Sermon Illustrations for the Third Sunday of Easter (2024)
Illustration
Acts 3:12-19
We all make mistakes. Peter recounts to the Israelites the scope of their mistake, in not seeing Jesus as the Messiah, and killing him. While we haven’t really made this mistake in our lives — the crucifixion of Jesus — we have committed other crucifixions. For instance:
Bonnie B.
* * *
Acts 3:12-19
In Norwegian immigrant circles it is commonly said that, “Americans like to toot their own horns.” On these grounds, Peter in undertaking the healing of the lame man was not a very good American. The problem in part is that we have difficulty giving God the credit for what happens in life, especially since we attribute most things that happen as the result of our exercise of our own free will.
A 2016 Pew Research Center poll found that only about half of U.S. adults believe God determines what happens most of the time. We clearly need new or fresh models for describing God’s role in the events of life. One (ancient) model which might be used to make Peter’s point in the sermon is the idea that God functions in the universe like a bandleader (Athanasius, Against the Heathen, III.43). Just as the bandleader makes most of the decisions about the band but does not actually play the instruments and so cannot guarantee a good performance, so God can work all the good in the world without guaranteeing all the results are good. More recently modern theologian Arthur Peacocke has compared God’s rule over the cosmos to the brain’s dominance over the human body (Theology for a Scientific Age, pp 136,161,169,307). Most of the time our brains get our bodies to do what we want, but not always.
Mark E.
* * *
1 John 3:1-7
Earl Hamner’s novel, The Homecoming, which became the inspiration for the television series The Waltons, demonstrates a father’s love for his children. At the height of the Great Depression, Hamner’s father had full-time employment. The job, however, was far away from home. On Christmas Eve, Earl, his siblings, and mom anxiously wait on their dad to come home from Christmas. The later it gets, the more concerned they become. Suddenly, his dad makes it home and has presents for all of them. Every single family member is given a unique, wrapped gift: from a harmonica to a doll baby, to dresses for the girls. Hamner’s father gives his mother flowers and informs her he spent every last cent of his paycheck and quit his job to stay home with his family. It would be a struggle, but they would make it. Being with his family mattered to Hamner’s father.
Earl Hamner’s father was willing to do whatever it took to take care of his family. Father’s are supposed to love like that. God does. God loves us so much that he made it possible for us to be called his children. There are a lot of titles we may attain in this life. You might be professor. You are perhaps called “Doctor.” Maybe you are “Boss,” or “Chairperson.” Maybe you are “mom” or “dad.” None of those are bad things. However, the most significant thing you will ever be called is “child of God.” Don’t forget, God loves you.
Bill T.
* * *
1 John 3:1-7
See! That’s how this passage begins, with a command in the second person plural. Let’s look together, so that we can confirm to each other what it is we all are seeing. What we see is an action unfathomable to the outside world, but to we who choose to believe and become a part of this audacious act of God, we see what manner of love has been revealed. God makes all of us, slaves, paupers, outsiders, strugglers, deemed unworthy by the world — children of God! That puts us in the will. We are considered impoverished by those who do not believe, fettered by the chains of our choice to follow Jesus, but we are inheritors of the great and good plan of God! It is not yet made clear what this will look like because so much has not yet been revealed.
John goes on to say we are without sin — something we know is patently false if by that we mean that we do not sin. We are still flawed. We are still struggling. But here, I think, John identifies sinners as those who live apart of the law of God, who do not recognize that there is any such thing. As the author says, “Sin is lawlessness.” It means living without a moral compass, a plumb line, a code, the Word of God. In the sense that we recognize our concept of right and wrong comes from outside ourselves and is grounded in the great will to create and redeem, then we are indeed without the condition of alienation and despair that is the backdrop to the world as we find it today.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 24:36b-48
Luke tells us about the shock of the disciples seeing the risen Christ, their fear was evident. I’m sure it would be the same for us — to see a beloved deceased friend or relative appear before us. We would be afraid, uncertain, and shocked. I have stood at the bedside with dying people who recount seeing a deceased relative, someone telling them that they will be welcomed into heaven, that they will be accompanied. There are many instances of these visions and while, originally, medical personnel believed this was a reaction to medications, even those not receiving medications had these visions.
Jesus appeared, however, in the flesh, showing his hands and asking to be touched and then to be fed. This was a bodily resurrection and presence with the disciples, not just a vision of welcome and peace. Jesus opened his hands to them and then he opened their minds to accept he revelations of scripture, the foretelling that Jesus fulfilled. What a gift for us to have this account, this witness account of the risen Christ! What joy we can feel to read these words, to know this revelation of God’s promises!
