This is one of the earliest bits of New Testament literature, and the words of this relative of our Savior are inspired and useful for teaching and reproof, for correction and training in righteousness.
If you find yourself preaching through epistles for multiple weeks, maybe, just maybe, your hearer will find something familiar from last week in what you are talking about this week which piques their interest, and even whets their appetite for what else might be coming.
It might be said of Thielicke’s preaching of the parables, he does not throw sticks of dynamite, but sets little time bombs which explode, sometimes in unexpected ways, in the minds and hearts of those who hear him.
Helmut Thielicke had lived on the borderline between life and death enduring a life-threatening illness in his youth and confronting the perpetually present carnage of World War Two. He ministered to a skeptical generation that teetered on the borderline between faith and unbelief.
Our stories, be they never so inspiring or worthy of emulation, should never be equated with proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Gospel Jesus Christ commissioned to be proclaimed.
The challenges of meeting severe crises and the hurdles which dare us to say something meaningful to the satisfied and richly blessed can make us wonder what we are really there to do as we come into the pulpit.