FAITH:  ACCEPTING GOD'S PROMISE

2nd Sunday in Lent

            Certainly we begin our life being trusting.  If we hadn’t been, we wouldn’t have survived.  For example, if we hadn’t trusted our parents to give us food and not poison, we would have starved.  But we did trust our parents when we were very young.  It takes someone violating our trust for us to become skeptical.  Have you ever lent a book never to see it again?  Have you ever told something very private in confidence to a trusted friend only to hear your secret being repeated to you by someone else?  Being skeptical is learned.  We are taught not to trust.  We learned that from people violating our trust.  They’re the ones who have made skeptics out of us.

            Now here comes God making big promises.  God says to Abram—who will later be called Abraham—“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”  God tells Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”  And God says to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”  God promises Abraham that his descendants will be “a great nation.”  God promises Abraham that God will give him land that will be his new home and the home of his descendants.  God promises land, and God promises many descendants.  God promises.

            Hard to believe.  Hard to trust God when God’s promise is yet unfulfilled.  As we listen to the conversation between Abraham and God today, Abraham remains childless.  And Abraham and his wife Sarah are getting up in years, beyond the baby-producing age, you understand.  What’s more, Abraham is still waiting to close on the real estate deal God has promised he would conclude.  Abraham continues to wait on God’s promises.  God has promised, but on the occasion of this conversation, there has been no delivery on that promise.  Hard to trust in God when you have to wait so long.  We’re the ones who are waiting for God to fulfill his promise to establish the kingdom of God in all of its fullness.  We trust Jesus to be the mouthpiece of God.  The kingdom of God is what Jesus preached about.  “The time is fulfilled,” he said, “and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  And he said that the kingdom of God was like a mustard seed, this tiny seed that grows to become the greatest of all shrubs.  But we look around us and see the declining influence of the Christian church in North America and in Europe.  And we wonder.  We pray, as he taught, “Thy kingdom come,” expecting the kingdom of God to come in all of its fullness, but we see the Christian church decline in its influence and its status in North America and Europe.  Where’s God’s kingdom?  Is it evaporating before our eyes?  We wonder.  It is hard to trust God when the promise that God has been made is as yet unfulfilled.

            Well, Abraham gives voice to his skepticism.  He blabs his doubts right to God.  “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless?” he says.  Can you imagine talking to God like that?  But that’s what Abraham does.  “You have given me no offspring,” Abraham complains.  He sounds angry.  But Abraham’s complaint is more a confession.  He’s expressing his doubts and fears.  Can God be trusted to keep his promises?  That’s what Abraham’s complaint is all about.  Is God reliable?  Don’t you ask yourself that?  You bet!  Anyone with a deep faith in God has wondered if God is reliable.  When a tornado strikes a high school full of kids, as it did Thursday in Enterprise, Alabama, killing eight students and causing terror in others who were trapped in the rubble, someone there must be asking if God is reliable.  “It was in a split second that we sat down and started to cover ourselves before the storm hit,” said seventeen-year-old Kira Simpson, who lost four friends to the storm. “Glass was breaking.  It was loud.”  “It’s like a bad dream.  I have to keep reminding myself that it actually happened,” she said.  Some parents in Enterprise may be saying to God, “You have taken away the offspring you gave me.”  Is God reliable?  The question does come up.

            How does God answer that?  In Abraham’s case, God takes him out to look at the stars.  God answers Abraham’s doubt by pointing out the stars.  God shows Abraham all the stars of heaven.  One night, Bev and I decided we wanted to watch a meteor shower.  We packed up our sleeping bags and some blankets and drove some distance north of the Metroplex.  We can’t see stars very well in our back yard.  There are too many city lights shining in the sky.  Only the brightest stars appear.  But Abraham didn’t have that problem.  Without the presence of bright city lights nearby, the night was pitch-black.  The stars shown like diamonds against a black velvet cloth, lit up with a spotlight.  It was impressive!  Stars!  Countless stars!  To Abraham’s question, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless?” God takes Abraham out to see all the stars, saying in effect, “Look at all those stars!  I’m going to give you lots of descendents.  They will be so many that you won’t be able to count them, just like all those stars I created.  God draws past and future together to demonstrate the power and reliability of God.  All those stars cry out like a hymn of praise to the creative power of God.  If God can do that, God can make an old couple have a kid, and from that kid produce a great nation.  And, of course, in time, God fulfilled that promise.  We wonder if God will fulfill his promise to establish his kingdom is all of its fullness.  What does God show us?  An empty tomb.  God shows us a risen Lord Jesus.  In the wake of that powerful reality, the church came into being and experienced immediate enormous growth.  We may see the decline of the church’s influence in North America and Europe for a time, but the church is growing below the equator.  Case in point:  The Rev. Nedson Zulu in Mozambique, Africa reports astounding church growth there.  “. . . four churches have grown to fifty-four.”  Let me repeat that:  “. . . four churches have grown to fifty-four.”  In our own country, the reign of God is visible in glimpses.  Church World Service, using funds we give through the One Great Hour of Sharing, rushes help to communities that have been hit with disasters like tornadoes.  You can expect to see them in Enterprise, Alabama.  Through Church World Service, we and others in the church make visible the kingdom of God.  How does God answer human skepticism?  As with Abraham, God shows us his mighty and loving activity, in effect saying to the world, “Look at my creative power.  See the depths of my love for you.  You can trust in me.”

            Now it’s up to us.  We either trust God or we don’t.  And let’s be clear about this:  Trust is more than merely affirming your faith in God.  Trust is taking action on that faith.  You know the story about the man who drove his convertible over a cliff.  On the way down, the man grabbed hold of a tree.  He cried out, “Help!  Help!  Can anyone hear me?”  No answer.  He cried out again, “God, can you hear me?”  A voice answered, “Yes, I hear you.”  “O, God,” the man pleaded, “will you help me?”  “Yes, I will help you.  Do you trust me?”  “Yes, yes, I trust you, just please hurry and help me!”  “If you trust me, let go of the tree.”  There was a long moment of silence as the man thought that over, and then he cried out, “Can anyone else hear me?”  Trust in God is accepting his promise.  It is being prepared to take action on that promise, trusting that God is reliable.  Abraham accepted God’s promise.  He said no words.  He didn’t walk down a sawdust trail to demonstrate his faith in God’s promise.  It was something not externally visible.  It was in the soul.  God took him out to see the stars and repeated his promise to Abraham.  And Abraham trusted.  Abraham was prepared then and there to act on God’s promise.  Did that mean Abraham never had any further doubts?  Hardly!  God showed Abraham the land that God was going to give him.  Did Abraham say, “Nice land; thanks so much”?  No.  He said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”  God repeated his promise of land to Abraham.  Those who trust in God will continue to have doubts.  Such is the nature of faith.  But those who trust God’s promise, act on God’s promise, not on their doubts.