2nd Sunday in Lent
March 17, 2019
Genesis 15:1-18
(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utHbC-NuEL4
)
When I sat down to write this sermon was when the news
broke about the gunman opening fire on worshipers at Al Noor and Linwood
mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Terrorism adds another dimension to trust
that I hadn’t planned to talk about, but we’re going to go there first. Canadian
pastor Carey Nieuwhof wrote, “You wish you could wake up in a world in which
children could go to school, friends could go to movies, athletes could run
marathons, music lovers could go to concerts and people could go to nightclubs
and churches without the fear of violence. Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be
ready to happen anytime soon. Hurricanes and earthquakes—devastating as they
are—are one thing. But the evil that we inflict on one another, that’s a whole
other sickness. In an era of randomized terror and angry, isolated men, it’s
extremely difficult to protect ourselves from acts of violence in shopping
malls, schools, churches or movie theatres…it is infecting and affecting our
ordinary, everyday life. Which is exactly what it’s designed to do. And hence,
it’s terror.”[1] We
want to put our children on school buses in the morning and trust they will
come home to us in the afternoon. We want to trust that we can do ordinary
everyday things and not worry whether we will survive them. We can’t live in
fear. And fear and anxiety should not control your life. Tomorrow is not
promised to any of us.
Instead,
God calls us to live faithfully, come what may. God called St. Patrick to go
back to Ireland, the place where he was enslaved. Can you imagine the
trepidation he must have felt and his level of trust in God when he stepped
foot on Irish soil again? “Ok, God, here I am. Please keep me safe. I trust you
and you called me here.” And then he probably repeated that prayer for a while
as different sights or sounds or smells can trigger memories. The same is true
for Jesus. In our Gospel reading this morning Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem
and he knows why he’s going to Jerusalem. He’s on the road to the cross. “Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to
it!”[2]
Jesus knows he’s one of those who is going to be killed in Jerusalem, it’s not
a safe place for him, and yet he’s obeying God’s will.
One of those in the Bible who’s highly commended for his
faithfulness and radical obedience is Abraham. In Genesis 12, God says “Go from
your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show
you” and you will be blessed to be a blessing to others. Go, without knowing
the final destination yet. Go down this road. I’ll tell you where it leads later.
God says go, and Abram goes. He has some adventures along the way and then we
get to today’s reading from chapter 15. God says, “Do not be afraid. I am your
shield. Your reward shall be great.” Abram asks, “What reward? I’m childless. A
dude named Eliezer in my household is my heir. I have no children.” God
replies, “Eliezer will not be your heir but your own child. Look at the heavens
and number the stars, if you can. Your descendants will be just as numerous.”
And Abram believed God. This is faith, “confidence in what we hope for and
assurance about what we do not see.”[3]
There is no physical evidence. He and Sarai have been barren for a very long
time, there’s no sign of that changing, except for this promise from God. “Abram
believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”[4]
Abram believed the Lord, and then the conversation
continued. God says, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur to possess this
land.” Abram asks for a sign, “How am I to know that I will possess it?” God
gives him the details to make a covenant offering. Abram does it and falls
asleep. In his dreams, God says, “Your descendants will be slaves for 400 years
in another country. Then I will punish that country and your heirs will come
back to this land. You will die a ripe old age.” And God makes a covenant with
Abram to give his descendants the land. Abram believes the Lord, yet he still
questions. How do I know this going to happen? And God makes a covenant with
him that it’s going to happen. “Number the stars and so shall your offspring
be,” and Abram, with zero children, believes the Lord. “I’m going to give you
this land,” and Abram who’s been a nomad since he left Ur in chapter 12, wants
a sign. This is part of the human condition. “We like to think of ourselves as
being people who inherently trust God. Yet [more often than not,] … the first
response of humanity toward God is that of distrust.”[5]
One promise, Abram’s good. Two promises? The thing is, “we [often] find divine
generosity so overwhelming that we dispute it.”[6]
We argue back with God, we ask for signs, we want proof, we want clarity,
[pause] we get impatient for when God’s
going to fulfill God’s promises. You thought Abram was good with being
promised that he’d have a child? In the
very next chapter Abram and Sarai decide they’re going to make God’s promise come true. Sarai
gives Abram her slave, Hagar, to sleep with. Hagar gets pregnant and Ishmael is
born. Don’t we always get in trouble when we try to make God’s promises come true? When we take matters into our own
hands? God still takes care of Hagar and Ishmael, and Ishmael is considered a
prophet in Islam.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with questioning God and it’s
okay to ask for signs. God answers those questions and gives signs. It happens
all the time in the Bible: Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Gideon. I asked God for signs for confirmation
that I was hearing God right when God told me it was time to leave Nicaragua
and go to seminary. I asked God for three signs, and God answered all three.
