Sermon Starters: Second Sunday in Lent, Year C
WWJD?
Welcome to the weekly Sermon Stems from Liturgical Threads. Below, you will find sermon starters for each of this week’s Lectionary verses. Before diving into these, you should read my Scriptures Notes for this week; much of what I put into these sermon stems draws on my earlier reflections. In Sermon Stems, I want to draw on those insights to point the way towards further theological reflection that could resonate in the context of your own faith community. Take these stems as a little push towards starting on your own sermon or reflection; these will hopefully stir something in you that gets you going. Free members get one starter; become a paid subscriber to see them all.
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On to the sermon starters!
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
As noted in the Lectionary Notes for this week, this selection from Genesis showcases Abram verbally sparring with God - not the last time he would do so! Messages centered on this passage could explore what it means to challenge God. Popular imagination may view doing so as scandalous or dangerous to one’s salvation, but there is strong Scriptural warrant for doing so - see Job and the Psalms for numerous examples; also, Abraham in the days before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Moses in the wilderness pushing back against God’s anger towards the people.
This is also the first major covenant God made with the people of Israel, and probably the most well known. God promises here the nation of Israel, and the destiny of Abram’s descendants. Covenant is a key theme in the Torah. Consider exploring the concept of covenant: an agreement between two parties, often with promises made by both sides as they enter into some form of relationship.
That said, this covenant is interesting in the sense that it is one-sided: God makes promises here to Abram without yet asking for anything in return. In later covenants, God will have requirements of Abram and his descendants, but for now, this is a covenant of grace: God grants it to God’s people merely be dint of who they are, not what they do. There are important implications here to explore when doing the work of dispelling the idea of a different God in the Old and New Testaments. Already here, early in Genesis, we see the God of love and grace at work, in a world full of transactional gods.
Philippians 3:17-4:1
The imitation of Christ is an important theme for Paul throughout his letters. In Romans, Paul interweaves the ideas of imitation and participation to describe the life of discipleship. Here, the focus is on imitation, and Paul presents himself as a focal point for imitation as well. It may be fruitful to explore “The Temptation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis.
Paul instructs his readers here to imitate Christ via denial and self-control. The reference early in the passage to the “god in the belly” evokes the sin of gluttony, and the reference to “minds set on earthly things” carries critiques of greed, lust, and avarice. Paul makes promises of eschatological reward as a result of imitation.
Any text from Philippians invites revisiting 2:6-11, the Christ hymn Paul recites, which is also a call to imitation. Revisit these verses, and especially the power of the words about the self-emptying of Christ. What are the implications for imitation and discipleship in light of the hymn’s praise of Christ’s willingness to give up divinity for humanity’s sake?
Luke 13:31-35
As Gospel verses tend to go, there is a rich ground to pull sermon material from here. In the broadest sense, this selection is a powerful example of Jesus challenging the powers and principalities of the world, in this case King Herod. Despite the threat of tyranny and oppression, Jesus refuses to compromise or qualify his message of compassion and mercy. Referencing back to the Epistle selection this week, this is one of the best places to call people to imitation, in our own willingness to stand up and speak strongly against injustice.
Jesus compares himself to a mother hen in the second half of this selection, and weeps over the people of Jerusalem. This is a highly relevant passage today, in a context where there is a strong push for toxically masculinized Christianity. Jesus here rejects a way of challenging power that involves violence, but instead embraces the mothering love of God for the people.
Mini-sermon for Lent 2, Year C
Occasionally, Sermon Starters will include a mini-sermon, putting some of the selections for the week into action. Please feel free to use this material as needed, but provide appropriate credit if you do; please don’t use this in your context and present it as your own!
Not too show my age too much, but let’s think about that 90’s Christian kid meme: WWJD. If you were in church youth groups, you likely had something with those letters on it, whether it was a friendship bracelet or t-shirt or handwritten on the inside cover of your NIV Teen study Bible. “What would Jesus do?” This was the question posed to millions of gen x-ers and millennials, a question that shaped their socially-oriented approach to the faith, something that peaked with the emergent church and the ex-vangelicals in the 2010s.
Christians have always grappled with this question, because it is what sets our faith apart from other religions. When assessing our ethical imperatives, we have the concrete example of a flesh-and-blood God, who lived and breathed and acted. We have four gospels worth of what it is Jesus would do, and yet despite this, we still struggle to answer the question. What would Jesus do with the illegal immigrant? What would He do with the teen mom who needs an abortion? What would he do in the face of MAGA America?
Paul grappled with this question, throughout all of his letters. The imitation of Christ - couched so often in the language of participation - is central for the instructions Paul gives his churches. What would Jesus do with meat sacrificed to an idol? With the divergent backgrounds and worldviews of Jews and Gentiles worshipping next to one another? With itinerants appropriating His name to promote a divergent Gospel?
In this Epistle reading today, Paul tries to ease the burden of WWJD, by commending his own example as a place to look for imitation. In the face of a world tempting them with the fruits of gluttony and avarice and greed, Paul implores his people to stand firm in the way of God, to continue their imitation of Christ, and of Paul himself, if the example of Christ proves too daunting.
This question vexes us today. Some Christians think that the things Jesus would do look a lot like popular American masculinity, embodied in America in 2025 by big trucks and bravado and swagger and a casual indifference to women and minorities. Yet, right here in the Gospel of Luke, we see a very different kind of Jesus to imitate: Jesus the mother hen, drawing her chicks under wing and weeping for them, the mothering love of God centered in our conception of Her and Her power.
Maybe the mothering God isn’t our vibe. That’s ok; Scripture contains a multitude of images of God, enough so that we can find that which speaks to us. And yet, we must remember to always keep Jesus in sight; our imitation is of Christ, because Christ shows us most clearly what God looks like, and thus how we should live. This means any form of discipleship that rejects justice, compassion, mercy, nonviolence, or grace, is the wrong answer to WWJD. Those false visions of the life of discipleship require us to question and push back against them, just as Abram was willing to push back against God. If Abram can do that, then we can all find moments to challenge MAGA Christianity whenever it rears its ugly, nationalist and hypermasculine head.
WWJD? Love, mostly, like a mother does. May we all be so strong.