Sermon Illustrations for Proper 7 | OT 12 (2016)
Illustration
Object:
1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
Have you ever just wanted to run away? Maybe the pressures of work are too much. Maybe your family life is falling apart. Maybe you don’t feel good about yourself or your relationships. Maybe life is just too busy. I think that we all have times when we just want to run away from our lives and start over, to see what else might be out there for us. Few of us have Elijah’s reason for running away. Most of us are not under a death threat. I always felt that God’s question of Elijah was asked with gentleness and compassion; but I heard a gifted theologian offer a sermon on this text, and his interpretation of God’s question was anything but gentle.
Imagine yourself asking your wayward toddler who has just spilled a whole container of flour on the floor “What are you doing here?” That’s the tone this preacher interpreted in the question. Clearly God had some more things for Elijah to accomplish, more work for Elijah to do -- and the work wasn’t on Mt. Horeb. The work was back home, facing down Ahab and Jezebel and proclaiming to God’s people God’s love for them. There was work to be done -- new prophets to be recruited and trained. God’s people needed a prophet, and Elijah was it! And rather than God being revealed in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, God was revealed to Elijah, renewed Elijah, in the whisper, in the still small voice. So when you feel like running away, seek God in the silence, and allow yourself to be restored.
Bonnie B.
1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
Sometimes standing for God can leave you in a pretty scary position. All across the world Christians are being persecuted and martyred as attacks against Christians increase in many countries. The problem doesn’t have to come from a hostile group, however. There are times when threatening situations arise that challenge people of faith. Maybe it is the doctor’s announcement that “There’s nothing more we can do.” It can be the phone ringing in the wee hours of the morning, which is never “good news.” Perhaps it’s the shocking announcement from a spouse saying that they’re leaving. All kinds of things can rock the world of the Christian, leaving him stunned and feeling lost and alone. That’s how Elijah felt in this passage.
Ahab has informed his wife Jezebel of all that Elijah’s been doing. Just what has Elijah done? He’s confronted and defeated the prophets of Baal. Jezebel is incensed upon hearing Ahab’s report. She swears to avenge those prophets by killing Elijah. When Elijah hears this, he is afraid and runs away. He travels about a day into the desert, sits down under a broom tree, and wishes he could die. After an angel intervenes, he goes on a 40-day journey to a cave. God asks him what he’s doing, and Elijah tells him “I’m the only one left, and now they want to kill me.” Elijah is at the end of his rope. He feels alone, afraid, and angry. He’s tried to follow what God wanted, but it hasn’t worked out for him. Have you been there?
The passage ends with God reminding Elijah that he is not forgotten or alone. Perhaps it would do us all well to quiet ourselves in the sound of sheer silence. Listen and let God speak to you.
Bill T.
1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
Exhausted, burned out, depressed -- Elijah flees Jezebel’s wrath and discovers God’s care in desperate circumstances. Elijah is told to wait on top of the mountain because God is about to pass by. He is then confronted by a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire. These are clearly overwhelming, but as we are told, God is not in the great wind, the earthquake, or the fire. Then follows...
What? The NRSV describes what follows as “a sound of sheer silence” (v. 12). The King James calls it “a still small voice,” and that image has echoed through the centuries in hymns and sermons. But there is more than silence taking place -- not much more, a hair-breadth’s more, but there is more!
The NIV prefers “a gentle whisper.” Simon J. DeVries, in his Word Biblical Commentary on 1 Kings, suggests both “a gentle little breeze” and “a quiet murmur.”
Choon-Leong Seow, writing for the New Interpreter’s Bible, suggests a good translation might be “a hushed sound,” and goes on to say: “What Elijah hears, apparently, is the calm that comes after the storm. Perhaps the narrator means to contrast this hushed sound with the rumbling that comes before the storm.”
There is a constant babble in so many of our homes -- television, music, video games, cute cat videos spilling out of our tablets and phones, and our own voices struggling to be heard over the din. This scripture, I think, is telling us that God is speaking to us and that we may hear, if we clear the space around our hearts as well as our ears. What I want to say is that this is where Elijah heard the Lord, and we may too.
Frank R.
