Proper 24 / Pentecost 21 / Ordinary Time 29
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series IX, Cycle B
Object:
Theme of the Day
It's not all about you and me; it's all about God.
Collect of the Day
Petitions are offered to the sovereign God that He would turn His greatness into goodness for all, shaping us into willing servants of His kingdom, and making us desire always and only His will. Emphasizes the spontaneity of the Christian life as a work of God.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
* A Hymn to God the creator. See Pentecost for verses 24, 35.
* The first line calling us to bless the Lord may have been added to imitate the ending of the previous Psalm (103:20-22). The greatness of God and His majesty is extolled (vv. 1-2a).
* The ongoing character of God's creative work is praised (vv. 2-4).
* In the context of further discourse on God's work of creation, reference is made to His victory over the waters, the symbol of chaos (vv.5-9). This image is reminiscent of the first creation account in Genesis (1:1-2, 6, 9-10).
or Psalm 91:9-16
* A wisdom Psalm offering a meditation on God as the protector of the faithful.
* Promise is offered that in taking refuge in Yahweh the faithful will be protected (vv. 9-10). They will be guarded by His angels (vv. 11-12).
* As a result, the faithful will be able tread on lions and trample serpents (v. 13). John Calvin contended that this passage is mere hyperbole, a way of affirming that God gives us courage to overcome all our apprehensions (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. V/2, p. 488).
* The Psalm closes with an oracle of assurance, of protection from all trouble, probably uttered by a priest or temple prophet (vv. 14-16).
Sermon Text and Title
"Where Were You When God Went to Work?"
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To help hearers appreciate the majesty of God and His engagement in all dimensions of the creation, an insight that weans us away from the secularism of false sense of autonomy to an awareness of His presence in all dimensions of life (Providence and Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see First Lesson of Proper 22)
* Yahweh's first speech in response to Job's laments. He appears in a whirlwind, a frequent setting for appearances (Nahum 1:3; Psalms 18:7-15; Ezekiel 1:4).
* Having been questioned by Job (about his plight [3:11, 16; 13:24]), Yahweh questions him, specifically to demonstrate the inability of Job to understand the mysteries of the creation (vv. 2-3). Job and no mortals were engaged in the actual creation (vv. 4-7). And none but God can send the lights (v. 35) or bring rain (v. 37). None but Him can feed the creatures (vv. 39, 41). Only the Lord has wisdom and can give understanding to human beings (vv. 37, 36).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* God (esp. His transcendence and majesty) as well as Creation and Providence, sin, and Sanctification (Christian life as a life of awe) are the focus of the text.
* A comment by John Calvin about one of the assigned Psalms (104) well expresses the intentions of Job's interaction with the Lord:
If men attempt to reach the infinite height to which God is exalted, although they fly above the clouds, they must fail in the midst of their course. Those who seek to see Him in His naked majesty are certainly very foolish. That we may enjoy the sight of Him, He must come forth to view with His clothing; that is to say, we must cast our eyes upon the very beautiful fabric of the work in which He wishes to be seen by us, and not be too curious and rash in searching into His secret essence.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. VI/1, p.145)
If a small portion of the works of God make us amazed, how inadequate are our feeble minds to comprehend the whole extent of them!
(Ibid., p.164)
* Commenting on the same Psalm prior to the Reformation, Martin Luther observed how the awareness of the awesomeness of God comes about and what it looks like in our daily lives:
The more you disparage yourself, the more you praise God, and the more you displease yourself, the more He pleases you, and vice versa… Corollary. It follows that no one can magnify His gifts unless he himself is first made great by the gifts of God.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 10, p. 316)
* Luther added another point elsewhere on the proper awe we are to have towards God in view of who He is and what He has done:
In secular matters, when we speak the name of a king or a prince, we make it a custom to do so with some nice gesture, reverence, and genuflection. Much more should we bow the knee of our heart when we speak about God, and we should mention the name of God with gratitude and the greatest reverence.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 26, p. 43)
* This awesome God is no less our friend because of His majesty. The great reformed theologian of the twentieth century, Karl Barth, nicely made that point while reinforcing the need for us to submit to His will, to quit trying to be so autonomous:
In it [God's encounters with Job] He does not cease to be, nor is He any less, his [Job's] friend, his sworn covenant-partner… He [God] does not ask for his [humanity's] understanding, agreement or applause. On the contrary, He simply asks that he [a human being] should be content not to know why and to what end he [the human being] exists, and so in this way and not another. He [God] simply asks that he [the individual] should concede that he has nothing to do with his course and direction.
(Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/3, First Half, p. 431)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* The text provides an occasion for sermons on the importance of preserving creation or on ecology. See the data in this section for the First Lessons for Lent 1 and Epiphany 1.
* Many Americans believe in a God who is sovereign and in control of the world. See poll results reported in this section for the Gospel, Pentecost 6.
5. Gimmick
Human beings have a way of trying to put God in a box, to make Him conform to what we think He should be like. Many of us want a god but on our own terms.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Part of the reason for wanting God on our own terms is that God just seems too big, too awesome and majestic to handle. As a result we do our best to understand Him on our own terms, make Him someone in our own image.
You hear that a lot in academic circles today, as some scholars talk about our needing a god in whom we can see ourselves.
* We want a god who is good to us, and so like Job we can't understand when things go bad in our lives (13:24). Or like Job's friends we assume that God is a judge and that people get what they deserve (vv. 4, 8). Or like many Americans who want their freedom, we relegate God to certain tasks but leave plenty of room in our lives to do for ourselves. Note that this is what is going on when the media or our politicians speak of a distinction between sacred and secular realms, between the public and the private. Invite the congregation to reflect on how guilty they and all Americans are of limiting God in these ways.
