Proper 25 | Ordinary Time 30
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle B
Revised Common
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 or Jeremiah 31:7-9
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52
Roman Catholic
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Hebrews 5:1-6
Mark 10:46-52
Episcopal
Isaiah 59:(1-4) 9-19
Hebrews 5:12--6:1, 9-12
Mark 10:46-52
Reformation Sunday
Lutheran
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36
Theme For The Day
The only real answer to the problem of human suffering is to turn to God in faith.
Old Testament Lesson
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Job Repents In Dust And Ashes
Having heard the Lord's monumental exposition of the wonders of creation, Job is now thoroughly chastened. He has questioned God, and God has heard him. God has not provided the answer he expected, but the fact that God has answered him at all is answer enough (see last week's resource). "I have uttered what I did not understand," Job numbly admits, "things too wonderful for me, which I did not know ... therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (vv. 3, 6). The strong language ("I despise myself") is only what would be expected, in that culture, of a subordinate asking the forgiveness of a superior. "Dust and ashes" are a common symbol of repentance, but also suggest human mortality. The second part of today's selection, verses 10-17, is a prose passage, relating how the Lord subsequently restores all Job's fortunes. Everything that was taken is returned to him, and then some -- with the exception, of course, of his family members who have died.
Alternate Old Testament Lesson
Jeremiah 31:7-9
The Return Of The Exiles
Jeremiah is finished preaching doom. The time has now come to bring a message of comfort to the dispirited people of God. The time is soon coming, he proclaims, when the exiles will return home: "See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here" (v. 8). They will come with tears of joy. The Lord will lead them home, as a father welcomes a long-lost son.
New Testament Lesson
Hebrews 7:23-28
Jesus The Mediator
The discussion of Jesus as the great high priest continues. Once again, the author emphasizes that Jesus' high priesthood is permanent, and his sacrifice unrepeatable, since it happened once for all time (vv. 24, 27). Jesus is perpetually ready to intercede for those who approach God through him (v. 25). Unlike the high priests of old, Jesus is not "subject to weakness," but has been made "perfect forever" (v. 28). Today will be Reformation Sunday in many churches. This passage's emphasis on Jesus as the sole mediator between humanity and God is an idea that helped fuel the Reformation, and its dismantling of the system of saintly intercessors that had been so much a part of medieval Roman Catholicism.
The Gospel
Mark 10:46-52
The Healing Of Blind Bartimaeus
Just after Jesus has lectured the disciples on the importance of servanthood, he is walking with them through the city of Jericho. There, a blind man named Bartimaeus, a beggar who sits by the roadside, calls out to him for help. Bartimaeus addresses him by a royal title: "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!" This foreshadows the cries of the exultant Jerusalem crowd, who in the very next pericope will welcome Jesus into the city. Jesus calls Bartimaeus over, and asks him exactly the same question he had asked James and John in verse 36, just prior to their appeal for front-row seats in heaven: "What do you want me to do for you?" (v. 51). Bartimaeus appeals for his sight to be restored, and Jesus instantly grants his request, saying, "your faith has made you well." This is in marked contrast to the experience of James and John. Their appeal had nothing of faith about it, only selfishness; Bartimaeus is appealing to Jesus in hopeful expectation, believing with all his heart that Jesus has the power to heal him. The physical blindness of Bartimaeus, the outsider, is ironically contrasted with the spiritual blindness of James and John, the insiders.
Preaching Possibilities
Job is a story about who is in charge of the universe. It assumes the existence of two cosmic powers: God and Satan. In a strange sort of science experiment, God permits Satan to rain down all manner of ills upon the head of the ever-faithful Job -- to see if he can be made to recant his faith. The only thing God forbids Satan to do is to take away Job's life.
Job is rich; Satan takes all his money. He is the picture of health; the tempter inflicts upon him a dreadful skin disease. He has a wonderful family; the evil one kills Job's children in a natural disaster, and drives his wife away in despair. Suddenly, Job finds himself stripped of everything he holds dear, except for life itself. And to him, even life itself has become terribly fragile: "A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble, comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last" (Job 14:1).
