Proper 12
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle C
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Hosea 1:2-10 (C)
After one sorts through this rather strange (to our ears) report of the writer, we get to the final two verses of our lesson which I would choose as the basis of a sermon: "Call his name 'Not-My-People' for you are not my people ... Yet ... it shall be said to them, 'Sons of the living God.' " Forgiveness. God was, in Hosea's understanding, angry with the people for their perverse ways, and He momentarily rejected them. But God's forgiving love quickly asserted itself, and He embraced them as his people.
I turn to our epistle lesson in Colossians and find the same theme. There we will read that "God forgave us all our sins; He canceled the unfavorable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it on a cross" (vv. 9b-10). Thus, I would combine these two passages and preach a sermon on the forgiveness of God using both texts.
Lesson 1: Genesis 18:20-32 (RC); Genesis 18:20-33 (E)
This depicts a marvelous conversation between Abraham and God. Of course we have an ancient idea about the nature of God here. When God is reported to have said that He would go down to Sodom and Gomorrah to see what was going on, we have a primitive view of God as having residence, as needing to get out and around in order to know just what's going on. But in this interchange as recorded by some very early writer, we gain the idea that God is just. His inclination is, they believed, to wipe out gatherings of people who are unfaithful, but His innate sense of justice convinces Him -- thanks to Abraham -- that to kill even a few innocent people because of the sins of the many would be unfair. One direction for a sermon to go with this story is to use it as an analogy to many of our major cities today. God may (this is an anthropomorphism, if you will) have an inclination to destroy, say, certain portions of New York, or of Los Angeles. But after all there are many good and decent people living there, and for their sake, God will continue working to redeem the cities of the world.
Lesson 2: Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19) (C); Colossians 2:12-14 (RC); Colossians 2:6-15 (E)
Paul let a little bit of his Jewish theology creep in, referring to the Gentiles as having been spiritually dead because they had neither Jesus nor the Law, but the import of this passage is that by accepting Christ as symbolized in baptism, we have our sins -- and our Sin -- forgiven. This all comes about by virtue of the death of Jesus on the cross. By this means he overcame all the destructive forces of the world.
As suggested in the commentary on the Hosea lesson, I would combine the two lessons into a sermon on forgiveness. An excellent illustration is the story of Hosea and Gomer themselves.
Gospel: Luke 11:1-13 (C, RC, E)
This is an all-time favorite passage in the Bible. Jesus is promising that God will always answer a prayer. He first spoke what we have come to think of as the Lord's Prayer, a model for prayer, containing the elements of petition, gratitude, devotion, and forgiveness. He then uses an analogy of a homespun sort, exactly what the people would have easily understood and, incidentally, a good reminder to us preachers that a simple easily remembered story is worth a thousand words. One might get confused a bit by the comparison of the reluctant neighbor with God, as though God really doesn't want to be bothered, but will give in to relentless persistence. Obviously that wasn't what Jesus meant. Here again we need to be reminded that these stories always have only one central point. In this case, Jesus simply meant that we won't always receive an answer to prayer immediately but that we are to persevere in prayer and God will answer in the right way at the right time. I believe a preacher should include instruction in prayer from the pulpit from time to time. So, a sermon on prayer.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Can God Forgive Anything?"
Text: Colossians 2:12-14, Hosea 9b-10
Theme: The quick answer is "Yes!" But there's more to it. God can and will forgive anything. But there are some qualifications, some conditions which we will have to comply with in order for this to happen. Obviously we can't have people going around doing whatever they want with no consideration for others simply because God is such a good old guy He'll forgive us. That would be a fatal mistake, to get that idea. Even a cursory reading of the Bible makes it clear that God is a demanding God in that His creation has a very definite purpose, and God cannot and will not abide anyone diverting that purpose. I love my children with all my heart, but I will not permit that one of them hurt the other without severe consequences. God seems to have the same idea. But I would do that for the sake of the culprit as well as for the injured sibling. I would punish, but I would punish with the intent to reform, to turn that misbehaving child into a loving child, not to be punitive. So with God.
1. God forgives when we repent. The short description of repentance has three parts: 1) I'm genuinely sorry, 2) I make amends as much as I can, and 3) I sincerely try not to do wrong again (I will, of course, because I'm human, but my effort will be sincere).
