Sermon Illustrations for Proper 7 | OT 12, Cycle B (2021)
Illustration
1 Samuel 17: (1a, 4, 11, 19-23) 32-49
We like underdogs, which is why we like the story of David and Goliath. About David’s improbable victory John Wesley wrote:
Thus does God often do great things for His people by the weak things of the world. (Commentary On the Bible, p.189)
The world needs Davids — people who take on the powerful and the social consensus even if it does not seem that they have a chance. The playwright George Bernard Shaw explained why the world needs such people like David:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
But we make a mistake if we think that David and other creative people can do these great things without God. Modern French Catholic theologian and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin speaks of God in Christ being the energy for David and us. He expresses this profoundly in a prayer:
Lord Christ, You Who are divine energy and living, irresistible might: since of the two of us it is You Who are infinitely the stronger, it is You Who must set me ablaze and transmute me into the fire that we may be welded together and made one. (Hymn of the Universe, p.104)
United with Christ we can take on all the Goliaths.
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 9:9-20
There are times in life when things do not seem to be going our way. John Calvin sees a word of comfort in this psalm, helping us see that there is a purpose in God not immediately intervening:
Moreover, since pride is natural to all, God requires to strike terror into all men indiscriminately, that on the one hand His people may learn to be humble. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. IV/2, p.133)
Humility does nothing for the faithful but get them ready to hear God’s Word. John Wesley correctly noted how the psalm is a word of comfort. In prayer to God, he noted:
The experience of Your faithfulness to Your people is just ground for their [our] confidence. (Commentary On the Bible, p.274)
In a comment also appropriate to the preceding lesson, trail-blazing 19th-century British missionary to China Hudson Taylor believed that we can all be like David when we concentrate on God’s faithfulness this way:
All God’s giants have been weak men and women who have gotten hold of God’s faithfulness.
Mark E.
* * *
1 Samuel 17:57--18:5
Lutheran Old Testament scholar Chad Bird sees this lesson as providing insights about friendship. He put it this way:
As important as they are for mutual conversation, encouragement, and consolation, on a deeper level friends keep us rooted in a genuinely human life — that is, a life in which we live outside ourselves, gladly caught up in the web of a another’s life, where we can love and serve them in moments of self-forgetfulness.
We see something like a parable of this in the friendship of David and Jonathan. Martin Luther himself reflected on the value of friendship:
Throughout life a faithful friend is a very great blessing and a very precious treasure. This is true not only in view of the ordinary dangerous difficulties in which he can offer help and consolation but also in view of spiritual temptations. For even though your heart is thoroughly confirmed by the Holy Spirit, there is nonetheless a great advantage in having a friend with whom you can talk about religion and from whom you can hear words of comfort. (What Luther Says, p.527)
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 133
All the pundits throughout 2020 and much of this year have lamented how deeply America is divided. A 2020 post-election Pew Research Center poll found that roughly nine-in-ten of us expressed worries that a victory by the candidate not of our choosing would lead to “lasting harm” to the United States.
Commenting on this psalm, John Calvin offers a word of hope:
There was ample ground to praise the goodness of God in the highest terms, for uniting in one a people which had been so deplorably divided. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.VI/2, p.163)
Quantum physics seems to teach us that we can’t help but live together, be dependent on each other. The particles of the atom must be interconnected to have atoms and the atoms only form matter because of a particle termed the Higgs Boson which connects them all. From the smallest entities of the universe to us, all reality is interconnected, related! Author W. Somerset Maughm had glowing praise for this image as he wrote, “The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.” We do well to celebrate this beauty and stop thinking everyone must agree with you. It is as Mahatma Gandhi once said: “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.”
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 133
This psalm talks of unity and the joy of living together in unity. The problem is that sometimes we mistake unity for uniformity. In the United Church of Christ, we talk about unity and diversity. “In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity.”1 For this we focus on not being dogmatic but using our hearts, minds, beliefs, and covenant to interact with one another in congregations and in other settings of the church. Our essentials are believing that Jesus is the head of the church, that scripture is a foundation of our faith, that the sacraments of baptism and communion are celebrated, and that we are called to mission through love shared in and through Jesus. Unity anchors us but does not confine us; it does not prevent our interpretation of living out our faith. And living in this unity is “like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.” I am grateful.
Bonnie B.