After many pages of philosophical dialogue, in which Job's friends try valiantly to convince him there's nothing left for him to do but "curse God and die," the Lord Almighty finally appears in person. God then calls off the whole dreadful experiment, and restores to Job nearly everything he's lost. Job never has given up on faith totally, but he has certainly wavered; and so, the Lord speaks powerfully to his servants despair, in a voice "out of the whirlwind":
Where were you, God asks ...
... when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements -- surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
-- Job 38:4-7
God, here, is the great cosmic architect, the general contractor of the universe. "Who are you," God seems to proclaim, "to challenge my design, or my oversight of all that I have made?" The God who speaks here is the powerful Creator -- one who not only assembled the great machine once upon a time and kicked it into motion, but who carefully watches over it even now, correcting its imperfections and fine-tuning its moving parts.
There's a famous story of a preacher who once had a parishioner come into his office, a man he'd counseled through many difficult circumstances. The man had made some progress in dealing with his problems, but always he seemed to fall short of the mark. Always he seemed overwhelmed by life. This day, though, the man was different. He had a smile on his face and a spring to his step. "Pastor," he said, with transparent joy, "I've got something wonderful to tell you: I've just resigned as general manager of the universe, and it's amazing how fast my resignation was accepted!"
That's the sort of realization Job comes to at the end of his long spiritual struggle. When he "repents, in dust and ashes," he is effectively resigning as general manager of the universe. That job is already taken.
When silversmiths create their works of fine art, they engrave, in an inconspicuous place, a tiny letter or symbol known as the "maker's mark." This is what antique dealers look for, as they're asked to appraise the value of an object -- say, for example, a silver bowl by Paul Revere. The first step in authenticating the work is to turn it over and search out the maker's mark.
What is it about our lives that displays the maker's mark? Is it the capacity of our brains? Is it our opposable thumb, that anthropologists insist separates us from most other life forms? Is it the ability to reason creatively? Yet as wondrous as our bodies and minds are, it is not in these that we find the maker's mark.
There are some who would seek the maker's mark not in the world within, but in the world without: in the glories of nature. Many's the person who has strolled along a beach at sunset, or climbed a mountain peak, or stood -- mouth agape -- at the edge of the Grand Canyon, and confessed that this wonder could never have occurred without the intervention of a master artist.
"When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers," sings the author of Psalm 8, "the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?"
Yet the maker's mark is not so unambiguously present in nature that everyone can see it. There are some, after all, who remain unconvinced of God's existence, even after viewing the wonders of nature. There are some who see random forces at work even in the painting of the sunset.
So where do we find the maker's mark? Not in the glories of nature, but somewhere else, in someone who preceded even creation itself. As the gospel writer John proclaims: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people."
It is in Jesus Christ that we see the maker's mark, stamped on creation so that all may know to whom this world belongs. The maker's mark, is not power, or intricacy, or ingenuity ... but love.
Prayer For The Day
When we look at the heavens, O Lord, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established ... we are as filled with awe as the psalmist of old. Yet how swiftly we forget that cosmic perspective, as we turn our vision inward and focus only on the pains and problems of life! Keep us ever mindful that you are Lord and maker of all -- that you fashioned us and all creatures, and that your plan for the universe is still unfolding as you have intended. Our vision and our faith are not always big enough. When they are not, remind us of your limitless love. Amen.
To Illustrate
Have you ever looked at your hands? I mean, have you ever really studied them as one of the most intricate and beautiful parts of the human body? Nineteen bones arranged to form a cup, an arch, a flat surface or a balled fist, each shape occurring on demand. Fingers able delicately to lift a needle from a table or twist open the stubborn cap of a fruit jar or distinguish between a penny and a dime merely by touch. No engineer designing robot hands has ever come close to such perfection
-- Scott Harrison, a surgeon
***
There is an old Jewish tale about a rabbi's child who used to wander in the woods. At first his father let him wander, but over time he became concerned. The woods were dangerous. All manner of beasts lurked there. The father took the boy aside one day, and said, "You know, I have noticed that each day you walk into the woods. I wonder, why do you go there?"
