Sermon Illustrations for Proper 9 | OT 14 (2024)
Illustration
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
I came across an interesting snippet from David Jeremiah’s Turning Point Daily Devotional. He writes, “Some time ago, The New York Times reported a study showing that couples who are happily married for long periods really do begin to look alike. Even if the man and woman share little to no resemblance at their wedding, they showed clear resemblances later in life. It was also interesting to note that the more marital happiness a couple reported, the greater the increase in facial resemblance. The change apparently is due to decades of shared emotions and similar lifestyles.”
That is a fascinating story of becoming like someone else. I think we catch a glimpse of that in the passage for today in which David is made king of Israel. David had been a leader and God chose him to be king (v. 2). When the elders of Israel came to him, David made a covenant with them (v. 3) What stood out in the passage this time was verse 10. “And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.” God was with David. That was the key to his success. 1 Samuel 13:14 notes that David was a man after God’s own heart. He became more like his Father because he was with the Father and the Father was with him. At the beginning of his reign, we see how and why David would succeed.
Bill T.
* * *
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
And he lived happily ever after.
King David, that is. Or at least that’s how it feels in this passage. Anointed as king as a child, the path for David was long and harrowing. His triumphs along the way were legendary, such as his defeat of the giant Goliath, but there were years of struggle against King Saul, against (and on the side of ) the Philistines, along with many other battles. Now, finally, the people recognize him as the ruler of a united kingdom in Jerusalem. One wants to pause and take a deep breath and just enjoy this moment.
I’m reminded of the musical “Into the Woods,” by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, which weaves together several well-known fairy-tales. After trials and tribulations, Act 1 ties up all the stories into one glorious a happily ever after. The end!
Then follows the second act, in which everything begins to fall apart. There isn’t a happily ever after, after all.
Time doesn’t stand still. There are always other challenges. We want to tie everything together into a neat knot, but that’s not possible in history, nor in our lives. I grew up under the shadow of the Cold War and MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) and remember well the fateful Cuban Missile Crisis when the world hung on the edge of nuclear war. When the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union around 1990, there were some who called it “the end of history.”
It wasn’t.
That’s a good reminder for our churches when pointing to one moment as a Golden Age and wishing time would have stopped, or would stop now, that God and the church exist in the present, which is always moving inexorably into the future! We must celebrate those moments when a King David takes his throne, or when our congregations achieve great things — but it ain’t over till it’s over, and it ain’t over.
Frank R.
* * *
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
An ABC News poll taken around New Year’s Day revealed that 76% of us think America is headed in the wrong direction, a sad note given our recent July 4 commemorations. Paul was struggling with his own personal despair, his sense of weakness, in this text. Martin Luther commented on the strength in weakness God provides when we struggle with such doubts. He wrote:
“What do you think of my love for you?” says the Lord. “My strength cannot reign except in your weakness. You must be weak. You must suffer, sigh, groan, and be weak and wretched for your own good, in order that by enduing the fighting you may conquer... If you are not weak, my strength will have nothing to do. (Luther’s Works, Vol.8, p.11)
John Wesley elaborated in this point in a manner which suggests possible political agendas for how we might want to vote. The Methodist founder added:
Accordingly he chooses the weak to confound the mighty; the foolish to confound the wise; for this plain reason, that he may secure the glory to himself. (Works, Vol. 5, pp.483-484)
What helps the poor and disenfranchised may be precisely what God wants for our nation.
Mark E.
* * *
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Paul shares a response given to him by God, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” How many of us like our weaknesses? I know I don’t and although I could, I won’t list them here. Rather I will share that I don’t like being weak about anything. I want to be seen as strong and capable. I want to be strong and capable. I’m fairly sure from reading this text that Paul didn’t like his weakness, the thorn in his flesh, either. He wanted it gone. Yet, God was clear, “my power is made perfect in weakness.”
