Sermon Illustrations for Trinity Sunday (2019)
Illustration
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Wisdom is vividly and dramatically personified as she speaks in this chapter of Proverbs. This is an historically challenging text. Arius used this verse from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which puts the phrase like this: The Lord created me at the beginning of His way. Arius argued that Jesus is the wisdom of God, and this verse spoke of his creation. If he was created, then he had a beginning and was not eternal, and if not eternal, he was not God.
This passage, though, doesn’t speak of Jesus and him being created. Instead, it is a beautiful personification of wisdom. Wisdom was created, long ago, and was with God as he created all things. Wisdom is far greater than just knowing things. I ran across this story that, I think, in a rather simple way, highlights this truth.
Automaker Henry Ford asked electrical genius Charlie Steinmetz to build the generators for his factory. One day the generators ground to a halt, and the repairmen couldn't find the problem. So, Ford called Steinmetz, who tinkered with the machines for a few hours and then threw the switch. The generators whirred to life--but Ford got a bill for $10,000 from Steinmetz. Flabbergasted, the rather tightfisted car maker inquired why the bill was so high.
Steinmetz's reply: For tinkering with the generators, $10. For knowing where to tinker, $9,990. Ford paid the bill.
May we honor the wisdom of God as we seek to have the mind of Christ.
Bill T.
* * *
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
How often do we think about how and when wisdom was created? I have to admit that I haven’t thought much about it. Wisdom is often viewed as a gift of insight or experience, but most of us don’t think about it as a created thing.
Yet in this reading from Proverbs wisdom herself is speaking. Wisdom is sharing the wonders of her creation and her partnership with the Creator. Wisdom delights God; wisdom partners with God. How appropriate, when we live in a culture that debates facts as if they were falsehoods, embraces lies as if they were truths, and looks at division and separation rather than unity, to focus instead on Wisdom. So maybe in addition to seeking the realm of God, we need, also to seek the presence of Wisdom.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
He must be talking about Jesus, since it sure doesn’t fit for me or others. Jesus is the only one who was here before the earth was created. Yes, this text was written long before Jesus came and there are other passages where God knows things about us that we don’t know. He often spoke through the prophets in the Bible about what took place back then. He knows about what we can see in our future long before we do. It is like a film in the movie house. We only see one frame at a time, but God can see the whole film before and after what we see.
Some things we can see in the future. My folks sometimes told me to stop throwing my toys in the living room or I would break something. Yes, it happened a couple times and I wondered how my folks could know that.
I told one of my kids to quit drinking or he could get into serious trouble. He did and said he would listen more carefully to me in the future.
We sometimes have disobeyed God and wondered how he know I would pay a heavy price.
Our church can play the role of parents for some and give us warnings about what can happen to us if we don’t pay attention to advice coming from God’s word.
Bob O.
* * *
Romans 5:1-15
The New Revised Standard Version translates Romans 5:3 as "...we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance...". The Common English Bible renders it as "...We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance...". Sufferings and suffering versus problems and trouble. What's that all about? Well, the same word, thlipsis, lies at the root of these different renderings. The word seems to have been used not only for outward impersonal factors that caused suffering, such as sickness, but deliberate actions on the part of others outside of ourselves that causes pain, either physical or mental.
This is seen clearly in two different Christian letters of the fourth and fifth centuries. In the first letter Demetrius writes to his boss Flavianus about the latter's spouse, stating that "I wrote the first letter when she was in much pain..." The pain here is physical. In the second the writer Timios, whose stress is financial, writes to Sophia "for I am in much anxiety and trouble." The financial stress caused by people demanding money causes pain as well. Either sort of thlipsis is painful, difficult, and what we learn in either event produces endurance.
Frank R.
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
A 2009 survey of American Christians revealing that 49% of us regard the Holy Spirit as a mere symbol indicates that at least half of us have trouble believing the Trinity. There are in fact many ancient images for making sense of this lesson’s witness to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit pouring God’s love into us. Two that are especially compelling appear in hymns written by ancient North African church leader Marius Victorinus. In one hymn he had the congregation sing:
Source,
River,
Overflow,
O Blessed Trinity...
Charity,
Grace,
Communication,
O Blessed Trinity...
God is charity,
Christ is grace,
Holy Spirit is communication.