2. Jesus' death leads us to repentance. He embodies perfect love, the love which God has for us. When I realize what my hurtful attitudes and actions lead to, when I see what harm I have done, and when I realize He still loves me, still wants me to be safe, it breaks my heart. And that's what gets through to us when nothing else does. I realize some people still adhere to the doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement, but to me that has too many fallacies. It causes people to accept Christ out of fear, fear which can easily border on superstition. It separates Jesus from God, making God the implacable dispenser of justice, and Jesus the loving Lord who must convince God to withhold just punishment. What really happens is that our hearts are moved by the realization that God's love never wanes, that He loves us forever, and that we hate the thought of hurting Him further. That is genuine repentance.
3. God will then expect me to forgive other people. Jesus taught us that in the Lord's Prayer. We have left off a major portion of the passage in Matthew (chapter 6) which gives us the Lord's Prayer. Verses 14 and 15 elaborate this very point at some length.
4. God finally invites me to forgive myself. For some people that's the most difficult element in the forgiveness process. Guilt can destroy. Paul Tournier wisely observed that "a person who feels unforgiven is as though he were unforgiven, even though he may, in fact, be forgiven." Of course there is healthy guilt, the sort which leads to repentance. But when I have earnestly repented, and when I am living a forgiving life with those around me, I can legitimately feel myself forgiven as well.
Title: "God Will Always Answer"
Text: Luke 11:1-13
Theme: God always answers prayer. There are, though, some observations I would make about prayer. And incidentally, I have come to the conclusion that different people pray in different ways and we must be careful not to set down any confining rules for prayer. I have noticed through my ministry that most books on this subject seem to me to be written by introverts. That's well and good, since you introverts are best able to stay at your typewriter (read word processor) but the emphasis on meditation, on formal ways to pray such as kneeling at a prayer desk or seated at the chancel, while all legitimate rules for prayer, are only one way. I first pray before getting out of bed, praying for loved ones, for departed loved ones, and for friends facing difficulties. Thereafter I may pray while doing an aerobic walk, or while driving, or while walking down the hall of a hospital. So, I would by way of introduction suggest that there is no one right way to pray and that's why Jesus didn't have anything to say about language or bodily posture or location. In fact, he was suspicious of formal prayers and certainly had nothing good to say about public prayer. He preferred private prayer within the silence of one's own heart. My condolences to those pastors whose main role in worship is to give the pastoral prayer. I have asked a great many people, nearly all of whom admit they don't listen after about one minute. Besides, most "pastoral prayers" are really mini-sermons anyway. I always know we're in for a sneaky little sermonette when I hear a pray-er begin "Lord, help us to remember...." Better to allow ample time for the silent prayer in worship.
1. Prayer must be honest. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that we keep God out of all of our life if we try to keep Him out of some part of our life. Many of us use the Collect For Purity Of Heart in which we pray "Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from no secrets are hid...." Our words are not for the purpose of informing God of something He might otherwise not have known. They are only for the purpose of helping us organize our thoughts. In the sixth chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells us that God knows what we need before we tell Him.
2. Prayer must be selfless. That doesn't mean we should not ask for our own needs. However, since God already knows our needs, we can safely focus our prayers on the good of other people. Personally, I do find solace in being able to have an occasional long talk with God. Since I know He loves me very much, and understands why I'm sometimes pretty screwed up, and cares what happens to me, I feel very safe. And often, I find that in the very process of sharing my inner self with God answers occur to me by which I can solve my own problems. In any event, I don't think prayers for a new car or some material benefit, or for me to obtain some advantage over someone else in, say, a business situation, will ever receive a positive response. But I do know for an indisputable fact, that if I pray for others, and if, on occasion, I share my deepest self with God, and if I faithfully take my problems to God, an answer is always forthcoming. Often, though, it's only in the retrospect of months, or even years, that I realize this was true.
3. Prayer will empower me in great undertakings. It was Elizabeth Browning who wrote that we should be careful what we pray for, God often answers "sharp and sudden" and we may at first be dismayed. We may, because of our prayers, be called upon to accomplish demanding and risky deeds. But in the course of time, we will be glad.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Author and lecturer Keith Miller told in one of his books of the night he was critically injured in an auto accident. He was a high school senior at the time, captain of an athletic team, president of the senior class. His car had plummeted over a steep hillside, falling nearly 200 feet. Rescuers finally pulled him from the demolished car. Among his terrible injuries was a broken neck. He said as he lay there, shivering on the cold ground, he began to do something he had never really done before. He prayed. As he did so, he said a marvelous feeling of comfort settled on him. He felt that he would be all right. Then he wrote this: "A few months later, I got over the injuries -- and over the prayer." He went on to say that it was only many years later that he rediscovered the power of prayer.
