Proper 22, Pentecost 20, Ordinary Time 27
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VII, Cycle B
Seasonal Theme
The Pentecost Season is one of Christian growth and learning about the way of discipleship.
Theme For The Day
God's Kingdom is childlike and Jesus loves the children.
Old Testament Lesson
Job 1:1; 2:1-10
Job, Satan, And The Lord
In this narrative-prose section of Job, we have a blameless and upright man, who fears God, having to endure undeserved suffering. Job's distresses seem so unfair. Even Job's wife struggles to the misery by suggesting he should denounce his God (v. 2:9). Job's answer to her is that if we receive good at the hand of God we should also expect to receive bad (v. 2:10). I'm sure our hearers can identify with this good person who is a supreme example of affliction that defies human explanation. "Skin for skin" (v. 4) is a proverbial saying which had to do with trading animal skins and implied that Job had traded the lives of his children for his own. Scholars have guessed the disease in verse 7 may have been smallpox or elephantiasis. When Job needed comfort and support from his wife, he got, instead, evidence of her acridity toward God. In 27:5 we learn that Job told his friends that "... until I die I will not put away my integrity from me."
New Testament Lesson
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Jesus: Pioneer Of Salvation
The first four verses introduce the theme of the book and connect it with the traditions as well as presenting Jesus the Christ as working out the purpose of God. Verses 1:2-4 present Jesus as God's ultimate revelation. The word "imprint" is even more interesting. It is the impress of a seal on the wax or clay. This metaphor comes from the practice of one imprinting one's personal seal in hot wax to seal a letter. So, when we see the Son, we have the imprint of God the Father. Verse 1:3b gives us for the first time the central theme of the entire book -- he made "purification for our sins."
In verses 2:5-12, we have Jesus' work in salvation. In verse 6, we have the claim that Jesus' life and mission was the fulfillment of Psalm 8's prophecy. Jesus becomes the true man who causes the wonder of the prophet. Jesus is God's initiative in our salvation (v. 10). Notice while the author stresses defilement by sin, he/she also tells us of human's origin in God and how Jesus relates to us sinners.
The Gospel
Mark 10:2-16
Divorce And Little Children
While the motive of the Pharisees for asking this difficult question about divorce is suspect, nevertheless it is a subject in which our hearers will also be interested. In Jewish law, a woman was considered a thing who was at the complete mercy of the male. So, a man could divorce his wife on almost any grounds. But a wife could not. The Jewish law is based on Deuteronomy 24:1. So Jesus is striking a blow for women by restoring marriage to where it ought to be.
Matthew's account of Jesus' advice on this subject is quite different. In Mark, Jesus says absolutely that there is to be no divorce and re-marriage. In Matthew 19:3-9 he is quoted as forbidding remarriage but allowing divorce on the basis of adultery, which certainly dissolves the bonds of marriage anyway. Perhaps the heart of this passage is that Jesus emphasizes that the loose sexual morality of the day be repaired. We are reminded that marriage is a life-long promise of fidelity and carries with it a heavy responsibility. Jesus is strengthening the Christian home and family.
Verses 10:13-16: As Jesus makes his way toward the cross, his followers are trying to protect him. They mistakenly think he would not want to be bothered right now with mothers wanting their children blessed. For us who have raised many, the passage is not altogether clear. Children have all kinds of traits and some of them are certainly not what I think of as the Kingdom of God. Verse 15 may be the key. The kingdom is a gift, not something we earn like the Protestant "justified by grace through faith." Some traits of children that we could affirm as kingdom worthy would be obedience, trust, and the ability to forget and forgive.
Perhaps we learn something about Jesus here. He must have been liked by children as well as he liked them. A kind, warm, joy-filled person with compassion and love for others, the kids were attracted to him.
