Sermons Illustrations for Proper 19 | Ordinary Time 24
Illustration
Object:
Exodus 14:19-31
How would we feel if there were two walls of water on either side of us, and a whole army chasing after us to kill us? Would we be a little worried? It is hard to picture. Are there times in our lives when we see disaster all around us and are being pursued by the bill collector or police? Is it hard to look ahead and see the way of escape that God has planned for us? Do we have faith that God will save us?
Do we ever think that even if the "army" behind us is going to kill us, we are lost? If it comes to extremes like that, do we ever stop and think that maybe the end of that tunnel of water is "heaven"? That could be our escape.
God can and does do amazing things to save those who trust in him with both salvation from our troubles here on earth or our ultimate salvation with him in heaven. As Paul said, "Whether I live or die, I am with the Lord." That should be our comfort no matter what the Lord allows to happen to us.
But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead floating on the water. And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.
The thing we need to notice as we read the rest of scripture is how quickly the Israelites forgot the great power of God who saved them. Over and over again the people needed another miracle to strengthen their faith. That problem is still going on for each of us. I remember worrying about my expenses -- year after year I worried. They were all taken care of but I still worried about the next batch of bills that came in.
Bob O.
Exodus 14:19-31
When our children were small and a fierce thunderstorm rained down its thunder and lightning, they would scamper into our room for protection... and we gave it.
The children of Israel were just like children frightened by the swirling storms gathered behind them -- the Egyptians -- and another storm in front -- the Red Sea. They were about to be penned in, and they were terrified. But they had a safe place, a refuge, in the powerful arms of God who embraced them. He provided an angel who traveled in front of Israel's army and a pillar of cloud that went behind them (Exodus 14:19).
Whatever storm is pouring down today, I can rejoice that God's protective arms reach down to calm the tempest in my life.
Derl K.
Exodus 14:19-31
When Charles Babbage (1791-1871) is remembered at all, it is as the inventor of the first programmable computer. Babbage's "difference engine" (or analytical engine) was essentially a mechanical calculator. Only one scaled down model was ever built and that was 120 years after Babbage died. Babbage's plan was for a steam powered machine the size of a locomotive.
Less well known is that Babbage is also the inventor of the cowcatcher, the pointy grating of iron bars on the front of a train that clears obstacles from the tracks.
Babbage was a visionary who always looked forward, and he understood that moving forward often means pushing aside what is in the way.
Scott B.
Romans 14:1-12
The religion of Hinduism understands the entrapment of living a self-centered life. Hinduism is the oldest established religion in the world and the third largest. At the end of the first century CE, the Laws of Manu were established. These laws report the four basic goals that motivate humanity, thus they have also come to be called the "Four Ends of Human Life." A young man should transcend from a lower level to the next until he discovers the true meaning of life. The journey begins with kama or pleasure, to discover purpose by gratifying the senses. At this stage Kama-sutra may be a familiar phrase to us, having become a part of the English lexicon. Kama-sutra is an often-quoted text for its picturesque descriptions of various positions for sexual intercourse. It is here, at kama, as a hedonist, that one begins the journey of life. Unfulfilled, the young man moves to artha, which means financial success or wealth. This is the first attempt to set some real goals, but it reflects a misplaced ambition. He continues to sense an inner disquiet, because as well as being successful he equally desires to be respected. Therefore he strives for dharma, which is righteous living. As a viable contributor to the community he knows he is doing good for others, but there still remains an emptiness. His goal now becomes moksha, which means liberation or spiritual freedom, and it is here that the real purpose of life is realized. Moksha is attained by disidentification with the body and mind, which becomes the realization of our true identity.
Application: Hinduism understands what it means to be weak in the faith and how we must move beyond that boundary of self-centeredness. For Paul it means a Christian begins to walk by faith.
Ron L.
Romans 14:1-12
No one who loves life wants to die. Comedian Woody Allen said it well: "I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens." Brave as some of us are about death, deep down we fear it. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs knew this truth: "No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it."
American actor and director Orson Welles gives us insight about what makes death scary. Like any adventure, the reality of death makes us anxious. But what is worse is that when we are dying we go through it alone (or so it seems). We leave loved ones behind, and they lose us: "We are born alone, we live alone, we die alone."
