Sermon Illustrations for Proper 9 | Ordinary Time 14 (2014)
Illustration
Object:
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
The custom in that day was for the parents to select a mate for their son or daughter. It was important that the woman's family know that her prospective groom was well healed. Isaac was well off now and even better off when his folks died. That was the practice back then in Abraham's time. It is still the practice in several countries today. One of the reasons some converted to the faith in Nepal was to avoid that. One of our members, a cute girl in her late teens told me, "I married for love!" She was very excited about it. We visited India while we were in Nepal and met a couple who were just married. They met for the first time on their wedding day. Their parents did a good job picking. They both had graduate degrees and were excitedly telling each other about the subjects in which they majored. It was more important that they both came from the same faith background than if they were rich or poor, though that was a factor.
I like the way the manservant asked the Lord to solve his problem of finding a mate for Isaac. It saved him a lot of time! He just hung around by the well until he found a girl who was humble and obedient and even went beyond his request for a glass of water. She even watered his camels -- which was quite a job! He checked her lineage next. That gave Rebekah her other job. Now, all the manservant had to do was go and get the family to agree. Once that was done and Rebekah agreed, they were on their way.
As soon as he was sure he had the right one and that she had agreed to the match, the manservant put the bridal jewelry on her including a nose ring. It was something like an engagement ring today. And off they went.
It was good that that servant first turned to thank God for that quick answer to his prayer. Good advice for all of us. Thank God first! But he was still not sure and asked the Lord to reassure him before he took off. We all have those moments when we think we are sure but just want to make absolutely sure. That is one thing with which our church can help.
Rebekah and Isaac didn't recognize each other, but when they learned who each other were, it says they went into his tent. It never says if there was anyone in the tent who conducted a ceremony, but when they came out, they were married. Whatever happened inside was up to God.
Bob O.
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
It was a complicated and time-intensive search for a wife for Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah. The story begins with an aged father who wanted a good, caring, compassionate, and loving wife for his son and asked a devoted and trusted employee for help. It ends months later successfully as Rebekah is presented to Isaac. The Bible states, "So she became his wife, and he loved her..." (Genesis 24:67 NIV).
Matthew Henry, quoted in The Tale of a the Tardy Oxcart, "A woman was not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side, to be equal to him under his arm to be protected; and near his heart to be loved."
Marriage is two hearts finding the love Isaac and Rebekah found! Find your love in your mate... no one else.
Derl K.
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
A spy sits down at a bar ready to pass along the secrets he has learned; secrets that must not ever get into the wrong hands. He is waiting to meet a total stranger, about whom he knows nothing except that they will be wearing a black hat. The spy worries that he won't be talking to the right person, but he trusts the one who arranged the meeting. Finally someone sits next to him. He steals a quick glance; it's a woman in her sixties wearing a black baseball cap. "The crow flies at midnight" she says. It's what he had been waiting to hear. She's the one. Everything will work out the way it's supposed to. He answers "But never on Thursday."
Scott B.
Romans 7:15-25a
Adoniram Judson after being a Deist at Providence College (now Brown University) realized after graduation that it was aimless philosophy and converted to Christianity. He took upon himself the role of evangelist and became one of the founders of the American Baptist Missionary Society. Unable to be accepted in the southeast countries of choice, he took his missionary venture to Burma in 1812. He and his wife Ann were the only Christians in the entire country. After six long and exhausting years he had his first convert, Moung Nau. By 1850 there were 210,000 Christians in Burma, which is 1 out of every 58 Burmans. Yet at this time the 62-year-old evangelist began to suffer from depression and doubted his own salvation. He died on a voyage back to America in an attempt to regain the assurance of his salvation.
Application: Paul often questioned his own actions but amidst the questions he remained an effective evangelist.
Ron L.
Romans 7:15-25a
We do not like to acknowledge our sin. This is evident in our confidence that we are good enough to do a sufficient number of works to earn salvation. Such attitudes were reflected in a 2001 Barna Research Group poll indicating that 7 in 10 Americans believed that we must do works to be saved. No doubt little has changed regarding these attitudes in the last decade.
