Proper 12 / Ordinary Time 17 / Pentecost 9
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series IX, Cycle B
Theme of the Day
We're all in the same boat!
Collect of the Day
It is noted that the gracious God has placed in the hearts of all a longing for the word of truth. Prayer is offered that the faithful may know Christ to be the bread of heaven and share this bread with the entire world. Justification, Sanctification, Evangelism, and perhaps Social Ethics receive attention.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 14
* A Psalm attributed to David; a condemnation of a cynical and unrighteous age.
* Almost identical to Psalm 53; these Psalms are unusual in generalizing personal troubles to be characteristic of an entire generation.
* The corruption of the age is described (vv. 1-3). It is characterized by a lack of faith, wisdom, and goodness.
* Threats are issued to evildoers (vv. 4-6). They are especially indicted for mistreatment of the poor. The Lord is said to be the poor's refuge (v. 6).
* Yearning for better times (v. 7).
or Psalm 145:10-18
* Part of a hymn epitomizing the character of God; traditionally ascribed to David.
* An Acrostic Psalm, with each new verse of the Psalm beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet following the one used in the preceding verse.
* All the Lord's works are said to give Him thanks and the faithful praise Him (vv. 10-12).
* The Lord's kingdom is said to be everlasting (v. 13).
* God's providential care for His creatures is described (vv. 13b-18). His deeds are said to be gracious and just, upholding all who fall, providing food, and satisfying the desire of all living things.
Sermon Text and Title
"Sin Levels the Playing Field"
2 Samuel 11:1-15
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A teaching sermon on Original Sin, exploring the librating awareness of how we are all sinners, dependent on Justification by Grace. A passing reference to Social Ethical implications of a leader's morality, how such immorality creates an ethos of moral decline in society, could be noted. This is a liberating word, because Original Sin makes us aware that we are no worse but also no better than anyone else.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* David launches a second campaign against the Ammonites (v. 1) but also schemes to take the beautiful Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, for himself (vv. 2-3).
* David summons her and sleeps with her, even though she was still in a period of purification after her period and so no man was to lie with her (as per Leviticus 15:19-24) (v. 4a).
* Bathsheba returns home but informs David that she is pregnant (vv. 4b-5).
* David summons Uriah. He tries to get him to violate ritual regulations on chastity practiced by soldiers consecrated for war (1 Samuel 21:4-5; Deuteronomy 23:9-14), presumably so that Bathsheba's child would be considered Uriah's, but the Hittite refuses (vv. 6-13). When that fails, David schemes to send Uriah to the front line in order that he might be killed (vv. 14-15).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* Presentation of the doctrine of Original Sin, communicating an awareness that it impacts all human beings, even the best of us. This is a liberating, comforting word insofar as it helps us realize that none of us is better than our peers. The freeing character of this insight (Justification by Grace) is also explored. Attention could also be given to how leaders are often responsible for moral erosion in society, as the decline in marriage in America is not unrelated to the marriage ethic of our celebrities and political leaders (Social Ethics).
* About David's sin and sin in general, John Wesley wrote: "See how all the way to sin is downhill! When men begin, they cannot soon stop themselves" (Commentary on the Bible, p. 199).
* Then concerning David's deceitful plans regarding Uriah he wrote: "See how 'fleshly lusts war against the soul,' and what devastations they make in that war! How they blind the eyes, sear the conscience, harden the heart, and destroy all sense of honor and justice!" (Ibid., p. 200).
* Martin Luther does a nice job explaining how even good people are always sinning:
For man cannot but seek his own advantages and love himself above all things. And this is the sum of all his iniquities. Hence even in good things and virtues men seek themselves, that is, they seek to please themselves and applaud themselves… I say now that no one should doubt that all our good works are mortal sins if they are judged according to God's judgment and severity and not accepted as good by grace alone.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, p. 222)
* For more on sin and Original Sin see the third and fourth bullet points in this section for the Gospel, Ash Wednesday; third bullet point in this section for the Gospel, Good Friday. For the idea of Original Sin as concupiscence, see Augustine's comments in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 5, pp. 273-274.
* Martin Luther also offered a thoughtful reflection on how an awareness of Original Sin undercuts our pride and how these dynamics prepare us for the word of forgiveness:
This should serve God's purpose to break our pride and keep us humble. He has reserved to Himself this prerogative, that if anybody boasts of his goodness and despises others… He will find that he is no better than others, that in the presence of God all men must humble themselves and be glad that they can attain forgiveness.
(The Book of Concord, p. 432)
* Elsewhere Luther added a word about God's forgiving love for this world of sinful human beings:
This is in truth, what the world is; it is a stable full of wicked, shameful people who misuse all creatures of God in the most disgraceful matter, who blaspheme God and inflict everything evil on him. These shameful people God loves. This is love supreme.
(What Luther Says, p. 821)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Note statistics of the Barna Research Group indicating that we are losing this awareness of our sinfulness, as reported in the first bullet point of this section for the Second Lesson, Lent 4.
* For similar data, also see the fourth bullet point in this section for the Gospel, Passion Sunday.
* Genetic research indicates the insidious selfishness which is the essence of Original Sin underlies all we do. Human bodies on this side of the fall seek to maximize production of their DNA. This has led researcher Richard Dawkins to speak of the "selfish gene." Even altruism serves this selfishness (The Selfish Gene).
* See the data on marital infidelity in America in the section for the First Lesson, Pentecost 10.
5. Gimmick
Oh how we churchgoers love David, the great king and brave lad. How this story disappoints us. Even good people, it seems, are sinners.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Recount David's heinous deed, how he illicitly has sex with the beautiful Bathsheba, and then after a charade violating ritual obligations about marital sex tries to give the appearance that the child he conceived with his lover was actually the child of Bathsheba's husband Uriah, and even assigns Uriah military responsibilities making it likely he might be killed. Express more disappointment in David. He had all the sex he needed, what with all his wives and concubines (5:13; 15:16). Note the quotes by Wesley in Theological Insights.