Preaching Possibilities
I'm not sure I can find any significant connection between any of the readings for today. I think any of the three readings will provide a marvelous topical sermon:
A. Old Testament: Why Good People Suffer
B. New Testament: God's Imprint And Ours
C. The Gospel: Let's Hear It For The Family or Children As Kingdom Samples
In our culture the question of suffering is as real now as it was back then in Job's day. We can draw the difference for our hearers between what God allows to happen to us in order to not break God's natural law, and what God wants to happen to us because of demonstrated love for us on the cross.
The metaphor in the Second Reading of the hot wax and the imprint of the seal lends itself to an extended metaphor sermon.1 We can build our sermon moves on what we think a seal of Jesus would look like -- Jesus feeding the hungry, blessing the children, dying on the cross, coming out of the grave, ascending, healing, etc. -- and what each one of those means to us personally and corporately.
One other approach is to wonder out loud what those who selected these three readings wanted to communicate to us today on God's behalf. It's a stretch, but we could answer:
A. The Old Testament tells us even good people will suffer.
B. The New Testament tells us we have a God who really cares about us through what Jesus has done.
C. The Gospel relates God's great interest in families, marriages, and children.
Then you could suppose why these were of interest to these people who selected them. Perhaps on the committee was a woman who had a fine husband dying of cancer (Old Testament). Maybe there was a man who was worried about the Christian example he has set for those who know him (New Testament). And one of the committee might have gone through divorce and felt guilty about it and the way his children now saw him and God's kingdom. It will preach.
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
A. Introduction: Tell a story of children you have or know acting terribly. Better yet, relate an event in your own childhood like this.
B. Now question if that is what Jesus meant when he claimed the kingdom as a little child (Mark 10:14). Transition by relating how Jesus was on his was to the cross, the disciples tried to protect him, and he scolded them, asking that the children be brought to him.
C. Then move to Jesus' words about the kingdom in verse 14 and question if selfish, sometimes mean, noisy, and messy children can ever be how God's kingdom is.
D. Relate a story of a beautiful child, like the first one listed in "Possible Metaphors And Stories" below. Then give what child-like traits Jesus was commending: humility, obedience, very trusting, forgiving. There are stories below for illustration of these kingdom traits.
E. Frame your sermon by returning to your opening story and contrast it with the kingdom traits summed up in reverse order. Finish by quoting again verses 15-16 by reading them from a Bible all can see.
Prayer For The Day
Help us, O God, to refrain from being childish and show us the ways to be childlike, just like in your kingdom. And bless our congregation in all its attempts to bring the little children to you. In the name of the one who took them up in his arms and blessed them. Amen.
Possible Metaphors And Stories
Danny only had one arm. He came to the second grade Sunday school class for the first time. When the teacher thoughtlessly asked the students to fold their hands and sing, "This is the church, this is the steeple," Hannah, next to him, saw his dilemma. Putting her fingers and hand in his, she remarked, "Come on, Danny, you and I will be the church together."
Oh, if we could only live it out as adults! Let's put our hands together and be the church.
On flight number 981 (United Airlines), there were storm clouds all around the horizon. The captain announced, "Fasten your seat belts, because we do have some turbulence even in the friendly skies."
It's true even as God's people and in God's care there are storms and rough roads to travel.
Missionary Barry Lang at Bong Mine, Liberia, told that when a Liberian Christian lives the wrong way or when two people have a difference of opinion and have strong words, or one proves the other wrong, then the offender kneels on the floor and takes the foot of the other and begs for forgiveness. When the offended puts a hand on his shoulder, it is finished, "cut" -- no more can either bring it up again. It is completely over! On the cross Jesus put his hand on our shoulder and proclaimed "it is finished" ... we are forgiven.
Martin Luther said in the sixteenth century at one of his famous table talks after looking at his son Martin: "In all simplicity ... children believe that God is gracious and that there is eternal life. These natural affections do not cease in the pious, as those who are without feeling and are hardened imagine, for such affections are the work of divine creation. Children live with all sincerity in faith, without interference of reason, as Ambrose says: 'there is a lack of reason but now of faith' " (What Luther Says, p. 142).
