Proper 27 / Ordinary Time 32
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series IX, Cycle A
Theme of the Day
The difference relating to God makes.
Collect of the Day
Petitions are offered to the God of justice and love who illuminates our way through the Son that the faithful may receive the light needed to be awakened to the needs of others. Sanctification and Social Ethics are central themes.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 78:1-7
• Part of a story of God's great deeds (esp. the giving of the law) and His people's faithlessness. This Maskil of Asaph is a Psalm composed for one of the major festivals.
• The Psalm calls the people to listen to the teaching of a parable or dark saying of old (vv. 1-2). These are things heard of old from the ancestors (v. 3).
• Notes that this will not be hidden from the children but will be told to the coming generations -- the glorious deeds of the Lord (v. 4).
• Yahweh established a law in Israel that He commanded the ancestors to teach to their children, that the next generations might know to set their hope in God and keep His commandments (vv. 5-7).
or Psalm 70
• A prayer/lament for deliverance from personal enemies. This Psalm is practically identical with Psalm 40:13-17.
• God is petitioned to deliver the Psalmist (v. 1). The Psalmist requests that those who seek his life be put to shame (v. 2).
• Petitions are offered that all who seek Elohim rejoice and be glad in Him. Those who love His salvation are exhorted to say forevermore that "God is great" (v. 4)!
• The Psalmist adds that he is poor and needy, and so God is petitioned to hasten, for He is our help and deliverer (v. 5).
Sermon Text and Title
"Do You Really Believe That God Will Make a Difference?"
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To highlight the importance of focusing our lives on God, a countercultural commitment in contemporary American society, and the difference it can make. Sin, Justification by Grace, and Sanctification are addressed.
2. Exegesis (see First Lesson, Pentecost 21)
• The covenant at Shechem. This seems to be a fuller account of events reported in 8:30-35.
• Joshua gathered all the tribes at Shechem in Canaan (not far from Samaria and near Mount Ebal, the site of the covenant renewal reported in ch. 8). They presented themselves before God (v. 1).
• After summarizing God's actions in locating the people of Israel in Egypt and liberating them, including how God gave them conquest of the Promised Land (vv. 2-13), the people are told to revere Yahweh and faithfully serve Him and to put away other gods (v. 14).
• Joshua insists the people decide that day whom they will serve. He has chosen Yahweh (v. 15). The people answer that they will not forsake Yahweh Elohim who brought them out of slavery and protected them from all the people they passed, even driving out the Amorites who lived in the Promised Land (vv. 16-18).
• Joshua tells the people that they cannot serve Yahweh, for He is a holy and jealous God who will not forgive their sins (v. 19). If He is forsaken for other gods, He will do them harm (v. 20).
• The people insist they will serve Yahweh, and Joshua gets them to concede that they are their own witnesses about this (vv. 21-22).
• Joshua tells them to put away all foreign gods, inclining their hearts only to Yahweh. The people promised to serve and obey Him (vv. 23-24).
• Joshua then made a covenant with Israel, along with statutes and ordinances (v. 25).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
• The text condemns the sinful waywardness of our practical secularism/idolatry and the good news that God does not abandon us. Besides this testimony to sin and Justification by Grace, Sanctification (our response to this covenant) is outlined.
• Concerning the harsh words of verse 19 John Calvin observes:
In short, Joshua does not deter them [the people] from serving God, but only explains how refractory and disobedient they are, in order that they may learn to change their temper.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. IV/1, p. 277)
• Elaborating further on the text Calvin notes:
By this example we are taught how multifarious are the fallacies occupying the senses of men, and how tortuous the recesses in which they hide their hypocrisy and folly, while they deceive themselves by vain confidence.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. IV/1, p. 278)
• John Wesley interprets verse 19 to entail that:
God's service is not, as you seem to fancy, a slight and easy thing, but it is a work of great difficulty and requires great care and courage and resolution.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 163)
• About this text the famed modern Reformed theologian Karl Barth writes:
The Old Testament covenant is a covenant of grace. It is instituted by God Himself in the fullness of sovereignty and in the freest determination and decree.
(Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/1, p. 23)
• Martin Luther points out how they are works of freedom: "All that a Christian does is nothing but fruit. Everything such a person does is easy for him. Nothing is too arduous" (Luther's Works, Vol. 24, p. 230).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
• Fully 1 in 4 Americans feel that God is distant, according to a 2006 Pew Survey. There is no reason to believe that these numbers have improved in the last nine years, especially in view of the increase in the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans (as per a 2008 poll of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life).
• For data on the breakdown of families and out-of-wedlock births, see this section for the Second Lesson, Epiphany 2 and Advent 2. Regarding drug addiction, a 2009 survey conducted by the National Center for Health Science revealed that 8.7% of Americans under age twelve (just under 1 in 10) used illicit drugs, and 6.6% smoked marijuana. There is a general perception of moral decline in America (see first bullet point of this section for the Second Lesson, Easter 4).
5. Gimmick
Writing about the First Lesson nearly 500 years ago John Calvin noted something that still resonates today. Use the third bullet point of Theological Insights.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
• It is not just the people of Israel in Joshua's day who had a talent for forsaking God for other gods, who had their priorities messed up. We have a great talent for that.
• Highlight the data noted or alluded to in the second bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. Our mad quest for wealth has also led us to create a society in which 1 out of 2 of us is in low income status and many of us are in debt (see sixth bullet point of this section for the First Lesson, Pentecost 11; third bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for the Second Lesson, Christmas).
