A God Given Life

 October 23 2022

Exodus 19:1-6, 20:1-17, 22-24

         It seems right now that there are a lot of shows being produced that are called fantasy series one of which is the prequel to the Lord of the Rings movies which is called Rings of Power. I came across an article on this type of show and I found that the way they are described was an interesting way to think about them because the author said that these shows employ what he called world-building. What he meant by this is that series like the Rings of Power are built on writing which constructs new worlds which are very different from our own. As I thought about this I remembered that J. R. R. Tolkien, who wrote the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit literature does exactly this in his creation of the land in which these stories are set, the land of Middle Earth. Tolkien even went so far as to create a whole new language for the elves in his stories to speak. Tolkien’s good friend, C. S. Lewis also was a world builder having written many of his works in the fictional land of Narnia, a place where the animals speak having not yet lost their ability to do so. It is amazing how writers are able, out of nothing but their imaginations, to make whole new worlds come to life through their words.

         As I meditated on what God does when he brings the people of Israel to the holy mountain of Sinai, I couldn’t help but come away with this idea that what God is doing is world-building. God is taking a people who have been beat down for decades, people who only knew of themselves as being slaves, a people who had lost all hope, and God is going to do something amazing with the likes of them. The way God is building this world is the same way that authors build there worlds and that is through the use of words, words that carry meaning and power. Imagine being a slave whose only value came through how hard you could work and when you became wore down unable to pull the load, you were cast aside, and then imagine you hear that the God who has rescued you from that life of slavery is telling you that you should consider yourself to be his royal treasure.  Can you believe it? To be transformed from a former slave to being the kings greatest treasure, all that is needed is for you to hear those words and believe that they are true.What God is doing through these words of his is to get these slaves to enter into a new world, to leave the old world of slavery and misery behind them and step into this new world that he is bringing about. What it takes for this new world to be built is the willingness of these former slaves to join God, partner with him, take these words that the Master Author is speaking and bring them to life. This is what is happening just three days after they had watched Egypt disappear in their rear view mirror.

         As these rag tag lot approached Sinai, they hear that although they are indeed free they are, none the less, the possession of God, and not just any possession but what the name suggests, the kings greatest treasure. It was this king who had been to them like a great eagle who had placed his young upon his back and had flown them away from harm and danger. Now, as they came to God’s holy mountain, God speaks to these former slaves and God lets them know that out of all the people on earth, the earth which God claims as his own, it was these people with which God is going to build a brand new world right in the midst of the old one. They were to be, God tells them, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. No longer just a very large family but now instead, they are a kingdom, a nation and not just any kingdom or nation but rather they were to be priests, holy just as the God, who had set them apart from all of the other nations on earth, was himself holy. So new and strange was this description of who they now were that even now the meaning is not very straight forward. What does it mean for these people to be a kingdom of priests? There were no other kingdoms like this. There were of course kingdoms with kings and those who served them but to have a kingdom where everyone was considered a priest was a mystery in need of understanding. So too was the term, holy nation. God, of course was holy, the place where he resided was by his presence made holy but just how could this holiness of God so infiltrate this nation that it could be said that this nation alone, out of all of the other nations, this is a holy nation? Are you beginning to see just how very new and different was this world that God was building out of the people of Israel?

         The foundation of this new world that God was bringing forth was, of course, God’s act of hovering over his people on that night when death entered into the land of Egypt. There God placed himself in between the people of Israel and the destroyer who took the lives of all the firstborn of Egypt. As we may recall, God had told the people of Israel that they were to take and slaughter a lamb and place its blood upon the doorframe and the door posts. This lamb died in the place of those for whom death was coming on that fateful night. So, every home that dreaded evening was a house of death yet out of these houses of death in which the people of Israel dwelled, they alone came out with their families intact. So, it wouldn’t be a stretch that they were to know that God had given them a life beyond death, that this God alone was the one who gives life to the dead and calls into existence those things which do not exist. This is the same faith of Abraham, the ancestor of the people of Israel. It was this faith that Abraham had that caused him to be reckoned righteous in the eyes of God. God, through his deliverance of his people on that fateful night was bringing them to that same level of faith that Abraham had obtained.

         The importance of understanding that God alone is the one who can bring forth life from the dead is crucial to have a right mindset with which to grasp what we know as the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were the words which God was speaking to these people with which God was building a new world. You see when God tells his people that they were to place no other gods before him, God is reminding them that he alone is able to bring life out of death. There is no carved image that comes out of our imagination which is able to defeat death because we cannot, on our own, imagine anything beyond death; only the one true living God leads us to believe in life beyond the boundaries of death. When we are certain of the ultimate greatness of our God then we are to speak of our God, bear his name, carry his reputation out in to the world. When we speak about God we had better do so in a manner worthy of who are God is. Again and again, we are reminded in Scripture that we are to magnify the Lord which means that we are the ones to make God great. The way that we are to know just how we are doing in making God great is whether or not those around us come to know the great God we know. The word translated as “vain”, is a word which means to have no fruit. God is saying then that when his people speak of him, telling others that he is a God who is able to bring life out of the dead, the people who do not know him should want to know him and come to believe in the God who alone is greater than the power of death.This is the fruit God expects.

         So, if we keep this emphasis that our God is the God who gives us life out of death, then the rest of the Ten Commandments begin to make sense. Why remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy? We pause from our labor to worship God as a witness to a watching world that it is God who gives us life and not the work of our flesh. We honor our fathers and our mothers because they are the ones through whom God has brought forth our life. You shall not murder can be thought of as you are not to take a life that God has given to someone. If God has given a person their life then God alone is the one who can take that life from them. You shall not commit adultery because it is God who has given life and all that is necessary for a person to create life with another person, so again if God has brought two such people together then no one else should tear this union apart. You shall not steal which means that God has given us life and has provided all that is needed for life so to take what God has provided another person for their life is nothing more than unbelief in the providence of God. And then there is  the commandment that you shall not bear false witness against another which again goes back to God being the giver of life and if you speak falsehoods against another’s life you are really speaking against the God who is the giver of that life.

         So what these Ten Commandments do is to describe what a world would look like if the people of that world knew that there was a God and that this God alone was stronger than death, a God who could speak life out of nothing at all. If this is who you know God to be then of course, it changes everything. Knowing that our God can bring life out of death means that our God is God alone because he is beyond what we could ever imagine any god ever being, beyond this world held in the grip of death. A God as great as this, of course, we are going to speak greatly about him, of course we will want others to be intrigued by the God who gives us the possibilities beyond the boundaries of this world. When we have a God so awesome as to be able to do the unthinkable and the impossible are we really going to be able to rest in his ability to provide all we need to maintain this life we have been given? Of course! Will we honor those through whom God worked to bring us into existence? It just makes sense doesn’t it? And the way we treat others, if we know that God has given them life and has given them everything they need for life just as he has done so for us, wouldn’t you think that would change the way we live together? I would hope that it would. All of this just leads us them to the tenth commandment that God told his people that they were not to covet what their neighbor had. We are left wondering just how can you command people to not do something that dwells in a person’s heart such as the act of coveting does. Yet it is right there, in the heart, that the answer is to be found. It is the heart which must be satisfied with the life that God has given to them. This satisfaction is to spring forth from the heart of gratitude because we know that this life we have is a gift. The focus is supposed to be on the God who gives and not on the “what” that he has given to us. God in his grace has chosen us to know him and to experience him as a God who gives us life. The awe of just being able to know  this God, that he is willing to do anything for us, those who are so unworthy of receiving anything from a God so magnificent, this is what should be the focus of our hearts, not how green the grass might be over the neighbors fence.