God is powerful, of that I have no doubt. Yet sometimes I want to stand on my own, do it myself, conquer the problem or the issue alone. And that often doesn’t work out. What does work better is to quietly seek the presence of God, to ask for the strength that God can share, and to move closer to God, knowing I cannot do most things without God’s help and can do nothing without God’s presence. I will seek and count on God’s grace for today, tomorrow and every day to come. God’s strength is enough.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 6:1-13
I came across this anecdote in Campus Life. One of golf’s finest moments happened when a man from Europe came to the United States to show the game to President Ulysses Grant. Carefully placing the ball on the tee, he took a mighty swing. The club hit the turf and scattered dirt all over the president’s beard and surrounding vicinity, while the ball placidly sat on the tee. Again, the golfer swung, and again he missed. President Grant waited patiently through three tries and then quietly stated, “There seems to be a fair amount of exercise in the game, but I fail to see the purpose of the ball.”
I am not sure if this is a true story. I found a few different versions of it, including one in a May 9, 2003, edition of The New York Times book reviews. I was struck, though, by the idea of purpose. Throughout the text for today, we see that Jesus knew his purpose. He taught, preached, healed, and ministered to hurting people. He sent out his disciples with a purpose, too. Their purpose was similar to his. Rick Warren once wrote, “Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.”
Bill T.
* * *
Mark 6:1-13
According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, nearly one in two Americans believe that God determines what happens in the world (at least most of the time). As a result, the lesson testifying to Jesus not having full power will not be readily acceptable. Modern English theologian Arthur Peacocke has had a helpful way of explaining how it is that God does not always get His way. He regards God’s relation to the cosmos as like that of a band leader or composer to a band (reported in Larry Witham, Where Darwin Meets the Bible, pp.28,288). The band leader is in control of the band (who plays in the band, what instrument is played and the music), but cannot guarantee a good performance. So it is in the big picture, God (the band leader) calls the shots. John Calvin recognized this in commenting on this text:
... for certainly unbelievers, as far as lies in their power, bound up the hands of God by their obstinacy; not that God is overcome, as if he were an inferior, but because they do not permit him to display his power. What an amazing contest, that while we are endeavoring by every possible method to hinder the grace of God from coming to us, it rises victorious, and displays its efficacy in spite of all our exertions. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p.216)
In short, don’t blame God for the Republican nominee (but praise the Lord if things turn out well with the nominee).
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 6:1-13
The gospels recognize that Jesus was raised in Nazareth, but in a certain sense Jesus did not have a home town. His mother Mary was from Nazareth, but Joseph had roots in Bethlehem, a three-days walk to the south, and it was there Jesus was born, and it was there he lived, perhaps as long as into his second year, by which time he might have been able to walk and talk. From there the family moved to a Jewish community in Egypt as political and religious refugees, which made them outsiders there as well. After Herod the Great, who sought to kill Jesus, died, the family returned towards Judea, but ended up living much further to the north in Nazareth to escape further political violence from Herod Antipas, one of Herod the Great’s sons. An outsider again.
This outsider status is apparent in this story about his return to his supposed home town. It’s a total failure. And one of the upshots was, despite the wonders he was working elsewhere, including in his adopted hometown of Capernaum, where he seemed much more at home, “he could do not deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. (Mark 6:5)
I think it would be wrong to think of Nazareth as some sort of kryptonite — rendering Jesus powerless. Rather, their unwillingness to be partners in healing rendered what Jesus had to offer of no use to them. They were not ready to receive goodness. They were not prepared, except for a very few of them, to receive these blessings.
Some Christians seem to think we no longer live in an age of great works and wonders, that our best time is behind us, but I wonder if our scorn, our disbelief, and our unwillingness to listen after we pray makes a difference. We won’t receive if we won’t listen. There is this 2,000 -year old life giving river that is rushing through history, but our unwillingness to hear what our own people, our seniors, our families, our young people, are telling us, makes it difficult for God’s work to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Frank R.
* * *
Mark 6:1-13
Lately, in the churches I serve and the pastors I lead, the questions have become about how to do all that needs to be done, how to do the pastoring and teaching, ministry and mission. This passage of scripture reminds me, and should remind us all, that we do not do ministry alone. Even the disciples were sent out two by two, sent out into the communities and the villages, sent out to preach and teach and inform and heal in partnership, in community. Empowering lay leaders in the church has always been a challenge and it remains so.
Yet the example is before us. Jesus surrounded himself with a community, taught and prepared them, and then sent them out to do the ministry and provide the mission of the church to the world. We need to do the same. We need to equip and teach, empower and encourage, and then we need to send our leaders out into the world to be the church in the world. Challenging — of course. Necessary — absolutely. None of us do the work of faith alone.