• We effectively make these values and goods (wealth, sex, drugs) our gods, practicing idolatry as much as the ancient Hebrews did, at least by the account of the sixteenth-century Heidelberg Catechism. It reminds us that idolatry is practiced (we embrace false gods) whence we "imagine or possess something in which to put... trust in place of or beside the one true God..." (The Book of Confessions, 4.095).
• It is like the French Renaissance writer Michel de Montaigne once put it: "Oh senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm or a flea and yet will create gods by the dozen." Then we have another, more subtle way of making idols and worshiping them. It happens when we invoke God to sanction our favorite pet projects and peeves. Modern American novelist Anne Lamott nails us on that one: "You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."
• We need the story of the Hebrews and their idolatry to wake us up to the realities of our worship. Note the observations by John Calvin in the second and third bullet points of Theological Insights. We do such a great job of hiding our idolatry from ourselves, of convincing ourselves of our goodness (see next-to-last bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for the Second Lesson, Advent 2) that we need to be hit over the head with a strong condemnation like we have been in this First Lesson.
• Despite their sin and idolatry, God did not give up on them. He does not give up on us and our waywardness. God establishes a New Covenant with the people in the Canaanite town of Shechem (v. 25). It is a renewal of His covenant with Abraham and all the patriarchs, of His care for the Hebrews in their escape from Egypt and care for them in their settlement of the Holy Land (vv. 4-13). We have here another example of God's faithfulness to His promises (see the First Lesson, Pentecost 21).
• The New Covenant is still a gift of God, and so is a covenant of grace. Use the quote by famed modern theologian Karl Barth in the next-to-last bullet point of Theological Insights.
• Of course our lesson seems to portray the covenant that God offers as demanding. The people are told to put away their false gods and to promise to serve and obey Yahweh, along with statutes and ordinances (laws) (vv. 21-25). Note John Wesley's comment in the fourth bullet point of Theological Insights.
• Review points made by Martin Luther about faith in the last bullet point of Theological Insights for the Gospel, Pentecost 21 (if that lesson for sermon used the previous week). Faith is like the ring holding the diamond (Christ and His word), and its strength does not matter. This is the way to interpret urgings to faith and calls to commitment in the Bible, like this First Lesson. The call to put aside the foreign gods, to reject the values American society coerces us to absolutize, does not demand perfection, is just an invitation to believe that faith in God will make a difference.
• Use the quote by Luther in the last bullet point of Theological Insights above regarding how easy living the life of a Christian is.
7. Wrap-Up
A relationship with God changes things. It changed the Hebrew people (at least sometimes). It easily can change us, prod us away from all our latest infatuations, to lives dedicated to things of God, and to lives of service to Him and others.
First Lesson Complementary Version
Amos 5:18-24
• The eighth century BC prophet to the Northern Kingdom proclaims that the day of the Lord (the Eschaton) will be a day of judgment, not of blessings and vindication as many in Israel believed at this time. The religiosity of the people is condemned; justice and righteousness, what the Lord wants, is promised.
• The text's reference to the Eschaton could be related to the second coming themes of the other lessons for the day, and so their insights might be employed in developing a sermon on this text. Also see the First Lesson, Advent 2, for resources for developing a sermon pertaining to justice.
or Wisdom [of Solomon] 6:12-16
• In this Apochryphal work, probably of the later part of the first century BC by a Hellenized Jew perhaps of Alexandria, Wisdom is personified as a woman seeking those who desire her.
• Resources for developing the theme of Wisdom are available in Lectionary Preaching Workbook, Cycle B, pp. 376-380, 383-385. To develop the themes of Wisdom as female, a female component of God, and its social implications, see the second bullet point of the Complementary Version of the First Lesson for Pentecost 17.
Sermon Text and Title
"Resurrection Hope in the Midst of Our Doubt and Despair"
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To engage doubts about the resurrection with the assurances we have of its reality and the implications of that reality for coping with daily life. Justification by Grace, Sanctification, and Eschatology receive attention.
2. Exegesis
• Paul addresses questions concerning the coming of the Lord.
• He does not want the people uninformed about those who have died. He wants them to have hope (v. 13).
• He reminds them that as Jesus died and rose again, so through Jesus God will bring with Him those who have died (v. 14).
• Paul then declares that those still alive and left until the Lord comes will not precede those who have died (v. 15).
• The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the archangel's call and sound of a trumpet, and then the dead in Christ will rise first (v. 16). Then those alive will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (v. 17).
• Paul urges the faithful to encourage each other with these words (v. 18).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
• The text addresses the second coming and the general resurrection (Future Eschatology) as well its implications for daily living (Justification by Grace and Sanctification).
• John Calvin sees this text as seeking to "restrain excessive grief, which would never have had such an influence among them, if they had seriously considered the resurrection, and kept it in remembrance" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXI/2, p. 279). He adds:
Let, therefore, the grief of the pious be mixed with consolation, which may train them to patience. The hope of a blessed resurrection, which is the mother of patience, will effect this.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXI/2, p. 280)
• About this text John Wesley writes:
Herein the efficacy of Christianity greatly appears, that it neither takes away nor embitters, but sweetly tempers that most refined of all affections, our desire of or love to the dead.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 550)
• About the text John Calvin notes that "we ought to unlearn all that we have learned apart from Christ..." (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXI/3, p. 246). He adds:
This passage teaches us, that we ought to be as careful to guard against obstinacy in matters that are uncertain (such as all the doctrines of men are)... besides, we learn from it, that faith ought to be accompanied by prudence, that it may distinguish between the word of God and the word of men, so that we may not adopt at random everything that is brought forward.
