The Unconditional Love of Our God Beckons Us to Serve Part 1 (Together, in a Variety of Ways)

“Love Stirs Everyone” – Psalm 118:1-2, 14, 17, 21-24, Acts 10:34-43, John 20:1-18

My opening illustration speaks to the theme of Easter that being resurrection from the dead.

A man took a vacation to Israel with his wife and mother-in-law. During their time in the Holy Land, his mother-in-law unexpectedly passed away. The following day, the husband met with the local undertaker to discuss funeral plans. “In cases like these, there are a couple of options to choose from,” the undertaker explained. “You can ship the body home for $5,000, or you can bury her in the Holy Land for just $150.” The man took a minute to think about it and then announced his decision to ship her home. The undertaker, intrigued by his decision, said, “That’s an interesting choice. Can I ask why would you pay $5,000 to ship your mother-in-law home, when you can easily bury her here for $150?” The man promptly replied, “About 2,000 years ago, a man died and was buried here. Three days later he rose from the dead, and I can’t take that chance!”[1]

“Remember that life is precious and ephemeral, and love like there’s no tomorrow,” unequivocally states the founder of Utne Reader, Eric Utne. After Jesus’ crucifixion, Mary went home and wondered if the promise Jesus made about the tomb being empty on the third day would happen. Like Mary, who did go to the tomb on the third day, many come to church on Easter Sunday really not knowing what they’re looking for. We “…come weighed down with grief and disappointment, hungry for hope…We are all like Mary, somewhere between grief and joy, somewhere between despair and faith.”[2] Whatever forms of despair, discouragement, and doubt you bring to church this day, a new way of living is available to you, because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. There is hope, because God is connecting to us and us to God.  And we are connecting to one another. It is God’s unconditional love that stirs us to a new way of living. What drives your interest in Easter? My friends, I ask that question too.

It is clear the lectionary text from The Acts of the Apostles, which we did not read this morning, that Jesus being raised from the dead changed everything. The resurrection provided hope and power to the world…to humanity. Tim Keller writes,

[On Easter] I always say to my skeptical, secular friends that, even if they can’t believe in the resurrection, they should want it to be true. Most of them care deeply about justice for the poor, alleviating hunger and disease, and caring for the environment. Yet many of them believe that the material world was caused by accident and that the world and everything in it will eventually simply burn up in the death of the sun. They find it discouraging that so few people care about justice without realizing that their own worldview undermines any motivation to make the world a better place. Why sacrifice for the needs of others if in the end nothing we do will make any difference? If the resurrection of Jesus happened, however, that means there’s infinite hope and reason to pour ourselves out for the needs of the world.

N.T. Wright has written:

The message of the resurrection is that this world matters! That the injustices and pains of this present world must now be addressed with the news that healing, justice, and love have won. If Easter means Jesus Christ is only raised in a spiritual sense—[then] it is only about me, and finding a new dimension in my personal spiritual life. But if Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, Christianity becomes good news for the whole world—news which warms our hearts precisely because it isn’t just about warming hearts. Easter means that in a world where injustice, violence, and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things—and that we will work and plan, with all the energy of God, to implement victory of Jesus over them all.[3]

Everything we thought to be true needed to be rethought. All suspicions about who’s in and who’s out were shattered. Strangers, foreigners, profane, and unclean were included.[4] The story told in John 20 demonstrates Mary’s hope that Jesus’ resurrection was true. While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. The tomb was empty. Jesus was not there. James C. Goodloe writes, “This is the good news of Easter that God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the very content of the gospel…the major affirmation of the Christian faith…the great hope of all humanity that God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead…This is the courage, by which alone we live that God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead.”[5] And the psalmist confidently asserts that it is God’s love that endures forever. It is God’s unconditional love for humanity and creation that defeated death that early Easter morning.

Death, the end of all life as we know it, the destroyer of all dreams, the breaker of all hopes, the crushing burden of all life, and the loss of all love was defeated. Its power has been broken. The empty tomb by itself is not sufficient for faith, but it is necessary to the faith. Without the resurrection there is no hope. Whether it is love, peace, self-confidence, health or meaning, we’re all looking for something this Easter.

