Sermons Illustrations For Proper 18 | Ordinary Time 23 (2020)
Illustration
Exodus 12:1-14
On Saturday, May 30, 2020, Pope Francis was in the Vatican Gardens. Joining him there was a representative sampling of individuals who are on the front line confronting the coronavirus: a doctor, a nurse, a hospital chaplain, a pharmacist, a journalist and a civil protection official. There were also another hundred guests gathered for prayer at the grotto dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Everyone sat spaced apart and wore masks. The pope did not wear a mask. In his prayer, Francis asked that health care workers would be protected from catching the disease and that God would “illuminate the minds of the men and women of science, so that they find the right solutions to beat this illness.” The pope also prayed for economic relief for those who have lost their jobs and called for the “enormous sums of money used to grow and perfect armaments be instead used to fund research to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.”
Ron L.
* * *
Exodus 12:1-14
Saved by blood. It sounds a bit odd; I know. However, for the people who have testimonies on the American Red Cross website, it’s anything but strange. A woman named Amy wrote about her open-heart surgery. She had gone through the process to donate her own blood, so if everything went as it was supposed to, all would be fine. It did not. The surgery had complications and more blood was needed, much more. She wrote, “There was a lot of waiting and praying. If it weren’t for the actions of the Red Cross and those who donated blood I wouldn't be here today.” The American Red Cross has recorded many stories of those whose lives have been saved by blood donations. Molly, Patrick, and Danielle have amazing stories, too.
Those helped by the American Red Cross aren’t the only one to know the saving power of blood. The Israelites during the final plague in Egypt experienced it, too. God wouldn’t allow a destructive plague to strike any house marked with the blood of the Passover lamb. It would be spared. Verse 13 notes, “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”
The blood of the lamb marked God’s people then and still does today. If you’ve been washed in the blood of the lamb, death cannot touch you. Like the blood of the Passover lamb, the blood of Jesus brings life.
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 13:8-14
Loving our neighbor sounds like something we should all be able to do. Yes, I sometimes find it really difficult. How do I love my neighbor who stands for everything I disagree with? How do I love the neighbor who is screaming at me because they don’t like something I have said or done? And even as I am called to love my neighbor as I love myself, how do I love myself when I am afraid, unhappy with my own performance? Loving isn’t easy, but loving our neighbor is one of the ways we honor the love of God and Jesus. I can’t seem to love on my own, but when I seek the power of God’s spirit, I can love, I do love, even the neighbors with whom I disagree, the neighbors who are attacking me, the neighbors I might never choose to be my friends. Love, a spiritual gift, is our call. I am trying to answer.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Romans 13:8-14
In this lesson, Paul relates love to the expectation of the end times. We’ve been thinking about crisis situations through much of 2020 with the pandemic and its aftermath. It is interesting to note how much easier it seemed for human beings all over the world to cooperate when facing that crisis. That is the message of the end times, that life is urgent right now! And it seems that when just as doing the right things was a little easier to do in the pandemic, so love comes a little easier for Christians with our awareness that Christ’s return can be any moment.
Of course, Christians live with the awareness that the crisis caused by Christ’s return brings hope. Neurobiological research indicates that lives lived with openness to the future cause the human brain to make new neural (brain-cell) connections which result in the front of the brain being bathed in the neural drug, dopamine (Sherman Nuland, The Art of Aging). And it seems that higher doses of dopamine not only feel good; they also make you more sociable – more loving (Andrew Walsh, The Science of Love). Just being in Christ makes you loving. Martin Luther nicely made that point:
For a Christian loves his neighbor as a brother; he makes no difference between persons or things. He does not consider whether he is serviceable or not, whether he is wise or unwise. As for the rest, the world loves differently. Christ loved all, even His enemies, without making any difference. Therefore, we too should love as brothers, even those who are not lovable. (Luther’s Works, Vol.30, p.304)
Methodist founder John Wesley made a similar point about the great things that happen when we put on Christ in faith:
Faith animates to the most heroic enterprises both civil and military. Faith overcomes all impediments; effects the greatest things, attains to the very best; and inverts, by its miraculous power, the very course of nature. (Commentary On the Bible, p.569)
Faith in a Christ who is coming and the love that follows from it, overcomes the attractiveness of the works of darkness which concerns Paul (v.12b). Such love also “lead[s] us to the contempt of death,” John Calvin tells us (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XXII/1, p.306)
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 18:15-20
What do we do when there is sin in the church? That’s a hard question. I discovered on the website Amish America how the Amish deal with this. The Amish practice shunning, or social avoidance. This is an often-misunderstood practice that is fundamental to Amish identity. Shunning, or Meidung, has been seen as critical to maintaining the integrity of the Amish church. Social shunning occurs when an individual has violated the guidelines for daily living and has been excommunicated from the Amish church. Shunning is a form of social avoidance. It is an alteration of behavior towards an individual who has willfully violated rules of the church.
