Sermon Illustrations for Advent 3 (2015)
Illustration
Object:
Zephaniah 3:14-20
There are quite a few shows on television now that focus on restoring things. It might be about a person getting a “makeover.” It could be an old car (or really just about anything) being made over into something new. On one of those shows recently there was an old pinball machine from 1947, one of the first ones ever made with flippers. The guy who’d bought it had paid a good sum of money for it, but not as much as it was worth. It was in pretty bad shape. A lot of repair work had to be done to restore this thing to good condition. The new owner knew just the guy for that, and he called him in. He paid him and let him go at it. As the show ended, the pinball machine was shown again -- it was now a thing of beauty! It has been restored. It worked well, looking and sounding great.
I thought about that episode again as I read through this passage. God is also in the “restoring business.” Through the prophet Zephaniah, he speaks of renewal and restoration for his people Israel. Things will no longer be as they had been. That’s a good message for us too. God is in the restoring business. Makeovers are his specialty.
Bill T.
Zephaniah 3:14-20
When I was about 7 or 8, I played with my ball in the living room even though my mother and father had told me not to. Then it happened: my ball flew onto the end table and knocked over my mom’s favorite lamp, which crashed on the floor. I ran and hid behind my father’s big chair. But my mom knew right where I was and told me to get out. I thought I was going to get a beating! I looked up and saw her weeping, but she reached out for my hand, pulled me to her, and hugged me. “I really loved that lamp,” she said, “but I love you even more. I forgive you! But please don’t let it happen again if you love me!” If anyone saw that, they would know her love was real.
God loved us so much that he forgave us. He sent his Son to take our punishment on him. No matter what we may do or how we may sin, we are still loved. He is reaching out his hand to us -- through his sacrament, for one -- to let us know how much our forgiveness cost him.
Even though we have sinned and were forgiven, he will still give us Christians honor and praise! We will be first among all the people on earth because of our trust and faith in him. We no longer have to live in sorrow for what we have done as long as we now we belong to him.
In this passage he is talking about a whole nation. That must have included both good and not so good people. So we should rejoice, just as we may rejoice when our troops have sacrificed for our country. They have sacrificed for the faithful citizens and also for those who may even hate our land because of some injustice they experienced.
We will receive honor and praise, even when we stand among all the people on earth who may deny what our Lord has done for us. If you are the number of those in church today, it must mean that you believe in our great God.
Bob O.
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Way back in the fifth grade, I had my one and only physical altercation with another student. I still have the marks from her nails scratching me on my right wrist and hand. Every time I look at those scars, I think about the fight and remember my anger and fear. I was not the most popular kid, and I sure didn’t want to be called a sissy -- even though I was a girl. I let my anger and my pride get the better of me.
Every time I hear God described as a warrior, I get really uncomfortable. I don’t encounter God that way. I encounter a God of love and compassion and mercy and forgiveness -- but I also know that when we feel oppressed, having a warrior God on our side can seem comforting. But as a child recently asked, “If God loves everyone, then how can God be rooting for one side or the other in a war?” That’s a good question, one that prompts another for me. Would I still carry the burden and guilt about my fifth-grade fight if I had chosen to make peace rather than to wrestle on the playground? Maybe there is something to that being a peacemaker thing after all.
Bonnie B.
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Zephaniah is about as American a prophet as you can be. He’s mixed-race, emphasizing that he is African (son of Cush) and the descendent of one of the great kings (Josiah). Not only that, he doesn’t focus on one subject but is constantly careening from one image and direction to another. The guy’s got adult ADD.
So before I say something about the lectionary text I want to backtrack to Zephaniah 1:12: “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.’ ” What is he talking about?
According to an expert, after stomping out the juice from the grapes “[n]ew wine is allowed to sit upon the sediment of the grapes long enough to fix its color and body. Then it is drawn off, before it becomes too thick and syrupy, and subject to mold” (Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [Anchor Bible commentary], p. 87).
What Adele Berlin suggests Zephaniah is saying is that the people are frozen in their decadent lifestyle and they’re not taking time for basic tasks like drawing off the sediment, and then they’re drinking the ruined wine anyway.