Bonnie B.
I came across an interesting snippet from David Jeremiah’s Turning Point Daily Devotional. He writes, “Some time ago, The New York Times reported a study showing that couples who are happily married for long periods really do begin to look alike. Even if the man and woman share little to no resemblance at their wedding, they showed clear resemblances later in life. It was also interesting to note that the more marital happiness a couple reported, the greater the increase in facial resemblance. The change apparently is due to decades of shared emotions and similar lifestyles.”
That is a fascinating story of becoming like someone else. I think we catch a glimpse of that in the passage for today in which David is made king of Israel. David had been a leader and God chose him to be king (v. 2). When the elders of Israel came to him, David made a covenant with them (v. 3) What stood out in the passage this time was verse 10. “And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.” God was with David. That was the key to his success. 1 Samuel 13:14 notes that David was a man after God’s own heart. He became more like his Father because he was with the Father and the Father was with him. At the beginning of his reign, we see how and why David would succeed.
Bill T.
* * *
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
And he lived happily ever after.
King David, that is. Or at least that’s how it feels in this passage. Anointed as king as a child, the path for David was long and harrowing. His triumphs along the way were legendary, such as his defeat of the giant Goliath, but there were years of struggle against King Saul, against (and on the side of ) the Philistines, along with many other battles. Now, finally, the people recognize him as the ruler of a united kingdom in Jerusalem. One wants to pause and take a deep breath and just enjoy this moment.
I’m reminded of the musical “Into the Woods,” by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, which weaves together several well-known fairy-tales. After trials and tribulations, Act 1 ties up all the stories into one glorious a happily ever after. The end!
Then follows the second act, in which everything begins to fall apart. There isn’t a happily ever after, after all.
Time doesn’t stand still. There are always other challenges. We want to tie everything together into a neat knot, but that’s not possible in history, nor in our lives. I grew up under the shadow of the Cold War and MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) and remember well the fateful Cuban Missile Crisis when the world hung on the edge of nuclear war. When the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union around 1990, there were some who called it “the end of history.”
It wasn’t.
That’s a good reminder for our churches when pointing to one moment as a Golden Age and wishing time would have stopped, or would stop now, that God and the church exist in the present, which is always moving inexorably into the future! We must celebrate those moments when a King David takes his throne, or when our congregations achieve great things — but it ain’t over till it’s over, and it ain’t over.
Frank R.
* * *
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
An ABC News poll taken around New Year’s Day revealed that 76% of us think America is headed in the wrong direction, a sad note given our recent July 4 commemorations. Paul was struggling with his own personal despair, his sense of weakness, in this text. Martin Luther commented on the strength in weakness God provides when we struggle with such doubts. He wrote:
“What do you think of my love for you?” says the Lord. “My strength cannot reign except in your weakness. You must be weak. You must suffer, sigh, groan, and be weak and wretched for your own good, in order that by enduing the fighting you may conquer... If you are not weak, my strength will have nothing to do. (Luther’s Works, Vol.8, p.11)
John Wesley elaborated in this point in a manner which suggests possible political agendas for how we might want to vote. The Methodist founder added:
Accordingly he chooses the weak to confound the mighty; the foolish to confound the wise; for this plain reason, that he may secure the glory to himself. (Works, Vol. 5, pp.483-484)
What helps the poor and disenfranchised may be precisely what God wants for our nation.
Mark E.
* * *
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Paul shares a response given to him by God, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” How many of us like our weaknesses? I know I don’t and although I could, I won’t list them here. Rather I will share that I don’t like being weak about anything. I want to be seen as strong and capable. I want to be strong and capable. I’m fairly sure from reading this text that Paul didn’t like his weakness, the thorn in his flesh, either. He wanted it gone. Yet, God was clear, “my power is made perfect in weakness.”
God is powerful, of that I have no doubt. Yet sometimes I want to stand on my own, do it myself, conquer the problem or the issue alone. And that often doesn’t work out. What does work better is to quietly seek the presence of God, to ask for the strength that God can share, and to move closer to God, knowing I cannot do most things without God’s help and can do nothing without God’s presence. I will seek and count on God’s grace for today, tomorrow and every day to come. God’s strength is enough.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 6:1-13
I came across this anecdote in Campus Life. One of golf’s finest moments happened when a man from Europe came to the United States to show the game to President Ulysses Grant. Carefully placing the ball on the tee, he took a mighty swing. The club hit the turf and scattered dirt all over the president’s beard and surrounding vicinity, while the ball placidly sat on the tee. Again, the golfer swung, and again he missed. President Grant waited patiently through three tries and then quietly stated, “There seems to be a fair amount of exercise in the game, but I fail to see the purpose of the ball.”