         So with these words, God is speaking forth and building a world with the people he has rescued from slavery. What has to be remembered is that the Ten Commandments are for those who know that God has given them life out of death otherwise, the life of the flesh, which God’s people were to have nothing to do with, would instead destroy the relationship God has with them. If the Spirit comes and hovers over God’s people and gives them life then the Ten Commandments take on a whole different meaning then when one is trying to create a life of their own through their own effort. When the Ten Commandments become a marker of ones own effort then they will become just another source of bragging rights and a hotbed of hypocrisy.

         So far then what God has done is that he first, changes the identity of the people of Israel. God wants them to no longer think of themselves as slaves but rather they were to know that they were people who were greatly treasured by the God who had rescued them. They had been set free to join God in becoming something brand new, a kingdom of priests. This is what their destiny would be if they would only but hear the words of God and believe that what God speaks is true. What God spoke were the Ten Commandments, in all reality they were but ten words, which spoke of how life should be and could be if they would hold fast to the belief that this God who had rescued them was the God who could bring life out of death. If they knew God in this way then all of their relationships, all of their life would find its proper order. Then God goes on to speak to his people how they can have a way to experience the assurance of his presence with them. The God who resides in the highest heavens desired that his people know the closeness of his coming and abiding with them. God tells his people that all they need to do is to make an altar of earth, something any person could form and fashion. This was a God who did not insist on gold or silver; no, this God just needed an altar of just plain old dirt. All that was needed was an altar formed out of the ground they walked on and some wood and the appropriate sacrifices. Simple and easy enough for anyone to do, in fact, when Moses first offered sacrifices there at the foot of Mount Sinai he called some young boys to help him. There was no need for complicated rituals or priestly garb; no, just a simple place of worship would do.  The people of Israel were to pause and worship God in this rather undignified way anytime, we are told, that God caused his people to remember his name, that he was I am who I am, the God unchanging. When God’s people would remember that God was their shield, willing to place himself between them and death and danger, when they remembered that their God was the God Almighty, they were to stop, dig up a mound of earth and offer up a life to God. If they worshipped God in this way, God makes a promise to his people that he would come to them and, he also adds, that he would bless them. What God says here is very significant because these words of blessing should make us remember the original promise to Abraham, that through Abraham all of the families on earth would come to experience the blessing of God. In a world held under the curse of sin, this realization all of us have that we all are vulnerable, able to experience loss, and pain, damage, and death yet also realizing that there is nothing that we can do to prevent any of this from happening to us, into such a cursed world, God promises to reverse the curse and bring blessing. Here, in the story of the people of Israel we find that in these descendants of Abraham, God is bringing his blessing, his presence, uniting himself with them so that they might experience the goodness and glory of heaven. It is this assurance that the God who can bring life out of death, the God who can bring something out of our nothingness, this is what reverses the curse in the lives of the people who worship God.

         So, what we have then is a nation made up of people who are experiencing the blessing of God, every person receiving the blessing, bearing that blessing in their everyday life for when this assurance that God abides with us transforms a persons life that life becomes to look like the life described in the Ten Commandments. People who bear the blessings of God are known as being priests, and since this blessing of God controls their life and how they interact with one another we can begin to see how this new strange, kingdom God is bringing about is governed not by enforcement through power and coercion but through the transformation of the heart. Now, when we read this, can we hear Jesus in these words? Can we see that the kingdom he came and proclaimed was at hand is the same kingdom God had in mind right here with the people of Israel? Jesus too has spoken of how it is that we can have the assurance of God’s abiding presence with us when in the fourteenth chapter of John he tells us that if anyone one loves him, they will keep his word, and the Father will love them as well, and they both will come to them and make their home with them. The reason we love Jesus is that he is the sacrifice, the Lamb who was slain for us so that we might know God as the God who can bring life out of death. All that we need to sacrifice then is work of our flesh which is cursed so that in receiving the life of Jesus we might at last receive the blessing of God’s abiding presence, living life in obedience to the Word of God. Amen!

         

 

         

The God Who Has You Covered

October 16 2022

Exodus 12:1-27

Hurricane Ian, as we know all too well, caused devastation that truly boggles the mind. Florida has not experienced such devastation since 1935 which just puts everything in perspective. Over one hundred people lost their lives, thousands upon thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed along with the loss of great stretches of highways and bridges. The pictures that emerged after the storm were beyond belief. There was the one of a shark swimming down the street of Fort Myers or the one where a piece of lumber had gone straight through a palm tree, or the one where the boats in the harbor have been piled up on top of each other. Seeing all of this, I couldn’t help but think of people I had heard about who decided to stay in their homes because they had installed windows that were able to withstand hurricane force winds. I thought what good would those windows do when the roof gets ripped off. It is so tragic that every time a hurricane hits there are always people who think the best option is to stay in their homes and ride it out. It is tragic because with every hurricane that hits the coast of Florida there are also many shelters that are open to provide a safe place for people to endure the storm in safety.There are even shelters that opened up to care for people’s pets. So, you have to wonder just why it is that people always make the unbelievable choice to stay in their homes instead of heading to a place where at least they will be around to rebuild after the storm moves through.

         In much the same way, what our story for today from the book of Exodus is describing people who are seeking shelter from a storm that is moving in, a storm which will produce certain death for any who refuse to seek shelter. Yet to understand fully just how and why this storm of death has come about we first need to have a quick look back as to what has happened prior to this fateful evening.

         What we have previously learned as we have studied the life of Abraham is that God whispered in the ear of Abraham and told him to go out under the starry sky and look up and count all of the little twinkling lights above him. God was telling Abraham that this is how many offspring that would call Abraham their ancestor. We are left wondering then, did such a breathtaking promise that God held out to Abraham, did this ever come true? Well, as we come to the book of Exodus we find that the people of Israel, the grandson of Abraham, were fruitful and increased greatly, they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. The only problem was that they had done so in the land of Egypt where they found themselves. Over time the kings of Egypt were frightened that these people of Israel would end up being too numerous and too strong so much so that they might try and join with the enemies of Egypt and fight for the overthrow of Egypt. So, these kings, the Pharaohs , decided to make slaves out of the people of Israel. Yet all was not lost and without hope because we are also told that the cry for rescue that came forth from the slaves in Egypt had made its way to the very ears of God who heard their groaning. We are also told that God remembered the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As we recall, when God made his covenant with Abraham, God told Abraham that the covenant was not just between him and Abraham but it was also between the offspring that would come after Abraham throughout their generations, an everlasting covenant. So, here in the book of Exodus we find God making good on his promise, hearing the cries of the offspring of Abraham and doing something about their duress because he had bound his life to their life.

