Fear, faith and the future
Commentary
"Fear" and "faith" are the words that ring through the lessons before us for this Sunday. In one of them we are told what not to do ... the other we have held up before us as a quality that makes God proud! In fact, for those who demonstrate it the Lord has prepared a celestial city.
Abraham is the hero of the first two accounts. His move to center-stage begins with a vision in which God promises him more heirs than any mortal can count, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars if you are able.... So shall your descendants be."
It is a strange gift to hold out to a man who has reached old age with a wife whose child-bearing years have past with no offspring. How can a couple who should have been rocking great grandchildren on their knees expect to fill a nursery with a first-born at that stage in life? And yet for all that would have made most folks think they had been drifting through a dream-land of "what-I-wish-had-happened-but-didn't," Abram (in Hebrew "Big Daddy," a name which must have been a description of his physical size, since he had no progeny to justify the "Daddy" dimension), who clutched the word as one sent from God, was on his way to becoming Abraham (in Hebrew "Father of a multitude"), the forebear of a stream of children whose kin are found all over the earth this very day!
The author of Hebrews defines what it was that Abram held in his heart and acted out in his life, "... faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." And in the recounting of what following God's promises entailed, both Sarah and Abram are commended as a couple whose lives were changed, and the world blessed, by their dogged confidence in God's veracity.
Mark puts the punch line to the triad of texts with Jesus' assurance to his followers, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." The Lord has blessings to grant to us all, but to receive them, like those "trustees" of old, we must be sensitive to the divine approach and relentless in holding it fast until the fulfillment of the gift is placed in our hands. "You must be ready! " That is the sympathetic vibration that moves us from listening to the stories of other's credulity to believing, then to acting out, those assurances God sends into our lives!
OUTLINE I
Shields, stars and assurances
Genesis 15:1-6
A. v. 1. Abraham's relationship with God moves from one of protection to one of projection. The opening for the vision is the assertion of God, "I am your shield, your reward shall be very great." Shield (Hebrew magen, a plate of metal or wood behind which a person could hide. Note how often God is cast as such a "defender" in the scriptures, i.e. "fortress," "rock"). Remaining within the shield not only could keep a person alive. It could give them the confidence, to move out to meet the fearsomeness of the unknown, certain that nearby them was a place of refuge should they need it.
B. vv. 2-3. Abraham's reply to God's promise is, "What good is it to stay alive for only an instant, then perish?" Without an heir, a son to carry on his name and memory, a father's last breath wrote "Finished" to his biography. Shields, at such times are no longer of any use! It would even be better to die, with the future life guaranteed through the continuation of one's family than to survive for a day, or a decade or two, and then dissolve into nothingness.
C. v. 4. What God has in mind for our future always exceeds our grandest desires. There are stars beyond the shield! That may not always match our blueprints, but what he delivers makes our expectations shrink into insignificance. Not just an heir, but life that will stretch on as long as eternity reaches! How's that for moving from anxiety to exaltation on the wings of a "word from the Lord?"
OUTLINE II
Faith and forever
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
A. vv. 1-3. The word "faith" is a common translation of the Greek term pistis. Usual as it is, it by no means is either the most accurate or the most descriptive carrier of the original's essence. In its root form pistis means "to hang on for dear life, to clutch something as though your very life depended on your not letting go." These active, powerful images and activities are not always conveyed in those five letters of the English word. "Faith" can be thought of as something you "have" rather than as something you "do."
B. vv. 8-12. Abraham "obeyed" God by following his orders to leave his homeland when he should have been drawing his Social Security checks, and headed out to "homestead" in a "frontier land" he had never seen. And Sarah, "past the age," because she "considered (God) faithful," pulled up stakes and went with him. Like faith generally during our "earth-times," and always eventually, saw its "reward." From ones "as good as dead" were "born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore."
C. vv. 13-16. The pair of believers died as "strangers and exiles on earth," even though phase one of the promise was fulfilled while they were able to see it. But even the best that earth has to offer is only a foretaste of what is in store once this sphere drops away! In a city "God has prepared for them" awaited a home filled with "family," that could not "be broken into, or plundered and taken away." There, with the "promise" surrounding them, Abraham and Sarah, the faithful laughing stock of Haran, sat down with those promised, and the promiser in true "shalom" (Hebrew, "for things to be as God intended them to be").
OUTLINE III
Ready and waiting!
Luke 12:32-40
A. vv. 32-34. "Fear not" are Jesus' lead-in words to the people he was inviting to throw in with him. At least some of them no doubt needed assurances at that junction because what he was asking them to do was staggering! Sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. How would you like to sign on the dotted line such an agreement even with God? Don't we want our "daily bread," plus a freezer-full to boot? Don't you want a kind of guaranteed contract for the future before you let go of the one that is taking pretty good care of you now? So do I, most of the time! But think of all the times the fear of the future has kept you chained to the "drag" of "what is" rather than set you free for "what could be." Jesus challenges the "called" to trust him that he will take care of the future, "Fear not, little flock (like so many frantic lambs looking for the security of their mother's side) for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Note the "kingdom," not just a repayment for what little they actually owned on their own and had to part with for the Lord!
B. vv. 35-40. The junctions in existence where the opportunities for dramatic shifts of direction are few and far between. To take advantage of them you have to be awake to their approach and willing to leap at the chance to get on board. But they come and go with little advance warning. Abraham was ready when God's call came telling him to take the first step toward fulfilling the Lord's plan for him, and to transform his hum-drum life of disappointment into one of thanks and gratitude. It can be so for us, in our own ways, too. But ... "You must be ready" ... for the "unexpected hour" may be just a tick or two of time away!
