Sermon Illustrations For Proper 5 | OT 10 (2023)
Illustration
Genesis 12:1-9
I think one of the biggest problems that people will ultimately have with regards to self-driving cars is that even when all the bugs are worked out we don’t like giving up control to others. We like being in charge.
That’s part of what intrigues me when God says to Abraham that he is to go forward “…to the land that I will show you.” Abraham is about to embark on a journey with many twists and turns and he doesn’t know the destination yet! How many of us would respond to God by saying, “No, tell me first where I’m going. Let me look it up on a map, or my phone. Give me the coordinates.” But Abraham and Sarah have to let go of the steering wheel and let God be in charge.
When they take back hold of the wheel and attempt to steer on their own — like when Abraham twice tries to pass his wife off as his sister, or Sarah suggests they fulfill God’s promise of a child by using Hagar as a surrogate mother — things go awry, though God intervenes to make it all work out.
How many of us truly trust someone else — especially God — to guide us on our faith journey? How many of us will take our hands off the wheel of our lives and let God be the driver?
Frank R.
* * *
Genesis 12:1-9
Martin Luther claimed that this text “deserves our attention as an extraordinary example of mercy. It should encourage and persuade us that God will preserve the church also in our time, when everything is threatening religion with destruction.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.2, p.245)
Billy Graham’s daughter Anne Graham Lotz, herself an evangelist, says a lot about how we should regard Abraham and his faith:
Abraham wasn't perfect. He failed, made mistakes. But, he would go back, get right with God, and then just keep moving forward. He didn't quit when things got hard. He just kept on going. And everywhere he went, God was there. God was with him.
Søren Kierkegaard offers thoughtful reflections on how and why faith makes us great as it did Abraham:
Thus did they struggle on earth: there was one who conquered everything by his power, and there was one who conquered God by his powerlessness. There was one who relied upon himself and gained everything; there was one who in the security of his own strength sacrificed everything; but the one who believed God was the greatest of all. There was one who was great by virtue of his power, and one who was great by virtue of his hope, and one who was great by virtue of his love, but Abraham was the greatest of all, great by that power whose strength is powerlessness, great by that wisdom which is foolishness, great by that hope whose form is madness, great by the love that is hatred to oneself.
Martin Luther also reflects on the nature of faith over-against unbelief. He wrote:
Unbelief always wants to see and feel where to go; but its ambition is not realized. Therefore, it must despair. Faith, however thinks thus; I know not where I am going. Go I must. (What Luther Says, p.467)
Mark E.
* * *
Genesis 12:1-9
Brennan Manning writes in Ruthless Trust about John Kavanaugh, a noted ethicist who went to Calcutta, seeking Mother Teresa. He spent three months working in the “house of the dying” to find out how he might best spend the rest of his life. When he met Mother Teresa, he asked her to pray for him. “What do you want me to pray for?” she replied. He then uttered his request: “Clarity. Pray that I have clarity.”
Without hesitation Mother Teresa answered, “No I will not do that.” When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” When Kavanaugh said that she always seemed to have clarity, the very kind of clarity he was looking for, Mother Teresa laughed and said: “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So, I will pray that you trust God.”
Abraham did not have clarity as we see him in Genesis 12. He did not know where he would end up or what would happen on the road. He only knew that he would have to trust. Verse 4 indicates the depth of that trust. Only three words in the NRSV, but the resound. “So, Abram went.” Is there any more powerful description of Abram’s character? Will we demonstrate that level of trust?
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 4:13-25
How often do you think about grace? I don’t consider it often and sometimes I’m not good at offering grace — especially to distracted and reckless drivers. There are moments when I am driving that I don’t recognize myself as a Christian who is called to offer the grace of God to others. Are there situations where you neglect and forget to offer grace? I am sure we all have our moments of temper and anger — of focusing on what is wrong instead of caring for one another. I’ve been trying lately to pray for drivers who usually upset me. I offer a prayer for their safety and the safety of those around them. I must admit I don’t always pray first. Sometimes I lose my temper first. But I do counter that anger with prayer. I am reminded, when I do so, how much grace has been poured over me. I think the more I offer grace, the better I get at offering it. Maybe it will be the same for you.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Romans 4:13-25
Martin Luther offers some interesting observations about this lesson:
God is so minded that he delights to strengthen the weak and to weaken the strong. For he is called Creator. He who, on one hand makes everything out of nothing and, on the other hand, can reduce everything to nothing. (What Luther Says, p.630)
French intellectual Blaise Pascal offered thoughtful reflections on how God saves through faith alone. He wrote:
... Then Jesus Christ came to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves, that it is their passions that cut them off from God, that he has come to destroy these passions, and to give men his grace... (Pensées, 433)
Dutch lay Christian Corrie ten Boom, who fearlessly shielded Jews from the Holocaust, profoundly explains what it means to have faith reckoned as righteousness:
God takes our sins — the past, present, and future, and dumps them in the sea and puts up a sign that says NO FISHING ALLOWED.