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 24:36b-48
French philosopher E. Moris well summed up the human condition when facing death. He wrote, “The certainty of death and the uncertainty of the hour of death is a source of grief through our life.” Martin Luther commented in a sermon about the great comfort resurrection appearances afford. His word of comfort is for us:
If you think: Behold now death is approaching and staring me in the face; would that I had someone to comfort me, that I might not despair; then know that for this purpose the gospel is good, here it belongs, here its use is blessed and salutary. As soon as a man knows and understands this, and believes the gospel, his heart finds peace... (Complete Sermons, Vol.1/2, p.304)
In another sermon, Luther elaborates further on how Christ’s triumph comforts us in death. In his words:
Hence, if you feel terrified and faint-hearted, let your heart herein take comfort, so that Christ may find room in you; for he does not by any means find in you a proud impenitent heart, unwilling to humble itself... (Complete Sermons, Vol.1/2, p.328)
No need to fear when you are attached to Christ. No need to fret over whether you have done enough. John Calvin nicely put that anxiety to rest, as he once wrote, “Let us not cease to the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way to the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments.”
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 24:36b-48
We who have been redeemed by Jesus and his resurrection nevertheless still bear the wounds which we have accumulated along the way, the results of our own bad choices in some cases, but also inflicted by people of ill-will who have caused us to suffer. When Jesus says, “Peace be with you.” (Luke 24:36) he shares with them and us the ultimate sense that all is well and all will be well. Nevertheless, he shows them his wounds which he endured when he was crucified. They are proof that he is alive and fully human. Being fully human includes the wounds we have endured and accrued. Healing can be very slow. Some want to say that when we are saved all of that is left behind us, but those who have been sexually assaulted, those who have been bullied, those who have been mistreated, the tortured, the survivors bearing PTSDs, all of us in the myriad ways in which we have endured malice and misfortune, may continue to struggle with the aftermath of our wounds. Praise God if you don’t. But those of us who do, take heart! Just as someone bore the cross of Christ on that awful day when they crucified our Lord, so too both Christ and the Body of Christ are there to help us bear our burdens. Do not be ashamed of your wounds. They can be transformed into the marks of new life.
Frank R.
1 https://www.britannica.com/event/Trail-of-Tears
2 https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/history-lynching-america
3 https://time.com/6177069/american-indian-boarding-schools-history/
We all make mistakes. Peter recounts to the Israelites the scope of their mistake, in not seeing Jesus as the Messiah, and killing him. While we haven’t really made this mistake in our lives — the crucifixion of Jesus — we have committed other crucifixions. For instance:
- the forced relocation during the 1830s of Eastern Woodlands Indians of the southeast region of the United States (including Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole, among other nations) to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.1
- The lynchings that white people used to terrorize and control black people in the nineteeth and twentieth centuries, particularly in the south. Lynchings were often public spectacles attended by the white community in celebration of white supremacy.2
- the 408 American Indian Boarding Schools boarding schools which the U.S. ran or supported between 1819 and 1969 where students endured “rampant physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.”3
Bonnie B.
* * *
Acts 3:12-19
In Norwegian immigrant circles it is commonly said that, “Americans like to toot their own horns.” On these grounds, Peter in undertaking the healing of the lame man was not a very good American. The problem in part is that we have difficulty giving God the credit for what happens in life, especially since we attribute most things that happen as the result of our exercise of our own free will.
A 2016 Pew Research Center poll found that only about half of U.S. adults believe God determines what happens most of the time. We clearly need new or fresh models for describing God’s role in the events of life. One (ancient) model which might be used to make Peter’s point in the sermon is the idea that God functions in the universe like a bandleader (Athanasius, Against the Heathen, III.43). Just as the bandleader makes most of the decisions about the band but does not actually play the instruments and so cannot guarantee a good performance, so God can work all the good in the world without guaranteeing all the results are good. More recently modern theologian Arthur Peacocke has compared God’s rule over the cosmos to the brain’s dominance over the human body (Theology for a Scientific Age, pp 136,161,169,307). Most of the time our brains get our bodies to do what we want, but not always.
Mark E.
* * *
1 John 3:1-7
Earl Hamner’s novel, The Homecoming, which became the inspiration for the television series The Waltons, demonstrates a father’s love for his children. At the height of the Great Depression, Hamner’s father had full-time employment. The job, however, was far away from home. On Christmas Eve, Earl, his siblings, and mom anxiously wait on their dad to come home from Christmas. The later it gets, the more concerned they become. Suddenly, his dad makes it home and has presents for all of them. Every single family member is given a unique, wrapped gift: from a harmonica to a doll baby, to dresses for the girls. Hamner’s father gives his mother flowers and informs her he spent every last cent of his paycheck and quit his job to stay home with his family. It would be a struggle, but they would make it. Being with his family mattered to Hamner’s father.