         So, as we might recall, God called a man named Moses. The Lord God we are told, appeared to Moses in a bush which appeared to be burning yet was not consumed. Here again God was communicating to Moses that yes, he was indeed a consuming fire but because of his mercy, God chose to not harm that which he had decided to keep alive. From out of this burning bush, God called to Moses and told him to take off his sandals because the place where he was standing was holy ground. Then God told Moses that he was the God of the father of Moses, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Here again, we hear God remembering the promises that he had made to Abraham and it was because of these promises that God was sending Moses to Egypt to bring the children of Jacob, also known as Israel, up out of their slavery.

         Moses, rightly had many questions about this mission God was sending him on, one being, just what is the name of the God who was sending him into Egypt. God replies to Moses that he should tell those who ask that the name of their God is I am who I am; I am has sent you. Once again there are echoes in this name of what Abraham also discovered about God because when he first enters into a covenant with Abraham, God says to Abraham, “I am your shield.” And again when God comes again to Abraham to further covenant with him we hear God tell Abraham, “I am God Almighty.” It’s important, I believe, to hold on to these two “I am” statements as we come to this story of Moses because what God is saying to Abraham is that who he was is who he is and who he is is who he always will be. In other words, when God tells Moses that his name is I am the I am, he is stating that who he was yesterday is who he is today and who he will be tomorrow. God is telling Moses then in no uncertain terms that he is the unchanging one, the one who is outside of time and the ever shifting sands of time; God remains eternal. Once this is revealed that God is the I am, we can know that if God said the he is a shield for Abraham, then this being a shield is something God is and always will be. When God tells Abraham that he is almighty then, again, this is something God is and always will be. As we move forward in our story of God rescuing the descendants of Abraham from slavery in Egypt, we must hold fast that who God has revealed himself to be is who God will be for his people who have cried out to him.

         We see this truth that God is someone who does not change in the acts that God does to convince the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, to release God’s people from slavery. To change Pharaoh’s mind, God uses a series of plagues, like turning the Nile river into a river of blood, and making it rain frogs and on another day God made hordes of gnats and flies come upon Egypt, and after this God caused the death of all of the livestock that the Egyptians owned. Each time God brought forth a plague he had Moses announce when the plague would happen to prove that he is a God who is outside of time thus able to know precisely when his work would be evident. What must also be understood is that each of these plagues represented the gods, the powers that the Egyptians worshipped. So, in a very powerful way God was communicating that he alone was God over every other lesser idol that was worshipped by the Egyptians. So, when God states that he is God almighty, we can know that God is over all of the powers, a God who can not only control the powers but do so at a specific time. We see this when God took the sun, which was worshipped by the Egyptians, and for three days plunged the land of the Egyptians in deep darkness. Yet even so, we are told, the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he would not free the people of Israel from their slavery.

         At last then we come to the last plague, the plague of death which would come one night upon all the land of Egypt. We are told that this plague of death was going to strike down all the firstborn, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh, to the firstborn of his captive to the firstborn of their livestock. Here then is the great hurricane of death coming to wash over the land of Egypt and destroy all of the first offspring. Now, it may seem kind of strange that God would single out the firstborn yet to understand what God is doing we must know something that God had relayed to Moses before he headed down to Egypt which was that God thought of Israel as being his first born child. So, God is communicating to the Egyptians that the grief they will feel is the same grief God was experiencing at the thought that his firstborn would die a slow and painful death as a slave to the Egyptians. Sometimes the only way for people to understand what is at stake is to allow them to experience the consequences for themselves.

         At last, then, we come to our scripture for today, the story we know as Passover. Now, the name, “Passover”, is actually a poor rendering of the Hebrew word used to describe what happened over every home of the people of Israel that fateful night but to see why this is so we must first understand just what has happened prior to the midnight hour. We are told that at twilight on that fateful day, while the light was fading into night, the people of Israel were told to take a lamb, and kill it and save back some of its blood. This sounds fairly straightforward however as is is told to us earlier in the story, in the eighth chapter of Exodus, the people of Israel could not offer sacrifices to God in the presence of the Egyptians for fear that the Egyptians would stone them. The reason why offering sacrifices to God was so offensive to the Egyptians is that the animals to be sacrificed were considered to be gods which were worshiped by the Egyptians. So, imagine what was going through the minds of the Egyptians when they saw the people of Israel taking a lamb and slaughtering it right there in what remained of the light of day. Then imagine the outrage when these same Egyptians watched as these slaves of theirs took the blood from what they considered to be a god and with a crude brush took and wiped that blood all over the doorposts and the top of the door frame. Come morning there would be that horrendous sight of door after door smeared with the blood of their object of worship; surely heads were going to roll. Yet such speculation about what was going to happen in the morning was a bit off the mark because no one quite knew just what was to take place on that fateful evening. All the people of Israel knew is that they were to take the slaughtered lamb and roast it. They were to eat with their belts fastened and shoes on their feet and their staff in hand. In other words, they were to be ready to go when God sent the word to do so.  

         So, with all the details of what happened prior to the actual passing over we come at last the what God was going to do. God told his people that he was going to pass through the land of Egypt that night and strike all the firstborn in the land both man and beast. Then God adds something which ties this plague in with all of the others because he tells the people of Israel that on all the gods of Egypt, God was going to execute judgment. In other words, on this night these so called gods that were worshipped by the Egyptians were going to be shown to be what they actually were, absolutely worthless in saving those who worshipped them from the power of death. Only the one true God would be found to have the power to save his people.

         As we read the story of that fateful night down there in Egypt it is not exactly clear just what God is doing and the story is a bit confusing most likely because this was a strange and confusing night. Yet the clearest statement as to what happened that evening is found in the twenty third verse of this twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus where we read that the Lord was going to pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when God would see the blood on the top of the doorframe and the door posts the Lord would pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to enter the houses of the people of Israel. It is not God who strikes down the Egyptians but rather we are told it is the destroyer, the coming death that has been given a name. So, it is not God who brings death into the homes of Egypt but rather it is God who steps aside and allows death to have its way upon the firstborn. This is why the translating of the Hebrew word we know as being Passover does not seem to capture exactly what God is doing when the destroyer comes. No, a better understanding is that God is hovering over the homes of those people that he calls his own. God is placing himself between the coming death and the very life of those he has promised to unite his life with. So, when God told Abraham, “I am your shield.”, do you begin to see who God is for the descendants of Abraham? God hovers over them, shielding them from impending death.

         You see, every home in Egypt, both those of the Egyptians and the people of Israel, were homes of death that evening. The death of the lamb whose blood was smeared on the door of the people of Israel took the place of the death of judgment that was inflicted upon the firstborn of Egypt.  It was the blood of the lamb which marked the homes of those faithful to God with the sign of death. As God would later instruct his people, as found in the seventeenth chapter of Leviticus, the life of the animal is in its blood and the blood is given so that God might unite himself with his people. This is the truth that we witness as house by house, the people of Israel experience their God hovering over their homes shielding them from the destroyer of death.