____________
An old man seemed to be dying. As his family gathered at his bedside, he grew paler, gasping for breath. Finally, he tried to speak but his voice was too weak to be heard. His son, wanting to hear his father's apparently last words, leaned closer. Still unable to hear, he leaned closer yet as his father's words were unintelligible. But at last, with one gallant effort, the old man managed to make himself heard. "You're standing on the oxygen hose, and I can't breathe," he said.
A terrible story, I suppose. But it does make a point. Too often we do that, we prevent God from being heard and from being able to act in our lives because, like Keith Miller admitted, we forget the power of prayer and keep God out by "standing on the oxygen hose."
____________
Walter Rauschenbush, a nineteenth century theologian, wrote this: "In the castle of my soul is a little postern gate whereat when I enter, I am in the presence of God. In a moment, in a turning of a thought, I am where God is. This is a fact. When I enter into God, all life has a meaning. Without asking, I know. My desires are even now fulfilled. My fever is gone in the great quiet of God. My troubles are but pebbles on the road. My joys are like the everlasting hills. So it is, when my soul steps through the postern gate into the presence of God. Big things become small, and small things become great. The near becomes far, and the future is near. The lowly and despised is shot through with glory. When I am in him, I am in the Kingdom of God, and in the Fatherland of my soul."
____________
Harry Emerson Fosdick told of the time he was trying to prepare a sermon on prayer. As he sat in an easy chair in front of a roaring fire, he glanced over to one of his treasures, a book once owned by Hugh Latimer who was burned at the stake in Oxford centuries ago. At that time, Latimer had courageously faced his death, declaring, "We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as, I trust, shall never be put out." Fosdick then said he imagined Latimer turning to him and saying: "So you are going to preach on prayer. What do you know about praying? I am going now from my knees to the stake. Have you any idea what tremendous moral issues prayer, when it is earnest, can present to a man's conscience? You modern preachers have made prayer safe, easy, comfortable, fitted for narcotic purposes. Tell them something about dangerous praying, in which one's duty becomes the compelling will of God which cannot be escaped. And you there, in your overstuffed chair, if you are going to preach about praying, experience it a little!"
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 85 -- "Lord, thou wast favorable to thy land."
Prayer Of The Day
Forgive us, O God, for the many wrongful words we have spoken, for the hurtful actions which we may only have half realized at the time. Help us to be more aware, more perceptive in seeing where we can sow kindness and encouragement rather than competition and defeat. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Lesson 1: Hosea 1:2-10 (C)
After one sorts through this rather strange (to our ears) report of the writer, we get to the final two verses of our lesson which I would choose as the basis of a sermon: "Call his name 'Not-My-People' for you are not my people ... Yet ... it shall be said to them, 'Sons of the living God.' " Forgiveness. God was, in Hosea's understanding, angry with the people for their perverse ways, and He momentarily rejected them. But God's forgiving love quickly asserted itself, and He embraced them as his people.
I turn to our epistle lesson in Colossians and find the same theme. There we will read that "God forgave us all our sins; He canceled the unfavorable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it on a cross" (vv. 9b-10). Thus, I would combine these two passages and preach a sermon on the forgiveness of God using both texts.
Lesson 1: Genesis 18:20-32 (RC); Genesis 18:20-33 (E)
This depicts a marvelous conversation between Abraham and God. Of course we have an ancient idea about the nature of God here. When God is reported to have said that He would go down to Sodom and Gomorrah to see what was going on, we have a primitive view of God as having residence, as needing to get out and around in order to know just what's going on. But in this interchange as recorded by some very early writer, we gain the idea that God is just. His inclination is, they believed, to wipe out gatherings of people who are unfaithful, but His innate sense of justice convinces Him -- thanks to Abraham -- that to kill even a few innocent people because of the sins of the many would be unfair. One direction for a sermon to go with this story is to use it as an analogy to many of our major cities today. God may (this is an anthropomorphism, if you will) have an inclination to destroy, say, certain portions of New York, or of Los Angeles. But after all there are many good and decent people living there, and for their sake, God will continue working to redeem the cities of the world.
Lesson 2: Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19) (C); Colossians 2:12-14 (RC); Colossians 2:6-15 (E)
Paul let a little bit of his Jewish theology creep in, referring to the Gentiles as having been spiritually dead because they had neither Jesus nor the Law, but the import of this passage is that by accepting Christ as symbolized in baptism, we have our sins -- and our Sin -- forgiven. This all comes about by virtue of the death of Jesus on the cross. By this means he overcame all the destructive forces of the world.
As suggested in the commentary on the Hosea lesson, I would combine the two lessons into a sermon on forgiveness. An excellent illustration is the story of Hosea and Gomer themselves.