Why are they living this way? Because they’ve convinced themselves that whether there’s a God or not, God is actively involved in history. Zephaniah’s vision of joy and homecoming for all peoples of the earth in this text is based on a belief that we ought to get out of our tracks and do something, because God is real and God is active. God might do anything -- like send an infant to save the world!
Frank R.
Philippians 4:4-7
For years I thought Paul’s admonition “not to worry about anything” was an idealized appeal to the impossible. I believed that worry was an unavoidable practice of what it means to be human. After all, isn’t that why Homo sapiens is often defined as the first and only species to have evolved to stand on hind legs and snatch worry out of thin air? Because it is part of our humanness, we will worry.
At least, that is what I used to think. But I have changed my mind. We should not, however, jettison Paul’s admonition not to worry. For Paul is really offering some sound, even inspired advice on how to confront worry and to keep it from running rampant in our lives.
Whenever you sense the approach of worry, start to look for ways to be thankful to God for all the blessings in life. Make your worrisome concerns known to God and then let go of them. The old gospel song extolled the wisdom of this approach: “When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
The more we practice being thankful in the face of worry, the easier it becomes.
R. Robert C.
Philippians 4:4-7
Christmas is a time of rejoicing. This text is about rejoicing too. John Calvin tells us how we become joyful: we are truly joyful, he contends, when God is in our midst (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XV/1, p. 303). In the same spirit, Martin Luther writes: “Such is the rejoicing, mark you, of which Paul here speaks -- a rejoicing where [there] is no sin, no fear of death or hell, but rather a glad and all-powerful confidence in God and his kindness” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/2, p. 95).
Famed modern Reformed theologian Karl Barth has another helpful way of understanding joy. He calls it a capacity for accepting with gratitude the mystery and wonder of life as God has given it (Church Dogmatics, Vol. III/4, p. 384). Gratitude makes you happy, and it may be why Christmas is such a happy time. If Christmas feels more like a hassle, maybe it’s because the focus has been more on presents and shopping than on the Baby Jesus, and not on the mystery and wonder of life.
Mark E.
Philippians 4:4-7
On December 6, 1492, Christopher Columbus disembarked on the island of Haiti and named the port where he docked his ships “Saint Nicolas,” for it was the feast day of Saint Nicholas.
Application: We are instructed in Philippians to rejoice. We can rejoice both on great occasions and on those days than seem rather mundane.
Ron L.
Luke 3:7-18
What an image used by John the Baptist -- brood of vipers, indeed! Wasn’t there a movie a few years ago called Snakes on a Plane about people confined in a small space with wriggling, winding, biting, and choking snakes? Yecchhhh!
What’s worse than being near a whole bunch of snakes? Being one of the snakes! It reminds me of an old Far Side cartoon where a snake gets the willies realizing he’s in a nest of snakes.
So what’s the remedy? Actually, according to John the Baptist, this is doable: it’s practicing economic justice -- like cleaning that extra coat out of your closet, not extorting money, not asking for more than you deserve.
Frank R.
Luke 3:7-18
John the Baptist is an interesting character: a Jew who stood on the outside of his faith community, warning them to repent, to act on their faith. What shall we do -- ask the crowds and the tax collectors and the soldiers? John’s response is that each and every one should act with compassion and integrity. Each and every one should act as the Mosaic covenant requires: they need to love God and love their neighbors.
Funny, once John makes that proclamation the people are expectant that he, John, is the messiah. I wonder at that. Is simply proclaiming faithfulness and repentance with passion and fire what makes a messiah? Were the people so hungry for answers that they couldn’t imagine others than the ones John was sharing? John is clear: I am the voice in the wilderness. I am not the messiah.
As we approach the celebration of the birth of Jesus, may we ask ourselves the same questions of readiness. What shall we do? How shall we prepare ourselves? The answers are the same: repent of sins, love God and neighbor, and live with compassion and integrity. Come, Jesus, come.
Bonnie B.