(Ibid., p. 247)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
• For medical data on the payoff for health that optimism about the future affords, see the last two bullet points of this section for the First Lesson, Advent 1.
• For data on the despair Americans presently feel, see the data in the last bullet point of this section for the First Lesson; for the First Lesson, Epiphany; for the Gospel, Ascension.
5. Gimmick
Preachers should note that there are many things about Christian faith that are hard for modern people to understand, things like the biblical miracles and the idea that God became a man. Nor can we see His resurrection transpire, like the disciples did. Because we cannot directly experience these things they can become problems for faith.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
• Suggest to the congregation that they may have engaged in these struggles over believing in the miracles. Give assurances (using remarks by Martin Luther in last bullet point of Theological Insights for the Gospel, Pentecost 21) that the strength of one's faith does not determine our relation with God.
• Suggest to the congregation that there may be special struggles believing in the resurrection of the dead at Christ's second coming. Confess discomfort over how such a belief too readily makes Christianity seem "other-worldly." Even Paul warns us against undue preoccupation with the "by-and-by," as in 1 Corinthians 2:9 he writes, "... no eye has seen, nor ear heard... what God has prepared for those who love Him."
• The Second Lesson forces us to consider these agendas. Paul was clearly dealing with a group of Christians in Thessalonica who had begun to lose hope. He wanted to make clear that Christ would come again and to give hope that the faithful dead would receive eternal life and give them encouragement.
• Note that some among the flock have recently lost loved ones or are coming to the end of life's journey here on earth. All will face death someday -- perhaps sooner than we think. Then there's the despair many feel about the situation in contemporary American life. Consider the data alluded to in the last bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
• Our Second Lesson was not Paul's only attempt to respond to doubts about eternal life. He also does this in 1 Corinthians 15. The insights in that text help us respond to some of the concerns about the "other-worldly," hard-to-believe aspects of teaching the resurrection of the dead.
• Too many of us think of the resurrection in terms of eternal souls flying around here or there, playing harps in heaven, without the encumbrance of the body. All that seems hard to swallow for modern people like us, children of the sexual revolution and so not ashamed of the body as we are.
It is apparent that this idea of the resurrection as a freeing of the soul from the body was running around in Paul's day, probably derived from ancient Greek philosophy (Great Dialogues of Plato, p. 485). It's certainly an idea in the air among some Christians and cultural critics of our faith today.
• It just shows how many ideas about Christianity seem to persist forever. Because Christianity has nothing to do with souls and spirits detached from the body. Even when Paul talks about the souls he means something very different from a reality detached from the body. Why? Because Christianity proclaims the resurrection of the body! It is part of our creed, and Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-44. Read the text.
• Our bodies are like and unlike the bodies we'll have at the resurrection, like seed or kernel is related to the plant that springs from it. Understood this way the resurrection does not seem quite as impossible to fathom. We have all experienced the spring when new life begins as the leaves grow and seeds start to sprout plants, or the summer as the crops grow and are harvested in the fall. Ask the congregation if they have not watched the sun peep through the clouds after a thunderstorm or experienced a new and happy beginning after tough times or a broken relationship. Who says none of us has experienced a resurrection like Paul and Jesus promised? Use the quote by Martin Luther in the seventh bullet point of this section of the Gospel for Transfiguration.
• Note that to feel the wonder and exhilaration of a new day dawning, the joy and excitement of a young married couple just starting out on their life together, the anticipation and wonder of beholding one's first child is to get a "taste" of what the final resurrection will be like. All these realities, and especially the promise in our lesson of Christ coming again and our resurrection, give wonderful hope. Use the quote by Calvin in the second bullet point of Theological Insights, stressing the wonderful comfort and consolation the resurrection gives in coping with all the trials of life (including fear of death).
• This brings us to a final point. If there is a similarity between physical death and the final resurrection on one hand and the little deaths and resurrections we experience in everyday life, then there must be a relation between those who have died in Christ (our deceased loved ones) and those who live. (Consider quotation by John Wesley in third bullet point of Theological Insights.) Not only is there a similarity between the hope new beginnings in life give us and the hope we have of eternal life, but it also means that here on earth in those wonderful new beginnings we get a glimpse of Christ's second coming, of the resurrection, in the little resurrections right here and now. That new job, that new relationship that comes out of nowhere in the midst of despair is a taste of Christ's second coming and eternal life (because those good things only happen because Jesus and the Holy Spirit is in the midst of these events)!
• Famed Reformed theologian Karl Barth nicely describes this interpenetration between the resurrection and daily life. "And so the time in which we live conceals and yet preserves eternity with it, speaks not of eternity yet proclaims it in silence" (The Epistle to the Romans, p. 304). Only because eternal life has become a reality in the present that there exists the little deaths and resurrections we have noted in daily life. In their silence, the rising us, the new baby, the hope of new marriage proclaim eternity. But then that means the gap between the living and the dead, between eternal life and today, is not great. Not so hard to believe the resurrection and eternal life, the downs in life are not so awful, when you realize that you've been seeing death and meaninglessness overcome again and again in your own life and in history. As the sun rises, new hope is given; new life is born!
7. Wrap-Up
All of us, living and dead, are in the same boat -- the S.S. Hope. And its final destination is eternal, the resurrection God has promised. The doubts and despair about this destination, the doubts and despair about the chaos and agonies of everyday life, don't have a chance. Don't miss eternity this week, especially when you encounter hassles.