The boy said to his father, "I go there to find God."
"That is a very good thing," the father replied. "I am glad you're searching for God. But my child, don't you know that God is the same everywhere?"
"Yes," the boy answered, "but I'm not."
***
"I can only write down this simple testimony. Like all men, I love and prefer the sunny uplands of experience when health, happiness, and success abound but I have learned more about God, life, and myself in the darkness of fear and failure than I have ever learned in the sunshine. There are such things as the treasure of darkness. The darkness, thank God, passes, but what one learns in the darkness, one possesses forever."
-- Leslie Weatherhead
***
"Okay, question," I say to Morrie, his bony fingers hold his glasses across his chest, which rises and falls with each labored breath.
"What's the question?" he says.
Remember the book of Job?
"From the Bible?"
Right. Job is a good man, but God makes him suffer. To test his faith.
"I remember."
Takes away everything he has, his house, his money, his family ...
"His health."
Makes him sick.
"To test his faith."
Right. To test his faith. So I'm wondering ...
"What are you wondering?"
What do you think about that?
Morrie coughs violently, his hands quiver as he drops them to his side.
"I think," he says, smiling, "God overdid it."
-- Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie (New York: Doubleday, 1997), pp. 150-151 (Tuesdays With Morrie is the account of a series of conversations Albom had with Morrie Schwarz, a beloved former teacher who is dying a slow death from ALS [Lou Gehrig's Disease].)
***
Souls are like athletes, that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers.
-- Thomas Merton
***
Joy is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.
-- Anonymous
***
Isn't it the greatest possible disaster, when you are wrestling with God, not to be beaten?
-- Simone Weil
***
Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances ... to choose one's own way.
-- Victor Frankl
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 or Jeremiah 31:7-9
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52
Roman Catholic
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Hebrews 5:1-6
Mark 10:46-52
Episcopal
Isaiah 59:(1-4) 9-19
Hebrews 5:12--6:1, 9-12
Mark 10:46-52
Reformation Sunday
Lutheran
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36
Theme For The Day
The only real answer to the problem of human suffering is to turn to God in faith.
Old Testament Lesson
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Job Repents In Dust And Ashes
Having heard the Lord's monumental exposition of the wonders of creation, Job is now thoroughly chastened. He has questioned God, and God has heard him. God has not provided the answer he expected, but the fact that God has answered him at all is answer enough (see last week's resource). "I have uttered what I did not understand," Job numbly admits, "things too wonderful for me, which I did not know ... therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (vv. 3, 6). The strong language ("I despise myself") is only what would be expected, in that culture, of a subordinate asking the forgiveness of a superior. "Dust and ashes" are a common symbol of repentance, but also suggest human mortality. The second part of today's selection, verses 10-17, is a prose passage, relating how the Lord subsequently restores all Job's fortunes. Everything that was taken is returned to him, and then some -- with the exception, of course, of his family members who have died.
Alternate Old Testament Lesson
Jeremiah 31:7-9
The Return Of The Exiles
Jeremiah is finished preaching doom. The time has now come to bring a message of comfort to the dispirited people of God. The time is soon coming, he proclaims, when the exiles will return home: "See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here" (v. 8). They will come with tears of joy. The Lord will lead them home, as a father welcomes a long-lost son.
New Testament Lesson
Hebrews 7:23-28
Jesus The Mediator
The discussion of Jesus as the great high priest continues. Once again, the author emphasizes that Jesus' high priesthood is permanent, and his sacrifice unrepeatable, since it happened once for all time (vv. 24, 27). Jesus is perpetually ready to intercede for those who approach God through him (v. 25). Unlike the high priests of old, Jesus is not "subject to weakness," but has been made "perfect forever" (v. 28). Today will be Reformation Sunday in many churches. This passage's emphasis on Jesus as the sole mediator between humanity and God is an idea that helped fuel the Reformation, and its dismantling of the system of saintly intercessors that had been so much a part of medieval Roman Catholicism.
