Sermonstudio

Theme of the Day
We never get it right 'til we're right with God.

Collect of the Day
Petitions are offered to increase our faith and trust in the all-powerful God who turned death into life in order that the faithful may triumph over all evil. Sanctification is emphasized.

Psalm of the Day
Psalm 138
* A thanksgiving for deliverance from trouble, attributed to David.
* The thanks is given in the temple court (v. 2).
* Reference to giving thanks before the gods (v. 1) likely refers to Yahweh's supremacy over all the gods.
* The hymn includes a prophecy that all the kings of the world will praise God (vv. 4-5). This seems to be fulfilled in Christianity.
* God is said to be high though He regards the lowly, is One who preserves us, and is a God of steadfast love (vv. 6-8). A preferential option for the poor is suggested here. As John Calvin wrote: "… the greatness of God does not prevent His having respect to the poor and humble ones of the earth" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. VI/2, p. 202).

or Psalm 130
* A lament prayer for deliverance from personal trouble. One of the Songs of Ascent (or Pilgrim Psalms).
* Though none are worthy to stand before God, He is forgiving (vv. 3-4).
* God is portrayed as a God of steadfast love. The Psalmist assures that He will redeem Israel (vv. 7-8).

Sermon Text and Title
"Real Power Belongs to God"
1 Samuel 8:4-11 (12-15) 16-20 (11:14-15)

1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim our sin in the exercise of power (Social Ethics and Ministry) and how power ultimately belongs to God (Providence), so that it is only rightly used when surrendered to Him, making possible links to the November elections.

2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* The story of the development of kingship in Israel, over Samuel's objections.
* Samuel is approached by the elders of Israel to appoint a king (8:4-5).
* This displeased Samuel (8:6). The Lord tells Samuel to proceed with the request, interpreting it as a rejection of Him, for He is their true king (8:7).
* The Lord proceeds to recount how the people have repeatedly forsaken Him (8:8). He has Samuel warn them of what kings will do to them (8:9).
* Samuel complies, issuing the warning that the king will take the sons of the elders to administer his chariots, command the people, and reap his harvest (8:10-12). Their daughters will be made his cooks (8:13). The king will take over their fields and commandeer one tenth of their grain (8:14-15). He will take the elders' possessions, effectively rendering them slaves (8:16-17). Then they will cry out, but the Lord will not answer (8:18).
* The people of Israel refuse to listen, wanting a king like other nations (8:19-20).
* After a long narrative on how Saul was chosen to be king (chs. 9-11), the lesson may end with Samuel's direction to make Saul king (11:14-15).

3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text reveals our sinful use of power (Social Ethics and Ministry), but also how legitimate power and its use for good is ultimately under God's control (Providence).
* Ancient North African Bishop Cyprian of Carthage saw the account as an example of the consequences involved for people when they reject the authority of God's priests (like Samuel) (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 366).
* John Wesley noted that in seeking a king, the desires of the people of Israel exceeded their reason (Commentary on the Bible, p. 183). Also see the quotation by Wesley in this section for the First Lesson, Pentecost 6, on the need for his flock to trust that all good done on earth is done by God.
* We are victimized by a blindness to the ways of earthly power, which is in part related to how readily it corrupts and becomes corrupted. The great twentieth-century social analyst Reinhold Niebuhr issued such a warning that continues to echo profoundly in our context:

Government is never completely under the control of a total community. There is always some class, whether economic overlords or political bureaucrats, who may use the organs of government for their special advantages. Powerful classes dominate the administration of justice….
(Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life, p. 58)

* In a similar vein, Martin Luther well described what the results the exercise of earthly power yield:

A worldly kingdom, however, prefers to make enemies of friends by taking and demanding what is good… For how would a worldly king maintain himself if he did not demand or take anything from his subjects and friends but instead tolerated every evil, punished nothing, and let everyone ridicule him and make a fool of him?
(Luther's Works, Vol. 20, p. 200)

* It is by contrast, Luther adds, the way of God's kingdom to seek to make friends of enemies, offering them only that which is good while God suffers every evil from them (Ibid.).
* Likewise, John Calvin asserted that real power in government ultimately belongs to God: "For God was so pleased to rule the affairs of men, inasmuch as He is present with them and also presides over the making of laws and the exercising of equity in the courts of justice" (Institutes, p. 1489).

