Proper 19
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 (C)
Some have seen in this passage a foretelling of atomic attack. I rather doubt this, but it does conjure up the image of a violent end to the world. Again, hyperbole describes God's frustration with the world, then of course, but even more I would think, today. In truth, I can see where God, after reading this morning's paper, might actually want to do this. But of course God is the full embodiment of love and we read passages like this with our knowledge of all the other passages in which God, having threatened violent retribution (in the words of his prophets), goes on to relent because He truly loves us. So, just as Mom comes home, screams her anger at a completely discombobulated house, then having vented her spleen, holds first one little miscreant, then another in her arms and kisses them gently, so God goes on to give us all yet another chance.
Also, the prophets rarely dealt with the individual differences among us. There are some, very few I hope, who deserve what this passage threatens. There are many, maybe most of us, who could use a good talking to. But there are some, a few, who are loyal to God and sincerely try to be His faithful followers. It would never work to destroy everything. Which makes me think this sobering passage could be, not so much a description of the earth, as a description of the human heart of those who betray the will of God.
Lesson 1: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 (RC); Exodus 32:1, 7-14 (E)
"And the Lord changed his mind." What a wonderful statement, that. We can picture the various writers whose work combined to give us Exodus reading their own theology into this story. I say that only because I have the advantage which they did not, the teachings of Jesus. The part about the golden calf may very well be historically accurate. People did that kind of thing in those days, and not many of them were theologically sophisticated. We may tend to read the Old Testament and assume it more or less reflects the beliefs of the Israelites, until we read a story like this. What is most important here is that "Moses" (read the ancient writers) believed that God could become angry enough to destroy the people of his creation because they were absolutely incapable of living up to their calling. Moses' reported intercession reflects the belief that God can be appealed to, will relent in His decisions so long as He believes there is any hope that the people will eventually turn and become faithful.
Lesson 2: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 (C, RC, E)
My choice of a theme for this passage is its opening line: "I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength for my work." Paul, who may have written the pastoral letters, reveals his sense of conviction by defining himself as the worst of sinners. I know that feeling. There are times when I have to confront something I have said or done and I feel like Paul did. And of course Paul goes on to acknowledge the forgiveness of God which sets him free to continue on in his mission. So must I. And you. And once we have determined what our mission in life is to be, we discovered that there is always the strength necessary to accomplish that mission.
Gospel: Luke 15:1-10 (C, E); Luke 15:1-32 (RC)
Jesus here is using two parables to illustrate to his listeners the joy that God feels when anyone who has been lost is found, is returned to the community of faith. The lost sheep parable is the more familiar one, but the lost coin also makes essentially the same point. Repentance is the way back to God, and Jesus, the shepherd who comes after us, shows us that the way back is through repentance.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Welcome Home"
Text: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Luke 15:1-10
Theme: On the theory that Old Testament lessons should be seen in the light of the New Testament, I would open my sermon by using Jesus' story of the Lost Boy. If we can imagine for a bit what the world looked like, what life felt like, when that boy was out there feeding someone's pigs while remembering what home was like, we have a visual image as symbolized by the words of Jeremiah. Use that passage as metaphor.
When I was in seminary, a professor told us of a teenager who decided his family didn't understand him and were treating him unfairly. It was, in fact, a loving family with firm but reasonable discipline. But we know how teenagers sometimes feel. Anyway, this boy sold one of his buddies on the idea and they ran away from home. After a couple days of frantic searching, the parents finally got one of the runaway's friends to tell them that the two had talked of going out West. The father called the state police, and then set out on a search of his own. He took a leave from his job, had Mom stay by the phone, and he began driving west. Armed with photos of the two boys, he began stopping at filling stations, truck stops, and low-priced motels, asking if anyone had seen anything of the boys. Each evening, Dad would call home to learn if any word had been heard. For about three days, nothing. Then one evening, when Dad called home, Mom breathlessly informed him that the two boys were safe. They had been picked up by police in Denver and were being held in a juvenile detention facility.
That father was within a couple hours of Denver, and hot-footed it on to the facility where the boys were held. When the two boys were paraded out of their enforced captivity, Dad broke down and threw his arms around his son. The boy was flabbergasted. How had Dad gotten there so soon? Why was he being so emotional? And then he learned what had happened, how both parents had dropped everything, had expended the necessary resources to search for him, how relieved they were to find their son safe and sound. And so, the two boys were released to Dad and they began their journey home.