Gospel: Luke 11:1-13 (C, RC, E)
This is an all-time favorite passage in the Bible. Jesus is promising that God will always answer a prayer. He first spoke what we have come to think of as the Lord's Prayer, a model for prayer, containing the elements of petition, gratitude, devotion, and forgiveness. He then uses an analogy of a homespun sort, exactly what the people would have easily understood and, incidentally, a good reminder to us preachers that a simple easily remembered story is worth a thousand words. One might get confused a bit by the comparison of the reluctant neighbor with God, as though God really doesn't want to be bothered, but will give in to relentless persistence. Obviously that wasn't what Jesus meant. Here again we need to be reminded that these stories always have only one central point. In this case, Jesus simply meant that we won't always receive an answer to prayer immediately but that we are to persevere in prayer and God will answer in the right way at the right time. I believe a preacher should include instruction in prayer from the pulpit from time to time. So, a sermon on prayer.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Can God Forgive Anything?"
Text: Colossians 2:12-14, Hosea 9b-10
Theme: The quick answer is "Yes!" But there's more to it. God can and will forgive anything. But there are some qualifications, some conditions which we will have to comply with in order for this to happen. Obviously we can't have people going around doing whatever they want with no consideration for others simply because God is such a good old guy He'll forgive us. That would be a fatal mistake, to get that idea. Even a cursory reading of the Bible makes it clear that God is a demanding God in that His creation has a very definite purpose, and God cannot and will not abide anyone diverting that purpose. I love my children with all my heart, but I will not permit that one of them hurt the other without severe consequences. God seems to have the same idea. But I would do that for the sake of the culprit as well as for the injured sibling. I would punish, but I would punish with the intent to reform, to turn that misbehaving child into a loving child, not to be punitive. So with God.
1. God forgives when we repent. The short description of repentance has three parts: 1) I'm genuinely sorry, 2) I make amends as much as I can, and 3) I sincerely try not to do wrong again (I will, of course, because I'm human, but my effort will be sincere).
2. Jesus' death leads us to repentance. He embodies perfect love, the love which God has for us. When I realize what my hurtful attitudes and actions lead to, when I see what harm I have done, and when I realize He still loves me, still wants me to be safe, it breaks my heart. And that's what gets through to us when nothing else does. I realize some people still adhere to the doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement, but to me that has too many fallacies. It causes people to accept Christ out of fear, fear which can easily border on superstition. It separates Jesus from God, making God the implacable dispenser of justice, and Jesus the loving Lord who must convince God to withhold just punishment. What really happens is that our hearts are moved by the realization that God's love never wanes, that He loves us forever, and that we hate the thought of hurting Him further. That is genuine repentance.
3. God will then expect me to forgive other people. Jesus taught us that in the Lord's Prayer. We have left off a major portion of the passage in Matthew (chapter 6) which gives us the Lord's Prayer. Verses 14 and 15 elaborate this very point at some length.
4. God finally invites me to forgive myself. For some people that's the most difficult element in the forgiveness process. Guilt can destroy. Paul Tournier wisely observed that "a person who feels unforgiven is as though he were unforgiven, even though he may, in fact, be forgiven." Of course there is healthy guilt, the sort which leads to repentance. But when I have earnestly repented, and when I am living a forgiving life with those around me, I can legitimately feel myself forgiven as well.
Title: "God Will Always Answer"
Text: Luke 11:1-13
Theme: God always answers prayer. There are, though, some observations I would make about prayer. And incidentally, I have come to the conclusion that different people pray in different ways and we must be careful not to set down any confining rules for prayer. I have noticed through my ministry that most books on this subject seem to me to be written by introverts. That's well and good, since you introverts are best able to stay at your typewriter (read word processor) but the emphasis on meditation, on formal ways to pray such as kneeling at a prayer desk or seated at the chancel, while all legitimate rules for prayer, are only one way. I first pray before getting out of bed, praying for loved ones, for departed loved ones, and for friends facing difficulties. Thereafter I may pray while doing an aerobic walk, or while driving, or while walking down the hall of a hospital. So, I would by way of introduction suggest that there is no one right way to pray and that's why Jesus didn't have anything to say about language or bodily posture or location. In fact, he was suspicious of formal prayers and certainly had nothing good to say about public prayer. He preferred private prayer within the silence of one's own heart. My condolences to those pastors whose main role in worship is to give the pastoral prayer. I have asked a great many people, nearly all of whom admit they don't listen after about one minute. Besides, most "pastoral prayers" are really mini-sermons anyway. I always know we're in for a sneaky little sermonette when I hear a pray-er begin "Lord, help us to remember...." Better to allow ample time for the silent prayer in worship.