4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* A May 2010 poll by the Society for Human Resource Management reveals a mere 13% approval rating for Congress and that 56% of the public do not have much confidence in government.
* A 2009 Gallup poll indicated that only 1 in 2 Americans trusted the clergy.
* The realistic/pessimistic view of human exercise of power noted above in Theological Insights was shared by America's Founders and reflects in the Constitution's separation of powers. See my When Did Jesus Become Republican?, esp. pp. 129-135, for details. One quote by Alexander Hamilton is especially illustrative of this point: "Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint" (The Federalist Papers, p. 110).

5. Gimmick
The people of Israel were craving strong leadership, sort of like we are today (as the presidential sweepstakes narrows to two). The existing system of having Judges rule in the various tribal locations seemed to make the Hebrews vulnerable to foreign powers. Many believed it would be different if they had a king, like all the surrounding peoples had a king. In short, the Hebrew people wanted to reinvent government. Sound familiar?

6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Rehearse the story. Highlight Samuel's and God's objection to the plan (vv. 6-8). To date, Israel had relied on a weak central government with strong local government. Relying on the leadership provided by judges of each of the twelve tribes had been a unique structure, a source of pride. For the Hebrews told themselves that they were this way depending on God for their security while the surrounding people relied on a king.
* This explains the issues raised by Samuel and presumably through him by God. The Jews' desire for a king seemed like a rejection of the Lord's rule, a statement by the people that a king would protect them better than God had. And since the judges were also religious leaders, to reject their authority in favor of a king was like diminishing the political clout of the clergy (see the second bullet point of Theological Insights). We do that today too, do we not?
* The people are warned what a mistake they are making in wanting a king, how a king would oppress them. (Elaborate on vv. 10-17.) If you consider the history of the subsequent kings, even of Saul and David and Solomon, they did indeed use the people they ruled, while amassing more and more power and wealth (2 Samuel 15:16; 1 Kings 10:23; 12:4, 10-11; 2 Kings 23:35).
* Of course, if you believe in the doctrine of Original Sin like we Christians do this is no surprise. The famed quotation of the nineteenth-century historian and moralist Baron Acton certainly applies in this case (as well as in all institutions): "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."
* When you put people in power (and that includes us), they will take advantage of that power. Use and elaborate on the quotations by Niebuhr and Luther above in Theological Insights. Note how Luther's point indicates that political leaders (and pastors) are not insidiously evil. In order to maintain power they have to exercise it over those they lead in a way that lauds their power over the led. It is no accident that presidential candidates and some church leaders stay in the swanky hotels, use the best cars and planes when traveling, and live in luxurious homes/parsonages.
* It's not intended, but what effectively happens is, like Niebuhr claims, that leaders become part of the upper classes in society, and quite naturally because the wealthy and powerful become the leaders' natural allies, the rich and powerful become the ones who profit and dominate in the system. Ask if that is not what happens in America today.
* The Hebrew people made a mistake in wanting a king, didn't they? It's like seventeenth-century French intellectual Blaise Pascal described the power of kings: "The power of kings is founded on the reason and folly of the people, but especially on their folly" (Pensees, p. 36).
* What can we do about it? What should Christians do about the situation in our nation, in our church? In a sense, it is a matter of waking up to their realities. This is one of the important contributions Christianity makes to the world. With our doctrine of sin, at its best the Christian faith teaches us lessons in realism. It tells us to be heads-up when we put people in office. Be vigilant about your leaders, and if you become a leader be vigilant about yourself. Keep that in mind in the voting booth. Are you being critical about who you vote for and seem to like? And are you being critical about why you are voting for who you are? Are you voting for what's best for the community or what is best for you?
* How do we get out of this vicious cycle of seizing power for ourselves and doing everything we can to keep it? In a way, the Hebrews had it right in the day of the Judges, understanding themselves and their nation to be ultimately dependent on God's leadership. We never will get it right until our leaders and we the people recognize that real power belongs to God and until we get our politicians and leadership thinking in line with His. Use the quotation by John Calvin in Theological Insights.
* This is not a proposal for Christianizing the nation, for undermining the First Amendment and its separation of church and state. But our assigned Psalm for today (138) gives us insight into what God wants for the church, the state, and all other institutions. Consider the last bullet point in the analysis of the Psalm. Highlight that God regards the lowly -- the poor and powerless. The last remark by Luther in Theological Insights could also be used to extrapolate on this point.
* People who are right with God, who cede the real power to Him, look out for the poor and powerless in who they vote for and how they lead.