* Talk to David: Tell him how he disappoints us in view of his marital dalliances, certainly no example for society as a whole. We would never do that if we had such power? Or would we?
* We need to stifle ourselves. We're in the same boat as David if you believe Original Sin. We would do the same thing that he did were we ever to have the power and status he did.
* But Original Sin and our sinfulness are bad words in America. Use the data in the first two bullet points of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights indicating the American public's neglect of sin and the doctrine of Original Sin. Many people agree with the British musician Elvis Costello: "There is no such thing as Original Sin."
* Okay, let's get clear about Original Sin, about how the playing field is level among all sinners.
* Original Sin is not just taught in the story of the fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:14ff). It is also taught in Romans 7. (Read vv. 15-20.) Essentially, Original Sin is not just the idea that we are all sinners, the heirs of Adam and Eve. More specifically it is the teaching that we sin in all we do.
* We are always seeking ourselves, seeking to please ourselves in everything we do. Theologians have spoken of this selfishness as concupiscence (a word that literally means an inordinate sexual desire, but in this context refers to an insidiously selfish desire to find pleasure in everything we do).
* Use quotations in the fourth and fifth bullet points of Theological Insights to emphasize how there is no escape from selfishness in everything we do, how even the outwardly good deeds we do are as selfish and sinful as David's sin recounted in the lesson.
* Ask the congregation if they can think of examples in their lives when they avoided selfishness. Note that even in loving a spouse, loving children or aging parents, or caring for the poor, one gets good feelings (selfishness). Use scientific data in the third bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights to undergird this point.
* Of course, we do not want to concede these points, to think that we are as bad as David. Here Martin Luther offers an observation (see third bullet point of this section for First Lesson, Ash Wednesday, for documentation) that is most relevant: "All of us are pleased with what we do. We are a world of fools, I'm telling you!"
* Why should we want to believe these hard-to-swallow truths? It can make a difference in our relation to God.
* Reinhold Niebuhr thoughtfully noted how Original Sin impacts our relation to God: "Original Sin is the thing about man that makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it."
* If we can't achieve perfection, it means we are more dependent on God than if we were just created by Him and could achieve much of the rest by our goodness. We need Original Sin to keep us humble, to make us aware that we're no better than a sinner like David, that when it comes to selfishness we're not better than anyone (and nobody is of course better than we are). We also need Original Sin to humble us enough to know how badly we need forgiveness. Use the next-to-last quotation in Theological Insights.
* We need forgiveness and God gives it freely to sinners like us. Next week we will hear a word of forgiveness to David, even for this heinous sin (12:13). That word is for heinous sinners like us too.
* Quote the final bullet point in Theological Insights. Stress the amazing love of God for shamefully selfish people like us.
7. Wrap-Up
Original Sin really is good news. It helps put us all in the same boat, levels the playing field. It makes each of us realize we're not that bad because everybody else is as bad. It also drains us of pride in our goodness; we are no better than David's philandering, scheming, and murdering. And yet best of all it prepares us to realize how badly we all need the wonderful, forgiving love of God. Contrary to Elvis Costello, who denies Original Sin, thank goodness this uncomfortable truth has not been tossed by the church. We just need to start teaching about it. It might make us more tolerable (less self-critical and less arrogant) and a lot more spiritual (more dependent on God).
Sermon Text and Title
"Union With Christ"
Ephesians 3:14-21
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To explore the implications for everyday life of Christ living in the faithful (Justification as Intimate Union's implications for Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Part of a prayer for wisdom.
* Prays to God the author of all family relations (vv. 14-15) that recipients of the epistle be strengthened in their inner being by the Spirit that Christ may dwell in their hearts, rooted and grounded in love (vv. 16-17).
* Also prays that recipients be given the power to comprehend the depth of Christ's love and be filled with the goodness of God (vv. 18-19).
* Concluding doxology celebrates the boundless generosity of God (vv. 20-21).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text witnesses to the concept of Justification as Intimate Union and its implications for daily life (Sanctification as spontaneity of good works). Some attention should be given to the implications of this concept for the unity of the faith (doctrine of the church). It is necessary to distinguish this view of Justification from a Forensic View, which dominates in American Christianity.
* Regarding the depth of God's love in Christ, Martin Luther once proclaimed:
Accordingly, here, again the heart shall grow and become strong against all sorrow, because such wealth of unfathomable divine love is set before us, flowing from a fatherly heart and having its source in the highest virtue, which is the fountain of all good, and which, therefore, makes the gift valuable and precious….
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 2/1, p. 354)
* About this union the text says we have with Christ, Luther proclaimed:
The sum of the matter is this: Depressed or exalted, circumscribed in whatsoever way, dragged hither or thither, I still find Christ. For He holds in His hands everything… Therefore, so long as He dwells in my heart, I have courage where I go, I cannot be lost. I dwell where Christ my Lord dwells.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 4/2, p. 279)
* Elsewhere the Reformer elaborated on the nature of the union:
It further follows from this that a Christian man living in this faith has no need of a teacher of good works; he does whatever the occasion calls for, and all is done well… We may see this in an everyday example. When a husband and wife really love one another, have pleasure in each other, and thoroughly believe in their love, who teaches them how they are to behave one to another, what they are to do or not to do, say or not to say, what they are to think?