         It was at the stroke of midnight, we are told, that death came upon every house of Egypt. All throughout the land there was heard cries of anguish and mourning because everyone had experienced a terrible loss, everyone that is except the people of Israel. Pharaoh, a broken man, called Moses to his palace and told him that Moses and the people of Israel were at last free to go and serve the Lord. So, the people of Israel hurried up and gathered up their belongings and got out of town while the getting out was good. They didn’t have time to even wait for the bread to rise so they baked up bread that was instead flat and crispy. But it didn’t matter if the bread was different because they were at last free and not just free to do whatever they pleased, but they were free to go and serve the Lord because it was God who had acted so that the Egyptians would at last let his people go. The people came out of their homes of death, very much alive because of the shielding presence of God.

         You see, when you meditate upon what happened that fateful night down there in Egypt, it is not a stretch to see that this story speaks volumes about Jesus, and how he who was proclaimed to be the very Lamb of God by John the Baptist, shed his blood so that we might be shielded from death. There have been many times when I have encountered people who refuse to believe that what happened here in the Old Testament has any bearing whatsoever on what we find in the New, as if the coming of Jesus can be separated from all that God had done before him. Nowhere is this so blatantly wrong as when we come to the story of the hovering over of God, his shielding them from death because a lamb had died and his blood, his very life, became the means by which the people of Israel could be united with God. I mean, how can you not but see Jesus in this story? How can we not see this same image of the God who hovers over us in what Jesus says in the thirteenth chapter of Luke where he cries out that he longed to gather the children of Jerusalem together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings? It is not hard to imagine that Paul, a good Jewish man who had celebrated many Passovers, had this story in his heart when he wrote to the Colossians that they had died, entered into the house of death, and they were now hidden with Christ in God, so that when the morning comes and Christ at last appears we too appear with him in glory, the glory of a life at last set free from the slavery of sin. I pray that you might know that the blood of Christ which has been poured out for you, this blood is so you might know God as your shield and your life is safe under his wings, in this life and in the life of the morning to come. Amen! 

Walking Blameless

October 9 2022

Genesis 17:1-14

         My sister and brother-in-law flew in a couple of weeks ago to spend an extended vacation primarily with my Mom and Dad but since we live so close, they also are spending time with Jennifer and me. It’s been great to visit with them in person and not on Zoom, and get caught up since its been several years since they have been around. Now, as anyone who has family members knows all too well,  the people you grow up with, they know things about you, that, let’s face it, know one else knows, and you hope it stays that way. My sister, like any good sibling, has reminded me of stories from my past that well, are kind of embarrassing, you know, and you really hope that such stories stay in the family, if you know what I mean. I guess that what keeps her from telling too many tales out of school is that I know stuff about her which is equally embarrassing. Isn’t family dynamics fun? The truth of the matter is that it is growing up in a family that teaches us just what it means for us to be vulnerable, to be aware that you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool Mom or anybody else that you grew up with. It just makes sense that who you really are is best understood by those who knew who you really were back in the day and it seems an unwritten rule that your family is obligated to remind you from time to time, just who you really are.

         Well, this getting real about who we are, this is an idea that is found in this strange story from Abram’s life that we are considering today. You might say that as God is working on creating his family through the life of Abram, the same dynamics of our own families are still in play. I mean, God knows everything, just like our family members do and its best for us to not forget that and be honest when we are with him. This I think is the real meaning of this weird instruction that God gives to Abram when Abram was ninety-nine years old, that Abram was to walk before God, God Almighty, and be blameless. This word, “blameless”’ is a word that translators have much trouble figuring out how to express it in English. This means that it is best if we go back to the original Hebrew word, which is tamim. Tamim is used to describe lambs brought to be sacrificed at the Temple, that they were to be lambs without blemish. So, tamim, can be understood to mean complete or whole. Sometimes translators want to translate tamim as meaning perfect, however the way we normally define what it means to be perfect, misses the mark when used in a situation like we find with Abram. We need to remember that God is not going to expect what we call perfection from people who are broken. This means we can breathe a little easier as we try and figure out just what does God expect from Abram and from us.

         As we search further as to what tamim means we also find that it means to be single minded; this is why it also can be defined as purity because the mind is to have no thoughts contrary to the way of God. So, it is no surprise then that tamim means wholehearted, having integrity, this idea that what you say and do is the same as what you treasure in your heart. So, when God tells Abram that he was to walk before him, Almighty God, and be blameless, we can understand this as meaning that Abram was to live with his whole self open before God, to be completely vulnerable and honest in his relationship with God. We can be rather certain that this is what is meant because God instructs Abram to walk before him which is kind of odd, isn’t it? I mean usually we are told that we are to be the ones who follow in the ways of God. The answer, I believe, as to why Abram is to go ahead of God is that here God is communicating to Abram that he will be watching his most vulnerable side. In other words, in true action hero vernacular, God is telling Abram, “I got your back”. We don’t have to worry about being vulnerable to whatever might be sneaking up on us; God’s got that. This means then, we can instead be open and vulnerable with God. God is telling Abram, in no uncertain terms, that Abram’s security is in the hands of God. As Abram moves about his world God is right there watching over every step Abram makes. You might say that God was the first helicopter parent! The point is that what God is introducing here in the life of Abram is a new way of living, a way of life where it is God and not us who is going to be dealing with the insecurity that all of us have that comes through living in a world where we become painfully aware that loss, and catastrophe and death could be right around the next turn.

         You see, only as we understand just what God is trying to communicate to Abram when he tells Abram to walk before him and be blameless, will we then understand just why God, at this point, also instructs Abram to be circumcised.  This covenant with which God enters into with Abram,  is a covenant that if we read over it, is founded on the original promises God made with Abram when they first met as we learned about in Genesis 12. There, God promised Abram that he would make of him a great nation, make Abram’s name great, and, in Abram, all the families on earth will be blessed. Here in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, some twenty-two years later, we find that what God promised has not changed. What has changed though is that now the promise has become a covenant, a mutual endeavor between God and Abram. Again, this makes sense, at this point in our story that God is going to enter into a covenant relationship with Abram because here Abram has agreed to be open and honest with God. I mean, how else could God allow himself to be in a binding relationship unless this relationship was founded on complete openness and honesty. God once again goes over what he has promised Abram but now it sounds even more wonderful than before. Where Abram was told that he would be the father of a great nation now God tells him that he would be the father of a multitude of many nations. Where his name was to be held in high esteem now his name has been transformed all together, changed from Abram, which means exalted father, to Abraham, father of multitudes. God makes this name change because God was going to make Abraham exceedingly fruitful and God would make many nations come forth from the life of Abraham. Not only that, but kings would also be part of God’s great promise for Abraham. This covenant God was making with Abraham was to be an everlasting covenant between God and all of the offspring of Abraham. And God also promised Abraham that the land in which Abram traveled about in, the land of Canaan was to to be the everlasting home for the descendants of Abraham.

         So, God, by walking behind Abraham was guarding over his present life and God through his promises and entering into a covenant with Abraham secured Abraham’s future. This covenant though was to be marked by a rather odd ritual, that of circumcision. Now, it appears to us, perhaps that this act of circumcision comes from out of left field. Just what is God getting at by making such an act be the way that this covenant is to be ratified between Abraham and his descendants? What we must also never forget is that God is always communicating with us because this is how we become united with him in what he is doing in the world. Circumcision is quite honestly a cutting off of flesh. It marked a dying to the ways of the flesh, the ways that seek to exalt human strength and power because this new nation founded on Abraham was to be built on the trust in the greatness of God alone. No more was life to be about being confident in one’s own achievements, those things that are done through whatever abilities one might possess because now life was to be about the God who comes and claims us as his possession, his treasure. This is what was to separate these great nations flowing out of the life of Abraham from all of the rest of the nations on earth, this renouncing of the power of their abilities of their flesh and a faith in what God alone can do.