1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
The passage doesn’t say which prophets Elijah had killed, but we assume that they were not prophets of the Lord because Jezebel talks about “gods” as though there were many and not the one and only God. We assume that they were prophets of Baal (Jezebel’s god). The point here is that this seemed to call for revenge on the part of Jezebel. It seems like Elijah was right in wanting to get out of town as fast as he could, even though he seemed to have done what the Lord wanted! It also sounds like his fellow prophets were also killed off. It sounds like a war of genocide on both sides, with each side trying to get rid of all the prophets on the other side. (Sound like our battle with ISIS!) One revenge demands another. But it is puzzling why the Lord seems to be giving Elijah a hard time. Elijah is feeling so depressed that he wants to die on the spot. He complained to the Lord that he had ENOUGH! Do we ever reach that point? Doesn’t everyone?
In almost every congregation there are members who seem to have endured one tragedy after another, and they can’t take any more. My wife’s former husband ended in a mental hospital and demanded a divorce, and then she had a grandson murdered, and his mother (her daughter) divorced her husband. One thing after another. We have all experienced tragedies in our lives, but there is most often time to recover -- at least a few years between them.
We have a dear friend whose former husband was sent to prison for trying to kill her, but then just a few months ago he was let out on parole even though he still threatens to kill her -- so now she lives in fear, but there is nowhere to escape.
In Elijah’s case, at least the Lord offers him a free meal, but he is so tired he goes to sleep after a few bites. But then the Lord’s angel wakes him and tells him to finish his meal because he has a big journey ahead of him. It was a big journey, but when he found a nice cave to sleep in after that journey was almost over, that angel gave him another word from the Lord asking Elijah what he was doing there. It seems like the Lord was not directing his steps and that he was just wandering around to get away from Jezebel! He was beginning to wonder what he was doing and why. At least he felt safer now that he was a long distance from Jezebel. His zeal had driven him to this seemingly pointless rush, so he was exhausted and depressed. It sounds like he was at fault for what he’d done -- it was not the Lord that led him to do it. So the Lord keeps sending angels to keep him moving and won’t tell him why.
Is the Lord leading us to kill all the Muslims who don’t like us -- especially jihadists? It sounds like we are never sure what we should be doing, or that we have to do something to save ourselves -- if we need saving. Part of what we do is out of revenge for what others have done to us. It seems to go back and forth, and will never end until they have killed all of us or we have killed all of them! That is what revenge can do. It can never end -- except in genocide!
Elijah gets a lot of sympathy, but his job is not over. His job and our job for the Lord are never over! He seems to be blaming the Lord for his problems. I might too if the Lord had led me on such a long trip, and then when I finally found a place to rest he asked me what I am doing there. It seems that every place he lay down to rest, the Lord sent an angel to wake him up.
The message I get from this is that we don’t always know where the Lord is leading us. When we move on, he is urging us on to go somewhere else! Elijah is still faithful, though he does question the Lord. I think we would also!
I moved to many churches in different states plus Canada, and I kept waiting for the Lord to tell me where he wanted me to go next -- until I reached my last place before I retired. I didn’t realize what that final goal was until I got to Nepal. My mother had waited for me to become a pastor until I was 30, but her next prayer was that I become a missionary -- and that didn’t happen until I was 70, and she died 40 years before. I felt that I had reached God’s goal for me! Then I felt comfortable retiring, though the Lord had another goal for me like what I am doing now -- writing sermon illustrations.
Be patient. Only the Lord knows where he wants us to go and he doesn’t always tell us, even though he may give us a free meal along the way. So just shut up and go!
Bob O.
Galatians 3:23-29
My introductory seminary class in New Testament was taught by a professor who had been teaching English on an Asian mission field when the Second World War began. After being captured by the Japanese, he was sent to an internment camp where he lived until the end of the war. He reported that living conditions were difficult, but not dreadful.
In fact, until the war moved to its final stages he ranked boredom as one of his more difficult challenges. Fortunately, he had been able to secure an English New Testament. Because it was his only reading material, he had read all 27 books over and over again until he had nearly memorized them.