This is a tough passage. The original language here makes it clear that the issue Jesus is talking about is sin and confronting a person about it. This text makes it clear that sin is real and damaging. British theologian Matthew Henry gets to the deeper point of the passage as he succinctly describes what ought to happen. “If a professed Christian is wronged by another, he ought not to complain of it to others, as is often done merely upon report, but to go to the offender privately, state the matter kindly, and show him his conduct. This would generally have all the desired effect with a true Christian, and the parties would be reconciled.”
The key to this passage is not so much the “punishment,” though it is there. The point is reconciliation. It is an odd fact of history that after the deaths of their husbands Jefferson Davis and Ulysses S. Grant, Julia Grant and Varina Davis became the best of friends as both lived in New York City. Reconciliation is changing for the better a relationship between two or more persons. That’s what Jesus desired for his people.
Bill T.
* * *
Matthew 18:15-20
Community
During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals across the nation were to “shelter-in-place.” This meant people were not to leave their homes, except for trips of necessity. As many businesses had to close and lay off workers, the country experienced an unemployment percentage higher than that of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Some of the more fortunate employees could work from home. This included those who did live television shows, who could broadcast from home. One of these shows was “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Ripa has been hosting the show since November 2000.
During “shelter-in-place” both Ripa and Seacrest broadcasted the show from their home, interviewing guests by way of the computer. Though Ripa never told her audience otherwise, she made it appear she was broadcasting the show form her apartment in New York City. It took several months, until May 2020, for the public to realize that she was really broadcasting from a Caribbean Island. The fans felt betrayed by such insincerity, as she portrayed herself as being in solidarity with the millions of individuals enclosed in their homes as they “shelter-in-place.”
Ron L.
On Saturday, May 30, 2020, Pope Francis was in the Vatican Gardens. Joining him there was a representative sampling of individuals who are on the front line confronting the coronavirus: a doctor, a nurse, a hospital chaplain, a pharmacist, a journalist and a civil protection official. There were also another hundred guests gathered for prayer at the grotto dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Everyone sat spaced apart and wore masks. The pope did not wear a mask. In his prayer, Francis asked that health care workers would be protected from catching the disease and that God would “illuminate the minds of the men and women of science, so that they find the right solutions to beat this illness.” The pope also prayed for economic relief for those who have lost their jobs and called for the “enormous sums of money used to grow and perfect armaments be instead used to fund research to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.”
Ron L.
* * *
Exodus 12:1-14
Saved by blood. It sounds a bit odd; I know. However, for the people who have testimonies on the American Red Cross website, it’s anything but strange. A woman named Amy wrote about her open-heart surgery. She had gone through the process to donate her own blood, so if everything went as it was supposed to, all would be fine. It did not. The surgery had complications and more blood was needed, much more. She wrote, “There was a lot of waiting and praying. If it weren’t for the actions of the Red Cross and those who donated blood I wouldn't be here today.” The American Red Cross has recorded many stories of those whose lives have been saved by blood donations. Molly, Patrick, and Danielle have amazing stories, too.
Those helped by the American Red Cross aren’t the only one to know the saving power of blood. The Israelites during the final plague in Egypt experienced it, too. God wouldn’t allow a destructive plague to strike any house marked with the blood of the Passover lamb. It would be spared. Verse 13 notes, “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”
The blood of the lamb marked God’s people then and still does today. If you’ve been washed in the blood of the lamb, death cannot touch you. Like the blood of the Passover lamb, the blood of Jesus brings life.
