Proper 22, Pentecost 20, Ordinary Time 27
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VII, Cycle A
Object:
Seasonal Theme
The teaching and ministry of Jesus the Christ.
Theme For The Day
We are stewards of all creation, human and non-human. God expects us to do it well and return some to God.
Old Testament Lesson
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
The Commandments
The Israelites have gotten to Sinai so the reason for the Exodus was near (see Exodus 3:12). Now some preparations need be done. God's covenant rules are established. We don't know for sure where Mount Sinai is. Tradition favors Jebel Musa (Mountain of Moses) in the south. This is often called in commentaries "the theophany at the holy mountain." Chapter 19 tells us how the Israelites got ready for it.
So here is God giving through Moses the covenant terms imposed by God upon God's covenant partners. God stated the terms and the people signified their acceptance. A covenant was then ratified (see v. 24:7f). The Decalogue is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
The first three Commandments establish the awesomeness of God. God insists upon being honored and obeyed.
The fourth asks us to rest as well as honor God. Not a "don't" but a "do."
The second tablet asserts that human life is lived in community and that means rights and responsibilities which God lays down. Human life is precious and not to the violated. This is something we can do and preach. It is a better way in which we respect life in all its manifestations. Viable community is the key.
An earlier practice was to recite these rules at baptism. The believer vows to keep them as a pledge to honor God and respect each other in the community of the baptized. The New Interpreter's Bible states a grand idea: "... the commandments are, for Jesus, a first level demand, preparatory to the more vigorous demand, 'Go, sell, give, come, follow.' They are the beginning of a more serious discipleship."
New Testament Lesson
Philippians 3:4b-14
The Example Of Paul
One might outline and preach an expository sermon from this passage like this:
Overall theme: The example of Paul
Verses 4b-6 -- You can't count on the past.
Verse 7-11 -- Real life is in knowing Christ.
Verses 12-14 -- The greatest goal is eternal life with Christ.
Paul claims he was a model Jew doing all the religious requirements. But when he became a Christian all that was of no value. Then he explains knowing the Christ as Lord in the power of his resurrection is the way to eternal life. Righteousness is the key word in today's Second Reading. Paul talks about it a lot in Romans 1-8. For Paul, it is more than goodness. It is a right relationship to God. Paul had found this to be accomplished not by the keeping of the law but rather through faith which is given by God. What Paul does is not the thing. It's what he believes. He tells of this further in Romans 2:25--3:31. The Greek word for righteousness is dikaiosun which can be defined as giving to God and others what is coming to them. Paul's point is that the law doesn't help do that. Only God's gift of grace makes it possible.
The Gospel
Matthew 22:33-46
The Wicked Tenants
Usually we look for one main teaching in a parable. But this one is clearly meant to have much more identification with each actor in the story. Let us identify them first:
1. Vineyard is the nation of Israel.
2. Landowner is God.
3. Tenants are the religious leaders of the day.
4. Messengers were the prophets.
5. Son is Jesus the Christ.
The description of this vineyard is based on Isaiah 5:1-7. It's a mini history of Israel and Jesus which tells us a lot. A very patient God trusts us to care for things here. We are often not faithful to our God-given task and a judgment on that does come.
Our Christ can claim to be in the lineage of the prophets and is willing to take the beating for us. Verse 44 with its stone is an odd one. See Psalm 118:22. Perhaps three places in the Old Testament from which this stone comes: Isaiah 8:14-15, Isaiah 28:16 and Daniel 2:34, 44-45. The Jews would recognize the claim here that Jesus is the stone of the Old Testament which is the foundation and the cornerstone. And to not accept him is to come up against a brick and a hard place.
Preaching Possibilities
A. The Old Testament passage of the Ten Commandments and the Second Lesson will go together.
1. First we have the law of the old covenant and then Paul's statement that he had done a good job at keeping these laws but counted that all manure compared with the righteousness given to him by Christ (v. 7-10).
2. Perhaps we can talk of the Old Testament rules to travel "given by Moses" as our rules too.
3. Jesus taught us that to think about them was the same as doing them.
4. This quickly leads us to the knowledge that we need the righteousness which God gives, which is based not on keeping the law but on having faith in Christ.