O Blessed Trinity. (Third Hymn)
From the Father, the source of love, the Son flows like a river distributing this love, and the Spirit is the overflow of this love communicating it to us.
In another hymn we sing:
In repose You are Father, in your procession, Son,
And binding all in One, you are the Holy Spirit. (First Hymn)
The Holy Spirit is the love of God that binds a loving father and loving son into one.
Mark E.
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
T. F. Kruckenburg was the Vicar of Grewelthorpe, a village in the north of Yorkshire. Rev. Henry Law Harkness was the Vicar of Barrow in Worcestershire. Together they organized the Prayer Union, which encouraged its members to participate in daily prayer. Each pastor wrote a book of daily devotionals for the members of the Prayer Union. Harkness wrote the Daily Prayer Union, which was published in 1878. Kruckenburg wrote A Thought and a Prayer for Every Day in the Year, which was published in 1885. The books were not intended to replace personal prayer, but the two pastors hoped “that the daily prayer should be in addition to your ordinary prayers, and a help to your devotions.”
Kruckenburg’s devotion for May 8 read in part, “The Christian’s life ought to be, like the life of Christ, full of inward peace – the Christian’s prayers ought to be, like the prayers of Christ, full of calm and repose.”
Harkness devotion for May 8 read in part, “Christ Jesus, be my Master, and may I be your willing servant. Grant that I may not serve the world, self, and Satan, but have grace to serve you faithfully, fully, and boldly all the days of my life.”
Ron L.
* * *
John 16:12-15
I was in the fourth grade when I began to have to squint to see what the teacher had written on the chalkboard. At first, squinting wasn’t a big deal and I could get by. After a while, though, she noticed, and I made a visit to the school nurse for an eye test. I could see the big “E” well, but after that it was a guessing game of alphabet soup. It was clear to everyone that I needed glasses. I remember the first time I put them on. It was amazing. I’d become used to things being a bit fuzzy or blurry, but now I was able to see with sharpness and clarity.
I thought of that when I read this passage again from John’s gospel. As I read this text, the Holy Spirit is the person of the trinity who will guide us into all truth. I can envision that just as I did my glasses. Prior to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives, things can be a bit blurry and unclear. It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that we see clarity and truth. He does this not by "speaking in his own authority" but by giving to us the words of Christ Jesus. The Spirit guides us to Jesus. It is in the person of Jesus that the Spirit reveals truth. Matthew Henry writes, “The Spirit guides us to not only see Christ but also to savor Him.”
Will you allow the Holy Spirit to help you see Jesus more clearly?
Bill T.
* * *
John 16: 12-15
Jesus tells the disciples, frankly, that there are things they are not ready to hear. There is information they will not understand, at least not in this point in time. Yet, Jesus reminds the disciples, and us, that we are not alone, that the spirit of truth will come and will guide the disciples. Jesus makes it clear that everything he has, we too will have; the relationship Jesus has with the Creator, we will also have. Fairly often we forget that we do not need to know all things, understand all things, or even be able to imagine all things that come from and through God. There is time – a time for us to feel and know more than has yet been revealed. It is as if Jesus is reminding the disciples and us to be patient. Now patience is not always easy, but it is always worth it. Wait on the Lord, children of God. The truth will be revealed in God’s own time.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 16:12-15
One of my seminary professors talking about preaching said, “no souls are saved after 20 minute.”
Our minds cannot absorb everything in the Bible. But God has given us his Holy Spirit to help us recognize which parts are for us.
Sometimes I hear a voice guiding me and I have to stop and ask myself if it is from the Spirit or from a temptation. We may need to do some praying or in some cases we need to talk with a spiritual friend in the church whom we trust.
The Bible tells us to obey the powers that be, but when I got a $500 ticket because the wheels on my car were partly in a no parking area, which was because I could not fit in my assigned space. I did the best I could but the car in the next space had taken up a large part of the space that I should have had. That car did not get a ticket. I asked a police friend of mine from our church and he told me to go and explain why I had broken the law. I went and explained my problem and they forgave the ticket. Sometimes we need to ask the powers that be what we should do for justice.
Sometimes we can question what God seems to be telling us. He is a God of justice who always tells us the truth. We have a right to ask what truth is in some cases. If we ask God will tell us.