(Luther's Works, Vol. 44, pp. 26-27)
* Augustine prayed that this sort of union would occur in his life so that God might take full control: "O Thou strength of my soul enter into it, and prepare it for Thyself, that Thou mayest have and hold it…" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, p. 142).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* A 2009 Barna Group poll revealed that 18 to 20 million Americans feel their spirituality is unhealthy or are dissatisfied with their spirituality. Most American Christians define spirituality legalistically (obeying the Bible's rules).
* For our legalistic tendencies, see the first two bullet points in this section for the First Lesson.
5. Gimmick
What's your relationship with Jesus like? Want a closer walk with Him? Many Americans are not satisfied with their spirituality, so you are not alone if you don't feel confident in faith. (See Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.) Paul says you need not be troubled because Christ is already walking closely with you, He dwells in your hearts, in you (v. 17).
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* What does it mean to say that Christ dwells in our hearts, that we are united with Him? We want to get clear on this. Our spiritual well-being may be at stake. But we need to get over some unhelpful ways of thinking about Jesus that we have been holding.
* Paul was offering a prayer of wisdom, asking God's blessing on the Ephesians. It's a prayer that the faithful would come to appreciate the profound love of God. He calls that love a boundless generosity and then he prays that by the Holy Spirit Christ might dwell in their hearts (see Exegesis).
* Let that sink in. Looking for Jesus? Want a more intimate relationship with God? What's the problem? He's living in you! And He loves you with an unfathomable love.
* Now that's not the way most of us think of Jesus. Sure we know that God loves us. But Jesus? He's ascended to heaven. So the love is a kind of distant love, a love that we hear about, more like a love letter than an embrace. If that's what our view of salvation and our relation with God is like (note: scholars refer to this as forensic justification), no wonder God and Christ seem distant. God's love is a nice idea. But that's it: Just a nice idea.
* Use the final quotation by Martin Luther in Theological Insights. Follow with the Augustine quote. Stress the comparison between Intimate Union with Christ and marriage. Note the role of the Holy Spirit in consummating the union, as the love sent from Jesus to the believer. How can we feel Jesus is distant, when He lives with us? We just need to open our hearts and eyes. You can't miss it any more than those in a good marriage can miss their lover's love.
* It won't be hard. To feel Jesus' presence, to feel His love, God's overwhelming love for us initiates our awareness. Besides this love for us is so overwhelming you can't miss it! Use the two quotations by Luther in the second and third bullet points of Theological Insights.
* This is a love that overcomes all sorrow, all depression. This is a love that gives us the courage to go on. And the good news is that we all have such a love.
* Note how we are all together in Christ. All faithful Christians have the same kind of intimate relationship with Christ that unites us in His body. (Consider the quotation by Martin Luther in next-to-last bullet point in Theological Insights for the Gospel, Pentecost 12.)
* A love like this cannot help but lead to a deeper spirituality, to a life that wants to please God. This also breaks the American expectation that spirituality is about obeying the Bible's rules (see Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights). Because in our union with Christ (when He is in our hearts), good works just emerge spontaneously. And just like in a marriage, where the nice things the couple do for each other are not what makes the marriage because the love between the spouses is what makes the marriage, so in our relation with Christ spirituality is not about what we do for Jesus but about the relationship He has with us.
7. Wrap-Up
Looking for a deeper spirituality, for a closer relation with God the Father and Jesus? Open your eyes! Feel it in your heart. It's all there. The intimacy you crave is already in your life (just as love between spouses in a good marriage, in a parent's relation to the child, is already present in the lives of those involved). Even better: We're all in the same relationship with Jesus; we're all in the same boat. And so we can sing with Paul about our lives and our God. Read verses 20-21 (slowly) with enthusiasm.
Sermon Text and Title
"The Lord Will Provide -- For Rich and Poor"
John 6:1-21
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A condemnation of sin (lack of trust in God and infatuation with material well-being, with an eye toward judging negative social implications of such attitudes) with a word of assurance that God will provide adequately for all (Providence and Justification by Grace).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* The chapter seems to interrupt the flow from the end of verse 5 to the beginning of chapter 7. This text begins with the feeding of the 5,000 (vv. 1-15), a version that differs from the Synoptic accounts.
* Jesus and His followers meet a large crowd following Him because of some unspecified healings He had performed (perhaps reported in 4:43-54).
* Jesus reportedly tests Philip (this only transpires in John's version) by asking him how enough bread could be purchased to feed the large crowd for Passover would be possible. Philip despairs (vv. 5-7).
* Andrew, Peter's brother, identifies a boy with five barley loaves and two fish but asserts that this would not feed all the people (vv. 8-9). Jesus proceeds to feed the 5,000 with these resources (vv. 10-13). As a result they proclaim Him a prophet, the [messianic] king. But in response He withdraws (vv. 14-15).
* An account of Jesus walking on water (vv. 16-21) follows. His disciples get in a boat that evening and plan to travel to Capernaum. When the sea gets rough they see Jesus walking on the water. He comforts them, identifying Himself with the phrase "It is I," a phrase (v. 20) that resembles the Hebrew equivalent "Yahweh" and seems to be a self-identification of Jesus' divine status.
* Wanting to take Jesus into the boat they immediately reach their destination.
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text teaches God's love for people (Providence and Justification by Grace), providing for their well-being (Social Ethics). The doctrine of sin (our disbelief and undue concern with wealth) receives attention, and a vision of Christian life (Sanctification) and society (Social Ethics) in which there is neither extreme wealth nor poverty is provided. Christology (the divinity of Jesus) is also taught by the lesson.
