouldn’t be accepted unless our call came from the church, and you wouldn’t believe our message unless we came officially from the church. I also hope we are not preaching just to please the people in the congregation, though that is a temptation. Pastors should all have started with a call from God and not from an ad in the church paper about a good job serving his church!
Paul is saying that he did not come to them just because he got a call from the official church in Israel. He was not sent out by them, but by God! It resulted from Paul’s experience on that trip -- where he was struck blind and then received his sight by a Christian in Damascus. He was not called as the other apostles were called. He had a special call.
I think almost all the people sitting in our pews are there because God assured us that our church preached the gospel of truth. We were not led astray by some folks knocking at our door, telling us that they had the true message from God and so we should give up what we had learned originally and listen to their message. But aren’t we always looking for something new? What a struggle our church had when we had to decide whether those with a little different sexual orientation were fellow Christians and that we were not preaching a new or different gospel. We had to decide if that message was from God or from men. Some are still struggling with that issue. It is only one of many that the church faces (and we face!).
Sometimes others did not condemn all of what we believed. They claimed that they had something new to add to it. Paul says, “Don’t believe them!” That is why we need our church and our pastor to help us struggle with these issues.
Messages that seem to pull us away from God’s gospel can also come from our church. Do you recognize anything in the words you hear that doesn’t sound like it came from God? I heard some things in seminary written by other pastors and professors who seemed to twist God’s message. Some came from great scholars! I’m sure any pastor will know what I mean and can even quote some of them. One scholar even had a problem with miracles in the Bible and whether they were real.
I had an experience from the Lord that turned my life around and sent me to seminary to study for the ministry. It confused me when I visited one seminary. I told the dean that I had an experience with the Lord. He looked at me puzzled, as though he was thinking “Lutherans don’t have experiences with the Lord!” He felt a little better when I told him it came from reading the Bible. I still knew that it was God who called me. That helped me recognize that some messages I was hearing came from God and others were just written to please men.
Think how many have been lost when they heard that a man named Muhammad (or Joseph Smith) had gotten a message right from God or one of his angels that was a bit different from the one God had given us.
Be careful when you hear something that is supposed to be a new gospel!
Bob O.
Luke 7:1-10
Human beings are curious creatures. On the one hand, we are created in the image of God, a little less than the angels. Consequently, we have great capacity for good. On the other hand, we also have the capacity for doing things that are simply not consistent with being created in the image of God. As Paul explains, all of us have fallen short.
Perhaps it would be easier to deal with this conundrum if folks fit nicely into groups labeled “good people” and “bad people.” That way we could avoid the bad and hang out with the good. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Otherwise good people can surprise us by doing terrible things, and bad people can startle us by their capacity for beneficence.
In Luke 7, Jesus encounters a Roman centurion, a member of the hated army of occupation. This man owns at least one slave. With a little imagination, we could find plenty in the description of this religious and political outsider to label him one of the “bad” folks. On the other hand, the centurion loves the Jewish community and even helped build the synagogue. He also cares so deeply about his sick slave that he seeks Jesus’ help in healing him. Consequently, our Lord commends this man -- whose professional work was dedicated to terror, oppression, and death to those conquered by Rome. Yet Jesus commends the centurion on the basis of his loving behavior toward his slave and others.
Again we are confronted by this eternal truth: the test of discipleship is whether or not one acts lovingly toward others.
R. Robert C.
Luke 7:1-10
Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff in the Obama administration, was responsible for getting Obama’s signature health care reform act passed. After finishing yet another meeting at which he discussed the problems of the program with its opponents, he emerged and said, “I’ve just had too much humble pie. That was the last slice. I’m full.” McDonough then changed his tactics. He would no longer discuss the problems of the program, but only its attributes.
Application: The centurion came to Jesus in humility, and with his position it was humble pie that he had to eat. But once the centurion had his fill of it, he was able to focus on the good that Jesus could do.
Ron L.
Luke 7:1-10
We need to be careful of a story like this which exalts faith. Social psychologist Jean Twenge has noted that narcissism is widely prevalent in the millennial generation (Generation Me, especially pp. 68-71, 244). That’s not surprising in view of the media values with which they grew up -- the narcissism celebrated in hits like Jersey Shore, The Bad Girls Club, and Sex in the City -- along with a lot of parental and educational concern about the millennials’ self-esteem. Christian writer Max Lucado has a good formula for describing faith in such a context, to be sure that we don’t reduce it and this gospel story to a vehicle for what we want: “Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.” Martin Luther made a similar point. For him, faith is just an empty hand, valuable only because it is the gift of God (What Luther Says, pp. 491-492).
Mark E.