         You see, what seems to be missing in this second telling of God’s promise to Abraham is this theme that through Abraham all of the families of the world would be blessed yet, I believe, the blessing which is to be shared with all the families on earth is this new life that God was calling Abraham to live. This new life is one that gives no heed to what we are able to do and instead relies fully upon what only God can do, this is how the blessing is ours. The curse that the whole world lives under is that all of us know just how vulnerable we really are and at the same time, how really weak we are to do anything about it. You see, we all know that lurking in the shadows, is the possibility of loss, of not having enough, the sense that what we hold to be precious will be taken from us by destruction and death. This knowing of all that could go wrong running through our heads just leads to fear in our hearts. The way we react to this fear is to find ways to protect ourselves and what we love. We want to wrap everything up in layers of bubble wrap if only that would only help ease our anxiety.This longing to protect what we love ultimately leads to violence and aggression because this is how our flesh reacts when we feel threatened. It’s not hard to see why such a life can be honestly called a cursed life. So when the Scriptures speak of this dynamic between sin and the flesh what it is speaking of is when people try and do something about their inability to deal with their own mortality and weakness. Sin then is just our human attempt to compensate for us being mortal.

         What God has done by joining himself with the life of Abraham is to reverse the curse, to bring blessing wherever the curse is found. Abraham entered into a covenant with God which was marked by a death of flesh, a dying to the ways of relying upon what our flesh can do because these ways are no answer to the curse we find ourselves under. The curse is reversed when we know God and are known by God. This is why God told Abraham that he had to walk before him blameless, living before God with a brutal honesty as to who he was, fully dependent upon the mercy and grace of God.The importance of being fully transparent to God is that only as we are known by God can we be certain that the God who knows us is the same God who will remember us. The God who remembers us is the God of everlasting covenants, the God who is beyond our loss, beyond damage and death and this God who knows us will remember those he knows and he will be true to the promises that he has made. At last because of God we find a security that is anchored beyond this world and its loss. We can be honest about our weakness in our ability to do anything to be secure. Now we have a God who hears us when we are in need, a God who comforts us in our sorrow, a God who takes our mortal life and holds it fast with his eternal hand.

         You see, where God is bringing us to through his grace and favor is to the place where we can not only deal with the insecurities of life in this world but also where we are at last secure enough that we can take all that we have and all that we are and offer all of it to God in an act of worship. We are being brought from a place where we were fearful of loss to a place where we can give in faith. We must not forget that before the blessing of Adam and Eve in the first chapter of Genesis, the charge they were given is that they were to be the very image bearers of God. So, it is not enough to go from a place where we live in fear of loss, and damage and death to a place where we have found security through our faith in God but we have to let our faith work itself out in love. Love is giving no thought to the concerns of our flesh but rather putting to death the desires of our flesh in order to do the desires of God. This is what Paul is writing about in the second chapter of his letter to the Colossians when he tells them, “In Christ you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised Christ from the dead.” Jesus Christ put to death all fleshly desires when he gave himself up upon the cross and this is the circumcision that becomes our circumcision through baptism. 

         There on the cross we witnessed in the life and death of Jesus just how it is that we as God’s people are to live, denying ourselves, denying our reliance upon our flesh, denying this urge to protect ourselves through aggression and violence but instead to give ourselves over to doing what our Heavenly Father calls us to do, offering all of ourselves to him because he is worthy to receive our life.  But what we also witnessed there upon the cross in the death of Jesus is the love of God, how the God who loves us is vulnerable just as he calls us to be. God was willing to love even if his love would be rejected, willing to forgive those who desired his death, willing to suffer loss, and damage and the death of his own Son because this is what is necessary when you love the way that our God loves us. So, when God says to Abram, “I am the God Almighty”, he is speaking of his willingness to be wounded and hurt when he loves people.This is the strength and the power of our God that he is able to love the world when the world does its very worst to him. You see, God blesses us by uniting his life with our life, by being in a relationship with us where we can know our God deeply and profoundly and so that our life at last might reflect his life. God told Abram to walk blameless before him so that through his being fully known by God and by Abram knowing God, in the end Abram would be the start of nations which no longer sought the solution to their problems through their strength, or their power or their wisdom but would at last know the real strength, and power and wisdom found in the love of God which conquers all. 

         This love that God has for us can live in us only as we open ourselves up to God, giving ourselves wholly over to God, all of our fears, all of our faults, as well as all of our love, to give all of who we are over to God. The grace of God which is given to us, his willingness to open his arms and welcome us into his life is as we are told in the book of Titus, is what trains us to renounce worldly passions so we can live single minded lives that are upright, reflecting the life and love of God. In other words, if we want to be people who are holy unto the Lord we have to be people who give themselves wholly over to the Lord, being honest to God about who we are, so that by the grace of God we can become people not only known by God but also people who know God and place their trust in the love of God . Only as our fears give way to faith in God can we be able to find in God the true source of our security and we will be able to put to death  our foolish trying to find some sense of security in something we might do. Only as we die to self, and take up our cross can we expect to at last be able to love others with the same abandon with which God has first loved us. Only as we are willing to love as God has loved us, willing to be rejected and despised, willing to suffer loss and damage and death and yet persevere in our love, only then can the blessing of Abraham can be said to be upon us, because only then has the curse been reversed through the God who first loved us. Amen.

 

God is Our Reward

October 2 2022

Genesis 15

         Well, the days of autumn have at last arrived and these cool damp mornings seem to be the perfect time for taking walks in the little woods next to our house. And taking walks is what I find I spend a lot of my time doing because as many of you know, Jennifer and I have a dog named Mazy. For whatever reason, Mazy has decided that she needs some one to tag along with her when she goes on her hunting trips in the woods which means that I get to go with her. Now, she doesn’t just want one trip to the woods, oh no, she wants sometimes four trips a day. Its either go with her or listen to her whine until you can’t stand it anymore and then take a walk with her.So, I spend a lot of time in the woods watching my nine pound fox terrier/Italian greyhound mix run at break neck speeds through the woods in hot pursuit of whatever squirrel or chipmunk just happens to be at the wrong place. The best way to describe her is to imagine giving a child a candy bar and a can of Mountain Dew and then taking them to a playground. Mazy runs and jumps and pursues with abandon, running from one brush pile to another, furiously hunting the lead of some scent she has picked up. I have to admit, I don’t do much walking in the woods; my chipmunk hunting skills are pretty bad, so I just to get to be the voice of encouragement. What is interesting though is that when I grow bored with watching Mazy attempt to catch the umpteenth critter of the day and head for home, Mazy quite often comes tagging along side of me. I find this kind of fascinating because I know how much she loves hunting in the woods yet even so, she, by her actions is telling me that she would rather be with me, going where I’m going than doing anything else. If you wonder why she is treated like a princess, there’s your answer.

