Proper 13
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle A
The church year theological clue
With one more Sunday remaining in August, the preacher may find more of a practical preaching clue in the approach of the fall season than a theological theme in the church year. For now, the latter part of August emphasizes a kind of homiletical eschatology; in many congregations, one has been preaching primarily to the faithful few during the summer months, and soon summer will be over. Attendance will increase in the next few weeks and one's preaching may have to be somewhat different than it was during the summer. Congregations come to life in September, awakening, as it were, from spiritual hibernation during the summer months. All sorts of programs are about to begin again. Pastoral exegesis will determine what sort of preaching has to be done to speak in this situation; the preacher may have to be reminded of the eschatobogical movement of the church year, which is about to enter the second half of Pentecost.
The Prayer of the Day - The LBW appoints two prayers for this Sunday; neither is an evident reworking of the classic collect for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity/the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. The first prayer is oriented toward the "bread" theme in the Gospels for Year A (Matthew 14:13-21) and Year B (John 6:24-35); the second prayer has been designed for use with Year C and its Gospel (Luke 12:13-21). The first prayer addresses God the Father: "Gracious Father, your blessed Son came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world," and, not unexpectedly, asks, "Give us this bread, that he may live in us and we in him, Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Psalm of the Day - Psalm 104:25-31 (L) - Verses 28 and 29 pick up the "food" theme in Isaiah 55, which also finds expression in the Gospel for the Day:
All of them look to you to give them their food in due season. You give it to them; they gather it; you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
It functions very well as a responsory to the first reading and a "separated antiphon" (the second reading separates it from the Gospel) to the Gospel for the Day.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
God of all light, life, and love, through the visible things of this world you raise our
thoughts to things unseen, and you show us your power and your love. From your dwelling-place refresh our hearts and renew the face of the earth with the life-giving water of your Word, until the new heaven and new earth resound with the song of resurrection in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 145:8-9, 15-19 (R) - the Roman Ordo employs this psalm on another Sunday, the 31st Sunday of Year C (145:1-2, 8-11, 13c-14), but only two verses (8-9) are said or sung on both Sundays. Those two verses read:
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is loving to everyone and his compassion is over all his works.
Verses 16 and 17 have found considerable use in table prayers and are most appropriate in connecting the Old Testament reading and the Gospel for the Day:
The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord, and you give them their food in due season. You open wide your hand and satisfy the needs of every living creature.
Verse 18 offers a fitting conclusion to the portions of the psalm that are used in the liturgy:
"The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works."
Psalm 78:1-29, or 78:14-20, 23-25 (E) - Both long and short versions of this psalm are most appropriate for the reading from Nehemiah, which speaks of God's faithfulness to Israel - and specifically in providing them with water and manna in the wilderness. In the face of all the good things God has done for them, which the psalmist recites, he tells how the people of Israel railed against God and asked, "Can God set a table in the wilderness?" The last two verses provide an answer, which points to the miracle of the loaves and fishes in the Gospel for the Day: "He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them grain from heaven. So mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them food enough."
Psalm 143:1-10 (C) - This psalm might very well be used before the first reading (Exodus 12:1-14) because it is a cry to God for help in escaping the wrath of one's enemies. The reading spells out God's directions for the Passover, which will take place as God sends the final plague to soften Pharaoh's heart and convince him to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. Its content makes it appropriate for many Sundays of the year, especially for some of the Sundays of Lent and Easter. It functions more as a gradual than a responsory, in that it is thematically compatible with the Romans 8 reading for the day.
The readings:
Isaiah 55:1-3 (R); 55:1-5 (L)
The prophet pictures the Lord God "throwing a banquet" for the nation, Israel, after the people have returned to their homeland from exile. It is eschatobogical in nature, a model of the meals in which Christ fed thousands of people on a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish (Matthew 14). There is also a hint of the ultimate banquet to come, of which some Christians sing (LBW) every Sunday: "This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia! This much is perfectly clear: the banquet is an act of pure grace, a gift from God" -
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price ... Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live ...
All of this adds us to a gracious invitation offered by God to "feed and drink at his table."