* But as Job found out in the book that bears his name, it is all so useless an undertaking. Consider using the first two quotations by Calvin in Theological Insights.
* Our story from Job gives us some hints as to why it is all so useless -- useless to try to put God in a box. Where were we when God laid the earth's foundation (v. 4)? We did not like God determine the earth's measurements (v. 5). It is not we who can create flood waters, send lightning, or number the clouds (vv. 34-37). Nor can we feed the lions and the ravens (vv. 37-41), and on and on.
* The assigned Psalm (104) also makes this testimony. Unlike God, we do not stretch the heavens (v. 2), ride the wind (v. 3), or set the foundations of the earth (v. 5).
* Suggest to the congregation that we are always guilty of trying to make God too small. We are much too prone to make God in our own image, to be casual about God. Ask the congregation if they might be too casual in worship sometimes, inclined to act like it is just another Sunday, letting our minds wander. How dare we take God and His awesome ways so casually?
* Ask the congregation if, like Job, they have ever wondered about life, about wars and unemployment, about illnesses and the death of loved ones. The great Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards well spoke to these sentiments. If we find fault with the way God rules the universe, Edwards claimed, it is as if we thought we were His advisors (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, p. 108).
* God's ways are so far above our ways, so majestically beyond what we can grasp, blind as we are of His goodness. As Martin Luther once put it: "But God's word and works do not proceed according to our view of things, but in a way incomprehensible to all reason…" (Luther's Works, Vol. 37, p. 207). God's ways far exceed our ways. It is like the famed nineteenth-century English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it: "God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame." We understand God's work best when we get out of the way. Cite the first quotation by Martin Luther in Theological Insights.
* God's testimony to Job in our lesson prods us to see God in the created order, in what we think to be the natural and ordinary cycles or events in life. Instruct the congregation to remember that as they observe the evening sunset, Monday's sunrise, family interactions, and this week at work. God is at work in these events. They are not really natural and ordinary! And as a result they are very special moments. Alfred North Whitehead, the formulator of process philosophy, well expresses how profound this insight is, how empty life is without God: "Apart from God every activity is merely a passing whiff of insignificance."
* When you have your eyes open to God being at work, life is so much sweeter, more meaningful. That outlook on life makes the friendly, loving character of the wonderful God of ours all the clearer.
7. Wrap-Up
Cite the quotation by Karl Barth in the last bullet point of Theological Insights. In a sense we were not around for all of God's great works. And yet this loving, friendly God of ours does not leave us alone, a wonderful insight about life that makes life more wonderful. Ultimately we "Jobs" do not determine our own directions in life, for it is really God who is at work in these events. Life is really all about Him, not about you and me!
Sermon Text and Title
"Do You Know Someone Who Would Die for You?"
Hebrews 5:1-10
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A testimony to the love of God made evident in Christ's sacrifice (Justification by Grace and Atonement).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Part of a discussion of the theme of Jesus as high priest.
* Every high priest chosen is to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins (v. 1). He is able to deal gently with the wayward since he is subject to weakness (v. 2). He must offer sacrifice for his own sin as well as for the people (v. 3).
* Like these priests, Christ did not glorify Himself in becoming high priest but is appointed by God. Quoting Psalm 2:7 and 110:4, it is noted that God made Christ a priest after the order of the Priest-King Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-20) (vv. 4-6, 10).
* Jesus is then described as offering up prayers with loud cries to God who could save Him. He was heard, the writer indicates, because of His reverent submission, learning obedience (vv. 7-9a). As such, He became the source of eternal salvation (v. 9b).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text testifies to a Satisfaction Theory of the Atonement and in so doing to God's immeasurable love for us (Justification by Grace).
* Martin Luther nicely explained what Christ's death means for us:
If our sins, therefore, rest upon Christ, we can be content: they are in the right place -- just where they belong. Upon us they do not lie well; for we and all men, yes, and all creatures, are too weak to bear a single sin… Therefore let them remain upon Christ… To this comfort let us cleave, and not permit sadness to oppress our hearts….
(Sermons on the Passion of Christ, pp. 32-33)
* The good news of this sacrificial work is that it is all about God's love for us. Again Luther offers profound insights:
Let us therefore, open our eyes and behold Christ our high priest, in His proper priestly garment and at His proper priestly work… His other ornament is that great love He has for us which makes Him care so little about His [own] life, His sufferings, almost forgetting them in the heartfelt interest He takes in our condition and in our need, and praying for us rather than for Himself. We cannot sufficiently understand such love as this; for in the heart of the Lord there is burning such a flame of love for us, that He does not seem to see or to feel His own most severe suffering, torture and disgrace, but only considers and perceives and cares for your and my misery, distress and affliction.
(Sermons on the Passion of Christ, pp. 178-179)
* John Calvin speaks of Christ being a brother to us, "not only on account of unity as to flesh and nature, but also by becoming a partaker of our infirmities, so that He is led, and as it were formed, to show forbearance and kindness" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXII/1, p. 115).
* Calvin also offers penetrating insights about the implications of Christ's sacrifice for living the Christian life. Commenting on this text he wrote:
But this [obedience to God] cannot be effected but by the cross, for in prosperity we exult as with loose reins; nay in most cases, when the yoke is shaken off, the wantonness of the flesh breaks forth into excesses. But when restraint is put on our will, when we seek to please God, in this act only does our obedience show itself; nay, it is an illustrious proof of perfect obedience when we choose the death to which God may call us, though we dread it, rather than the life which we naturally desire.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXII/1, p. 124)
* The medieval Saint Bernard of Clairveaux also offered reflections portraying what life is like for Christians who have been overwhelmed by God's forgiving love:
He [Christ] is living and full of energy. As soon as He entered into me He awakened my sleeping soul. He has stirred and softened my heart, which was torpid and as hard as a rock… The mind is drawn along by the ineffable sweetness of the word, as it were; it is stolen from itself or, better, it is rapt [and] remains out of itself there to enjoy the word….