         As I ponder on Mazy wanting to be with me more than she wants to do what she enjoys more than anything else in the world, I wonder just how bad do I want to be with God? I mean, if we think of our lives, and the things we just so really enjoy and desire, have you ever thought, as much as I love doing these activities, you know, I still would rather just want to be with God and go with God wherever he is going? What made me go down this rabbit hole of thought is something God tells Abram one day, that God was to be for Abram his exceedingly great reward. Just what was God trying to tell Abram and us when he whispers this in our ear? A reward, as we well know, is what we receive when all is said and done, that which hold on to at the end of the day, that which we say is what we treasure most and the one thing that has made giving up all other treasures understandable. So, when we hear the God is to be for us, the children of Abraham our exceedingly great reward, we our confronted by this statement because only we can really say for certain that God is, for us, a treasure to be desired above all else.

         There is, though a very good reason why God expects that he is for us to  be thought of as an exceedingly great reward, and that is something God says to Abram which overwhelmed his senses, that which we are told came to him in a vision, which is that God tells Abram, that God would be for Abram, a shield. You have to admit, this seems a rather odd image that God uses here to describe himself. I mean, just what is God trying to communicate to Abram, when he tells him that it is God who is his shield? Certainly, this image of a shield would have been on the mind of Abram as he has just returned from the battlefield having defeated the kings who had taken his kinfolk captive.  So its as if God is saying to Abram, do you remember how in battle you had you shield in your hand to protect you from sword and arrows, this is who I am to be for you. As we consider just how it is that God is to be a shield for Abram, what we also must hang on to is what God first promised Abram is that God was going to bless Abram, make out of him a mighty nation, and make his name great and if that were not enough, God through Abram, was going to bless all of the families of the earth. This is an extraordinary promise that is given to Abram, yet what is hard to pin down is just how do we define the meaning of this word, “blessed”? It has overtones of one person being gracious to another, of creating for another a place of happiness, of an abundant life, overflowing with peace and goodness. So, to this rather vague understanding of what God means when he says that he is going to bless Abram, and through Abram, ultimately us, in our scripture for today, I believe God is defining further what is meant  in this act of blessing. What God is saying is that he blesses us by being for us our shield.

         As it turns out, this idea that God is to be for us our shield is a very major theme as we move forward in the story laid out in the Bible. When you think about what a shield does, its easy to figure out that a shield comes between the person carrying it and whatever danger is thrown at them. So, this is what God is telling Abram, that God is going to come between Abram and whatever comes against him. So, here for the first time, we hear of God promising to Abram that he will be, in some way, his salvation. Abram has, apparently, done nothing to warrant such a gracious act by God, it is simply promised to him for no other reason than God desired to do so. This then just begs the question that if Abram has done nothing to warrant such an act on the part of God than why has God decided to do such a thing, to place himself between that which might come against Abram and the life of Abram. The answer is that God treasured Abram. When God tells Abram that it was God who was to be Abram’s great reward, he is simply stating that Abram was to think about God in the very same manner as God first had thought of him. In this way, what God is doing is defining their relationship, making it perfectly clear to Abram, that God treasured him to the extent that he was placing himself in the path of whatever might harm Abram because God treasured Abram and more than anything, God wanted to be with Abram forever. All God was hoping is that Abram might also reciprocate with a heartfelt acknowledgement that for Abram there was nothing more valuable to him than his relationship with God. Do you see how what God conveyed to Abram in a vision, here in the very first book of the Scriptures, becomes the central heartbeat of the story of God’s love affair with humanity which culminates in the revelation of Jesus?

         You see, these few sentences telling of a vision that Abram had where he understands that God will forever be his shield, this cannot and should not be, in some way disconnected with the rest of what we learn in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. Paul, quite famously, reaches back through scripture and latches on what is told to us here in the story of Abram, to teach his audience that it was by faith that God reckoned Abram was righteous in his eyes. Yet, what cannot be forgotten is that what is the foundation for Abram’s declaration of faith is this strange vision that he had where at last he understood that God was his shield and his most exceedingly great reward was God alone. When Abram was convinced that God was willing to place himself between whatever might come against Abram, when Abram then knew that God was pledging to be the one to preserve Abram’s life through his constant presence, all because God treasured Abram and wanted to be with Abram always, when we know all this then Abram believing in God seems to be just a foregone conclusion. I mean, if God treasures us enough to step in between us and whatever might take our life, why would we ever hesitate when he then asks us to trust him? What this story of Abram is teaching us is that we first must understand just how much God treasures us so that we might know God as our exceedingly great reward because if we do not first know God in this way we will have some other treasure that we desire other than God and God will become but a means to acquire that treasure. This belief that God exists to be the power which can obtain for us our greatest desire is the way of idolatry, a way that destroys our relationship with God. No, what matters most in our relationship with God is that we know just how much he treasures us so that we in turn treasure him above all else.

         What Abram desired is to have a family, a legacy which would continue on after his death. When the voice of God whispered in his ear that out of Abram would come a great nation it is understandable that Abram knew that at last, here was a chance for him to have what his heart desired most. Yet even so, what God desired is that he was loved and treasured and known as more than just some creative power which could be at a person’s beck and call. This is why it is important that Abram knew God as being his shield and that God was to be his exceedingly great reward before God could even bring up what he had promised to Abram. Where God had to bring Abram is to the point where he would ask God just who it was that he would give his reward, the richness of his relationship with God, who would receive this treasure after Abram was no longer walking this earth. At last then Abram had come to a point where his concern was not who would remember him but rather who would remember God through him. Who would Abram tell about the God who had called him to leave his country, his kin and family and go where this voice told him to go? Who would Abram tell of the God who spoke of being for Abram his shield and was in the end, Abram’s greatest reward? Only when Abram had come to the point where his concern was no longer about him and was instead about God and what God had done, only then did God know that Abram was ready to take a step forward in their relationship. There in the deepest darkness of the night God called Abram to come out under the evening sky. God told Abram to look up. Abram, God might of said, just how many stars are there that blaze across the sky? Can you count them all Abram? How many stars do you see? Abram, rightly knew that there were far more stars than he would ever be able to count. Then God whispered in the ear of Abram, “Your offspring will be as numerous as all of the stars that light up this dark sky!” Imagine the wonder of this new promise as Abram first heard it spoken to him. He knew that he and his wide Sarai, were way beyond being able to have children yet even so here was God begging Abram to trust in the impossible. What Abram knew though, was that this same God had claimed to be his shield, to be a God willing to step in between his life and whatever might come along and try and take this life from him. This God obviously is a God of the living, a God who valued his life and desired to protect it, and Abram knew that God did this so that he might take this relationship he had with God and entrust this to the one that God had promised him. Abram knew that God was going to make good on his promise so that this relationship with God, this God with us life, the God for us life, might continue to infinity and beyond.  So, Abram began to piece together this beautiful and wonderful plan of God knowing that he was being kept alive by God in order that through him others would come to know the God who treasured them and that God was to be for them, their exceedingly great reward. This is how the world is brought back to righteousness again when people at last realize that God is the source of their life because he knows them and treasures them and that God alone is the one to be treasured. But there is also more because not only are people to know that God keeps them and saves them and is the source of their life but also that God has done so for all people. You see, those who know God as their shield and great reward are to tell this good news to others so that they discover that such a life is a blessing, a life which is fruitful and grows abundantly throughout all of the earth.