* John Calvin refers to the errors we make when we follow our own opinions rather than the word (as the people who tried to make Jesus an earthly king) (v. 14):
Thus, whenever we mix up our own opinions with the Word of God, faith degenerates into frivolous conjectures. Let believers, therefore, cultivate habitual modesty, lest… they shall rush violently against God, who is never worshiped aright but when we receive Him as He presents Himself to us.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVII/2, p. 234)
* In a sermon on this text Martin Luther notes that faith is under constant siege between mammon and wealth on one side and poverty on the other. Both rich and poor threaten God's word. In this lesson Christ exhorts a middle course, "teaching that we must come to rely on God, trust Him in every need, and learn to be content with what He daily provides." The poor will not starve, for God will see to it. In death, the rich have no more than the average Christian (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, pp. 344-345).
* Elsewhere in the sermon Luther notes regarding God's bounty that we should recognize God's wonders, rely on them, and not despair, for the cherry tree does not despair though in winter it bears no fruit, and the field does not despair though in winter it lies frozen. "We ought to learn from these everyday wonders to trust in God and not despair" (Ibid., p. 347).
* About wealth he wrote: "We should, therefore, learn contentment and not become impatient and angry with God because we are not wealthy. Were we rich we might well become meaner and more sinful" (Ibid., p. 348).
* While preaching on this text, Augustine made some enlivening points:
… our Lord spoiling His vessels, and making them His Own, poured out the bitterness, filled them with sweetness. Let us love Him, for He is sweet… We have begun to be some great thing; let no man despise himself; we were once nothing; but we are something.
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series Vol. 6, pp. 499-500)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Many analysts agree that the American middle class is in decline. It has endured three decades of stagnating wages and has shrunk from two thirds of the population in 1973 to just over half today (Sam Pizzigati, Greed and Good).
* But the Pew Research Center noted in 2008 that in the past two decades the middle class has spent more and borrowed more than ever.
* See the statistics on poverty in America in this section for the First Lesson, Epiphany 5.
* The rich-poor gap rose to an all-time high with the recession. The wealthiest 10% of Americans earn 11.4 times the income of those below the poverty line. The previous largest gap in 2003 had been that the rich made 11.22 times what the poor earned.
5. Gimmick
We just don't have the resources to provide for the poor; we're kind of like Philip in today's gospel (vv. 5-7). Maybe that's why the rich-poor gap in our nation has grown so enormously, why the middle class is squeezed (see Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights).
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Relate Philip's skepticism about how Jesus and the disciples could fulfill the needs of the 5,000 (vv. 5-7). He was concerned, as we often are, that Jesus and the faithful did not have the resources. Sounds like us.
* Somehow Jesus made the resources work, and the 5,000 were fed (vv. 8-13)! The message: When it doesn't look like you have the resources to help those in need, God will find a way! Venture on.
* Consider using John Calvin's observations in the second bullet point of Theological Insights. It needs to be noted that it can be applied to Philip's incredulity. Then proceed to Martin Luther's observation in the third bullet point of Theological Insights. Stress how the Reformer exhorts a middle ground between rich and poor.
Luther not only identifies a middle-class existence as what God has in mind for His people -- not poverty, for God will provide for them, but not wealth, which affords nothing that the average Christian does not have. But he also seems to put both rich and poor in the same boat, implying that the Lord provides for both. Underline that last point for the congregation -- repeating the sermon title at least twice.
* Luther obviously was not a great advocate of wealth as a sign of the Lord's blessing. Read his remarks in the next-to-last bullet point of Theological Insights.
This comment, suggesting that wealth does not buy you much, that it is just as well not to be weighed down with its burdens, is reminiscent of the views of nineteenth-century English social critic John Ruskin. He remarked: "There is no wealth but life." The best things in life are indeed free.
* A life lived in the comfortable middle of the economy, willing to take responsible risks for the poor, is a happier one than the mad pursuit of and retention of wealth. When you are always worrying about money like Philip, life is not as enjoyable. That's why Philip and Andrew, worried as they were about resources before trying to help the 5,000, were so unhappy and burdened, while Jesus and the boy who provided the five loaves and the two fish did not agonize.
* An anonymous English saying found in an inn in Lancaster further communicates the more carefree life that those in a comfortable middle class can enjoy:
Give us Lord, a bit o' sun,
A bit o' work and bit o' fun;
Give us all in the struggle and sputter
Our daily bread and a bid o' butter.
* The famed philosopher Aristotle thought that the middle was not just good for people's peace of mind but good for society: "The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class" (Politics).
* A middle-class society does not have the rich-poor gap that plagues us today. It's also better, in the view of famed Irish writer George Bernard Shaw. He believed that people in the middle live for others: "I have to live for others and not for myself, that's middle class."
* The person in the comfortable middle is not so concerned about accumulating wealth that he or she does not have to be thinking about gaining wealth for themselves. They can do joyfully what John Wesley advised: "Earn all you can; save all you can; give all you can" (for full reference see the last bullet point of Theological Insights for Second Lesson, Pentecost 5).
* Our lesson may indicate that John's Jesus was neither an advocate of wealth nor poverty, that a middle-class society will be best for the public as a whole. But we're way off-base if that's all we say, as if we Christians just need to will a middle-class existence and middle-class society for ourselves. We need to remember that Jesus intervened in feeding the 5,000 with a miracle. And that's what it takes for us and the rest of American society to find the middle, to avoid the temptations of wealth and to uplift the poor, to get us all in the same boat.
* Consider the fourth and sixth bullet points of Theological Insights. Living in the golden means between wealth and poverty, living an everyday life without economic anxieties is a true gift, a miraculous gift of God.
7. Wrap-Up
Augustine (see last bullet point just noted) speaks of God spoiling us and of His sweetness (made visible in the material comforts with which He provides us). The material well-being we have is indeed miraculous, no less so than the miracles reported in the lesson. No more are we to despise ourselves because of our lack of wealth or resources in comparison to the wealthy. Though once nothing we are all in the same boat in God's eyes -- we are SOMETHING. The Lord provides his blessings for both rich and poor.