The Lutheran Lectionary adds two verses to the Roman Ordo, beginning at verse 4, "With you I will make an everlasting covenant," as the Jerusalem Bible puts it, "out of the favors promised to David." Israel will be God's witness to all of the nations; some will come to Israel "for the sake of Yahweh our God." And Isaiah promises, "the Holy One of Israel ... will glorify you." The banquet celebrates more than the return of God's people to their promised land; it ushers in a new day of mission, their mission for the Lord God in the world.
Nehemiah 9:16-20 (E)
The context of this reading is the Feast of Tabernacles, which was instituted after the return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the city walls. Following the feast, there was a fast, with carefully-programmed religious activities: For one quarter of the day, the Law was read (after Ezra's example); the second quarter was spent in a "loud" confession of their sins, and it is from this confession that this reading is excised. The confession recalls the goodness of God, recounting the events of the Exodus, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and as verse 15 reads, "For their hunger you gave them bread from heaven, for their thirst you brought them water spurting from the rock...." At this point, the reading declares:
But our fathers grew proud, were obstinate, and flouted your commands. They refused to obey, forgetful of the wonders that you had worked for them.... they even thought of going back to Egypt and their slavery. (Jerusalem Bible)
God proved to be a forgiving and a gracious God, who not only forgave their "obstinateness," but also pardoned them when they fashioned - and worshiped - a golden calf. God continued to be with them for those forty years and, says the prophet, "You gave them your good spirit to make them wise, you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, you gave them water for their thirst." Since God had already done this with his people when they spent four decades wandering through the wilderness to the Promised Land, it is not unexpected that Jesus should perform a miracle of feeding those who had followed him and had nothing to eat. Although the confession goes on for seventeen more verses, this reading concludes here, at the twentieth verse, as it tells a true story but also points to another "banquet" story in the Gospel for the Day.
Exodus 12:1-14 (C)
The Roman, Episcopal, and Lutheran lectionaries appoint this reading for Holy Thursday in Year C, rather than for the near-middle of Pentecost (the Roman Ordo omits verses 9-10), because the events of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday combine into a Christian Passover. The reading gives details of when and how the Passover is to be initiated in Egypt to protect the first-born of the Israelites from the death that God will inflict upon the first-born of the Egyptians, just as another Pharaoh had done to the Hebrew boy babies. This was the tenth plague and was meant to soften Pharaoh's heart and, therefore, cause him to release the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt.
This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a feast in Yahweh's honour. For all generations you are to declare it a day of festival, forever. (v. 14)
Romans 8:31-39 (C); 8:35, 37-39 (R); 8:35-39 (E, L)
The Common Lectionary reading begins where last week's lesson ended, which is also the beginning of one of the most frequently appointed and used passages of Scripture at the burial of the dead; it begins:
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?
Paul declares that the dead and risen Christ, who is at the right hand of God, makes intercession for us, and that is why the Christians can face anything this life has to offer.
The other lectionaries join in with the familiar questions: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" Those who read and heard these words understood perfectly what Paul was saying about life and death and, no doubt, prayed that they, too, could join the Apostle when he declared,
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate usfrom the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The importance of this reading is the reason that it is included here in the Roman and Episcopal lectionaries, which also assign it to the Second Sunday in Lent (Roman - 8:31-34a; Episcopal - 8:31-39). It is read in the context of the opening - and continuing - word of Lent: "You are dust, and unto dust you shall return," and in the blessed assurance that Easter gives to the faithful.
Sermon suggestions:
Matthew 14:13-21 - "From Crisis to Communion."
Just two days ago, my wife and I received a letter from the wife of a former colleague and neighbor who is living in Jamaica and survived the full force of Hurricane Gilbert (September 12, 1988). She described in detail how, when the hurricane struck with "unbelievable force," half of the roof of their house was immediately ripped off and blown away. Water cascaded in from the torrential rains, and they immediately attempted to move books and bedding from the upstairs rooms to a lower floor of their home; they soon gave this up and sought shelter to save their own lives. Water, driven by the 150 mile per hour winds, was everywhere; she didn't say so, but I suspect they were praying desperately to be delivered. What occurred in Jamaica and specifically to them, made an earlier weather-related incident seem like child's play; about ten years ago, the lake they were living on overflowed and we had to sandbag their home. That was a neighborhood event, and it had - despite the seriousness of the flooding (they had to replace a furnace in the basement, which was flooded), an air of fun and joy to it; we knew that the rain was over, that we had beaten the flood, and that we had saved their home from severe damage. Coffee and food appeared from everywhere, more than enough to refresh all who participated in the filling and placing of the sand bags.
