Emphasis Preaching Journal
The great backdrop
Commentary
If your inclination is to preach with an eye toward the national holiday that is just a few days away, the selected passages do not offer much fodder. The Old Testament lection is born out of a national moment, to be sure, but it is a moment of death and defeat, which is hardly the nature of our celebration on Independence Day. And trying to tie the Mark or 2 Corinthians passages to the holiday would require such contortions as to be injurious to the text.