7. Wrap-Up
Conclude by reminding the congregation that being led by God is not a task we undertake. It is turning things over to God so that He does the leading, so that He is the One exercising power. To put leadership in God's hands, to seek candidates and pastors who will do that, is to commit to establishing institutions (church and state) that serve the interests of the poor and powerless, that exercise power only for the sake of the least of these. Urge the flock to keep in mind the words of Blaise Pascal when they go to the voting booth, as they work for the church or in the community: "Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is peaceful may be just." This is the way God wants His power delegated. And America, this church, won't get it right until its done His way.

Sermon Text and Title
"In Christ Things Aren't Really Like They Seem"
2 Corinthians 4:13--5:1

1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim how our sin leads to a false construction of reality, but that the gospel (Justification by Grace) gives us a new way to see the world, helping us to recognize that even burdens of life are joyous occasions for service and overcoming the fear of death (Sanctification and Future Eschatology).

2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Paul's further defense of his ministry, explaining the roots of his courage to keep on in face of all the challenges. This discourse can be regarded as a discussion of ministry.
* With likely reference to Psalm 116:10, he claims that belief leads to confession of faith (4:13), a confession that the Lord who raised Jesus will raise the faithful (4:14).
* Refers to grace being for all (4:15).
* In the afflictions endured, Paul does not lose heart. Relying on images typical of both Hellenistic popular philosophy (Greek philosophical dualism) and also of Jewish expectations about the end, he speaks of an outer nature wasting away that our inner nature may be renewed (4:16-17). We do not look at what can be seen for it is temporary, but of the eternal which cannot be seen (4:18).
* If the earthly tent is destroyed, we have a building from God in the heavens (5:1).

3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* Justification by Grace tears down our false perceptions (sin) and makes even the burdens of everyday life occasions for joy and service (Sanctification). Even the fear of death (Future Eschatology) is overcome when we live lives of suffering and bodily deterioration.
* Augustine makes clear that this text testifies to the grace of God, that we do not of ourselves achieve good in ministry or in our lives. He writes:

… Since then it was not man himself, but God, who made man good; so also is it God and not man himself, who remakes him to be good, while liberating him from the evil which he himself did upon his wishing, believing, and invoking such a deliverance. But all this is effected by the renewal day by day of the inward man, by the grace of God….
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 5, p. 162)

* And an earlier ancient African theologian, Tertullian, saw the text not as diminishing our earthly bodies, but as consolation in the fear of death, helping explain the body's dissolution with a promise that we will be clothed again (5:4) (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 455).
* For a similar point by Martin Luther, see the last bullet point in this section for the Second Lesson, Pentecost.
* Life is the pits apart from Christ and this hope. The great French enlightenment Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote: "Without Christ man can only be vicious and wretched. With Christ man is free from vice and wretchedness. In Him is all our virtue and all our happiness" (Pensees, p. 148).

4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* A 2008 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll found that 2 in 5 Americans, 2 in 3 Canadians, and 83% of the French public believed that we can be good without faith in God.
* See this section for the Second Lesson, Lent 3, for statistics indicating how many Americans are likely to find the ways of Chrisitianity odd.
* An EAR Foundation survey found that 53% of American seniors fear what aging will do to their lifestyle.
* A good example of how American expectations conflict with what is the case for God is evident in a 2006 Time magazine poll. It found that 61% of American Christians believe that God wants people to be prosperous and that 1 in 3 believe that if you give money to God He will bless you with more money.

5. Gimmick
We like to determine our reality -- the way things are. But the problem is we mess it up when we try to define the way things are.

