Free Sermon Illustrations For April 4, 2010 From The Immediate Word
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Make this day, Lord, a step closer to heaven.
This day, Lord, may I know myself loved and valued.
This day, Lord, may I notice the beauty around me, in things great and small.
This day, Lord, may I not miss the messages of joy, of peace, of hope that you send me.
This day, Lord, this day... make the day of my resurrection.
-- Richard Sharples, from Fire and Bread (Wild Goose Publications)
***
"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb..."
And on the second day of the week, Joanna woke up with a migraine headache; Mary the mother of James had an extra load of laundry to get done because of all the soccer games played the day before; Peter got up and grumpily went back to work after the long weekend; and John went back to the oncologist to find out what the latest round of chemo had accomplished. It's on the second, and third, and all the days after Easter where we discover if the stone has really been rolled away, and new life has come for us.
***
God of the purple robe,
of the traitor's cross;
God of the torn curtain,
of the wounds of time,
lead us to Easter Day,
your joy day,
turn-about time.
You are the dance in our eyes,
the smile in our hearts,
the blossom of our spring.
You are our words and our laughter,
light that splits open the sky,
love that astonishes.
-- Judy Dinnen, from Fire and Bread
***
One of the earliest artistic representations of the Risen Christ was the Christus Rex. It shows Jesus on the cross in his risen glory with the Crown of Christ the King in vestments prepared for the Great Feast of the Lamb. Much later in Western Christianity, as we emerged from the long so-called Dark Ages, Jesus was portrayed as the Victim in Agony on the cross. The cross and the crown are indeed two sides of the same coin -- the Victor and the Victim in the Great Eucharistic Feast of Easter!
***
Another of the oldest artistic representations of the resurrection was the Butterfly. The free and airy quality of the soul to "fly away"? Perhaps. More likely, though, is the soul's emergence from the chrysalis of sin to the Risen Glory of a whole new life. If ever the Resurrection made sense to me, it does in the new Life we have in Jesus! Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
***
Early Christians met at the "sign" of the fish. The Greek letters contained in that sign also contain all the letters of the Holy Name Christos, the Christ. Of necessity our ancestors in faith were sometimes a secret society that met in the catacombs. But there was a Eucharistic sign too in the fish, as there was in the loaves of bread. The Risen Jesus is known to us in Scripture and in the breaking of that bread and in the sharing of that fish. Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
***
Gather Harris, a minister living with an arrested case of a terminal form of cancer, said that God always heals. God heals sometimes by medicine, sometimes by miracle, sometimes by death. In the context of the Christian faith, with our hope for the resurrection beyond this life, death can indeed be thought of as a kind of healing.
***
People who believe that the powers of oppression have been defeated by the victory that Christ won in the resurrection can indeed live as free people. In his book Engaging the Powers (Fortress, 1992, p. 265), Walter Wink tells how members of the Solidarity movement claimed freedom even under Communist oppression in Poland:
Solidarity in Poland proved that Jesus' nonviolent way could be lived even under circumstances of Communist oppression and martial law. People said to one another, in effect, "Start doing the things that you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become. Do you believe in freedom of speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it. Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely." This behavior actually caught on, leading to "an epidemic of freedom in a closed society." By acting as if Poland were already free, Solidarity created a free country. The "as if" ceased to be pretense and became actuality. Within ten years, Solidarity had taken over the government.
***
The movie A Beautiful Mind tells the story of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician who conquered schizophrenia and won a Nobel Prize for Economics. At one stage in his life, he was haunted by hallucinations that tormented him and drove him to all sorts of erratic and dangerous behavior. His illness was never cured. But he was able to come to understand it, to tell the difference between what was real and what was not, and to take control of his life. He won a victory over an oppressive illness. It was still there, but it could not rule him.
***
The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.
-- T.S. Eliot
***
There is an old story of a Civil War chaplain, who one day happens upon a wounded soldier on the battlefield. The chaplain asks him if he'd like to hear a few verses from the Bible. "No," gasps the wounded man, "but I'm thirsty. I'd rather have some water." The chaplain gives him a drink, then repeats his question.
"No sir," says the wounded man, "not now -- but could you put something under my head?" The chaplain does so, and again repeats his question.
"No thank you," says the soldier. "I'm cold. Could you cover me up?" The chaplain takes off his greatcoat and wraps the soldier in it. Afraid now to ask, he does not repeat his question.
He makes to go away, but the soldier calls him back. "Look, chaplain, if there's anything in that book of yours that makes a person do for another what you've done for me, then I want to hear it."