Our professor then shared the fact that that boy, when he realized how much his mom and dad did care about him, did a complete turnaround. And one day, years later, he told the story from his own pulpit in the church he served as an ordained minister.
1. Repentance starts with remorse. That usually takes place when the blinders fall from our eyes and we see the effect our conduct has on someone we care about.
2. Repentance then moves to a determination to be different. The difficulty here is that such determination easily falters with the passage of time and the onset of new temptations.
3. Repentance is finally complete only when we are really different. This is not something we can do. This requires a life-changing force from outside ourselves. Hence Jesus must change us.
Title: "You Can Do Anything"
Text: 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Theme: Through Christ, we can find sufficient strength to do the things necessary to fulfill our life's mission. God will never expect of us more than He knows perfectly well we are able to deliver. Paul reiterated this promise elsewhere when he wrote to the Philippians, "I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me" (4:13).
1. We can do whatever it takes. That doesn't mean I can win the high jump, or swim the English Channel. But those aren't my mission in life. My mission for many years was to preach the word and manage a church and be a pastor and encourage mission outreach beyond the local church. My mission now is to write for the purpose of helping others in their missions. When I was pastoring a large, growing church, I didn't have the patience to sit down and write. That was not my mission. When I turned that responsibility over to a fine younger pastor, Kent Millard, my new mission became to do this. I then discovered a new capability I had not heretofore possessed. Christ strengthened me.
2. I must do my part. Paul said God would strengthen me, but he didn't say God would do the work. I must endure the heat of the day. I must not be dismayed by exhaustion, or setbacks, or embarrassment. I must look daunting tasks square in the eye and take them on. And, by the grace of the good Lord, I will win.
3. Sometimes failure is part of God's plan. I myself have failed countless times. But each failure turned out to be a closed door next to a newly opened one. And, when I turned to the Lord for guidance, those newly opened doors invariably were the ones I should have chosen in the first place. We don't just learn by winning. We learn essential lessons, develop essential strengths, by first losing. Failure can be a best friend to men and women of courage and faith.
Note: The Old Testament passage and the Gospel passage combine to lead me to the idea of repentance. I would choose specific passages as a primary text, perhaps Jesus' story of the lost sheep. The Old Testament passage is a graphic metaphor for the inner desolation which threatens anyone who lives the self-centered life without true self-criticism and without remorse.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
There's a story about a convention of psychiatrists who had gathered in a large auditorium near Grand Central Station in New York City. Somehow a pigeon got in the room and was swooping back and forth above the gathered men and women. However, no one mentioned the bird. It seemed no one wanted to be the first to ask if anyone else saw a pigeon. I mention this to remind us that we each have an inward life of thoughts and perceptions about which no one else knows. It's a private world where we pretend, where we fantasize and engage in the sometimes difficult work of building up a satisfying self-image, often wrestling with emotional demons in the process. It involves a certain amount of denial, frequently concealing much about ourselves, not only from others but even at times from ourselves. Yet when we speak about repentance, which is what this Old Testament story is really about, it's that inward life which is involved.
____________
In March of 1997, Conrad Wachsnicht went snowboarding on Mount Hood in Oregon. He was soon lost, inadequately dressed for the bitter night, without food. For three days he was lost, before rescuers searching for people lost in the storm which had caused the man's problems found him. According to the report in USA Today, the rescuers found him whistling and at first assumed he was one of the rescuers. Wachsnicht, no worse for the experience, replied cheerily, "I'm not one of the rescuers, I need to be rescued." (How true for all of us.)
_____________
"We trudge past bleeding crosses with a shrug of the shoulders. Good Fridays are so commonplace among us as to be unnoteworthy. Tragedy achieves nobility only in the theater. In life, the tragic is rarely noted as we thumb through the evening paper. Everydayness and ordinariness become our best defenses, the most effective relativizers of the tragic in our midst."
--William H. Willimon, On A Wild And Windy Mountain
____________
Dr. Bernie Zilbergeld, psychiatrist, in a provocative book, The Shrinking Of America, wrote this: "The recognition and acceptance of limits can be liberating in its own way. To say we'll never be thin, assertive, cheerful, or overcome our fear of speaking in public, that we'll never write a book or win an election, that we'll never reach the top of our field or overcome our psychosis or straighten out our confusion and feel that we have our lives in order -- to say any of these things or a myriad of others can be as relieving and freeing as it first appears to be depressing."
___________
Columnist Walter Winchell described many a sad person, as numerous today as in his day: "The saddest people in the world are those sitting in joints, making believe they are having a good time. This Broadway street is full of amusement places trying to make people happy, yet its people are drenched in unhappiness."
