St.
Paul’s United Church Sunday, March 12, 2005
New Name, New Beginning, New Promise
– Rev. David Mundy
Genesis
17:1-71-7, 15-17
Romans 4:13-25 Mark 8:31-38
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Every year a colleague in ministry makes a point of visiting the
congregation in the small community where he grew up while he is on vacation.
As is often the case in little towns, everyone knows everyone else and they all
know each others business and most of their personal history – the good, the
bad and the ugly!
Last year my friend went to church on a quiet Sunday morning and to his
surprise he saw his former brother-in-law. This fellow had been a “bad actor”
for much of his adult life. He had developed a drinking problem which meant
that he couldn’t keep a job. He was also hard on his family. Eventually he
began to turn his life around and part of that change was to return to church.
To my colleague’s credit he was glad to see this man there that morning and he
hoped that his faith in God would be a source of strength.
There was another surprise when this fellow got up and lit the Christ
candle just before worship began. My colleague found out later that this simple
act of lighting the candle, which is a symbolic way of acknowledging Christ’s
presence, had been the source of controversy in the congregation. It turned out
that he had offered to do this every week and while most of the congregation
was accepting, a few people were upset. They knew his past and they didn’t like
what he had done then, nor did they trust him now. Truth be told, his new path was a
staggering one at times. One prominent member said he would be back when this
fellow was gone. The loss of his financial support was felt keenly by this
little church that was struggling to get by.
The whole situation was a reminder that while our Christian faith
encourages us to believe that God loves us and accepts us and that in Christ we
can begin again it doesn’t always play out that way in our day-to-day living.
Even when some folk want to start over in faith, those around them aren’t ready
to risk faith in them. And then there is God, who often chooses to change and
work through those who seem to be unlikely candidates.
The bible has many “starting over” stories and we heard one today from
the book of Genesis, as the second in a series of Lenten passages on God’s
promises or covenants. It is the story of a couple, Abraham and Sarah, whose
names we know well from the bible. They leave the comfort of their homeland to
follow the long and winding and perilous road to their new home. Scholars have
given us an idea of the route they followed and it wasn’t the shortest distance
between two points, but they persevere.
You may have noticed that the couple undergo a name change in this
passage. When they answer God’s call, they are Abram and Sarai.
Along the way those names become Abraham and Sarah. The changes may sound
minor, but they mark a new beginning, and a highly improbable one.
Even though Abraham is ninety-nine years old and Sarah is getting up
there herself they are promised children, and future generations. It’s been
pointed out that God often chooses to work through young people, or children.
But here it is two ordinary people who are promised something which sounds
downright crazy. Our reading was supposed to end at verse sixteen, but I added
seventeen because we’re told that when Abraham hears this promise he laughs so
hard that he falls down. Of course, the last laugh was on him. Sarah does have
a child, and they name him Isaac which means laughter.
Despite the laughter by both Abraham and Sarah their willingness to
start over at their unlikely age was and is considered a great example of faith
not only by Jews but by Muslims and Christians as well. In Islam Abraham is
revered and called “friend of God.” And there are scores of references to
Abraham and Sarah in the New Testament as well. In fact the very first line of
our Christian scriptures, the first verse of Matthew’s gospel mentions Abraham.
Why? Because this couple embodies the improbable, hopeful
faith, which we receive in Christ. We don’t always have time to read
every scripture passage of the lectionary each Sunday, but one of the passages
for today is from the apostle Paul’s letter to the
Christian church in Rome.
For the
promise that he would inherit the world did not come through Abraham or to his
descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith . . . For this reason it depends on faith, in order
that the promise may rest on grace . . . in the presence of the God in whom he
believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that
do not exist. Romans
4:13,16a, 17b NRSV
Then Paul goes on to speak about “hoping beyond hope.” What a
wonderful phrase. An old couple hearing that they are going to have a baby is
hoping beyond hope. These “old fogeys,” Abraham and
Sarah are important in our story of faith because God doesn’t see them as old.
To God, this is
the couple who will give birth to all the possibilities of faith.
Do we actually believe that the God we worship is still the God of new
beginnings, new promises, even new names? Are we
changed and renewed by our relationship with Christ? Too often we become “set
in our ways” and it doesn’t have much to do with our age. We can forget the
promise that we are a new creation in Christ. When we come to church, we can forget that
God is here.
From time to time someone shows up at my study door full of questions
and brimming with enthusiasm about their relationship with God. It might be
someone who has returned to the Christian community after a time away but,
often as not, it is a person who has been awakened in
faith.
I always enjoy these conversations because it is like being around
someone who is falling in love, and in a way it is. These folk are falling in
love with God, so they want to know everything. “Can you explain this to
me?” they ask. “Is there something I can read about that?”
What is remarkable is that I have had these conversations with searching
teenagers, and busy parents of young children, and those in the midst of mid-life crises, and
seniors who want to live this phase of life with hope. I don’t know that there
is ever a predictable or convenient season to be a Christian. And I have to
admit that as I
listen to these folk that I am often envious! I want to feed off the energy and
excitement, but I want it for myself as well, because having to be religious
for a living can get in the way of faith at times. I do see and hear that they
have often come to these encounters with the living God by unexpected routes
that have wandered and meandered all over the place.
How do we renew our sense of promise in Christ so that we have that
sense of being fully alive? In the United Church we don’t have altar calls
where we invite individuals to come forward and commit or recommit their lives
to Christ the way some denominations do. We don’t expect that our members will
claim to be “born again” or “saved” as a sign of their faith in Christ.
That said, we still believe that God is at work
within us. This morning we baptized several children and one adult as the sign
of a new beginning in Christ. In some Christian traditions this is called
christening, being given a Christian name as a sign of the new life in Christ.
This could be just what we do as the church as part of “hatch, match, and
dispatch” or it can be a holy moment filled with the promise of God, not
only for the individuals being baptized but for all of us. Nearly every time we
baptize the whole congregation is invited to renew its faith in Jesus Christ.
It doesn’t matter whether we are eight or eighty-eight, we all reaffirm that we
are followers of Christ and that Christ is in us.
We don’t have to be this formal though. I wonder what would happen if
every morning we began with a simple prayer that we will hear God’s voice and
be open to God’s promise for that day. Bruce Feiler
has written a fascinating book called Abraham: A
Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths. In a chapter with the title “Call” he
offers that “to be a child fo
Abraham is to respond to God’s Call, to start a voyage, to become a stranger.” Isn’t that what Jesus is saying to his
disciples who were already observant Jews, for the most part, when he says “Take up your cross
and follow me. Do you want to find your life? Then let it go and follow me.” The gospel message is that once we take that
step we can never be the same again.
Perhaps the man in my opening story knew what he needed when he asked if
he could light the Christ candle each Sunday morning. This couldn’t be “same
old, same old” for him. Each week he showed up at church it was a new
beginning and he wanted to acknowledge it before that faith community. Rekindling the
flame is a powerful symbol of faith, along with many others. I would encourage
you to “hope beyond hope” this morning, to fall in love with God again, to
believe that in Christ you are born anew.
There is an old Wesleyan Covenant Prayer which I will leave with you this morning, or at least a portion of it. The language is from another era, but the promise is fresh.
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank
me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to
suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or
laid aside for thee,
exalted
for thee or brought low by thee . . .
And now, O glorious and blessed
God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou
art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have
made on earth,
let
it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Our God is the God of new names, new beginnings, new
promises. When God meets us and we meet God we won’t
be the same. How can we do anything else but celebrate? Amen.