Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
We remember in this lesson how God made His covenant with Abraham. This is not just a lesson in history. As William Faulkner once wrote: “The past is never dead, it is not even past.” Memories make you feel good. They keep the good times, the good things in life, alive. Insofar as the covenant with Abraham is a belief shared by three great religions -- Christianity, Judaism, and Islam -- could remembering the common ancestry of these faiths in Abraham be a sign of our oneness, despite all the religious differences and socio-cultural tensions? This story reminds us of God’s unmerited favor. Martin Luther observed that the Hebrew Name for God in this text (El Shaddai) relates to the Hebrew term for breast (shad). This entails, the Reformer tells us, that God has breasts (Luther’s Works, Vol. 3, pp. 82-83). God is a nurturing Mother. As Luther puts it elsewhere, the Lord, the King of the universe, gently lifts us of our doldrums and insecurities and gently puts us in His lap (Ibid., p. 139). And John Calvin says much the same about this text: “When the gratuitous kindness of God shines the more clearly, because although men impeded the cause of it by obstacles of their own, it nevertheless comes to them” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. I/1, p. 459).
Mark E.
Romans 4:13-25
In our world we have many laws on the books. We may try to obey them if it doesn’t take too much effort and if we can’t find any way around them. What we need to do is realize why the law was written and try to fulfill the spirit of the law. If we love God and our neighbor, then we don’t need the law! We will always be looking out for others first! Laws tell us that we haven’t obeyed automatically and that we deserve wrath!
The Israelites in Jesus’ day thought they inherited their faith through being a descendant of Abraham. Paul assures us that we are all descendants of Abraham if we believe in Him.
Just as Abraham was saved through his faith, so are we. We get credit by believing. At 87 I am close to Abraham’s age. Sometimes it is easier to believe because the main thing I have to look forward to is going home to Him, as when my doctor says I only have less than a year. But if he should give me a job to do now, it might be harder to hang in there and count on his strength. Even our trip to Nepal when I was 70 was a challenge.
My father told me when I was a kid not to play baseball too close to the house -- but I didn’t want to go as far as he told me to, so I batted a ball and it went through the front room window. When I came inside my father was very upset with me for disobeying, but I begged his forgiveness so genuinely that out of love he forgave me; but then he had to pay to have the window replaced. If I only went by the law, then I would have the debt hanging over my head until I had a job and could pay for it. In the meantime the house might be ruined when rain and wind came through the smashed window. Also, by that time I might owe interest and other charges, which could make it overwhelming. We should be glad that we have an all-forgiving Father who has prepaid for our sins.
How much better if we could learn by grace and love instead of by law. What will it take to teach us?
It is often easy to tell who is living by faith when we see the way they attack life. They are not suffering with worry and stress. They know that as many times as they may fall, the Lord who was raised from the dead will bring us back -- if we don’t lose our faith.
Bob O.
Romans 4:13-25
There are several key words that leap out of this biblical passage to be developed, resourced, and illustrated for any congregation. Those key words include: law, promise, righteousness, faith, grace, hope, power, and justification.
As you mine those key words for the gems they are, look into your own life and ask what each one means to you specifically. What does “law,” for example, have to do with your life today? Explain how are you righteous before a holy God? How do you grapple with the concept of “grace”?
There is a wonderful story that Stephen Rummage, senior pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida, writes about in the March/April issue of Preaching magazine which encompasses many of those key words from this passage.
Rummage writes that Bill Wohl was waiting for a heart transplant, and that if he didn’t get one he would soon die. Bill was a type-A, overweight, money-hungry businessman who didn’t really care who he stepped on to get the job done. He jetted from one place to another, but when he became ill all of that stopped.
Rummage tells that on the other end of the spectrum was Michael Brady, a stuntman for Universal Studios. Brady specialized in skydiving, and one day in Benson, Arizona, he was preparing to parachute onto the top of a moving train. As he climbed to the top of one of those train cars to check his rigging, he fell accidentally, hitting his head and dying instantly. Michael’s body was rushed to the University Medical Center in Tuscon, where his heart was removed and placed in Bill Wohl’s body.