Bob O.
Wisdom is vividly and dramatically personified as she speaks in this chapter of Proverbs. This is an historically challenging text. Arius used this verse from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which puts the phrase like this: The Lord created me at the beginning of His way. Arius argued that Jesus is the wisdom of God, and this verse spoke of his creation. If he was created, then he had a beginning and was not eternal, and if not eternal, he was not God.
This passage, though, doesn’t speak of Jesus and him being created. Instead, it is a beautiful personification of wisdom. Wisdom was created, long ago, and was with God as he created all things. Wisdom is far greater than just knowing things. I ran across this story that, I think, in a rather simple way, highlights this truth.
Automaker Henry Ford asked electrical genius Charlie Steinmetz to build the generators for his factory. One day the generators ground to a halt, and the repairmen couldn't find the problem. So, Ford called Steinmetz, who tinkered with the machines for a few hours and then threw the switch. The generators whirred to life--but Ford got a bill for $10,000 from Steinmetz. Flabbergasted, the rather tightfisted car maker inquired why the bill was so high.
Steinmetz's reply: For tinkering with the generators, $10. For knowing where to tinker, $9,990. Ford paid the bill.
May we honor the wisdom of God as we seek to have the mind of Christ.
Bill T.
* * *
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
How often do we think about how and when wisdom was created? I have to admit that I haven’t thought much about it. Wisdom is often viewed as a gift of insight or experience, but most of us don’t think about it as a created thing.
Yet in this reading from Proverbs wisdom herself is speaking. Wisdom is sharing the wonders of her creation and her partnership with the Creator. Wisdom delights God; wisdom partners with God. How appropriate, when we live in a culture that debates facts as if they were falsehoods, embraces lies as if they were truths, and looks at division and separation rather than unity, to focus instead on Wisdom. So maybe in addition to seeking the realm of God, we need, also to seek the presence of Wisdom.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
He must be talking about Jesus, since it sure doesn’t fit for me or others. Jesus is the only one who was here before the earth was created. Yes, this text was written long before Jesus came and there are other passages where God knows things about us that we don’t know. He often spoke through the prophets in the Bible about what took place back then. He knows about what we can see in our future long before we do. It is like a film in the movie house. We only see one frame at a time, but God can see the whole film before and after what we see.
Some things we can see in the future. My folks sometimes told me to stop throwing my toys in the living room or I would break something. Yes, it happened a couple times and I wondered how my folks could know that.
I told one of my kids to quit drinking or he could get into serious trouble. He did and said he would listen more carefully to me in the future.
We sometimes have disobeyed God and wondered how he know I would pay a heavy price.
Our church can play the role of parents for some and give us warnings about what can happen to us if we don’t pay attention to advice coming from God’s word.
Bob O.
* * *
Romans 5:1-15
The New Revised Standard Version translates Romans 5:3 as "...we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance...". The Common English Bible renders it as "...We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance...". Sufferings and suffering versus problems and trouble. What's that all about? Well, the same word, thlipsis, lies at the root of these different renderings. The word seems to have been used not only for outward impersonal factors that caused suffering, such as sickness, but deliberate actions on the part of others outside of ourselves that causes pain, either physical or mental.
This is seen clearly in two different Christian letters of the fourth and fifth centuries. In the first letter Demetrius writes to his boss Flavianus about the latter's spouse, stating that "I wrote the first letter when she was in much pain..." The pain here is physical. In the second the writer Timios, whose stress is financial, writes to Sophia "for I am in much anxiety and trouble." The financial stress caused by people demanding money causes pain as well. Either sort of thlipsis is painful, difficult, and what we learn in either event produces endurance.
Frank R.
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
A 2009 survey of American Christians revealing that 49% of us regard the Holy Spirit as a mere symbol indicates that at least half of us have trouble believing the Trinity. There are in fact many ancient images for making sense of this lesson’s witness to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit pouring God’s love into us. Two that are especially compelling appear in hymns written by ancient North African church leader Marius Victorinus. In one hymn he had the congregation sing:
Source,
River,
Overflow,
O Blessed Trinity...
Charity,
Grace,
Communication,
O Blessed Trinity...
God is charity,
Christ is grace,
Holy Spirit is communication.