Luke 3:7-18
I’m going to guess that many of you have never heard of “indoor skydiving.” I have and, I don’t want to brag here, but I’ve actually done it. More than once, thank you. Yes, you read that right. I have been indoor skydiving. How in the world do you do that? I’m told that there a few places in the United States where you can do it. One of them is in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and that’s where I was. Indoor skydiving works like this. You watch a training video, put on a jump suit and helmet, and sign a waiver saying that if you get hurt, maimed, or die it’s not their fault and you won’t sue. Then you enter a big wind tower. There is a trampoline-type floor that has wind jets under it. The “wind” starts, and you get to experience the sensation of a free-fall like you would from a plane. That’s indoor skydiving.
Now, I want to tell you, I enjoyed it. It was fun. After you learn to keep your balance, you can stay suspended in the air for quite a while. However, not long after I did this I had the chance to talk to someone who had really been skydiving. What they told me about that was way more exciting than what I’d done in Tennessee. What I’d done there, while fun, was just a shadow of what jumping from a plane was really like.
What does this have to do with our text today? John the Baptist preached powerfully and impacted people around him in ways that were previously unseen. Some of the people who heard him wondered if he might be the one, the messiah. John makes it clear, though, that he isn’t. John was preaching a challenging message and baptizing people. Crowds were coming to him. It was impressive. However, John told them that the things that he was doing and the message he was preaching were only a shadow of the one who was to come. When the messiah actually came, then they’d see something spectacular.
Bill T.
Luke 3:7-18
We have already been baptized. We don’t have to brag that we are Lutherans and members of the local church!
There are two things we must do: 1) We must bear fruit -- both in the offering plate and also where we see anyone in need. Every time I turn on the news I see millions of people in desperate need all over the world. There are so many I feel hopeless about how to help them. But all our Lord asks of us is that we help a neighbor who may be in great need. If everyone did that, then the world would be different. (Our taxes might be lower also.) 2) We must realize that our generosity will not save us. We have already been saved and blessed. God is just asking us to show our love for him by helping those in need. We do it to not to earn anything, but to show our gratitude for what God has already given us.
We always claim that there is only one baptism, but now we hear that there is another baptism in the Holy Spirit. That does not mean that we will have to talk in tongues! The meaning is much broader than that. Our baptism will give us salvation, but the Holy Spirit gives us power to serve the Lord, who has saved us by his love through the sacrifice of Christ our Lord. From my own experience, I know that I could not bear fruit if it weren’t for God’s Spirit working in me!
We have the message of good news, but for those who have not accepted that message he tells us what may lie ahead for them!
There are some fellow Christians who walk through train and bus stations and airports who warn us of the wrath to come if we don’t listen to their translation of John’s message. Aren’t we much better off if we tell others of the “good news” for Christians and draw them in, rather than trying to scare them in? It is true that some may be “scared” in, but most come to our Lord when they see his love for us all. It is a free gift. All we need to do is to show thanks and then pass that message on.
Bob O.
Luke 3:7-18
It was a junior varsity football game. The score was still pretty close in the first half. The visiting team was leading and was favored to win, but the game was far from over. With just under a minute left in the half, the home team had a running back get to the corner and break downfield. A defensive back was all that stood between him and the goal line. The defensive player, though, did not have a good angle on the running back, so as he neared to make the touchdown-saving tackle he grabbed the runner’s facemask. Right away the referee threw a flag. From the visitors’ sideline a defensive coach made the argument: “It was incidental. Only five yards. Just five yards!” The official, though, did not see it that way and called it a personal foul, resulting in a 15-yard penalty. The coach was livid and said all kinds of things to the official, concluding his remarks with: “Next time I’ll just tell him to grab on, since you’re going to call it anyway.” The official, who’d been silent to this point, simply replied: “Do what you think is right, Coach.”
“Do what is right.” That’s a powerful message. The coach in the game heard it and apologized in the second half. “Do what’s right.” It’s what those who came out to see John heard from him when they asked “What should we do?” John is preparing the way for the messiah. He wanted the crowds to know that ancestry would not make a difference. Their actions would indicate their hearts’ condition. They needed to start living lives of repentance in recognition of the one who could redeem them. “Do what’s right.” It’s just as simple as that.
