“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.

“Security and Refuge in God’s Love” -“Connecting with Jesus, One Another, and Others in the Unconditional Love of Our God (Together, in a variety of ways)” Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Romans 10:8b-13, Luke 4:1-13 

The liturgical season of Lent raises awareness of the role of sin in our lives as well as society and culture. Followers of Jesus must balance the awareness of sin with our God who is loving, compassionate, and our ultimate hope.[1] This balancing act is disturbing, since it beckons us to resist conforming to the living Word (Jesus) and the written Word (the Bible). However, the gospel calls us to a lifestyle of nonconformity. It begs us to “…persist in the disturbance until [we] get face to face with the Lord himself.”[2]

Janet and I have been supporting Plant with Purpose, a ministry committed to the reforesting of the Dominican Republic, for the past thirty-eight years. Another problem in the Dominican Republic is the high mortality rate of children. Hundreds of children die everyday due to malnutrition. Scott Sabin, the Executive Director of Plant with Purpose tells this story about a friend of his on a recent trip to the Dominican Republic:

She visited a slum and in a small, dirty cardboard and aluminum shack, she met a girl her own age, with a tiny baby. After an initial introduction, through an interpreter, the girl began to talk excitedly and begged my friend to take her baby.  “Please,” she said. “He is so small you could fit him in your purse, and no one would ever know. You could take him and give him a better life.” My friend, of course, said no. The young girl began to sob. “If he stays here, he will die. There is no hope for him here.”

Temptation. Temptation is the tool the devil used against Jesus and uses against us to motivate us to conform to society and culture’s definitions of moral and ethical…right and wrong and to end the disturbance. Temptation is the enticement to go against the teachings of the Word of God, living (Jesus) and written (the Bible). Whether it is the temptation to gossip, smuggle a baby out of the Dominican Republic, or rationalize away the Truth, the enticements to sin are many.

In order for Jesus’ humanity to have significance, he had to face the same temptations we do. Jesus has lived our lives in that he has experienced our temptations and not conformed to their enticement. Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights. The devil came to Jesus three times with temptation. The first temptation came in the form of making Jesus think he would only be able to survive by the sustenance of bread as opposed to the Father’s faithfulness. The second temptation bated Jesus to violate the first commandment by replacing the Father with the devil for his loyalty and affection. Finally, the third temptation asked Jesus to manipulate the Father and to use his power in a self-serving way.

Temptation is punctiliar and progressive. That is a specific moment and progressive moments. Temptation is the mechanism used by God to guide us into obedience and true freedom.

Life is an ongoing series of choices. Your choices matter. The fulfillment of God’s plans for humanity requires our cooperation with God. Anytime we are enticed to sin, we are tempted to test God’s faithfulness. Listen to the words of Anne Lamott on conforming to temptation which ends the very important “disturbance.” Anne writes,

I was scared much of the time. Life was utterly schizophrenic. I was loved and often seemed cheerful, but fear pulsed inside me. I was broke, clearly a drunk, and also bulimic. I was cracking up. But a feather of truth floated inside the door of my mind-the truth that I was crossing over to the dark side.[3]

Anne was tempted with sexual infidelity, cocaine, alcohol, and religious syncretism. She gave in and was confused until she gave it all up and accepted Jesus Christ into her life. The pressures and temptations to return to her old manner of living were ongoing and many. When we believe that a particular temptation is impossible to overcome, we conform to cheap grace and costly relativism. Oswald Chambers, the author of the daily Devotional My Utmost for His Highest writes, “If the temptation is possible to overcome in our own strength, then it is not a real temptation. If the temptation is impossible to overcome, then it is the thing we have to ask God to do for us.”[4] And Jesus has already overcome every temptation we encounter.

The temptation to conform to the cultural values of materialism, entertainment, the coarsening of discourse now offered by many churches as the gospel, must be resisted. Moreover, let us not retreat to a form of religious absolutism rooted in cultural nostalgia or a “tinny patriotism.”[5] Peter Gomes writes,

If there is any good news that is truly good news for everybody, and not just for a few somebodies, it is this: God is greater and more generous than the best of those who profess to know and serve him. This is the radical nonconformity with the conventional wisdom that Jesus both proclaimed and exemplified, and alas, it cost him his life. Will we hope to fare any better, as disciples of his nonconformity?[6]

The Deuteronomist challenges us to confess that God’s faithfulness is the basis of life.[7] It is resting in God’s faithfulness that we’ll know our greatest security and refuge. And Paul, in his letter to the Roman Christians, tells us to call on the Lord, at all times and in all ways, and we’ll be saved.

With what temptation are you preoccupied? Lent is no time for heroic resilience. Lent is the time Christians purposely give our faith permission to work on us. Lent invites you to turn to the cross as an act of freedom to love fearlessly and to live beyond the boundaries you and the world around you impose. Lent beckons you to affirm God’s promise and generosity to you and all people. Lent convicts you to ensure there is a basic standard of living for all, regardless of religious, racial, or ethnic identity. Lent insists that you work for the basic needs of all—education, health care, food, clothing, and personal/family security are met. Lent reminds you that God is good and will use you to care for those in need.[8]

A posture of gospel nonconformity requires a rejection of the “good news” promoted by the prevailing cultural consensus. Conforming to the gospel manifests itself when followers of Jesus challenge the prevailing cultural consensus; the status quo. And that is the gift of Lent, my friends. Amen.

This sermon was preached on Sunday, 09 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 Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2(Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 32.

[2]Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1935), 60.

[3]Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999), 39-41.

[4]Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, 60.

[5]These ideas gleaned from Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus (New York City, New York: HarperOne, 2007), 60.

[6]Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, 63.

[7]Gleaned from Thomas W. Currie in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, 26.

[8]In the six paragraphs above, I was influenced by the writing of Anne Lemott, Peter Gomes, and Oswald Chambers. 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), 24-26, 26-28, 31-32, 33-34, 35-37, and 37-39.