Note: If this is the direction you go, be careful lest you use a theological vocabulary which only you understand and which your hearers find too much intellectual work to follow.
B. A teaching sermon will work for the Old Testament which can stand alone also. Here are rules by which we can learn to respect and honor God and our fellow humans. And which, Luther said, "were taskmasters to drive us to Christ."
The catechism of your denomination will be helpful in forming the content of the sermon. A rather traditional outline might go something like this:
1. Begin by relating the current struggle over whether these commandments may be displayed publicly.
2. Tell circumstances which led the Israelites to Mount Sinai.
3. Tell of Moses bringing the tablets down to the people.
4. Tell why they needed these rules (to travel by and as a guide for living under the covenant in the Promised Land).
5. Have someone read them to the congregation.
6. Explain that the two big lessons they teach is to honor and to respect God and other people.
7. Witness what role these rules have played in your life.
8. List out for your hearers a couple things that seem most important for our day and for this congregation.
9. Tell how Paul tells us that we can't do it on our own but need faith in Christ which God is willing to give.
10. Now return to the issue of public display of the commands and relate how we can display them in our daily lives.
C. I'll go with the parable because I find parables the easiest passages of scripture to preach and hold the interest of the listener.
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
1. First tell your listeners this parable in a contemporary context. It's one of the easiest. "A web site owner loaned his web site to a group of people who wanted to market some merchandise for him. When the web site owner sent an e-mail asking for it back, they had changed the password, and so on."
2. Next tell Jesus' story of the landowner. Now how does all this apply to us? Let us ask some basic questions.
a. Why did the landowner in Jesus' parable have such freedom? Because God gives us that kind of trust.
b. Why didn't these tenants want to give it back to the owner? They have greed just like us.
c. What is our vineyard? The earth and the natural resources which has been loaned to us for a while and which we think we can do with as we please.
d. How does the son come to us and what does he ask for? He comes in other people, God's word studied and proclaimed, and in our prayer lives.
e. What does this parable most ask me to do? Plead with them to join you in the struggle and satisfaction of returning what God has loaned us. We should be good stewards of all the human and non-human world. We ought consider tithing our money and sharing the gospel with others.
3. Now return to your opening story of the web-site and tell the conclusion as you believe it ought come out.
Prayer Of The Day
O God, give us the will to be good stewards and tenants of your vineyard, this planet. Make us to want to be fair in all our dealing with others. Accept our thanksgiving for the trust and freedom you place in us. And know our joy in being here in your precious vineyard. In Christ's name. Amen.
Possible Stories
In a class I was teaching on "teaching the catechism," we were considering the first couple of commands. I noticed one of my older students from Myanmar looking very afraid and glancing first at the door and then the window. After class she explained that it scared her to hear out loud talk about our God being the only God. In her country that would be grounds for the military to come arrest her and take her away never to be seen again. She was terribly afraid someone would hear and come after her. How easily we read this command to have no other gods and how tough it is for some to keep.
Bill Moyers, on a CBS news program, talked of the United States Congress overriding sanctions on Central America. He said Congress was being "the stewards of the nation's conscience." We Christians must claim the task of being stewards of the nation's conscience.
I preached one Sunday morning at St. Luke's, Phebe, Liberia. An old ordained deacon presided at the service. At the time for the offering, a woman brought forward a pan of peanuts on her head and placed it at the altar. Another brought a bucket of corn. These were the first of their harvest and they were literally offering them to God as their "first fruits offering"; then, the following week they could harvest the rest of the crop for themselves. Here was the biblical "first fruits offering" in practice!
Life on the farm always had unwritten rules I observed, followed, and assumed everyone did. Whenever Grace Miller, the neighbor, baked, she would send over a pie for us. I always had the task of returning the pie pan to the Millers. My mother always filled it with something like cookies when she sent it back -- never an empty pan. And when my father borrowed a tool like a mower, we always cleaned and oiled it before I drove our Model A Ford to tow it back. That's the way it ought to be in our practice of stewardship. We return a little of all that which has been given us.
