To believe is to trust and obey
Commentary
Most biblical ideas show progression in their development. That is surely the case with the concept of "covenant. We spoke of it last week in relationship to Noah. It is further developed in Genesis 15 where the word implies a very direct action of God with little or no response expected on the part of Abraham. Here in Genesis 17, however, the idea takes on the characteristic that will prevail in subsequent events in the history of Israel. Though God continues to be the principal actor in the drama of t covenant, now Abraham and Sarah enter a relationship that calls for a mutual exchange of commitment.
The word "covenant recurs no less than thirteen times in chapter 17. A careful look at the text shows that though there is a call for mutuality, God continues - as in previous chapters in Genesis - to be the one who initiates this relationship. "I will establish my covenant between me and you
to be God to you and your offspring
(v. 7). Claus Westermann points out that the phrase "and your offspring is significant. Since these words were written long after Abraham and Sarah had died, they are a reminder to the people of Israel that the covenant with Abraham and Sarah was a covenant with all of them. They do not have the luxury of simply reminiscing about what God did long ago. They are called through Abraham and Sarah to live in that relationship in the here and now. (Claus Westermann, Genesis: An Introduction, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992, p. 205.)
Terrence Fretheim notes that the preposition "everlasting, when it applies to the idea of the covenant, must also be seen "from God's side. "If those to whom such promises are made do not walk before God (namely, remain faithful) they can remove themselves from the sphere of promise and everlasting no longer applies to them in terms of either covenant or land. This possibility does not take away from the unconditionality of the covenant. Nonetheless, humans must remain faithful. (Terrence Fretheim, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. I, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994, pp. 460-461.)
Romans 4:13-25
In chapter 3 of his letter to the Roman believers Paul has established that we are saved by grace alone. But now he also wants to stress that God calls for a response of faith on their part. To make his point he can think of no better example then their father Abraham. Paul makes his case by reminding them that God took the initiative (Genesis 15) before there was any talk of a mutual relationship or before circumcision was established as a sign of the covenant (Genesis 17). No one doubted that Abraham w a man of God, that he was "justified with God. But Paul wants to stress that he had nothing to boast of before God. He had only to trust in what God had already done.
From this, Paul goes on to aver what seems to him to be obvious, namely, that we are made right with God either by grace or by works, and never by both. Those who argue that one should work hard to do what is right and then trust God to make up the difference when we fail cannot use Abraham as their example. It was grace from the start for him, as it is for us. It is made radical with the phrase "him who justifies the ungodly (v. 5). And to make his case yet stronger, Paul quotes from David's Psalm, citing the king's word about forgiveness. For Paul, justification and forgiveness are one and the same.
All of this needs to be kept in focus if one is to see the point of the text for today. Was Abraham justified by circumcision? No, because like any good works he may have done, this comes after what God has done. This being the case, anyone - Jew or Gentile - can claim Abraham as their father and Sarah as their mother. Anyone, that is, who lives by faith. In what must have sounded most obnoxious to a Jew who relied on circumcision, Paul takes Abraham away from them and gives him to the Gentile believers. That is further underscored in verse 17 where God's promise to Abraham is put in the present tense: "I have made you the father of many nations. Already in the moment the promise is made, says Paul, God was envisioning a broader community of faith than the Jews.
The phrase "hoping against hope may be one of the best definitions of faith in the New Testament. He had no reason to believe that he and Sarah would have offspring. She is well beyond the age of conception. He must hope not only against doubt, but against hope itself. This is what Kierkegaard calls the leap into the deep waters, certain one will drown, yet leaping all the same, trusting that somehow God will save us.
Mark 8:31-38
In his exposition on the Pauline idea of faith, Rudolf Bultmann says that Paul thinks of faith primarily as obedience. Abraham obeyed the command of God. He went to a strange land. He acted on the promise he would have a son.
Obedience is at the heart of the gospel lesson for this Sunday. To follow Christ is to deny oneself and follow him. This is not to deny oneself of things, but to deny oneself. True obedience is free from any idea of good works. It is not something we accomplish. Rather it is a surrender of the will to God's will. At the heart of the relationship is the death of Jesus. Writing from his vantage point many years later, Mark is convinced that Jesus predicted his own death and that no amount of objection from his disciples could turn him aside from the inevitable outcome of his life.