Earl Hamner’s father was willing to do whatever it took to take care of his family. Father’s are supposed to love like that. God does. God loves us so much that he made it possible for us to be called his children. There are a lot of titles we may attain in this life. You might be professor. You are perhaps called “Doctor.” Maybe you are “Boss,” or “Chairperson.” Maybe you are “mom” or “dad.” None of those are bad things. However, the most significant thing you will ever be called is “child of God.” Don’t forget, God loves you.
Bill T.
* * *
1 John 3:1-7
See! That’s how this passage begins, with a command in the second person plural. Let’s look together, so that we can confirm to each other what it is we all are seeing. What we see is an action unfathomable to the outside world, but to we who choose to believe and become a part of this audacious act of God, we see what manner of love has been revealed. God makes all of us, slaves, paupers, outsiders, strugglers, deemed unworthy by the world — children of God! That puts us in the will. We are considered impoverished by those who do not believe, fettered by the chains of our choice to follow Jesus, but we are inheritors of the great and good plan of God! It is not yet made clear what this will look like because so much has not yet been revealed.
John goes on to say we are without sin — something we know is patently false if by that we mean that we do not sin. We are still flawed. We are still struggling. But here, I think, John identifies sinners as those who live apart of the law of God, who do not recognize that there is any such thing. As the author says, “Sin is lawlessness.” It means living without a moral compass, a plumb line, a code, the Word of God. In the sense that we recognize our concept of right and wrong comes from outside ourselves and is grounded in the great will to create and redeem, then we are indeed without the condition of alienation and despair that is the backdrop to the world as we find it today.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 24:36b-48
Luke tells us about the shock of the disciples seeing the risen Christ, their fear was evident. I’m sure it would be the same for us — to see a beloved deceased friend or relative appear before us. We would be afraid, uncertain, and shocked. I have stood at the bedside with dying people who recount seeing a deceased relative, someone telling them that they will be welcomed into heaven, that they will be accompanied. There are many instances of these visions and while, originally, medical personnel believed this was a reaction to medications, even those not receiving medications had these visions.
Jesus appeared, however, in the flesh, showing his hands and asking to be touched and then to be fed. This was a bodily resurrection and presence with the disciples, not just a vision of welcome and peace. Jesus opened his hands to them and then he opened their minds to accept he revelations of scripture, the foretelling that Jesus fulfilled. What a gift for us to have this account, this witness account of the risen Christ! What joy we can feel to read these words, to know this revelation of God’s promises!
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 24:36b-48
French philosopher E. Moris well summed up the human condition when facing death. He wrote, “The certainty of death and the uncertainty of the hour of death is a source of grief through our life.” Martin Luther commented in a sermon about the great comfort resurrection appearances afford. His word of comfort is for us:
If you think: Behold now death is approaching and staring me in the face; would that I had someone to comfort me, that I might not despair; then know that for this purpose the gospel is good, here it belongs, here its use is blessed and salutary. As soon as a man knows and understands this, and believes the gospel, his heart finds peace... (Complete Sermons, Vol.1/2, p.304)
In another sermon, Luther elaborates further on how Christ’s triumph comforts us in death. In his words:
Hence, if you feel terrified and faint-hearted, let your heart herein take comfort, so that Christ may find room in you; for he does not by any means find in you a proud impenitent heart, unwilling to humble itself... (Complete Sermons, Vol.1/2, p.328)
No need to fear when you are attached to Christ. No need to fret over whether you have done enough. John Calvin nicely put that anxiety to rest, as he once wrote, “Let us not cease to the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way to the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments.”
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 24:36b-48
We who have been redeemed by Jesus and his resurrection nevertheless still bear the wounds which we have accumulated along the way, the results of our own bad choices in some cases, but also inflicted by people of ill-will who have caused us to suffer. When Jesus says, “Peace be with you.” (Luke 24:36) he shares with them and us the ultimate sense that all is well and all will be well. Nevertheless, he shows them his wounds which he endured when he was crucified. They are proof that he is alive and fully human. Being fully human includes the wounds we have endured and accrued. Healing can be very slow. Some want to say that when we are saved all of that is left behind us, but those who have been sexually assaulted, those who have been bullied, those who have been mistreated, the tortured, the survivors bearing PTSDs, all of us in the myriad ways in which we have endured malice and misfortune, may continue to struggle with the aftermath of our wounds. Praise God if you don’t. But those of us who do, take heart! Just as someone bore the cross of Christ on that awful day when they crucified our Lord, so too both Christ and the Body of Christ are there to help us bear our burdens. Do not be ashamed of your wounds. They can be transformed into the marks of new life.
Frank R.
1 https://www.britannica.com/event/Trail-of-Tears
2 https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/history-lynching-america
3 https://time.com/6177069/american-indian-boarding-schools-history/