The teaching and ministry of Jesus the Christ.
Theme For The Day
We are stewards of all creation, human and non-human. God expects us to do it well and return some to God.
Old Testament Lesson
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
The Commandments
The Israelites have gotten to Sinai so the reason for the Exodus was near (see Exodus 3:12). Now some preparations need be done. God's covenant rules are established. We don't know for sure where Mount Sinai is. Tradition favors Jebel Musa (Mountain of Moses) in the south. This is often called in commentaries "the theophany at the holy mountain." Chapter 19 tells us how the Israelites got ready for it.
So here is God giving through Moses the covenant terms imposed by God upon God's covenant partners. God stated the terms and the people signified their acceptance. A covenant was then ratified (see v. 24:7f). The Decalogue is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
The first three Commandments establish the awesomeness of God. God insists upon being honored and obeyed.
The fourth asks us to rest as well as honor God. Not a "don't" but a "do."
The second tablet asserts that human life is lived in community and that means rights and responsibilities which God lays down. Human life is precious and not to the violated. This is something we can do and preach. It is a better way in which we respect life in all its manifestations. Viable community is the key.
An earlier practice was to recite these rules at baptism. The believer vows to keep them as a pledge to honor God and respect each other in the community of the baptized. The New Interpreter's Bible states a grand idea: "... the commandments are, for Jesus, a first level demand, preparatory to the more vigorous demand, 'Go, sell, give, come, follow.' They are the beginning of a more serious discipleship."
New Testament Lesson
Philippians 3:4b-14
The Example Of Paul
One might outline and preach an expository sermon from this passage like this:
Overall theme: The example of Paul
Verses 4b-6 -- You can't count on the past.
Verse 7-11 -- Real life is in knowing Christ.
Verses 12-14 -- The greatest goal is eternal life with Christ.
Paul claims he was a model Jew doing all the religious requirements. But when he became a Christian all that was of no value. Then he explains knowing the Christ as Lord in the power of his resurrection is the way to eternal life. Righteousness is the key word in today's Second Reading. Paul talks about it a lot in Romans 1-8. For Paul, it is more than goodness. It is a right relationship to God. Paul had found this to be accomplished not by the keeping of the law but rather through faith which is given by God. What Paul does is not the thing. It's what he believes. He tells of this further in Romans 2:25--3:31. The Greek word for righteousness is dikaiosun which can be defined as giving to God and others what is coming to them. Paul's point is that the law doesn't help do that. Only God's gift of grace makes it possible.
The Gospel
Matthew 22:33-46
The Wicked Tenants
Usually we look for one main teaching in a parable. But this one is clearly meant to have much more identification with each actor in the story. Let us identify them first:
1. Vineyard is the nation of Israel.
2. Landowner is God.
3. Tenants are the religious leaders of the day.
4. Messengers were the prophets.
5. Son is Jesus the Christ.
The description of this vineyard is based on Isaiah 5:1-7. It's a mini history of Israel and Jesus which tells us a lot. A very patient God trusts us to care for things here. We are often not faithful to our God-given task and a judgment on that does come.
Our Christ can claim to be in the lineage of the prophets and is willing to take the beating for us. Verse 44 with its stone is an odd one. See Psalm 118:22. Perhaps three places in the Old Testament from which this stone comes: Isaiah 8:14-15, Isaiah 28:16 and Daniel 2:34, 44-45. The Jews would recognize the claim here that Jesus is the stone of the Old Testament which is the foundation and the cornerstone. And to not accept him is to come up against a brick and a hard place.
Preaching Possibilities
A. The Old Testament passage of the Ten Commandments and the Second Lesson will go together.
1. First we have the law of the old covenant and then Paul's statement that he had done a good job at keeping these laws but counted that all manure compared with the righteousness given to him by Christ (v. 7-10).
2. Perhaps we can talk of the Old Testament rules to travel "given by Moses" as our rules too.
3. Jesus taught us that to think about them was the same as doing them.
4. This quickly leads us to the knowledge that we need the righteousness which God gives, which is based not on keeping the law but on having faith in Christ.