Paul offers a word of hope and comfort reminding us that we do not die to ourselves. Martin Luther powerfully articulates the comfort this insight affords for understanding death:
Since it is certain that souls are living and are in peace [in death], what kind of life or rest is this?... Just as a mother brings an infant into the bed chamber and puts it into a cradle -- not that it may die, but that it may have a pleasant sleep and rest -- so before the coming of Christ and much more after the coming of Christ all the souls of believers have entered and are entering the bosom of Christ.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 4, p. 313)
Thinking about our passing in this way, as a child wrapped up in Christ's arms, death is no longer so scary and lonely a prospect.
Mark E.
Matthew 18:21-35
We do not know what drove Peter to question Jesus about the act of forgiveness, but in Matthew 18:21 he does. The rabbinical code called for a person to forgive another three times, but Peter extended the number to seven thinking he was well over the normal. He was shocked when Jesus said that one should forgive another by seventy times seven... or the principle... indefinitely. If we forgive another, it demonstrates a moral sense of responsibility toward others that has been shown to us by God.
Several years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light. One early morning while the president was still asleep, a burglar crept into his room and was going through his pants pockets. Coolidge awoke and began quietly talking to the man. He asked the thief not to take a watch chain he had because it had an engraved charm on it that he wanted to keep. After awhile the President of the United States began to engage the burglar in quiet conversation and discovered that he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a bus ticket back to campus. Time passed in that shadowy room, and finally Coolidge not only said he forgave the young man for the intrusion but gave him the $32 he had in his wallet. Sensing that the young man was only desperate and not a real thief, Coolidge declared that what he gave him was a loan and advised the young man to go back the way he came in to avoid the Secret Service. The loan was paid back because a president forgave and had mercy on a young college student.
Who is it that we need to forgive and show mercy today?
(Coolidge story told in Today in the Word, October 8, 1992. www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/m/mercy.htm)
Derk K.
Matthew 18:21-35
Isn't Jesus saying that people are more important than principles? The Pharisees were the most principled people in Jesus' day, but he doesn't give them any praise! They could be careful about the exact figures, like seven times or like exactly 10% of their income or how many feet you could travel on a sabbath or how much work you could do. Jesus died for people, not for principles. Sometimes putting principles first rather than the American people hurts our country. I keep hearing our legislators talk about "standing on principles" but are they thinking of the people first?
Wars are started on "principles," including liberal and conservative extremes or religious differences.
Principles have separated God's church into denominations who each think they have the only or at least the best answers. When the Bible tells us that the church is Christ's bride, it means one bride. Jesus was not a Mormon bishop with many brides. He did not have many wives: Baptist, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and so on. We are all one in Jesus. He has made us one. We don't need committees to work out and compromise our differences. Is there anyone who you feel you just can't forgive?
One old pastor in Nepal was thrown in jail for being Christian, but he even forgave those who were torturing him. As a result many were won to Christ by this old man's love and forgiveness.
Many say that they could forgive but never forget. What if God forgave us but never forgot our sins? Forgiveness must be complete. It should wipe out all remembrance of sins. Does anyone owe us something? We should be patient with them until they can pay us back. My dad made his house payments faithfully, but just one payment did he miss because he was out of work for a couple weeks in the Depression. The loan company forgave him until the price of housing went up and they could make more. Then they foreclosed on him for that one payment he missed a couple years before. He forgave them but never used that company again. I saw the suffering it caused our family when we had to leave the house I grew up in. What will the Lord do to them when they go to be with him?
We all have to remember that there will be a day of reckoning -- both good and bad. The main question we need to ask ourselves is if we will live up to this phrase in the Lord's Prayer that we pray often: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
Bob O.
Matthew 18:21-35
The entire mathematical system of the Yanomama, who live simply in one-building villages in the Venezuelan and Brazilian rainforests, consists only of the numbers "one," "two," and "many." Our numbers go lower than one with fractions and decimals, and far higher than two -- to billions and quadrillions, to googol and googol-plex. Unlike the Yanomama, we recognize the difference between "three" and "infinity." Still we do sometimes count like they do. "Scads" isn't a number exactly, but it is an amount. The same is true for "a lot" and "truckload," for "countless," and oodles, and "jillion."
When Jesus said to forgive 77 times, he didn't mean one more time than 76. He meant "oodles." The current exchange rate for ten thousand talents is a hundredy-zillion jillion dollars.