(Varieties of Mystical Experience, pp. 105-106)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Consider the leads noted in this section for the Second Lesson, Pentecost 24.
5. Gimmick
Note how we are awed by stories of war heroes. Personalize these if any are known in congregation. If not, tell the story of a black seminary student who had grown up without his mother, because while an infant she had run back to their burning home to save him. The student knew from his earliest recollection how much his mother loved him! None of us can callously hear such stories of someone being willing to die for another human being. These are tales of profound love.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Moved as we are by such stories, why are we too often unaware that we are recipients of such profound love? We know someone who would die for us! The cross tells us that. And yet too often we seem to take that for granted. It we took it more seriously it might change our lives.
* Note that the Second Lesson is about Jesus the high priest like Melchizidek, a king of Salem in the land of Canaan and priest of the most high God (called El), whom the Bible says is also the God whom Abraham and his family also worshiped (Genesis 14:17-20) (v.6). Jesus is a kingly high priest, our lesson says, but a priest who suffers for us in order to save us (v. 7)!
* Invite the congregation members to think of the mistakes they have made, the selfishness that has reared its ugly head in their decision-making. They have all been laid on Jesus! He bore them, sacrificing Himself for us like the war hero and the mother who pulled her young son out of the burning house. Oh what deep love and compassion we see on the Cross. He is like a brother to us, John Calvin claims (see fourth bullet point of Theological Insights).
* Use the first quotation by Luther in Theological Insights to point out what Christ's death entails for human beings. To be someone with a friend like God who would die for us, is to live a life of joy. Use the second quotation by Luther in Theological Insights to elaborate on what this wonderful love God has for us is like.
* Ask the congregation to consider what happens to your life when you know that you are loved with a burning flame of love, as Luther claimed. All the anxieties and insecurities begin to vanish. Love has a way of burning up those anxieties, of drowning them into submission. Luther says something very similar when he claims that all our works and deeds are like little sparks. But the love of God, he claims, is by contract like an immeasurable sea. The little sparks have no chance to survive in that ocean (Luther's Works, Vol. 17, p. 223).
* Our sins are in the right place, the first Reformer says elsewhere, when we lay them on Christ (see second bullet point of Theological Insights). The endless ocean of God's love in Christ drowns and extinguishes them all.
* Cite Bernard of Clairveaux in the last bullet point of Theological Insights, to describe what life is like for people who have been overwhelmed by the forgiving love of God. The immeasurable ocean of God's love snuffs out all our sin and the insecurity, literally floods our lives. Swallowed up in that ocean of love, we become Christ's, making us whole by drowning all our insecurities and sin.
* Life cannot be the same after you have been rescued by someone who risked his life for you. It cannot be the same when you realize how close you came to the grave. Life is more precious for people who have had near-death experiences.
* Life is not the same when someone risked his life for you. The one saved is forever indebted to the savior. Jesus is that kind of Savior. We can never thank Him enough. We can't go wrong thinking about the rest of our lives as an opportunity to thank Jesus for His heroism, for His love to us.
7. Wrap-Up
Ask the congregation if the members wonder whether life is worthwhile and valuable. Remind them that Jesus answered that question with His life. Let us refuse to take that for granted. We all have someone (the great king of the universe) who died for us!
Sermon Text and Title
"Good People Choke… on the Gospel"
Mark 10:35-45
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A condemnation of our self-seeking sinfulness with a proclamation of the gospel and its gift of a life-denying style of life (Justification and Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* The story of James and John seeking highest honor.
* These brothers (sons of Zebedee) ask Jesus to grant them whatever they ask. They request seats of honor next to Him in glory (vv. 35-37).
* Jesus responds, contending they do not know what they have asked, asking them if they know it entails enduring all that He endures (His baptism and His cup, which probably refers to woe and suffering by Old Testament usage [Psalm 11:6; Isaiah 51:17, 22]) (v. 38).
* The brothers reply that they are ready to endure all that Jesus does (v. 39). He responds that sitting at His right hand is not His gift to give, for such seats of honor will be given to those prepared.
* The other ten disciples are angered at James and John for their request (v. 41). Jesus responds that whoever wishes to be great among His flock must be a servant, wishes to be a slave of all (vv. 42-44).
* Jesus identifies Himself as Son of Man, who came not to be served but to serve, giving His life as a ransom for many (v. 45).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text unearths the character of sin as self-seeking, but also Jesus' proclamation of Christian life as a life of service (Sanctification).
* Martin Luther nicely described the insidious self-seeking evident in James and John. He wrote:
But the impure and perverted lovers, who are nothing else than parasites and who seek their own advantage in God, neither love nor praise His bare goodness, but have an eye to themselves and consider how only good God is to them… They delighted in their salvation much more than in their Savior, in the gift more than in the giver, in the creature rather than in the creator.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 21, p. 309)
* Luther sees this sort of self-seeking (concupiscence) as the essence of sin and the human condition. Also see the first bullet point in this section for the First Lesson, Advent 1.
