|
Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 Psalm 27 or 27:10-18 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:(22-30)31-35
Keeping the FaithEver since I was a little girl, I’ve had a fascination with the stars. I used to have a children’s book that had a map of the constellations that could be seen at different times of year, and I loved being able to go outside and see which ones I could make out. Growing up in suburbia, however, really starry nights were far and few between. Once, when I was about 12, we visited my paternal grandparents in rural Missouri. I didn’t get to see them too often since my mom and dad divorced when I was 2. They lived on a farm, out in the country. One clear night, we sat outside, turned off the lights in the house, and just watched the stars. It was the first time that I saw the Milky Way. The whole sky looked like a blanket of lights. It was beautiful. We even saw the space station as it orbited. Just two weeks ago, in the last couple of days that Chris and I had in New Zealand, I had the opportunity to enjoy the southern hemisphere’s night sky. We were blessed with two awesomely clear nights. One night, Chris and I simply went up on a hill near the small town of Russell in the Bay of Islands, and laid out on a blanket looking at stars. There were stars I’d never seen before, and the stars and constellations I did recognize were upside down. The next night, I actually partook in a “Galaxy Tour” offered by a local amateur astronomer who has her own 14 inch diameter telescope and observatory dome. I not only saw stars, but the rings around Saturn, nebula, a comet, far off galaxies, and even something called “globular clusters” which to the naked eye look like a fat fuzzy star, but in reality, are really thousands and thousands of stars clustered together at the edge of our galaxy. There is something about looking at the majesty and wonder of the universe in the night sky that affirms to me to awesome power, majesty and wonder of God. Maybe that is why God sent Abram outside to look at the stars to confirm his promise. You see, about a decade earlier, way back in Genesis Chapter 12, God told Abram to leave his homeland and travel to a land he would show them. He also promised him that he would make of him a great nation. So Abram traveled with his wife Sarai to the land of Canaan, and was promised that someday, his offspring would be given that land. This was already an audacious promise, since Abram was 75 and Sarai was 65 and barren when they set out. Much had happened since they had left Ur. Abram’s herds of livestock had grown, and he became prosperous. But Abram still didn’t have an heir. In the vision that begins our reading today, God has told Abram to “Fear Not,” that his reward would be very great. But Abram couldn’t understand what good God’s rewards or blessings might be for him, if he had no children to pass them on to. “But I have no offspring!” he cries. So God sends him outside. “Look at the stars,” God says. “Count them if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have.” And Abram had faith and believed. What was it that made Abram have faith? Why does he believe God’s promise now, even after nearly a decade of waiting, when he still has no assurance of when God’s promise will be fulfilled? In fact, he will have to wait 15 more years before his son Isaac is born. God doesn’t give him any new information in their encounter. God had promised him before that his descendants would be numerous like the dust of the earth. Today the assurance God gives Abram is to show him the stars. It’s not as if the stars hadn’t been there before. It’s not like showing Abram the stars proved anything more about God. \ But Abram heard God’s word, saw the stars, and believed. If Abram had had to explain to someone why he believed, he wouldn’t have been able to give much evidence. “I believe because God told me it would be… And did you see those stars? A God who can make those can do anything.” Abram’s faith is itself a gift from God and assurance of God’s promises. God still works that way today. God gives us promises of his care and provision for us, and even when there is no evidence that he will keep his promise, he can instill in us the faith to believe him. Many people I know have come to faith simply by embracing faith as a gift that was offered from God. “I questioned, I wondered, I struggled. Finally, I just had to believe. I just knew God was real, and that the Good News of Jesus was true. It’s not that all my questions were answered. But I came to understand that God was bigger than my questions and doubts.” I wonder how many people here have struggled with their faith? Sometimes that gift of faith comes just like it did from Abram…. By looking at the stars, or seeing a beautiful sunset…. By looking into the face of a child, or in a peaceful moment sitting in church. No doubt, there are some people here who have always had faith. You have always known Jesus in your life. There may be times when you felt closer or further away, but faith has been a gift you have always enjoyed. Others of you here have come to faith after a time of struggle and doubt. Others of you are still in the questioning phase, and even though you may be coming to church, you would not yet consider yourself a follower of Jesus. No matter where you are in your faith, I think all of us struggle with why God, if there is a God, often doesn’t seem to be holding up his end of the bargain. Once Abram believed God’s promise, God established his covenant with him with a sign. He had Abram sacrifice some of his livestock. He cut them in two and laid the halves out. It was an ancient covenant ceremony for both parties to walk through the middle of such a sacrifice indicating something like, “May the same thing happen to me if I break this covenant.” In fact the Hebrew word to “Make” a covenant actually means to “cut” a covenant. So Abram does his part, and makes the sacrifice. But why does God delay in showing up? Abram spends hours shooing away the birds of prey that attack the exposed sacrifice. Finally, deep sleep overwhelms him, and a terrifyingly darkness oppresses him. Maybe you have felt like Abram. You’ve offered God the sacrifice you feel God has asked, and you’re left driving away the vultures. You have nothing but God’s word, but You believe God’s promises - God’s promise for abundant spiritual life… God’s promise of salvation through Jesus… God’s promise of wholeness…. God’s promise of his presence through the Holy Spirit. And you’ve made sacrifices because of those promises…. You’ve re-oriented your family’s priorities. You’ve begun to tithe. You have given up an evening at home to take on a course of biblical study. Or you’ve taken on a significant ministry of service to others. You’ve given up bad habits. You’ve given God your Sunday mornings. You pray. Why is it that God sometimes lets us go through deep terrifying darkness before he shows up to confirm his presence and seal his covenant in our hearts? I’m sorry to say that I don’t have a definitive answer to those questions this morning. I can’t tell you why God doesn’t show up when and how we would like him to. I can’t tell you why there is often a delay between the promises we have from God, and our experience of their fulfillment. I can’t tell you why we experience times of terror and darkness even when we are in the midst of obedient sacrifice to God. What I can tell you is that God is worthy of our faith. You need not doubt that God’s promises are true. Even without evidence, you can believe that God is trustworthy. But God does give us evidence. He fulfilled his promise to Abram. The people of Israel became a great nation. You and I are here today as the spiritual descendants of Abram. It was over 4000 years ago that God made his covenant with Abram. Nearly 2000 years ago, God made a new covenant. This time, he was the one to make the sacrifice. Jesus’ life was split open on the cross, and you and I are invited to walk through the midst of that sacrifice to participate in the covenant binding us together in the eternal loving life of God. I was touched by a poem that I found in the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer (p. 157) that expresses the wait for God’s promise.
The Lake of Beauty By Edward Carpenter Let your mind be quiet, realizing the beauty of the world, and the immense, the boundless treasures that it holds in store. All that you have within you, all that your heart desires, all that your Nature so specially fits you for - that or the counterpart of it waits embedded in the great Whole, for you . It will surely come to you.
Yet equally surely not one moment before its appointed time will it come. All your crying and fever and reaching out of hands will make no difference. Therefore do not begin that game at all. Do not recklessly spill the waters of your mind in this direction and in that, lest you become like a spring lost and dissipated in the desert.
But draw them together into a little compass, and hold them still, so still; And let them become clear, so clear - so limpid, so mirror-like; at last the mountains and the sky shall glass themselves in peaceful beauty, and the antelope shall descend to drink and to gaze at her reflected image, and the lion to quench his thirst. And Love himself shall come and bend over and catch his own likeness in you. You can trust God’s promises. You can accept God’s invitation to believe. Have faith. Just look at the stars. |