Our pain in the brokenness of death, despair, discouragement, and doubt is fertile ground for hope. God’s unconditional love for humanity is real. God is good and his goodness is the basis for our thanksgiving. God freely gives mercy and steadfast love to those who rely on God for help and grace. Joseph A. Donnella II writes, “Our hoped-for future with God is made possible by what happens to Jesus in life, death, and resurrection.”[6] It is true, my friends, God does offer hope, restoration, and salvation to all people. God’s love stirs everyone to seek salvation/restoration/reconciliation.

Jesus is alive. Jesus is building a new intergenerational community in which we belong with God and others in significant relationships and communities to experience unconditional love. Randy Frazee writes, “In all places of effective community, the various strata of generations spend structured and spontaneous time together. Intergenerational life isn’t a luxury to be tried just to see if we like it, to see if it’s “cool.” No, it is essential for members of true community to grow and mature.”[7] Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we are given hope that we can be connected in authentic intergenerational relationships with one another.

Easter is a celebration of hope. Unlike the son-in-law who didn’t want to take a chance that his mother-in-law might be raised/resurrected from the dead, Jesus did raise from the dead as promised. In Jesus Christ there is new life. Psalm 118:14, 17 and 24 read, “The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation…I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord…This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Jesus came out of the tomb and declared that because he lives, so can we. God’s unconditional love is on the loose. Death loses. Life wins. You are loved, so love like there’s no tomorrow. Amen!

This sermon was preached on Easter Sunday, 20 April 2025

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright ã 2025

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]A list of humorous Easter illustrations compiled by Jeff Harvey, Senior Manager of Marketing for Subsplash.

[2]Amy Plantiga Pauw in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 2 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 191.

[3]Adapted from Tim Keller, The Reason for God (Penguin Books, 2009), 210.

[4]Some ideas adapted from A. Katherine Grieb in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 2, 185.

[5]From James C. Goodloe’s sermon “Why Seek the Living Among the Dead?”

[6]Joseph A. Donnella II in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 2, 182.

[7]See Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church 2.0 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2013), 138.

“Connecting with Jesus, One Another, and Others in the Unconditional Love of Our God (Together, in a Variety of Ways)” –  “God’s Love Deepens Our Self Awareness”; Luke 19:28-40, Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

On Palm Sunday, Christians around the world begin to celebrate the passion narrative: the significance of Jerusalem, the Upper Room, Gethsemane, the crucifixion and resurrection for the salvation of humanity. It is through the experience of this week that we can truly live in thankfulness for the unconditional love of God. Henri Nouwen writes, “You have to celebrate your chosenness constantly. This means saying ‘thank you’ to God for having chosen you, and ‘thank you’ to all who remind you of your chosenness. Gratitude is the most fruitful way of deepening your consciousness that you are not an ‘accident,’ but a divine choice.”[1] It is hard for us to get our minds around God’s unconditional love for humanity. Connecting with Jesus matters.

Luke 19:28-40 demands our attention. On the way into Jerusalem, Jesus reframed the title, “Lord.” He identifies the title rather than it him.[2] The crowds expected Jesus to fulfill their hopes through the use of power. Using power for the people’s benefit was the role of the King in the Jewish people’s history. And now, after hundreds of years of not being a kingdom, the Jews anticipated returning to their promised place of kingdom and power. But that was not and is not the message of kingdom defined by Jesus. Jesus had surrendered his power to the Father in order for the people to see power through obedience to the One who knew them the best and loved them the most.

