“Connecting with Jesus, One Another, and Others in the Unconditional Love of Our God (Together, in a variety of ways)”
“Disappointing Love? Never!” – Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18, Philippians 3:17-4:1 , Luke 13:31-35
Adolf Sannwald was a German national. He also graduated from Harvard Divinity School. Sannwald was killed while serving in the German army on the eastern front, in the campaign against Russia. Adolf Sannwald’s name appears on the wall of honor at Harvard. There is an asterisk by his name which reads “enemy casualty.” When Sannwald was a minister in the German Lutheran Church in the 1930’s, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sannwald preached against national socialism, which was the Nazi Party. He was arrested, drafted into the German army, and sent to the eastern front. Adolf Sannwald was not an “enemy casualty.” He was a follower of Jesus who was “sentenced to death” by the Nazi party for preaching the gospel of what Jesus would do. Sannwald asked himself the question, what would Jesus have me do?[1]
Abram believed God. Genesis chapters 12, 15, and 17 are the core of the Abrahamic Promise. In chapter 15, God makes two of the four promises to Abram: to give him an heir from his own body and a land. They were added to Abram’s name being made great and Abram being a blessing to all people. Abram was old. He and Sarai were beyond the child bearing years. Yet, Abram believed God, because he asked the question, like Adolf Sannwald, “What would God have me do?”
Like Abram, we are called to believe against all odds. God made a covenant with Abram; a binding promise that would be and remain true, regardless of Abram’s behavior. The covenant God made with Abram was unilateral; a covenant between a stronger and weaker partner. A unilateral covenant was based on the idea that there was something the stronger could gain from the weaker partner. In Abram’s day, the stronger partner in a covenant was usually after water rights, land to graze his herds on, or something else that would benefit the stronger. In fact, the very end of the reading in Genesis 15 depicts God as the “fire pot” and “flaming torch.” God is “the one undertaking the obligation of the ritual”[2] on Abram’s behalf.
What is God going to get out of the covenant with Abram? God gets someone to bless. The borderlands between belief and unbelief are clear. God said in Genesis 15:1, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” The reward is not a prize that is earned. It is given to those who are willing to receive.
Abram’s faith mattered. Who is the object of Abram’s faith? It is God; the One who created the heavens and the earth. Abram was not called to believe in faith itself. Faith in faith is not faith. The only true object for faith is God.
We live in the borderlands of belief and unbelief. In order to ask the question Adolf Sannwald asked, “What would Jesus have me do?” our faith, like Abram’s, must rest upon the reliability of God, not upon the changing feelings of the human heart.
The text in Philippians reiterates the point that God is reliable. Paul urges the Philippians to live as if heaven is shaping their lives now. God’s love for us and God’s promise to us grounds our faith in God.
The text in Luke also drives the point home that God is reliable. In the text, some Pharisees came to Jesus and told him to leave Jerusalem since Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, wanted to kill him. Jesus replied quite directly, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will finish my work.” In Hellenistic thought, “the fox is regarded as clever, but sly and unprincipled.”[3] Jesus needed to suffer for the sake of human redemption. Jesus’ love for those whom he came to serve is clearly evident in these verses. Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem is a call to repentance, not a statement of final judgment.[4]
What would Jesus have you do? Love God and others. You were created to become like Jesus and made to participate in God’s mission.[5]
We are not to be passive as we await God’s salvation.[6] There are enough resources in the world to take care of all 8.4 billion of the earth’s inhabitants. No one needs to be homeless. No one needs to be hungry. No one needs to be without clean water. Remember, when all appears to be coming unglued, God’s persevering love reconnects the pieces and you with God and others. Like Adolf Sannwald ask the question, “What would Jesus have me do?” Amen!
This sermon was preached on the Second Sunday in Lent, 16 March 2025 by the
Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary at
Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas
Copyright Ó 2025
Steven M. Marsh
All rights reserved.
[1]Adapted from Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus (New York City, New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 72.
[2]Adapted from Richard A. Puckett in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 55.
[3]Leslie J. Hoppe in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, 71.
[4]In the six paragraphs above, I was influenced by the writing of Rick Warren. In addition, I was challenged by the thinking of Carolyn J. Sharp, William Greenway, Barbara K. Lundblad, Anna B. Olson, Shively T. J. Smith, and James C. Howell in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 2 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 40-42, 42-44, 48-50, 50-51, 52-54, and 54-56.
[5]Adapted from Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), 320-322.
[6]Idea gleaned from Leslie J. Hoppe in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, 73.
ShareMAR