Bill T.
There are quite a few shows on television now that focus on restoring things. It might be about a person getting a “makeover.” It could be an old car (or really just about anything) being made over into something new. On one of those shows recently there was an old pinball machine from 1947, one of the first ones ever made with flippers. The guy who’d bought it had paid a good sum of money for it, but not as much as it was worth. It was in pretty bad shape. A lot of repair work had to be done to restore this thing to good condition. The new owner knew just the guy for that, and he called him in. He paid him and let him go at it. As the show ended, the pinball machine was shown again -- it was now a thing of beauty! It has been restored. It worked well, looking and sounding great.
I thought about that episode again as I read through this passage. God is also in the “restoring business.” Through the prophet Zephaniah, he speaks of renewal and restoration for his people Israel. Things will no longer be as they had been. That’s a good message for us too. God is in the restoring business. Makeovers are his specialty.
Bill T.
Zephaniah 3:14-20
When I was about 7 or 8, I played with my ball in the living room even though my mother and father had told me not to. Then it happened: my ball flew onto the end table and knocked over my mom’s favorite lamp, which crashed on the floor. I ran and hid behind my father’s big chair. But my mom knew right where I was and told me to get out. I thought I was going to get a beating! I looked up and saw her weeping, but she reached out for my hand, pulled me to her, and hugged me. “I really loved that lamp,” she said, “but I love you even more. I forgive you! But please don’t let it happen again if you love me!” If anyone saw that, they would know her love was real.
God loved us so much that he forgave us. He sent his Son to take our punishment on him. No matter what we may do or how we may sin, we are still loved. He is reaching out his hand to us -- through his sacrament, for one -- to let us know how much our forgiveness cost him.
Even though we have sinned and were forgiven, he will still give us Christians honor and praise! We will be first among all the people on earth because of our trust and faith in him. We no longer have to live in sorrow for what we have done as long as we now we belong to him.
In this passage he is talking about a whole nation. That must have included both good and not so good people. So we should rejoice, just as we may rejoice when our troops have sacrificed for our country. They have sacrificed for the faithful citizens and also for those who may even hate our land because of some injustice they experienced.
We will receive honor and praise, even when we stand among all the people on earth who may deny what our Lord has done for us. If you are the number of those in church today, it must mean that you believe in our great God.
Bob O.
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Way back in the fifth grade, I had my one and only physical altercation with another student. I still have the marks from her nails scratching me on my right wrist and hand. Every time I look at those scars, I think about the fight and remember my anger and fear. I was not the most popular kid, and I sure didn’t want to be called a sissy -- even though I was a girl. I let my anger and my pride get the better of me.
Every time I hear God described as a warrior, I get really uncomfortable. I don’t encounter God that way. I encounter a God of love and compassion and mercy and forgiveness -- but I also know that when we feel oppressed, having a warrior God on our side can seem comforting. But as a child recently asked, “If God loves everyone, then how can God be rooting for one side or the other in a war?” That’s a good question, one that prompts another for me. Would I still carry the burden and guilt about my fifth-grade fight if I had chosen to make peace rather than to wrestle on the playground? Maybe there is something to that being a peacemaker thing after all.
Bonnie B.
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Zephaniah is about as American a prophet as you can be. He’s mixed-race, emphasizing that he is African (son of Cush) and the descendent of one of the great kings (Josiah). Not only that, he doesn’t focus on one subject but is constantly careening from one image and direction to another. The guy’s got adult ADD.
So before I say something about the lectionary text I want to backtrack to Zephaniah 1:12: “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.’ ” What is he talking about?
According to an expert, after stomping out the juice from the grapes “[n]ew wine is allowed to sit upon the sediment of the grapes long enough to fix its color and body. Then it is drawn off, before it becomes too thick and syrupy, and subject to mold” (Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [Anchor Bible commentary], p. 87).
What Adele Berlin suggests Zephaniah is saying is that the people are frozen in their decadent lifestyle and they’re not taking time for basic tasks like drawing off the sediment, and then they’re drinking the ruined wine anyway.
