Genesis 15:1-6; Psalm 33:12-22; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
I remember watching the Bob Newhart show. Not the Bob Newhart Show where he owns an inn in the mountains, but the first Bob Newhart show, where he lives in Chicago, he’s married to Emily, played by Susanne Pleschett, where Bob is a psychiatrist with a host of zany characters that he knows, such as his friend Jerry the dentist, his neighbor Howard the airline pilot, and Mr Peterson, the short bald-headed little man who has more neurosis than you can count. Every Saturday evening, we watched that show.
As I remember, one episode involved Bob giving marital counseling to his patients. Part of the therapy was for the man and woman to develop faith in each other, and the way to do this was for the man to stand behind the woman, the woman to close her eyes, and then fall into the man’s arms, having faith that he’d catch her. Then, the two would change places, and hopefully the couple would now trust each other more.
Bob decides to demonstrate this at home with his wife Emily while Howard the airplane pilot looks on. Emily falls into Bob’s arms just as it’s supposed to be. Now they switch. Bob is supposed to fall into Emily’s arms, but just as Bob starts to fall, the phone rings and Emily turns to grab the phone. Boom! Bob hits the ground. They try again. Howard says something which distracts Emily and Boom! Bob hits the ground again! Now, Bob is supposed to trust Emily for a third time.
You know, it’s hard to have faith when you are allowed to hit the floor time and again. Yet faith is what we are told to have in God.
But faith in God is something that is very, very difficult. How do you have faith in someone you can’t even see? How do you have faith in someone who isn’t human? How do you have faith in the God that everyone talks about but who doesn’t answer the simplest prayers, such as “would you give me an ice cream cone right now?”
Yet the answer is actually pretty simple: You choose. You make a choice to have faith. And that choice is easier when you have developed a relationship with God, a relationship that has developed because you have talked with God through prayer, you have read about God’s deeds by reading pages and pages of the Bible, when you have looked around you at the world with the assumptions that God exists and God is doing things just for you every day. You choose to have faith in God."Fake it til you make it?" It works, because as you fake your faith, assuming that God exists, you will begin to see God at action in the world. Faith comes through familiarity.
In our reading from Genesis 15, we find Abram. Abram means “exalted father”. At God’s request, Abram has traveled far from his home in southern Iraq and is now leading his flocks and herds in the area of modern Israel. His flocks have grown so much that Abram and his nephew Lot have to divide up their flocks, with Lot going down into the plain around the Jordan River, and Abram staying on the hills above. Abram has become very prosperous because he trusted God and moved to the Promised Land.
But a couple things are missing in Abram's life. First, Abram has no son. One night, Abram has a vision. Abram is in his tent, lying on his blanket and God speaks to him:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward.”
Abram replies back to God:
“Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” My closest relative is a cousin who lives far away. “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
You see, Abram really wanted a son. He wanted a son that he could teach and lead and pass all his knowledge and wisdom to. Abram wanted a son who would take over his flocks and herds – all of his wealth. Abram wanted a son who would take care of Abram in his old age. But Abram was getting old and he did not have a son. And Abram, to his great credit, understood that God gives us children.
Then, Abram heard a still, small voice. Out of the night wind, there came a voice and the voice talked about Abram’s servant. The word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”
The Lord lifted Abram up from his blanket and led him outside into the clear, dark desert night, a night centuries before street lamps and electric lights, a night that was dark and clear and the stars blazed forth, even the dimmest could be seen, and the Lord said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” You will have as many offspring, as many descendants, as many children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and so on, as there are stars you can count in the clear night sky of the desert.
Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it to Abram as righteousness. The Lord took Abram’s belief, his trust in the Lord, his faith in the Lord, and the Lord said that this was proof of Abram’s righteousness, for it is when we trust in God’s capacity and goodness that we have become God’s followers. And following God’s will, doing what God our leader asks, becoming God’s subjects is what makes us righteous, for God will never ask us to do evil, because whatever God asks is good, always good. When we follow God, we will do the right thing.
Years passed, decades passed, and Abram’s wife gave up, but Abram still believed in God’s promise. Finally, when Abram was 99 years old and his wife was 89, God came back to visit and told Abram he would have a son in a year. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which means “father of many nations”. And a year later, Isaac was born. Isaac then later had a son named Jacob – who later had his name changed by God to “Israel”.
It is from Jacob that all the Israelites are descended. Abraham was the father not only of all of Israel, but also all of the Arabs through his other son Ishmael, as well as the people of southern Jordan, known as Edom. And so, when the 600,000 Israelites returned from Egypt, led by Moses and Aaron some 500 years later, there really were as many descendents as the stars that Abram could count.
But there is a lasting point to this story. For you remember I said that for Abram, there were a couple of things missing. First, he wanted a son. But what was the second thing?
The writer of Hebrews tells us.
Throughout their lives, Abraham, his son, and his grandson lived in tents. They did not live in a city – only in a movable camp. And the writer of Hebrews points out that people who live in such ways, people who live in tents, people who say they are foreigners and strangers do not have a home they can return to, especially since Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could have returned to Iraq if that was what they were looking for.
No, when you feel you don’t belong in a place, in a time, in a location…when you feel like you are living in a tent, a temporary home, a place where you are not settled…then, as the writer of Hebrews says, "they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." Christ Himself is waiting to bring us home. Abraham wanted a home.