What happened in Jamaica made that earlier incident seem like child's play; there was no way to stop the water, no way to prevent wind damage. Half the houses on the island suffered severe damage, and most of the buildings at the university were also affected. But, our friend said,
We pushed water out night and day for many days, tried to prepare food for stranded guests on campus despite no water or electricity. Standing knee-deep in water our "soup " kitchen functioned and served many hungry workers. Everything we could get went into the pot - you know I have always enjoyed creative cooking - we turned our home into a soup kitchen and fed as many people as we could.
For her, the miracle of the loaves and fishes had been repeated - in a different time and in a different way. She writes:
There is a sense of camaraderie - caring and sharing on this seminary campus that we have never experienced before. We all help each other, share what we have and the one loaf of bread becomes many!
She indicates that they are living a miracle: "I am sure that beautiful flowers will bloom out of the rubble."
1. The crisis - and the disciples' concern. The people following Jesus had brought no food with them; they had nothing to eat. No one was starving, but some might faint from hunger.
2. Christ's compassion and power - "You give them something to eat." Five thousand men, plus women and children, were fed miraculously from five loaves and two fish. There was more than enough for all to eat.
3. The crowd's communion - with each other and with the Lord Jesus, who worked the miracle; "they all ate and were satisfied." Like their ancestors during the Exodus, they ate the "food of the angels," whether they realized it or not.
4. Care for others in the future - "And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over." What was done with them? Were they saved for breakfast, or what? Jesus knew that the bread had future use and would not go sour like the manna in the wilderness. Is this miracle a sign that the bread of the Eucharist will never be exhausted until the feast is celebrated in heaven itself?
This incident, coupled with the contemporary story - or stories like it, and conditions in the world, suggests a narrative sermon (Steimle-style), which would see the interweaving of a biblical story and our stories to allow the text to speak to people today.
Isaiah 55:1-5 (L); 55:1-3 (R) - "The Divine Invitation."
1. God's invitation to a "free meal" - the heavenly banquet costs nothing, but is often valued less than the things the world offers and on which we spend our resources.
2. God'spromise - "Incline your ear, and come to me; hear that your soul may live." There is more than food and water, milk and wine, involved here - food for the soul! I heard a young girl say on a television program that she had to go to church a couple of times a month. "Once a month," she said, "is not enough for me."
3. God's covenant in Christ - renews for us the covenant made with the people of Israel centuries ago, and assures us that, in his good time, he will glorify us and give us life eternal.
Nehemiah 9:16-20 - "Care and Confession."
1. The God who cares for his people - then and now.
2. The God who works wonders - then (the Exodus) and now (in the ministry of the church in the world).
3. The confession that is good for the soul - mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! It opens up communication between people and God, renews relationships through God's grace, and prepares people to serve God by serving others in his name.
Exodus 12:1-14 - "The Tenth Plague and Passover."
1. Tell the Passover story - in the context of the material that has been omitted since last week (chapters 3:21 to 11:10) - and highlight the tenth plague and the Passover. The "blood of lambs and goats" saved the lives of the first-born - and softened Pharaoh's heart so that he would let the Israelites go.
2. Tell thepassion story - as Jesus' Passover - and ours - from death to life. Jesus' death and resurrection are Passover for us. His blood, the blood of the lamb, the only begotten Son of God, defeated Satan and obtained our release from sin and death. Weave in contemporary stories and illustrations, as necessary.
Romans 8:31-39 - "Questions and Answers of the Faith."