We're all in the same boat!
Collect of the Day
It is noted that the gracious God has placed in the hearts of all a longing for the word of truth. Prayer is offered that the faithful may know Christ to be the bread of heaven and share this bread with the entire world. Justification, Sanctification, Evangelism, and perhaps Social Ethics receive attention.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 14
* A Psalm attributed to David; a condemnation of a cynical and unrighteous age.
* Almost identical to Psalm 53; these Psalms are unusual in generalizing personal troubles to be characteristic of an entire generation.
* The corruption of the age is described (vv. 1-3). It is characterized by a lack of faith, wisdom, and goodness.
* Threats are issued to evildoers (vv. 4-6). They are especially indicted for mistreatment of the poor. The Lord is said to be the poor's refuge (v. 6).
* Yearning for better times (v. 7).
or Psalm 145:10-18
* Part of a hymn epitomizing the character of God; traditionally ascribed to David.
* An Acrostic Psalm, with each new verse of the Psalm beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet following the one used in the preceding verse.
* All the Lord's works are said to give Him thanks and the faithful praise Him (vv. 10-12).
* The Lord's kingdom is said to be everlasting (v. 13).
* God's providential care for His creatures is described (vv. 13b-18). His deeds are said to be gracious and just, upholding all who fall, providing food, and satisfying the desire of all living things.
Sermon Text and Title
"Sin Levels the Playing Field"
2 Samuel 11:1-15
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A teaching sermon on Original Sin, exploring the librating awareness of how we are all sinners, dependent on Justification by Grace. A passing reference to Social Ethical implications of a leader's morality, how such immorality creates an ethos of moral decline in society, could be noted. This is a liberating word, because Original Sin makes us aware that we are no worse but also no better than anyone else.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* David launches a second campaign against the Ammonites (v. 1) but also schemes to take the beautiful Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, for himself (vv. 2-3).
* David summons her and sleeps with her, even though she was still in a period of purification after her period and so no man was to lie with her (as per Leviticus 15:19-24) (v. 4a).
* Bathsheba returns home but informs David that she is pregnant (vv. 4b-5).
* David summons Uriah. He tries to get him to violate ritual regulations on chastity practiced by soldiers consecrated for war (1 Samuel 21:4-5; Deuteronomy 23:9-14), presumably so that Bathsheba's child would be considered Uriah's, but the Hittite refuses (vv. 6-13). When that fails, David schemes to send Uriah to the front line in order that he might be killed (vv. 14-15).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* Presentation of the doctrine of Original Sin, communicating an awareness that it impacts all human beings, even the best of us. This is a liberating, comforting word insofar as it helps us realize that none of us is better than our peers. The freeing character of this insight (Justification by Grace) is also explored. Attention could also be given to how leaders are often responsible for moral erosion in society, as the decline in marriage in America is not unrelated to the marriage ethic of our celebrities and political leaders (Social Ethics).
* About David's sin and sin in general, John Wesley wrote: "See how all the way to sin is downhill! When men begin, they cannot soon stop themselves" (Commentary on the Bible, p. 199).
* Then concerning David's deceitful plans regarding Uriah he wrote: "See how 'fleshly lusts war against the soul,' and what devastations they make in that war! How they blind the eyes, sear the conscience, harden the heart, and destroy all sense of honor and justice!" (Ibid., p. 200).
* Martin Luther does a nice job explaining how even good people are always sinning:
For man cannot but seek his own advantages and love himself above all things. And this is the sum of all his iniquities. Hence even in good things and virtues men seek themselves, that is, they seek to please themselves and applaud themselves… I say now that no one should doubt that all our good works are mortal sins if they are judged according to God's judgment and severity and not accepted as good by grace alone.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, p. 222)
* For more on sin and Original Sin see the third and fourth bullet points in this section for the Gospel, Ash Wednesday; third bullet point in this section for the Gospel, Good Friday. For the idea of Original Sin as concupiscence, see Augustine's comments in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 5, pp. 273-274.
* Martin Luther also offered a thoughtful reflection on how an awareness of Original Sin undercuts our pride and how these dynamics prepare us for the word of forgiveness:
This should serve God's purpose to break our pride and keep us humble. He has reserved to Himself this prerogative, that if anybody boasts of his goodness and despises others… He will find that he is no better than others, that in the presence of God all men must humble themselves and be glad that they can attain forgiveness.
(The Book of Concord, p. 432)
* Elsewhere Luther added a word about God's forgiving love for this world of sinful human beings:
This is in truth, what the world is; it is a stable full of wicked, shameful people who misuse all creatures of God in the most disgraceful matter, who blaspheme God and inflict everything evil on him. These shameful people God loves. This is love supreme.
(What Luther Says, p. 821)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Note statistics of the Barna Research Group indicating that we are losing this awareness of our sinfulness, as reported in the first bullet point of this section for the Second Lesson, Lent 4.
* For similar data, also see the fourth bullet point in this section for the Gospel, Passion Sunday.
* Genetic research indicates the insidious selfishness which is the essence of Original Sin underlies all we do. Human bodies on this side of the fall seek to maximize production of their DNA. This has led researcher Richard Dawkins to speak of the "selfish gene." Even altruism serves this selfishness (The Selfish Gene).
* See the data on marital infidelity in America in the section for the First Lesson, Pentecost 10.
5. Gimmick
Oh how we churchgoers love David, the great king and brave lad. How this story disappoints us. Even good people, it seems, are sinners.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Recount David's heinous deed, how he illicitly has sex with the beautiful Bathsheba, and then after a charade violating ritual obligations about marital sex tries to give the appearance that the child he conceived with his lover was actually the child of Bathsheba's husband Uriah, and even assigns Uriah military responsibilities making it likely he might be killed. Express more disappointment in David. He had all the sex he needed, what with all his wives and concubines (5:13; 15:16). Note the quotes by Wesley in Theological Insights.