6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Twentieth-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein explains why it is so perilous to us when we try to define our reality: "Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself." Most of the time we are wrong about the way things are; we distort reality.
* The problem is that we fail to meet God on His own terms, fail to follow His commands. In the words of Methodist theologian Philip Watson, we "don't let God be God" (Let God Be God). In a way, then, sin is the failure to accept what really is the case.
* This propensity to define our own reality, no matter what, reflects in the gospel for today drawn from Mark (3:20-25). The friends of Jesus and the Pharisees, even His family, are convinced that He must be possessed by demons.
* Poor Jesus, they all thought, He must be crazy. No sane man acts like Him. We can see here how Jesus' family and the Pharisees created their own reality, let the cultural attitudes of the day define God. In response, Jesus claims that His real family is whoever does the will of God (Mark 3:34b-35).
* Think of it: Jesus defines his family not in terms of blood ties, but on His own terms. That's the way God works. He does just the opposite of what we expect. We have our ideas about what God and our lives are all about -- and God comes and confuses all those plans and ideas. Things aren't like they seem.
* Our lesson spells it concisely. Paul has been talking about the hidden character of the gospel (how it is veiled [4:3]) and the affliction that he and other followers of Christ have endured (4:8). Ask the congregation if they can not identify with such feelings, wishing that their lives had been a little more tranquil, had endured a little less suffering.
* But to such feelings, Paul boldly asserts that we are not crushed, that persecution and a sense of forsakenness have not destroyed us (4:9). It really isn't the way our sinful reality makes it seem. Because of God's grace (4:15), God's reality is just the opposite from what it seems to be. (Consider the quote by Augustine in the second bullet point of Theological Insights.)
* Be sure the congregation is clear that we do not of ourselves, through our own courage, persevere in the midst of suffering and doubt. It is God's grace creating this new, better reality for us. Highlight this with reference to 4:13, which quotes Psalm 116 in which the Psalmist confesses his faith even though he had been facing death and other trials of life (v. 3) like we do.
* Then Paul makes a crucial point. He appeals to Jesus' resurrection (4:14). It is to the resurrection we need to look if we want to find out what things are really like, if we want to get around the false reality our sin has created. It's from the perspective of the resurrection, and only from that perspective, that we learn what reality is like.
* What is that reality like? Paul tells us that, like Christ, we will be raised. Is this just a future hope? In fact, Jesus' resurrection has implications for the anxieties and suffering we are enduring. Paul makes this point when he says the suffering he has endured in ministry for the church's sake is so that it may grow (4:7-12).
* If only we could embody such self-emptying love, to see our sufferings and failures as to the glory of God, as deaths from which we will rise, like Christ did. Then the hard times in life would not seem so bad. Then suffering and anxiety and failures would not really be like they seem.
* From the perspective of Jesus' resurrection, life is not what it seems. Paul speaks of our outer nature wasting away and our inner nature being renewed (4:16-17). Our outer nature, that which does not belong to Christ (the inner nature), is being renewed. And so our sufferings and disappointments merely prepare us better to see things from God's perspective.
* What we see is transient, passing away. What is eternal, what will last in life itself, in our lives, is not yet fully visible (4:18). Life is not really what it seems to be. Sadness, setbacks, sufferings, disappointments are not defeats, signs of rejection, signs of dead-ends in a meaningless, unhappy life. No, because of the resurrection these events in life are occasions for putting to death that in us which resists seeing things God's way. It sure is good that things are not really like the way they seem.
* When you live this way, confident that things are right between you and God, that in the end you are on the way to where Jesus was on the first Easter, when you see life that way then the tough times, the sufferings, are not so bad. They are little deaths that don't have the final word. Then life looks and feels a lot better, a lot sweeter. Even death itself does not look so bad (is not really the crisis it seems) because you have been dying and suffering like Christ your whole life, and just like death did not have the final word with Him on the first Easter, it is not going to have its way with you.
* Consider the final three bullet points in Theological Insights. The more you see things God's way, are right with God, death and the other tragedies of life are not so bad.
* Ralph Waldo Emerson offered an observation that nicely illustrates the direction of this sermon: "When it is dark enough you can see the stars."

7. Wrap-Up
There is something in us which resists belonging to God, which wants to define reality on our own terms. But then Paul comes and tells us about the resurrection. And when we believe him suddenly our lives are a lot richer, are not the hopeless tragedy heading toward death they seemed to be. It's good that God doesn't let things stay the way they seem!

Sermon Text and Title
"What Are You Doing Here? Hanging Out With a Forgiving God"
Mark 3:20-35

1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim forgiveness (Justification by Grace) when typically we live in sin, taking Jesus and the Father for granted, more like His family than like His followers.

2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Returning to His home (Capernaum), Jesus is surrounded by crowds. Pharisees and others claim He is possessed of the pagan god Beelzebul, and those with him feared He was out of His mind (vv. 20-22). (Some translations suggest that it was Jesus' family who had this fear, but others say it was really all those intimate with Him who had these feelings.)
* Jesus responds to Jerusalem Pharisees making this charge by contending that He could not have cast out demons were He part of them, for a house divided against itself could not stand (vv. 23-26).
* He utters His famous condemnation of the unforgivable sin -- the sin against the Holy Spirit, though all other sins will be forgiven (vv. 28-29). This teaching was uttered by Jesus against those who had rejected Him for having an unclean spirit, linking the Spirit to demons (v. 30), presumably shedding light on what the sin against the Holy Spirit is.
* Mary and Jesus' siblings come to see Him (vv. 21, 31-32). Only in Mark is this event linked to the concern that Jesus might be crazy, another indication of this gospel's emphasis on the blindness of those nearest to Jesus. He responds that His family are His followers, those who do God's will (vv. 33-35). The fact that Jesus' followers could be sisters and mothers might suggest women were among His followers.

