Genesis 12:1-4, Romans 4:1-17, and John 3: 1-17
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| Courtesy of Unsplash Public Domain Stock Photos |
My wife and I have found that these days we only recognize two categories of time in our lives.
I like to refer to these two time periods as BK and AK.
There is an extensive period of time before we met, before we were married, before we lived in certain places, even before we had certain jobs.
But the period of time that radically changed our entire lives was not the completion of our varying levels of education, our moving into our first home, or even our marriage but that AK period.
These two time periods are Before Kids and After Kids.
Having children changed every single facet of our lives.
Adventurous cooking, cuisine, drinks, art, all seem to have no place in our household any longer.
Even “adult programming” as we have come to call it, has become a rare treat for us.
And while I can deal with cartoons and chicken nuggets, rather than Game of Thrones and a nice ribeye, “After Kids” travel is the one piece of our lives that makes us miss that BK period more than anything.
It isn’t that we don’t want to spend time with our kids, we do.
We love having time with our kids, especially when we are on vacation.
But what is particularly difficult is getting there in the first place.
Car seats, toys, diapers, toys, utensils, toys, kid friendly food that won't make too big of a mess, toys.
By the time you have the car packed it is a wonder that we can even fit ourselves into the vehicle.
And if you forget something on the way home; MAJOR MELTDOWN, every-time!
Even traveling to someone else’s home for a meal is a fiasco.
Usually, it has more to do with the stuff you must bring than the kids themselves.
Traveling After Kids, no matter the distance, is a burden.
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| The Caravan of Abraham James Tissot, 1903 (PD) |
In our first lesson today, the story we hear about Abram is the very beginning of his journey.
It is a journey in which Abram is called to clearly break away from all the burdens of his stuff, freeing himself from his land, his people, and his lineage.
This would essentially strip Abram of every single thing of value in a nomadic society.
And he isn’t just breaking free of things, but he is breaking free of his very identity and culture.
When we read this story, we most often think of Abram’s faith as a response to a definitive promise made by God.
But God’s promise is anything but definitive or obvious.
God commands Abram to begin this journey; to nowhere.
God demands Abram sever all ties from everything he knows and then promises that if he does this, God will let him see the land that God will …SHOW to Abram.
That may be the chance of a lifetime for a photographer or a painter but giving up all you have to just catch a glimpse of some patch of land doesn’t seem to be a decent tradeoff for all Abram is giving up.
Abram isn’t just traveling light. He is putting himself in the most precarious position imaginable.
This almost seems impulsive.
It seems like a decision that lacks any rational thought, especially for that day and age, regardless of whether it is before kids or after kids.
And you would think that the next two verses would sweeten the pot a bit for Abram, but they don’t really.
God promises him that a great nation will be made FROM Abram,
Like a plant that sprouts from a seed, but there is no assurance that Abram himself will see any such nation.
And if you skip to the end, you’ll find that Abram indeed does not see such a nation.
God goes on and promises to bless Abram and make his name great, but the language shows these are continuous actions that will occur beyond Abram’s life, so again, these are blessings that may not occur in Abram’s own lifetime.
Again, if you skip to the end, you’ll find Abram indeed never witnesses this come to full fruition either.
It goes on like this throughout the text, promises are made to Abram by God for taking this action, but these are great promises that Abram won't see come to fulfillment because Abram serves as the seed of all these blessings.
Blessings that will not be bestowed to Abram specifically, but to those who “will bless themselves” to him.
Seems a bit like taking credit for something someone else does, doesn’t it?
It would appear Abram does all the work, and those who claim to be Abram’s children will reap the rewards.
Abram is never blessed for his own sake but for the sake of others.
Not the best deal, considering all that he is giving up.
Yet, Abram responds to the command obediently, with one caveat, he ends up with Lot as a tag along.
How’s that for breaking away from your father’s house?
And Lot will turn out to be a lot more baggage than Abram anticipated.
Lot will be such a burden that this may be why God told Abram to leave his father’s household behind in the first place.
Even with all Abram faithfully gave up, the one thing he wouldn’t let go of seems to weigh him down far more than he could have imagined.
Because Lot turns out to be more trouble than Abram bargained for.
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I’ve told a few people here at St Michael when I first arrived and I knew that many of you had heard the same thing from Stephen when I saw the eye rolls, but Lent is truly my favorite time of year.
I can’t speak for Stephen as to why it is his favorite season but for me, I love Lent because it is not about where Lent leads us but the journey that we are taking in the first place.
Because in all honesty, if this road we take at Lent really did end at the cross for all of us, would we really want Lent to end at all?
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In 1985 the band Talking Heads released their single “Road to Nowhere”.
The writer and lead singer for the Talking Heads, David Byrne said that he wrote the song as a joyful look at the impending end of our lives, a joyful approach to the looming nature of our limited mortality.
“We're on a road to nowhere
Come on inside
Taking that ride to nowhere
We'll take that ride
I'm feeling okay this morning
And you know
We're on the road to paradise
Here we go, here we go”
It seems to capture the nature of not only Lent, but the beginning of Abram’s faith journey.
Abram is taking the road to nowhere, a road that leads to a set of ambiguous promises, that really aren’t even meant for him specifically.
And his journey is more than just a story, it is a metaphor for faith, not just for Abram but for us as well.
Lent is not about the perfect journey and our faith is never really fully perfected.