Six months later Bill Wohl got a letter from Michael Brady’s family with a picture of Michael enclosed. Bill was stunned to discover that Brady was only 36 years old and an athletic, fit person. It struck his mind that he needed to change!
Pastor Rummage wrote that the old Bill Wohl changed dramatically. The once overweight, unhealthy, unfit guy was transformed. Today he works part-time and spends most of his newfound energy winning speed and performance medals in three areas... swimming, cycling, and track.
When Bill Wohl was interviewed by a reporter in Scottsdale, Arizona, he told the reporter: “Every day, all day, I thank God for Michael Brady. When I ride, when I work out... the biggest thing is to honor him.”
A new heart changed Bill Wohl.
Rummage then pointedly asked his readers: “Is the heart of Jesus Christ beating in you? When His heart beats in your chest, the biggest thing in your life will be to honor Him, and you’ll have the same passion for the gospel that He has.”
(Story used by permission of Michael Duduit, editor of Preaching magazine)
Derl K.
Mark 8:31-38
It was a commonplace a little over a century ago for students of Greek to be warned before they picked up the New Testament that it was written by ordinary, common laborers, that the grammar was bad and even embarrassing. Then the discoveries in the dry Egyptian deserts showed that the apostles were writing clearly and correctly in the common Greek spoken as a second language by everyone in the first-century Roman empire. The New Testament is written in a business language, and uses the terms of high finance.
Jesus uses economic terms to describe the cost of discipleship in Mark 8:36-38. There is no profit in gaining your life and losing your soul. It’s a losing deal.
This is an important point -- Jesus has a hard sell. The cross is not an ornament to be worn around the neck, a litmus test to see if you are holier than other people. It is an instrument of torture and death, the ultimate humiliation designed to end in eradication of body, identity, and memory.
Frank R.
Mark 8:31-38
Cross-bearing does not seem very popular in America these days. It goes against the grain of our desire for instantaneous gratification, of the social gurus’ advice that we need to be good to ourselves. But as 17th-century Scottish clergyman Samuel Rutherford reminds us, “How soon faith would freeze without a cross.” Cross-bearing need not entail denying the good things in life. Saint Augustine put it all in perspective: “The world is loved; but let Him be preferred by whom the world was made. Great is the world; but sweeter is He by whom the world was made” (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 410).
When you bear the cross, it’s just a way of prioritizing the One who made this beautiful, wonderful world over the things of the world he made.
Mark E.
Mark 8:31-38
It’s a practice of most hockey coaches to pull their goalie if they’re a goal down with a minute or two left in the game. Then their team has six attackers against five defenders during the precious last few seconds when they’re struggling to catch up. Of course, there is a great risk. No goalie means an empty net. But there’s no point in holding something back when you’re going to lose if you do nothing. Now, though, some coaches are pulling their goalies sooner than was the previous conventional wisdom. That’s because studies show that even though the other team has more time to take shots at that empty net, teams that pull their goalie even earlier also have a greater chance of tying and winning the game. Why wait? Why not win?
We can certainly pull out all the stops in the last days of our lives. We are all gratified to hear that someone has accepted Christ during their final illness. But why wait? Why not lay down the world and pick up your cross sooner than later, and get on the glory track as soon as possible?
Frank R.
Mark 8:31-38
Cross-bearing does not seem very popular in America these days. It goes against the grain of our desire for instantaneous gratification, of the social gurus’ advice that we need to be good to ourselves. But as 17th-century Scottish clergyman Samuel Rutherford reminds us, “How soon faith would freeze without a cross.” Cross-bearing need not entail denying the good things in life. Saint Augustine put it all in perspective: “The world is loved; but let Him be preferred by whom the world was made. Great is the world; but sweeter is He by whom the world was made” (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, p. 410).
When you bear the cross, it’s just a way of prioritizing the One who made this beautiful, wonderful world over the things of the world he made.
Mark E.