* John Calvin provides a thoughtful insight about the meaning of the lesson:
He [Jesus] does not explain generally how deadly a plague ambition is, but simply warns them that nothing is more foolish than to fight about nothing. He shows that the primacy, which is the occasion of dispute among them, has no existence in His kingdom.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/2, pp. 423-424)
* Interpreting this text and Jesus' comment that He came to serve, not to be served (v. 45), the eminent twentieth-century neo-orthodox theologian Karl Barth claimed that as a result: "In the Christian community, unlike all other human societies there is no distinction between privileges and duties, claims and obligations, or dignities and burdens" (Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/2, p. 690).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* For data indicating the all-consuming infatuation with self, see Jean Thense and W. Keith Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic.
* Polls indicate that Americans seem to think that they are deserving of anything they have received since they are fundamentally good. For this data, see this section for the First Lesson, Pentecost 20.
* An ABC News/Beliefnet Poll found that 83% of Americans consider themselves to be Christian.
* The eminent social historian Christopher Lasch (The Revolt of the Elites, p. 242) contended that Americans want a religion that is a source of security, preferring an entertaining feel-good style of spirituality rather than hearing about suffering and evil.
* A 2006 US Department of Labor document reports that employed Americans averaged more than 40 hours per week, working on the job almost 500 hours per year more than their Western European counterparts.
5. Gimmick
Americans see themselves as good, decent people. (Cite the second bullet point in the preceding section.) We also claim to be religious and hardworking; cite last two bullet points of the preceding section.
Introduce the congregation to some pre-modern folks who are a lot like us. Their interactions with Jesus reveal to us a lot more strikingly what we are really like and what plans Jesus has for us.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Introduce the congregation to James and John, children of Zebedee and Salome. Hardworking fishermen (1:19-20), along with Simon Peter and Andrew they were the only brothers among the disciples.
* James and John were go-getters. They probably would have gotten along well in contemporary American society. They seem to have been hard workers, but people who could "sell" themselves, find openings to impress the boss, to advance their careers or standing, and also knew how to close a deal. Jesus seems to have recognized that quality of pushy ambition about them. Mark (3:17) says that He calls them "Boanerges" (Sons of Thunder).
* Not all New Testament scholars think Jesus used the phrase "Sons of Thunder" in the way just suggested. In their judgment Jesus was referring to the preaching styles of James and John, that maybe he was suggesting that the hellfire and brimstone themes about the judgment of God characterized their preaching (Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Mark, p. 82). Nevertheless, understanding Jesus as referring to the ambitiousness of James and John has credibility.
* Recount the self-serving ambition James and John reflect in the Gospel Lesson, asking Jesus to give them what they want. As faithful followers, they thought they were doing no more than getting what they deserved.
* Note another example of the brothers' assertiveness, when they reprimanded faith healers who were working Jesus' name but were not part of the original followers of the Lord (Mark 9:38f; Luke 9:49). Defend them in this case noting that in these actions they were merely concerned like we are to see the church grow, but felt (like us) that it was better if it were our church that enjoyed most of the growth.
* Like good Americans today, James and John were just trying to get their needs met. Such a mindset even permeates our view of what religion should provide: "something good for us." Elaborate on Christopher Lasch's analysis of American religion above in the fourth bullet point of the previous section. Also reiterate the data cited at the beginning of the sermon (second bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights). Seventy percent of Americans think that being good gets you saved.
* Note how we can better understand John and James in this light -- self-assertive but believing themselves basically good and so deserving good things. This is the background for understanding their request for seats of honor in the kingdom of God. But Jesus has other ideas: He offers a response that is likely to lead "good" people like James, John, and the members of the congregation to choke.
* Elaborate further on how the congregation's members are like James and John. Note also how we are like the ten disciples who objected to the request of the brothers (v. 41). Self-seeking and ambitious as we are, none of us like to see anyone get ahead of us.
* Note that John Calvin, while commenting on this very text, spoke of the ambition and envy of all the disciples in this episode, and then proceeded to warn listeners to guard against the disease of ambition that plagues us all (A Harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, p. 396). There is no way around it: Even good, religiously oriented people like the flock hearing the sermon and the preacher are in bondage to insidious egocentric drives. Cite the quotations by Martin Luther in Theological Insights for the First Lesson, Advent 1.
* Jesus would not let James, John, and other disciples get away with their self-promoting ambition. He asks them (and us) if we are really sure we want what we say we want. He asks if we really want to swallow all the sufferings and the tough times that come with being Christian (vv. 38, 43-44). The suffering and servanthood that is the way of Christ is likely to cause self-assertive people who think that they are good to choke. Cite the first quotation by Luther in Theological Insights. Good people choke on the gospel. It is a lifestyle that goes against the grain of the contemporary American way of life, against the grain of what the cultural gurus say we deserve.
* Jesus' gospel does not sound like a good deal as long as you think that you are good and deserve God's blessings. But when you give up that myth, realize that you deserve nothing but good, then the gospel gets a little easier to swallow. In fact, it becomes a joy. Jesus' hard-to-swallow words today are good medicine. Author Eugene O'Neill in The Great God Brown well expresses what difference this wonderful love of God, His grace, can mean in our lives: "Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue."
* With grace as our glue, when you realize that your goodness hasn't earned you anything, then it gets a little easier to give away your goodness, becomes easier to serve. Martin Luther put it well:
… if someone desires from me a service I can render him, I will gladly do it out of goodwill… All our works should be of such a nature that they flow from pleasure and love… since for ourselves we need nothing to make us pious.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 21, pp. 78-79)
7. Wrap-Up
When you realize that you are not good, then you do not need James' and John's assertiveness. You realize that God will give you the gifts without deserving them. When that happens, we get glued together, find joy and meaning in lives of sacrifice and service. Urge the flock to stop thinking they are so good that it leads them to choke on the gospel.
