This week I've had my biggest challenge yet in coming up with the sermon for Sunday. I normally follow the Revised Common Lectionary, or else whichever series we're doing (e.g. Sunday nights in the Cathedral are Philippians during the summer). And the readings for this Sunday were unusual: Genesis 45:1-15, where Joseph makes himself known to his brothers; Matthew 15:21-28, where Jesus is going through Gentile territory and a Canaanite woman comes to him wasking to heal her daughter, and Jesus calls her a dog (indirectly), but she takes this name to herself and so her daughter is healed; and Romans 11:1-2(a) and 29-32.
It seems to me that the compilers of the RCL left out the main thrust of the argument in Romans 11. But I have decided that I'm going to preach on the last verse, verse 32: 'For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all'. The sermon plan in short is this:
- disobedience - what it is, how we have disobeyed God, and the scriptural proofs
- the consequences of that disobedience - how God has bound us all over to disobedience
- God's mercy - how he frees us from our slavery to sin
As usual. the full sermon will be posted in due time on the blog.
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