Sermon Text and Title
"Making Sure We've Got the Right Priorities"
Matthew 25:1-13
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To help the congregation clarify priorities about what is important in life, pointing out how we seek comfort in the wrong things, overlooking how when our relationship with God in Christ is right, our paths in life are illuminated. Sin, Justification by Grace, and Sanctification are addressed. An element of urgency (Realized Eschatology) to sort out one's priorities could also be introduced.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
• The parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids.
• Jesus compares the kingdom of God to ten bridesmaids who went to meet the bridegroom (v. 1). Five were foolish and five were wise (v. 2). A distinction can be made between the second coming of Christ and the coming of the kingdom.
• The foolish took no oil, but the wise had flasks of oil with their lamps (vv. 3-4).
• When the bridegroom was delayed, everyone slept (v. 5). Then there was a shout at midnight that the bridegroom was coming (v. 6).
• All the bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish asked the wise for some oil (vv. 7-8). But these women replied that there will not be enough for everyone, and those without oil had to go to dealers to buy more for themselves (v. 9).
• While the foolish women were gone, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went with him to the wedding banquet and then the doors were shut (v. 10).
• The foolish bridesmaids came to ask the lord to open the door for them, but he replies that he does not know them (vv. 1112). Jesus adds that we must keep awake, for we know neither the day nor the hour (v. 13).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
• The text is a lesson in how God would have us use the resources He gives us, reminding us of our sin, and the need to focus on faith (Justification by Grace) and a model for the Christian life (Sanctification). There is also a dimension of Realized Eschatology associated with the text (the need to keep awake for the Lord's return).
• Augustine suggests that we are all to be identified with virgins in the sense that "it is good to abstain from the unlawful excitements of the senses, and on that account every Christian soul has gotten the name virgin..." (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 402). In his view: "The lamps of the wise virgins burned with an inward oil, with the assurance of a good conscience, with an inner glory, and an inmost charity" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 404). By contrast, the African father adds, the virgins who were seeking to obtain more oil were "seeking for persons by whom to be comforted, and find none..." (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 405).
• About the lamps of the bridesmaids John Wesley writes: "The lamp is faith. A lamp and oil with it is faith working by love" (Commentary on the Bible, p. 421).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
• See the second bullet point of this section for the First Lesson and the second bullet point of Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples for the First Lesson for examples of American confusion about the right priorities.
• Neurobiology indicates that because the executive part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex is activated in faith, a faithful life is more inclined to reflect good priorities (Dean Hamer, The God Gene, pp. 72ff).
5. Gimmick
Recount the parable in dramatic fashion. Then note how odd its message seems to be, for those of us living on a post-patriarchal feminist world. Ask the women in the church if they cannot agree that weddings are nice and being a bridesmaid is an honor, but that it is no longer the bridegroom who sets the agenda. Ask the men in parish if they feel left out.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
• Note that the ancient African theologian says that story is about all of us, and we are all bridesmaids (see second bullet point of Theological Insights). Highlight his point that we are all virgins to the extent that we let faith, not our own passions and experiences of the moment, dictate life's agenda.
• Use John Wesley's comments in the last bullet point of Theological Insights. All us bridesmaids, waiting for Jesus, have faith (lamps). But we need something to burn that faith, we need oil to live the life of a Christian. Seems that if you burn this oil, this energy on other activities, then you've got nothing left for living the Christian life!
• We're all going to burn our oil for some reason. But will you burn it waiting for Jesus to come? Or for some other activity -- like wealth accumulation, sex, drugs, the good time? (Follow leads in first bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.)
• We all must burn oil using our energy for our priorities. In that sense all us play the game of Survivor. But is our aim to set the priorities it takes to win Survivor, doing what it takes to promote ourselves and our own interests? Or will we care more about trying to help others on the show, trying to do what God would want? The doctrine of original sin teaches that we are all trying to win Survivor, except for those wonderful moments when by the miracle of grace we do deeds that do not immediately seem to be in our own interest, when we burn our oil, and devote our energy to the things of God.
• Note the quotations by Augustine in the second bullet point of Theological Insights. He equates the oil with assurance faith brings, a quest for assurance we sometimes spend by seeking the assurance from other human beings by the works we do! We burn our oil seeking assurance from others, from "things," and not from God. Much like the people of Israel in our First Lesson we go whoring after false gods (Joshua 24:20-23).
• We have failed to heed the advice of famed nineteenth-century German writer Johann von Goethe: "Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least."
• Urge the congregation not to get too stressed at this point. Cues are given by the reference to the bridegroom, to Christ coming soon. When you are ready for Christ, ready to embrace Him, then as Augustine claimed, you'll have all the oil you need.
• Elaborate on the second bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. With faith, the front part of our brains is activated, and that cluster of neurons (the prefrontal cortex) keeps in check the urgings of lower desires for emotional or instant gratifications (agendas of the brain's limbic system or its parietal lobe). Also the brain chemical dopamine secreted in faith, with the brain's prefrontal cortex functioning, produces more energy (Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, pp. 148-149). Ask if it is not wonderful that God has created us in such a way that following Him comes so readily, and He gives us physically and spiritually all we need.
7. Wrap-Up
Help the parishioners in closing see that in Christ, when relating to Him, all our priorities fall properly in place. Faith in God is not just a matter of mouthing words and feelings. It makes a difference in how we live, a healthy, humanitarian, fun difference in our lives.
