Sermon Illustrations · Quotes and Stories

Albert Nolan begins his wonderful book with this paragraph:

“On the whole we don’t take Jesus seriously----whether we call ourselves Christians or not. There are some remarkable exceptions, but by and large we don’t love our enemies, we don’t turn the other cheek, we don’t forgive seventy times seven times, we don’t bless those who curse us, we don’t share what we have with the poor, and we don’t put all our hope and trust in God. We have our excuses. I am no saint. It is not meant for everybody, surely? It’s a great ideal, but it’s not very practical in this day and age.”

Albert Nolan, Jesus Today: A Spirituality of Radical Freedom (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2006), xvii.

The Danger of Holding on to Wealth

The story of a butterfly named “Maculinea Arion” is most instructive. The creature lays its eggs on a plant, and after feeding on the plant for several weeks the young caterpillar makes its way to the ground. In order to complete its development, it must meet a certain kind of ant. When such an ant meets the caterpillar, the ant strokes it with its antennae, and the caterpillar exudes a sweet fluid from a special gland on its tenth segment.

Apparently the ant likes this substance, because it then carries the caterpillar home to its nest. There the ants drink the sweet fluid exuded by the caterpillar. And, what does the caterpillar eat? The baby ants. The ants show their appreciation to the caterpillar by letting him spend the winter in a special cavity of their nest. It continues to eat the young ants until spring. Eventually it emerges as an adult butterfly and flies away to establish more of its kind. And the cycle starts all over again

Some people are not much different from the ants: they cherish a luxury item to the injury of themselves.

Michael Green, Illustrations For Biblical Preaching, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989, p. 238. Adapted.

Kings For A Little While

Sigmund Freud’s favorite story was about the sailor shipwrecked on one of the south sea islands. He was seized by the natives, hoisted to their shoulders, carried to the village, and set on a rude throne. Little by little, he learned that it was their custom once each year to make some man a king, king for a year. He liked it until he began to wonder what happened to all the former kings. Soon he discovered that every year when his kingship was ended, the king was banished to an island, where he starved to death. The sailor did not like that, but he was smart and he was king, king for a year. So he put his carpenters to work making boats, his farmers to work transplanting fruit trees to the island, farmers growing crops, masons building houses. So when his kingship was over, he was banished, not to a barren island, but to an island of abundance. It is a good parable of life:

We’re all kings here, kings for a little while, able to choose what we shall do with the stuff of life. (see Matthew 6:19-20 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth...”)

James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Wheaton: Tyndale, 1988, p. 339.

Humor: Loosing Ourselves in our Possessions

There was a man who loved gold. Then he inherited a fortune. With joy he redecorated his bedroom. He put gold parchment wallpaper up, hung yellow curtains, had a golden colored rug and a yellow bedspread. He even bought some yellow pajamas. But then he got sick and came down with, of all things, yellow jaundice. His wife called the doctor who made a house call and went up to that bedroom for an examination. The doctor stayed up there a long while. When he came down, the wife asked, “How is he?”

“Don’t know,” said the doctor. “I couldn’t find him.”

Indeed many people today are absolutely absorbed in and lost in a world of greed and materialism.

Dr. Adrian Rogers

The Doomed Wasp

George Orwell, writing during the Second World War, tells of a rather cruel trick he once played on a wasp. The wasp was sucking jam on his plate and he cut him in half. The wasp paid no attention to what had happened to him, but just went on with his meal, while a tiny, stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus. Only when he tried to fly did he realize the terrible thing that happened to him.

What a picture of a solely consumer-oriented humanity, gorging itself, earthbound, and oblivious to its plight.

Adapted from Orwell, The Collected Essays, Journals and Letters Vol. II New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1968, p. 15.

Marketing Gone Mad

At the Coca-Cola Company, we have built and grown for more than 110 years.
Remaining disciplined to our mission has brought us to remarkable places.
Not long ago, we did some research and came up with an interesting set of facts.

A billion hours ago, human life appeared on Earth.

A billion minutes ago, Christianity emerged.

A billion seconds ago, the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show.

A billion Coca-Colas ago was yesterday morning.

And the question we are asking ourselves now is: What must we do to make a billion Coca-Colas ago be this morning?

Address by Roberto C. Goizueta, Chairman, CEO, Coca-Cola, delivered to the Executive Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, November 20, 1996. Taken from Vital Speeches of the Day, January 15, 1997, p. 201.

You Can Be My Husband

Communication. It’s difficult. Of course, the perennial complaint of women is that men don’t communicate their feelings. A little girl and a little boy were at day care one day. The girl approached the boy and said, “Hey Billy, want to play house?” He said, “Sure! What do you want me to do?” Sally replied, “I want you to communicate your feelings.” “Communicate my feelings?” said a bewildered Billy. “I have no idea what that means.” The little girl nods and says, “Perfect. You can be the husband.”

Staff

We Want It Our Way

The story of Faust by Goethe has become part of our heritage. Faust was a man who longed for romance, academic success, and wealth. Unable to find these on his own, he made a pact with the devil. If he could be granted his wishes, have his true worth made public and enjoy its fruits, then he would give his soul to the devil. Sure enough, he enjoyed marvelous romances, fabulous successes, and much wealth. Oddly enough, when the time came, he was unwilling to keep his part of the bargain. I wonder if there is a parallel here. We put Jesus off, promising, “Just one more of this and one more of that -- then I will be willing to go with you, Jesus.” Are we not like little Fausts, wanting to have it our way? After all, we say, we deserve it! And what do we say to Jesus when he comes to claim us?