Why are they living this way? Because they’ve convinced themselves that whether there’s a God or not, God is actively involved in history. Zephaniah’s vision of joy and homecoming for all peoples of the earth in this text is based on a belief that we ought to get out of our tracks and do something, because God is real and God is active. God might do anything -- like send an infant to save the world!
Frank R.
Philippians 4:4-7
For years I thought Paul’s admonition “not to worry about anything” was an idealized appeal to the impossible. I believed that worry was an unavoidable practice of what it means to be human. After all, isn’t that why Homo sapiens is often defined as the first and only species to have evolved to stand on hind legs and snatch worry out of thin air? Because it is part of our humanness, we will worry.
At least, that is what I used to think. But I have changed my mind. We should not, however, jettison Paul’s admonition not to worry. For Paul is really offering some sound, even inspired advice on how to confront worry and to keep it from running rampant in our lives.
Whenever you sense the approach of worry, start to look for ways to be thankful to God for all the blessings in life. Make your worrisome concerns known to God and then let go of them. The old gospel song extolled the wisdom of this approach: “When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
The more we practice being thankful in the face of worry, the easier it becomes.
R. Robert C.
Philippians 4:4-7
Christmas is a time of rejoicing. This text is about rejoicing too. John Calvin tells us how we become joyful: we are truly joyful, he contends, when God is in our midst (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XV/1, p. 303). In the same spirit, Martin Luther writes: “Such is the rejoicing, mark you, of which Paul here speaks -- a rejoicing where [there] is no sin, no fear of death or hell, but rather a glad and all-powerful confidence in God and his kindness” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/2, p. 95).
Famed modern Reformed theologian Karl Barth has another helpful way of understanding joy. He calls it a capacity for accepting with gratitude the mystery and wonder of life as God has given it (Church Dogmatics, Vol. III/4, p. 384). Gratitude makes you happy, and it may be why Christmas is such a happy time. If Christmas feels more like a hassle, maybe it’s because the focus has been more on presents and shopping than on the Baby Jesus, and not on the mystery and wonder of life.
Mark E.
Philippians 4:4-7
On December 6, 1492, Christopher Columbus disembarked on the island of Haiti and named the port where he docked his ships “Saint Nicolas,” for it was the feast day of Saint Nicholas.
Application: We are instructed in Philippians to rejoice. We can rejoice both on great occasions and on those days than seem rather mundane.
Ron L.
Luke 3:7-18
What an image used by John the Baptist -- brood of vipers, indeed! Wasn’t there a movie a few years ago called Snakes on a Plane about people confined in a small space with wriggling, winding, biting, and choking snakes? Yecchhhh!
What’s worse than being near a whole bunch of snakes? Being one of the snakes! It reminds me of an old Far Side cartoon where a snake gets the willies realizing he’s in a nest of snakes.
So what’s the remedy? Actually, according to John the Baptist, this is doable: it’s practicing economic justice -- like cleaning that extra coat out of your closet, not extorting money, not asking for more than you deserve.
Frank R.
Luke 3:7-18
John the Baptist is an interesting character: a Jew who stood on the outside of his faith community, warning them to repent, to act on their faith. What shall we do -- ask the crowds and the tax collectors and the soldiers? John’s response is that each and every one should act with compassion and integrity. Each and every one should act as the Mosaic covenant requires: they need to love God and love their neighbors.
Funny, once John makes that proclamation the people are expectant that he, John, is the messiah. I wonder at that. Is simply proclaiming faithfulness and repentance with passion and fire what makes a messiah? Were the people so hungry for answers that they couldn’t imagine others than the ones John was sharing? John is clear: I am the voice in the wilderness. I am not the messiah.
As we approach the celebration of the birth of Jesus, may we ask ourselves the same questions of readiness. What shall we do? How shall we prepare ourselves? The answers are the same: repent of sins, love God and neighbor, and live with compassion and integrity. Come, Jesus, come.
Bonnie B.