That experience shaped how he taught his “Introduction to New Testament” course. As new seminary students, we were expected to read each book of the New Testament over and over again until we could, for instance, respond to an exam that asked us to “Name the books and chapters where Paul’s conversion experience is discussed.” He also expected every student to read so closely that we were familiar not only with each book’s form and structure but with its thesis.
Even after 50 years, I remember his lecture on the thesis of Galatians. To paraphrase, he said: “This is a book about how, in Christ, we are set free from the demands of the Law. It is about Christian freedom. Not freedom in the present cultural understanding as release from restraint, obligation, or responsibility. In Christ, you are not free to gratify every self-indulgent whim that flits through your mind. Instead, in Christ you are freed to love others, set free to serve others.”
R. Robert C.
Galatians 3:23-29
The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted in July 1990. Promoted by congressional leaders who were personally affected by disabilities, the legislation’s key supporters in the Senate included Tom Harkin of Iowa, whose brother was deaf; Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, whose son had a leg amputated; and Robert Dole of Kansas, who had lasting injuries from a wound suffered in Italy during World War II. In the House the list of the bill’s champions included Tony Coelho of California, who had epilepsy. When President George H.W. Bush signed the bill, he said, “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.”
Application: In Galatians we read about the importance of the church being inclusive of everyone.
Ron L.
Galatians 3:23-29
What does it mean to call the Law, the Ten Commandments, a disciplinarian? What does it all have to do with freedom? Does it mean that we don’t need the Decalogue anymore? Martin Luther offered a nice way of explaining this mystery in one of his sermons: “The tutor’s release of the pupil does not mean the death or departure of the tutor, but spiritually, that the child has changed and can do what the father wished the tutor to teach him. Likewise the Law releases us, not by its passing, not by being abrogated, but spiritually; and because a change has been effected in us we have the experience God designed us to have through the Law” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/2, p. 282).
Students leave their beloved teachers behind. The teacher keeps teaching, even continues to have an impact on her student’s life. But the student is now independent of that teacher, free (especially after graduation). If the teacher did a good job, and by the miracle of maturity (new birth, if you will) the student really learned something long-term, then the student is free to go beyond the teacher to fresher insights. Is that not the way to look at the Ten Commandments since Jesus? God’s grace (maturity in the Spirit or the new birth) entails that we no longer need the commandments. They would hold us back, like continued instruction by our first-grade teachers would impede us. But just as first-grade lessons about reading get used by us now, though in wonderful tasks no longer bound by strictures on a six-year old, so those set free in Christ can do freeing things not constrained by rules. Clothed in Jesus, we are not bound by society’s ethnic and gender distinctions -- just like the rules of the first-grade classroom about behavior no longer have authority. And yet we can’t forget the first-grade lessons on how to read; the tutor stays with us. So we free Christians still need reminders about what God demands. How good it is to be free from Law!
Mark E.
Luke 8:26-39
Life restored. Imagine being possessed, maybe not by demons, but by fear or dread or anguish or loss or hate or judgment. How burdened one would feel; how weighed down. Now imagine that the whole of your community, your family, your friends have all abandoned you. It’s so bad that they have chained you or straitjacketed you or institutionalized you. I wonder when I think about the possessed man in Gerasene how lonely and fearful he must have been; how at the end of his ability to cope he must have felt. Jesus enters and the man proclaims, through his possession, the true nature of Jesus. I wonder how the disciples felt, hearing this man scream out that Jesus was the Son of the Most High God.
That is not for us to know, although Jesus is quick to quiet the man, quick to restore him to peace and mental health, quick to cure him. Whether the man was truly possessed or mentally ill, we will never know. What we do know is that the man is restored to well-being. He is healed. The other important part of the story is that the man proclaims to everyone what Jesus has done for him. There’s a lesson in there for each of us. Has Jesus made a change in your life, restored or blessed you in some way? When is the last time you proclaimed the gifts you have received through faith? Maybe it’s time to do that once again.
Bonnie B.
