Isaiah
55:1-5
Psalm
145:8-9, 14-21
Romans
9:1-5
Matthew
14:13-21
First Lesson: Isaiah 55:1-5
Challenges:
I feel rather churlish in coming up with
any “challenges” when it comes to this text: my goodness is Isaiah 55 a
beautiful chapter. The language is
beautiful, the imagery is beautiful, it’s amazing. But this section is called “challenges” so I
feel like I should come up with something.
The sentence, “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my
steadfast, sure love for David,” made sense at the time it was written so long
ago, but the average person might not have an idea what is going on here. What
is a covenant? How does David fit
in? I like to talk about how a covenant
is an agreement with a promise between two people or two groups of people.
Marriage is the example I usually use.
How would you explain the David connection?
Opportunities:
The question, “Why do you spend your
money on that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not
satisfy?” How often do we not only experience
things that make our lives harder and less-than-they-could be…but we also PAY
for the privilege of experiencing these bad things? Not only do cigarettes give you lung cancer,
but they cost a HUGE amount of money.
How many other things do we try to love, only to have them not love us
back? Why not turn to someone who loves
us back?
Also, I really like the line, “…you shall
call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run
to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has
glorified you.” When this was written,
my ancestors were running around the forests of Germany, worshipping
trees. Thank God, literally, that at
some time and some place the people of my nation ran to the Holy One of Israel
and his Son, Jesus Christ. Where were
your ancestors when Isaiah was written/spoken?
When did someone eventually run to the Holy One? Maybe you were the first in your family? What
was that like?
Good News:
We have life in the name of Jesus the
Messiah. This life connects us to Jesus’
Father, the Holy One of Israel. This means that we can listen to the invitation
given in this lesson and know that it is for us here and now. The waters of God can wash us clean, they can
keep us from being dehydrated. The food
of God can give us strength, energy and comfort. We get both of these things through baptism
and communion, and also through the fellowship we experience in the Christian
Community. All of these things are LIFE
CHANGING.
The Psalm: Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Challenges:
Here you have another situation where
wonderful (and perfectly true) things are said about God. This leads to inevitable questions: why doesn’t
always feel like God is with me? Why doesn’t it always seem like God holds up
those who are falling? These are
important questions to wrestle with, and wrestle with them we will.
Opportunities:
If you are preaching on or teaching on
this psalm this could be an excellent chance to show what these things look
like. “The Lord upholds all who are falling.” What does that look like? “The
Lord is near to all who call on him.” What does that look like? And, of course, “…all the wicked he will
destroy.” Now what does THAT look like?
Give examples, show don’t tell.
Talk about a time you felt that God was near to you even when things
were tough. Talk about a time you felt that God lifted you up through someone
else, or through a chance encounter with a piece of scripture, or…or…or…
Good News:
We’ve been having quite a few of these
texts lately, but I’ll say again THE GOOD NEWS IS PRETTY MUCH SPELLED OUT
HERE. We preachers get to add flesh and
blood examples to the words here.
Second Lesson: Romans 9:1-5
Challenges:
And our journey through Romans
continues! By this point the Romans
lessons can be challenging for a couple of different reasons. As pastors we’ve
probably been looking at these lessons every week for awhile now….but the
people listening to us probably haven’t been dwelling on Paul’s words the way
that we have. Also, there will undoubtedly be someone listening to this text
who is back in worship again for the first time in a few months. They are jumping in without any kind of
context. In a situation like this, let’s look at their presence as a ‘glass is
half full’ situation. It’s great that they are here!
The other challenge can come from the
fact that we pastors hear Paul talk about Paul’s relationship with “his people”
(the Israelites) we will immediately know what he’s talking about. Again, other people won’t. Think of it this way: you could mention “Jon
Snow” or “Tyrion Lannister” to someone
who has been watching the show Game of
Thrones for the past few seasons and they will nod knowingly and say “Oh
yeah, can you believe what happened to them?” but to someone who has never
watched the show, they will look at you with puzzlement. Think of Romans as a long running show with
many seasons already on DVD. Some of the
people listening have those DVDs on their shelf, others have only seen ads on
TV.