* * *
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
In the movie Saving Private Ryan, a squad of army rangers led by Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) sets off deep into Normandy, France in the wake of the D-Day invasion to find and rescue a single private named James Ryan (played by Matt Damon). All of Ryan’s three other brothers have been killed in action, prompting military high command to demand a rescue operation to send Ryan home. Everyone involved in trying to find Private Ryan, including Private Ryan himself, is dumbfounded as to why the military would risk the lives of something like eight people just to rescue one.
Several men in Miller’s squad are killed as they try to find Private Ryan. In the dramatic ending, Captain Miller is fatally wounded on a bridge, and Private Ryan goes to him. In what is in my opinion, the most powerful moment in the movie, Miller tells him, “Earn this.” These words apparently stuck with Ryan his entire life.
Let’s be clear. The word “earn” is a tough one. Ryan can’t and won’t do anything that will merit sacrifice. I think what Captain Miller was saying was to live in such a way as the sacrifices mattered. That’s what Paul is telling the Corinthians, too. He implores them not receive God’s grace in vain (vs. 1). He tells them “Now is the day of salvation” (vs. 2). Paul here is urging the Corinthians to live lives that recognize the sacrifice made for them. It was a good reminder for them and us.
Bill T.
* * *
Mark 4:35-41
I often wonder how the disciples felt when Jesus rebuked them. “He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"” I can remember when my father was critically ill, my boss the executive director of a non-profit and an ordained minister rebuked my worry, “Don’t you have any faith?” My heart shattered. Of course, I had faith, but I still was worried, still was anxious, still was uncertain about my dad’s health. I cried that day. Was I less faithful, less a follower of Jesus because I was afraid? I have worked diligently to understand my faith and fear. Yes, as a human being I am afraid sometimes. Aren’t you? And I don’t think Jesus denies my faith, but instead recognizes my humanity. The power of God comforts me, the presence of God comforts me. But I recognize my human tendency to fear. I’ll continue to rest my fear in my faith. That is what I am called to do.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 4:35-41
Life always has its share of storms. We lived through a lot of them with the pandemic.
Mahatma Gandhi has told us that they are inevitable, as he once noted that “Dignity of human nature requires that we must face the storms of life.” Jesus’ miracle calls the disciples’ and our attention to the wisdom of a point made by the great artist Vincent Van Gogh, as he told us that “The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too.”
Mark E.
1 https://www.ucc.org/domestic-policy/ourfaithourvote_about/about-us_what-...
We like underdogs, which is why we like the story of David and Goliath. About David’s improbable victory John Wesley wrote:
Thus does God often do great things for His people by the weak things of the world. (Commentary On the Bible, p.189)
The world needs Davids — people who take on the powerful and the social consensus even if it does not seem that they have a chance. The playwright George Bernard Shaw explained why the world needs such people like David:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
But we make a mistake if we think that David and other creative people can do these great things without God. Modern French Catholic theologian and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin speaks of God in Christ being the energy for David and us. He expresses this profoundly in a prayer:
Lord Christ, You Who are divine energy and living, irresistible might: since of the two of us it is You Who are infinitely the stronger, it is You Who must set me ablaze and transmute me into the fire that we may be welded together and made one. (Hymn of the Universe, p.104)
United with Christ we can take on all the Goliaths.
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 9:9-20
There are times in life when things do not seem to be going our way. John Calvin sees a word of comfort in this psalm, helping us see that there is a purpose in God not immediately intervening:
Moreover, since pride is natural to all, God requires to strike terror into all men indiscriminately, that on the one hand His people may learn to be humble. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. IV/2, p.133)
Humility does nothing for the faithful but get them ready to hear God’s Word. John Wesley correctly noted how the psalm is a word of comfort. In prayer to God, he noted:
The experience of Your faithfulness to Your people is just ground for their [our] confidence. (Commentary On the Bible, p.274)
In a comment also appropriate to the preceding lesson, trail-blazing 19th-century British missionary to China Hudson Taylor believed that we can all be like David when we concentrate on God’s faithfulness this way:
All God’s giants have been weak men and women who have gotten hold of God’s faithfulness.
Mark E.
* * *
1 Samuel 17:57--18:5
Lutheran Old Testament scholar Chad Bird sees this lesson as providing insights about friendship. He put it this way:
As important as they are for mutual conversation, encouragement, and consolation, on a deeper level friends keep us rooted in a genuinely human life — that is, a life in which we live outside ourselves, gladly caught up in the web of a another’s life, where we can love and serve them in moments of self-forgetfulness.
