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Sermon Illustrations for Proper 13 | OT 18 (2021)

Illustration
2 Samuel 11:26--12:13a
David was certainly not the last powerful man to take sexual advantage of a woman. We think of Bill Clinton and Matt Lauer (and Donald Trump has indicated he would like to do it). Martin Luther says that such behavior is the essence of sin:

Such is nature that no one wants someone else to have as much as he or she does. Everyone tries to accumulate as much as he or she can, and lets others look out for themselves. Yet we all consider ourselves upright people, and put up a fine front to conceal our villainy. (The Book of Concord [2000 ed.], pp.425-426)

No, we’re as bad as David. We repeat his sin whenever we covet, Luther says.

David was forgiven, and so are we. God’s forgiving love was powerfully proclaimed by Luther from the pulpit: “Our Lord God must be a devout man to be able to love knaves. I can’t do it, although I am myself a knave.” (Luther’s Works, Vol.54, p.32).

Elsewhere he more profoundly sings the praises of divine love:

Our heart is much too limited to be able to grasp the scope of this great blessing. For such is its magnitude that if anyone were able to comprehend it... if we had a full understanding of this love of God for men, a joy so great would come to us from this recognition that we would promptly die because of it. From this we see how great our feebleness is, how great our torpor; since few taste, I do not say, this ocean, but scarcely a few drops of this immense joy.  (What Luther Says, p.821)
Mark E.

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2 Samuel 11:26--12:13a
David was a powerful and wise king, but he was certainly not without sin. His ordering of the murder of Uriah so that he could wed Bathsheba was certainly sin. Nathan was called by God to address David’s sin. David’s immediate response to the hypothetical that Nathan shares, is righteous anger and an order for restitution to be made. Nathan then reveals that it is David himself who has sinned against the Lord. David eventually admits his sin against the Lord. There have been times when it was difficult for me to admit my sin, to reconcile myself with my neighbor and with God. Yet, when once I have admitted my sin, sought reconciliation and forgiveness, my heart has felt an ease and I have felt renewed. How do you feel when you seek forgiveness?
Bonnie B.

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Ephesians 4:1-16
Haddon Robinson, in his book Decision Making by the Book, writes of a concert violinist whose brother was a bricklayer. One day, a woman began gushing to the bricklayer about how wonderful it was to be in the family of that violinist. Not wanting to insult the bricklayer, she added, “Of course, we don’t all have the same talents, and even in a family some just seem to have more talent than others.”

The bricklayer replied, “Boy, you’re telling me! That violinist brother of mine doesn’t know a thing about laying bricks. If he couldn’t make some money playing that fiddle of his, he couldn’t hire a guy with know-how like mine to build a house. If he had to build a house himself, he’d be ruined.”

Robinson observes, “If you want to build a house, you don’t want a violinist. If you’re going to lead an orchestra, you don’t want a bricklayer. No two of us are exactly alike. None of us has every gift and ability. Our responsibility is to exercise the gifts we have—not the ones we wish we had.”

Charles Spurgeon wrote, “The spiritual gifts of the church are for the good of the rebels as well as for the building up of those who are reconciled. Whatever spiritual gifts we have, they are not our own to use as we please; they are only entrusted to us that we may employ them to help our fellow-Christians. There is no person without a talent of some sort or other, no one without some form of power either given by nature or acquired by education. We are all endowed in some degree or other, and we must each one give an account for that talent.”

May we all use the gifts we’ve been given to build up the kingdom of God.
Bill T.

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Ephesians 4:1-6
In Ephesians 4:1 Paul refers to himself as a desmios, a “prisoner” in the Lord. A little further down, in verse 3, Paul makes a reference to what is sometimes translated as “bonds” of peace. The word translated as “bonds” is sundesmios, the sun being the Greek word for “with.” It should be translated “fellow prisoners” in peace. When the Ephesians, with their varied cultural, national, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, make the sacrifices necessary to come together around the fellowship table they are prisoners of Christ, fellow prisoners with Paul. These are chains of love, but unlike Paul’s chains, they are freely chosen.
Frank R.

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John 6:24-35
“Jesus said to them, "I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” The crowds had been seeking out Jesus, seeking to know why Jesus withdraws from the crowds. Jesus admonishes them slightly by accusing them of seeking bread to eat as in former miracles. Yet, Jesus also reminds them that their bodies will be hungry and thirsty once again. Their spirits, however, will be completely and eternally nourished by Jesus and Jesus’ connection to and relationship to the God who provides everything we need. Our spirits are nourished as we seek and move into the embrace of God, accepting Jesus as Savior and brother.
Bonnie B.

* * *

John 6:24-35
We all know Jesus is the Bread of Life.  But he offers more than just a meal, for he fulfills the deepest hunger of the human race.  Pope John Paul II profoundly captured that yearning:

Farmers everywhere provide bread for all humanity, but it is Christ alone who is the Bread of Life...Even if all the physical hunger of the world were satisfied, even if everyone who is hungry were fed by his or her own labor or by the generosity of others, the deepest hunger of man would still exist...Therefore, I say, Come, all of you, to Christ. He is the Bread of Life.  Come to Christ and you will never be hungry again.

