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.