In fact, we human beings are self-addicts, unable to act or love selflessly. It is as Martin Luther once wrote:
The reason is that our nature has been so deeply curved in upon itself because of the viciousness of original sin that it not only turns the finest gifts of God in upon itself and enjoys them (as is evident in the case of legalists and hypocrites), and indeed it even uses God himself to achieve these aims, but it also seems to be ignorant of the very fact that in acting so iniquitously, so perversely... it is even seeking God for its own sake.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, p. 291)
In the same spirit famed modern theologian Karl Barth wrote about the human condition:
For not even at the most exalted moments of my life do I fulfill his commands. Does any single thought of mine express the all-compelling power of the Spirit?... All my products are foreign bodies testifying to my inadequacy.
(The Epistle to the Romans, pp. 260-261)
Barth also remarks that religion disrupts our lives (Ibid., p. 266). The forgiving agape love of God disrupts or selfishness!
We are still so addicted to our selfishness that on this side of the end times the forgiving love of God does not totally our sin. This will lead us truly to appreciate what God has done, for we see that salvation is all God's work and as a result we can be certain of it. Luther writes:
Therefore we define a Christian as follows: A Christian is not someone who has no sin... he is someone to whom, because of faith... God does not impute his sin. This doctrine brings firm consolation to troubled consciences amid genuine terrors.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, pp. 133-134)
To this John Calvin adds:
Removing, then, mention of law and laying aside all consideration of works, we should when justification is discussed, embrace God's mercy alone, turn our attention from ourselves, and look only to Christ. For the question is not how we may become righteous but how, being unrighteous and unworthy, we may be reckoned righteous.
(Institutes, III/XIX/2)
An awareness of how trapped we are in sin makes being a Christian a lot easier. Realizing that we cannot contribute anything to our salvation, we can more readily recognize that we don't do any more to get God's gifts than a child does to receive her Christmas or birthday presents. Life is very sweet for children at Christmas and birthday time, and so that is the way life is for Christians every day they remember their sin and revel in God's forgiveness.
Mark E.
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
The first time I read this I thought of our president. He is either accused of being too easygoing or too much of a Hitler. He is either moving too fast or not stopping to gather all the knowledge he needs to make decisions. Congress is also blamed for being too stubborn or too open to anything that comes along. I would hate to run for public office because they would find out things that I had done years before, like sneezing during the pastor sermon or worse things like looking at a girl lustfully. Remember Carter lost the election just by admitting, "I have lusted." Bill Clinton went further than lusting, but now he is in the headlines! Don't we Americans sometimes sound like those children in the marketplace?
Sometimes our own kids complain about us for doing or not doing what they wanted. As parents we can complain, "I cooked broccoli for you and you did not eat." Those in power complained about John the Baptist. If we don't agree with someone, don't we spend too much time trying to drag up all the faults of that person?
I read a good book on how to reach atheists. It said we should start by listening to them and their reasons for why they lost their faith before we shout at them that they are going to hell.
When I was counseling couples about divorce, I expected each one to spend all their time complaining about the faults of the other. When I asked them to write down all the good things about their mate, they sometimes looked surprised -- especially when they read them to their mate. If nothing else they saw a balance. Then I told them that they were normal human beings and would never find a mate who was perfect in every way.
This passage seems to be saying that those who think they are the wisest should turn around and begin to think like children.
After seminary I had to put away some of my learned books and listen to the simple people in my pews who at times seemed to have a more basic and trusting faith than I had learned to have. Some showed by their lives that they knew the Lord and not just knew about him. Sometimes I learned from others that Jesus died for people and not for principles. The Pharisees were the most principled people in Jesus' day.
I found peace listening to their simple faith, which gave me peace. Our Lord came to give us peace and not a heavy yoke of responsibility to set others straight. We may get more peace by taking the log out of our own eye first.
Bob O.
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
We live in a society that feels self-sufficient and has no time for justice as it continues to neglect the poor, abuse the environment, and trust in the power of technological warfare. As Christians we sometimes feel we cannot make a difference because it appears we are powerless, comfortless, and weighted down by mental, emotional, physical, and psychological exhaustion. But God says that we are to come to him if we are weary and heavy-laden and he will give us rest. Rest in him means that he will give us the power to wage war on abuse, neglect, and injustice.
Derl K.
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
A yoke in its simplest form is a long pole that you balance horizontally behind your neck. It stretches out for a foot or two past each shoulder. Fancier versions have a cut-out spot for your neck and are contoured to fit comfortably over your shoulders. From the ends of the pole hang hooks for buckets or bags. A yoke not only frees up your hands while you are carrying a heavy load, but it also makes you able to bear much more weight than you otherwise could.