Scott B.
How would we feel if there were two walls of water on either side of us, and a whole army chasing after us to kill us? Would we be a little worried? It is hard to picture. Are there times in our lives when we see disaster all around us and are being pursued by the bill collector or police? Is it hard to look ahead and see the way of escape that God has planned for us? Do we have faith that God will save us?
Do we ever think that even if the "army" behind us is going to kill us, we are lost? If it comes to extremes like that, do we ever stop and think that maybe the end of that tunnel of water is "heaven"? That could be our escape.
God can and does do amazing things to save those who trust in him with both salvation from our troubles here on earth or our ultimate salvation with him in heaven. As Paul said, "Whether I live or die, I am with the Lord." That should be our comfort no matter what the Lord allows to happen to us.
But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead floating on the water. And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.
The thing we need to notice as we read the rest of scripture is how quickly the Israelites forgot the great power of God who saved them. Over and over again the people needed another miracle to strengthen their faith. That problem is still going on for each of us. I remember worrying about my expenses -- year after year I worried. They were all taken care of but I still worried about the next batch of bills that came in.
Bob O.
Exodus 14:19-31
When our children were small and a fierce thunderstorm rained down its thunder and lightning, they would scamper into our room for protection... and we gave it.
The children of Israel were just like children frightened by the swirling storms gathered behind them -- the Egyptians -- and another storm in front -- the Red Sea. They were about to be penned in, and they were terrified. But they had a safe place, a refuge, in the powerful arms of God who embraced them. He provided an angel who traveled in front of Israel's army and a pillar of cloud that went behind them (Exodus 14:19).
Whatever storm is pouring down today, I can rejoice that God's protective arms reach down to calm the tempest in my life.
Derl K.
Exodus 14:19-31
When Charles Babbage (1791-1871) is remembered at all, it is as the inventor of the first programmable computer. Babbage's "difference engine" (or analytical engine) was essentially a mechanical calculator. Only one scaled down model was ever built and that was 120 years after Babbage died. Babbage's plan was for a steam powered machine the size of a locomotive.
Less well known is that Babbage is also the inventor of the cowcatcher, the pointy grating of iron bars on the front of a train that clears obstacles from the tracks.
Babbage was a visionary who always looked forward, and he understood that moving forward often means pushing aside what is in the way.
Scott B.
Romans 14:1-12
The religion of Hinduism understands the entrapment of living a self-centered life. Hinduism is the oldest established religion in the world and the third largest. At the end of the first century CE, the Laws of Manu were established. These laws report the four basic goals that motivate humanity, thus they have also come to be called the "Four Ends of Human Life." A young man should transcend from a lower level to the next until he discovers the true meaning of life. The journey begins with kama or pleasure, to discover purpose by gratifying the senses. At this stage Kama-sutra may be a familiar phrase to us, having become a part of the English lexicon. Kama-sutra is an often-quoted text for its picturesque descriptions of various positions for sexual intercourse. It is here, at kama, as a hedonist, that one begins the journey of life. Unfulfilled, the young man moves to artha, which means financial success or wealth. This is the first attempt to set some real goals, but it reflects a misplaced ambition. He continues to sense an inner disquiet, because as well as being successful he equally desires to be respected. Therefore he strives for dharma, which is righteous living. As a viable contributor to the community he knows he is doing good for others, but there still remains an emptiness. His goal now becomes moksha, which means liberation or spiritual freedom, and it is here that the real purpose of life is realized. Moksha is attained by disidentification with the body and mind, which becomes the realization of our true identity.
Application: Hinduism understands what it means to be weak in the faith and how we must move beyond that boundary of self-centeredness. For Paul it means a Christian begins to walk by faith.
Ron L.
Romans 14:1-12
No one who loves life wants to die. Comedian Woody Allen said it well: "I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens." Brave as some of us are about death, deep down we fear it. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs knew this truth: "No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it."
American actor and director Orson Welles gives us insight about what makes death scary. Like any adventure, the reality of death makes us anxious. But what is worse is that when we are dying we go through it alone (or so it seems). We leave loved ones behind, and they lose us: "We are born alone, we live alone, we die alone."