____________
Every school child knows the story of a politician who began his life as a poor boy without an education. They know that he ran for his state's legislature, but lost. He then went into business with a friend. The friend stole his money and the business failed. He fell passionately in love with a girl -- she died. He managed to get elected to Congress, but was soundly defeated for reelection. Then he was denied his application to the U.S. Land Office, so tried his hand as a lecturer on the Lyceum circuit. He failed at this. Finally, he ran for the U. S. Senate. He lost. He was nominated for the office of Vice President, but lost. One would have thought that Abraham Lincoln would have realized by then that he was not cut out for politics.
____________
A few Years after World War II, a book was published with the title The Mauraders by Charlton Ogburn. Written about the war in the Pacific, Ogburn interviewed a man who was an Infantry platoon leader, the most hazardous single job in the war. The man had distinguished himself several times in combat, had been decorated, and was completely trusted by his men. Ogburn asked the man how he was able to face the constant danger and the responsibilities he had for his job and the lives of his men. He replied: "As far as I was concerned, it wasn't possible. At least it wasn't once you got over the idea you were different from the rest and nothing could touch you. You couldn't face it. Maybe that kind of courage is made, but I haven't got it. There was one ability I found I did have, though. It was a very modest one to be sure -- but it had to serve. I could command one foot to move out in front of the other. There's no great trick in that. A matter of elementary muscular control. You can tell your leg what to do. What's a step? A child can take one. You advance one foot, so -- and then the other -- and now the first again. And that is all you have to do, except wipe your hands from time to time so they won't be too slippery to hold your rifle."
Sometimes we need to hear that kind of thinking. When Saint Paul said, "I have finished the course, I have kept the faith," he was expressing such a sentiment. We all have to face exceedingly difficult tasks at times. We can do what that Infantry soldier said. We can order one foot to step out in front of the other.
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 14 -- "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' "
Prayer Of The Day
Grant us the strength, dear God, for that which now lies before us. Some of us face wearying, sometimes frightening things to do. We call upon your reassurance of the strength to match our undertakings, and we pray for wisdom in knowing what it is you would now have us do. In Christ's holy name. Amen.
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 (C)
Some have seen in this passage a foretelling of atomic attack. I rather doubt this, but it does conjure up the image of a violent end to the world. Again, hyperbole describes God's frustration with the world, then of course, but even more I would think, today. In truth, I can see where God, after reading this morning's paper, might actually want to do this. But of course God is the full embodiment of love and we read passages like this with our knowledge of all the other passages in which God, having threatened violent retribution (in the words of his prophets), goes on to relent because He truly loves us. So, just as Mom comes home, screams her anger at a completely discombobulated house, then having vented her spleen, holds first one little miscreant, then another in her arms and kisses them gently, so God goes on to give us all yet another chance.
Also, the prophets rarely dealt with the individual differences among us. There are some, very few I hope, who deserve what this passage threatens. There are many, maybe most of us, who could use a good talking to. But there are some, a few, who are loyal to God and sincerely try to be His faithful followers. It would never work to destroy everything. Which makes me think this sobering passage could be, not so much a description of the earth, as a description of the human heart of those who betray the will of God.
Lesson 1: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 (RC); Exodus 32:1, 7-14 (E)
"And the Lord changed his mind." What a wonderful statement, that. We can picture the various writers whose work combined to give us Exodus reading their own theology into this story. I say that only because I have the advantage which they did not, the teachings of Jesus. The part about the golden calf may very well be historically accurate. People did that kind of thing in those days, and not many of them were theologically sophisticated. We may tend to read the Old Testament and assume it more or less reflects the beliefs of the Israelites, until we read a story like this. What is most important here is that "Moses" (read the ancient writers) believed that God could become angry enough to destroy the people of his creation because they were absolutely incapable of living up to their calling. Moses' reported intercession reflects the belief that God can be appealed to, will relent in His decisions so long as He believes there is any hope that the people will eventually turn and become faithful.
Lesson 2: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 (C, RC, E)
My choice of a theme for this passage is its opening line: "I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength for my work." Paul, who may have written the pastoral letters, reveals his sense of conviction by defining himself as the worst of sinners. I know that feeling. There are times when I have to confront something I have said or done and I feel like Paul did. And of course Paul goes on to acknowledge the forgiveness of God which sets him free to continue on in his mission. So must I. And you. And once we have determined what our mission in life is to be, we discovered that there is always the strength necessary to accomplish that mission.