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
The most ancient written records we have tend to focus on tax collections. Every ancient society that left behind writings left behind tax records, receipts, and past due notices. Names, dates, places, special surcharges — these fill the records.
Oddly enough, poorer people often paid a higher rate of taxes. Richer individuals were often exempted from paying certain fees. Special surcharges ramped up the price for the poorer folks.
The taxes paid by Judeans in the first Christian century were especially galling to the residents of the region, because these taxes paid for the cost of the highly resented occupation of the region by the Roman legionnaires. The tax collector, though often a local person, represented the faceless, implacable, impersonal, unresponsive, but all-powerful might of Rome. Because of the efficiency of the system, there was not a corner of the empire which escaped this burden. If you lived under Roman rule, you paid the taxes.
Tax collector paid the taxes for an entire region, then collected them piecemeal from the residents. They were allowed to charge a markup to make a profit. And since no one but the tax collector had access to his records, it was assumed, not always incorrectly, that the tax collector was gouging them.
Which makes it all the more surprising that when Jesus looked for disciples, he deliberately chose a man named Matthew, a scribe who could write, sitting at his tax collecting station, immediately recognizable as the hated tax collector who stopped people and demanded payment, to be one of his apostles.
(This installment of Emphasis draws upon some of the information from the author’s installment of StoryShare for this week.)
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
I came across the story of a recently licensed pilot who was flying his private plane on a cloudy day. He was not very experienced in instrument landing. When the control tower was to bring him in, he began to get panicky. Then a voice came over the radio, “You just obey instructions, we’ll take care of the obstructions.”
I thought of that admonition as I read this familiar account from Matthew’s Gospel. There are three examples of those who had to trust. Matthew, a tax collector, was called to trust and leave his livelihood. A synagogue leader (Jairus though not named in Matthew) whose daughter was dead was told to trust that Jesus could snatch his daughter’s life from death’s cold grip. Between those two prominent men was an anonymous woman. However, her story is also a story of faith. She was compelled to see Jesus. She didn’t want to bother or slow him down, so she believed just touching the fringe of his cloak would be enough. She obeyed what she knew was to be true and was healed.
All three stories of faith, followed by obedience, brought results. Will we “trust and obey?”
Bill T.
I think one of the biggest problems that people will ultimately have with regards to self-driving cars is that even when all the bugs are worked out we don’t like giving up control to others. We like being in charge.
That’s part of what intrigues me when God says to Abraham that he is to go forward “…to the land that I will show you.” Abraham is about to embark on a journey with many twists and turns and he doesn’t know the destination yet! How many of us would respond to God by saying, “No, tell me first where I’m going. Let me look it up on a map, or my phone. Give me the coordinates.” But Abraham and Sarah have to let go of the steering wheel and let God be in charge.
When they take back hold of the wheel and attempt to steer on their own — like when Abraham twice tries to pass his wife off as his sister, or Sarah suggests they fulfill God’s promise of a child by using Hagar as a surrogate mother — things go awry, though God intervenes to make it all work out.
How many of us truly trust someone else — especially God — to guide us on our faith journey? How many of us will take our hands off the wheel of our lives and let God be the driver?
Frank R.
* * *
Genesis 12:1-9
Martin Luther claimed that this text “deserves our attention as an extraordinary example of mercy. It should encourage and persuade us that God will preserve the church also in our time, when everything is threatening religion with destruction.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.2, p.245)
Billy Graham’s daughter Anne Graham Lotz, herself an evangelist, says a lot about how we should regard Abraham and his faith:
Abraham wasn't perfect. He failed, made mistakes. But, he would go back, get right with God, and then just keep moving forward. He didn't quit when things got hard. He just kept on going. And everywhere he went, God was there. God was with him.
Søren Kierkegaard offers thoughtful reflections on how and why faith makes us great as it did Abraham:
Thus did they struggle on earth: there was one who conquered everything by his power, and there was one who conquered God by his powerlessness. There was one who relied upon himself and gained everything; there was one who in the security of his own strength sacrificed everything; but the one who believed God was the greatest of all. There was one who was great by virtue of his power, and one who was great by virtue of his hope, and one who was great by virtue of his love, but Abraham was the greatest of all, great by that power whose strength is powerlessness, great by that wisdom which is foolishness, great by that hope whose form is madness, great by the love that is hatred to oneself.
Martin Luther also reflects on the nature of faith over-against unbelief. He wrote:
Unbelief always wants to see and feel where to go; but its ambition is not realized. Therefore, it must despair. Faith, however thinks thus; I know not where I am going. Go I must. (What Luther Says, p.467)
Mark E.