***
The physicist Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb, was once involved in raising money for a pet project of his: an international student-exchange program. Oppenheimer was convinced that getting people of different cultures together would make for peace. In a speech he remarked, "The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person."
***
Think of yourself as a mirror. A mirror reflects the thing that is placed in front of it. Young children gaze into a mirror and imagine they see another world, a parallel universe (like Alice in Through the Looking Glass), but we know that's just imagination. The mirror -- as any person using it to count pimples or wrinkles or gray hairs will tell you -- does not lie.
In the same way, our lives can serve as a mirror that reflects God: and our lives do not lie. If God is before us, if the Lord has first place in our lives, then as others look to us they will see a little bit of God reflected.
Anyone who's watched old horror movies knows that, in any story that includes a vampire, a mirror is a good thing to have. Remember Count Dracula? The count has no reflection. He is visible everywhere, except in a mirror.
There's a peculiar kind of logic to that: for Count Dracula, in the old movies and in Bram Stoker's novel, is evil incarnate. Evil has no reflection at all -- nor does it need one. Its forces are all too visible in our world. They clamor for attention.
Not so with the forces of good. God is not instantly visible in our world. The only place we see the love of God is reflected in other people. "No one has ever seen God," writes the author of 1 John; yet "if we love one another, God lives in us...."
Unlike the fictional vampire, God is invisible in this world unless we Christians position our lives to serve as mirrors. "God has no hands but our hands," as the old saying goes.
***
People are not persuaded by our reasoning, but caught by our enthusiasms.
-- Alfred North Whitehead
***
It is a tradition in the Moravian Church to celebrate Easter in the graveyard. During the days of Holy Week that precede the holiday, the people of the church have lovingly scrubbed each gravestone and placed before each one a bouquet of fresh flowers. In a Moravian cemetery, the stones are simple: plain white and identical to each other, symbolizing "the democracy of death."
Then on Easter Sunday, before dawn, the whole community gathers at the church and marches in procession to the cemetery. Standing among the orderly rows of marble monuments -- in the very teeth of death, as it were -- they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The Moravians feel the only proper place to celebrate Easter is in a graveyard, out there among the tombs where death is unavoidable. As they wait for the dawn, there is a sense that they are waiting to hear, once again, God's promise of new life.
This day, Lord, may I know myself loved and valued.
This day, Lord, may I notice the beauty around me, in things great and small.
This day, Lord, may I not miss the messages of joy, of peace, of hope that you send me.
This day, Lord, this day... make the day of my resurrection.
-- Richard Sharples, from Fire and Bread (Wild Goose Publications)
***
"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb..."
And on the second day of the week, Joanna woke up with a migraine headache; Mary the mother of James had an extra load of laundry to get done because of all the soccer games played the day before; Peter got up and grumpily went back to work after the long weekend; and John went back to the oncologist to find out what the latest round of chemo had accomplished. It's on the second, and third, and all the days after Easter where we discover if the stone has really been rolled away, and new life has come for us.
***
God of the purple robe,
of the traitor's cross;
God of the torn curtain,
of the wounds of time,
lead us to Easter Day,
your joy day,
turn-about time.
You are the dance in our eyes,
the smile in our hearts,
the blossom of our spring.
You are our words and our laughter,
light that splits open the sky,
love that astonishes.
-- Judy Dinnen, from Fire and Bread
***
One of the earliest artistic representations of the Risen Christ was the Christus Rex. It shows Jesus on the cross in his risen glory with the Crown of Christ the King in vestments prepared for the Great Feast of the Lamb. Much later in Western Christianity, as we emerged from the long so-called Dark Ages, Jesus was portrayed as the Victim in Agony on the cross. The cross and the crown are indeed two sides of the same coin -- the Victor and the Victim in the Great Eucharistic Feast of Easter!
***
Another of the oldest artistic representations of the resurrection was the Butterfly. The free and airy quality of the soul to "fly away"? Perhaps. More likely, though, is the soul's emergence from the chrysalis of sin to the Risen Glory of a whole new life. If ever the Resurrection made sense to me, it does in the new Life we have in Jesus! Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
***
Early Christians met at the "sign" of the fish. The Greek letters contained in that sign also contain all the letters of the Holy Name Christos, the Christ. Of necessity our ancestors in faith were sometimes a secret society that met in the catacombs. But there was a Eucharistic sign too in the fish, as there was in the loaves of bread. The Risen Jesus is known to us in Scripture and in the breaking of that bread and in the sharing of that fish. Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
***
Gather Harris, a minister living with an arrested case of a terminal form of cancer, said that God always heals. God heals sometimes by medicine, sometimes by miracle, sometimes by death. In the context of the Christian faith, with our hope for the resurrection beyond this life, death can indeed be thought of as a kind of healing.