Gospel: Luke 15:1-10 (C, E); Luke 15:1-32 (RC)
Jesus here is using two parables to illustrate to his listeners the joy that God feels when anyone who has been lost is found, is returned to the community of faith. The lost sheep parable is the more familiar one, but the lost coin also makes essentially the same point. Repentance is the way back to God, and Jesus, the shepherd who comes after us, shows us that the way back is through repentance.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Welcome Home"
Text: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Luke 15:1-10
Theme: On the theory that Old Testament lessons should be seen in the light of the New Testament, I would open my sermon by using Jesus' story of the Lost Boy. If we can imagine for a bit what the world looked like, what life felt like, when that boy was out there feeding someone's pigs while remembering what home was like, we have a visual image as symbolized by the words of Jeremiah. Use that passage as metaphor.
When I was in seminary, a professor told us of a teenager who decided his family didn't understand him and were treating him unfairly. It was, in fact, a loving family with firm but reasonable discipline. But we know how teenagers sometimes feel. Anyway, this boy sold one of his buddies on the idea and they ran away from home. After a couple days of frantic searching, the parents finally got one of the runaway's friends to tell them that the two had talked of going out West. The father called the state police, and then set out on a search of his own. He took a leave from his job, had Mom stay by the phone, and he began driving west. Armed with photos of the two boys, he began stopping at filling stations, truck stops, and low-priced motels, asking if anyone had seen anything of the boys. Each evening, Dad would call home to learn if any word had been heard. For about three days, nothing. Then one evening, when Dad called home, Mom breathlessly informed him that the two boys were safe. They had been picked up by police in Denver and were being held in a juvenile detention facility.
That father was within a couple hours of Denver, and hot-footed it on to the facility where the boys were held. When the two boys were paraded out of their enforced captivity, Dad broke down and threw his arms around his son. The boy was flabbergasted. How had Dad gotten there so soon? Why was he being so emotional? And then he learned what had happened, how both parents had dropped everything, had expended the necessary resources to search for him, how relieved they were to find their son safe and sound. And so, the two boys were released to Dad and they began their journey home.
Our professor then shared the fact that that boy, when he realized how much his mom and dad did care about him, did a complete turnaround. And one day, years later, he told the story from his own pulpit in the church he served as an ordained minister.
1. Repentance starts with remorse. That usually takes place when the blinders fall from our eyes and we see the effect our conduct has on someone we care about.
2. Repentance then moves to a determination to be different. The difficulty here is that such determination easily falters with the passage of time and the onset of new temptations.
3. Repentance is finally complete only when we are really different. This is not something we can do. This requires a life-changing force from outside ourselves. Hence Jesus must change us.
Title: "You Can Do Anything"
Text: 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Theme: Through Christ, we can find sufficient strength to do the things necessary to fulfill our life's mission. God will never expect of us more than He knows perfectly well we are able to deliver. Paul reiterated this promise elsewhere when he wrote to the Philippians, "I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me" (4:13).
1. We can do whatever it takes. That doesn't mean I can win the high jump, or swim the English Channel. But those aren't my mission in life. My mission for many years was to preach the word and manage a church and be a pastor and encourage mission outreach beyond the local church. My mission now is to write for the purpose of helping others in their missions. When I was pastoring a large, growing church, I didn't have the patience to sit down and write. That was not my mission. When I turned that responsibility over to a fine younger pastor, Kent Millard, my new mission became to do this. I then discovered a new capability I had not heretofore possessed. Christ strengthened me.
2. I must do my part. Paul said God would strengthen me, but he didn't say God would do the work. I must endure the heat of the day. I must not be dismayed by exhaustion, or setbacks, or embarrassment. I must look daunting tasks square in the eye and take them on. And, by the grace of the good Lord, I will win.
3. Sometimes failure is part of God's plan. I myself have failed countless times. But each failure turned out to be a closed door next to a newly opened one. And, when I turned to the Lord for guidance, those newly opened doors invariably were the ones I should have chosen in the first place. We don't just learn by winning. We learn essential lessons, develop essential strengths, by first losing. Failure can be a best friend to men and women of courage and faith.