* Talk to David: Tell him how he disappoints us in view of his marital dalliances, certainly no example for society as a whole. We would never do that if we had such power? Or would we?
* We need to stifle ourselves. We're in the same boat as David if you believe Original Sin. We would do the same thing that he did were we ever to have the power and status he did.
* But Original Sin and our sinfulness are bad words in America. Use the data in the first two bullet points of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights indicating the American public's neglect of sin and the doctrine of Original Sin. Many people agree with the British musician Elvis Costello: "There is no such thing as Original Sin."
* Okay, let's get clear about Original Sin, about how the playing field is level among all sinners.
* Original Sin is not just taught in the story of the fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:14ff). It is also taught in Romans 7. (Read vv. 15-20.) Essentially, Original Sin is not just the idea that we are all sinners, the heirs of Adam and Eve. More specifically it is the teaching that we sin in all we do.
* We are always seeking ourselves, seeking to please ourselves in everything we do. Theologians have spoken of this selfishness as concupiscence (a word that literally means an inordinate sexual desire, but in this context refers to an insidiously selfish desire to find pleasure in everything we do).
* Use quotations in the fourth and fifth bullet points of Theological Insights to emphasize how there is no escape from selfishness in everything we do, how even the outwardly good deeds we do are as selfish and sinful as David's sin recounted in the lesson.
* Ask the congregation if they can think of examples in their lives when they avoided selfishness. Note that even in loving a spouse, loving children or aging parents, or caring for the poor, one gets good feelings (selfishness). Use scientific data in the third bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights to undergird this point.
* Of course, we do not want to concede these points, to think that we are as bad as David. Here Martin Luther offers an observation (see third bullet point of this section for First Lesson, Ash Wednesday, for documentation) that is most relevant: "All of us are pleased with what we do. We are a world of fools, I'm telling you!"
* Why should we want to believe these hard-to-swallow truths? It can make a difference in our relation to God.
* Reinhold Niebuhr thoughtfully noted how Original Sin impacts our relation to God: "Original Sin is the thing about man that makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it."
* If we can't achieve perfection, it means we are more dependent on God than if we were just created by Him and could achieve much of the rest by our goodness. We need Original Sin to keep us humble, to make us aware that we're no better than a sinner like David, that when it comes to selfishness we're not better than anyone (and nobody is of course better than we are). We also need Original Sin to humble us enough to know how badly we need forgiveness. Use the next-to-last quotation in Theological Insights.
* We need forgiveness and God gives it freely to sinners like us. Next week we will hear a word of forgiveness to David, even for this heinous sin (12:13). That word is for heinous sinners like us too.
* Quote the final bullet point in Theological Insights. Stress the amazing love of God for shamefully selfish people like us.
7. Wrap-Up
Original Sin really is good news. It helps put us all in the same boat, levels the playing field. It makes each of us realize we're not that bad because everybody else is as bad. It also drains us of pride in our goodness; we are no better than David's philandering, scheming, and murdering. And yet best of all it prepares us to realize how badly we all need the wonderful, forgiving love of God. Contrary to Elvis Costello, who denies Original Sin, thank goodness this uncomfortable truth has not been tossed by the church. We just need to start teaching about it. It might make us more tolerable (less self-critical and less arrogant) and a lot more spiritual (more dependent on God).
Sermon Text and Title
"Union With Christ"
Ephesians 3:14-21
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To explore the implications for everyday life of Christ living in the faithful (Justification as Intimate Union's implications for Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Part of a prayer for wisdom.
* Prays to God the author of all family relations (vv. 14-15) that recipients of the epistle be strengthened in their inner being by the Spirit that Christ may dwell in their hearts, rooted and grounded in love (vv. 16-17).
* Also prays that recipients be given the power to comprehend the depth of Christ's love and be filled with the goodness of God (vv. 18-19).
* Concluding doxology celebrates the boundless generosity of God (vv. 20-21).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text witnesses to the concept of Justification as Intimate Union and its implications for daily life (Sanctification as spontaneity of good works). Some attention should be given to the implications of this concept for the unity of the faith (doctrine of the church). It is necessary to distinguish this view of Justification from a Forensic View, which dominates in American Christianity.
* Regarding the depth of God's love in Christ, Martin Luther once proclaimed:
Accordingly, here, again the heart shall grow and become strong against all sorrow, because such wealth of unfathomable divine love is set before us, flowing from a fatherly heart and having its source in the highest virtue, which is the fountain of all good, and which, therefore, makes the gift valuable and precious….
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 2/1, p. 354)
* About this union the text says we have with Christ, Luther proclaimed:
The sum of the matter is this: Depressed or exalted, circumscribed in whatsoever way, dragged hither or thither, I still find Christ. For He holds in His hands everything… Therefore, so long as He dwells in my heart, I have courage where I go, I cannot be lost. I dwell where Christ my Lord dwells.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 4/2, p. 279)
* Elsewhere the Reformer elaborated on the nature of the union:
It further follows from this that a Christian man living in this faith has no need of a teacher of good works; he does whatever the occasion calls for, and all is done well… We may see this in an everyday example. When a husband and wife really love one another, have pleasure in each other, and thoroughly believe in their love, who teaches them how they are to behave one to another, what they are to do or not to do, say or not to say, what they are to think?
(Luther's Works, Vol. 44, pp. 26-27)
* Augustine prayed that this sort of union would occur in his life so that God might take full control: "O Thou strength of my soul enter into it, and prepare it for Thyself, that Thou mayest have and hold it…" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, p. 142).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* A 2009 Barna Group poll revealed that 18 to 20 million Americans feel their spirituality is unhealthy or are dissatisfied with their spirituality. Most American Christians define spirituality legalistically (obeying the Bible's rules).