The difference relating to God makes.
Collect of the Day
Petitions are offered to the God of justice and love who illuminates our way through the Son that the faithful may receive the light needed to be awakened to the needs of others. Sanctification and Social Ethics are central themes.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 78:1-7
• Part of a story of God's great deeds (esp. the giving of the law) and His people's faithlessness. This Maskil of Asaph is a Psalm composed for one of the major festivals.
• The Psalm calls the people to listen to the teaching of a parable or dark saying of old (vv. 1-2). These are things heard of old from the ancestors (v. 3).
• Notes that this will not be hidden from the children but will be told to the coming generations -- the glorious deeds of the Lord (v. 4).
• Yahweh established a law in Israel that He commanded the ancestors to teach to their children, that the next generations might know to set their hope in God and keep His commandments (vv. 5-7).
or Psalm 70
• A prayer/lament for deliverance from personal enemies. This Psalm is practically identical with Psalm 40:13-17.
• God is petitioned to deliver the Psalmist (v. 1). The Psalmist requests that those who seek his life be put to shame (v. 2).
• Petitions are offered that all who seek Elohim rejoice and be glad in Him. Those who love His salvation are exhorted to say forevermore that "God is great" (v. 4)!
• The Psalmist adds that he is poor and needy, and so God is petitioned to hasten, for He is our help and deliverer (v. 5).
Sermon Text and Title
"Do You Really Believe That God Will Make a Difference?"
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To highlight the importance of focusing our lives on God, a countercultural commitment in contemporary American society, and the difference it can make. Sin, Justification by Grace, and Sanctification are addressed.
2. Exegesis (see First Lesson, Pentecost 21)
• The covenant at Shechem. This seems to be a fuller account of events reported in 8:30-35.
• Joshua gathered all the tribes at Shechem in Canaan (not far from Samaria and near Mount Ebal, the site of the covenant renewal reported in ch. 8). They presented themselves before God (v. 1).
• After summarizing God's actions in locating the people of Israel in Egypt and liberating them, including how God gave them conquest of the Promised Land (vv. 2-13), the people are told to revere Yahweh and faithfully serve Him and to put away other gods (v. 14).
• Joshua insists the people decide that day whom they will serve. He has chosen Yahweh (v. 15). The people answer that they will not forsake Yahweh Elohim who brought them out of slavery and protected them from all the people they passed, even driving out the Amorites who lived in the Promised Land (vv. 16-18).
• Joshua tells the people that they cannot serve Yahweh, for He is a holy and jealous God who will not forgive their sins (v. 19). If He is forsaken for other gods, He will do them harm (v. 20).
• The people insist they will serve Yahweh, and Joshua gets them to concede that they are their own witnesses about this (vv. 21-22).
• Joshua tells them to put away all foreign gods, inclining their hearts only to Yahweh. The people promised to serve and obey Him (vv. 23-24).
• Joshua then made a covenant with Israel, along with statutes and ordinances (v. 25).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
• The text condemns the sinful waywardness of our practical secularism/idolatry and the good news that God does not abandon us. Besides this testimony to sin and Justification by Grace, Sanctification (our response to this covenant) is outlined.
• Concerning the harsh words of verse 19 John Calvin observes:
In short, Joshua does not deter them [the people] from serving God, but only explains how refractory and disobedient they are, in order that they may learn to change their temper.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. IV/1, p. 277)
• Elaborating further on the text Calvin notes:
By this example we are taught how multifarious are the fallacies occupying the senses of men, and how tortuous the recesses in which they hide their hypocrisy and folly, while they deceive themselves by vain confidence.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. IV/1, p. 278)
• John Wesley interprets verse 19 to entail that:
God's service is not, as you seem to fancy, a slight and easy thing, but it is a work of great difficulty and requires great care and courage and resolution.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 163)
• About this text the famed modern Reformed theologian Karl Barth writes:
The Old Testament covenant is a covenant of grace. It is instituted by God Himself in the fullness of sovereignty and in the freest determination and decree.
(Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/1, p. 23)
• Martin Luther points out how they are works of freedom: "All that a Christian does is nothing but fruit. Everything such a person does is easy for him. Nothing is too arduous" (Luther's Works, Vol. 24, p. 230).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
• Fully 1 in 4 Americans feel that God is distant, according to a 2006 Pew Survey. There is no reason to believe that these numbers have improved in the last nine years, especially in view of the increase in the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans (as per a 2008 poll of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life).
• For data on the breakdown of families and out-of-wedlock births, see this section for the Second Lesson, Epiphany 2 and Advent 2. Regarding drug addiction, a 2009 survey conducted by the National Center for Health Science revealed that 8.7% of Americans under age twelve (just under 1 in 10) used illicit drugs, and 6.6% smoked marijuana. There is a general perception of moral decline in America (see first bullet point of this section for the Second Lesson, Easter 4).
5. Gimmick
Writing about the First Lesson nearly 500 years ago John Calvin noted something that still resonates today. Use the third bullet point of Theological Insights.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
• It is not just the people of Israel in Joshua's day who had a talent for forsaking God for other gods, who had their priorities messed up. We have a great talent for that.
• Highlight the data noted or alluded to in the second bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. Our mad quest for wealth has also led us to create a society in which 1 out of 2 of us is in low income status and many of us are in debt (see sixth bullet point of this section for the First Lesson, Pentecost 11; third bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for the Second Lesson, Christmas).