Opportunities:
The majority of people in our
congregations knows someone who is not a Christian. It could be a coworker who is Hindu, Jewish,
or fill in the blank. It could
even be a family member who has given up on the church. I know many grandparents who are in anguish
that their grandchildren or great-grandchildren have not been baptized. In all seriousness, I understand their
pain. I imagine that most of the
non-Christians that people know are friendly, hard-working, kind, happy
people. Therefore, we often share Paul’s
anguish. We care a great deal for these
people, and it can be hard to think that they don’t have the same relationship
with Jesus that we have. This could be a
great chance to name this anguish, and then talk about Paul’s own relationship
with his “people.”
While it might come as a surprise today,
there is still a great deal of anti-semitism in our world, even our country.
Some of this is subtle and “under-the-surface.”
Some of it is not-too-subtle at all.
(For those of us who are Lutheran, we have to wrestle with Martin
Luther’s awful words spoken about the Jews). Let these words from Paul (who
faced a great deal of opposition from his own people) remind us that
anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism, have NO PLACE in the life of a follower of
Jesus. We need to keep reminding
ourselves of this again and again and again.
Good News:
As Paul describes the relationship
between God and the people of Israel, I am reminded that this relationship
depends on God. It gives me comfort to
know that we count on the trustworthiness of God, not our selves.
Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21
Challenges:
Standard challenge for a text like this:
Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 plus crowd is so well-known that both the preacher and
the congregation might think they know it by heart. When it’s being read they
might skip over important aspects of what happens because their inner-dialogue
is saying “Yeah, yeah, yeah…I already know how this goes.” Perhaps before reading the Gospel you can
say, “This is a pretty well-known story…it’s good to listen to well known
stories even closer than stories we’re not familiar with.”
Another thing, many pastors find it
interesting that this miracle is present in all four gospels. We get excited about this sort of thing the
way that other people get excited about sports statistics and counting
calories. There’s nothing wrong with
getting excited about little trivia pieces like that, but if you are going to
make a big deal about it in your sermon, imagine listening to someone tell you
about a subject they are extra-exited about that doesn’t really interest
you. Quite a few people listening to you
don’t really care too much that this is in all four gospels. Try thinking like a lay-person as you prepare
here.
Opportunities:
Quite often I try to put myself in these
stories. Who would I be? I know for sure
that I wouldn’t be Jesus. Maybe a
disciple? If so, would I be stressed out about the large crowds? Making sure
everyone got something to eat? Or would
I be someone in the crowd. If so, why did I show up today to hear this guy named
Jesus? What was I expecting? Would I
believe in the miracle or would I think that there was some slight-of-hand
going on here. Maybe I’d say “well, they must have had things hidden in the
back.” This could be a great text to
preach on from many different angles, inviting your congregation to place
themselves in the story.
Also, the miracles that are attributed to
Jesus are not “flashy spectacles.” There are no flashes and clouds of smoke, no
slight-of-hand that keeps you looking one way while the “magician” fools you
somewhere else. Jesus seems to be less
about getting people to say “Hey, look at me, I’m cool” and more about helping
people. His miracles all point to the
Kingdom of Heaven and give us a slight preview or taste of what it is
like. This is a great chance to point
this out.
Good News:
Jesus went off to a deserted place himself,
I bet he needed a break. Right before
this we hear about how John the Baptist had been killed by Herod. John’s disciples told Jesus about this…it’s
what made him go off to a deserted place.
What was going through his mind?
Grief over the loss of John? (Luke’s
Gospel says that the two were cousins, while this is Matthew without mention of
Jesus and John’s family ties, I think you could go ahead and talk about this). This is a tense time to be a prophet, a
teacher, and someone who might be viewed as a threat to the “powers that be.” Were there Herodian informants in the crowds?
I wouldn’t be surprised. So when Jesus sees the crowds following him what does
he do?
“He saw a great crowd and told them to go
away and to stop following him.” NOPE.
“He saw a great crowd and hid himself so
that they would not see him.” NOT AT ALL.
“…he saw a
great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.” That’s Jesus. That’s our Savior. That’s someone to follow.
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