____________
1. See Schmalenberger's The Preacher's Edge, CSS Publishing Company, 1996, chapter 7.
The Pentecost Season is one of Christian growth and learning about the way of discipleship.
Theme For The Day
God's Kingdom is childlike and Jesus loves the children.
Old Testament Lesson
Job 1:1; 2:1-10
Job, Satan, And The Lord
In this narrative-prose section of Job, we have a blameless and upright man, who fears God, having to endure undeserved suffering. Job's distresses seem so unfair. Even Job's wife struggles to the misery by suggesting he should denounce his God (v. 2:9). Job's answer to her is that if we receive good at the hand of God we should also expect to receive bad (v. 2:10). I'm sure our hearers can identify with this good person who is a supreme example of affliction that defies human explanation. "Skin for skin" (v. 4) is a proverbial saying which had to do with trading animal skins and implied that Job had traded the lives of his children for his own. Scholars have guessed the disease in verse 7 may have been smallpox or elephantiasis. When Job needed comfort and support from his wife, he got, instead, evidence of her acridity toward God. In 27:5 we learn that Job told his friends that "... until I die I will not put away my integrity from me."
New Testament Lesson
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Jesus: Pioneer Of Salvation
The first four verses introduce the theme of the book and connect it with the traditions as well as presenting Jesus the Christ as working out the purpose of God. Verses 1:2-4 present Jesus as God's ultimate revelation. The word "imprint" is even more interesting. It is the impress of a seal on the wax or clay. This metaphor comes from the practice of one imprinting one's personal seal in hot wax to seal a letter. So, when we see the Son, we have the imprint of God the Father. Verse 1:3b gives us for the first time the central theme of the entire book -- he made "purification for our sins."
In verses 2:5-12, we have Jesus' work in salvation. In verse 6, we have the claim that Jesus' life and mission was the fulfillment of Psalm 8's prophecy. Jesus becomes the true man who causes the wonder of the prophet. Jesus is God's initiative in our salvation (v. 10). Notice while the author stresses defilement by sin, he/she also tells us of human's origin in God and how Jesus relates to us sinners.
The Gospel
Mark 10:2-16
Divorce And Little Children
While the motive of the Pharisees for asking this difficult question about divorce is suspect, nevertheless it is a subject in which our hearers will also be interested. In Jewish law, a woman was considered a thing who was at the complete mercy of the male. So, a man could divorce his wife on almost any grounds. But a wife could not. The Jewish law is based on Deuteronomy 24:1. So Jesus is striking a blow for women by restoring marriage to where it ought to be.
Matthew's account of Jesus' advice on this subject is quite different. In Mark, Jesus says absolutely that there is to be no divorce and re-marriage. In Matthew 19:3-9 he is quoted as forbidding remarriage but allowing divorce on the basis of adultery, which certainly dissolves the bonds of marriage anyway. Perhaps the heart of this passage is that Jesus emphasizes that the loose sexual morality of the day be repaired. We are reminded that marriage is a life-long promise of fidelity and carries with it a heavy responsibility. Jesus is strengthening the Christian home and family.
Verses 10:13-16: As Jesus makes his way toward the cross, his followers are trying to protect him. They mistakenly think he would not want to be bothered right now with mothers wanting their children blessed. For us who have raised many, the passage is not altogether clear. Children have all kinds of traits and some of them are certainly not what I think of as the Kingdom of God. Verse 15 may be the key. The kingdom is a gift, not something we earn like the Protestant "justified by grace through faith." Some traits of children that we could affirm as kingdom worthy would be obedience, trust, and the ability to forget and forgive.
Perhaps we learn something about Jesus here. He must have been liked by children as well as he liked them. A kind, warm, joy-filled person with compassion and love for others, the kids were attracted to him.
Preaching Possibilities
I'm not sure I can find any significant connection between any of the readings for today. I think any of the three readings will provide a marvelous topical sermon:
A. Old Testament: Why Good People Suffer
B. New Testament: God's Imprint And Ours
C. The Gospel: Let's Hear It For The Family or Children As Kingdom Samples
In our culture the question of suffering is as real now as it was back then in Job's day. We can draw the difference for our hearers between what God allows to happen to us in order to not break God's natural law, and what God wants to happen to us because of demonstrated love for us on the cross.