• We effectively make these values and goods (wealth, sex, drugs) our gods, practicing idolatry as much as the ancient Hebrews did, at least by the account of the sixteenth-century Heidelberg Catechism. It reminds us that idolatry is practiced (we embrace false gods) whence we "imagine or possess something in which to put... trust in place of or beside the one true God..." (The Book of Confessions, 4.095).
• It is like the French Renaissance writer Michel de Montaigne once put it: "Oh senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm or a flea and yet will create gods by the dozen." Then we have another, more subtle way of making idols and worshiping them. It happens when we invoke God to sanction our favorite pet projects and peeves. Modern American novelist Anne Lamott nails us on that one: "You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."
• We need the story of the Hebrews and their idolatry to wake us up to the realities of our worship. Note the observations by John Calvin in the second and third bullet points of Theological Insights. We do such a great job of hiding our idolatry from ourselves, of convincing ourselves of our goodness (see next-to-last bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for the Second Lesson, Advent 2) that we need to be hit over the head with a strong condemnation like we have been in this First Lesson.
• Despite their sin and idolatry, God did not give up on them. He does not give up on us and our waywardness. God establishes a New Covenant with the people in the Canaanite town of Shechem (v. 25). It is a renewal of His covenant with Abraham and all the patriarchs, of His care for the Hebrews in their escape from Egypt and care for them in their settlement of the Holy Land (vv. 4-13). We have here another example of God's faithfulness to His promises (see the First Lesson, Pentecost 21).
• The New Covenant is still a gift of God, and so is a covenant of grace. Use the quote by famed modern theologian Karl Barth in the next-to-last bullet point of Theological Insights.
• Of course our lesson seems to portray the covenant that God offers as demanding. The people are told to put away their false gods and to promise to serve and obey Yahweh, along with statutes and ordinances (laws) (vv. 21-25). Note John Wesley's comment in the fourth bullet point of Theological Insights.
• Review points made by Martin Luther about faith in the last bullet point of Theological Insights for the Gospel, Pentecost 21 (if that lesson for sermon used the previous week). Faith is like the ring holding the diamond (Christ and His word), and its strength does not matter. This is the way to interpret urgings to faith and calls to commitment in the Bible, like this First Lesson. The call to put aside the foreign gods, to reject the values American society coerces us to absolutize, does not demand perfection, is just an invitation to believe that faith in God will make a difference.
• Use the quote by Luther in the last bullet point of Theological Insights above regarding how easy living the life of a Christian is.
7. Wrap-Up
A relationship with God changes things. It changed the Hebrew people (at least sometimes). It easily can change us, prod us away from all our latest infatuations, to lives dedicated to things of God, and to lives of service to Him and others.
First Lesson Complementary Version
Amos 5:18-24
• The eighth century BC prophet to the Northern Kingdom proclaims that the day of the Lord (the Eschaton) will be a day of judgment, not of blessings and vindication as many in Israel believed at this time. The religiosity of the people is condemned; justice and righteousness, what the Lord wants, is promised.
• The text's reference to the Eschaton could be related to the second coming themes of the other lessons for the day, and so their insights might be employed in developing a sermon on this text. Also see the First Lesson, Advent 2, for resources for developing a sermon pertaining to justice.
or Wisdom [of Solomon] 6:12-16
• In this Apochryphal work, probably of the later part of the first century BC by a Hellenized Jew perhaps of Alexandria, Wisdom is personified as a woman seeking those who desire her.
• Resources for developing the theme of Wisdom are available in Lectionary Preaching Workbook, Cycle B, pp. 376-380, 383-385. To develop the themes of Wisdom as female, a female component of God, and its social implications, see the second bullet point of the Complementary Version of the First Lesson for Pentecost 17.
Sermon Text and Title
"Resurrection Hope in the Midst of Our Doubt and Despair"
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To engage doubts about the resurrection with the assurances we have of its reality and the implications of that reality for coping with daily life. Justification by Grace, Sanctification, and Eschatology receive attention.
2. Exegesis
• Paul addresses questions concerning the coming of the Lord.
• He does not want the people uninformed about those who have died. He wants them to have hope (v. 13).
• He reminds them that as Jesus died and rose again, so through Jesus God will bring with Him those who have died (v. 14).
• Paul then declares that those still alive and left until the Lord comes will not precede those who have died (v. 15).
• The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the archangel's call and sound of a trumpet, and then the dead in Christ will rise first (v. 16). Then those alive will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (v. 17).
• Paul urges the faithful to encourage each other with these words (v. 18).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
• The text addresses the second coming and the general resurrection (Future Eschatology) as well its implications for daily living (Justification by Grace and Sanctification).
• John Calvin sees this text as seeking to "restrain excessive grief, which would never have had such an influence among them, if they had seriously considered the resurrection, and kept it in remembrance" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXI/2, p. 279). He adds:
Let, therefore, the grief of the pious be mixed with consolation, which may train them to patience. The hope of a blessed resurrection, which is the mother of patience, will effect this.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXI/2, p. 280)
• About this text John Wesley writes:
Herein the efficacy of Christianity greatly appears, that it neither takes away nor embitters, but sweetly tempers that most refined of all affections, our desire of or love to the dead.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 550)
• About the text John Calvin notes that "we ought to unlearn all that we have learned apart from Christ..." (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXI/3, p. 246). He adds:
This passage teaches us, that we ought to be as careful to guard against obstinacy in matters that are uncertain (such as all the doctrines of men are)... besides, we learn from it, that faith ought to be accompanied by prudence, that it may distinguish between the word of God and the word of men, so that we may not adopt at random everything that is brought forward.