The Gospel
Mark 10:46-52
The Healing Of Blind Bartimaeus
Just after Jesus has lectured the disciples on the importance of servanthood, he is walking with them through the city of Jericho. There, a blind man named Bartimaeus, a beggar who sits by the roadside, calls out to him for help. Bartimaeus addresses him by a royal title: "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!" This foreshadows the cries of the exultant Jerusalem crowd, who in the very next pericope will welcome Jesus into the city. Jesus calls Bartimaeus over, and asks him exactly the same question he had asked James and John in verse 36, just prior to their appeal for front-row seats in heaven: "What do you want me to do for you?" (v. 51). Bartimaeus appeals for his sight to be restored, and Jesus instantly grants his request, saying, "your faith has made you well." This is in marked contrast to the experience of James and John. Their appeal had nothing of faith about it, only selfishness; Bartimaeus is appealing to Jesus in hopeful expectation, believing with all his heart that Jesus has the power to heal him. The physical blindness of Bartimaeus, the outsider, is ironically contrasted with the spiritual blindness of James and John, the insiders.
Preaching Possibilities
Job is a story about who is in charge of the universe. It assumes the existence of two cosmic powers: God and Satan. In a strange sort of science experiment, God permits Satan to rain down all manner of ills upon the head of the ever-faithful Job -- to see if he can be made to recant his faith. The only thing God forbids Satan to do is to take away Job's life.
Job is rich; Satan takes all his money. He is the picture of health; the tempter inflicts upon him a dreadful skin disease. He has a wonderful family; the evil one kills Job's children in a natural disaster, and drives his wife away in despair. Suddenly, Job finds himself stripped of everything he holds dear, except for life itself. And to him, even life itself has become terribly fragile: "A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble, comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last" (Job 14:1).
After many pages of philosophical dialogue, in which Job's friends try valiantly to convince him there's nothing left for him to do but "curse God and die," the Lord Almighty finally appears in person. God then calls off the whole dreadful experiment, and restores to Job nearly everything he's lost. Job never has given up on faith totally, but he has certainly wavered; and so, the Lord speaks powerfully to his servants despair, in a voice "out of the whirlwind":
Where were you, God asks ...
... when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements -- surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
-- Job 38:4-7
God, here, is the great cosmic architect, the general contractor of the universe. "Who are you," God seems to proclaim, "to challenge my design, or my oversight of all that I have made?" The God who speaks here is the powerful Creator -- one who not only assembled the great machine once upon a time and kicked it into motion, but who carefully watches over it even now, correcting its imperfections and fine-tuning its moving parts.
There's a famous story of a preacher who once had a parishioner come into his office, a man he'd counseled through many difficult circumstances. The man had made some progress in dealing with his problems, but always he seemed to fall short of the mark. Always he seemed overwhelmed by life. This day, though, the man was different. He had a smile on his face and a spring to his step. "Pastor," he said, with transparent joy, "I've got something wonderful to tell you: I've just resigned as general manager of the universe, and it's amazing how fast my resignation was accepted!"
That's the sort of realization Job comes to at the end of his long spiritual struggle. When he "repents, in dust and ashes," he is effectively resigning as general manager of the universe. That job is already taken.
When silversmiths create their works of fine art, they engrave, in an inconspicuous place, a tiny letter or symbol known as the "maker's mark." This is what antique dealers look for, as they're asked to appraise the value of an object -- say, for example, a silver bowl by Paul Revere. The first step in authenticating the work is to turn it over and search out the maker's mark.