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 13:8-14
Loving our neighbor sounds like something we should all be able to do. Yes, I sometimes find it really difficult. How do I love my neighbor who stands for everything I disagree with? How do I love the neighbor who is screaming at me because they don’t like something I have said or done? And even as I am called to love my neighbor as I love myself, how do I love myself when I am afraid, unhappy with my own performance? Loving isn’t easy, but loving our neighbor is one of the ways we honor the love of God and Jesus. I can’t seem to love on my own, but when I seek the power of God’s spirit, I can love, I do love, even the neighbors with whom I disagree, the neighbors who are attacking me, the neighbors I might never choose to be my friends. Love, a spiritual gift, is our call. I am trying to answer.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Romans 13:8-14
In this lesson, Paul relates love to the expectation of the end times. We’ve been thinking about crisis situations through much of 2020 with the pandemic and its aftermath. It is interesting to note how much easier it seemed for human beings all over the world to cooperate when facing that crisis. That is the message of the end times, that life is urgent right now! And it seems that when just as doing the right things was a little easier to do in the pandemic, so love comes a little easier for Christians with our awareness that Christ’s return can be any moment.
Of course, Christians live with the awareness that the crisis caused by Christ’s return brings hope. Neurobiological research indicates that lives lived with openness to the future cause the human brain to make new neural (brain-cell) connections which result in the front of the brain being bathed in the neural drug, dopamine (Sherman Nuland, The Art of Aging). And it seems that higher doses of dopamine not only feel good; they also make you more sociable – more loving (Andrew Walsh, The Science of Love). Just being in Christ makes you loving. Martin Luther nicely made that point:
For a Christian loves his neighbor as a brother; he makes no difference between persons or things. He does not consider whether he is serviceable or not, whether he is wise or unwise. As for the rest, the world loves differently. Christ loved all, even His enemies, without making any difference. Therefore, we too should love as brothers, even those who are not lovable. (Luther’s Works, Vol.30, p.304)
Methodist founder John Wesley made a similar point about the great things that happen when we put on Christ in faith:
Faith animates to the most heroic enterprises both civil and military. Faith overcomes all impediments; effects the greatest things, attains to the very best; and inverts, by its miraculous power, the very course of nature. (Commentary On the Bible, p.569)
Faith in a Christ who is coming and the love that follows from it, overcomes the attractiveness of the works of darkness which concerns Paul (v.12b). Such love also “lead[s] us to the contempt of death,” John Calvin tells us (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XXII/1, p.306)
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 18:15-20
What do we do when there is sin in the church? That’s a hard question. I discovered on the website Amish America how the Amish deal with this. The Amish practice shunning, or social avoidance. This is an often-misunderstood practice that is fundamental to Amish identity. Shunning, or Meidung, has been seen as critical to maintaining the integrity of the Amish church. Social shunning occurs when an individual has violated the guidelines for daily living and has been excommunicated from the Amish church. Shunning is a form of social avoidance. It is an alteration of behavior towards an individual who has willfully violated rules of the church.
This is a tough passage. The original language here makes it clear that the issue Jesus is talking about is sin and confronting a person about it. This text makes it clear that sin is real and damaging. British theologian Matthew Henry gets to the deeper point of the passage as he succinctly describes what ought to happen. “If a professed Christian is wronged by another, he ought not to complain of it to others, as is often done merely upon report, but to go to the offender privately, state the matter kindly, and show him his conduct. This would generally have all the desired effect with a true Christian, and the parties would be reconciled.”
The key to this passage is not so much the “punishment,” though it is there. The point is reconciliation. It is an odd fact of history that after the deaths of their husbands Jefferson Davis and Ulysses S. Grant, Julia Grant and Varina Davis became the best of friends as both lived in New York City. Reconciliation is changing for the better a relationship between two or more persons. That’s what Jesus desired for his people.
Bill T.
* * *
Matthew 18:15-20
Community
During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals across the nation were to “shelter-in-place.” This meant people were not to leave their homes, except for trips of necessity. As many businesses had to close and lay off workers, the country experienced an unemployment percentage higher than that of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Some of the more fortunate employees could work from home. This included those who did live television shows, who could broadcast from home. One of these shows was “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Ripa has been hosting the show since November 2000.
During “shelter-in-place” both Ripa and Seacrest broadcasted the show from their home, interviewing guests by way of the computer. Though Ripa never told her audience otherwise, she made it appear she was broadcasting the show form her apartment in New York City. It took several months, until May 2020, for the public to realize that she was really broadcasting from a Caribbean Island. The fans felt betrayed by such insincerity, as she portrayed herself as being in solidarity with the millions of individuals enclosed in their homes as they “shelter-in-place.”
Ron L.