We should not be too hard on Peter. Most of us react just as he did at the suggestion of suffering. In an ecumenical discussion group I listened with some amazement when a representative from a church that accents healing in its ministry confessed that he and many in his denomination may miss a crucial aspect of the Christian faith because of their insistence that suffering is always a sign of sin and brokenness and that our only goal must be to avoid it or get rid of it as quickly as possible. "Much of what is truly worthwhile, writes Perkins, "can be accomplished only by those who are willing to trust Jesus' word that suffering belongs to God's plan. Jesus sets out the challenge for us to think as God does, not as human beings do
God does not delight in human suffering. Yet danger lies in concluding that suffering and self-sacrifice are always undesirable. (Pheme Perkins, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. VIII, Nashville: Abingdon, pp. 625-626.)
In verse 34 we note a rather remarkable change in the way Jesus usually spoke words like those that follow. Instead of taking the disciples aside to instruct them, Jesus summons the crowd to hear what he has to say. Given his general popularity up to this point, this may be Jesus' way of forewarning any who would think it easy to join this radical new movement. And what a radical example Jesus summons up - a condemned criminal bearing his cross to the place of execution! It seems too much, this ultimate requirement for discipleship. But if we are not ready and willing to go to this extent to follow him, then, according to verse 38, we will one day have to face this Jesus and be told that he is now as ashamed of us as we were of him. Sobering indeed!
Again, if we sit beside Mark as he writes this gospel and thinks about all who have already suffered persecution and martyrdom because they chose to follow Jesus, we can understand why Mark wants this word of our Lord to be remembered. It is as though Mark is saying, "Let no one say that we were not told that these hard times would come.
Suggestions For Preaching
If Lent is a season of the year for sober reflection on what it means to follow Jesus, then the texts for this Sunday give us as good a vehicle for preaching that message as any we will find. The words from Paul will help us to tread that fine line between giving the impression that one is saved by works - even those that call for suffering - and the clear call to an obedience that puts the call of Christ before our own agenda.
And what about those of us who may never suffer anything even remotely close to persecution or death for the sake of the faith? Maybe one who did - Bonhoeffer - has the right word:
It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe. One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself. This is what I mean -taking life in one's stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness. It is in such a life that we throw ourselves utterly in the arms of God and participate in his sufferings in the world and watch with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith
and that is what makes a (person) and a Christian. How can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world? (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, New York: Macmillan Co., 1952, pp. 226-227.)
That is the message for our hearers - to go out into their weekday world with the commitment to follow Christ obediently wherever there are others who need him, and to bear whatever consequences this may bring.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By James A. Nestingen
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
For all of their power and certainty, there is always something vulnerable about God's promises. After the spreading rings of disaster in Genesis 1-11, when God finally does come right out in the open with a promise of salvation, the first thing it inspires is an old couple's impolite laughter.
Who can blame old Abraham for a hee-haw. Sarah couldn't suppress a giggle herself. The two of them had already acted under conviction, flying in the face of the nomadic wisdom that had been their safety. They pulled stakes, left the timeworn routes and rounds of their ancestors and moved to a new land, going by God's assurance of land, prosperity, and progeny.
Things had gone pretty well for them, though there had already been some trouble. Abram and Sarai, as they were originally called, had made the adjustments required by the new land and become wealthy in the process. It hadn't been easy, however. Abram had once protected himself by passing Sarai off as his sister; he had gotten taken advantage of by Lot; there had been some warfare with neighborhood royalties. But most importantly, given the traditions of the time and the nature of the promise, there had been no children, even though Abram had proven his own reproductive abilities with Hagar, one of Sarai's servants. That hadn't set easy, either.
So now the good Lord appears once more, reiterating the promise: Abraham and Sarah, as they are now properly called, will be the parents of a great nation and hold the land that they have been given. Some changes are registered, which must have caused both Abraham and Sarah some wonder. This time there is an implied condition stated at the outset, "Walk before me and be blameless (v. 1), and there is much ado about circumcision of the males (vv. 9-14). Perhaps Abraham and Sarah thought to themselves, "He we go - all these requirements, but no son.
But if they had any such thought, the laughter got out of their heads ahead of any such words. Sarah had long ago become a candidate for estrogen pills; in the age-old pattern of sexuality, they probably followed the pattern of most older couples, caring for one another dearly but not exactly chasing one another around the bed. Even the pain of being childless was so long-felt that it must have lost some of its edge.
