PROPERS: 2 LENT, YEAR A
TEXT: GENESIS 12:1-4a
PREACHED AT HOLY TRINITY, PENSACOLA, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2020.
ONE SENTENCE: The righteousness brought by faith brings order out of the chaos of life.
The first lesson today begins an important scriptural saga – the story of the key patriarch, Abram. The story of Abram – who will eventually be known as Abraham – and his family will consume the next 39 chapters of Genesis.
But, it is grounded in chaos. Like nearly all biblical stories, it follows and precedes something important, and in this case, the chapter before sets the stage for what is happening.
Our first lesson is from the beginning of chapter 12 of Genesis. Just before, in chapter 11, there is the story of the Tower of Babel. All of the tribes of earth, we are told, have gathered to build a great city. At the center of that city will be a tower, built from bricks of the native rock, and mortar from the plentiful bitumen of the area. That tower, they said, would reach to the heavens.
Genesis goes on: God looked down and saw the united tribes, all speaking one language, and decided it was time to step-in and take-action. So, he scattered the people, giving them various languages which differing tribes could not understand.
Thus, we are told, the people were spread across the face of the earth.
It is then that God takes an action that will forever change the course of history – down to this very day.
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We are told Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, and his daughter-in-law, Sarai, from Ur of the Chaldeans. Ur today is a site in southern Iraq, near Iran. The elder Terah planned to take them to the land of Canaan, in modern-day Israel.
But taking a curious, circuitous route, they made it only as far as Haran, a site located in modern-day Turkey. They were a long way from their desired destination. Terah, the father of Abram, died there, in Haran.
It was there that the saga of Abram begins. He steps to center stage.
It is important that we understand the nature of these people. They were not traveling easily in an RV, on smoothly-paved roads, between Holiday Inns. No, these were Bedouins – nomadic people, forced by nature to move between sources of food for their flocks and water, for both animals and humans. It was a rugged existence – one that continues to this day. You can see such primitive Bedouins on the hillsides outside Jerusalem.
I have this vision of Abram coming out of his Bedouin tent in Haran, under a clear night sky. He is alone under the stars. He is pondering his next move on the long journey to Canaan his father had begun.
Under the sky’s blanket, on a cool desert night, he has a theophany – an encounter with God. The exact nature of that theophany I do not know. Perhaps it was just a still, quiet voice within him, in the solitude of the moment. Whatever the circumstances, he heard:
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
The importance of this passage cannot be overstated. This is the original covenant between God and what would become his chosen people. This is the basis on which everything else in the Judeo-Christian tradition is built. God has reached out and chosen Abram.
God was seeking to bring order from the chaos of Babel. The order continues – to Isaac and to Jacob, and then ultimately to Joseph, who would play an important role in the ultimate delivery of the chosen people – the Hebrews, or the Jews.
The divine covenant lineage had passed a significant point some 1,500 years later when the apostle Paul wrote his Letter to the Romans. A passage from that letter is our second lesson today. Let me remind you of the words:
“What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’”
Paul was writing about a New Covenant – the covenant which had come through Jesus Christ. But, he referred back to a covenant with Abraham many centuries before – a covenant which had now been expanded and extended.
He referred to another covenantal moment with Abraham, in Genesis chapter 15. It is essentially the same covenant we heard today in chapter 12. The new words are these: “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”
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All of this is to emphasize the centrality of faith. It is a recurrent theme in scripture – the importance of faith over reliance on the The Law.
We know precious little of Abram’s moral life – though between chapters 12 and 15, we have a bit of a flittering and unflattering insight into his ethics. What made Abram stand out as an icon and as a patriarch was his faith – his willingness to trust God.
Trust is a synonym for faith. Our object of faith is that in which we put our trust – specifically, our ultimate trust. It is to be a trust which goes beyond the limited parameters of this life… that transcends the daily problems we face… that looks beyond this life into the mists of eternity. Abram, the patriarch, saw barely the tip of the iceberg on that quiet night in the Middle Eastern desert. Jesus later brought that faith into high relief. And Paul emphasized its importance.
When I was growing up in the Methodist Church, we used to sing a hymn that expressed this faith so well. Listen to its lyrics:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
Today, we stand on that same solid rock. Our faith holds us there firmly.
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