Lent 2B
March 8, 2009
St. Dunstan's
The Rev. Patricia Templeton

"Old Trophies and a Lot of Junk"

I was on the couch snuggling with Joseph Henry one evening a while ago when I asked him what I thought was a rhetorical question – “What would we do without our boy?”

He was quiet a moment, then sat up and looked at me. “Mama,” he said, “if a man doesn’t have a boy, all he has are old trophies and a lot of junk.”

Now I suspect Joseph Henry had Joe’s home office in mind when he uttered those words of wisdom. But they also fit with today’s Old Testament reading.

Abraham is 99 years old in the passage we hear today. At this advanced age, he and his wife, Sarah, have no children. By the standards of his day he is quite wealthy, with much silver and gold, many slaves, and a multitude of sheep, oxen, donkeys and camels.

But without a boy, all of his vast wealth means as much to him as old trophies and a lot of junk.

Childlessness has been a touchy subject for Abraham and Sarah. In those days, a man and woman’s worth was measured, in large part, by the number of offspring they had.

Abraham has long given up any hope of having children, when at age 75, a strange thing happens. God appears to him and tells him to go with his wife away from his father’s land, adding that God will make of him a great nation.

It is a curious promise to make to someone who is old and childless, but Abraham obeys and sets out for Canaan, where God appears again and says, “To your offspring I will give this land.

“I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.”

Despite this divine promise, many years pass with no children. One day God again appears to Abraham. This time, Abraham points out that he is still childless, and his only hope for an heir is to have a child with a slave.

Not so, God says, then adds, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them. So shall your descendants be.”

And despite the apparent absurdity of this promise, Abraham believes God.

But once again, years go by. Abraham is now 86; Sarah, well into her late 70s. Sarah finally convinces her husband that if they are to have an heir of Abraham’s own lineage, then he must have a child with a slave woman. With Sarah’s blessing, he does so, and the slave Hagar bears a son, named Ishamael.

Again, years pass. Abraham is now 99; Sarah, 90. Once more, God appears him with the now familiar promises.

“I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring throughout their generations.

“As for Sarah, I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her.”

Our reading for today ends there. But the story continues with Abraham’s response to this great promise.

“Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said, ‘Can a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? Can Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?”

And when Sarah hears this outrageous claim, she, too, laughs at its absurdity.

But maybe they also laugh because something in them still believes this seemingly unbelievable promise.

Our reading for today also omits a part of the passage where God outlines Abraham’s part of the covenant – that he and all the males of his household be circumcised.

Despite his laughter of disbelief, Abraham does as God requests. And nine months later, more than a quarter of a century after the first divine promise to Abraham, he and Sarah have a son. They name him Isaac, which means laughter.

Many years later, Abraham and Sarah’s numerous descendents do become the people of Israel, brought into the land first promised so long ago to a childless old man and woman.

In these first two Sundays of Lent, we have heard the story of two covenants between God and God’s people.

Last Sunday it was the rainbow that appeared to Noah after the great and destructive flood. From that time on, God says, all rainbows will be a reminder of the covenant between God and all creation, a promise that God will never again destroy the whole earth.

God’s covenant with Abraham and Sarah is more particular, but those who are the direct inheritors of the promise are to take God’s blessing and also spread it to all the people of the earth.

The seaon of Lent, a time of wilderness and somberness, of repentance and reminders of our mortality, begins with stories of God’s faithfulness to God’s people.

These covenants are not flashes in the pan, not here today and gone tomorrow. God’s covenants are eternal, binding us together in partnership for better and for worse, for all time, in this life and the next.

In a covenant, all partners have obligations. God has promised to be faithful, to provide security and blessing, to be with us always. We promise in return to live as faithful witnesses to God, to be partners in creation, to use God’s blessings for good in the world.

Part of a covenant is to have faith in one’s partner. Covenant partners believe that they can trust each other even in times of adversity and apparent betrayal.

Sometimes that trust is taken to the limit. Abraham and Sarah’s faith is pushed to the point of incredulity. They question, they doubt, they laugh at the absurdity of it all, but still they cling to at least a sliver of belief.

And just when it seems most impossible, when it seems that God has surely forgotten them, God comes through and Isaac is born.

Abraham and Sarah’s descendents, the people of Israel, also have long moments of doubt and disbelief, through generations of slavery in Egypt and long years wandering in the wilderness in search of the Promised Land.

But through all that time God does not forget God’s promises. And ultimately, Abraham and Sarah’s descendents do reach the promised land.

Even Jesus has his moments of doubt and despair, of wondering if God will be faithful to the promises God has made. Even Jesus’ faith is pushed to the limit.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he cries from the cross.

And surely at that time, it does seem that God has abandoned God’s own son, leaving him alone to die a torturous death.

Three days later, an empty tomb reveals God has once again kept the divine promise.

As we go into this season of Lent, we are reminded that we are inheritors of the covenant between God and God’s people. But we are also reminded that even the most faithful of God’s people have moments of doubt and despair.

Can God really be trusted? Is God really faithful? Or is all this talk about covenant and promise, blessing and new life all just hot air, as worthless as old trophies and a lot of junk?

During Lent, we acknowledge that our trust can be pushed to the limit – that even faith does not protect us from illness and death, from anxiety and worry, for hard times and despair. We acknowledge that at such times we may call into question God’s goodness or even God’s existence.

The story of Abraham and Sarah, the story of their descendents, the story of Jesus on the cross give us permission to ask our questions, to give voice to our doubts and laments.

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Readings

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Romans 4:13-25

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) — 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. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Mark 8:31-38

Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

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