Scott B.
The custom in that day was for the parents to select a mate for their son or daughter. It was important that the woman's family know that her prospective groom was well healed. Isaac was well off now and even better off when his folks died. That was the practice back then in Abraham's time. It is still the practice in several countries today. One of the reasons some converted to the faith in Nepal was to avoid that. One of our members, a cute girl in her late teens told me, "I married for love!" She was very excited about it. We visited India while we were in Nepal and met a couple who were just married. They met for the first time on their wedding day. Their parents did a good job picking. They both had graduate degrees and were excitedly telling each other about the subjects in which they majored. It was more important that they both came from the same faith background than if they were rich or poor, though that was a factor.
I like the way the manservant asked the Lord to solve his problem of finding a mate for Isaac. It saved him a lot of time! He just hung around by the well until he found a girl who was humble and obedient and even went beyond his request for a glass of water. She even watered his camels -- which was quite a job! He checked her lineage next. That gave Rebekah her other job. Now, all the manservant had to do was go and get the family to agree. Once that was done and Rebekah agreed, they were on their way.
As soon as he was sure he had the right one and that she had agreed to the match, the manservant put the bridal jewelry on her including a nose ring. It was something like an engagement ring today. And off they went.
It was good that that servant first turned to thank God for that quick answer to his prayer. Good advice for all of us. Thank God first! But he was still not sure and asked the Lord to reassure him before he took off. We all have those moments when we think we are sure but just want to make absolutely sure. That is one thing with which our church can help.
Rebekah and Isaac didn't recognize each other, but when they learned who each other were, it says they went into his tent. It never says if there was anyone in the tent who conducted a ceremony, but when they came out, they were married. Whatever happened inside was up to God.
Bob O.
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
It was a complicated and time-intensive search for a wife for Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah. The story begins with an aged father who wanted a good, caring, compassionate, and loving wife for his son and asked a devoted and trusted employee for help. It ends months later successfully as Rebekah is presented to Isaac. The Bible states, "So she became his wife, and he loved her..." (Genesis 24:67 NIV).
Matthew Henry, quoted in The Tale of a the Tardy Oxcart, "A woman was not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side, to be equal to him under his arm to be protected; and near his heart to be loved."
Marriage is two hearts finding the love Isaac and Rebekah found! Find your love in your mate... no one else.
Derl K.
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
A spy sits down at a bar ready to pass along the secrets he has learned; secrets that must not ever get into the wrong hands. He is waiting to meet a total stranger, about whom he knows nothing except that they will be wearing a black hat. The spy worries that he won't be talking to the right person, but he trusts the one who arranged the meeting. Finally someone sits next to him. He steals a quick glance; it's a woman in her sixties wearing a black baseball cap. "The crow flies at midnight" she says. It's what he had been waiting to hear. She's the one. Everything will work out the way it's supposed to. He answers "But never on Thursday."
Scott B.
Romans 7:15-25a
Adoniram Judson after being a Deist at Providence College (now Brown University) realized after graduation that it was aimless philosophy and converted to Christianity. He took upon himself the role of evangelist and became one of the founders of the American Baptist Missionary Society. Unable to be accepted in the southeast countries of choice, he took his missionary venture to Burma in 1812. He and his wife Ann were the only Christians in the entire country. After six long and exhausting years he had his first convert, Moung Nau. By 1850 there were 210,000 Christians in Burma, which is 1 out of every 58 Burmans. Yet at this time the 62-year-old evangelist began to suffer from depression and doubted his own salvation. He died on a voyage back to America in an attempt to regain the assurance of his salvation.
Application: Paul often questioned his own actions but amidst the questions he remained an effective evangelist.
Ron L.
Romans 7:15-25a
We do not like to acknowledge our sin. This is evident in our confidence that we are good enough to do a sufficient number of works to earn salvation. Such attitudes were reflected in a 2001 Barna Research Group poll indicating that 7 in 10 Americans believed that we must do works to be saved. No doubt little has changed regarding these attitudes in the last decade.