***
People who believe that the powers of oppression have been defeated by the victory that Christ won in the resurrection can indeed live as free people. In his book Engaging the Powers (Fortress, 1992, p. 265), Walter Wink tells how members of the Solidarity movement claimed freedom even under Communist oppression in Poland:
Solidarity in Poland proved that Jesus' nonviolent way could be lived even under circumstances of Communist oppression and martial law. People said to one another, in effect, "Start doing the things that you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become. Do you believe in freedom of speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it. Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely." This behavior actually caught on, leading to "an epidemic of freedom in a closed society." By acting as if Poland were already free, Solidarity created a free country. The "as if" ceased to be pretense and became actuality. Within ten years, Solidarity had taken over the government.
***
The movie A Beautiful Mind tells the story of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician who conquered schizophrenia and won a Nobel Prize for Economics. At one stage in his life, he was haunted by hallucinations that tormented him and drove him to all sorts of erratic and dangerous behavior. His illness was never cured. But he was able to come to understand it, to tell the difference between what was real and what was not, and to take control of his life. He won a victory over an oppressive illness. It was still there, but it could not rule him.
***
The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.
-- T.S. Eliot
***
There is an old story of a Civil War chaplain, who one day happens upon a wounded soldier on the battlefield. The chaplain asks him if he'd like to hear a few verses from the Bible. "No," gasps the wounded man, "but I'm thirsty. I'd rather have some water." The chaplain gives him a drink, then repeats his question.
"No sir," says the wounded man, "not now -- but could you put something under my head?" The chaplain does so, and again repeats his question.
"No thank you," says the soldier. "I'm cold. Could you cover me up?" The chaplain takes off his greatcoat and wraps the soldier in it. Afraid now to ask, he does not repeat his question.
He makes to go away, but the soldier calls him back. "Look, chaplain, if there's anything in that book of yours that makes a person do for another what you've done for me, then I want to hear it."
***
The physicist Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb, was once involved in raising money for a pet project of his: an international student-exchange program. Oppenheimer was convinced that getting people of different cultures together would make for peace. In a speech he remarked, "The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person."
***
Think of yourself as a mirror. A mirror reflects the thing that is placed in front of it. Young children gaze into a mirror and imagine they see another world, a parallel universe (like Alice in Through the Looking Glass), but we know that's just imagination. The mirror -- as any person using it to count pimples or wrinkles or gray hairs will tell you -- does not lie.
In the same way, our lives can serve as a mirror that reflects God: and our lives do not lie. If God is before us, if the Lord has first place in our lives, then as others look to us they will see a little bit of God reflected.
Anyone who's watched old horror movies knows that, in any story that includes a vampire, a mirror is a good thing to have. Remember Count Dracula? The count has no reflection. He is visible everywhere, except in a mirror.
There's a peculiar kind of logic to that: for Count Dracula, in the old movies and in Bram Stoker's novel, is evil incarnate. Evil has no reflection at all -- nor does it need one. Its forces are all too visible in our world. They clamor for attention.
Not so with the forces of good. God is not instantly visible in our world. The only place we see the love of God is reflected in other people. "No one has ever seen God," writes the author of 1 John; yet "if we love one another, God lives in us...."
Unlike the fictional vampire, God is invisible in this world unless we Christians position our lives to serve as mirrors. "God has no hands but our hands," as the old saying goes.
***
People are not persuaded by our reasoning, but caught by our enthusiasms.
-- Alfred North Whitehead
***
It is a tradition in the Moravian Church to celebrate Easter in the graveyard. During the days of Holy Week that precede the holiday, the people of the church have lovingly scrubbed each gravestone and placed before each one a bouquet of fresh flowers. In a Moravian cemetery, the stones are simple: plain white and identical to each other, symbolizing "the democracy of death."
Then on Easter Sunday, before dawn, the whole community gathers at the church and marches in procession to the cemetery. Standing among the orderly rows of marble monuments -- in the very teeth of death, as it were -- they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The Moravians feel the only proper place to celebrate Easter is in a graveyard, out there among the tombs where death is unavoidable. As they wait for the dawn, there is a sense that they are waiting to hear, once again, God's promise of new life.
