2nd Sunday of Lent 2018
2nd Sunday of Lent, “God Keeps Promises”
Do we trust those who make promises to us? When we make promises do we keep them?
God put Abraham to the test. How hard it is to imagine a loving God testing someone. And what a test it is! What kind of sadistic God would ask someone to sacrifice their son. For that reason, the origin of this story is hotly debated. We know there was no reporter walking along beside Abraham and Isaac writing down details. The story has been handed down through the centuries. Maybe we misunderstand the test that is being discussed. Perhaps we also misunderstand what the story is trying to tell us about our relationship with God.
We look at this narrative as being about a test of obedience. Obedience to God would seem to be of paramount importance. We can look at our whole Christian life as a test of obedience. God gives us the rules. If we do not question the commandments of God, if we just do as we are told, then we pass the test. We are pleasing to God.
We religious people, if we believe this, are to be like soldiers. God gives us the orders, we follow them without question. If we do that we are solid believers. Abraham was given an order, a most unjust, cruel order. He follows it. He passes the test. But maybe there was something else going on here. Perhaps it was all about Abraham finally believing that God will keep his promise. Sometimes it is hard for us to believe that anyone really can be trusted to keep their promises.
Once there was a lion who was sleeping in the forest. As he slept a mouse who lived in the same part of the forest ran over the lion’s face waking him up. The lion reached out with his paw grabbing the mouse by the tail. He held him up to his mouth ready to devour him.
The mouse pleaded with the lion. “O please spare my life. O please spare my life.” The mouse said, “If you spare my life, I promise that if I can ever save your life I will do it.” The lion laughed so hard that he dropped the mouse. He roared, “How can one so small ever save me, the king of the beasts.” The lion rolled over and went back to sleep.
Days later, hunters came into the forest. The hunters dug a pit along the path the lion always walked. The men covered the pit with branches, after that they waited behind some bushes until the lion came. The lion walked by. He fell in the pit. The hunters quickly threw a net over him, pulled him out of the pit, tied him down, after which, they went to get a cart to haul him away. As he lay helpless, he cried in fear. The mouse heard his cry. He came running. He said, “I will save you.” The lion asked sarcastically, “What can you do?” The mouse got to work. He gnawed through the ropes one at a time until the lion was freed. The moral: People who keep promises are the best friends of all.
The story of Abraham is the story of a person who had finally learned that God keeps promises. If we read through the book of Genesis, we see how time after time God promises that Abraham and Sarah will be parents of a great nation. Time after time they will not believe it. One example of their lack of trust revolves around Sarah taking matters into her own hands. She knows she is too old to bear children. In chapter 16 she pushes Abraham to have sex with a surrogate mother, Hagar. He does. A boy is born, Ishmael. God tells Abraham and Sarah that it is nice there is a child, but he is not the one that will fulfill the promise.
In chapter 17 God renews his covenant with Abraham. He tells Abraham, once again, that Sarah will bear a son. Abraham falls face down on the ground in laughing at God. He does not believe the promise. But then Isaac is born. Abraham changes. But does he really believe. God decides to find out if Abraham has learned trust. Abraham has, in his heart of hearts he believes that God will never harm him. God will not let Abraham hurt Isaac because God keeps promises. Abraham learned to trust God implicitly. Abraham and God take the test to the brink. And Abraham’s belief is correct. God was never going to break his word.
Do we believe what God promised us a Baptism? Do we believe that we are sons and daughters of a loving parent? God will never forsake us, that God will always forgive us. God will always love us. We are all like Abraham. Only over time and by fighting through struggles do we come to trust God implicitly. And that is what faith is all about. We develop a relationship with God over the course of our life time. We know we are mature Christians when we come to believe that God keeps promises.
Please note this is a rough draft, grammar may not be perfect.