Proper 6
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
In our Old Testament lesson last Sunday, we heard God promise to Abraham that he would be the forbear of a "great nation," of many descendants. Now in our text for the morning we find God beginning to work out his fulfillment of that promise by granting to Abraham and Sarah, his wife, the birth of a son, who will begin the line of descendants. God's promise is being effected in the sphere of actual history.
There are three versions in Genesis of the promise of a son to Abraham and Sarah. The first, from the source we call the Elohist, is found in Genesis 15:1--6. The second, from the priestly source, is in Genesis 17:15--21. The third, from the Yahwist of the tenth century B.C., forms our text for the morning. Those who edited the final form of our Bible kept all three versions of the promise, side by side, because, like the three Synoptic Gospels, all three have their own emphases and contribute to our understanding of God.
The author of our passage is noted for the vivid, earthly details of his accounts, and indeed, we have a very human picture given to us. The migrating semite, Abraham, is sitting at noontime before the door of his tent beside the oak trees of Mamre in the southern part of Palestine. Without warning and without any notice of where they come from, three men who are not identified, suddenly stand before the patriarch. Abraham is startled, but he is also a proper oriental host, who manifests his piety by his hospitality. He therefore welcomes the strangers with a bow, has his servant wash their feet, and then hastens to bid Sarah to prepare a cake, while he himself runs to fetch an expensive calf from his herd to be cooked for the visitors. There is great emphasis in the text on the quickness with which Abraham puts together the meal. Moreover, Abraham does not eat with the strangers, but stands by them, ready to fulfill any of their further wants.
Then comes the shocker in the text. One of the strangers asks, "Where is Sarah your wife?" A total stranger is not only asking about Abraham's wife, but even knows Sarah's name! And by that question we are alerted to the fact that the three men are more than just travelers through the desert. Indeed, we are then told in verse 10 that it is the Lord speaking to Abraham. "I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son."
We were never told earlier whether Abraham believed the promises of God to him. Certainly he left everything behind and started out for the land God would show him. But judging from the accounts in Genesis 15:2--3 and 17:17--18, Abraham did not believe that he would have a son from whom would come many descendants. After all, he and Sarah were both well past the age of childbearing (cf. 17:17). It is Sarah's disbelief that is highlighted in our text, however. She has been standing behind the tent flap, listening in on the conversation of the strangers with Abraham. And when she hears the promise of a son, she laughs, "Yizhach!" But that is Isaac's name that forever after signifies the fact that Sarah did not believe the Lord's promise.
It was not because of their great faith or piety or anything that they had done that Abraham and Sarah became the bearers of God's promise, any more than it is our great faith that prompts the Lord to work through us. Nevertheless, God is working his purpose out through each of our lives. Despite our sin, our unfaithfulness, our disbelief, God is gracious, and keeps his promises, and sometimes uses even us to move all history toward the coming of his kingdom on earth.
Lutheran Option: Exodus 19:2--8a
The Israelites have been delivered by the Lord from slavery in Egypt and are now trekking through the wilderness. After three arduous months of hiking, they encamp at the foot of Mount Sinai in the Arabian peninsula, and there they learn the purpose of their lives and of their deliverance.
Moses ascends Mount Sinai and God gives him words to set a choice before the Israelites. They have seen God's redemption of them; God has "bought them back" out of slavery, which is the meaning of redemption (cf. Leviticus 25:47--52). They have experienced God's love and mercy toward them. Now they are asked to respond. If they will enter into covenant with their God and keep the covenant, God will make them his "kingdom of priests and a holy nation." God has already chosen them as his people by delivering them in the exodus. But now he asks Israel if she will serve his purpose.
God wants the Israelites to be his "kingdom of priests." Here we find the first mention in the Bible of the priesthood of all believers. A priest is one who mediates between God and human beings, teaching the will and character of God to the people. So Israel is being asked to spread the knowledge of God in the earth. God also wants the Israelites to be his "holy nation." He is not saying that they should be morally perfect, although that is much to be desired. Rather, "to be holy," throughout the scriptures, is to be "set apart" for God's purposes. So God is asking Israel to be his "set--apart" people, his 'am segullah, his "peculiar treasure" as the KJV has it, through whom God can work out his purpose in the world. And Israel, of her own free choice, agrees. "All that the Lord has spoken we will do" (v. 8). That is the purpose for which Israel has been redeemed - to be God's servant people.
We Christians in the church have also been redeemed, have we not - set free from our slavery to sin and death. Therefore, the same words that God spoke to Israel are spoken also to us in the New Testament. "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people" (1 Peter 2:9). There in a few words is described the nature of the church. Then the passage continues and gives us our reason for existence: "that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:9--10).
Now we know the purpose of our lives in the church, good Christians. As God's "royal priesthood," we are to mediate the knowledge of God to all the world by telling of the wonderful deeds of God, not only in our own lives, but through all of the sacred history recorded for us in the Bible. For as God's "holy nation," we are set apart and made special to serve God's purpose in the world. We do not belong to ourselves any more, and we do not belong simply to our families or to some group in society. No. Now we belong to God, and the purpose for our lives is to serve his ongoing work of saving his world. Your life and mine, all of our lives, have meaning in that marvelous status and activity to which we have been called by our Lord.