So it's no wonder Abraham and Sarah laughed; neither is it surprising that they named their son, God's delightful joke on their age, "he laughs. God's promises are like that: they always appear improbably, taking shape in hidden reed baskets and mangers, on crosses and in the tombs, and then, while hanging by a thread, taking hold of all who hear them.
The word "covenant recurs no less than thirteen times in chapter 17. A careful look at the text shows that though there is a call for mutuality, God continues - as in previous chapters in Genesis - to be the one who initiates this relationship. "I will establish my covenant between me and you
to be God to you and your offspring
(v. 7). Claus Westermann points out that the phrase "and your offspring is significant. Since these words were written long after Abraham and Sarah had died, they are a reminder to the people of Israel that the covenant with Abraham and Sarah was a covenant with all of them. They do not have the luxury of simply reminiscing about what God did long ago. They are called through Abraham and Sarah to live in that relationship in the here and now. (Claus Westermann, Genesis: An Introduction, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992, p. 205.)
Terrence Fretheim notes that the preposition "everlasting, when it applies to the idea of the covenant, must also be seen "from God's side. "If those to whom such promises are made do not walk before God (namely, remain faithful) they can remove themselves from the sphere of promise and everlasting no longer applies to them in terms of either covenant or land. This possibility does not take away from the unconditionality of the covenant. Nonetheless, humans must remain faithful. (Terrence Fretheim, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. I, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994, pp. 460-461.)
Romans 4:13-25
In chapter 3 of his letter to the Roman believers Paul has established that we are saved by grace alone. But now he also wants to stress that God calls for a response of faith on their part. To make his point he can think of no better example then their father Abraham. Paul makes his case by reminding them that God took the initiative (Genesis 15) before there was any talk of a mutual relationship or before circumcision was established as a sign of the covenant (Genesis 17). No one doubted that Abraham w a man of God, that he was "justified with God. But Paul wants to stress that he had nothing to boast of before God. He had only to trust in what God had already done.
From this, Paul goes on to aver what seems to him to be obvious, namely, that we are made right with God either by grace or by works, and never by both. Those who argue that one should work hard to do what is right and then trust God to make up the difference when we fail cannot use Abraham as their example. It was grace from the start for him, as it is for us. It is made radical with the phrase "him who justifies the ungodly (v. 5). And to make his case yet stronger, Paul quotes from David's Psalm, citing the king's word about forgiveness. For Paul, justification and forgiveness are one and the same.
All of this needs to be kept in focus if one is to see the point of the text for today. Was Abraham justified by circumcision? No, because like any good works he may have done, this comes after what God has done. This being the case, anyone - Jew or Gentile - can claim Abraham as their father and Sarah as their mother. Anyone, that is, who lives by faith. In what must have sounded most obnoxious to a Jew who relied on circumcision, Paul takes Abraham away from them and gives him to the Gentile believers. That is further underscored in verse 17 where God's promise to Abraham is put in the present tense: "I have made you the father of many nations. Already in the moment the promise is made, says Paul, God was envisioning a broader community of faith than the Jews.
The phrase "hoping against hope may be one of the best definitions of faith in the New Testament. He had no reason to believe that he and Sarah would have offspring. She is well beyond the age of conception. He must hope not only against doubt, but against hope itself. This is what Kierkegaard calls the leap into the deep waters, certain one will drown, yet leaping all the same, trusting that somehow God will save us.
Mark 8:31-38
In his exposition on the Pauline idea of faith, Rudolf Bultmann says that Paul thinks of faith primarily as obedience. Abraham obeyed the command of God. He went to a strange land. He acted on the promise he would have a son.
Obedience is at the heart of the gospel lesson for this Sunday. To follow Christ is to deny oneself and follow him. This is not to deny oneself of things, but to deny oneself. True obedience is free from any idea of good works. It is not something we accomplish. Rather it is a surrender of the will to God's will. At the heart of the relationship is the death of Jesus. Writing from his vantage point many years later, Mark is convinced that Jesus predicted his own death and that no amount of objection from his disciples could turn him aside from the inevitable outcome of his life.
