Sermon Illustrations for Lent 3 (2024)
Illustration
Exodus 20:1-17
This account of the giving of the Ten Commandments prompted John Wesley to comment on the meaning of the first commandment. Apply it with me now to your own life and to the political climate in which we are electing a new president and new congress. The Methodist founder wrote:
The sin against this commandment, of which we are most in danger, is giving that glory to any which is due to God only. Pride makes a God of ourselves, covetousness makes a God money, sensuality makes a God of the belly. Whatever is loved, feared, delighted in, or depended on, more than God, of that we make a god. (Commentary On the Bible, p.76)
We need to ask if we and our fellow Americans have been guilty of trusting our politicians so much, abdicating a lot of issues to their judgment without actively giving our input, that we are guilty of making the system our god. Consider also how outraged and intolerant we get when encountering someone who “dares” step on our sacred political cows. A lot of times we make our own favorite political positions sacred gods that will tolerate no alternatives.
The Ten Commandments (especially the ones following the command to honor the Sabbath) provide some good models for our politics. No less an American luminary than James Madison thought this was the case, as he once wrote:
We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.
To what sort of candidates with policies aligning with The Decalogue are we directed? Commenting on the meaning of the commandment against theft, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2406) directs the faithful to recognize:
Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good.
And Martin Luther, while commenting on the commandment against murder, writes:
We are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead honor, serve, obey, love, and respect them. (The Book of Concord, p.352)
Maybe amid all the noise about protecting our border, inflation, and the latest court case, we need to find candidates for higher office with policies that take these directives seriously.
Mark E.
* * *
Exodus 20:1-17
God’s sharing of the commandments required of God’s people are shared in this passage. As a child I was required to memorize the Ten Commandments. Were you? In the memorization there was no depth of understanding of the words or the commands on my life. I simply remembered and recited them. That seemed enough at the time. As I grew into a more mature Christian, I looked at these commandments differently. They weren’t just words. The commandments were about my relationship with God and with human beings. I was called in the first four commandments my relationship with God was defined and deepened. In the last six commandments I discovered how to interact with the world, with family and with others I would encounter. Memorizing the commandments was infinitely easier than living them has become. Yet, I follow, struggling as I may, the dictates of my merciful and loving God.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Exodus 20:1-17
The Ten Commandments were meant to be inscribed in stone, a much more permanent medium than clay, papyrus, or parchment. Because it takes time, effort, and money to carve letters in stone, the commandments are terse, “terse enough to be carved in stone,” as translator Robert Alter puts it, which makes it more economical when it comes to inscribing them in stone. The three commandments in 20:13-15, against murder, adultery, and theft, are only two words long each in the Hebrew. Other commandments are a little more wordy, such as the commandments concerning honoring one’s parents, misusing God’s name, and observing the Sabbath, may be more talky in Exodus 20, but one can see them pared away to the essentials (Honor your father and mother, Do not take the Lord’s name in vain, Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy), saving valuable letters and making the copying of the commandments a more economical affair.
Of course, I’m not talking about God’s own handiwork written directly by the divine hand on the tablets of stone. Just the copies made by believers in the years following.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Max Lucado shares this story in his book A Love Worth Giving. Lee Ielpi is a retired New York City firefighter. He served twenty-six years in the fire department. He gave all he had. On September 11, 2001, he gave even more. He gave his son. Jonathan Ielpi was also a fireman. When the Twin Towers fell that day, he was there. Firefighters are a loyal clan, so when one perishes in the line of duty, the body is left until it can be retrieved by a firefighter who knows the person. Lee Ielpi made the recovery of his son’s body his personal mission. He dug daily with many others as the sixteen-acre site. On Tuesday, December 11, three months after the attack, he found Jonathan’s body. Lee carried him out.
He didn’t give up. He didn’t quit. He refused to turn and leave. Why? His love for his son was greater than the pain of the search. That’s what the cross means for Christians. Paul notes that to those who are perishing, it is foolishness (vs.18). It is a stumbling block to Jews (vs. 23). To us who are being saved, it is the power of God (vs. 18).
Why did Jesus do it? His love for fallen humanity was greater than the pain of crucifixion. D.A. Carson wrote, “It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father’s will—and it was his love for sinners like me.”