1. A question for the martyrs - "What shall we say to these things?"
2. A question for all believers - "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"
3. A question answered - "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
With one more Sunday remaining in August, the preacher may find more of a practical preaching clue in the approach of the fall season than a theological theme in the church year. For now, the latter part of August emphasizes a kind of homiletical eschatology; in many congregations, one has been preaching primarily to the faithful few during the summer months, and soon summer will be over. Attendance will increase in the next few weeks and one's preaching may have to be somewhat different than it was during the summer. Congregations come to life in September, awakening, as it were, from spiritual hibernation during the summer months. All sorts of programs are about to begin again. Pastoral exegesis will determine what sort of preaching has to be done to speak in this situation; the preacher may have to be reminded of the eschatobogical movement of the church year, which is about to enter the second half of Pentecost.
The Prayer of the Day - The LBW appoints two prayers for this Sunday; neither is an evident reworking of the classic collect for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity/the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. The first prayer is oriented toward the "bread" theme in the Gospels for Year A (Matthew 14:13-21) and Year B (John 6:24-35); the second prayer has been designed for use with Year C and its Gospel (Luke 12:13-21). The first prayer addresses God the Father: "Gracious Father, your blessed Son came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world," and, not unexpectedly, asks, "Give us this bread, that he may live in us and we in him, Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Psalm of the Day - Psalm 104:25-31 (L) - Verses 28 and 29 pick up the "food" theme in Isaiah 55, which also finds expression in the Gospel for the Day:
All of them look to you to give them their food in due season. You give it to them; they gather it; you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
It functions very well as a responsory to the first reading and a "separated antiphon" (the second reading separates it from the Gospel) to the Gospel for the Day.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
God of all light, life, and love, through the visible things of this world you raise our
thoughts to things unseen, and you show us your power and your love. From your dwelling-place refresh our hearts and renew the face of the earth with the life-giving water of your Word, until the new heaven and new earth resound with the song of resurrection in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 145:8-9, 15-19 (R) - the Roman Ordo employs this psalm on another Sunday, the 31st Sunday of Year C (145:1-2, 8-11, 13c-14), but only two verses (8-9) are said or sung on both Sundays. Those two verses read:
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is loving to everyone and his compassion is over all his works.
Verses 16 and 17 have found considerable use in table prayers and are most appropriate in connecting the Old Testament reading and the Gospel for the Day:
The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord, and you give them their food in due season. You open wide your hand and satisfy the needs of every living creature.
Verse 18 offers a fitting conclusion to the portions of the psalm that are used in the liturgy:
"The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works."
Psalm 78:1-29, or 78:14-20, 23-25 (E) - Both long and short versions of this psalm are most appropriate for the reading from Nehemiah, which speaks of God's faithfulness to Israel - and specifically in providing them with water and manna in the wilderness. In the face of all the good things God has done for them, which the psalmist recites, he tells how the people of Israel railed against God and asked, "Can God set a table in the wilderness?" The last two verses provide an answer, which points to the miracle of the loaves and fishes in the Gospel for the Day: "He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them grain from heaven. So mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them food enough."
Psalm 143:1-10 (C) - This psalm might very well be used before the first reading (Exodus 12:1-14) because it is a cry to God for help in escaping the wrath of one's enemies. The reading spells out God's directions for the Passover, which will take place as God sends the final plague to soften Pharaoh's heart and convince him to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. Its content makes it appropriate for many Sundays of the year, especially for some of the Sundays of Lent and Easter. It functions more as a gradual than a responsory, in that it is thematically compatible with the Romans 8 reading for the day.
The readings:
Isaiah 55:1-3 (R); 55:1-5 (L)
The prophet pictures the Lord God "throwing a banquet" for the nation, Israel, after the people have returned to their homeland from exile. It is eschatobogical in nature, a model of the meals in which Christ fed thousands of people on a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish (Matthew 14). There is also a hint of the ultimate banquet to come, of which some Christians sing (LBW) every Sunday: "This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia! This much is perfectly clear: the banquet is an act of pure grace, a gift from God" -
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price ... Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live ...
All of this adds us to a gracious invitation offered by God to "feed and drink at his table."