Psalm 118 is the last in the series of Egyptian Hallel psalms. These psalms retell the narrative of the Exodus. The story of salvation told in this psalm first encounters themes of sorrow, betrayal, and death, before victory over death, the fulfillment of the story of salvation which the empty tomb declares. Without any doubt, Psalm 118 makes the case of God’s unconditional love for humanity. Eric Wall writes, “Along the way will be the washing of feet and the covenant of love. In the clamor of the palm and psalm, we might strain to see this one who comes in God’s name; our cry for salvation might also be plaintive, weak, or whispered.”[3]

Can Christians promote the mission of God’s unconditional love the way Jesus lived it? Loving God and loving others is not easy, particularly when we realize that turning to Jesus to fix things and then turning away from Jesus when he doesn’t do for us what we want is counterproductive to the mission. Jesus’ march to Jerusalem, the Upper Room, the Garden of Gethsemane and the cross was not easy. It was the unconditional love of the Father for him and his for us that kept him faithful. Randy Frazee writes, “Christianity has a long history of overcoming obstacles and swimming against the current…They [Christians] have the power within them through Jesus Christ to make it happen.”[4] Connections with one another and others matters.

On the scenic foothills of the Alatoo Range in northern Kyrgyzstan there is a spot that looks up to the peaks of the towering Celestial Mountains, and down across the valley to the city of Bishkek. Built there is a great monument complex in honor of the Kyrgyz people. Its name is Ata-Beyit.Most monuments of such a grand scale are built to commemorate national victories and grand achievements. This place, however, was built specifically as a monument to magnificent defeat. There are three heartbreaking defeats that the Kyrgyz people remember together on that scenic hill.

There is a soaring monument to the defeat of 1916 when the Tsar Nicholas II decreed that all Kyrgyz men be conscripted into the Russian army to fight in the First World War. On that mountaintop some 100,000 died, either massacred by soldiers or lost in the brutal winter. The second monument on that hill remembers 1938 when at the personal instruction of Joseph Stalin, 137 leading citizens—writers, teachers, artists, and politicians—were rounded up and led up those hills to be murdered. The third monument remembers 2010, when eighty-four young people were lost in a single day, murdered for protesting against yet another brutal regime, standing in the way of freedom.

Nothing but tears on that mountain … but the Kyrgyz people believe these must forever be remembered for they are magnificent defeats. Despite the oppression of their worst enemies, and the tears of these most painful tragedies, the Kyrgyz people have not only persevered, but they are today a proud and thriving people.

Sometimes there are defeats so magnificent that they simply must be memorialized—and every Christian understands this. On the foothills, just outside of another great city, there is another site remembered with many tears and a monument to unthinkable injustice. And while it would be impossible to remember that place without being moved by its terrible tragedy, we remember it because of something so magnificent in that tragedy. On that terrible hill—by his wounds, we were healed. On that terrible hill—through his cross, we are saved. On that terrible hill—death may have won the day, but life-everlasting secured an unbreakable victory.

Some people might ask why go to such trouble to memorialize a mountain of such great painful sorrow. We would say that some defeats are worth remembering, precisely because they contrast the magnificence of the final victory that overcame the evil of that place.

The Kyrgyz people have a mountain, and its name is Ata-Beyit. The people of God have such a mountain. Its name is Calvary.[5]

What does being embraced by the unconditional love of God feel like? It is comforting and encouraging…strengthening and empowering. No obstacle is too hard to overcome. No fear has ultimate power over you. The decision to love is yours to make. In the midst of your journey to Jerusalem, the Upper Room, Gethsemane, and the crucifixion, anticipate the tomb being empty on Sunday. Feel your own sorrow, betrayal, and death, yet hear the words of Psalm 118:1, “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever.” Amen![6]

This sermon was preached on Palm Sunday, 13 April 2025

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright © 2025

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Henri J. Nouwen in “Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World.” Christianity Today, Vol. 40, no. 13.

[2]Adapted from Hans Frei, The Identity of Jesus Christ: The Hermeneutical Bases of Dogmatic Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), 136.

[3]Eric Wall in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 2 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 110.

[4]See Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church 2.0 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2013), 131.

[5]Adapted from Max Fleischmann, “Monument to Defeat,” in Thinking Outside the Box (3-10-17)

[6]In the five paragraphs above, I was challenged by the thinking of Eric Wall, Patrick W. Johnston, and Lucy Lind Hogan 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), 108-110, 111-113, and 113-114.