Bill T.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
In this passage, contrasting true wisdom with the wisdom of this world which is folly, the apostle quotes Isaiah 29:14 from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures available in his day. It works out in English to: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
The verse in Isaiah is in an answer to a “…people (who) draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me and their worship of me is a human commandment by rote….” This calls to mind the disdain Jesus felt for those who kept the commandments perfectly but failed to honor the Spirit of the commandments, and indeed did great harm to their parents in the process while appearing pious to themselves and others. (See Mark 7:9-13 for the practice of keeping Corban as a way of protecting their money from being “wasted” on their aging parents.) And so, Isaiah’s response in the Hebrew, “…so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.” This upending of false wisdom and Paul’s labeling it as folly is well illustrated in this quote from Isaiah.
Frank R.
* * *
John 2:13-22
How often do we use our places of worship as places of transaction rather than transformation? Yes, Jesus sent the money changers, the ones cheating and taking advantage of the people, out of the holy place, and in doing so restored the holy and sacred space once more. Human beings tend to be transactional – if I do this then this is the result. If I don’t do this this will be the result. Success and failure become a transaction with others, and sometimes we expect the same of God. Yet, Jesus reminded the people, and us, that we are the transformation in the world, we are the temples of God. When we see ourselves as a temple of God, our whole mindset changes. It’s not about bargaining or transactions. It’s about our transformation into the living, breathing dwelling place of God. I pray it may be so.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 2:13-22
Jesus’ driving the marketers out of the Temple is a reminder of how thoroughly all our lives are governed by economic interests — even religion and politics. You can’t get elected for most national and state offices without raising millions. These dynamics explain why we are now effectively reduced to two/three viable Presidential candidates, and most Americans are not too excited about the options. American journalist P. J. O’Rourke said it well, and it seems consistent with Jesus’ thinking: “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
In the short range of the 2024 elections, how do we cleanse our “political temples” of money changers? We can begin by demanding that candidates call for election reform (perhaps public
financing). We can also hold up the principles Martin Luther offered for the ideal prince/ politician. The first reformer wrote:
We shall close by stating in a summary way that a prince’s duty [is]... in a discriminating mind and unfettered judgment toward his counselors and men of influence... (What Luther Says, p.583)
In other words, we need leaders who will not do everything their big contributors want. Billy Graham offered another good piece of advice about money in politics and what Jesus’ advice to us is about not getting tangled up in money in any of our ventures. The great evangelist said:
Tell me what you think about money, and I will tell you what you think about God, for these two are closely related. A man’s heart is closer to his wallet than anything else.
Mark E.
This account of the giving of the Ten Commandments prompted John Wesley to comment on the meaning of the first commandment. Apply it with me now to your own life and to the political climate in which we are electing a new president and new congress. The Methodist founder wrote:
The sin against this commandment, of which we are most in danger, is giving that glory to any which is due to God only. Pride makes a God of ourselves, covetousness makes a God money, sensuality makes a God of the belly. Whatever is loved, feared, delighted in, or depended on, more than God, of that we make a god. (Commentary On the Bible, p.76)
We need to ask if we and our fellow Americans have been guilty of trusting our politicians so much, abdicating a lot of issues to their judgment without actively giving our input, that we are guilty of making the system our god. Consider also how outraged and intolerant we get when encountering someone who “dares” step on our sacred political cows. A lot of times we make our own favorite political positions sacred gods that will tolerate no alternatives.
The Ten Commandments (especially the ones following the command to honor the Sabbath) provide some good models for our politics. No less an American luminary than James Madison thought this was the case, as he once wrote:
We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.
To what sort of candidates with policies aligning with The Decalogue are we directed? Commenting on the meaning of the commandment against theft, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2406) directs the faithful to recognize:
Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good.
And Martin Luther, while commenting on the commandment against murder, writes:
We are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead honor, serve, obey, love, and respect them. (The Book of Concord, p.352)
Maybe amid all the noise about protecting our border, inflation, and the latest court case, we need to find candidates for higher office with policies that take these directives seriously.
Mark E.
* * *
Exodus 20:1-17
God’s sharing of the commandments required of God’s people are shared in this passage. As a child I was required to memorize the Ten Commandments. Were you? In the memorization there was no depth of understanding of the words or the commands on my life. I simply remembered and recited them. That seemed enough at the time. As I grew into a more mature Christian, I looked at these commandments differently. They weren’t just words. The commandments were about my relationship with God and with human beings. I was called in the first four commandments my relationship with God was defined and deepened. In the last six commandments I discovered how to interact with the world, with family and with others I would encounter. Memorizing the commandments was infinitely easier than living them has become. Yet, I follow, struggling as I may, the dictates of my merciful and loving God.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Exodus 20:1-17
The Ten Commandments were meant to be inscribed in stone, a much more permanent medium than clay, papyrus, or parchment. Because it takes time, effort, and money to carve letters in stone, the commandments are terse, “terse enough to be carved in stone,” as translator Robert Alter puts it, which makes it more economical when it comes to inscribing them in stone. The three commandments in 20:13-15, against murder, adultery, and theft, are only two words long each in the Hebrew. Other commandments are a little more wordy, such as the commandments concerning honoring one’s parents, misusing God’s name, and observing the Sabbath, may be more talky in Exodus 20, but one can see them pared away to the essentials (Honor your father and mother, Do not take the Lord’s name in vain, Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy), saving valuable letters and making the copying of the commandments a more economical affair.