Paul offers a word of hope and comfort reminding us that we do not die to ourselves. Martin Luther powerfully articulates the comfort this insight affords for understanding death:
Since it is certain that souls are living and are in peace [in death], what kind of life or rest is this?... Just as a mother brings an infant into the bed chamber and puts it into a cradle -- not that it may die, but that it may have a pleasant sleep and rest -- so before the coming of Christ and much more after the coming of Christ all the souls of believers have entered and are entering the bosom of Christ.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 4, p. 313)
Thinking about our passing in this way, as a child wrapped up in Christ's arms, death is no longer so scary and lonely a prospect.
Mark E.
Matthew 18:21-35
We do not know what drove Peter to question Jesus about the act of forgiveness, but in Matthew 18:21 he does. The rabbinical code called for a person to forgive another three times, but Peter extended the number to seven thinking he was well over the normal. He was shocked when Jesus said that one should forgive another by seventy times seven... or the principle... indefinitely. If we forgive another, it demonstrates a moral sense of responsibility toward others that has been shown to us by God.
Several years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light. One early morning while the president was still asleep, a burglar crept into his room and was going through his pants pockets. Coolidge awoke and began quietly talking to the man. He asked the thief not to take a watch chain he had because it had an engraved charm on it that he wanted to keep. After awhile the President of the United States began to engage the burglar in quiet conversation and discovered that he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a bus ticket back to campus. Time passed in that shadowy room, and finally Coolidge not only said he forgave the young man for the intrusion but gave him the $32 he had in his wallet. Sensing that the young man was only desperate and not a real thief, Coolidge declared that what he gave him was a loan and advised the young man to go back the way he came in to avoid the Secret Service. The loan was paid back because a president forgave and had mercy on a young college student.
Who is it that we need to forgive and show mercy today?
(Coolidge story told in Today in the Word, October 8, 1992. www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/m/mercy.htm)
Derk K.
Matthew 18:21-35
Isn't Jesus saying that people are more important than principles? The Pharisees were the most principled people in Jesus' day, but he doesn't give them any praise! They could be careful about the exact figures, like seven times or like exactly 10% of their income or how many feet you could travel on a sabbath or how much work you could do. Jesus died for people, not for principles. Sometimes putting principles first rather than the American people hurts our country. I keep hearing our legislators talk about "standing on principles" but are they thinking of the people first?
Wars are started on "principles," including liberal and conservative extremes or religious differences.
Principles have separated God's church into denominations who each think they have the only or at least the best answers. When the Bible tells us that the church is Christ's bride, it means one bride. Jesus was not a Mormon bishop with many brides. He did not have many wives: Baptist, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and so on. We are all one in Jesus. He has made us one. We don't need committees to work out and compromise our differences. Is there anyone who you feel you just can't forgive?
One old pastor in Nepal was thrown in jail for being Christian, but he even forgave those who were torturing him. As a result many were won to Christ by this old man's love and forgiveness.
Many say that they could forgive but never forget. What if God forgave us but never forgot our sins? Forgiveness must be complete. It should wipe out all remembrance of sins. Does anyone owe us something? We should be patient with them until they can pay us back. My dad made his house payments faithfully, but just one payment did he miss because he was out of work for a couple weeks in the Depression. The loan company forgave him until the price of housing went up and they could make more. Then they foreclosed on him for that one payment he missed a couple years before. He forgave them but never used that company again. I saw the suffering it caused our family when we had to leave the house I grew up in. What will the Lord do to them when they go to be with him?
We all have to remember that there will be a day of reckoning -- both good and bad. The main question we need to ask ourselves is if we will live up to this phrase in the Lord's Prayer that we pray often: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
Bob O.
Matthew 18:21-35
The entire mathematical system of the Yanomama, who live simply in one-building villages in the Venezuelan and Brazilian rainforests, consists only of the numbers "one," "two," and "many." Our numbers go lower than one with fractions and decimals, and far higher than two -- to billions and quadrillions, to googol and googol-plex. Unlike the Yanomama, we recognize the difference between "three" and "infinity." Still we do sometimes count like they do. "Scads" isn't a number exactly, but it is an amount. The same is true for "a lot" and "truckload," for "countless," and oodles, and "jillion."
When Jesus said to forgive 77 times, he didn't mean one more time than 76. He meant "oodles." The current exchange rate for ten thousand talents is a hundredy-zillion jillion dollars.
Scott B.