We should not be too hard on Peter. Most of us react just as he did at the suggestion of suffering. In an ecumenical discussion group I listened with some amazement when a representative from a church that accents healing in its ministry confessed that he and many in his denomination may miss a crucial aspect of the Christian faith because of their insistence that suffering is always a sign of sin and brokenness and that our only goal must be to avoid it or get rid of it as quickly as possible. "Much of what is truly worthwhile, writes Perkins, "can be accomplished only by those who are willing to trust Jesus' word that suffering belongs to God's plan. Jesus sets out the challenge for us to think as God does, not as human beings do
God does not delight in human suffering. Yet danger lies in concluding that suffering and self-sacrifice are always undesirable. (Pheme Perkins, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. VIII, Nashville: Abingdon, pp. 625-626.)
In verse 34 we note a rather remarkable change in the way Jesus usually spoke words like those that follow. Instead of taking the disciples aside to instruct them, Jesus summons the crowd to hear what he has to say. Given his general popularity up to this point, this may be Jesus' way of forewarning any who would think it easy to join this radical new movement. And what a radical example Jesus summons up - a condemned criminal bearing his cross to the place of execution! It seems too much, this ultimate requirement for discipleship. But if we are not ready and willing to go to this extent to follow him, then, according to verse 38, we will one day have to face this Jesus and be told that he is now as ashamed of us as we were of him. Sobering indeed!
Again, if we sit beside Mark as he writes this gospel and thinks about all who have already suffered persecution and martyrdom because they chose to follow Jesus, we can understand why Mark wants this word of our Lord to be remembered. It is as though Mark is saying, "Let no one say that we were not told that these hard times would come.
Suggestions For Preaching
If Lent is a season of the year for sober reflection on what it means to follow Jesus, then the texts for this Sunday give us as good a vehicle for preaching that message as any we will find. The words from Paul will help us to tread that fine line between giving the impression that one is saved by works - even those that call for suffering - and the clear call to an obedience that puts the call of Christ before our own agenda.
And what about those of us who may never suffer anything even remotely close to persecution or death for the sake of the faith? Maybe one who did - Bonhoeffer - has the right word:
It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe. One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself. This is what I mean -taking life in one's stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness. It is in such a life that we throw ourselves utterly in the arms of God and participate in his sufferings in the world and watch with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith
and that is what makes a (person) and a Christian. How can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world? (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, New York: Macmillan Co., 1952, pp. 226-227.)
That is the message for our hearers - to go out into their weekday world with the commitment to follow Christ obediently wherever there are others who need him, and to bear whatever consequences this may bring.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By James A. Nestingen
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
For all of their power and certainty, there is always something vulnerable about God's promises. After the spreading rings of disaster in Genesis 1-11, when God finally does come right out in the open with a promise of salvation, the first thing it inspires is an old couple's impolite laughter.
Who can blame old Abraham for a hee-haw. Sarah couldn't suppress a giggle herself. The two of them had already acted under conviction, flying in the face of the nomadic wisdom that had been their safety. They pulled stakes, left the timeworn routes and rounds of their ancestors and moved to a new land, going by God's assurance of land, prosperity, and progeny.
Things had gone pretty well for them, though there had already been some trouble. Abram and Sarai, as they were originally called, had made the adjustments required by the new land and become wealthy in the process. It hadn't been easy, however. Abram had once protected himself by passing Sarai off as his sister; he had gotten taken advantage of by Lot; there had been some warfare with neighborhood royalties. But most importantly, given the traditions of the time and the nature of the promise, there had been no children, even though Abram had proven his own reproductive abilities with Hagar, one of Sarai's servants. That hadn't set easy, either.
So now the good Lord appears once more, reiterating the promise: Abraham and Sarah, as they are now properly called, will be the parents of a great nation and hold the land that they have been given. Some changes are registered, which must have caused both Abraham and Sarah some wonder. This time there is an implied condition stated at the outset, "Walk before me and be blameless (v. 1), and there is much ado about circumcision of the males (vv. 9-14). Perhaps Abraham and Sarah thought to themselves, "He we go - all these requirements, but no son.
But if they had any such thought, the laughter got out of their heads ahead of any such words. Sarah had long ago become a candidate for estrogen pills; in the age-old pattern of sexuality, they probably followed the pattern of most older couples, caring for one another dearly but not exactly chasing one another around the bed. Even the pain of being childless was so long-felt that it must have lost some of its edge.
So it's no wonder Abraham and Sarah laughed; neither is it surprising that they named their son, God's delightful joke on their age, "he laughs. God's promises are like that: they always appear improbably, taking shape in hidden reed baskets and mangers, on crosses and in the tombs, and then, while hanging by a thread, taking hold of all who hear them.