         It is no wonder that Paul, writing in the fourth chapter of his letter to the Romans, tells us that the God in which Abram believed in is a God “who gives life to the dead and brings into existence those things which do not exist.” As Paul goes on, he retells the story of Abram, passed down, generation after generation, how Abram never wavered concerning the promise of God, but grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” Abram knew that God was his shield, God was protecting him and keeping his life safe because Abram knew that he was treasured by God. As long as Abram was kept alive, the promise lived within his heart and Abram began to know God as the most exceedingly great reward. 

         You see, what Paul has written about faith here in the fourth chapter of Romans comes on the heels of his writing about Jesus who was put forward by God as the mercy seat through his blood. Paul is saying here that now it is Jesus who is the mercy seat, the covering of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was kept in the most holy place of the Temple and once a year the high priest would sprinkle blood there upon the covering of the Ark, so that God could hover over the Ark with his presence, in essence being a shield over his people who are represented by the covenant housed within the Ark. This is now how Jesus is for us, he is our shield, the one whose blood, whose very life has been poured out to cover over us, to stand between us and death so that we might have a secure life forever protected under the glorious wings of God. We have to ask then just why has God given his Son to be this for us? The answer as to why we have been given this safe life protected by God is so that we might know that our life is now to be speaking forth the good news of our God who has taken the nothingness of our life and he has made us his treasure. No longer does life have to be focused upon self-preservation for God preserves our life for all eternity. Now life can be about bringing forth life through the speaking of the good news to others, letting them know that beyond this life is a greater life, the life of the resurrection. What we believe then is that God keeps safe our life so that we might be a true descendant of Abram, to be one of the many stars he saw that night when he walked with God.  We are to believe that we are those who have been blessed through the faith of Abram, and, when this is our faith, God will count us among the righteous, those who know that God is the shield who protects their life. This truth is heard in the words of Jesus who, in the twelfth chapter of John, that “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life will lose it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” You see, once we know that it is God who preserves our life, and that it is God alone who is our exceedingly great treasure, then we can know that God has given us this life so that we can be part of the great and glorious plan God has for our world. When we know our life is a gift from God then we can know that we are free to give this gift of our life for the sake of the gospel so that the good news might multiply and be fruitful. And the motivation for giving God all that he has given to us, all our greatest treasures is that he first treasured us. I pray you might always know God as being for you your most exceedingly great reward and that God might always be the treasure that you seek! Amen.

         

A Promised Life

 September 25 2022

Genesis 12:1-8

         Many times when I mow my grass I think back to when our son Matt was in middle-school and he really, really wanted an I-Pod. Do you remember the I-Pod, that magical device that could store thousands of your favorite tunes on it? Well, I knew we didn’t have the money to buy it for him so we instead told him that he could use our mower and he could mow people’s lawns all summer and when he had enough money saved up he could get an I-Pod. So, he put out some ads at the Senior Center and different places and soon he was in business which also meant that we were also busy driving him around to all of his customers. I have to say that everything went according to plan because at the end of the summer, Matt had saved enough up to get an I-Pod. That’s the good news, the bad news is that these days the I-Pod is hopelessly obsolete being replaced by cell phones which do just about everything. This is just the way that technology seems to be, isn’t it, the new and latest gadget soon becomes old news, abandoned without much fanfare. All of the newest techie stuff that we used to use and love, like VHS tapes and Walkmans are relegated to the Smithsonian. Even Apple continues to evolve its I-Phone with version number 14 being trotted out this year making my I-Phone 6 seem like a relic. What seems to have happened with technology is that this phenomenon of our world being a place where everything is constantly changing, this just seems to happen at a faster pace.

         Our experience with technology simply reinforces what all of us know to be true but just have a hard time admitting that it is true, namely that there is very little that lasts forever. Now, it may seem odd, but it is this realization that what humanity makes seldom lasts and endures, this is what is has gone before what we learn in our scripture for today. You see, we have to figure out what has happened in the eleventh chapter, to grasp the significance of what is going on in these first few verses of the twelfth chapter of Genesis. What is going on in the eleventh chapter of Genesis is a fairly well known story called the Tower of Babel, which should not be thought of as just some ancient tale but rather a story that describes very much this modern experience of constant change.  The story of the Tower of Babel is a story which begins by telling us that at one time all the people of the whole earth had one language and the same words. In other words, they could communicate effortlessly. So, this helped them immensely when they all came together in the vast plains east of Eden and there they decided to build a city and a tower. They worked together making bricks out of clay, firing them until they hardened, ready to be given to the brick layers who used tar dug out of pits in the ground, to build a huge structure that climbed up to the clouds. So, here we have people, making something new, something that had never been built, a tower so high that its very nose could poke through the veil that separated heaven and earth. The whole reason that they were putting forth such effort is that they desired to make a name for themselves. Again, this is not much different than what we see now, people building whatever their imaginations can think up all so that their name might become famous. We know of Ford and Chevy and Walton of Wal-Mart fame, and on and on. All those who start out as simple entrepreneurs want to make a name for themselves. Well, these people building this tower were no different, they wanted people to know their name, that here were the best tower builders ever. This most surely would have happened if only all of their building had not caught the attention of God who, we are told, came down to the job site and he did something very strange; God confused their language. God made it so that these diligent workers could no longer communicate with each other, which put the brakes on all their efforts to make a name for themselves. The reason that God did such a strange thing is that if he did not do something to make so the human race could no longer understand each other then nothing that humanity could propose would be impossible to do. As we read this, we are left wondering just why would God think that people working together would be a bad thing, something that God should intervene in a big way and not let happen? The answer just might be what we already know, and that is that nothing that humanity proposes and builds ever lasts. Just like all the wondrous gadgetry that we used to love, everything eventually becomes obsolete. The greatest schemes, the most impossible of endeavors all in the end get mothballed all so that the next impossibility might be worked on and brought into our reality. Over and over again, we have people busying themselves with projects that seem daunting, projects that seem impossible, but in the end through countless hours of blood, sweat and toil the difficulties are overcome all so that in a relatively short time said project is no longer necessary or wanted by anyone. So, people become so focused on achieving the impossible, all so that their name might be held in high esteem to the point that the real work God has always had for humanity gets lost in the shuffle. You see, the problem is that we as people can get so caught up in being busy that we forget just what it is that we are to be busy doing. The clue as to what God expects us to be doing is found in this strange statement that tells at the end of the eleventh chapter, God dispersed humanity all over the face of the earth. Why was it so important that humanity be found throughout all of God’s creation? The answer is found in the first chapter of Genesis where we are told that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Then the story continues and we are told that “God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth...” So, the original mandate that God had for his highest creation was that they were to fill the earth bearing his image out to the farthest ends of the world. What happened between God creating humanity in his image and these image bearers being found throughout this world God had created is this strange act of God, this blessing of his highest creation so that they might be fruitful and multiply. So, it appears that what God is doing after the building of the Tower of Babel is that he is going back to the beginning, working back by first filling the earth and, as we soon find out, God is going to bless his people once again.

