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September 15, 2024

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 15:1-6
Luke 3:7a-8

Sermon Text:

Grace to you and peace from God, our creator, and from our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

A lot has happened between last week’s reading about Adam and Eve and today’s reading about Abram. After Adam and Eve left the garden, there was Cain and Abel – and the promise God made to protect Cain after he killed his brother.

Then there was Noah and the flood – and the covenant God made with Noah that God would never again destroy the world in that way. There was also the Tower of Babel – when the people chose to locate God in the sky, away from them, and to only seek God when they wanted to.

So, God scattered them. But God didn’t abandon them.

All of this is in the book of Genesis. And in Genesis ch12, things begin to shift. The perspective of the story of God and God’s people moves from the whole world to a family. God tells Abram, a descendant of Noah, to leave his home and all that is familiar and move to a new place.

And God promises to make of Abram and Sarai, his wife, a great nation. To bless Abram so that he will be a blessing to others – meaning to the whole world, including the people God had scattered at Babel. And Abram goes. He packs up Sarai and all their belongings and goes simply because God told him to.

By the time we get to the events in our reading today, years have gone by since God first made the promises to Abram. And Abram’s starting to get concerned, genuinely, because Sarai still hadn’t been able to get pregnant. And it’s hard to be the father of a great nation if you don’t have even one child.

So, Abram says to God, “I have a question. You promised these things to me a while ago, and I believe you. But here’s my life, and it’s a little unclear to me how you’re going to work this out.”

The promise doesn’t seem to have been fulfilled, so Abram is starting to doubt. And if you’ve ever had an experience of doubt or uncertainty about something you had hoped would happen – especially if you wanted it to happen in a certain way or by a certain time and it didn’t – the tendency is to look down and become almost hyper focused on what hasn’t happened. It’s difficult to look up from it and see or imagine something else happening.

That’s where Abram was in his heart. He couldn’t imagine the reward God spoke of when so much else was unresolved.

So, God took Abram’s mind, which was downcast, and lifted up the eyes of Abram’s heart. The Lord led Abram outside and urged him to look up at the sky and count the stars. It’s the same promise that was given in ch12, but this time Abram’s belief in God was reckoned – or counted – by God as righteousness.

There are differing opinions on what righteousness means exactly, but what it boils down to is God putting people in a right relationship with God’s self. In other words, God makes people and the world right with God.

Theologian Joseph Sittler often told the story of a time he was in Jerusalem and his car broke down. He took it to a mechanic to have it fixed. When the mechanic had finished and started up the engine to hear it running perfectly, he said, “Zadik.” In this context it means simply: “it works.”

But zadik is also the Hebrew word that’s translated as “righteousness.” And in that context, it means that people and the world are made to “work” in and through the ministry of the One who fulfills all righteousness. That is, it’s God’s action that accomplishes this.

In the case of our Genesis reading, God accepted Abram’s trust as enough to make Abram right with God. And Abram was able to move forward in that trust, being assured that God would fulfill the promises God had made.

We know how the rest of Abram’s story unfolds. That, despite the assurance of God, the beginning of the promise of descendants didn’t manifest for several more years. And Abram didn’t even live to witness the promises of land and blessing. But he still had faith, he still trusted in God’s promises.

All of this still matters because, for us, Abram is considered a hero of faith. And our temptation is to think of faith as unquestioning acceptance or even silently submitting to God. But we know Abram didn’t do that; he wasn’t perfect. And in his imperfection, he shows us that a person who questions and complains and doubts can be a model of faith.

Because it is God who takes our questions and complaints and doubts, and lifts the eyes of our heart and assures us of God’s promised future.

Each day, we have the opportunity to think about our discipleship – the way we live our life in light of that promise. Because we are part of this ongoing story. Each day, we have the opportunity to remember that our faith and trust in God is about how we live.

That’s why John the Baptist said what he said in the Gospel reading. He needed the people coming to be baptized by him to understand that, yes, Abraham’s faith in God was great and an example to be followed, but that their faith in God was about them and how they lived.

In other words, they couldn’t just point to Abraham and say, “His faith in God’s promises is enough to cover us.” Because God’s story and God’s promises didn’t end with Abraham. In Jesus, they would learn anew about faith in God and God’s promises.

They would learn to trust Jesus to lift the eyes of their heart and look ahead, to step outside of what was known, and into something new so that new things could happen – so that new life could happen. And they would learn, too, that that new life wouldn’t always be easy.

And not everyone would stick with it. But those that did, taught others to have faith in God and God’s promises. And God’s story, God’s promises continued.

As Christians, God’s promised future for us is in Jesus. His life, death, and resurrection define our life and hope. Our faith in that promise shapes how we live every day.

As I was working on all of this, I found myself wondering if it’s easier for us today to trust in God and God’s promises than it was for Abraham or the early disciples because we have the Bible and thousands of years of history. And I don’t know that it is any easier.

People still pack up and move to new places trusting that it’s the right decision, but not knowing for sure. People still live with the pain of infertility. People still try to control where God is and how God is accessed. As Christians, we’re still waiting for Jesus to return.

Our faith in God, our trust in God, is developed and challenged throughout our lives. It empowers us to ask hard questions. It allows us to get frustrated. It encourages us to stand with someone whose faith is faltering and help them find solid ground.

It helps us recognize the moments when Jesus lifts the eyes of our hearts and assures us that God will keep the promises God has made.

Living that trust, wrestling with our faith, and continuing to move forward in that life – even cautiously – is how we become who we are as people of faith. It’s how we learn to live in light of God’s promised future. And in that process, we learn that God has accepted our faith, our trust, and made us right with God’s self.

Thanks be to God! Amen.