Genesis: Hope Against Hope

Typically, in the summer, television ratings dip a bit.  You see, you and I are out in the evening on a walk or away on vacation.  We are watching the fireflies turn on their lights and the stars peek out.  Or at least, some of us.  But I can imagine that this particular week, many of us watched a few more moments of TV, read a few more commentaries on the internet, and watched for more information.   We watched with fear. Will North Korea step down?  How will our leaders respond to the blatant racism and white privilege that has become an insidious part of our culture?  Where is the pain in our world – Barcelona, Sierra Leone, and Nepal?  We watched, not just to educate ourselves, but to hope against hope that God’s way will overcome the brokenness and pain of our world.  We watch, we read, we pray, and we act.  Not just, even when, but especially, when inevitability seems like certain.  When the possible answers seem like more of the same.  Against the backdrop of resignation of spirit, you and I are called to step up and lean in.

It is the way of God’s people.  We have been tracking along in Genesis for the last 10 weeks.  Diving deeper into the beginning stories of humanity and finding ourselves in them.  I am thankful for Pastor Shirley’s message last Sunday.  I pray you experienced it in person in worship, but if not, be sure to catch it on our website.

This week, we rejoin Abram in the middle of God’s promise to keep the covenant that Abram will have as many descendants as the stars in the sky.  But division has clouded the view for covenant.  Sarai sought to answer she and Abram’s prayer with her own answer.  This was not the way forward that God had set into being.  In these two chapters, 32 verses include God actively speaking or providing direction for Abraham and Sarah.  God’s way, even when it seemed impossible was going to be the way forward.  The covenant was going to be kept.  The promises were going to be known.  God’s way was going to be THE way.  Even when the details made no sense, even when the practicals seemed impossible, God’s way is the way! 32 out of 42 verses in these two chapters, God is actively speaking.  As God is speaking, Abraham and Sarah are listening and critiquing.  They, like us, are editorializing and imaging how they could do it better.  Over 75% of the time, in their prayers, Abraham and Sarah are listening to the voice and way of God – and still they are concerned about how God will work.  God is unfolding blessings beyond what they could imagine, descendants numerous and prolific, including ultimately, the lineage of Jesus the Christ.  When Abraham worried and Sarah laughed, could they have imagined?

It was in Paul’s letter to Rome, that we pick up the language of hoping against hope.  But we already knew what it meant.  Hoping against hope when we have no idea how God is going to work this all out, but we still have the deep conviction that God will work it out.  Hoping against hope is where we are when we feel as though our desperation and inevitability are going to win.  Hoping against hope is watching Nazis and white supremacists get the attention on the news and praying that God’s way of love and freedom for all will be the ultimate word and the courage for our actions of non-violence and anti-racism.  On the strength of our baptismal vows, we remember this: Do you accept the power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?   We affirm, Yes, we do.   How?

Like Abraham and Sarah, we turn first to God.  We listen to God in prayer.  In our prayers, we bring our fears and excitements as we did earlier in gathered prayer.  We talk, we laugh, and we listen.  We also bring ourselves to be moved and convinced of what God is calling us to do and be.  We are in that time showing others what God calls us (and perhaps, even them) to do and be.  Over 75% of the time in this passage, Abraham and Sarah listened!

Prayer is the glue of hoping against hope.  Prayer is the place where God encourages and guides us.  We need to be reminded that prayer is an essential part of our faith lives.  Prayer is the place where the Holy Spirit moves in our lives to explore our own racism within our inner selves.  Prayer is the place where the Holy Spirit moves and nudges us to speak out against those for who bigotry is a native tongue.  Prayer is not the way out of acting. It is the necessary precursor to action, needs to be concurrent with action, and response to action.  Prayer is how we communicate with God.  Prayer is how we listen and how we talk.

What a gift God has given us, here at West Grove.  With the vision for the prayer bead garden and commitment to see God’s vision coming to realization, today, we will be breaking ground and consecrating that ground.  We hold light up against the darkness and join with God’s people in listening for God.  Hoping against hope that God has incredibly more in store than we can see.

As we process from sanctuary to the prayer bead garden site, the light of the acolyte will lead us.  Acolytes, light bearers carry God’s light into the sanctuary and out.  They always point to God. They remind us that we are doing the same with our lives.  We are light bearers.  We remind ourselves and others that there is darkness, but the darkness will not overcome the light.

You and I, we live a life of witness.  Whether we intend to or not, we are always shining something.  Sometimes, it is dull and unengaged.  Sometimes, it is glaring and hard to see.  Sometimes, it is simple and illuminates the way forward.  Our prayer bead garden is witness to our community and the world.  As people come to the church for preschool and scouting, AA meetings and 4H, CPR trainings and library events, the prayer bead garden stands as a witness to our commitment to be listening to where God is moving.  As people rush by on Route 1, the prayer bead garden stands in direct contrast to slow down and listen to our God, who is always with us and always talking.  Our prayer bead garden is a witness to ourselves.  Let us not forget to be people of prayer and listening to God.  We, like Abraham and Sarah, need to remember that God is not done yet!   God’s promises are still being lived out.  We need to listen for our role and our part, living out our prayers.

Hoping against hope is not passive or retreating.  Hoping against hope is not giving up. Hoping against hope is the bold way of stepping into the life God called us to, and will see us through.  Hoping against hope is listening and living incredible promises of God, like Sarah, and then letting God use us to answer our prayer for far more incredible promises than we could have imagined.

This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God.

 

Old Testament Lesson: Genesis17: 1-6, 15-17, 19, 21; 18:1-15 

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.

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.’ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’

God said, ‘No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.’ The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, ‘My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to  prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to     herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’ The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’ But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’; for she was afraid. He said, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’

New Testament Lesson: Romans 4: 18-22

Hoping against hope, Abraham 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.’

Meditations For Your Week

Sunday, August 20-Saturday, August 26

 Sunday: “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.’” Genesis 17: 1-2.  When Abram thought that his work was done, God was not yet done with him.  When we think we have given all we can, put in our time, or are too old, God still blesses and calls us.

Monday: “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’” Genesis 17: 17.  Where is God doing miracles in your life, and you might dismiss even the possibility of the miracle?

Tuesday: “The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground.” Genesis 18:1-2.  God often uses others to show us God’s way.  Who is the face of God in your life today?

Wednesday: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time, I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’” Genesis 18:14. Prayerfully open your heart that God might do the seemingly impossible!

Thursday: “Hoping against hope, Abraham believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’” Romans 4:18. Hope is an expectation, a certainty of what will happen.  Where is God inviting you to be certain of God’s promises, even when certainty seems ill advised?

Friday: “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.” Romans 4:19. Many of us know aging and frail bodies.  They do not limit God.  Prayerfully ask God how God is using you today to show others God’s way.

Saturday: 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.’” Romans 4:20-22  Ask God for the gift of faith as you seek God’s promises.