Luke 8:26-39
What would it be like to never be able to think straight or concentrate? Can you imagine continuously viewing the world through the lens of a kaleidoscope? What if the way you saw things was as if you were looking in one of those carnival mirrors that distort and confuse reality? What if your mind was in a continual state of upheaval and movement like you were perpetually spinning? As we consider this text, it is hard to imagine what life would have looked like to one who was demon-possessed. This man was not only possessed by one evil spirit. He was called “Legion” because many demons had entered him. What thoughts and images raced through his bedeviled mind? Did he have any lucid moments? Did he have moments of agony, recognizing the situation he was in? We don’t know much about his thoughts, but we know a bit about what his life was like. He didn’t live in a house but in the tombs. For a long time he wore no clothes. He was often guarded, shackled, and kept in chains. On some occasions he would break his chains and the demons would drive him into the wild. It had to be a miserable, dark, lonely life.
It was like that for a long time. Then it happened. When Jesus came upon this man, he ordered the unclean spirits out. A demonic voice reared up in him and loudly shouted: “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” They begged Jesus not to throw them into the abyss, so Jesus sent them into a herd of pigs. Once they entered the pigs, the pigs ran down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. When those watching the pigs saw it, they ran to tell others. The people of the town came running. What they saw shocked them. The demon-possessed man was now in his right mind, sitting at Jesus’ feet.
Did you catch that? He was in his right mind. Can you imagine how that must have been? Darkness overwhelmed by light. Chaos brought to order. Confusion and hate disarmed and dispatched. A mind that was riddled with all kinds of evil was now free. I wonder what this man’s first coherent thought was. I wonder if he could finally look through clear eyes and see the world and himself. The people of the town acted in fear and sent Jesus away. While we don’t know what this man thought, we do know what he did. He sat at Jesus’ feet. He desired to follow him, and told anyone who’d listen how he’d been liberated from a life of misery. That had to be a pleasant thought.
Bill T.
Luke 8:26-39
“My name is Legion” speak the demons through the mouth of the man tormented by evil spirits. On the one hand, there is no reason to doubt the literal meaning of this man’s report -- he is inhabited by a legion of demons. Still, I. Howard Marshall, in his book about the gospel of Luke that is part of the New International Greek Testament Commentary, writes, “It has been suggested that the man may have had a traumatic experience in childhood with the soldiery which led to his insanity” (pp. 338-339). Whether that is true or not, one has to think that what the Roman soldiers experienced (not only in warfare, but in daily brutalization by taking part in the dismally common crucifixions) may have caused something like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Members of a Roman legion may have carried a legion of demons within themselves as well. All of this ought to encourage us to focus on the PTSD many in our churches deal with, whether as members of the military, as abused children or survivors of an abused childhood, as rape victims, or many others whose experiences have proven a great burden. As the hands and heart of Christ in a suffering world, we have the power of love and caring in order to share healing and hope with each other.
Frank R.
Luke 8:26-39
It seems like the evil ones recognize Jesus right away, and Satan tries to keep Jesus away. It sounds like getting rid of Satan in our lives can be an important torture. It is not easy.
A woman in one of my parishes was filled with a spirit that took over her personality, and one time she became a little girl and the next time a man (her voice was even deeper). She woke her husband at night when she was in one of those characters.
They tried psychiatrists and doctors of every kind, with no luck. Then they tried a psychiatrist who tried a new technique like hypnosis where he dug into her past. He found that an uncle had abused her as a child, but the worst was a job she had at a bookstore many years before where her bosses were Satan worshipers. One time they drugged her and led her into a back room where she was forced to kill a baby! Once that painful past came to the fore, she recovered after being forgiven. The Satan worshipers had put a knife in her hand, then pushed it into the child. They threatened her, telling her that if she ever told anyone about that experience they would tell the authorities that she was the murderer and that her prints were on the knife! But when that experience was out in the open, she could handle it. It was our answer to prayer.
When Jesus threatened the spirits to come out of that man, he sent them to a herd of pigs. Jews who keep kosher still do not eat pork!
But when the spirit was out of the man, he was totally changed. All the townspeople came out to meet this Jesus. They were so afraid of him that they asked him to leave immediately!
The healed man wanted to get away from his town, but Jesus told him that his job was to be a witness back in his hometown and tell the people how much Jesus had done for him.
Each of us has to ask God what he wants us to do for him! He doesn’t want us to run off, even to join Jesus in a monastery. He wants us to tell others what he has done for us! I’m sure Jesus has done something for everyone. When the time comes, he will take us to be with him.