Abraham is the hero of the first two accounts. His move to center-stage begins with a vision in which God promises him more heirs than any mortal can count, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars if you are able.... So shall your descendants be."
It is a strange gift to hold out to a man who has reached old age with a wife whose child-bearing years have past with no offspring. How can a couple who should have been rocking great grandchildren on their knees expect to fill a nursery with a first-born at that stage in life? And yet for all that would have made most folks think they had been drifting through a dream-land of "what-I-wish-had-happened-but-didn't," Abram (in Hebrew "Big Daddy," a name which must have been a description of his physical size, since he had no progeny to justify the "Daddy" dimension), who clutched the word as one sent from God, was on his way to becoming Abraham (in Hebrew "Father of a multitude"), the forebear of a stream of children whose kin are found all over the earth this very day!
The author of Hebrews defines what it was that Abram held in his heart and acted out in his life, "... faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." And in the recounting of what following God's promises entailed, both Sarah and Abram are commended as a couple whose lives were changed, and the world blessed, by their dogged confidence in God's veracity.
Mark puts the punch line to the triad of texts with Jesus' assurance to his followers, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." The Lord has blessings to grant to us all, but to receive them, like those "trustees" of old, we must be sensitive to the divine approach and relentless in holding it fast until the fulfillment of the gift is placed in our hands. "You must be ready! " That is the sympathetic vibration that moves us from listening to the stories of other's credulity to believing, then to acting out, those assurances God sends into our lives!
OUTLINE I
Shields, stars and assurances
Genesis 15:1-6
A. v. 1. Abraham's relationship with God moves from one of protection to one of projection. The opening for the vision is the assertion of God, "I am your shield, your reward shall be very great." Shield (Hebrew magen, a plate of metal or wood behind which a person could hide. Note how often God is cast as such a "defender" in the scriptures, i.e. "fortress," "rock"). Remaining within the shield not only could keep a person alive. It could give them the confidence, to move out to meet the fearsomeness of the unknown, certain that nearby them was a place of refuge should they need it.
B. vv. 2-3. Abraham's reply to God's promise is, "What good is it to stay alive for only an instant, then perish?" Without an heir, a son to carry on his name and memory, a father's last breath wrote "Finished" to his biography. Shields, at such times are no longer of any use! It would even be better to die, with the future life guaranteed through the continuation of one's family than to survive for a day, or a decade or two, and then dissolve into nothingness.
C. v. 4. What God has in mind for our future always exceeds our grandest desires. There are stars beyond the shield! That may not always match our blueprints, but what he delivers makes our expectations shrink into insignificance. Not just an heir, but life that will stretch on as long as eternity reaches! How's that for moving from anxiety to exaltation on the wings of a "word from the Lord?"
OUTLINE II
Faith and forever
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
A. vv. 1-3. The word "faith" is a common translation of the Greek term pistis. Usual as it is, it by no means is either the most accurate or the most descriptive carrier of the original's essence. In its root form pistis means "to hang on for dear life, to clutch something as though your very life depended on your not letting go." These active, powerful images and activities are not always conveyed in those five letters of the English word. "Faith" can be thought of as something you "have" rather than as something you "do."
B. vv. 8-12. Abraham "obeyed" God by following his orders to leave his homeland when he should have been drawing his Social Security checks, and headed out to "homestead" in a "frontier land" he had never seen. And Sarah, "past the age," because she "considered (God) faithful," pulled up stakes and went with him. Like faith generally during our "earth-times," and always eventually, saw its "reward." From ones "as good as dead" were "born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore."
C. vv. 13-16. The pair of believers died as "strangers and exiles on earth," even though phase one of the promise was fulfilled while they were able to see it. But even the best that earth has to offer is only a foretaste of what is in store once this sphere drops away! In a city "God has prepared for them" awaited a home filled with "family," that could not "be broken into, or plundered and taken away." There, with the "promise" surrounding them, Abraham and Sarah, the faithful laughing stock of Haran, sat down with those promised, and the promiser in true "shalom" (Hebrew, "for things to be as God intended them to be").
OUTLINE III
Ready and waiting!
Luke 12:32-40
A. vv. 32-34. "Fear not" are Jesus' lead-in words to the people he was inviting to throw in with him. At least some of them no doubt needed assurances at that junction because what he was asking them to do was staggering! Sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. How would you like to sign on the dotted line such an agreement even with God? Don't we want our "daily bread," plus a freezer-full to boot? Don't you want a kind of guaranteed contract for the future before you let go of the one that is taking pretty good care of you now? So do I, most of the time! But think of all the times the fear of the future has kept you chained to the "drag" of "what is" rather than set you free for "what could be." Jesus challenges the "called" to trust him that he will take care of the future, "Fear not, little flock (like so many frantic lambs looking for the security of their mother's side) for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Note the "kingdom," not just a repayment for what little they actually owned on their own and had to part with for the Lord!
B. vv. 35-40. The junctions in existence where the opportunities for dramatic shifts of direction are few and far between. To take advantage of them you have to be awake to their approach and willing to leap at the chance to get on board. But they come and go with little advance warning. Abraham was ready when God's call came telling him to take the first step toward fulfilling the Lord's plan for him, and to transform his hum-drum life of disappointment into one of thanks and gratitude. It can be so for us, in our own ways, too. But ... "You must be ready" ... for the "unexpected hour" may be just a tick or two of time away!