It's not all about you and me; it's all about God.
Collect of the Day
Petitions are offered to the sovereign God that He would turn His greatness into goodness for all, shaping us into willing servants of His kingdom, and making us desire always and only His will. Emphasizes the spontaneity of the Christian life as a work of God.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
* A Hymn to God the creator. See Pentecost for verses 24, 35.
* The first line calling us to bless the Lord may have been added to imitate the ending of the previous Psalm (103:20-22). The greatness of God and His majesty is extolled (vv. 1-2a).
* The ongoing character of God's creative work is praised (vv. 2-4).
* In the context of further discourse on God's work of creation, reference is made to His victory over the waters, the symbol of chaos (vv.5-9). This image is reminiscent of the first creation account in Genesis (1:1-2, 6, 9-10).
or Psalm 91:9-16
* A wisdom Psalm offering a meditation on God as the protector of the faithful.
* Promise is offered that in taking refuge in Yahweh the faithful will be protected (vv. 9-10). They will be guarded by His angels (vv. 11-12).
* As a result, the faithful will be able tread on lions and trample serpents (v. 13). John Calvin contended that this passage is mere hyperbole, a way of affirming that God gives us courage to overcome all our apprehensions (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. V/2, p. 488).
* The Psalm closes with an oracle of assurance, of protection from all trouble, probably uttered by a priest or temple prophet (vv. 14-16).
Sermon Text and Title
"Where Were You When God Went to Work?"
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To help hearers appreciate the majesty of God and His engagement in all dimensions of the creation, an insight that weans us away from the secularism of false sense of autonomy to an awareness of His presence in all dimensions of life (Providence and Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see First Lesson of Proper 22)
* Yahweh's first speech in response to Job's laments. He appears in a whirlwind, a frequent setting for appearances (Nahum 1:3; Psalms 18:7-15; Ezekiel 1:4).
* Having been questioned by Job (about his plight [3:11, 16; 13:24]), Yahweh questions him, specifically to demonstrate the inability of Job to understand the mysteries of the creation (vv. 2-3). Job and no mortals were engaged in the actual creation (vv. 4-7). And none but God can send the lights (v. 35) or bring rain (v. 37). None but Him can feed the creatures (vv. 39, 41). Only the Lord has wisdom and can give understanding to human beings (vv. 37, 36).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* God (esp. His transcendence and majesty) as well as Creation and Providence, sin, and Sanctification (Christian life as a life of awe) are the focus of the text.
* A comment by John Calvin about one of the assigned Psalms (104) well expresses the intentions of Job's interaction with the Lord:
If men attempt to reach the infinite height to which God is exalted, although they fly above the clouds, they must fail in the midst of their course. Those who seek to see Him in His naked majesty are certainly very foolish. That we may enjoy the sight of Him, He must come forth to view with His clothing; that is to say, we must cast our eyes upon the very beautiful fabric of the work in which He wishes to be seen by us, and not be too curious and rash in searching into His secret essence.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. VI/1, p.145)
If a small portion of the works of God make us amazed, how inadequate are our feeble minds to comprehend the whole extent of them!
(Ibid., p.164)
* Commenting on the same Psalm prior to the Reformation, Martin Luther observed how the awareness of the awesomeness of God comes about and what it looks like in our daily lives:
The more you disparage yourself, the more you praise God, and the more you displease yourself, the more He pleases you, and vice versa… Corollary. It follows that no one can magnify His gifts unless he himself is first made great by the gifts of God.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 10, p. 316)
* Luther added another point elsewhere on the proper awe we are to have towards God in view of who He is and what He has done:
In secular matters, when we speak the name of a king or a prince, we make it a custom to do so with some nice gesture, reverence, and genuflection. Much more should we bow the knee of our heart when we speak about God, and we should mention the name of God with gratitude and the greatest reverence.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 26, p. 43)
* This awesome God is no less our friend because of His majesty. The great reformed theologian of the twentieth century, Karl Barth, nicely made that point while reinforcing the need for us to submit to His will, to quit trying to be so autonomous:
In it [God's encounters with Job] He does not cease to be, nor is He any less, his [Job's] friend, his sworn covenant-partner… He [God] does not ask for his [humanity's] understanding, agreement or applause. On the contrary, He simply asks that he [a human being] should be content not to know why and to what end he [the human being] exists, and so in this way and not another. He [God] simply asks that he [the individual] should concede that he has nothing to do with his course and direction.
(Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/3, First Half, p. 431)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* The text provides an occasion for sermons on the importance of preserving creation or on ecology. See the data in this section for the First Lessons for Lent 1 and Epiphany 1.
* Many Americans believe in a God who is sovereign and in control of the world. See poll results reported in this section for the Gospel, Pentecost 6.
5. Gimmick
Human beings have a way of trying to put God in a box, to make Him conform to what we think He should be like. Many of us want a god but on our own terms.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Part of the reason for wanting God on our own terms is that God just seems too big, too awesome and majestic to handle. As a result we do our best to understand Him on our own terms, make Him someone in our own image.
You hear that a lot in academic circles today, as some scholars talk about our needing a god in whom we can see ourselves.
* We want a god who is good to us, and so like Job we can't understand when things go bad in our lives (13:24). Or like Job's friends we assume that God is a judge and that people get what they deserve (vv. 4, 8). Or like many Americans who want their freedom, we relegate God to certain tasks but leave plenty of room in our lives to do for ourselves. Note that this is what is going on when the media or our politicians speak of a distinction between sacred and secular realms, between the public and the private. Invite the congregation to reflect on how guilty they and all Americans are of limiting God in these ways.