The metaphor in the Second Reading of the hot wax and the imprint of the seal lends itself to an extended metaphor sermon.1 We can build our sermon moves on what we think a seal of Jesus would look like -- Jesus feeding the hungry, blessing the children, dying on the cross, coming out of the grave, ascending, healing, etc. -- and what each one of those means to us personally and corporately.
One other approach is to wonder out loud what those who selected these three readings wanted to communicate to us today on God's behalf. It's a stretch, but we could answer:
A. The Old Testament tells us even good people will suffer.
B. The New Testament tells us we have a God who really cares about us through what Jesus has done.
C. The Gospel relates God's great interest in families, marriages, and children.
Then you could suppose why these were of interest to these people who selected them. Perhaps on the committee was a woman who had a fine husband dying of cancer (Old Testament). Maybe there was a man who was worried about the Christian example he has set for those who know him (New Testament). And one of the committee might have gone through divorce and felt guilty about it and the way his children now saw him and God's kingdom. It will preach.
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
A. Introduction: Tell a story of children you have or know acting terribly. Better yet, relate an event in your own childhood like this.
B. Now question if that is what Jesus meant when he claimed the kingdom as a little child (Mark 10:14). Transition by relating how Jesus was on his was to the cross, the disciples tried to protect him, and he scolded them, asking that the children be brought to him.
C. Then move to Jesus' words about the kingdom in verse 14 and question if selfish, sometimes mean, noisy, and messy children can ever be how God's kingdom is.
D. Relate a story of a beautiful child, like the first one listed in "Possible Metaphors And Stories" below. Then give what child-like traits Jesus was commending: humility, obedience, very trusting, forgiving. There are stories below for illustration of these kingdom traits.
E. Frame your sermon by returning to your opening story and contrast it with the kingdom traits summed up in reverse order. Finish by quoting again verses 15-16 by reading them from a Bible all can see.
Prayer For The Day
Help us, O God, to refrain from being childish and show us the ways to be childlike, just like in your kingdom. And bless our congregation in all its attempts to bring the little children to you. In the name of the one who took them up in his arms and blessed them. Amen.
Possible Metaphors And Stories
Danny only had one arm. He came to the second grade Sunday school class for the first time. When the teacher thoughtlessly asked the students to fold their hands and sing, "This is the church, this is the steeple," Hannah, next to him, saw his dilemma. Putting her fingers and hand in his, she remarked, "Come on, Danny, you and I will be the church together."
Oh, if we could only live it out as adults! Let's put our hands together and be the church.
On flight number 981 (United Airlines), there were storm clouds all around the horizon. The captain announced, "Fasten your seat belts, because we do have some turbulence even in the friendly skies."
It's true even as God's people and in God's care there are storms and rough roads to travel.
Missionary Barry Lang at Bong Mine, Liberia, told that when a Liberian Christian lives the wrong way or when two people have a difference of opinion and have strong words, or one proves the other wrong, then the offender kneels on the floor and takes the foot of the other and begs for forgiveness. When the offended puts a hand on his shoulder, it is finished, "cut" -- no more can either bring it up again. It is completely over! On the cross Jesus put his hand on our shoulder and proclaimed "it is finished" ... we are forgiven.
Martin Luther said in the sixteenth century at one of his famous table talks after looking at his son Martin: "In all simplicity ... children believe that God is gracious and that there is eternal life. These natural affections do not cease in the pious, as those who are without feeling and are hardened imagine, for such affections are the work of divine creation. Children live with all sincerity in faith, without interference of reason, as Ambrose says: 'there is a lack of reason but now of faith' " (What Luther Says, p. 142).
____________
1. See Schmalenberger's The Preacher's Edge, CSS Publishing Company, 1996, chapter 7.
