Emphasis Preaching Journal

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been known to test God, to ask for more in spite of the blessings I have already been given. That is the situation we find Abram in within this text. Abram has followed God and been blessed by God. Yet, Abram wants more. He wants an heir, a son to carry on his line and inherit his property, wealth, and most importantly his line of descendants. God assures Abram — but I wonder how Abram feels. Does he count on the history of God delivering on promises, or does it doubt what comes next? I know that sometimes in spite of the blessings I have received, I doubt that God will deliver me from whatever pain or disaster I am currently facing — and sometimes I don’t even know what I need. This Lent, like Abram, I am going to work on trusting God, in all circumstances and in all times. It is my spiritual commitment. What is yours?
Bonnie B.

* * *

Genesis 15:1-12,17-18
Protestant reformer John Calvin made clear that this is not a lesson that is all about Abraham and his faith which we should emulate:

... when Moses says that faith was imputed to Abram for righteousness, he does not mean that faith was the first cause of righteousness, which is called the efficient, but only the formal cause...  For it is especially to be observed that faith borrows a righteousness elsewhere, of which we, in ourselves, are destitute.  (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.I/1, p.407)

The point of this lesson is that God is our friend. Martin Luther writes:

For God speaks with Abraham in a manner that is no different from the way a friend speaks with a close acquaintance and another friend.  It is God’s practice to do so, and this is His Nature.  (Luther’s Works, Vol.3, p.17)

With a friend like that, life gets a lot easier and happy. Again we note Luther’s observations about the Christian life:

The life of such a person and whatever he does, whether great or small and no matter what it is called, is nothing but fruit and cannot be without fruit... Everything such a person does comes easy for him, not troublesome or vexatious.  Nothing is too arduous for him or too difficult to suffer and bear.  (Luther’s Works, Vol.24, p.230)
Mark E.     

* * *

Genesis 15:1-8
How can we be sure God will do what he has promised us?

Did Abraham really believe until he saw it had been accomplished?

Until my ordination I don’t think people who knew me believed I would become a pastor.  It took a while just as it took a while for Abraham to have the son he wanted.

The adulterous son who Abraham got was an attempt to accomplish God’s will in his own way even if it would be sinful.

God wants peace on earth, but the way we think we are going to get it is through a bigger army and more powerful weapons.  We don’t know if God has another way and don’t think we should wait to find out.

Has God given America to us and our descendants.

One of a pastor’s tasks is to translate passages like this to apply to us today.

Is God speaking to us through these words?
Bob O.

* * *

Philippians 3:17--4:1
The apostle tells us that there are those who are enemies of the cross and that one way to identify them is because “…their god is the belly…” (3:19). This has nothing to do with a person’s weight. It’s possible Paul is talking about the Epicureans, one of the major philosophies that competed with Christianity. You may remember that Paul came to Philippi, which is in Macedonia at the northern edge of the Greek peninsula, after a visit to Athens, the center of Greek philosophy, and that while there we’re told in the Acts of the Apostles he spoke with some of the philosophers of that august and ancient city. People throughout the Roman Empire looked up to Athens as a city of great learning and wisdom. That included the Epicurieans.

Epicureans believed that since with life full of uncertainties and death a certainty it was important to embrace the pleasures as much as possible while it was possible. Paul, with his Hebraic background, would have thought highly of creation and the pleasures available in the created universe. The difference is that the Jewish heritage of the first Christians, people like Paul, would have led them to recognize that praising and serving God meant recognizing that the pleasures point to God, and are not an end in themselves. Song of Songs is a celebration of physical pleasures. The author of Ecclesiastes, for all his gloominess, also insisted that seeking to enjoy this day is an important aim of life. But when the good things of this earth become an idol, rather than recognized as a gift from God that points to God, we are straying from the way of light and have taken the path of darkness.
Frank R.

* * *

Philippians 3:17--4:1
When Paul wrote to Christians in Philippi, he was aware of how important their principle of re-creating a home in a foreign place was for them. Philippi was a colony of Rome and a part of the Roman commonwealth. It was more than just a subject city.  Philippi, distinct from other cities in Macedonia, was to be a model Roman city. It was a colony that would reflect Roman customs, Roman architecture, and Roman dress. The prevailing language was Latin. It was, in a word, a fragment of Rome. The feeling emanating from the city was that of an Italian suburb of Rome, even though it was nearly a thousand miles away.  The people of Philippi know what citizenship meant.

So, when Paul wrote those Philippian Christians, he knew they would understand him when he said, "Our citizenship is in heaven." They, perhaps as well as anyone, would know what it meant to be an outpost of kingdom far away from the homeland.  While they were far away, they waited for Jesus. Paul wrote of the transformation and deliverance he would bring with him. Until then, stand firm.  Be who you are, even far from home. Good advice then. Good advice now.
Bill T.

* * *

Philippians 3:17--4:1
The early church father Marius Victorinus provides a timeless explanation on why Christians need not worry about the present, for hope lies in the eternal. Marius Victorinus, was a Roman grammarian, rhetorician and philosopher, who was a teacher of rhetoric in Rome until the Roman authorities prohibited him from teaching after he converted to Christianity. In his late years of life, in 355, he converted from being a pagan to being a Christian. In his commentary on Philippians 4:6 he wrote:

Do not be anxious about anything. This means: Do not be concerned about yourselves. Do not give unnecessary thought to or be anxious about the world or worldly things. For all that is needful for you in this life God provides. And it will be even better in that life which is eternal.
Ron L.

* * *

Luke 13:31-35
A 2018 Thermosoft Survey finds Americans define success in terms of six-figure salaries and  owning a home worth at least quarter of a million dollars.  We want success materially.  Jesus warns against a city caught up in such power games.  In that spirit Martin Luther teaches a lesson on what to do with the gifts of the world:

As we have heard, a sincere Christian believer has all possessions of God and is a child of God.  The time of his life, however, is but a pilgrimage.  For through faith the spirit is already in heaven...  but God permits him to remain alive in the flesh and lets his body walk the earth in order that [a person] may help others and bring them to heaven too.  Therefore we must use everything on earth in no other way than as a guest who travels across country, comes to an inn where he must spend the night, and takes nothing but food and lodging from the innkeeper.  Thus we must also deal with temporal goods as if they did not belong to us. (Luther Works, Vol.30, p.35)     

Methodist founder John Wesley nicely describes this lifestyle of bearing the cross, what is entailed in taking up the cross:

And every one that would follow Christ, that would be His real disciple, must not only deny himself, but take up his cross also.  A cross is anything contrary to our will, anything displeasing to our nature.  (Works, Vol.6, p.108)
Mark E.    

* * *

Luke 13:31-35
Jesus was used to being ignored, ridiculed and threatened. Yet, he doesn’t back down. He goes about the work laid before him, the tasks of his ministry; teaching, preaching, healing. His heart is not hardened by the threats. He remains open and loving, as he courageously steps out to care for those around him. That’s why the threats of the Pharisees do not deter him. He knows his goal. He knows his message. So he proclaims that he will continue to do what he is called to do — go ahead and threaten, go ahead and challenge him — he knows that his destiny lies ahead — that he will need to travel to Jerusalem before his ministry is completed.
Bonnie B.