* For our legalistic tendencies, see the first two bullet points in this section for the First Lesson.
5. Gimmick
What's your relationship with Jesus like? Want a closer walk with Him? Many Americans are not satisfied with their spirituality, so you are not alone if you don't feel confident in faith. (See Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.) Paul says you need not be troubled because Christ is already walking closely with you, He dwells in your hearts, in you (v. 17).
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* What does it mean to say that Christ dwells in our hearts, that we are united with Him? We want to get clear on this. Our spiritual well-being may be at stake. But we need to get over some unhelpful ways of thinking about Jesus that we have been holding.
* Paul was offering a prayer of wisdom, asking God's blessing on the Ephesians. It's a prayer that the faithful would come to appreciate the profound love of God. He calls that love a boundless generosity and then he prays that by the Holy Spirit Christ might dwell in their hearts (see Exegesis).
* Let that sink in. Looking for Jesus? Want a more intimate relationship with God? What's the problem? He's living in you! And He loves you with an unfathomable love.
* Now that's not the way most of us think of Jesus. Sure we know that God loves us. But Jesus? He's ascended to heaven. So the love is a kind of distant love, a love that we hear about, more like a love letter than an embrace. If that's what our view of salvation and our relation with God is like (note: scholars refer to this as forensic justification), no wonder God and Christ seem distant. God's love is a nice idea. But that's it: Just a nice idea.
* Use the final quotation by Martin Luther in Theological Insights. Follow with the Augustine quote. Stress the comparison between Intimate Union with Christ and marriage. Note the role of the Holy Spirit in consummating the union, as the love sent from Jesus to the believer. How can we feel Jesus is distant, when He lives with us? We just need to open our hearts and eyes. You can't miss it any more than those in a good marriage can miss their lover's love.
* It won't be hard. To feel Jesus' presence, to feel His love, God's overwhelming love for us initiates our awareness. Besides this love for us is so overwhelming you can't miss it! Use the two quotations by Luther in the second and third bullet points of Theological Insights.
* This is a love that overcomes all sorrow, all depression. This is a love that gives us the courage to go on. And the good news is that we all have such a love.
* Note how we are all together in Christ. All faithful Christians have the same kind of intimate relationship with Christ that unites us in His body. (Consider the quotation by Martin Luther in next-to-last bullet point in Theological Insights for the Gospel, Pentecost 12.)
* A love like this cannot help but lead to a deeper spirituality, to a life that wants to please God. This also breaks the American expectation that spirituality is about obeying the Bible's rules (see Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights). Because in our union with Christ (when He is in our hearts), good works just emerge spontaneously. And just like in a marriage, where the nice things the couple do for each other are not what makes the marriage because the love between the spouses is what makes the marriage, so in our relation with Christ spirituality is not about what we do for Jesus but about the relationship He has with us.
7. Wrap-Up
Looking for a deeper spirituality, for a closer relation with God the Father and Jesus? Open your eyes! Feel it in your heart. It's all there. The intimacy you crave is already in your life (just as love between spouses in a good marriage, in a parent's relation to the child, is already present in the lives of those involved). Even better: We're all in the same relationship with Jesus; we're all in the same boat. And so we can sing with Paul about our lives and our God. Read verses 20-21 (slowly) with enthusiasm.
Sermon Text and Title
"The Lord Will Provide -- For Rich and Poor"
John 6:1-21
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A condemnation of sin (lack of trust in God and infatuation with material well-being, with an eye toward judging negative social implications of such attitudes) with a word of assurance that God will provide adequately for all (Providence and Justification by Grace).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* The chapter seems to interrupt the flow from the end of verse 5 to the beginning of chapter 7. This text begins with the feeding of the 5,000 (vv. 1-15), a version that differs from the Synoptic accounts.
* Jesus and His followers meet a large crowd following Him because of some unspecified healings He had performed (perhaps reported in 4:43-54).
* Jesus reportedly tests Philip (this only transpires in John's version) by asking him how enough bread could be purchased to feed the large crowd for Passover would be possible. Philip despairs (vv. 5-7).
* Andrew, Peter's brother, identifies a boy with five barley loaves and two fish but asserts that this would not feed all the people (vv. 8-9). Jesus proceeds to feed the 5,000 with these resources (vv. 10-13). As a result they proclaim Him a prophet, the [messianic] king. But in response He withdraws (vv. 14-15).
* An account of Jesus walking on water (vv. 16-21) follows. His disciples get in a boat that evening and plan to travel to Capernaum. When the sea gets rough they see Jesus walking on the water. He comforts them, identifying Himself with the phrase "It is I," a phrase (v. 20) that resembles the Hebrew equivalent "Yahweh" and seems to be a self-identification of Jesus' divine status.
* Wanting to take Jesus into the boat they immediately reach their destination.
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text teaches God's love for people (Providence and Justification by Grace), providing for their well-being (Social Ethics). The doctrine of sin (our disbelief and undue concern with wealth) receives attention, and a vision of Christian life (Sanctification) and society (Social Ethics) in which there is neither extreme wealth nor poverty is provided. Christology (the divinity of Jesus) is also taught by the lesson.