* But as Job found out in the book that bears his name, it is all so useless an undertaking. Consider using the first two quotations by Calvin in Theological Insights.
* Our story from Job gives us some hints as to why it is all so useless -- useless to try to put God in a box. Where were we when God laid the earth's foundation (v. 4)? We did not like God determine the earth's measurements (v. 5). It is not we who can create flood waters, send lightning, or number the clouds (vv. 34-37). Nor can we feed the lions and the ravens (vv. 37-41), and on and on.
* The assigned Psalm (104) also makes this testimony. Unlike God, we do not stretch the heavens (v. 2), ride the wind (v. 3), or set the foundations of the earth (v. 5).
* Suggest to the congregation that we are always guilty of trying to make God too small. We are much too prone to make God in our own image, to be casual about God. Ask the congregation if they might be too casual in worship sometimes, inclined to act like it is just another Sunday, letting our minds wander. How dare we take God and His awesome ways so casually?
* Ask the congregation if, like Job, they have ever wondered about life, about wars and unemployment, about illnesses and the death of loved ones. The great Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards well spoke to these sentiments. If we find fault with the way God rules the universe, Edwards claimed, it is as if we thought we were His advisors (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, p. 108).
* God's ways are so far above our ways, so majestically beyond what we can grasp, blind as we are of His goodness. As Martin Luther once put it: "But God's word and works do not proceed according to our view of things, but in a way incomprehensible to all reason…" (Luther's Works, Vol. 37, p. 207). God's ways far exceed our ways. It is like the famed nineteenth-century English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it: "God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame." We understand God's work best when we get out of the way. Cite the first quotation by Martin Luther in Theological Insights.
* God's testimony to Job in our lesson prods us to see God in the created order, in what we think to be the natural and ordinary cycles or events in life. Instruct the congregation to remember that as they observe the evening sunset, Monday's sunrise, family interactions, and this week at work. God is at work in these events. They are not really natural and ordinary! And as a result they are very special moments. Alfred North Whitehead, the formulator of process philosophy, well expresses how profound this insight is, how empty life is without God: "Apart from God every activity is merely a passing whiff of insignificance."
* When you have your eyes open to God being at work, life is so much sweeter, more meaningful. That outlook on life makes the friendly, loving character of the wonderful God of ours all the clearer.
7. Wrap-Up
Cite the quotation by Karl Barth in the last bullet point of Theological Insights. In a sense we were not around for all of God's great works. And yet this loving, friendly God of ours does not leave us alone, a wonderful insight about life that makes life more wonderful. Ultimately we "Jobs" do not determine our own directions in life, for it is really God who is at work in these events. Life is really all about Him, not about you and me!
Sermon Text and Title
"Do You Know Someone Who Would Die for You?"
Hebrews 5:1-10
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A testimony to the love of God made evident in Christ's sacrifice (Justification by Grace and Atonement).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Part of a discussion of the theme of Jesus as high priest.
* Every high priest chosen is to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins (v. 1). He is able to deal gently with the wayward since he is subject to weakness (v. 2). He must offer sacrifice for his own sin as well as for the people (v. 3).
* Like these priests, Christ did not glorify Himself in becoming high priest but is appointed by God. Quoting Psalm 2:7 and 110:4, it is noted that God made Christ a priest after the order of the Priest-King Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-20) (vv. 4-6, 10).
* Jesus is then described as offering up prayers with loud cries to God who could save Him. He was heard, the writer indicates, because of His reverent submission, learning obedience (vv. 7-9a). As such, He became the source of eternal salvation (v. 9b).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text testifies to a Satisfaction Theory of the Atonement and in so doing to God's immeasurable love for us (Justification by Grace).
* Martin Luther nicely explained what Christ's death means for us:
If our sins, therefore, rest upon Christ, we can be content: they are in the right place -- just where they belong. Upon us they do not lie well; for we and all men, yes, and all creatures, are too weak to bear a single sin… Therefore let them remain upon Christ… To this comfort let us cleave, and not permit sadness to oppress our hearts….
(Sermons on the Passion of Christ, pp. 32-33)
* The good news of this sacrificial work is that it is all about God's love for us. Again Luther offers profound insights:
Let us therefore, open our eyes and behold Christ our high priest, in His proper priestly garment and at His proper priestly work… His other ornament is that great love He has for us which makes Him care so little about His [own] life, His sufferings, almost forgetting them in the heartfelt interest He takes in our condition and in our need, and praying for us rather than for Himself. We cannot sufficiently understand such love as this; for in the heart of the Lord there is burning such a flame of love for us, that He does not seem to see or to feel His own most severe suffering, torture and disgrace, but only considers and perceives and cares for your and my misery, distress and affliction.
(Sermons on the Passion of Christ, pp. 178-179)
* John Calvin speaks of Christ being a brother to us, "not only on account of unity as to flesh and nature, but also by becoming a partaker of our infirmities, so that He is led, and as it were formed, to show forbearance and kindness" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXII/1, p. 115).
* Calvin also offers penetrating insights about the implications of Christ's sacrifice for living the Christian life. Commenting on this text he wrote:
But this [obedience to God] cannot be effected but by the cross, for in prosperity we exult as with loose reins; nay in most cases, when the yoke is shaken off, the wantonness of the flesh breaks forth into excesses. But when restraint is put on our will, when we seek to please God, in this act only does our obedience show itself; nay, it is an illustrious proof of perfect obedience when we choose the death to which God may call us, though we dread it, rather than the life which we naturally desire.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXII/1, p. 124)
* The medieval Saint Bernard of Clairveaux also offered reflections portraying what life is like for Christians who have been overwhelmed by God's forgiving love:
He [Christ] is living and full of energy. As soon as He entered into me He awakened my sleeping soul. He has stirred and softened my heart, which was torpid and as hard as a rock… The mind is drawn along by the ineffable sweetness of the word, as it were; it is stolen from itself or, better, it is rapt [and] remains out of itself there to enjoy the word….