The Lutheran Lectionary adds two verses to the Roman Ordo, beginning at verse 4, "With you I will make an everlasting covenant," as the Jerusalem Bible puts it, "out of the favors promised to David." Israel will be God's witness to all of the nations; some will come to Israel "for the sake of Yahweh our God." And Isaiah promises, "the Holy One of Israel ... will glorify you." The banquet celebrates more than the return of God's people to their promised land; it ushers in a new day of mission, their mission for the Lord God in the world.
Nehemiah 9:16-20 (E)
The context of this reading is the Feast of Tabernacles, which was instituted after the return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the city walls. Following the feast, there was a fast, with carefully-programmed religious activities: For one quarter of the day, the Law was read (after Ezra's example); the second quarter was spent in a "loud" confession of their sins, and it is from this confession that this reading is excised. The confession recalls the goodness of God, recounting the events of the Exodus, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and as verse 15 reads, "For their hunger you gave them bread from heaven, for their thirst you brought them water spurting from the rock...." At this point, the reading declares:
But our fathers grew proud, were obstinate, and flouted your commands. They refused to obey, forgetful of the wonders that you had worked for them.... they even thought of going back to Egypt and their slavery. (Jerusalem Bible)
God proved to be a forgiving and a gracious God, who not only forgave their "obstinateness," but also pardoned them when they fashioned - and worshiped - a golden calf. God continued to be with them for those forty years and, says the prophet, "You gave them your good spirit to make them wise, you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, you gave them water for their thirst." Since God had already done this with his people when they spent four decades wandering through the wilderness to the Promised Land, it is not unexpected that Jesus should perform a miracle of feeding those who had followed him and had nothing to eat. Although the confession goes on for seventeen more verses, this reading concludes here, at the twentieth verse, as it tells a true story but also points to another "banquet" story in the Gospel for the Day.
Exodus 12:1-14 (C)
The Roman, Episcopal, and Lutheran lectionaries appoint this reading for Holy Thursday in Year C, rather than for the near-middle of Pentecost (the Roman Ordo omits verses 9-10), because the events of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday combine into a Christian Passover. The reading gives details of when and how the Passover is to be initiated in Egypt to protect the first-born of the Israelites from the death that God will inflict upon the first-born of the Egyptians, just as another Pharaoh had done to the Hebrew boy babies. This was the tenth plague and was meant to soften Pharaoh's heart and, therefore, cause him to release the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt.
This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a feast in Yahweh's honour. For all generations you are to declare it a day of festival, forever. (v. 14)
Romans 8:31-39 (C); 8:35, 37-39 (R); 8:35-39 (E, L)
The Common Lectionary reading begins where last week's lesson ended, which is also the beginning of one of the most frequently appointed and used passages of Scripture at the burial of the dead; it begins:
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?
Paul declares that the dead and risen Christ, who is at the right hand of God, makes intercession for us, and that is why the Christians can face anything this life has to offer.
The other lectionaries join in with the familiar questions: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" Those who read and heard these words understood perfectly what Paul was saying about life and death and, no doubt, prayed that they, too, could join the Apostle when he declared,
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate usfrom the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The importance of this reading is the reason that it is included here in the Roman and Episcopal lectionaries, which also assign it to the Second Sunday in Lent (Roman - 8:31-34a; Episcopal - 8:31-39). It is read in the context of the opening - and continuing - word of Lent: "You are dust, and unto dust you shall return," and in the blessed assurance that Easter gives to the faithful.
Sermon suggestions:
Matthew 14:13-21 - "From Crisis to Communion."
Just two days ago, my wife and I received a letter from the wife of a former colleague and neighbor who is living in Jamaica and survived the full force of Hurricane Gilbert (September 12, 1988). She described in detail how, when the hurricane struck with "unbelievable force," half of the roof of their house was immediately ripped off and blown away. Water cascaded in from the torrential rains, and they immediately attempted to move books and bedding from the upstairs rooms to a lower floor of their home; they soon gave this up and sought shelter to save their own lives. Water, driven by the 150 mile per hour winds, was everywhere; she didn't say so, but I suspect they were praying desperately to be delivered. What occurred in Jamaica and specifically to them, made an earlier weather-related incident seem like child's play; about ten years ago, the lake they were living on overflowed and we had to sandbag their home. That was a neighborhood event, and it had - despite the seriousness of the flooding (they had to replace a furnace in the basement, which was flooded), an air of fun and joy to it; we knew that the rain was over, that we had beaten the flood, and that we had saved their home from severe damage. Coffee and food appeared from everywhere, more than enough to refresh all who participated in the filling and placing of the sand bags.