Jesus told his disciples a story, a story about a group of servants who know that their master has gone away for a wedding banquet, a wonderful meal. The master has gone, but when will he return home? The servants don’t know, but the good servants wait up, they stay dressed, they are ready to serve the master as soon as he arrives home, whether at midnight, at 3 am, or when the sun comes up. And what happens when he comes home and finds them waiting for him? He’ll become the servant, have the good servants sit at the table, and because of his joy, he’ll feed them supper and treat them well. He may even bring home wonderful leftovers from the feast!
In all of this, Jesus was telling us that although he has gone away, we need to have faith that he will return. He tells us to sell our possessions and give them to the poor, to be focused upon doing good, on becoming close to God, to understanding Jesus’ mind, for when Jesus returns, he may return at any time – it may be many, many years – or it may be in the next hour. We are to be ready to travel, ready to serve Him, ready to get up and go.
You know, soon after we moved here, I injured my back and it hasn’t been quite right since. Where I used to be able to benchpress nearly two hundred pounds, now twenty pounds held the wrong way can get me. But, thanks to the Lord and the YMCA, my back is getting better. But there was a time when carrying things across slick snow from the parking lot to the house, or up the stairs inside the house to the kitchen was just too tricky for me. And so Saundra and I would go to the grocery store. When we left the store, we’d call Andy and tell him to be ready for us to be home in ten minutes or so. And most of the time, as we’d pull into the drive, Andy would come running out to help carry in the heaviest groceries. What a blessing!
So be ready when Jesus returns. If you know you have a sinful habit, get working on it today – Imagine that every sinful habit you have is a shirt or blouse with horrible looking spots and dirt on it. If you are like most people, you are wearing layers and layers of those hideous clothes. Our leader and master will be returning someday. Maybe we have years to work cleaning up those clothes – maybe we only have ten minutes or ten days. The world is falling to pieces around us this year, so I lean toward the earlier return. So it is time to begin taking off those layers of hideous sin cloths. It is time to ask God for help taking off the shirts that you cannot get off by yourself, like a child whose shirt is stuck coming off because she has grown too big for that small shirt. Like a growing insect, split your skin of sin – grow out of it and walk forth clean!
We are to be clean when Jesus returns. Be awake, be ready, be knowledgeable of the things of God. Just as the Israelites were to be ready to leave Egypt quickly the night of the Passover when they received their deliverance from the world of slavery, we are to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice this world of evil.
As Jesus pointed out, work on storing up treasures in Heaven where thieves cannot take your goods, where your purses and wallets and pants pockets cannot wear holes in them through which your treasure will fall out, and where moths and rot cannot destroy the things you have waiting for you. Turn toward Christ and do His will! Leave the world behind and let Satan have it. But instead, look toward your friends, your neighbors, and your family and help them to understand the love of Christ.
Robert A Heinlein, a former navy lieutenant and science fiction writer, once wrote: “Never own more than you can carry in both hands at a dead run!” I suspect Jesus would have been please with Mr Heinlein’s thought.
Does this sound radical? Of course it is. For it requires that we must truly have faith and trust in God’s provision, and in the Gospel story. It is easy to say from your easy chair in your nice, warm home, with all your comforts about you – “I trust God to take care of me, look around!” But it is another thing to voluntarily reduce what you own and give it to the poor, especially when what you are giving away brings you comfort and security.
I know the impact of this myself. When we owned our home in Ohio, I had a job offer to become a teacher on a small island in the Persian Gulf between Dubai and Qatar. It was an emotional struggle for us – we really weren’t sure we could swing it because we knew that we owned the house, had the house payments, and all the things in the house. Our house, that pile of wooden beams, asphalt shingles, and plaster, was more important to us than the opportunity to win souls for Christ in the heart of Islamic territory.
God is gracious – He gave us a second chance to serve Him here. But last year, we sold that home, which removed a tremendous burden from us. Now we’re trying to give away other things we own to people who need those items.
Jesus Himself set the example. He gave away every heavenly power to come to earth as an infant. He lived a nomad’s life, not having a home, not owning anything other than what He could carry. And then, He gave away His life for us so that we could have that life, that life that lives eternally, that life that was all He had. Jesus gave away everything for us. And God rewarded Him with new life, a new life Jesus promised His followers would also have – He has given that away also. Is it any wonder we worship Him?
Can you really trust God to take care of you? Do you have faith in God? Or is your faith and trust in other things, things like 401 k plans and Social Security payments, things like a home, a cellar full of canned goods, a freezer full of meat, a barn full of extra lumber, spare tools, and equipment, things that can disappear in a night if a thief or an arsonist were to target you, money that could evaporate in minutes if a hacker transferred your money away, things that are eaten by moths and rust? Or is your treasure in heaven and are you devoted to storing up treasure in heaven, “where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
And it is where your heart is, where you place your trust, where the One you have faith and trust in resides – that is what makes you righteous before God – or not.
Come to Heaven. The cost of a ticket is quite simple. Mentally and spiritually give everything you own back to God. Now. And then over time, physically give it to those that God leads to you, to those who need to see God’s kindness through you. to those who need to see how much God truly controls the Universe…through your example. Live as Abraham. Live as though you live in a tent, ready to move to your Heavenly home at a moment’s notice.
Have Faith and Trust in God. And God will credit you with righteousness.
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