Here I am. There’s a difference, though, when we take matters into our own
hands. It’s not God promised me a car, so I’m going to go steal a car because
God promised it to me. It’s God sent me down this path, and I don’t know where
it leads and I may ask for some light and markers along the way, which God will
provide, because God is faithful. 2 Peter 1:3 says “His divine power has given
us everything we need for a godly life.” God has given us everything we need.
Not everything we want, but God has given us everything we need to live a life
that pleases God.
So, go where God’s leading. Wait for God’s timing. Don’t
force it. Keep following each step God shows you. Remain faithful amid doubt, and
fear, and temptation. Those things are going to come; they’re part of life. The
point is what you do with your doubts and your fears and your temptations. Do
you give in? Or do you name your fears, double-check the facts, figure out what
you can do about it, and then, as 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxieties on
him, because he cares for you.” Ask God to search your heart, to test you and
know your anxious thoughts.[7]
That comes from Psalm 139, and the very next verse says, “See if there is any
offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Fear is not
necessarily sinful, as long as you don’t let it paralyze you or overwhelm you
or control you, as long as you still act in spite of your anxiety. Faith means
you trust even when there’s no physical evidence and all you have a promise
from the One who is faithful. We don’t know exactly what the future will look
like, the future of this church, the future of our denomination, the future of
each of our families. But we can face the future with calm, which the opposite
of terror. God does not terrorize. God is in the business of love and bringing
together and building up.
In Hebrews 11, which begins with that definition of
faith, “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see,”
then lists various ancients who were commended for their faithfulness: Abel,
Enoch, Noah, Abram. Then it says, “All these people were still living by faith
when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them
and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and
strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a
country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left,
they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a
better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their
God, for he has prepared a city for them.” You can look back, to the place you
used to be. And God says if you do that, then you’ll have the opportunity to
return. You don’t have to follow God down the road God leads you. You can stay
stuck in the past, or you can look forward to the future God has prepared for you.
Rebuilding and moving forward requires trust, because
faith requires trust. What’s helpful to remember here is that John Wesley, the
founder of Methodism, firmly believed that faith is a gift of God; it’s not
something we can accomplish on our own. You can’t make yourself have more faith
any more than you can make God’s promises come true. God fulfills God’s
promises. God gives faith. Trust God. Even when there’s no physical evidence,
look to trust God. Stand firm in God’s promises. God is faithful. God will
bring about the future God has promised. It’s a future with hope. It’s a future
we can’t make happen on our own. It’s
a future we trust God to bring about as we continue to live faithfully. Rebuilding
requires faith and trust in God. And what does the Lord require of you? In the
words of Micah 6:9, “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with
your God.”
For
some practical ways to do that, the Canadian pastor, Carey Nieuwhof, who I
mentioned at the beginning had some ideas. While many others were posting
prayers for the Muslim community, which are good and are needed, he posted his
“Thoughts on How to Be the Church in an Age of Terror and Tragedy.”[8]
He wrote that in this time when it’s hard to trust, “what the church is doing
is more important, not less important.” We the Church have a radically
different alternative to violence and hatred and that is love. Jesus said his
followers would be known by their love. In the face of violence and hatred,
show love, be love, preach love, respond with love. Love is stronger than
hatred and death. Love changes hearts. “The most radical thing you can do today
is to extend love in the face of hate.” If you need something completely
concrete to do, the Dar Al Taqwa Mosque in Ellicott City is holding an interfaith,
community-wide solidarity event this evening at 6:00 p.m. It’s one action you
can take to go and show love. There are many others. In the face of fear and
hatred, we respond with calm, that the Lord is my Shepherd, I need not fear,
and we respond by saying God loves you, and so do I.
Let
us pray…
[2]
Luke 13:34
[3]
Hebrews 11:1
[4]
Genesis 15:6
[5] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 2, p.
50
[6]
Ibid.
[7]
Psalm 139:23
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