There are three versions in Genesis of the promise of a son to Abraham and Sarah. The first, from the source we call the Elohist, is found in Genesis 15:1--6. The second, from the priestly source, is in Genesis 17:15--21. The third, from the Yahwist of the tenth century B.C., forms our text for the morning. Those who edited the final form of our Bible kept all three versions of the promise, side by side, because, like the three Synoptic Gospels, all three have their own emphases and contribute to our understanding of God.
The author of our passage is noted for the vivid, earthly details of his accounts, and indeed, we have a very human picture given to us. The migrating semite, Abraham, is sitting at noontime before the door of his tent beside the oak trees of Mamre in the southern part of Palestine. Without warning and without any notice of where they come from, three men who are not identified, suddenly stand before the patriarch. Abraham is startled, but he is also a proper oriental host, who manifests his piety by his hospitality. He therefore welcomes the strangers with a bow, has his servant wash their feet, and then hastens to bid Sarah to prepare a cake, while he himself runs to fetch an expensive calf from his herd to be cooked for the visitors. There is great emphasis in the text on the quickness with which Abraham puts together the meal. Moreover, Abraham does not eat with the strangers, but stands by them, ready to fulfill any of their further wants.
Then comes the shocker in the text. One of the strangers asks, "Where is Sarah your wife?" A total stranger is not only asking about Abraham's wife, but even knows Sarah's name! And by that question we are alerted to the fact that the three men are more than just travelers through the desert. Indeed, we are then told in verse 10 that it is the Lord speaking to Abraham. "I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son."
We were never told earlier whether Abraham believed the promises of God to him. Certainly he left everything behind and started out for the land God would show him. But judging from the accounts in Genesis 15:2--3 and 17:17--18, Abraham did not believe that he would have a son from whom would come many descendants. After all, he and Sarah were both well past the age of childbearing (cf. 17:17). It is Sarah's disbelief that is highlighted in our text, however. She has been standing behind the tent flap, listening in on the conversation of the strangers with Abraham. And when she hears the promise of a son, she laughs, "Yizhach!" But that is Isaac's name that forever after signifies the fact that Sarah did not believe the Lord's promise.
It was not because of their great faith or piety or anything that they had done that Abraham and Sarah became the bearers of God's promise, any more than it is our great faith that prompts the Lord to work through us. Nevertheless, God is working his purpose out through each of our lives. Despite our sin, our unfaithfulness, our disbelief, God is gracious, and keeps his promises, and sometimes uses even us to move all history toward the coming of his kingdom on earth.
Lutheran Option: Exodus 19:2--8a
The Israelites have been delivered by the Lord from slavery in Egypt and are now trekking through the wilderness. After three arduous months of hiking, they encamp at the foot of Mount Sinai in the Arabian peninsula, and there they learn the purpose of their lives and of their deliverance.
Moses ascends Mount Sinai and God gives him words to set a choice before the Israelites. They have seen God's redemption of them; God has "bought them back" out of slavery, which is the meaning of redemption (cf. Leviticus 25:47--52). They have experienced God's love and mercy toward them. Now they are asked to respond. If they will enter into covenant with their God and keep the covenant, God will make them his "kingdom of priests and a holy nation." God has already chosen them as his people by delivering them in the exodus. But now he asks Israel if she will serve his purpose.
God wants the Israelites to be his "kingdom of priests." Here we find the first mention in the Bible of the priesthood of all believers. A priest is one who mediates between God and human beings, teaching the will and character of God to the people. So Israel is being asked to spread the knowledge of God in the earth. God also wants the Israelites to be his "holy nation." He is not saying that they should be morally perfect, although that is much to be desired. Rather, "to be holy," throughout the scriptures, is to be "set apart" for God's purposes. So God is asking Israel to be his "set--apart" people, his 'am segullah, his "peculiar treasure" as the KJV has it, through whom God can work out his purpose in the world. And Israel, of her own free choice, agrees. "All that the Lord has spoken we will do" (v. 8). That is the purpose for which Israel has been redeemed - to be God's servant people.
We Christians in the church have also been redeemed, have we not - set free from our slavery to sin and death. Therefore, the same words that God spoke to Israel are spoken also to us in the New Testament. "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people" (1 Peter 2:9). There in a few words is described the nature of the church. Then the passage continues and gives us our reason for existence: "that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:9--10).
Now we know the purpose of our lives in the church, good Christians. As God's "royal priesthood," we are to mediate the knowledge of God to all the world by telling of the wonderful deeds of God, not only in our own lives, but through all of the sacred history recorded for us in the Bible. For as God's "holy nation," we are set apart and made special to serve God's purpose in the world. We do not belong to ourselves any more, and we do not belong simply to our families or to some group in society. No. Now we belong to God, and the purpose for our lives is to serve his ongoing work of saving his world. Your life and mine, all of our lives, have meaning in that marvelous status and activity to which we have been called by our Lord.
