Genesis 15:1-6 / Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16
11 Pentecost / Proper 14 / Year C
12 August 2007
The Church of the Good Shepherd
Wareham, Massachusetts
Preached by the Rev. David Fredrickson
The Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” …And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
I spent most of this past week on retreat at the Miramar Retreat House founded by the Society of the Divine Word, a Roman Catholic missionary order of brothers and priests founded in the mid nineteenth century. Miramar, which is just up the road in Duxbury, is a wonderfully peaceful and beautiful place. I took the opportunity mostly to pray, think and plan for the upcoming church year. Miramar is surrounded by reflections of, you guessed it, God’s Divine Word particularly as it is revealed in nature. The grounds feature beautiful gardens and lots of bees and butterflies and bunny rabbits and birds. As you enter the hallway that leads to the chapel, there along the wall is glass case displaying pictures of nature; mountains and lakes and streams and planets and moons and the giant stone monuments of the southwest. And in front of these pictures rests small bunches of colorful flowers. At the very beginning of this display there is a small poster that reads, “The Word.” And underneath that it says, “The Most Powerful Word Ever Spoken.” And then it goes on to quote John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. “Underneath that was Psalm 33 “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, by the breath of his mouth all the heavenly hosts…. For he spoke, and it came to pass; he commanded, and it stood fast.” (vv. 6 & 9) Every Sunday after we read the scriptures the lector says, “The Word of the Lord” and the people say “Thanks be to God.” The Divine Word; indeed, the Word became flesh and lived among us.
The Word plays a very important role in this morning’s readings from Scripture, that is, God’s Word. In Genesis, Abram was confronted with an interesting problem. Ever since the death of Abram’s father Terah, God had been promising Abram that he would be the father of a great nation that his offspring would be like the dust of the earth, more than any could count. But as time went on, Abram was becoming older and his wife Sarai was not able to conceive. You all know the story. So we come to this morning’s reading from Genesis 15;
THE WORD of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the Word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him (Abram) outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he (God) said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he (Abram) believed the Lord….
Abram left his home after his father’s death and he followed a path to a land that he didn’t know. He had no itinerary, no time-table; he just went because God told him to go. All along the way he continued to believe the Word of God. It wasn’t until he reached the ripe old age of 100 before God’s promise was fulfilled. His wife Sarai was 90 years old when she had Isaac.
There are two questions that emerge here for me and I think for us. First of all, what is the Word of God for you, for me, for us? We know what it was for Abram, but what is God saying to us? How do we hear it? Secondly, do we believe it, do we trust that it is good? With so many words being spoken out there, whose word will we listen to?
We hear God’s Word, I believe, by listening for it. I began my retreat this past week by doing some self-reflection. I wrote a little piece entitled, Who is David Andrew Fredrickson. You may think that is a little strange, but I prayerfully sought God’s perspective on my life, God’s Word for me. Who am I really, on the inside? Am I who I say I am or purport to be? Do I believe the Word of God? Do I believe that God will save me, or am I spending my life trying to save myself? These are questions that are important for me to answer. I looked over my life, where I had been and where am I heading. This was hard and it was pretty frightening, I don’t mind saying, but very helpful. I also went through this same exercise and asked these same questions about Good Shepherd. What is God’s Word, what is God saying to you; to us? Are we seeking it? Are we listening? If we are, then how are we acting upon it, if we aren’t, why? Are we impatient? Does God’s Word seem to implausible or too farfetched for us? These are questions that you and I need to ask ourselves and that we need to ask as a congregation.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews points out what I believe is the elephant in the middle of the room. The only way, of course, to appropriate the Word of God is by faith.
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible…By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents…By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old – and Sarah herself was barren – because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore…descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” …[For] faith is the ASSURANCE of things hoped for, the CONVICTION of things not seen.
When we hear God’s Word, do we believe it, do we believe that it is good? I don’t believe that there is any middle ground here, either we do or we don’t. I know that we are all doing the best that we can, but are we all in or are we holding back Are we ready to stake our claim with Abram who became Abraham because of his faithfulness? Are we ready to believe the Word of God, the Word that brought everything into being? Are we ready to give our families, our jobs, our wealth, our houses, our cars, our vices, our treasurers, our lives up to God so that God can transform it all and use these things for His good purposes? Are we ready? If not, what is holding us back, what is holding you back, what is holding me back? In the words of the Psalmist:
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him,*
On those who wait upon his love,
To pluck their lives from death*
And to feed them in time of famine.
Our soul waits for the Lord;*
He is our help and our shield.
Indeed, our heart rejoices in him,*
For in his holy Name we put our trust.
Let your loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us*
As we have put our trust in you.
In Jesus Name; Amen.