Thomas Peterson, The Needle’s Eye, C.S.S. Publishing Company, 1990.

Four Questions for Church Membership

A seminary professor named Stanley Hauerwas has a novel idea about how churches should receive new members. A teacher of Christian ethics at Duke University, he has written about the church’s need for honesty and has called us to tell the truth as a “community of character.”

To this end, he has a modest proposal. Whenever people join the church, Hauerwas thinks they should stand and answer four questions: * Who is your Lord and Savior? The response: “Jesus Christ.” * Do you trust in him and seek to be his disciple? “I do.” * Will you be a faithful member of this congregation? The answer: “I will.” * Finally, one last question: What is your annual income?

You heard me correctly. When people join the church, Dr. Hauerwas thinks they ought to name their Lord and Savior and tell fellow church members how much money they make. It is obvious Hauerwas does not serve as a pastor of a congregation. His idea just wouldn’t work, especially in the American church. Most church members believe salary figures are more sacred than prayer, and would quickly tell an inquisitive minister to snoop around somewhere else. What’s more, parish experience tempers the questions a minister asks of church members. Most pastors quickly learn how to dance around the issue of money without ever naming it.

William G. Carter, No Box Seats In The Kingdom, CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, 1996.

Are We Rich?

The curse of any kind of valuable possession is its capacity to steal our hearts and souls. The heavier the purse, the tighter the strings. Is it fair to call most of us rich? According to our Methodist founder John Wesley, it is. He said that the word “rich” in the Bible means to have the necessities of life (food, shelter, and clothing) and then something left over. But here is part of the problem of us rich folks. We have increased the number of things we regard as necessities. We want three cars, two VCRs, four computers, a house at the lake, country club membership, and private school education. There are hundreds of things that we call necessities that our parents referred to as luxuries. The Bible says that shelter, food, and clothing are necessities. To have these and something left over, as almost all of us do, is to be rich.

Dr. Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2002.

Remember, no one is worthless. Any person can always be held up as a bad example.

Anonymous

We Will Not Deny Ourselves

I think of a young couple I know. They’re in their early thirties, and both work hard at their respective careers. When they get around little children, their hands go out to pick them up and love them. Sometimes they talk about having children of their own. But the young woman is on a career track and isn’t sure she will ever be as successful as she wants if she stops to have children. Her husband is sympathetic. He has been well schooled in feminist thought. It isn’t right for his wife to give up anything in her career to have children, he says, even if in her heart she desires to be a mother. Her success is more important than having children. She has got to fulfill her manifest destiny!

And then there’s the man in later middle-age, a successful engineer who chairs a large department in his company, who is leaving his wife for a young surfer with tight “abs”, as abdominal muscles are now called. His friends have argued with him about the decision. His children tell him he is throwing over years of relationship with a wonderful woman for a mere biological attraction. But he counters by saying he has only one life to live and he cannot deny himself the pleasure of this young woman with the taut body.

You see? Just like the man in the biblical story. Thinking about the self and how to fulfill it, how to help it realize all its potential before decline and death. It has become a mania in our time.

Dr. John Killinger, Sermon: “The Real Way to Personal Fulfillment”

Let It Crawl, Reverend!

Flip Wilson had a weekly TV comedy show back in the 70s, and one of his favorite characters to portray was Brother Leroy. In one skit, Brother Leroy was leading services one Sunday morning. It wasn’t going very well. People weren’t very responsive. It came time to receive the offering and so Brother Leroy passed the collection plates. They came back empty. So he passed them again. Same thing. Empty. Brother Leroy then went before the people and said, “Now, I know that you all want this church to progress. This church must progress.” No response from the congregation. Brother Leroy shouted a bit louder: “Now, before this church can progress it has to crawl, this church has got to crawl.” And the congregation started getting excited and they yelled back, “Make it crawl, Reverend. Make it crawl!” Brother Leroy continued, “After this church has crawled, it’s got to pick itself up and start to walk, this church has got to walk!” And the people yelled back at him, “Make it walk, Reverend. Make it walk!” “And after this church has walked, this church has got to get up and run, this church has got to run.”

And the people were worked up into a terrible frenzy, and they hollered back: “Make it run, Reverend. Make it run!” And then Brother Leroy said, “Now, brothers and sisters, in order for this church to run, its gonna need money, its gonna take money for this church to run!” And the people yelled back, “Let it crawl, Reverend. Let it crawl!”

Flip Wilson

Pope Benedict’s alleged IQ of 150

Here are a couple of quotes from the first papal encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI, whose alleged IQ of 150 shows in everything he writes. It is called Deus Caritas Est:

“The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia),and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable.”

“The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the states. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply.”

“When we try to bring about change in our societies, we are treated first with indifference, then with ridicule, then with abuse and then with oppression. And finally, the greatest challenge is thrown at us: We are treated with respect. This is the most dangerous stage.”

A.T. Aryaratine

The Unfinished Dream

America is essentially a dream, a dream as yet unfulfilled. It is a dream of a land where (people) of all races, of all nationalities and of all creeds can live together as brothers [and sisters].”

Martin Luther King, Jr.