Sermon Illustrations for Proper 8 | Ordinary Time 13
Illustration
Object:
Genesis 22:1-14
God seems to advocate human sacrifice in this lesson. It makes no sense. This is no way to teach good morality. That is the point. Faith, according to the father of existentialist philosophy Soren Kierkegaard is absurd. It transcends and even contradicts universally accepted forms of rational thinking in favor of absolute obedience to the absolute/God. It is "giving up the finite in order to grasp the infinite" (Fear and Trembling and the Sickness Unto Death, p. 71). The way of faith honors the first commandment, giving everything up to God. John Wesley made a related point: "The best evidence of our fearing God is our being willing to honor him with that which is dearest to us and to part with all to him or for him" (Commentary on the Bible, p. 45).
See Jesus' advice in last week's Gospel Lesson with Jesus claiming that who he is divides families that one cannot love father and mother more than him (esp. Matthew 10:34-38).
Kierkegaard also notes that Abraham's willingness to slay his son for God's sake is a "teleological suspension of the ethical" (Fear and Trembling and the Sickness Unto Death, p. 67). Augustine made a similar point, explaining our freedom from the law of God in such a way as to support a situational ethic: Christians are to "love and do whatever [they] will" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7, p. 504). Martin Luther made a similar point: "If you are a Christian, you have the power to dispense with all commandments so far as they hinder you in the practice of love..." (Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, p. 166).
We are not to kill, and yet if someone was threatening the life of a family member, and we had guns, would not God have us to defend the innocent victim, to use violence if necessary? We are to be honest but if a loved one readying for a big event does not look his/her best, and asks us how she/he looks, is the loving thing not to stretch the truth as that loved one walks out the door? Love (doing God's thing) sometimes involves breaking the rules.
Mark E.
Romans 6:12-23
The story is told that at the close of a Sunday morning sermon one of the members felt the Holy Spirit's conviction and moved forward to an altar after the invitation was given by the pastor. He took the pastor's hand and with a heavy spiritual and emotional response, he shared that his life was full of sin. But instead of saying it that way it came out, "My sin is full of life." He quickly changed it to, "My life is full of sin." The truth is his first statement was the real reason for the second. As someone observed, "His sin was full of life and that is why his life was full of sin." The remedy for sin that he found that day was the blood of Christ. It is only through his death and resurrection that sin can be overcome.
(Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale House, p. 454)
Derl K.
Romans 6:12-23
We have been given free will to choose wickedness or God. Adam and Eve were given that freedom but chose evil even though they had known God even more intimately than anyone ever. But why would anyone choose wickedness? There are at least two reasons: 1) We have not developed a close personal relationship with our maker so that we love him above all else. 2) The other is more complicated. There are so many exciting opportunities in life that are obviously bad like adultery, murder, and robbery. But there are others like lusting after another, hating someone enough to kill but stopping short of murder, desiring another people's wealth or anything else they may have, wanting to hit someone but afraid of being arrested. There are others like dishonesty that might accomplish a worthy goal like stealing to feed a hungry family, killing someone to protect your belongings or even your family.
To disobey shows a lack of faith that God will provide. You don't have to steal or cheat to survive. To turn yourself over to God can be dangerous and has cost some their people their lives. If we saw a cross ahead of us, would we hesitate like Peter did and deny our faith? During WWII Japanese threatened death if a Christian did not walk over a cross with a carving of Jesus on it. After the war, they found that cross was warn flat by the feet of those who denied their faith and walked on it. What would we have done if we faced that kind of option?
Look at the price you could pay if you fall under the spell of wickedness. It is choosing "death" instead of life. Since we have all fallen for some of those temptations, what is the answer? Are we lost forever? After his death, they discovered that my sainted grandpa had a mistress on the side. Is he lost forever? He did a lot of good in his life and helped many people. Aside from that he was a faithful Christian. Would that swing the balance in his favor?
Fortunately we are under grace, not under law. So if we turn ourselves over to God -- even at the last minute, like that thief on the cross, there is still hope.