* John Calvin refers to the errors we make when we follow our own opinions rather than the word (as the people who tried to make Jesus an earthly king) (v. 14):
Thus, whenever we mix up our own opinions with the Word of God, faith degenerates into frivolous conjectures. Let believers, therefore, cultivate habitual modesty, lest… they shall rush violently against God, who is never worshiped aright but when we receive Him as He presents Himself to us.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVII/2, p. 234)
* In a sermon on this text Martin Luther notes that faith is under constant siege between mammon and wealth on one side and poverty on the other. Both rich and poor threaten God's word. In this lesson Christ exhorts a middle course, "teaching that we must come to rely on God, trust Him in every need, and learn to be content with what He daily provides." The poor will not starve, for God will see to it. In death, the rich have no more than the average Christian (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, pp. 344-345).
* Elsewhere in the sermon Luther notes regarding God's bounty that we should recognize God's wonders, rely on them, and not despair, for the cherry tree does not despair though in winter it bears no fruit, and the field does not despair though in winter it lies frozen. "We ought to learn from these everyday wonders to trust in God and not despair" (Ibid., p. 347).
* About wealth he wrote: "We should, therefore, learn contentment and not become impatient and angry with God because we are not wealthy. Were we rich we might well become meaner and more sinful" (Ibid., p. 348).
* While preaching on this text, Augustine made some enlivening points:
… our Lord spoiling His vessels, and making them His Own, poured out the bitterness, filled them with sweetness. Let us love Him, for He is sweet… We have begun to be some great thing; let no man despise himself; we were once nothing; but we are something.
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series Vol. 6, pp. 499-500)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Many analysts agree that the American middle class is in decline. It has endured three decades of stagnating wages and has shrunk from two thirds of the population in 1973 to just over half today (Sam Pizzigati, Greed and Good).
* But the Pew Research Center noted in 2008 that in the past two decades the middle class has spent more and borrowed more than ever.
* See the statistics on poverty in America in this section for the First Lesson, Epiphany 5.
* The rich-poor gap rose to an all-time high with the recession. The wealthiest 10% of Americans earn 11.4 times the income of those below the poverty line. The previous largest gap in 2003 had been that the rich made 11.22 times what the poor earned.
5. Gimmick
We just don't have the resources to provide for the poor; we're kind of like Philip in today's gospel (vv. 5-7). Maybe that's why the rich-poor gap in our nation has grown so enormously, why the middle class is squeezed (see Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights).
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Relate Philip's skepticism about how Jesus and the disciples could fulfill the needs of the 5,000 (vv. 5-7). He was concerned, as we often are, that Jesus and the faithful did not have the resources. Sounds like us.
* Somehow Jesus made the resources work, and the 5,000 were fed (vv. 8-13)! The message: When it doesn't look like you have the resources to help those in need, God will find a way! Venture on.
* Consider using John Calvin's observations in the second bullet point of Theological Insights. It needs to be noted that it can be applied to Philip's incredulity. Then proceed to Martin Luther's observation in the third bullet point of Theological Insights. Stress how the Reformer exhorts a middle ground between rich and poor.
Luther not only identifies a middle-class existence as what God has in mind for His people -- not poverty, for God will provide for them, but not wealth, which affords nothing that the average Christian does not have. But he also seems to put both rich and poor in the same boat, implying that the Lord provides for both. Underline that last point for the congregation -- repeating the sermon title at least twice.
* Luther obviously was not a great advocate of wealth as a sign of the Lord's blessing. Read his remarks in the next-to-last bullet point of Theological Insights.
This comment, suggesting that wealth does not buy you much, that it is just as well not to be weighed down with its burdens, is reminiscent of the views of nineteenth-century English social critic John Ruskin. He remarked: "There is no wealth but life." The best things in life are indeed free.
* A life lived in the comfortable middle of the economy, willing to take responsible risks for the poor, is a happier one than the mad pursuit of and retention of wealth. When you are always worrying about money like Philip, life is not as enjoyable. That's why Philip and Andrew, worried as they were about resources before trying to help the 5,000, were so unhappy and burdened, while Jesus and the boy who provided the five loaves and the two fish did not agonize.
* An anonymous English saying found in an inn in Lancaster further communicates the more carefree life that those in a comfortable middle class can enjoy:
Give us Lord, a bit o' sun,
A bit o' work and bit o' fun;
Give us all in the struggle and sputter
Our daily bread and a bid o' butter.
* The famed philosopher Aristotle thought that the middle was not just good for people's peace of mind but good for society: "The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class" (Politics).
* A middle-class society does not have the rich-poor gap that plagues us today. It's also better, in the view of famed Irish writer George Bernard Shaw. He believed that people in the middle live for others: "I have to live for others and not for myself, that's middle class."
* The person in the comfortable middle is not so concerned about accumulating wealth that he or she does not have to be thinking about gaining wealth for themselves. They can do joyfully what John Wesley advised: "Earn all you can; save all you can; give all you can" (for full reference see the last bullet point of Theological Insights for Second Lesson, Pentecost 5).
* Our lesson may indicate that John's Jesus was neither an advocate of wealth nor poverty, that a middle-class society will be best for the public as a whole. But we're way off-base if that's all we say, as if we Christians just need to will a middle-class existence and middle-class society for ourselves. We need to remember that Jesus intervened in feeding the 5,000 with a miracle. And that's what it takes for us and the rest of American society to find the middle, to avoid the temptations of wealth and to uplift the poor, to get us all in the same boat.
* Consider the fourth and sixth bullet points of Theological Insights. Living in the golden means between wealth and poverty, living an everyday life without economic anxieties is a true gift, a miraculous gift of God.
7. Wrap-Up
Augustine (see last bullet point just noted) speaks of God spoiling us and of His sweetness (made visible in the material comforts with which He provides us). The material well-being we have is indeed miraculous, no less so than the miracles reported in the lesson. No more are we to despise ourselves because of our lack of wealth or resources in comparison to the wealthy. Though once nothing we are all in the same boat in God's eyes -- we are SOMETHING. The Lord provides his blessings for both rich and poor.