Bob O.
Have you ever just wanted to run away? Maybe the pressures of work are too much. Maybe your family life is falling apart. Maybe you don’t feel good about yourself or your relationships. Maybe life is just too busy. I think that we all have times when we just want to run away from our lives and start over, to see what else might be out there for us. Few of us have Elijah’s reason for running away. Most of us are not under a death threat. I always felt that God’s question of Elijah was asked with gentleness and compassion; but I heard a gifted theologian offer a sermon on this text, and his interpretation of God’s question was anything but gentle.
Imagine yourself asking your wayward toddler who has just spilled a whole container of flour on the floor “What are you doing here?” That’s the tone this preacher interpreted in the question. Clearly God had some more things for Elijah to accomplish, more work for Elijah to do -- and the work wasn’t on Mt. Horeb. The work was back home, facing down Ahab and Jezebel and proclaiming to God’s people God’s love for them. There was work to be done -- new prophets to be recruited and trained. God’s people needed a prophet, and Elijah was it! And rather than God being revealed in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, God was revealed to Elijah, renewed Elijah, in the whisper, in the still small voice. So when you feel like running away, seek God in the silence, and allow yourself to be restored.
Bonnie B.
1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
Sometimes standing for God can leave you in a pretty scary position. All across the world Christians are being persecuted and martyred as attacks against Christians increase in many countries. The problem doesn’t have to come from a hostile group, however. There are times when threatening situations arise that challenge people of faith. Maybe it is the doctor’s announcement that “There’s nothing more we can do.” It can be the phone ringing in the wee hours of the morning, which is never “good news.” Perhaps it’s the shocking announcement from a spouse saying that they’re leaving. All kinds of things can rock the world of the Christian, leaving him stunned and feeling lost and alone. That’s how Elijah felt in this passage.
Ahab has informed his wife Jezebel of all that Elijah’s been doing. Just what has Elijah done? He’s confronted and defeated the prophets of Baal. Jezebel is incensed upon hearing Ahab’s report. She swears to avenge those prophets by killing Elijah. When Elijah hears this, he is afraid and runs away. He travels about a day into the desert, sits down under a broom tree, and wishes he could die. After an angel intervenes, he goes on a 40-day journey to a cave. God asks him what he’s doing, and Elijah tells him “I’m the only one left, and now they want to kill me.” Elijah is at the end of his rope. He feels alone, afraid, and angry. He’s tried to follow what God wanted, but it hasn’t worked out for him. Have you been there?
The passage ends with God reminding Elijah that he is not forgotten or alone. Perhaps it would do us all well to quiet ourselves in the sound of sheer silence. Listen and let God speak to you.
Bill T.
1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
Exhausted, burned out, depressed -- Elijah flees Jezebel’s wrath and discovers God’s care in desperate circumstances. Elijah is told to wait on top of the mountain because God is about to pass by. He is then confronted by a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire. These are clearly overwhelming, but as we are told, God is not in the great wind, the earthquake, or the fire. Then follows...
What? The NRSV describes what follows as “a sound of sheer silence” (v. 12). The King James calls it “a still small voice,” and that image has echoed through the centuries in hymns and sermons. But there is more than silence taking place -- not much more, a hair-breadth’s more, but there is more!
The NIV prefers “a gentle whisper.” Simon J. DeVries, in his Word Biblical Commentary on 1 Kings, suggests both “a gentle little breeze” and “a quiet murmur.”
Choon-Leong Seow, writing for the New Interpreter’s Bible, suggests a good translation might be “a hushed sound,” and goes on to say: “What Elijah hears, apparently, is the calm that comes after the storm. Perhaps the narrator means to contrast this hushed sound with the rumbling that comes before the storm.”
There is a constant babble in so many of our homes -- television, music, video games, cute cat videos spilling out of our tablets and phones, and our own voices struggling to be heard over the din. This scripture, I think, is telling us that God is speaking to us and that we may hear, if we clear the space around our hearts as well as our ears. What I want to say is that this is where Elijah heard the Lord, and we may too.
Frank R.