What is it about our lives that displays the maker's mark? Is it the capacity of our brains? Is it our opposable thumb, that anthropologists insist separates us from most other life forms? Is it the ability to reason creatively? Yet as wondrous as our bodies and minds are, it is not in these that we find the maker's mark.
There are some who would seek the maker's mark not in the world within, but in the world without: in the glories of nature. Many's the person who has strolled along a beach at sunset, or climbed a mountain peak, or stood -- mouth agape -- at the edge of the Grand Canyon, and confessed that this wonder could never have occurred without the intervention of a master artist.
"When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers," sings the author of Psalm 8, "the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?"
Yet the maker's mark is not so unambiguously present in nature that everyone can see it. There are some, after all, who remain unconvinced of God's existence, even after viewing the wonders of nature. There are some who see random forces at work even in the painting of the sunset.
So where do we find the maker's mark? Not in the glories of nature, but somewhere else, in someone who preceded even creation itself. As the gospel writer John proclaims: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people."
It is in Jesus Christ that we see the maker's mark, stamped on creation so that all may know to whom this world belongs. The maker's mark, is not power, or intricacy, or ingenuity ... but love.
Prayer For The Day
When we look at the heavens, O Lord, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established ... we are as filled with awe as the psalmist of old. Yet how swiftly we forget that cosmic perspective, as we turn our vision inward and focus only on the pains and problems of life! Keep us ever mindful that you are Lord and maker of all -- that you fashioned us and all creatures, and that your plan for the universe is still unfolding as you have intended. Our vision and our faith are not always big enough. When they are not, remind us of your limitless love. Amen.
To Illustrate
Have you ever looked at your hands? I mean, have you ever really studied them as one of the most intricate and beautiful parts of the human body? Nineteen bones arranged to form a cup, an arch, a flat surface or a balled fist, each shape occurring on demand. Fingers able delicately to lift a needle from a table or twist open the stubborn cap of a fruit jar or distinguish between a penny and a dime merely by touch. No engineer designing robot hands has ever come close to such perfection
-- Scott Harrison, a surgeon
***
There is an old Jewish tale about a rabbi's child who used to wander in the woods. At first his father let him wander, but over time he became concerned. The woods were dangerous. All manner of beasts lurked there. The father took the boy aside one day, and said, "You know, I have noticed that each day you walk into the woods. I wonder, why do you go there?"
The boy said to his father, "I go there to find God."
"That is a very good thing," the father replied. "I am glad you're searching for God. But my child, don't you know that God is the same everywhere?"
"Yes," the boy answered, "but I'm not."
***
"I can only write down this simple testimony. Like all men, I love and prefer the sunny uplands of experience when health, happiness, and success abound but I have learned more about God, life, and myself in the darkness of fear and failure than I have ever learned in the sunshine. There are such things as the treasure of darkness. The darkness, thank God, passes, but what one learns in the darkness, one possesses forever."
-- Leslie Weatherhead
***
"Okay, question," I say to Morrie, his bony fingers hold his glasses across his chest, which rises and falls with each labored breath.
"What's the question?" he says.
Remember the book of Job?
"From the Bible?"
Right. Job is a good man, but God makes him suffer. To test his faith.
"I remember."
Takes away everything he has, his house, his money, his family ...
"His health."
Makes him sick.
"To test his faith."
Right. To test his faith. So I'm wondering ...
"What are you wondering?"
What do you think about that?
Morrie coughs violently, his hands quiver as he drops them to his side.
"I think," he says, smiling, "God overdid it."
-- Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie (New York: Doubleday, 1997), pp. 150-151 (Tuesdays With Morrie is the account of a series of conversations Albom had with Morrie Schwarz, a beloved former teacher who is dying a slow death from ALS [Lou Gehrig's Disease].)
***
Souls are like athletes, that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers.
-- Thomas Merton
***
Joy is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.
-- Anonymous
***
Isn't it the greatest possible disaster, when you are wrestling with God, not to be beaten?
-- Simone Weil
***
Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances ... to choose one's own way.
-- Victor Frankl