Pope Francis made a similar point regarding our need for the Bread of Life:    

As well as physical hunger, man also suffers from another form of hunger that cannot be sated with ordinary food. It is a hunger for life, a hunger for love, a hunger for eternity. Manna is the sign … that prefigured the food that satisfies this profound hunger present in man. Jesus gives us this nourishment — or rather, He himself is the living bread that gives life to the world. His body is the true food in the form of bread.

Jesus the Bread of Life meets our deep needs, because like bread becomes part of who we are when we eat it, so in receiving Christ he becomes part of you and me, we carry him along with us like the breakfast we ate this morning is in our guts.  In short, Jesus the Bread of Life, never abandons us now that we have taken him in by faith.  Here is how John Calvin put it:

For faith does look at Christ only as at a distance, but embraces him that he may become ours and dwell in us...  It is therefore true that by faith alone we eat Christ, provided we also understand in what manner faith unites us to Him.  (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/2, p. 250)

We need to feast on Jesus and unite with him if our deepest hungers are ever to be satisfied.
Mark E.
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John Jamison
Object: A sheep or lamb stuffed animal.

Note: For the best experience, when you ask the questions, take the time to draw the children out a bit and help them come up with answers. Make it more of a conversation if you can.

* * *

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! Let’s get started! (Hold the sheep in your lap as you continue.)

The Immediate Word

Dean Feldmeyer
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Thomas Willadsen
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Mary Austin
For May 4, 2025:

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John E. Sumwalt
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice… (vv. 11-12a)

Phillip Hasheider is a retired Wisconsin beef farmer and an award-winning author who was dead for six minutes and came back to tell about it. If you have ever thought about dying and wondered what it would be like, then Hasheider’s Six Minutes in Eternity is a book you will want to read.

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David Coffin
A medical worker is working long, hard, stress filled hours in an urban hospital setting. One day he or she is called into the administrator’s office to be terminated due to angering professionals in the upper echelon. The worker protests that it is, “My word against their word, why am I to be the scapegoat?” The administrator pulls rank! The worker is asked to turn in their badge and do not come into the premises again unless as a patient. The now unemployed medical worker still feels the calling to be a healer. So, they get a job at an alternative/natural health medicine store.
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Bill Thomas
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Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Martin Luther believed that the story of Paul’s conversion demonstrates that there is no need for special revelation. The reformer commented:

Our Lord God does not purpose some special thing for each individual person, but gives to the whole world — one person like the next — his baptism and gospel. (Complete Sermons, Vol.7, p.271)

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
I've recently spent several hours by the lakeside, for I've been in retreat this past week in the little village of Hemingford Grey, in Huntingdonshire. A great delight for me was to walk to the flooded gravel pits, sit on a bench in glorious sunshine, and watch the water birds. For me, that's a wonderful way to become very aware of the presence of God through the beauty of his created world. And sitting like that for several hours, doing nothing but watching and waiting, I can't help but absorb the peace which passes all understanding.

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Constance Berg
When Beth was a teenager, she lived on the streets. She smoked cigarettes and drank beer and her parents had said that she had to choose: her friends or her family. Beth chose her friends and lived from house to house and eventually in homeless shelters. She barely avoided being raped at one point. About six months of shelter-hopping was all she could take, and she found a shelter that sponsored her until she took the GED. They told her she was brilliant: she was just bored and dissatisfied with the status quo. The shelter supervisors suggested she look into community college.
James Evans
(For alternative approaches, see Epiphany 6/Ordinary Time 6, Cycle B; and Proper 9/Pentecost 7/Ordinary Time 14, Cycle C.)

The main theme of this psalm is captured profoundly in the movement within a single verse: "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with morning" (v. 5). Casting life experiences between light and dark is not unique or novel, of course, but the poet's treatment of these themes offers some fertile ground for reflection.

Elizabeth Achtemeier
We have three different accounts of the conversion of Saul in the Gospel according to Luke (9:1-20; 22:6-16; 26:12-18). They differ in a few minor details, but essentially they are the same. In addition, Paul writes of his conversion in Galatians 1:11-16, and in 1 Corinthians 9:1 and 15:8-9, stating that at the time of his conversion on the road to Damascus, he saw the Lord. For Paul, that made him an apostle, equal to the twelve. An apostle, in Paul's thought, was one who had seen the risen Christ and had been sent to announce that good news.
Richard E. Gribble, CSC
Once in a far-off land, there was a great king whose dominion extended far and wide. His power and authority were absolute. One day, as events would happen, a young man, a commoner, committed a grave offense against the king. In response, the king and his counselors gathered together to determine what should be done. They decided that since the offense was so grave and had been committed by a commoner against someone so august as the king, the only punishment that would satisfy justice was death.

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