1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
The passage doesn’t say which prophets Elijah had killed, but we assume that they were not prophets of the Lord because Jezebel talks about “gods” as though there were many and not the one and only God. We assume that they were prophets of Baal (Jezebel’s god). The point here is that this seemed to call for revenge on the part of Jezebel. It seems like Elijah was right in wanting to get out of town as fast as he could, even though he seemed to have done what the Lord wanted! It also sounds like his fellow prophets were also killed off. It sounds like a war of genocide on both sides, with each side trying to get rid of all the prophets on the other side. (Sound like our battle with ISIS!) One revenge demands another. But it is puzzling why the Lord seems to be giving Elijah a hard time. Elijah is feeling so depressed that he wants to die on the spot. He complained to the Lord that he had ENOUGH! Do we ever reach that point? Doesn’t everyone?
In almost every congregation there are members who seem to have endured one tragedy after another, and they can’t take any more. My wife’s former husband ended in a mental hospital and demanded a divorce, and then she had a grandson murdered, and his mother (her daughter) divorced her husband. One thing after another. We have all experienced tragedies in our lives, but there is most often time to recover -- at least a few years between them.
We have a dear friend whose former husband was sent to prison for trying to kill her, but then just a few months ago he was let out on parole even though he still threatens to kill her -- so now she lives in fear, but there is nowhere to escape.
In Elijah’s case, at least the Lord offers him a free meal, but he is so tired he goes to sleep after a few bites. But then the Lord’s angel wakes him and tells him to finish his meal because he has a big journey ahead of him. It was a big journey, but when he found a nice cave to sleep in after that journey was almost over, that angel gave him another word from the Lord asking Elijah what he was doing there. It seems like the Lord was not directing his steps and that he was just wandering around to get away from Jezebel! He was beginning to wonder what he was doing and why. At least he felt safer now that he was a long distance from Jezebel. His zeal had driven him to this seemingly pointless rush, so he was exhausted and depressed. It sounds like he was at fault for what he’d done -- it was not the Lord that led him to do it. So the Lord keeps sending angels to keep him moving and won’t tell him why.
Is the Lord leading us to kill all the Muslims who don’t like us -- especially jihadists? It sounds like we are never sure what we should be doing, or that we have to do something to save ourselves -- if we need saving. Part of what we do is out of revenge for what others have done to us. It seems to go back and forth, and will never end until they have killed all of us or we have killed all of them! That is what revenge can do. It can never end -- except in genocide!
Elijah gets a lot of sympathy, but his job is not over. His job and our job for the Lord are never over! He seems to be blaming the Lord for his problems. I might too if the Lord had led me on such a long trip, and then when I finally found a place to rest he asked me what I am doing there. It seems that every place he lay down to rest, the Lord sent an angel to wake him up.
The message I get from this is that we don’t always know where the Lord is leading us. When we move on, he is urging us on to go somewhere else! Elijah is still faithful, though he does question the Lord. I think we would also!
I moved to many churches in different states plus Canada, and I kept waiting for the Lord to tell me where he wanted me to go next -- until I reached my last place before I retired. I didn’t realize what that final goal was until I got to Nepal. My mother had waited for me to become a pastor until I was 30, but her next prayer was that I become a missionary -- and that didn’t happen until I was 70, and she died 40 years before. I felt that I had reached God’s goal for me! Then I felt comfortable retiring, though the Lord had another goal for me like what I am doing now -- writing sermon illustrations.
Be patient. Only the Lord knows where he wants us to go and he doesn’t always tell us, even though he may give us a free meal along the way. So just shut up and go!
Bob O.
Galatians 3:23-29
My introductory seminary class in New Testament was taught by a professor who had been teaching English on an Asian mission field when the Second World War began. After being captured by the Japanese, he was sent to an internment camp where he lived until the end of the war. He reported that living conditions were difficult, but not dreadful.
In fact, until the war moved to its final stages he ranked boredom as one of his more difficult challenges. Fortunately, he had been able to secure an English New Testament. Because it was his only reading material, he had read all 27 books over and over again until he had nearly memorized them.
That experience shaped how he taught his “Introduction to New Testament” course. As new seminary students, we were expected to read each book of the New Testament over and over again until we could, for instance, respond to an exam that asked us to “Name the books and chapters where Paul’s conversion experience is discussed.” He also expected every student to read so closely that we were familiar not only with each book’s form and structure but with its thesis.