3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text affirms the certainty of salvation (Justification by Grace) and also our sin (taking God and Jesus for granted).
* Regarding the sin against the Holy Spirit, Martin Luther writes:

If a person becomes so pious in his works and his being that he does not require forgiveness or grace but regards his works in themselves good and pure enough to render grace and forgiveness superfluous, he remains outside the kingdom of grace and sins against grace… This is the sin against the Holy Spirit, which cannot be forgiven, that is, it is a sin that lacks grace….
(Luther's Works, Vol. 19, p. 48)

* Luther's principal ally, Philip Melanchthon, wrote: "If anybody, therefore, is not sure that he is forgiven, he denies that God has sworn to the truth; a more horrible blasphemy than this cannot be imagined" (The Book of Concord, p. 196).
* In much the same spirit, Karl Barth equates the sin against the Holy Spirit with the denial of Christ (Church Dogmatics, Vol. II/1, p. 201).

4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* A Barna Group survey revealed that nearly 3 in 4 American adults do not think salvation is certain, since they believe that we must earn our way into heaven with works. Also see the first bullet point in this section for the Second Lesson.

5. Gimmick
Ask the congregation what they are doing here, why they come to church. Keep pressing the question. Suggest some possible answers. But then note that there is likely a deeper reason we come to church, one that is not very pretty.

6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* The truth for many of us is we have grown up in the church, and so it is largely a habit. Many in the church are almost like family. And Jesus is like family too.
* Sometimes you can take family for granted. That's a problem because we are often guilty of what English author Aldous Huxley once said: "Most human beings have an absolute and infinite capacity for taking things for granted."
* Tell the gospel account (vv. 20-22) in a "You Are There" mode. Note how the buzz in town was that Jesus' preaching was stranger and stranger, how good, respectable people were whispering about Him -- whispering about Mary and her sons.
* With Jesus' return to home (in Capernaum) His family had a tough decision about what to do. Improvise a dialogue in Jesus' family over what to do. His oldest brother James (6:3; Galatians 1:19) takes the lead in planning to confront Him. Suggest that Mary is in a quandary, remembering fondly the miraculous night of His birth.
* Recount the confrontation with His family and the Pharisees (vv. 31-32), first telling the story of the hard questions the Pharisees raised to Him (v. 22) and His response (including the teaching of the one unforgivable sin) (vv. 23-30).
* Then rehearse Jesus' remarks about His true family -- those who do the will of God (vv. 32-35).
* Jesus' family, it seems, in questioning Him was not being His true family in the way Jesus defines family. The problem, it seems, was that they knew Him too well, but not well. He was so familiar that they had not been able to see Him in his role as Messiah. In short, they were taking Him for granted.
* Ask the congregation if we are not guilty of this, of thinking we know Jesus so well that we do not try to get to know Him better. Ask if this attitude is not evident in congregational inertia about getting to know Jesus better through Bible study, Christian education, and other new activities. Are we not like Mary and her sons? This congregation needs to ask the question of what we are doing here in fresh ways, or we might be guilty of acting like Jesus' family.
* Ask again what we are doing here. Cite a quotation by British writer G.K. Chesterton that offers an important and timely observation: "When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude."
* Ask the congregation what they will do with Jesus. Will they really get to know Him and be grateful, or keep taking Him and His church for granted?
* What is there to be grateful about? This is an answer to the question of what we are doing here (in church). The gratitude we can feel is to a Jesus who forgives all sins except the sin against the Holy Spirit (vv. 28-29)! (Use the last three bullet points in Theological Insights on the sin against the Holy Spirit. Explain it as unfaith, stressing that all sins are forgiven save the outright rejection of Jesus and the Spirit's revelation of Him.)
* Highlight how wonderful it is to recognize that all our sins are forgiven! What a wonderful God we have.
* It is as John Calvin said: "The very nature of God makes it impossible for Him not to be merciful" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. VI/1, p. 131). Note assigned Psalm 130.

7. Wrap-Up
Ask the congregation again: What are we doing here? We are giving thanks to the loving, forgiving God who hangs out here. Contemplate the wonder of His love this week, and it's a lot more likely you'll stop taking him for granted.