O Blessed Trinity. (Third Hymn)
From the Father, the source of love, the Son flows like a river distributing this love, and the Spirit is the overflow of this love communicating it to us.
In another hymn we sing:
In repose You are Father, in your procession, Son,
And binding all in One, you are the Holy Spirit. (First Hymn)
The Holy Spirit is the love of God that binds a loving father and loving son into one.
Mark E.
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
T. F. Kruckenburg was the Vicar of Grewelthorpe, a village in the north of Yorkshire. Rev. Henry Law Harkness was the Vicar of Barrow in Worcestershire. Together they organized the Prayer Union, which encouraged its members to participate in daily prayer. Each pastor wrote a book of daily devotionals for the members of the Prayer Union. Harkness wrote the Daily Prayer Union, which was published in 1878. Kruckenburg wrote A Thought and a Prayer for Every Day in the Year, which was published in 1885. The books were not intended to replace personal prayer, but the two pastors hoped “that the daily prayer should be in addition to your ordinary prayers, and a help to your devotions.”
Kruckenburg’s devotion for May 8 read in part, “The Christian’s life ought to be, like the life of Christ, full of inward peace – the Christian’s prayers ought to be, like the prayers of Christ, full of calm and repose.”
Harkness devotion for May 8 read in part, “Christ Jesus, be my Master, and may I be your willing servant. Grant that I may not serve the world, self, and Satan, but have grace to serve you faithfully, fully, and boldly all the days of my life.”
Ron L.
* * *
John 16:12-15
I was in the fourth grade when I began to have to squint to see what the teacher had written on the chalkboard. At first, squinting wasn’t a big deal and I could get by. After a while, though, she noticed, and I made a visit to the school nurse for an eye test. I could see the big “E” well, but after that it was a guessing game of alphabet soup. It was clear to everyone that I needed glasses. I remember the first time I put them on. It was amazing. I’d become used to things being a bit fuzzy or blurry, but now I was able to see with sharpness and clarity.
I thought of that when I read this passage again from John’s gospel. As I read this text, the Holy Spirit is the person of the trinity who will guide us into all truth. I can envision that just as I did my glasses. Prior to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives, things can be a bit blurry and unclear. It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that we see clarity and truth. He does this not by "speaking in his own authority" but by giving to us the words of Christ Jesus. The Spirit guides us to Jesus. It is in the person of Jesus that the Spirit reveals truth. Matthew Henry writes, “The Spirit guides us to not only see Christ but also to savor Him.”
Will you allow the Holy Spirit to help you see Jesus more clearly?
Bill T.
* * *
John 16: 12-15
Jesus tells the disciples, frankly, that there are things they are not ready to hear. There is information they will not understand, at least not in this point in time. Yet, Jesus reminds the disciples, and us, that we are not alone, that the spirit of truth will come and will guide the disciples. Jesus makes it clear that everything he has, we too will have; the relationship Jesus has with the Creator, we will also have. Fairly often we forget that we do not need to know all things, understand all things, or even be able to imagine all things that come from and through God. There is time – a time for us to feel and know more than has yet been revealed. It is as if Jesus is reminding the disciples and us to be patient. Now patience is not always easy, but it is always worth it. Wait on the Lord, children of God. The truth will be revealed in God’s own time.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 16:12-15
One of my seminary professors talking about preaching said, “no souls are saved after 20 minute.”
Our minds cannot absorb everything in the Bible. But God has given us his Holy Spirit to help us recognize which parts are for us.
Sometimes I hear a voice guiding me and I have to stop and ask myself if it is from the Spirit or from a temptation. We may need to do some praying or in some cases we need to talk with a spiritual friend in the church whom we trust.
The Bible tells us to obey the powers that be, but when I got a $500 ticket because the wheels on my car were partly in a no parking area, which was because I could not fit in my assigned space. I did the best I could but the car in the next space had taken up a large part of the space that I should have had. That car did not get a ticket. I asked a police friend of mine from our church and he told me to go and explain why I had broken the law. I went and explained my problem and they forgave the ticket. Sometimes we need to ask the powers that be what we should do for justice.
Sometimes we can question what God seems to be telling us. He is a God of justice who always tells us the truth. We have a right to ask what truth is in some cases. If we ask God will tell us.
Bob O.