Even after 50 years, I remember his lecture on the thesis of Galatians. To paraphrase, he said: “This is a book about how, in Christ, we are set free from the demands of the Law. It is about Christian freedom. Not freedom in the present cultural understanding as release from restraint, obligation, or responsibility. In Christ, you are not free to gratify every self-indulgent whim that flits through your mind. Instead, in Christ you are freed to love others, set free to serve others.”
R. Robert C.
Galatians 3:23-29
The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted in July 1990. Promoted by congressional leaders who were personally affected by disabilities, the legislation’s key supporters in the Senate included Tom Harkin of Iowa, whose brother was deaf; Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, whose son had a leg amputated; and Robert Dole of Kansas, who had lasting injuries from a wound suffered in Italy during World War II. In the House the list of the bill’s champions included Tony Coelho of California, who had epilepsy. When President George H.W. Bush signed the bill, he said, “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.”
Application: In Galatians we read about the importance of the church being inclusive of everyone.
Ron L.
Galatians 3:23-29
What does it mean to call the Law, the Ten Commandments, a disciplinarian? What does it all have to do with freedom? Does it mean that we don’t need the Decalogue anymore? Martin Luther offered a nice way of explaining this mystery in one of his sermons: “The tutor’s release of the pupil does not mean the death or departure of the tutor, but spiritually, that the child has changed and can do what the father wished the tutor to teach him. Likewise the Law releases us, not by its passing, not by being abrogated, but spiritually; and because a change has been effected in us we have the experience God designed us to have through the Law” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/2, p. 282).
Students leave their beloved teachers behind. The teacher keeps teaching, even continues to have an impact on her student’s life. But the student is now independent of that teacher, free (especially after graduation). If the teacher did a good job, and by the miracle of maturity (new birth, if you will) the student really learned something long-term, then the student is free to go beyond the teacher to fresher insights. Is that not the way to look at the Ten Commandments since Jesus? God’s grace (maturity in the Spirit or the new birth) entails that we no longer need the commandments. They would hold us back, like continued instruction by our first-grade teachers would impede us. But just as first-grade lessons about reading get used by us now, though in wonderful tasks no longer bound by strictures on a six-year old, so those set free in Christ can do freeing things not constrained by rules. Clothed in Jesus, we are not bound by society’s ethnic and gender distinctions -- just like the rules of the first-grade classroom about behavior no longer have authority. And yet we can’t forget the first-grade lessons on how to read; the tutor stays with us. So we free Christians still need reminders about what God demands. How good it is to be free from Law!
Mark E.
Luke 8:26-39
Life restored. Imagine being possessed, maybe not by demons, but by fear or dread or anguish or loss or hate or judgment. How burdened one would feel; how weighed down. Now imagine that the whole of your community, your family, your friends have all abandoned you. It’s so bad that they have chained you or straitjacketed you or institutionalized you. I wonder when I think about the possessed man in Gerasene how lonely and fearful he must have been; how at the end of his ability to cope he must have felt. Jesus enters and the man proclaims, through his possession, the true nature of Jesus. I wonder how the disciples felt, hearing this man scream out that Jesus was the Son of the Most High God.
That is not for us to know, although Jesus is quick to quiet the man, quick to restore him to peace and mental health, quick to cure him. Whether the man was truly possessed or mentally ill, we will never know. What we do know is that the man is restored to well-being. He is healed. The other important part of the story is that the man proclaims to everyone what Jesus has done for him. There’s a lesson in there for each of us. Has Jesus made a change in your life, restored or blessed you in some way? When is the last time you proclaimed the gifts you have received through faith? Maybe it’s time to do that once again.
Bonnie B.