(Varieties of Mystical Experience, pp. 105-106)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Consider the leads noted in this section for the Second Lesson, Pentecost 24.
5. Gimmick
Note how we are awed by stories of war heroes. Personalize these if any are known in congregation. If not, tell the story of a black seminary student who had grown up without his mother, because while an infant she had run back to their burning home to save him. The student knew from his earliest recollection how much his mother loved him! None of us can callously hear such stories of someone being willing to die for another human being. These are tales of profound love.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Moved as we are by such stories, why are we too often unaware that we are recipients of such profound love? We know someone who would die for us! The cross tells us that. And yet too often we seem to take that for granted. It we took it more seriously it might change our lives.
* Note that the Second Lesson is about Jesus the high priest like Melchizidek, a king of Salem in the land of Canaan and priest of the most high God (called El), whom the Bible says is also the God whom Abraham and his family also worshiped (Genesis 14:17-20) (v.6). Jesus is a kingly high priest, our lesson says, but a priest who suffers for us in order to save us (v. 7)!
* Invite the congregation members to think of the mistakes they have made, the selfishness that has reared its ugly head in their decision-making. They have all been laid on Jesus! He bore them, sacrificing Himself for us like the war hero and the mother who pulled her young son out of the burning house. Oh what deep love and compassion we see on the Cross. He is like a brother to us, John Calvin claims (see fourth bullet point of Theological Insights).
* Use the first quotation by Luther in Theological Insights to point out what Christ's death entails for human beings. To be someone with a friend like God who would die for us, is to live a life of joy. Use the second quotation by Luther in Theological Insights to elaborate on what this wonderful love God has for us is like.
* Ask the congregation to consider what happens to your life when you know that you are loved with a burning flame of love, as Luther claimed. All the anxieties and insecurities begin to vanish. Love has a way of burning up those anxieties, of drowning them into submission. Luther says something very similar when he claims that all our works and deeds are like little sparks. But the love of God, he claims, is by contract like an immeasurable sea. The little sparks have no chance to survive in that ocean (Luther's Works, Vol. 17, p. 223).
* Our sins are in the right place, the first Reformer says elsewhere, when we lay them on Christ (see second bullet point of Theological Insights). The endless ocean of God's love in Christ drowns and extinguishes them all.
* Cite Bernard of Clairveaux in the last bullet point of Theological Insights, to describe what life is like for people who have been overwhelmed by the forgiving love of God. The immeasurable ocean of God's love snuffs out all our sin and the insecurity, literally floods our lives. Swallowed up in that ocean of love, we become Christ's, making us whole by drowning all our insecurities and sin.
* Life cannot be the same after you have been rescued by someone who risked his life for you. It cannot be the same when you realize how close you came to the grave. Life is more precious for people who have had near-death experiences.
* Life is not the same when someone risked his life for you. The one saved is forever indebted to the savior. Jesus is that kind of Savior. We can never thank Him enough. We can't go wrong thinking about the rest of our lives as an opportunity to thank Jesus for His heroism, for His love to us.
7. Wrap-Up
Ask the congregation if the members wonder whether life is worthwhile and valuable. Remind them that Jesus answered that question with His life. Let us refuse to take that for granted. We all have someone (the great king of the universe) who died for us!
Sermon Text and Title
"Good People Choke… on the Gospel"
Mark 10:35-45
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A condemnation of our self-seeking sinfulness with a proclamation of the gospel and its gift of a life-denying style of life (Justification and Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* The story of James and John seeking highest honor.
* These brothers (sons of Zebedee) ask Jesus to grant them whatever they ask. They request seats of honor next to Him in glory (vv. 35-37).
* Jesus responds, contending they do not know what they have asked, asking them if they know it entails enduring all that He endures (His baptism and His cup, which probably refers to woe and suffering by Old Testament usage [Psalm 11:6; Isaiah 51:17, 22]) (v. 38).
* The brothers reply that they are ready to endure all that Jesus does (v. 39). He responds that sitting at His right hand is not His gift to give, for such seats of honor will be given to those prepared.
* The other ten disciples are angered at James and John for their request (v. 41). Jesus responds that whoever wishes to be great among His flock must be a servant, wishes to be a slave of all (vv. 42-44).
* Jesus identifies Himself as Son of Man, who came not to be served but to serve, giving His life as a ransom for many (v. 45).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text unearths the character of sin as self-seeking, but also Jesus' proclamation of Christian life as a life of service (Sanctification).
* Martin Luther nicely described the insidious self-seeking evident in James and John. He wrote:
But the impure and perverted lovers, who are nothing else than parasites and who seek their own advantage in God, neither love nor praise His bare goodness, but have an eye to themselves and consider how only good God is to them… They delighted in their salvation much more than in their Savior, in the gift more than in the giver, in the creature rather than in the creator.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 21, p. 309)
* Luther sees this sort of self-seeking (concupiscence) as the essence of sin and the human condition. Also see the first bullet point in this section for the First Lesson, Advent 1.