“It’s Not Fair” – “Connecting with Jesus, One Another, and Others in the Unconditional Love of Our God (Together, in a Variety of Ways) – Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

The gospel, the good news of liberation and freedom in Jesus, confronts our misunderstanding of Scripture, Christ, grace, and faith. If Christians more fully demonstrated the good news of the gospel that Scripture illumines, Christ exposes, grace captures, and faith embraces, might we know in mind, soul, and spirit God’s unconditional love and thus experience personal liberation and freedom in Jesus?

By placing one’s faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, one knows they are loved by our God of unconditional love. God begins to make you a brand-new person, from the inside out. Listen to the words of Robert Farrar Capon,

You’re worried about permissiveness–about the way the preaching of grace seems to say it’s okay to do all kinds of terrible things as long as you just walk in afterward and take the free gift of God’s forgiveness. …

While you and I may be worried about seeming to give permission, Jesus apparently wasn’t. He wasn’t afraid of giving the prodigal son a kiss instead of a lecture, a party instead of probation; and he proved that by bringing in the elder brother at the end of the story and having him raise pretty much the same objections you do. He’s angry about the party. He complains that his father is lowering standards and ignoring virtue–that music, dancing, and a fattened calf are, in effect, just so many permissions to break the law. And to that, Jesus has the father say only one thing: “Cut that out! We’re not playing good boys and bad boys any more. Your brother was dead and he’s alive again. The name of the game from now on is resurrection, not bookkeeping.”[1]

Our misunderstanding of Scripture, Christ, grace, and faith is functionally demonstrated by saying “it’s not fair” and “it’s always and ever about her”.  We need to lean into God’s unconditional love which is about equality not the circumstance. Hope is the anticipation of the future as the fulfillment of God’s purposes.[2] The future is not yet, but hope requires that we believe it to be. The gospel confronts the absence of hope.

Scripture. Scripture tells the story of salvation and what salvation looks like.

Christ. Christians know that their salvation from despair, loneliness, and eternal separation from God is not accomplished through “stuff,” financial security, or merit. Only belief in Jesus Christ, the One who knows us the best and loves us the most, can save us from ourselves and all the false saviors. This is Luke’s message with the prodigal son: the Father’s love for the brokenness of the younger son is scandalous.

Grace. Christians know that they cannot take any credit for their salvation. Because of the scandalous grace of God, we are in God’s grasp and God will not let go. The gospel confronts our merit-based thinking. Belonging to God, our salvation, is based on the unmerited favor we receive from the One who created us, redeems us, and sustains us. Only belief in Jesus Christ, the One who knows us the best and loves us the most, can save us from ourselves and all the false saviors. We cannot take any credit for our salvation.

Faith. Christians know that there is never enough evidence to prove that Scripture tells the story of salvation; that only belief in Jesus Christ, the One who knows us the best and loves us the most, can save us from ourselves and all the false saviors. Our calling to God is not just one more thing on our “to do list.” You were created to become like Jesus and made to participate in God’s mission.^[3]  The gospel confronts our disbelief. And we cannot take any credit for our salvation. Each of us must recognize the full sufficiency of faith.

The gospel confronts our misunderstanding of scripture, Christ, grace, and faith. Our conscience tells us these things. Peter J. Gomes former Plummer Professor of Christian Morality at Harvard Divinity School writes, “Conscience is that little bit of God implanted in us, that part of ourselves made in the image of God that tells us what we know to be true and good, to which, in our better moments, we aspire.”[4] In Christian terms, conscience is the conviction of the Holy Spirit.[5]

Let the gospel confront your brokenness, merit-based thinking, disbelief, and self-centeredness. Begin to experience the fullness of God’s love for you and your reconciliation with God in whom your identity is rooted. Be overtaken by prodigal loving.[6] Amen.

This sermon was preached on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, 30 March 2025 by

the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary at

Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright © 2025

Steven M. Marsh

All Rights Reserved.