(Ibid., p. 247)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
• For medical data on the payoff for health that optimism about the future affords, see the last two bullet points of this section for the First Lesson, Advent 1.
• For data on the despair Americans presently feel, see the data in the last bullet point of this section for the First Lesson; for the First Lesson, Epiphany; for the Gospel, Ascension.
5. Gimmick
Preachers should note that there are many things about Christian faith that are hard for modern people to understand, things like the biblical miracles and the idea that God became a man. Nor can we see His resurrection transpire, like the disciples did. Because we cannot directly experience these things they can become problems for faith.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
• Suggest to the congregation that they may have engaged in these struggles over believing in the miracles. Give assurances (using remarks by Martin Luther in last bullet point of Theological Insights for the Gospel, Pentecost 21) that the strength of one's faith does not determine our relation with God.
• Suggest to the congregation that there may be special struggles believing in the resurrection of the dead at Christ's second coming. Confess discomfort over how such a belief too readily makes Christianity seem "other-worldly." Even Paul warns us against undue preoccupation with the "by-and-by," as in 1 Corinthians 2:9 he writes, "... no eye has seen, nor ear heard... what God has prepared for those who love Him."
• The Second Lesson forces us to consider these agendas. Paul was clearly dealing with a group of Christians in Thessalonica who had begun to lose hope. He wanted to make clear that Christ would come again and to give hope that the faithful dead would receive eternal life and give them encouragement.
• Note that some among the flock have recently lost loved ones or are coming to the end of life's journey here on earth. All will face death someday -- perhaps sooner than we think. Then there's the despair many feel about the situation in contemporary American life. Consider the data alluded to in the last bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
• Our Second Lesson was not Paul's only attempt to respond to doubts about eternal life. He also does this in 1 Corinthians 15. The insights in that text help us respond to some of the concerns about the "other-worldly," hard-to-believe aspects of teaching the resurrection of the dead.
• Too many of us think of the resurrection in terms of eternal souls flying around here or there, playing harps in heaven, without the encumbrance of the body. All that seems hard to swallow for modern people like us, children of the sexual revolution and so not ashamed of the body as we are.
It is apparent that this idea of the resurrection as a freeing of the soul from the body was running around in Paul's day, probably derived from ancient Greek philosophy (Great Dialogues of Plato, p. 485). It's certainly an idea in the air among some Christians and cultural critics of our faith today.
• It just shows how many ideas about Christianity seem to persist forever. Because Christianity has nothing to do with souls and spirits detached from the body. Even when Paul talks about the souls he means something very different from a reality detached from the body. Why? Because Christianity proclaims the resurrection of the body! It is part of our creed, and Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-44. Read the text.
• Our bodies are like and unlike the bodies we'll have at the resurrection, like seed or kernel is related to the plant that springs from it. Understood this way the resurrection does not seem quite as impossible to fathom. We have all experienced the spring when new life begins as the leaves grow and seeds start to sprout plants, or the summer as the crops grow and are harvested in the fall. Ask the congregation if they have not watched the sun peep through the clouds after a thunderstorm or experienced a new and happy beginning after tough times or a broken relationship. Who says none of us has experienced a resurrection like Paul and Jesus promised? Use the quote by Martin Luther in the seventh bullet point of this section of the Gospel for Transfiguration.
• Note that to feel the wonder and exhilaration of a new day dawning, the joy and excitement of a young married couple just starting out on their life together, the anticipation and wonder of beholding one's first child is to get a "taste" of what the final resurrection will be like. All these realities, and especially the promise in our lesson of Christ coming again and our resurrection, give wonderful hope. Use the quote by Calvin in the second bullet point of Theological Insights, stressing the wonderful comfort and consolation the resurrection gives in coping with all the trials of life (including fear of death).
• This brings us to a final point. If there is a similarity between physical death and the final resurrection on one hand and the little deaths and resurrections we experience in everyday life, then there must be a relation between those who have died in Christ (our deceased loved ones) and those who live. (Consider quotation by John Wesley in third bullet point of Theological Insights.) Not only is there a similarity between the hope new beginnings in life give us and the hope we have of eternal life, but it also means that here on earth in those wonderful new beginnings we get a glimpse of Christ's second coming, of the resurrection, in the little resurrections right here and now. That new job, that new relationship that comes out of nowhere in the midst of despair is a taste of Christ's second coming and eternal life (because those good things only happen because Jesus and the Holy Spirit is in the midst of these events)!
• Famed Reformed theologian Karl Barth nicely describes this interpenetration between the resurrection and daily life. "And so the time in which we live conceals and yet preserves eternity with it, speaks not of eternity yet proclaims it in silence" (The Epistle to the Romans, p. 304). Only because eternal life has become a reality in the present that there exists the little deaths and resurrections we have noted in daily life. In their silence, the rising us, the new baby, the hope of new marriage proclaim eternity. But then that means the gap between the living and the dead, between eternal life and today, is not great. Not so hard to believe the resurrection and eternal life, the downs in life are not so awful, when you realize that you've been seeing death and meaninglessness overcome again and again in your own life and in history. As the sun rises, new hope is given; new life is born!
7. Wrap-Up
All of us, living and dead, are in the same boat -- the S.S. Hope. And its final destination is eternal, the resurrection God has promised. The doubts and despair about this destination, the doubts and despair about the chaos and agonies of everyday life, don't have a chance. Don't miss eternity this week, especially when you encounter hassles.