* John Calvin provides a thoughtful insight about the meaning of the lesson:
He [Jesus] does not explain generally how deadly a plague ambition is, but simply warns them that nothing is more foolish than to fight about nothing. He shows that the primacy, which is the occasion of dispute among them, has no existence in His kingdom.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/2, pp. 423-424)
* Interpreting this text and Jesus' comment that He came to serve, not to be served (v. 45), the eminent twentieth-century neo-orthodox theologian Karl Barth claimed that as a result: "In the Christian community, unlike all other human societies there is no distinction between privileges and duties, claims and obligations, or dignities and burdens" (Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/2, p. 690).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* For data indicating the all-consuming infatuation with self, see Jean Thense and W. Keith Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic.
* Polls indicate that Americans seem to think that they are deserving of anything they have received since they are fundamentally good. For this data, see this section for the First Lesson, Pentecost 20.
* An ABC News/Beliefnet Poll found that 83% of Americans consider themselves to be Christian.
* The eminent social historian Christopher Lasch (The Revolt of the Elites, p. 242) contended that Americans want a religion that is a source of security, preferring an entertaining feel-good style of spirituality rather than hearing about suffering and evil.
* A 2006 US Department of Labor document reports that employed Americans averaged more than 40 hours per week, working on the job almost 500 hours per year more than their Western European counterparts.
5. Gimmick
Americans see themselves as good, decent people. (Cite the second bullet point in the preceding section.) We also claim to be religious and hardworking; cite last two bullet points of the preceding section.
Introduce the congregation to some pre-modern folks who are a lot like us. Their interactions with Jesus reveal to us a lot more strikingly what we are really like and what plans Jesus has for us.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Introduce the congregation to James and John, children of Zebedee and Salome. Hardworking fishermen (1:19-20), along with Simon Peter and Andrew they were the only brothers among the disciples.
* James and John were go-getters. They probably would have gotten along well in contemporary American society. They seem to have been hard workers, but people who could "sell" themselves, find openings to impress the boss, to advance their careers or standing, and also knew how to close a deal. Jesus seems to have recognized that quality of pushy ambition about them. Mark (3:17) says that He calls them "Boanerges" (Sons of Thunder).
* Not all New Testament scholars think Jesus used the phrase "Sons of Thunder" in the way just suggested. In their judgment Jesus was referring to the preaching styles of James and John, that maybe he was suggesting that the hellfire and brimstone themes about the judgment of God characterized their preaching (Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Mark, p. 82). Nevertheless, understanding Jesus as referring to the ambitiousness of James and John has credibility.
* Recount the self-serving ambition James and John reflect in the Gospel Lesson, asking Jesus to give them what they want. As faithful followers, they thought they were doing no more than getting what they deserved.
* Note another example of the brothers' assertiveness, when they reprimanded faith healers who were working Jesus' name but were not part of the original followers of the Lord (Mark 9:38f; Luke 9:49). Defend them in this case noting that in these actions they were merely concerned like we are to see the church grow, but felt (like us) that it was better if it were our church that enjoyed most of the growth.
* Like good Americans today, James and John were just trying to get their needs met. Such a mindset even permeates our view of what religion should provide: "something good for us." Elaborate on Christopher Lasch's analysis of American religion above in the fourth bullet point of the previous section. Also reiterate the data cited at the beginning of the sermon (second bullet point of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights). Seventy percent of Americans think that being good gets you saved.
* Note how we can better understand John and James in this light -- self-assertive but believing themselves basically good and so deserving good things. This is the background for understanding their request for seats of honor in the kingdom of God. But Jesus has other ideas: He offers a response that is likely to lead "good" people like James, John, and the members of the congregation to choke.
* Elaborate further on how the congregation's members are like James and John. Note also how we are like the ten disciples who objected to the request of the brothers (v. 41). Self-seeking and ambitious as we are, none of us like to see anyone get ahead of us.
* Note that John Calvin, while commenting on this very text, spoke of the ambition and envy of all the disciples in this episode, and then proceeded to warn listeners to guard against the disease of ambition that plagues us all (A Harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, p. 396). There is no way around it: Even good, religiously oriented people like the flock hearing the sermon and the preacher are in bondage to insidious egocentric drives. Cite the quotations by Martin Luther in Theological Insights for the First Lesson, Advent 1.
* Jesus would not let James, John, and other disciples get away with their self-promoting ambition. He asks them (and us) if we are really sure we want what we say we want. He asks if we really want to swallow all the sufferings and the tough times that come with being Christian (vv. 38, 43-44). The suffering and servanthood that is the way of Christ is likely to cause self-assertive people who think that they are good to choke. Cite the first quotation by Luther in Theological Insights. Good people choke on the gospel. It is a lifestyle that goes against the grain of the contemporary American way of life, against the grain of what the cultural gurus say we deserve.
* Jesus' gospel does not sound like a good deal as long as you think that you are good and deserve God's blessings. But when you give up that myth, realize that you deserve nothing but good, then the gospel gets a little easier to swallow. In fact, it becomes a joy. Jesus' hard-to-swallow words today are good medicine. Author Eugene O'Neill in The Great God Brown well expresses what difference this wonderful love of God, His grace, can mean in our lives: "Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue."
* With grace as our glue, when you realize that your goodness hasn't earned you anything, then it gets a little easier to give away your goodness, becomes easier to serve. Martin Luther put it well:
… if someone desires from me a service I can render him, I will gladly do it out of goodwill… All our works should be of such a nature that they flow from pleasure and love… since for ourselves we need nothing to make us pious.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 21, pp. 78-79)
7. Wrap-Up
When you realize that you are not good, then you do not need James' and John's assertiveness. You realize that God will give you the gifts without deserving them. When that happens, we get glued together, find joy and meaning in lives of sacrifice and service. Urge the flock to stop thinking they are so good that it leads them to choke on the gospel.