[1]Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three, Christianity Today, Vol. 30, No. 7.

[2]Donald K. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 133.

[3]Adapted from Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), 320-322.

[4]Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus (New York City, New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 134.

[5]In the six paragraphs above, I was challenged by the thinking of Patricia K. Tull, David A. Davis, Leigh Campbell-Taylor, William Greenway, Richard F. Ward, D. Cameron Murchison, and Adam J. Copeland 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), 76-78, 78-79, 80-82, 83-85, 85-86, 87-90, and 90-92.

[6]Adam J. Copeland in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume2, 92.

“Americans Love Big“; Isaiah 55:1-9, Luke 13:1-9

“Connecting with Jesus, One Another, and Others in the Unconditional Love of Our God (Together, in a variety of ways)”

Robert Frost writes, “There’s nothing I’m afraid of like scared people.”[1] Will fear of “the other” escalate irrational behavior? The writer of Isaiah asks us to hold …two realities in paradoxical tension: “‘Come, thirsty one,’ and ‘My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts not your thoughts.’”[2] Isaiah 55:6 exhorts people to return to God, listen to and seek the Lord, while God still can be found. Let’s heed Isaiah’s word and address our striving after things that don’t matter and our wasteful use of resources.

Jesus was teaching the crowd on how to read the signs of the times. Pilate had no regard for human life. Jesus states that the Galileans killed by Pilate were no worse than other Galileans. He also notes that when the tower of Siloam fell on eighteen people and killed them, they were no guiltier than those who survived the tower’s crash. Death comes upon anyone at any time and for any reason. It behooves people to get right with God.

Jesus says in Luke 13:3, “…unless you repent, you will all perish…” Fear is often at the core of our deepest thoughts and aches of the human heart.[3] Repenting of our “fear” and trusting God’s promises are in order. The fig tree was a mature tree given the owner’s expectation that it should bear fruit. But for three years the tree regularly disappointed the owner. The vineyard worker is ordered to cut the tree down, but asks for one more year to nurture it. Judgment is held back. In our case, the repentant will survive, the unrepentant will not. Decisions have consequences.[4]

Love, not fear must lead. Martin Luther feared the peasants might rise up and take power from those who had it, because they could read the Bible he translated into German. White Christians in the American south feared the black slaves, because they had constructed a society based on it even though they knew slavery was incompatible with the Bible’s teaching. Those who supported national socialism in Germany lived in fear that they might never again control the destiny of their country if they didn’t persecute “the other.” For more than fifty years, Americans lived in fear of communism, because it appealed to the disaffected in American society and argued for the redistribution of wealth. The current fear gripping Americans is whether we see a new golden age forming or the demise of democracy. This fear is rooted in the notion of truth or untruth being the plumbline. Loving others in words and deeds will expose untruth.[5]

Fear does not generate good policy or good behavior. Love generates good policy and good behavior. I agree with Peter Gomes, former Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School when he writes, “Fear represents the absence of courage and a poverty of imagination.”[6] Receive God’s grace. Reconnect God’s history of loving with both the past and future. Be thankful. Embrace the giving presence of our loving, compassionate, and gracious God. Condemn hateful rhetoric. Participate in the saving work of our powerful God. Repent and bear fruit worthy of repentance. Live Grace’s mission: “…to make fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.” Perfect love casts out fear and we love Jesus. Let’s love big, friends. Amen.

This sermon was preached on the Third Sunday in Lent, 23 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]From A Hundred Collars by Robert Frost.

[2]Kenyatta R. Gilbert in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 75.

[3]Idea gleaned from Michael B. Curry in in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, 93.

[4]In the three paragraphs above, I was challenged by the thinking of Patricia K. Tull, David A. Davis, J. Clinton McCann Jr., William Greenway, Richard F. Ward, Dennis E. Smith, and Adam J. Copeland 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), 61-63, 63-65, 66-67, 68-70, 70-71, 72-74, and 74-75.

[5]The cited “fears” gleaned from Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus (New York City, New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 105-106.

[6]Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus,106.

“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.