         With the story of the Tower of Babel as the backstory we come, at last, to our scripture for today. Here, like in the story of Noah, we discover that God brings his world back to its original intent through a promise. This time though, the promise God makes is not to all of creation but rather his promise is made to one man and his wife. This man is called Abram and his wife is named Sarai. Their journey with God begins when Abram hears a voice, a voice which tells him that he must cut ties with all that anchors a person, to leave his homeland, to say good-bye to his network of friends and family, to head down the road from the home he had grown up in, ceasing forever to be the dutiful son, all because he has heard a voice whispering in his ear that now is the time to go. And where will you go Abram? We can hear the concerned voices probing as to know just what might the plans be for him and his wife but alas there were no itinerary just a summons to go. And go he went. Where the people who built their grand tower did so east of Eden, Abram instead went west of there, going across the river, from which the name, Hebrew, is derived. Abram went hoping that the voice which had told him to go would be polite enough to once again whisper in his ear and let him know when he had arrived. Yet, even so, he knew there was reason to trust this voice because this voice had made to him some fairly audacious promises such as that this voice was the one who would make of Abram, a great nation. How could such a thing be even possible when Abram and his wife Sarai were two old people long past being able to have the children they had hoped for? Where the people who gathered on the plain east of Eden had gathered to make something great out of the something of the earth, here God was going to make something great out of the nothingness of two people’s lives. God was going to do the impossible for this is what God does, and he does so through speaking forth life in what we call his blessing. This word, “blessing”, is rather difficult to define but it can best be thought of words which signify that the one who blesses is united with the one on whom they place their blessing. When God blesses Abram he is stating that he is in a profound relationship with him, one where the life of God is pledged to be united with Abram and his family.  This is why Abram was told that he would be a blessing himself because in him others would come to experience the very life of God. So, unlike the people who came together and became united in their efforts to build a great tower, here there is a unity that begins when God unites his life with the life of Abram. Through this blessing that God speaks forth upon Abram, we are told that all of the families of the earth will be blessed. This is the way that humanity is supposed to be united together not through attempting to fulfill some seemingly impossible project but through being blessed by God through Abram. And just as the people who built the great tower did so because they desired their name to be great, here as God speaks to Abram we find that it is God himself who will make the name of Abram great. The greatness of Abram then was not dependent upon his effort or ability but rather he would be remembered because God remembered him.

         Now, what is also interesting is that God tells Abram that those who blessed him would be blessed and those who dishonor Abram would be cursed. These words sound harsh to us but what must be remembered is that Abram was to be the one whose life bore the marks of being united with God. For a person to come against Abram meant that they were also coming against God and if a person is against God they by all means would be cursed. The point is that the blessing experienced by Abram was all about God uniting himself with Abram therefore if someone was against Abram then quite naturally they would be against God. Through uniting his life with the life of Abram, this act of blessing, God was going to bring the people he had created back to fulfill the purpose for which he had created them, to bear his image out in the world. The problem is as Paul teaches us in the first chapter of Romans is that even though people “knew God they did not worship him as God or give thanks to God but instead they became futile in their thinking.” Through God’s blessing of Abram people would come to know and experience the life of God freely given to them which would hopefully result in those who received this blessing a response of gratitude, thankful that the life of God being united with their life was what God desired most of all. This meant then that they would find God worthy of their praise and obedience because they had at last understood that they were found worthy to be blessed by God out of his sheer unmerited grace. In this way they would be at last set free from the thinking about achieving the impossible which was just an exercise in futility.

         Well, all Abram has at the beginning of his story with God is a promise, a promise to make out of the nothingness of his life, something great, a nation whose existence only lay somewhere out in the distant future. This God whose voice had called Abram from all security promised to bless Abram, to unite his life with the life of Abram so that Abram would be known as being a great man of God so that Abram himself would be a living vessel of blessing. Through this one man in a far and distant place, God states that every family all around the world would come to experience the blessing of God, the same blessing that Abram was about to experience. Even so, all of this lay ahead of Abram, none of what this voice had whispered had yet been actually experienced by Abram, yet even so, Abram went and listened to that voice. When we read such great promises given to Abram we quite naturally wonder, did these promises that God had made to him, come true? Here we must once again heed what Paul wrote in the first chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, that “all the promises of God find their Yes in Jesus Christ.” When Jesus tells us in the tenth chapter of the gospel of John that he has come that we might have life and have it more abundantly, he is speaking of a life that is blessed by God. Jesus has come so that we might understand that the truly abundant life is the blessed life. This is what Paul also understood because as we read in his letter to the Galatians, Paul tells us in the third chapter that God preached the gospel before hand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all nations be blessed. So, then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Paul goes on to explain just how this can be so when he adds “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, …so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Jesus our righteous Judge took our place upon the cross, taking upon himself our sin, condemning the sin in our flesh which made us accursed before God so that we might at last be able to receive the blessing God had promised would be ours when he spoke to Abraham so long ago. When we place our faith in Christ, through this gracious act which he has done for us out of his great love for us, we are united with Christ so that as Paul goes on to tell us at the end of this third chapter of Galatians, if “we are Christ’s people, then we are the very children of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.” So, when you and I place our faith in Jesus Christ, we then are people who make up that great nation that was promised to Abraham thousands of years ago. We are living proof that God has made good on his promise, living examples that the word of God is true. As Abram was blessed by God, God having spoke his solemn intention to be united forever with Abraham so that the very forces of heaven would be at work in the life of Abram, so now because of the faith we have in Jesus Christ this promise is for us as well. This gift of blessing by God creates in us first a heart of gratitude because the blessing of God needs to be received with glad and thankful hearts and second, our hearts should respond with worship for our God has found us worthy to receive such an amazing gift of grace, a gift obtained through the shed blood of God’s own Son all so that at last we might experience the blessing of God, a life united with the very life of God, a life where all the goodness and glory of heaven is united with our own.

         So, at last we are able to answer the question just what is it that we as people are to be busy with, if chasing after the next big thing is not what God has created us to do? The answer is that God desires that we get busy blessing others just as our forefather Abram was told to do. We need to speak of all of the ways that this God who has united his life with ours has poured out heavens goodness and glory on our lives. We need to acknowledge that God is faithful because we, as the children of Abraham, we are living proof that the promise God made to Abram thousands of years ago is still being fulfilled. Only as those around us know that our God is faithful to fulfill all of his promises, that all of his promises find there yes in Jesus, will people come to have faith in God and they too can know themselves as children of Abram. 

         You see, what we as people can create while often very thrilling, is not a great enough purpose for us who are the very highest of God’s creation. Think of all the seven wonders that used to marvel people that now have turned to dust. All of the kingdoms which once were so feared and so impressive have all become history. No, what goes on is life. It is what God can create out of us, this is what matters. The great nation God promised to Abram goes on because it is blessed by the eternal life of God. This is what God has created us to do with our lives, be a blessing to others so that in some way they might experience the blessing of God for themselves. This is the way the blessed life goes on and on. May this be your experience as well! Amen!