I am not sure if this is a true story. I found a few different versions of it, including one in a May 9, 2003, edition of The New York Times book reviews. I was struck, though, by the idea of purpose. Throughout the text for today, we see that Jesus knew his purpose. He taught, preached, healed, and ministered to hurting people. He sent out his disciples with a purpose, too. Their purpose was similar to his. Rick Warren once wrote, “Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.”
Bill T.
* * *
Mark 6:1-13
According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, nearly one in two Americans believe that God determines what happens in the world (at least most of the time). As a result, the lesson testifying to Jesus not having full power will not be readily acceptable. Modern English theologian Arthur Peacocke has had a helpful way of explaining how it is that God does not always get His way. He regards God’s relation to the cosmos as like that of a band leader or composer to a band (reported in Larry Witham, Where Darwin Meets the Bible, pp.28,288). The band leader is in control of the band (who plays in the band, what instrument is played and the music), but cannot guarantee a good performance. So it is in the big picture, God (the band leader) calls the shots. John Calvin recognized this in commenting on this text:
... for certainly unbelievers, as far as lies in their power, bound up the hands of God by their obstinacy; not that God is overcome, as if he were an inferior, but because they do not permit him to display his power. What an amazing contest, that while we are endeavoring by every possible method to hinder the grace of God from coming to us, it rises victorious, and displays its efficacy in spite of all our exertions. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p.216)
In short, don’t blame God for the Republican nominee (but praise the Lord if things turn out well with the nominee).
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 6:1-13
The gospels recognize that Jesus was raised in Nazareth, but in a certain sense Jesus did not have a home town. His mother Mary was from Nazareth, but Joseph had roots in Bethlehem, a three-days walk to the south, and it was there Jesus was born, and it was there he lived, perhaps as long as into his second year, by which time he might have been able to walk and talk. From there the family moved to a Jewish community in Egypt as political and religious refugees, which made them outsiders there as well. After Herod the Great, who sought to kill Jesus, died, the family returned towards Judea, but ended up living much further to the north in Nazareth to escape further political violence from Herod Antipas, one of Herod the Great’s sons. An outsider again.
This outsider status is apparent in this story about his return to his supposed home town. It’s a total failure. And one of the upshots was, despite the wonders he was working elsewhere, including in his adopted hometown of Capernaum, where he seemed much more at home, “he could do not deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. (Mark 6:5)
I think it would be wrong to think of Nazareth as some sort of kryptonite — rendering Jesus powerless. Rather, their unwillingness to be partners in healing rendered what Jesus had to offer of no use to them. They were not ready to receive goodness. They were not prepared, except for a very few of them, to receive these blessings.
Some Christians seem to think we no longer live in an age of great works and wonders, that our best time is behind us, but I wonder if our scorn, our disbelief, and our unwillingness to listen after we pray makes a difference. We won’t receive if we won’t listen. There is this 2,000 -year old life giving river that is rushing through history, but our unwillingness to hear what our own people, our seniors, our families, our young people, are telling us, makes it difficult for God’s work to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Frank R.
* * *
Mark 6:1-13
Lately, in the churches I serve and the pastors I lead, the questions have become about how to do all that needs to be done, how to do the pastoring and teaching, ministry and mission. This passage of scripture reminds me, and should remind us all, that we do not do ministry alone. Even the disciples were sent out two by two, sent out into the communities and the villages, sent out to preach and teach and inform and heal in partnership, in community. Empowering lay leaders in the church has always been a challenge and it remains so.
Yet the example is before us. Jesus surrounded himself with a community, taught and prepared them, and then sent them out to do the ministry and provide the mission of the church to the world. We need to do the same. We need to equip and teach, empower and encourage, and then we need to send our leaders out into the world to be the church in the world. Challenging — of course. Necessary — absolutely. None of us do the work of faith alone.
Bonnie B.