What happened in Jamaica made that earlier incident seem like child's play; there was no way to stop the water, no way to prevent wind damage. Half the houses on the island suffered severe damage, and most of the buildings at the university were also affected. But, our friend said,
We pushed water out night and day for many days, tried to prepare food for stranded guests on campus despite no water or electricity. Standing knee-deep in water our "soup " kitchen functioned and served many hungry workers. Everything we could get went into the pot - you know I have always enjoyed creative cooking - we turned our home into a soup kitchen and fed as many people as we could.
For her, the miracle of the loaves and fishes had been repeated - in a different time and in a different way. She writes:
There is a sense of camaraderie - caring and sharing on this seminary campus that we have never experienced before. We all help each other, share what we have and the one loaf of bread becomes many!
She indicates that they are living a miracle: "I am sure that beautiful flowers will bloom out of the rubble."
1. The crisis - and the disciples' concern. The people following Jesus had brought no food with them; they had nothing to eat. No one was starving, but some might faint from hunger.
2. Christ's compassion and power - "You give them something to eat." Five thousand men, plus women and children, were fed miraculously from five loaves and two fish. There was more than enough for all to eat.
3. The crowd's communion - with each other and with the Lord Jesus, who worked the miracle; "they all ate and were satisfied." Like their ancestors during the Exodus, they ate the "food of the angels," whether they realized it or not.
4. Care for others in the future - "And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over." What was done with them? Were they saved for breakfast, or what? Jesus knew that the bread had future use and would not go sour like the manna in the wilderness. Is this miracle a sign that the bread of the Eucharist will never be exhausted until the feast is celebrated in heaven itself?
This incident, coupled with the contemporary story - or stories like it, and conditions in the world, suggests a narrative sermon (Steimle-style), which would see the interweaving of a biblical story and our stories to allow the text to speak to people today.
Isaiah 55:1-5 (L); 55:1-3 (R) - "The Divine Invitation."
1. God's invitation to a "free meal" - the heavenly banquet costs nothing, but is often valued less than the things the world offers and on which we spend our resources.
2. God'spromise - "Incline your ear, and come to me; hear that your soul may live." There is more than food and water, milk and wine, involved here - food for the soul! I heard a young girl say on a television program that she had to go to church a couple of times a month. "Once a month," she said, "is not enough for me."
3. God's covenant in Christ - renews for us the covenant made with the people of Israel centuries ago, and assures us that, in his good time, he will glorify us and give us life eternal.
Nehemiah 9:16-20 - "Care and Confession."
1. The God who cares for his people - then and now.
2. The God who works wonders - then (the Exodus) and now (in the ministry of the church in the world).
3. The confession that is good for the soul - mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! It opens up communication between people and God, renews relationships through God's grace, and prepares people to serve God by serving others in his name.
Exodus 12:1-14 - "The Tenth Plague and Passover."
1. Tell the Passover story - in the context of the material that has been omitted since last week (chapters 3:21 to 11:10) - and highlight the tenth plague and the Passover. The "blood of lambs and goats" saved the lives of the first-born - and softened Pharaoh's heart so that he would let the Israelites go.
2. Tell thepassion story - as Jesus' Passover - and ours - from death to life. Jesus' death and resurrection are Passover for us. His blood, the blood of the lamb, the only begotten Son of God, defeated Satan and obtained our release from sin and death. Weave in contemporary stories and illustrations, as necessary.
Romans 8:31-39 - "Questions and Answers of the Faith."
1. A question for the martyrs - "What shall we say to these things?"
2. A question for all believers - "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"
3. A question answered - "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