Luke 8:26-39
What would it be like to never be able to think straight or concentrate? Can you imagine continuously viewing the world through the lens of a kaleidoscope? What if the way you saw things was as if you were looking in one of those carnival mirrors that distort and confuse reality? What if your mind was in a continual state of upheaval and movement like you were perpetually spinning? As we consider this text, it is hard to imagine what life would have looked like to one who was demon-possessed. This man was not only possessed by one evil spirit. He was called “Legion” because many demons had entered him. What thoughts and images raced through his bedeviled mind? Did he have any lucid moments? Did he have moments of agony, recognizing the situation he was in? We don’t know much about his thoughts, but we know a bit about what his life was like. He didn’t live in a house but in the tombs. For a long time he wore no clothes. He was often guarded, shackled, and kept in chains. On some occasions he would break his chains and the demons would drive him into the wild. It had to be a miserable, dark, lonely life.
It was like that for a long time. Then it happened. When Jesus came upon this man, he ordered the unclean spirits out. A demonic voice reared up in him and loudly shouted: “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” They begged Jesus not to throw them into the abyss, so Jesus sent them into a herd of pigs. Once they entered the pigs, the pigs ran down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. When those watching the pigs saw it, they ran to tell others. The people of the town came running. What they saw shocked them. The demon-possessed man was now in his right mind, sitting at Jesus’ feet.
Did you catch that? He was in his right mind. Can you imagine how that must have been? Darkness overwhelmed by light. Chaos brought to order. Confusion and hate disarmed and dispatched. A mind that was riddled with all kinds of evil was now free. I wonder what this man’s first coherent thought was. I wonder if he could finally look through clear eyes and see the world and himself. The people of the town acted in fear and sent Jesus away. While we don’t know what this man thought, we do know what he did. He sat at Jesus’ feet. He desired to follow him, and told anyone who’d listen how he’d been liberated from a life of misery. That had to be a pleasant thought.
Bill T.
Luke 8:26-39
“My name is Legion” speak the demons through the mouth of the man tormented by evil spirits. On the one hand, there is no reason to doubt the literal meaning of this man’s report -- he is inhabited by a legion of demons. Still, I. Howard Marshall, in his book about the gospel of Luke that is part of the New International Greek Testament Commentary, writes, “It has been suggested that the man may have had a traumatic experience in childhood with the soldiery which led to his insanity” (pp. 338-339). Whether that is true or not, one has to think that what the Roman soldiers experienced (not only in warfare, but in daily brutalization by taking part in the dismally common crucifixions) may have caused something like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Members of a Roman legion may have carried a legion of demons within themselves as well. All of this ought to encourage us to focus on the PTSD many in our churches deal with, whether as members of the military, as abused children or survivors of an abused childhood, as rape victims, or many others whose experiences have proven a great burden. As the hands and heart of Christ in a suffering world, we have the power of love and caring in order to share healing and hope with each other.
Frank R.
Luke 8:26-39
It seems like the evil ones recognize Jesus right away, and Satan tries to keep Jesus away. It sounds like getting rid of Satan in our lives can be an important torture. It is not easy.
A woman in one of my parishes was filled with a spirit that took over her personality, and one time she became a little girl and the next time a man (her voice was even deeper). She woke her husband at night when she was in one of those characters.
They tried psychiatrists and doctors of every kind, with no luck. Then they tried a psychiatrist who tried a new technique like hypnosis where he dug into her past. He found that an uncle had abused her as a child, but the worst was a job she had at a bookstore many years before where her bosses were Satan worshipers. One time they drugged her and led her into a back room where she was forced to kill a baby! Once that painful past came to the fore, she recovered after being forgiven. The Satan worshipers had put a knife in her hand, then pushed it into the child. They threatened her, telling her that if she ever told anyone about that experience they would tell the authorities that she was the murderer and that her prints were on the knife! But when that experience was out in the open, she could handle it. It was our answer to prayer.
When Jesus threatened the spirits to come out of that man, he sent them to a herd of pigs. Jews who keep kosher still do not eat pork!
But when the spirit was out of the man, he was totally changed. All the townspeople came out to meet this Jesus. They were so afraid of him that they asked him to leave immediately!
The healed man wanted to get away from his town, but Jesus told him that his job was to be a witness back in his hometown and tell the people how much Jesus had done for him.
Each of us has to ask God what he wants us to do for him! He doesn’t want us to run off, even to join Jesus in a monastery. He wants us to tell others what he has done for us! I’m sure Jesus has done something for everyone. When the time comes, he will take us to be with him.
Bob O.