We see something like a parable of this in the friendship of David and Jonathan. Martin Luther himself reflected on the value of friendship:
Throughout life a faithful friend is a very great blessing and a very precious treasure. This is true not only in view of the ordinary dangerous difficulties in which he can offer help and consolation but also in view of spiritual temptations. For even though your heart is thoroughly confirmed by the Holy Spirit, there is nonetheless a great advantage in having a friend with whom you can talk about religion and from whom you can hear words of comfort. (What Luther Says, p.527)
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 133
All the pundits throughout 2020 and much of this year have lamented how deeply America is divided. A 2020 post-election Pew Research Center poll found that roughly nine-in-ten of us expressed worries that a victory by the candidate not of our choosing would lead to “lasting harm” to the United States.
Commenting on this psalm, John Calvin offers a word of hope:
There was ample ground to praise the goodness of God in the highest terms, for uniting in one a people which had been so deplorably divided. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.VI/2, p.163)
Quantum physics seems to teach us that we can’t help but live together, be dependent on each other. The particles of the atom must be interconnected to have atoms and the atoms only form matter because of a particle termed the Higgs Boson which connects them all. From the smallest entities of the universe to us, all reality is interconnected, related! Author W. Somerset Maughm had glowing praise for this image as he wrote, “The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.” We do well to celebrate this beauty and stop thinking everyone must agree with you. It is as Mahatma Gandhi once said: “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.”
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 133
This psalm talks of unity and the joy of living together in unity. The problem is that sometimes we mistake unity for uniformity. In the United Church of Christ, we talk about unity and diversity. “In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity.”1 For this we focus on not being dogmatic but using our hearts, minds, beliefs, and covenant to interact with one another in congregations and in other settings of the church. Our essentials are believing that Jesus is the head of the church, that scripture is a foundation of our faith, that the sacraments of baptism and communion are celebrated, and that we are called to mission through love shared in and through Jesus. Unity anchors us but does not confine us; it does not prevent our interpretation of living out our faith. And living in this unity is “like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.” I am grateful.
Bonnie B.
* * *
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
In the movie Saving Private Ryan, a squad of army rangers led by Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) sets off deep into Normandy, France in the wake of the D-Day invasion to find and rescue a single private named James Ryan (played by Matt Damon). All of Ryan’s three other brothers have been killed in action, prompting military high command to demand a rescue operation to send Ryan home. Everyone involved in trying to find Private Ryan, including Private Ryan himself, is dumbfounded as to why the military would risk the lives of something like eight people just to rescue one.
Several men in Miller’s squad are killed as they try to find Private Ryan. In the dramatic ending, Captain Miller is fatally wounded on a bridge, and Private Ryan goes to him. In what is in my opinion, the most powerful moment in the movie, Miller tells him, “Earn this.” These words apparently stuck with Ryan his entire life.
Let’s be clear. The word “earn” is a tough one. Ryan can’t and won’t do anything that will merit sacrifice. I think what Captain Miller was saying was to live in such a way as the sacrifices mattered. That’s what Paul is telling the Corinthians, too. He implores them not receive God’s grace in vain (vs. 1). He tells them “Now is the day of salvation” (vs. 2). Paul here is urging the Corinthians to live lives that recognize the sacrifice made for them. It was a good reminder for them and us.
Bill T.
* * *
Mark 4:35-41
I often wonder how the disciples felt when Jesus rebuked them. “He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"” I can remember when my father was critically ill, my boss the executive director of a non-profit and an ordained minister rebuked my worry, “Don’t you have any faith?” My heart shattered. Of course, I had faith, but I still was worried, still was anxious, still was uncertain about my dad’s health. I cried that day. Was I less faithful, less a follower of Jesus because I was afraid? I have worked diligently to understand my faith and fear. Yes, as a human being I am afraid sometimes. Aren’t you? And I don’t think Jesus denies my faith, but instead recognizes my humanity. The power of God comforts me, the presence of God comforts me. But I recognize my human tendency to fear. I’ll continue to rest my fear in my faith. That is what I am called to do.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 4:35-41
Life always has its share of storms. We lived through a lot of them with the pandemic.
Mahatma Gandhi has told us that they are inevitable, as he once noted that “Dignity of human nature requires that we must face the storms of life.” Jesus’ miracle calls the disciples’ and our attention to the wisdom of a point made by the great artist Vincent Van Gogh, as he told us that “The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too.”
Mark E.
1 https://www.ucc.org/domestic-policy/ourfaithourvote_about/about-us_what-...