Note: The Old Testament passage and the Gospel passage combine to lead me to the idea of repentance. I would choose specific passages as a primary text, perhaps Jesus' story of the lost sheep. The Old Testament passage is a graphic metaphor for the inner desolation which threatens anyone who lives the self-centered life without true self-criticism and without remorse.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
There's a story about a convention of psychiatrists who had gathered in a large auditorium near Grand Central Station in New York City. Somehow a pigeon got in the room and was swooping back and forth above the gathered men and women. However, no one mentioned the bird. It seemed no one wanted to be the first to ask if anyone else saw a pigeon. I mention this to remind us that we each have an inward life of thoughts and perceptions about which no one else knows. It's a private world where we pretend, where we fantasize and engage in the sometimes difficult work of building up a satisfying self-image, often wrestling with emotional demons in the process. It involves a certain amount of denial, frequently concealing much about ourselves, not only from others but even at times from ourselves. Yet when we speak about repentance, which is what this Old Testament story is really about, it's that inward life which is involved.
____________
In March of 1997, Conrad Wachsnicht went snowboarding on Mount Hood in Oregon. He was soon lost, inadequately dressed for the bitter night, without food. For three days he was lost, before rescuers searching for people lost in the storm which had caused the man's problems found him. According to the report in USA Today, the rescuers found him whistling and at first assumed he was one of the rescuers. Wachsnicht, no worse for the experience, replied cheerily, "I'm not one of the rescuers, I need to be rescued." (How true for all of us.)
_____________
"We trudge past bleeding crosses with a shrug of the shoulders. Good Fridays are so commonplace among us as to be unnoteworthy. Tragedy achieves nobility only in the theater. In life, the tragic is rarely noted as we thumb through the evening paper. Everydayness and ordinariness become our best defenses, the most effective relativizers of the tragic in our midst."
--William H. Willimon, On A Wild And Windy Mountain
____________
Dr. Bernie Zilbergeld, psychiatrist, in a provocative book, The Shrinking Of America, wrote this: "The recognition and acceptance of limits can be liberating in its own way. To say we'll never be thin, assertive, cheerful, or overcome our fear of speaking in public, that we'll never write a book or win an election, that we'll never reach the top of our field or overcome our psychosis or straighten out our confusion and feel that we have our lives in order -- to say any of these things or a myriad of others can be as relieving and freeing as it first appears to be depressing."
___________
Columnist Walter Winchell described many a sad person, as numerous today as in his day: "The saddest people in the world are those sitting in joints, making believe they are having a good time. This Broadway street is full of amusement places trying to make people happy, yet its people are drenched in unhappiness."
____________
Every school child knows the story of a politician who began his life as a poor boy without an education. They know that he ran for his state's legislature, but lost. He then went into business with a friend. The friend stole his money and the business failed. He fell passionately in love with a girl -- she died. He managed to get elected to Congress, but was soundly defeated for reelection. Then he was denied his application to the U.S. Land Office, so tried his hand as a lecturer on the Lyceum circuit. He failed at this. Finally, he ran for the U. S. Senate. He lost. He was nominated for the office of Vice President, but lost. One would have thought that Abraham Lincoln would have realized by then that he was not cut out for politics.
____________
A few Years after World War II, a book was published with the title The Mauraders by Charlton Ogburn. Written about the war in the Pacific, Ogburn interviewed a man who was an Infantry platoon leader, the most hazardous single job in the war. The man had distinguished himself several times in combat, had been decorated, and was completely trusted by his men. Ogburn asked the man how he was able to face the constant danger and the responsibilities he had for his job and the lives of his men. He replied: "As far as I was concerned, it wasn't possible. At least it wasn't once you got over the idea you were different from the rest and nothing could touch you. You couldn't face it. Maybe that kind of courage is made, but I haven't got it. There was one ability I found I did have, though. It was a very modest one to be sure -- but it had to serve. I could command one foot to move out in front of the other. There's no great trick in that. A matter of elementary muscular control. You can tell your leg what to do. What's a step? A child can take one. You advance one foot, so -- and then the other -- and now the first again. And that is all you have to do, except wipe your hands from time to time so they won't be too slippery to hold your rifle."
Sometimes we need to hear that kind of thinking. When Saint Paul said, "I have finished the course, I have kept the faith," he was expressing such a sentiment. We all have to face exceedingly difficult tasks at times. We can do what that Infantry soldier said. We can order one foot to step out in front of the other.
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 14 -- "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' "
Prayer Of The Day
Grant us the strength, dear God, for that which now lies before us. Some of us face wearying, sometimes frightening things to do. We call upon your reassurance of the strength to match our undertakings, and we pray for wisdom in knowing what it is you would now have us do. In Christ's holy name. Amen.
