March 17, 2019

Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
 Grace and peace to you
from the one who goes to great lengths to keep promises. Amen
 
The theme running through our readings for today
 is that God keeps the promises God makes.
 
 We know this,
we affirm it,
but sometimes, especially in the middle of hardship
 it’s hard to trust this,
it’s hard to see anything other than what is right in front of us
and our prayers start to sound like our psalm for the day.
 
In the face of forces working actively against the psalmist they pray,
 and their prayer alternates between statements of trust
 almost as if making those statements will help the psalmist
 believe that they are true
and acknowledging the reality of the present.
 
 The psalmist starts off
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?”
 Who indeed,
but behind these words we sense a reason to fear
and sure enough in the very next verse
 the psalmist says “when evildoers close in against me”
and goes on to describe bad things that happen in life.
 
Back and forth the psalm goes,
calling on the Lord’s promises
and seeking reassurance
in the midst of times of trouble
 
I think we’ve all prayed something like this
where we alternate between
“I know you’re great God and have made these promises”
 and in the next breath crying out
 “help! Bad things are happening, right now!”
and both are true at the same time.
We need reassurance when the way gets tough,
we need to vent our frustrations and fears
 
 after all of the emotions have been expressed
 the psalmist settles on the last two verses
“This I believe--that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!
Wait for the Lord and be strong. Take heart and wait for the Lord!”
 
And it’s true,
we do believe we will see the goodness of God,
 and we catch glimpses of it
but that second part,
 the waiting
 is oh so hard,
 
we’ve experienced that this past week
 as we’ve waited and watched the waters rise
 not knowing what the future will look like
 for communities and families around the state,
 
and as much as we’ve wanted to do something,
at a certain point all that’s left to do is wait
we’re still waiting.
And the longer the wait the more assurance we need.
 
God keeps the promises God makes
but our time line and God’s don’t always line up
and so sometimes we question God,
and God responds with reassurance.
 
We see this in our first reading from Genesis
in the conversation between God and Abram
 
This scene is actually not the first conversation between the two
earlier when God led Abram from his home
God promised him land and descendants as numerous as grains of sand,
 
Abram has been faithful in his following of God thus far
but he’s getting older
and he’s not seeing the fruit of those promises,
 
So Abram questions God
Essentially saying,
yah you made those promises but what have you done for me lately?
looking for more details
 in how this seemingly impossible promise will come true,
and God reassures him
 pointing to the night sky and saying
“look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them, so shall your descendants be.”
 
And Abram,
reassured,
 believes God.
 
Then the pattern repeats itself.
 God repeats the promise of land to Abram
and Abram questions God
 “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
 
and what follows
is possibly one of the stranger passages
 that we hear on a regular basis,
 specific animals being cut in two,
darkness,
 a smoking fire pot and flaming torch
passing through the animal pieces…
 
What are we to make of such a scene?
We know from research scholars have done on the ancient middle-east
that though it may have been terrifying for Abram
 the actual ritual would have been familiar to him
for this was the ritual of covenant or contract making.
 
Minus the presence of lawyers and paper and pen
this was how contracts were made,
 the ritual of walking through the dismembered animals
 signified an important promise.
 essentially saying, “if I fail to keep my promise, may the same thing happen to me as to these animals.”
 
God’s promise to Abram is so important
that God “considers an experience of suffering and death” (NIB 449)
in order to convey the seriousness of the promise.
 
God keeps the promises God makes
 
As Christians
we have cause to know just how far God will go to keep a promise.
In our gospel reading for today
 Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem
 
 and immediately
some Pharisees come
and tell him that he shouldn’t go
because it’s dangerous.
 
Jesus already knows that,
 Jesus already knows what is going to happen
and Jesus knows what lengths God is willing to go to keep promises
all the way to death and back again.
 
Jesus is the promised messiah
the one the people have longed for, for so long
 but true to God’s form
 the fulfillment of the promise
is beyond human conception of what it will look like.
 
 Jesus uses the image
of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings,
that is what he longs to do
and in a way will do in his outstretched arms on the cross
 
 but the people,
 expecting a hawk or an eagle
 have not been willing to come under Jesus
the mother hen’s wings,
 
in fact like a hawk or eagle
they will attack the mother hen
 as they have attacked previous prophets.
 
Jerusalem,
 the city of God,
is a risky place to go if you are a messenger from God
 but Jesus is willing to take those risks in order to keep the promises of God.
 
God made a promise to Abram,
 Abram questioned God
and God reassured Abram
and Abram believed the Lord.
 
Abram’s faith was possible
 because of God’s word and previous actions,
 which had all been true and faithful.
 
At our baptisms
God made a promise to us
 that we would always be God’s,
 
that,
 as Paul said in our second reading,
our citizenship would be in heaven.
 
And some days we question that promise,
we turn to God and say
 ‘you promised that your kingdom would come on earth as in heaven,
 Jesus said the kingdom of God has come near
and yet there are still people who are hungry
and countries at war,
And terrorists who shoot people in their place of worship
and loved ones who die,
And rising flood waters
 how can your promise come true God?’
 
and God comes to us,
 at the table
Jesus comes to us
reassuring us with his own body and blood
 the new covenant shed for us
 for the forgiveness of sins
 
Any time we gather together,
 break the bread, drink the wine
Jesus is present,
 renewing the promise of abundant life everlasting,
 strengthening us in the midst of the waiting
 Reminding us that God has kept all of God’s promises
 even to the point of dying on a cross
 and rising on the third day.
 
The life of faith is risky.
 Risky because though the promises are always kept
we don’t know the particulars,
risky because people expect hawks instead of mother hens to change the world.
 
Yet The life of faith is secure
because it is founded in the one who keeps their promises
and no matter how often we question
No matter what life throws at us,
 God is reaching out
gathering us in like a mother hen gathers her chicks
To safely in the shadow of her wings. Amen