Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35
There is a terrific comic strip I saw one time. Jesus is sitting on a stone, preaching to the masses. He must have just finished the sermon on the mount. You know the one, Blessed are the poor, woe to the mighty. Turn the other chick. Do good to those who hate you. Do not judge. Always forgive. Love one another. At this scene shortly after the sermon, the people have some questions. “But what if they look weird?” one participant calls out. “But they were really mean to me!” decries another. “But they do things differently than us!” shouts yet another. Jesus responds, . . . .
Have you ever had that conversation with a child or a student? “If I told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times.” Or my favorite southernism, “I done told ya, and told ya, and told ya!” But it doesn't matter. We don’t hear it. We don’t get it. Or we downright rebel against it. How frustrating that is for a parent–––a teacher. How much more frustrating that must be for God. In fact, we don’t really need to wonder about it.
’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
So, how long has this been going on? Well, at least since our first reading. “The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.” Translation, Abram had a dream.
And in this dream, God reminds Abram of a promise he made all the back in Chapter 13. That’s when God says to Abram, look at the sand around your tent, I will make your descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth.
Now, Abram doesn't own a copy of the Book of Genesis, maybe he forgot what God said fifteen to twenty years earlier, or maybe he can’t find the post-it he wrote it down on, or maybe he just doesn't believe it. So here we are, in Chapter 15. God tries it again. “Abram I love you. I have made a promise and will keep it. Forget about the grains of sand. Look at the stars in the sky. Can you count them? Because that is how many your descendants will be.” And how does Abram respond? But ummm………. And he comes up with all these (humanly reasonable) excuses. So God says, okay wise guy, let’s do this your way. Call your lawyer. Well, basically. In actuality he says, get these animals, kill them, cut them in two and lay them out. Once you do that I will walk through them to prove to you that I’m serious.
Sure this is weird to us. But it made perfect sense to Abram. This is how a covenant is made between two parties in the ancient world. Particularly, two parties of unequal status. It’s legally binding. You walk through the carcasses to say, if I break my oath, may I, like these animals, be cut down.
Still, Abram doesn’t believe it, or forgets it, or just can’t wrap his head around it. So he decides that since Sarai, his wife is old and baron, he will make this happen himself. Sarai brings Hagar, her slave and gives her to Abram as a concubine. She gets pregnant, and God sends an angel to tell Hagar she will have a son and to name him Ishmael. (oooo that’s a familiar tope- See Luke 1:26–38). Now God tries again. Thirteen years later. This time lets seal it in flesh. God says ‘promise you will trust me. Promise you will wait on me. Promise you will keep the covenant.’ So Abram, and Ishmael, and all the male servants of his camp are circumcised. A sign of the covenant in flesh. He’s not going to forget it this time.
Sarah has a son, named Isaac, which means laughter because she laughed at the notion of becoming pregnant. God comes through on his promise. Not only to Abram through Isaac, but also through Ishmael, who is also promised to bring about many descendants. From Ishmael, there are twelve tribes: Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Duma, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedmah. Through Isaac’s son Jacob, known as Israel, there will also be twelve tribes; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Then after Sarah dies, Abram, now called Abraham, meaning the Father of Many, takes another wife and has more children, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. If you want to check out the begat sections in Genesis, it keeps going.
Now with these descendants, God fulfills his part of the bargain. So what is the other side of the covenant? It should be a lot easier than miraculous births. It’s simply this, to love each other. To take care of each other. To look after the poor and weak, the orphan and the stranger. To forgive instead of seeking revenge. To love instead of hate. This is what the prophets speak over and over and over again. Jesus tells us so, he sums it up. There are two commandments. Love the Lord your God, and Love your neighbor. On these two hang all the Law AND the Prophets. God is saying, all those men and women I kept sending to you, this is what they were getting at. Yet even though the sign of the covenant is marked in the flesh, these descendants continue to hurt each other, and themselves. The powerful stand on the powerless. The children still go hungry. The different ones are still mocked and the stranger is still ignored. So Jesus laments over Jerusalem.
’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
What is so different now? We are inheritors of the Law and the Prophets. We have been grafted into the covenant with God, with the children of Ishmael and the children of Isaac. Not through scars of circumcision but through the wounds in the body of Jesus Christ. In God reconciling us to himself, we have been joined into the promise to Abraham, and we are charged to keep our end of the bargain.
Conservatively it’s been some five thousand years or so since God first spoke to Abraham. In all that time, God’s never failed in the covenant. We have! Over and over again. But in all our failings God has never struck us down. Instead, he just keeps calling. Come back–––I love you––––Try again. I long to gather you all together as a hen gathers her brood, as a mother, her children. Yet time and again, you are not willing.
So God laments. God’s heart breaks. But God’s reaction is not of punishment. For in our failure to uphold the covenant among us, we have only succeeded in hurting ourselves. We still hate the stranger out of fear, although we are all children of God. We still ignore and oppress the weak while praising the strong, even though God is stronger than all. We still lie and cheat and kill one another, even though God was willing to die to get our attention.
God’s reaction is not one of punishment but only love. Ezekiel tells us that God does not desire the death of sinners, only that we turn back to him. But it doesn't matter, We don’t hear it. We don’t get it. Or we downright rebel against it.
’ Elkhart, Elkhart! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
So we try and turn. We repent and seek restoration or reconciliation. But it is not only for restoration with God, because without restoring our relationships with each other, with the poor, the oppressed, the homeless, the stranger, the one who is different, the one who has hurt us; if we do not grieve for the loss of innocence, then all that work is for nothing, and we will continue to grieve the heart of God.
It may not make sense now, it may seem an impossible task, and it is without the grace of God, but each Lent, God comes to us and says, “TRUST ME! I LOVE YOU! COME BACK!”
Rev. J. Nelson - 2 Lent C - March 17, 2019
St. David of Wales Episcopal Church - Elkhart, Indiana
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