Note: If this is the direction you go, be careful lest you use a theological vocabulary which only you understand and which your hearers find too much intellectual work to follow.
B. A teaching sermon will work for the Old Testament which can stand alone also. Here are rules by which we can learn to respect and honor God and our fellow humans. And which, Luther said, "were taskmasters to drive us to Christ."
The catechism of your denomination will be helpful in forming the content of the sermon. A rather traditional outline might go something like this:
1. Begin by relating the current struggle over whether these commandments may be displayed publicly.
2. Tell circumstances which led the Israelites to Mount Sinai.
3. Tell of Moses bringing the tablets down to the people.
4. Tell why they needed these rules (to travel by and as a guide for living under the covenant in the Promised Land).
5. Have someone read them to the congregation.
6. Explain that the two big lessons they teach is to honor and to respect God and other people.
7. Witness what role these rules have played in your life.
8. List out for your hearers a couple things that seem most important for our day and for this congregation.
9. Tell how Paul tells us that we can't do it on our own but need faith in Christ which God is willing to give.
10. Now return to the issue of public display of the commands and relate how we can display them in our daily lives.
C. I'll go with the parable because I find parables the easiest passages of scripture to preach and hold the interest of the listener.
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
1. First tell your listeners this parable in a contemporary context. It's one of the easiest. "A web site owner loaned his web site to a group of people who wanted to market some merchandise for him. When the web site owner sent an e-mail asking for it back, they had changed the password, and so on."
2. Next tell Jesus' story of the landowner. Now how does all this apply to us? Let us ask some basic questions.
a. Why did the landowner in Jesus' parable have such freedom? Because God gives us that kind of trust.
b. Why didn't these tenants want to give it back to the owner? They have greed just like us.
c. What is our vineyard? The earth and the natural resources which has been loaned to us for a while and which we think we can do with as we please.
d. How does the son come to us and what does he ask for? He comes in other people, God's word studied and proclaimed, and in our prayer lives.
e. What does this parable most ask me to do? Plead with them to join you in the struggle and satisfaction of returning what God has loaned us. We should be good stewards of all the human and non-human world. We ought consider tithing our money and sharing the gospel with others.
3. Now return to your opening story of the web-site and tell the conclusion as you believe it ought come out.
Prayer Of The Day
O God, give us the will to be good stewards and tenants of your vineyard, this planet. Make us to want to be fair in all our dealing with others. Accept our thanksgiving for the trust and freedom you place in us. And know our joy in being here in your precious vineyard. In Christ's name. Amen.
Possible Stories
In a class I was teaching on "teaching the catechism," we were considering the first couple of commands. I noticed one of my older students from Myanmar looking very afraid and glancing first at the door and then the window. After class she explained that it scared her to hear out loud talk about our God being the only God. In her country that would be grounds for the military to come arrest her and take her away never to be seen again. She was terribly afraid someone would hear and come after her. How easily we read this command to have no other gods and how tough it is for some to keep.
Bill Moyers, on a CBS news program, talked of the United States Congress overriding sanctions on Central America. He said Congress was being "the stewards of the nation's conscience." We Christians must claim the task of being stewards of the nation's conscience.
I preached one Sunday morning at St. Luke's, Phebe, Liberia. An old ordained deacon presided at the service. At the time for the offering, a woman brought forward a pan of peanuts on her head and placed it at the altar. Another brought a bucket of corn. These were the first of their harvest and they were literally offering them to God as their "first fruits offering"; then, the following week they could harvest the rest of the crop for themselves. Here was the biblical "first fruits offering" in practice!
Life on the farm always had unwritten rules I observed, followed, and assumed everyone did. Whenever Grace Miller, the neighbor, baked, she would send over a pie for us. I always had the task of returning the pie pan to the Millers. My mother always filled it with something like cookies when she sent it back -- never an empty pan. And when my father borrowed a tool like a mower, we always cleaned and oiled it before I drove our Model A Ford to tow it back. That's the way it ought to be in our practice of stewardship. We return a little of all that which has been given us.