Luke 3:7-18
I’m going to guess that many of you have never heard of “indoor skydiving.” I have and, I don’t want to brag here, but I’ve actually done it. More than once, thank you. Yes, you read that right. I have been indoor skydiving. How in the world do you do that? I’m told that there a few places in the United States where you can do it. One of them is in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and that’s where I was. Indoor skydiving works like this. You watch a training video, put on a jump suit and helmet, and sign a waiver saying that if you get hurt, maimed, or die it’s not their fault and you won’t sue. Then you enter a big wind tower. There is a trampoline-type floor that has wind jets under it. The “wind” starts, and you get to experience the sensation of a free-fall like you would from a plane. That’s indoor skydiving.
Now, I want to tell you, I enjoyed it. It was fun. After you learn to keep your balance, you can stay suspended in the air for quite a while. However, not long after I did this I had the chance to talk to someone who had really been skydiving. What they told me about that was way more exciting than what I’d done in Tennessee. What I’d done there, while fun, was just a shadow of what jumping from a plane was really like.
What does this have to do with our text today? John the Baptist preached powerfully and impacted people around him in ways that were previously unseen. Some of the people who heard him wondered if he might be the one, the messiah. John makes it clear, though, that he isn’t. John was preaching a challenging message and baptizing people. Crowds were coming to him. It was impressive. However, John told them that the things that he was doing and the message he was preaching were only a shadow of the one who was to come. When the messiah actually came, then they’d see something spectacular.
Bill T.
Luke 3:7-18
We have already been baptized. We don’t have to brag that we are Lutherans and members of the local church!
There are two things we must do: 1) We must bear fruit -- both in the offering plate and also where we see anyone in need. Every time I turn on the news I see millions of people in desperate need all over the world. There are so many I feel hopeless about how to help them. But all our Lord asks of us is that we help a neighbor who may be in great need. If everyone did that, then the world would be different. (Our taxes might be lower also.) 2) We must realize that our generosity will not save us. We have already been saved and blessed. God is just asking us to show our love for him by helping those in need. We do it to not to earn anything, but to show our gratitude for what God has already given us.
We always claim that there is only one baptism, but now we hear that there is another baptism in the Holy Spirit. That does not mean that we will have to talk in tongues! The meaning is much broader than that. Our baptism will give us salvation, but the Holy Spirit gives us power to serve the Lord, who has saved us by his love through the sacrifice of Christ our Lord. From my own experience, I know that I could not bear fruit if it weren’t for God’s Spirit working in me!
We have the message of good news, but for those who have not accepted that message he tells us what may lie ahead for them!
There are some fellow Christians who walk through train and bus stations and airports who warn us of the wrath to come if we don’t listen to their translation of John’s message. Aren’t we much better off if we tell others of the “good news” for Christians and draw them in, rather than trying to scare them in? It is true that some may be “scared” in, but most come to our Lord when they see his love for us all. It is a free gift. All we need to do is to show thanks and then pass that message on.
Bob O.
Luke 3:7-18
It was a junior varsity football game. The score was still pretty close in the first half. The visiting team was leading and was favored to win, but the game was far from over. With just under a minute left in the half, the home team had a running back get to the corner and break downfield. A defensive back was all that stood between him and the goal line. The defensive player, though, did not have a good angle on the running back, so as he neared to make the touchdown-saving tackle he grabbed the runner’s facemask. Right away the referee threw a flag. From the visitors’ sideline a defensive coach made the argument: “It was incidental. Only five yards. Just five yards!” The official, though, did not see it that way and called it a personal foul, resulting in a 15-yard penalty. The coach was livid and said all kinds of things to the official, concluding his remarks with: “Next time I’ll just tell him to grab on, since you’re going to call it anyway.” The official, who’d been silent to this point, simply replied: “Do what you think is right, Coach.”
“Do what is right.” That’s a powerful message. The coach in the game heard it and apologized in the second half. “Do what’s right.” It’s what those who came out to see John heard from him when they asked “What should we do?” John is preparing the way for the messiah. He wanted the crowds to know that ancestry would not make a difference. Their actions would indicate their hearts’ condition. They needed to start living lives of repentance in recognition of the one who could redeem them. “Do what’s right.” It’s just as simple as that.
Bill T.
