Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
In Genesis 11 we are told of Abram’s birth to Terah. In Genesis 12 God calls Abram into relationship with him with the promise to make him a great nation, give him land and to be his god. In Genesis 15 God makes a covenant with Abram to seal the promises he had made at his calling. In Genesis 17 God renews that covenant, after he and Sarai had tried their own method of securing a family through Hagar and Ishmael. The covenant is sealed by giving both Abram and Sarai new names (Abraham and Sarah) and establishes circumcision as the ongoing evidence of the covenant.
Psalm 22:23-31
Psalm 22 is a psalm of David that was intended to be sung. It begins in verse 1 with the memorable words that Jesus quoted on the cross: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me. In the last portion of the psalm David remembers that God takes care of us and calls for the people not only to honor God, but to teach the generations that follow them to do the same.
Mark 8:31-38
In this passage Jesus repeats what he has spoken since almost the beginning of his ministry that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the leaders of the faith, be killed and after three days rise again. Peter is greatly disturbed and takes Jesus aside to rebuke him for saying such things. Think of reasons that Peter felt so strongly that he dared to challenge Jesus. In vs. 33 Jesus looks at the disciples and then rebukes Peter by saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Imagine that you are Peter and Jesus speaks these things to you. Imagine you are one of the disciples, who witness this and your reaction. He then calls the crowd to him and begins a discourse about the marks of being a disciple, which include denying yourself and taking up a cross and following him, when he has just mentioned suffering, rejection, death and resurrection. What might be the response of the crowd? He speaks about the difference between saving your life and losing your life. The final vs. talks about people who are ashamed of him and his response to that.
Romans 4:13-25
Paul goes back to the story of the Abrahamic covenant and discusses why God calls Abraham “righteous”, which he says is not because of the law, but because of Abraham’s trusting faith in God. Paul then challenges a new generation of folks to claim their faith in Jesus Christ, who both died for the forgiveness of our sins and sealed the covenant of reconciliation by rising from the dead by justification.