* * *
Genesis 12:1-9
Brennan Manning writes in Ruthless Trust about John Kavanaugh, a noted ethicist who went to Calcutta, seeking Mother Teresa. He spent three months working in the “house of the dying” to find out how he might best spend the rest of his life. When he met Mother Teresa, he asked her to pray for him. “What do you want me to pray for?” she replied. He then uttered his request: “Clarity. Pray that I have clarity.”
Without hesitation Mother Teresa answered, “No I will not do that.” When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” When Kavanaugh said that she always seemed to have clarity, the very kind of clarity he was looking for, Mother Teresa laughed and said: “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So, I will pray that you trust God.”
Abraham did not have clarity as we see him in Genesis 12. He did not know where he would end up or what would happen on the road. He only knew that he would have to trust. Verse 4 indicates the depth of that trust. Only three words in the NRSV, but the resound. “So, Abram went.” Is there any more powerful description of Abram’s character? Will we demonstrate that level of trust?
Bill T.
* * *
Romans 4:13-25
How often do you think about grace? I don’t consider it often and sometimes I’m not good at offering grace — especially to distracted and reckless drivers. There are moments when I am driving that I don’t recognize myself as a Christian who is called to offer the grace of God to others. Are there situations where you neglect and forget to offer grace? I am sure we all have our moments of temper and anger — of focusing on what is wrong instead of caring for one another. I’ve been trying lately to pray for drivers who usually upset me. I offer a prayer for their safety and the safety of those around them. I must admit I don’t always pray first. Sometimes I lose my temper first. But I do counter that anger with prayer. I am reminded, when I do so, how much grace has been poured over me. I think the more I offer grace, the better I get at offering it. Maybe it will be the same for you.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Romans 4:13-25
Martin Luther offers some interesting observations about this lesson:
God is so minded that he delights to strengthen the weak and to weaken the strong. For he is called Creator. He who, on one hand makes everything out of nothing and, on the other hand, can reduce everything to nothing. (What Luther Says, p.630)
French intellectual Blaise Pascal offered thoughtful reflections on how God saves through faith alone. He wrote:
... Then Jesus Christ came to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves, that it is their passions that cut them off from God, that he has come to destroy these passions, and to give men his grace... (Pensées, 433)
Dutch lay Christian Corrie ten Boom, who fearlessly shielded Jews from the Holocaust, profoundly explains what it means to have faith reckoned as righteousness:
God takes our sins — the past, present, and future, and dumps them in the sea and puts up a sign that says NO FISHING ALLOWED.
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
The most ancient written records we have tend to focus on tax collections. Every ancient society that left behind writings left behind tax records, receipts, and past due notices. Names, dates, places, special surcharges — these fill the records.
Oddly enough, poorer people often paid a higher rate of taxes. Richer individuals were often exempted from paying certain fees. Special surcharges ramped up the price for the poorer folks.
The taxes paid by Judeans in the first Christian century were especially galling to the residents of the region, because these taxes paid for the cost of the highly resented occupation of the region by the Roman legionnaires. The tax collector, though often a local person, represented the faceless, implacable, impersonal, unresponsive, but all-powerful might of Rome. Because of the efficiency of the system, there was not a corner of the empire which escaped this burden. If you lived under Roman rule, you paid the taxes.
Tax collector paid the taxes for an entire region, then collected them piecemeal from the residents. They were allowed to charge a markup to make a profit. And since no one but the tax collector had access to his records, it was assumed, not always incorrectly, that the tax collector was gouging them.
Which makes it all the more surprising that when Jesus looked for disciples, he deliberately chose a man named Matthew, a scribe who could write, sitting at his tax collecting station, immediately recognizable as the hated tax collector who stopped people and demanded payment, to be one of his apostles.
(This installment of Emphasis draws upon some of the information from the author’s installment of StoryShare for this week.)
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
I came across the story of a recently licensed pilot who was flying his private plane on a cloudy day. He was not very experienced in instrument landing. When the control tower was to bring him in, he began to get panicky. Then a voice came over the radio, “You just obey instructions, we’ll take care of the obstructions.”
I thought of that admonition as I read this familiar account from Matthew’s Gospel. There are three examples of those who had to trust. Matthew, a tax collector, was called to trust and leave his livelihood. A synagogue leader (Jairus though not named in Matthew) whose daughter was dead was told to trust that Jesus could snatch his daughter’s life from death’s cold grip. Between those two prominent men was an anonymous woman. However, her story is also a story of faith. She was compelled to see Jesus. She didn’t want to bother or slow him down, so she believed just touching the fringe of his cloak would be enough. She obeyed what she knew was to be true and was healed.
All three stories of faith, followed by obedience, brought results. Will we “trust and obey?”
Bill T.