We can become last-minute slaves, but how much better if we avoid the risk and offer ourselves as slaves to God now, when we can still have opportunities to serve him. If we have served our selfish interest instead of God's interest, we may find that we pay a price in a guilty feeling. In the end the payment is too horrible to imagine. So gather together with your fellow slaves in this church and help each other to avoid sin and instead serve our holy Master now. We still have temptations and God has still given us freedom, but use that freedom to serve him and him alone -- with his help!
Bob O.
Matthew 10:40-42
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in a sermon titled "Upon Our Lord's Sermon On The Mount, Discourse III," dedicated several pages of text outlining the Christian characteristics of being a peace-maker. Peace is insightfully expressed in Wesley's oration, "In its literal meaning it implies those lovers of God and man who utterly detest and abhor all strife and debate, all variances and contentions; and accordingly labor with all their might, either to prevent this fire of hell from being kindled, or, when it is kindled, from breaking out, or when it is broke out, from spreading any further." Wesley goes on to state that the peace-maker "but steps over the narrow bounds, that he may do good to every man, that he may, some way or other, manifest his love to neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies."
Application: If we come as peace-makers and care-givers, people will receive us as if they are receiving Jesus.
Ron L.
Matthew 10:40-42
Social commentator Alain de Botton has noted that our anxiety about status is a function of not finding fulfillment in two quests -- the quest for sex and the quest for status. When we experience attention in these realms, we flourish (Status Anxiety, pp. 5-7). In the lesson, Jesus affirms the worth of his followers, claiming that whoever welcomes them welcomes him. John Calvin nicely makes this point. Jesus' commissioning of the disciples, he says, "shows how dearly he loves them, when he places to his own account the kind offices which they have received" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, pp. 475-476). This is certainly a clear affirmation of our high status. Martin Luther once claimed that God makes Christians lords who are subject to no one (Luther's Works, Vol. 31, p. 344). With this kind of status, most anxieties we have are likely to vanish, we can flourish.
Augustine was reflecting on how much God values us and then prayed that he would inflame us and excite us, so that we would come to delight in praising God (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, pp. 119-120, 145). And then with that flame in our hearts we will want to do what Saint Ignatius the founder of the Jesuits called his followers to do, to "Go and set the world on fire!"
Mark E.
God seems to advocate human sacrifice in this lesson. It makes no sense. This is no way to teach good morality. That is the point. Faith, according to the father of existentialist philosophy Soren Kierkegaard is absurd. It transcends and even contradicts universally accepted forms of rational thinking in favor of absolute obedience to the absolute/God. It is "giving up the finite in order to grasp the infinite" (Fear and Trembling and the Sickness Unto Death, p. 71). The way of faith honors the first commandment, giving everything up to God. John Wesley made a related point: "The best evidence of our fearing God is our being willing to honor him with that which is dearest to us and to part with all to him or for him" (Commentary on the Bible, p. 45).
See Jesus' advice in last week's Gospel Lesson with Jesus claiming that who he is divides families that one cannot love father and mother more than him (esp. Matthew 10:34-38).
Kierkegaard also notes that Abraham's willingness to slay his son for God's sake is a "teleological suspension of the ethical" (Fear and Trembling and the Sickness Unto Death, p. 67). Augustine made a similar point, explaining our freedom from the law of God in such a way as to support a situational ethic: Christians are to "love and do whatever [they] will" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7, p. 504). Martin Luther made a similar point: "If you are a Christian, you have the power to dispense with all commandments so far as they hinder you in the practice of love..." (Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, p. 166).
We are not to kill, and yet if someone was threatening the life of a family member, and we had guns, would not God have us to defend the innocent victim, to use violence if necessary? We are to be honest but if a loved one readying for a big event does not look his/her best, and asks us how she/he looks, is the loving thing not to stretch the truth as that loved one walks out the door? Love (doing God's thing) sometimes involves breaking the rules.
Mark E.
Romans 6:12-23
The story is told that at the close of a Sunday morning sermon one of the members felt the Holy Spirit's conviction and moved forward to an altar after the invitation was given by the pastor. He took the pastor's hand and with a heavy spiritual and emotional response, he shared that his life was full of sin. But instead of saying it that way it came out, "My sin is full of life." He quickly changed it to, "My life is full of sin." The truth is his first statement was the real reason for the second. As someone observed, "His sin was full of life and that is why his life was full of sin." The remedy for sin that he found that day was the blood of Christ. It is only through his death and resurrection that sin can be overcome.
(Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale House, p. 454)
Derl K.
Romans 6:12-23
We have been given free will to choose wickedness or God. Adam and Eve were given that freedom but chose evil even though they had known God even more intimately than anyone ever. But why would anyone choose wickedness? There are at least two reasons: 1) We have not developed a close personal relationship with our maker so that we love him above all else. 2) The other is more complicated. There are so many exciting opportunities in life that are obviously bad like adultery, murder, and robbery. But there are others like lusting after another, hating someone enough to kill but stopping short of murder, desiring another people's wealth or anything else they may have, wanting to hit someone but afraid of being arrested. There are others like dishonesty that might accomplish a worthy goal like stealing to feed a hungry family, killing someone to protect your belongings or even your family.
To disobey shows a lack of faith that God will provide. You don't have to steal or cheat to survive. To turn yourself over to God can be dangerous and has cost some their people their lives. If we saw a cross ahead of us, would we hesitate like Peter did and deny our faith? During WWII Japanese threatened death if a Christian did not walk over a cross with a carving of Jesus on it. After the war, they found that cross was warn flat by the feet of those who denied their faith and walked on it. What would we have done if we faced that kind of option?
Look at the price you could pay if you fall under the spell of wickedness. It is choosing "death" instead of life. Since we have all fallen for some of those temptations, what is the answer? Are we lost forever? After his death, they discovered that my sainted grandpa had a mistress on the side. Is he lost forever? He did a lot of good in his life and helped many people. Aside from that he was a faithful Christian. Would that swing the balance in his favor?
Fortunately we are under grace, not under law. So if we turn ourselves over to God -- even at the last minute, like that thief on the cross, there is still hope.
We can become last-minute slaves, but how much better if we avoid the risk and offer ourselves as slaves to God now, when we can still have opportunities to serve him. If we have served our selfish interest instead of God's interest, we may find that we pay a price in a guilty feeling. In the end the payment is too horrible to imagine. So gather together with your fellow slaves in this church and help each other to avoid sin and instead serve our holy Master now. We still have temptations and God has still given us freedom, but use that freedom to serve him and him alone -- with his help!
Bob O.
Matthew 10:40-42
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in a sermon titled "Upon Our Lord's Sermon On The Mount, Discourse III," dedicated several pages of text outlining the Christian characteristics of being a peace-maker. Peace is insightfully expressed in Wesley's oration, "In its literal meaning it implies those lovers of God and man who utterly detest and abhor all strife and debate, all variances and contentions; and accordingly labor with all their might, either to prevent this fire of hell from being kindled, or, when it is kindled, from breaking out, or when it is broke out, from spreading any further." Wesley goes on to state that the peace-maker "but steps over the narrow bounds, that he may do good to every man, that he may, some way or other, manifest his love to neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies."
Application: If we come as peace-makers and care-givers, people will receive us as if they are receiving Jesus.
Ron L.
Matthew 10:40-42
Social commentator Alain de Botton has noted that our anxiety about status is a function of not finding fulfillment in two quests -- the quest for sex and the quest for status. When we experience attention in these realms, we flourish (Status Anxiety, pp. 5-7). In the lesson, Jesus affirms the worth of his followers, claiming that whoever welcomes them welcomes him. John Calvin nicely makes this point. Jesus' commissioning of the disciples, he says, "shows how dearly he loves them, when he places to his own account the kind offices which they have received" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, pp. 475-476). This is certainly a clear affirmation of our high status. Martin Luther once claimed that God makes Christians lords who are subject to no one (Luther's Works, Vol. 31, p. 344). With this kind of status, most anxieties we have are likely to vanish, we can flourish.
Augustine was reflecting on how much God values us and then prayed that he would inflame us and excite us, so that we would come to delight in praising God (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, pp. 119-120, 145). And then with that flame in our hearts we will want to do what Saint Ignatius the founder of the Jesuits called his followers to do, to "Go and set the world on fire!"
Mark E.