Sermon Text and Title
"Making Sure We've Got the Right Priorities"
Matthew 25:1-13
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To help the congregation clarify priorities about what is important in life, pointing out how we seek comfort in the wrong things, overlooking how when our relationship with God in Christ is right, our paths in life are illuminated. Sin, Justification by Grace, and Sanctification are addressed. An element of urgency (Realized Eschatology) to sort out one's priorities could also be introduced.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
• The parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids.
• Jesus compares the kingdom of God to ten bridesmaids who went to meet the bridegroom (v. 1). Five were foolish and five were wise (v. 2). A distinction can be made between the second coming of Christ and the coming of the kingdom.
• The foolish took no oil, but the wise had flasks of oil with their lamps (vv. 3-4).
• When the bridegroom was delayed, everyone slept (v. 5). Then there was a shout at midnight that the bridegroom was coming (v. 6).
• All the bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish asked the wise for some oil (vv. 7-8). But these women replied that there will not be enough for everyone, and those without oil had to go to dealers to buy more for themselves (v. 9).
• While the foolish women were gone, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went with him to the wedding banquet and then the doors were shut (v. 10).
• The foolish bridesmaids came to ask the lord to open the door for them, but he replies that he does not know them (vv. 1112). Jesus adds that we must keep awake, for we know neither the day nor the hour (v. 13).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
• The text is a lesson in how God would have us use the resources He gives us, reminding us of our sin, and the need to focus on faith (Justification by Grace) and a model for the Christian life (Sanctification). There is also a dimension of Realized Eschatology associated with the text (the need to keep awake for the Lord's return).
• Augustine suggests that we are all to be identified with virgins in the sense that "it is good to abstain from the unlawful excitements of the senses, and on that account every Christian soul has gotten the name virgin..." (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 402). In his view: "The lamps of the wise virgins burned with an inward oil, with the assurance of a good conscience, with an inner glory, and an inmost charity" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 404). By contrast, the African father adds, the virgins who were seeking to obtain more oil were "seeking for persons by whom to be comforted, and find none..." (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 405).
• About the lamps of the bridesmaids John Wesley writes: "The lamp is faith. A lamp and oil with it is faith working by love" (Commentary on the Bible, p. 421).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
• See the second bullet point of this section for the First Lesson and the second bullet point of Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples for the First Lesson for examples of American confusion about the right priorities.
• Neurobiology indicates that because the executive part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex is activated in faith, a faithful life is more inclined to reflect good priorities (Dean Hamer, The God Gene, pp. 72ff).
5. Gimmick
Recount the parable in dramatic fashion. Then note how odd its message seems to be, for those of us living on a post-patriarchal feminist world. Ask the women in the church if they cannot agree that weddings are nice and being a bridesmaid is an honor, but that it is no longer the bridegroom who sets the agenda. Ask the men in parish if they feel left out.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
• Note that the ancient African theologian says that story is about all of us, and we are all bridesmaids (see second bullet point of Theological Insights). Highlight his point that we are all virgins to the extent that we let faith, not our own passions and experiences of the moment, dictate life's agenda.
• Use John Wesley's comments in the last bullet point of Theological Insights. All us bridesmaids, waiting for Jesus, have faith (lamps). But we need something to burn that faith, we need oil to live the life of a Christian. Seems that if you burn this oil, this energy on other activities, then you've got nothing left for living the Christian life!
• We're all going to burn our oil for some reason. But will you burn it waiting for Jesus to come? Or for some other activity -- like wealth accumulation, sex, drugs, the good time? (Follow leads in first bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.)
• We all must burn oil using our energy for our priorities. In that sense all us play the game of Survivor. But is our aim to set the priorities it takes to win Survivor, doing what it takes to promote ourselves and our own interests? Or will we care more about trying to help others on the show, trying to do what God would want? The doctrine of original sin teaches that we are all trying to win Survivor, except for those wonderful moments when by the miracle of grace we do deeds that do not immediately seem to be in our own interest, when we burn our oil, and devote our energy to the things of God.
• Note the quotations by Augustine in the second bullet point of Theological Insights. He equates the oil with assurance faith brings, a quest for assurance we sometimes spend by seeking the assurance from other human beings by the works we do! We burn our oil seeking assurance from others, from "things," and not from God. Much like the people of Israel in our First Lesson we go whoring after false gods (Joshua 24:20-23).
• We have failed to heed the advice of famed nineteenth-century German writer Johann von Goethe: "Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least."
• Urge the congregation not to get too stressed at this point. Cues are given by the reference to the bridegroom, to Christ coming soon. When you are ready for Christ, ready to embrace Him, then as Augustine claimed, you'll have all the oil you need.
• Elaborate on the second bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. With faith, the front part of our brains is activated, and that cluster of neurons (the prefrontal cortex) keeps in check the urgings of lower desires for emotional or instant gratifications (agendas of the brain's limbic system or its parietal lobe). Also the brain chemical dopamine secreted in faith, with the brain's prefrontal cortex functioning, produces more energy (Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, pp. 148-149). Ask if it is not wonderful that God has created us in such a way that following Him comes so readily, and He gives us physically and spiritually all we need.
7. Wrap-Up
Help the parishioners in closing see that in Christ, when relating to Him, all our priorities fall properly in place. Faith in God is not just a matter of mouthing words and feelings. It makes a difference in how we live, a healthy, humanitarian, fun difference in our lives.