Of course, I’m not talking about God’s own handiwork written directly by the divine hand on the tablets of stone. Just the copies made by believers in the years following.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Max Lucado shares this story in his book A Love Worth Giving. Lee Ielpi is a retired New York City firefighter. He served twenty-six years in the fire department. He gave all he had. On September 11, 2001, he gave even more. He gave his son. Jonathan Ielpi was also a fireman. When the Twin Towers fell that day, he was there. Firefighters are a loyal clan, so when one perishes in the line of duty, the body is left until it can be retrieved by a firefighter who knows the person. Lee Ielpi made the recovery of his son’s body his personal mission. He dug daily with many others as the sixteen-acre site. On Tuesday, December 11, three months after the attack, he found Jonathan’s body. Lee carried him out.
He didn’t give up. He didn’t quit. He refused to turn and leave. Why? His love for his son was greater than the pain of the search. That’s what the cross means for Christians. Paul notes that to those who are perishing, it is foolishness (vs.18). It is a stumbling block to Jews (vs. 23). To us who are being saved, it is the power of God (vs. 18).
Why did Jesus do it? His love for fallen humanity was greater than the pain of crucifixion. D.A. Carson wrote, “It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father’s will—and it was his love for sinners like me.”
Bill T.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
In this passage, contrasting true wisdom with the wisdom of this world which is folly, the apostle quotes Isaiah 29:14 from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures available in his day. It works out in English to: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
The verse in Isaiah is in an answer to a “…people (who) draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me and their worship of me is a human commandment by rote….” This calls to mind the disdain Jesus felt for those who kept the commandments perfectly but failed to honor the Spirit of the commandments, and indeed did great harm to their parents in the process while appearing pious to themselves and others. (See Mark 7:9-13 for the practice of keeping Corban as a way of protecting their money from being “wasted” on their aging parents.) And so, Isaiah’s response in the Hebrew, “…so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.” This upending of false wisdom and Paul’s labeling it as folly is well illustrated in this quote from Isaiah.
Frank R.
* * *
John 2:13-22
How often do we use our places of worship as places of transaction rather than transformation? Yes, Jesus sent the money changers, the ones cheating and taking advantage of the people, out of the holy place, and in doing so restored the holy and sacred space once more. Human beings tend to be transactional – if I do this then this is the result. If I don’t do this this will be the result. Success and failure become a transaction with others, and sometimes we expect the same of God. Yet, Jesus reminded the people, and us, that we are the transformation in the world, we are the temples of God. When we see ourselves as a temple of God, our whole mindset changes. It’s not about bargaining or transactions. It’s about our transformation into the living, breathing dwelling place of God. I pray it may be so.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 2:13-22
Jesus’ driving the marketers out of the Temple is a reminder of how thoroughly all our lives are governed by economic interests — even religion and politics. You can’t get elected for most national and state offices without raising millions. These dynamics explain why we are now effectively reduced to two/three viable Presidential candidates, and most Americans are not too excited about the options. American journalist P. J. O’Rourke said it well, and it seems consistent with Jesus’ thinking: “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
In the short range of the 2024 elections, how do we cleanse our “political temples” of money changers? We can begin by demanding that candidates call for election reform (perhaps public
financing). We can also hold up the principles Martin Luther offered for the ideal prince/ politician. The first reformer wrote:
We shall close by stating in a summary way that a prince’s duty [is]... in a discriminating mind and unfettered judgment toward his counselors and men of influence... (What Luther Says, p.583)
In other words, we need leaders who will not do everything their big contributors want. Billy Graham offered another good piece of advice about money in politics and what Jesus’ advice to us is about not getting tangled up in money in any of our ventures. The great evangelist said:
Tell me what you think about money, and I will tell you what you think about God, for these two are closely related. A man’s heart is closer to his wallet than anything else.
Mark E.