But the joy in our lives is not just where we are going to end up, but the road we take to get there.
And sometimes, the burdens we carry with us become as much a part of that journey as the destination itself.
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Much like Abram, Nicodemus is carrying a little dead weight on his own journey in the Gospel for today.
Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a member of an elite class of aristocracy known as the Sanhedrin.
A class of religious elite that will judge Jesus’ actions on numerous occasions, to include their recommendation to Pilate to crucify Jesus.
In fact, Nicodemus himself will be engaged in a debate over Jesus with the Sanhedrin in a few chapters (John 7:51).
But in this story, we are told of how Nicodemus comes to Jesus to confess his faith in Jesus’ mission.
He professes his faith that Jesus is a teacher from God, even submitting himself to Jesus when Nicodemus refers to Jesus as “Rabbi”, basically submitting to Jesus as his own teacher.
This would make Jesus the teacher of one most learned members of the religious elite class.
But Jesus’ response to this confession of faith is surprising.
He essentially responds to this confession of faith with a warning.
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| Christ and Nicodemus, Fritz von Uhde 1896 (PD) |
A warning that there is quite a bit more that will be required of Nicodemus.
The issue is not his role as a Pharisee or even his participation in the Sanhedrin.
And while many would like to believe that this passage points explicitly to baptism, it points far beyond our baptism.
Jesus’ response is prompted by a confession from Nicodemus that is grounded in the works of Jesus, the miracles Jesus has performed.
And Jesus is warning Nicodemus that he is searching through laws, and stories, and miracles that point to the concrete reality of this world.
Things that Nicodemus can see. Things that Nicodemus can comprehend.
Nicodemus is confessing a faith that is grounded in a journey that has a definitive destination.
Nicodemus is confessing a faith that is grounded in a carefully plotted route.
He is confessing a faith that is grounded in certainty.
This is a far cry from a road to nowhere.
Jesus declares to Nicodemus a journey that begins in the water and the Spirit, but much like the wind that blows, he assures Nicodemus that faith is meant to be something that takes us on a path and to a place that we cannot fully grasp.
Jesus calls Nicodemus to an ambiguous faith that comes and goes from a place we do not know.
Probably about as comfortable for Nicodemus as it is for us, right?
Because we like to deal in concrete facts, in definitive reality.
We want the map and we want to know where it leads.
But faith doesn’t work that way, because faith is grounded in a reality far beyond the one we see.
And that is why Jesus calls Nicodemus, and us, to an uncertain faith.
A faith that questions where we are going, how we are getting there, what exactly it is we believe in.
A faith that questions things and a faith that sometimes doubts things.
A faith that sometimes falls flat on its face when we dig into the freezer at 3 AM with nothing but a spoon and a carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in spite of our Lenten pledge to give up sweets.
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This past Wednesday was International Women’s Day.
People recognized this day in a variety of ways but on Wall Street, where the iconic bronze bull statue stands, a new statue appeared to commemorate the day.
It was another bronze statue standing opposite of the bull.
The bull was standing as if it were preparing to charge the subject.
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| Public Domain photo courtesy of flikr Photo by Sam Valadi, July 22, 2011 |
Given the size differential of the two figures, the bull appeared to be the clear favorite if the two statues took on a life of their own.
The statue standing in opposition to the bull was modest in size comparatively to this powerful animal.
Not only was this statue comparatively undersized in contrast to the Bull, but it was the statue of a little girl, no more than 8 years old.
She stands fearlessly, with her hands on her hips and her chin raised upwards.
Her feet planted firmly beneath her with her ponytail blowing in the wind, and her eyes affixed on the bull that is towering over her.
Standing firmly in the face of what would logically be foreseen as a catastrophic outcome, if these two bronze figures were flesh and blood.
Yet there she stands, in the face of doubt, in the face of the odds that stand against her, not denying these odds or doubts but facing them confidently, honestly, and faithfully.
This is the kind of faith that Abram is called to grow into, this is the kind of faith that Nicodemus is called to seek.
An authentic, honest, and courageous faith that stands in the face of all challenges, rather than escaping to the smoke and mirrors we so often seek out to protect our faith.
Faith isn’t BLIND if it is authentic, faith looks into the eyes of doubt, uncertainty, and the questions the world rightfully demands we answer as the church.
It doesn’t mean we always have the answers but it means we engage the questions.
And sometimes those questions lead us to somewhere, sometimes somewhere we cannot quite describe.
But sometimes it leads us to nowhere, and we can’t be lost in the middle of nowhere if that is exactly where God has called us to be.
Faith, Lent, and yes LIFE is about this grand glorious road to nowhere.
Because we don’t really know where we are going or where faith will take us.
And sometimes there are some heavy crosses that we carry with us on that road, but we can be confident that in end of that journey we are assured we won't be hung from those crosses, because He's already there.
Amen
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| Christ Crucified, Diego Velázquez 1632 (PD) |
Sources
Byrne, D. (1985). Road to Nowhere. [AAC file] Sigma Sound Studios in Manhattan: Warner Bros./Sire Records.
Chan, M. (2017). Thousands Want the Wall Street’s Fearless Girl Statue to Become Permanent. [online] Fortune.com. Available at: http://fortune.com/2017/03/10/fearless-girl-statue-wall-street-bull-petition/ [Accessed 11 Mar. 2017].
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