1. Prayer must be honest. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that we keep God out of all of our life if we try to keep Him out of some part of our life. Many of us use the Collect For Purity Of Heart in which we pray "Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from no secrets are hid...." Our words are not for the purpose of informing God of something He might otherwise not have known. They are only for the purpose of helping us organize our thoughts. In the sixth chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells us that God knows what we need before we tell Him.
2. Prayer must be selfless. That doesn't mean we should not ask for our own needs. However, since God already knows our needs, we can safely focus our prayers on the good of other people. Personally, I do find solace in being able to have an occasional long talk with God. Since I know He loves me very much, and understands why I'm sometimes pretty screwed up, and cares what happens to me, I feel very safe. And often, I find that in the very process of sharing my inner self with God answers occur to me by which I can solve my own problems. In any event, I don't think prayers for a new car or some material benefit, or for me to obtain some advantage over someone else in, say, a business situation, will ever receive a positive response. But I do know for an indisputable fact, that if I pray for others, and if, on occasion, I share my deepest self with God, and if I faithfully take my problems to God, an answer is always forthcoming. Often, though, it's only in the retrospect of months, or even years, that I realize this was true.
3. Prayer will empower me in great undertakings. It was Elizabeth Browning who wrote that we should be careful what we pray for, God often answers "sharp and sudden" and we may at first be dismayed. We may, because of our prayers, be called upon to accomplish demanding and risky deeds. But in the course of time, we will be glad.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Author and lecturer Keith Miller told in one of his books of the night he was critically injured in an auto accident. He was a high school senior at the time, captain of an athletic team, president of the senior class. His car had plummeted over a steep hillside, falling nearly 200 feet. Rescuers finally pulled him from the demolished car. Among his terrible injuries was a broken neck. He said as he lay there, shivering on the cold ground, he began to do something he had never really done before. He prayed. As he did so, he said a marvelous feeling of comfort settled on him. He felt that he would be all right. Then he wrote this: "A few months later, I got over the injuries -- and over the prayer." He went on to say that it was only many years later that he rediscovered the power of prayer.
____________
An old man seemed to be dying. As his family gathered at his bedside, he grew paler, gasping for breath. Finally, he tried to speak but his voice was too weak to be heard. His son, wanting to hear his father's apparently last words, leaned closer. Still unable to hear, he leaned closer yet as his father's words were unintelligible. But at last, with one gallant effort, the old man managed to make himself heard. "You're standing on the oxygen hose, and I can't breathe," he said.
A terrible story, I suppose. But it does make a point. Too often we do that, we prevent God from being heard and from being able to act in our lives because, like Keith Miller admitted, we forget the power of prayer and keep God out by "standing on the oxygen hose."
____________
Walter Rauschenbush, a nineteenth century theologian, wrote this: "In the castle of my soul is a little postern gate whereat when I enter, I am in the presence of God. In a moment, in a turning of a thought, I am where God is. This is a fact. When I enter into God, all life has a meaning. Without asking, I know. My desires are even now fulfilled. My fever is gone in the great quiet of God. My troubles are but pebbles on the road. My joys are like the everlasting hills. So it is, when my soul steps through the postern gate into the presence of God. Big things become small, and small things become great. The near becomes far, and the future is near. The lowly and despised is shot through with glory. When I am in him, I am in the Kingdom of God, and in the Fatherland of my soul."
____________
Harry Emerson Fosdick told of the time he was trying to prepare a sermon on prayer. As he sat in an easy chair in front of a roaring fire, he glanced over to one of his treasures, a book once owned by Hugh Latimer who was burned at the stake in Oxford centuries ago. At that time, Latimer had courageously faced his death, declaring, "We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as, I trust, shall never be put out." Fosdick then said he imagined Latimer turning to him and saying: "So you are going to preach on prayer. What do you know about praying? I am going now from my knees to the stake. Have you any idea what tremendous moral issues prayer, when it is earnest, can present to a man's conscience? You modern preachers have made prayer safe, easy, comfortable, fitted for narcotic purposes. Tell them something about dangerous praying, in which one's duty becomes the compelling will of God which cannot be escaped. And you there, in your overstuffed chair, if you are going to preach about praying, experience it a little!"
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 85 -- "Lord, thou wast favorable to thy land."
Prayer Of The Day
Forgive us, O God, for the many wrongful words we have spoken, for the hurtful actions which we may only have half realized at the time. Help us to be more aware, more perceptive in seeing where we can sow kindness and encouragement rather than competition and defeat. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