In fact, we human beings are self-addicts, unable to act or love selflessly. It is as Martin Luther once wrote:
The reason is that our nature has been so deeply curved in upon itself because of the viciousness of original sin that it not only turns the finest gifts of God in upon itself and enjoys them (as is evident in the case of legalists and hypocrites), and indeed it even uses God himself to achieve these aims, but it also seems to be ignorant of the very fact that in acting so iniquitously, so perversely... it is even seeking God for its own sake.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, p. 291)
In the same spirit famed modern theologian Karl Barth wrote about the human condition:
For not even at the most exalted moments of my life do I fulfill his commands. Does any single thought of mine express the all-compelling power of the Spirit?... All my products are foreign bodies testifying to my inadequacy.
(The Epistle to the Romans, pp. 260-261)
Barth also remarks that religion disrupts our lives (Ibid., p. 266). The forgiving agape love of God disrupts or selfishness!
We are still so addicted to our selfishness that on this side of the end times the forgiving love of God does not totally our sin. This will lead us truly to appreciate what God has done, for we see that salvation is all God's work and as a result we can be certain of it. Luther writes:
Therefore we define a Christian as follows: A Christian is not someone who has no sin... he is someone to whom, because of faith... God does not impute his sin. This doctrine brings firm consolation to troubled consciences amid genuine terrors.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, pp. 133-134)
To this John Calvin adds:
Removing, then, mention of law and laying aside all consideration of works, we should when justification is discussed, embrace God's mercy alone, turn our attention from ourselves, and look only to Christ. For the question is not how we may become righteous but how, being unrighteous and unworthy, we may be reckoned righteous.
(Institutes, III/XIX/2)
An awareness of how trapped we are in sin makes being a Christian a lot easier. Realizing that we cannot contribute anything to our salvation, we can more readily recognize that we don't do any more to get God's gifts than a child does to receive her Christmas or birthday presents. Life is very sweet for children at Christmas and birthday time, and so that is the way life is for Christians every day they remember their sin and revel in God's forgiveness.
Mark E.
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
The first time I read this I thought of our president. He is either accused of being too easygoing or too much of a Hitler. He is either moving too fast or not stopping to gather all the knowledge he needs to make decisions. Congress is also blamed for being too stubborn or too open to anything that comes along. I would hate to run for public office because they would find out things that I had done years before, like sneezing during the pastor sermon or worse things like looking at a girl lustfully. Remember Carter lost the election just by admitting, "I have lusted." Bill Clinton went further than lusting, but now he is in the headlines! Don't we Americans sometimes sound like those children in the marketplace?
Sometimes our own kids complain about us for doing or not doing what they wanted. As parents we can complain, "I cooked broccoli for you and you did not eat." Those in power complained about John the Baptist. If we don't agree with someone, don't we spend too much time trying to drag up all the faults of that person?
I read a good book on how to reach atheists. It said we should start by listening to them and their reasons for why they lost their faith before we shout at them that they are going to hell.
When I was counseling couples about divorce, I expected each one to spend all their time complaining about the faults of the other. When I asked them to write down all the good things about their mate, they sometimes looked surprised -- especially when they read them to their mate. If nothing else they saw a balance. Then I told them that they were normal human beings and would never find a mate who was perfect in every way.
This passage seems to be saying that those who think they are the wisest should turn around and begin to think like children.
After seminary I had to put away some of my learned books and listen to the simple people in my pews who at times seemed to have a more basic and trusting faith than I had learned to have. Some showed by their lives that they knew the Lord and not just knew about him. Sometimes I learned from others that Jesus died for people and not for principles. The Pharisees were the most principled people in Jesus' day.
I found peace listening to their simple faith, which gave me peace. Our Lord came to give us peace and not a heavy yoke of responsibility to set others straight. We may get more peace by taking the log out of our own eye first.
Bob O.
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
We live in a society that feels self-sufficient and has no time for justice as it continues to neglect the poor, abuse the environment, and trust in the power of technological warfare. As Christians we sometimes feel we cannot make a difference because it appears we are powerless, comfortless, and weighted down by mental, emotional, physical, and psychological exhaustion. But God says that we are to come to him if we are weary and heavy-laden and he will give us rest. Rest in him means that he will give us the power to wage war on abuse, neglect, and injustice.
Derl K.
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
A yoke in its simplest form is a long pole that you balance horizontally behind your neck. It stretches out for a foot or two past each shoulder. Fancier versions have a cut-out spot for your neck and are contoured to fit comfortably over your shoulders. From the ends of the pole hang hooks for buckets or bags. A yoke not only frees up your hands while you are carrying a heavy load, but it also makes you able to bear much more weight than you otherwise could.
Scott B.
