Second Sunday in Lent
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
Object:
In order to understand this scripture lesson, it is of utmost importance that we put it in its context. Last Sunday we heard the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where they tried to shake off their dependence and relationship with God and to become their own deities and masters of their own lives. That attempt was symbolized by their eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden. And you remember that we said that story was the symbol of the way we all have walked with our God. We all have tried to make God unnecessary and to be our own gods and goddesses.
The stories that follow the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3-11, then portray the spread of our sin among all humankind and God's increasingly severe judgment on that wrong. In the story of Cain and Abel, brother is set against brother, and Cain slays Abel. The result is that Cain becomes a fugitive and a wanderer on the face of the earth, cut off from all community (Genesis 4:1-14), and Cain is intended as the symbol of the hatred and dissension within our families. The sin spreads farther until we get the account of Lamech's terrible sword of vengeance, in Genesis 4:23-24, and he is the symbol of our violence and warfare that we wreak throughout the earth. That results in the story of the flood in the time of Noah, when God sees that "every imagination of the thoughts of (our) hearts is only evil continually" and so is sorry that he has made us on this earth (Genesis 6:5-6). God therefore destroys his creation with the waters of the flood, and yet human beings do not improve. The final story in Genesis 11, therefore, is the story of the Tower of Babel, when we human beings set out to storm the heights of heaven and to make a name for ourselves, in order to guarantee that we will have fame and security. But that attempt to prosper and save our own lives is thwarted by God's judgment on our sinful self-seeking. He confuses our language and scatters us abroad on the face of the earth (Genesis 11:7-9).
What is the state of human society because of our rebellion against God, therefore, according to this primeval history in the first eleven chapters of Genesis -- that account that is the story of us all? We could read of it in our morning newspapers. We have corrupted all of God's good gifts -- his gift of family and love, his good gifts of beauty and work, his gift of community among neighbors and nations, and yes, his gift of fellowship with himself. We are cut off from our God and from each other and from the natural world by our sin. We have passed the point of no return and have lost our paradise (cf. Genesis 3:22-24). And so we have brought upon ourselves the judgment of death, for "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
To be sure, at every point in the story in Genesis 3-11, God's grace follows his judgment. Adam and Eve do not immediately die. They are clothed by God himself -- God the tailor -- and God helps Eve have a child (Genesis 3:21; 4:1). Despite the fact that Cain is driven away from the face of God and from every human community (Genesis 4:14), the Lord nevertheless puts a mark on him, so no one will kill him (4:15). In the flood, Noah and his family and representatives of every living creature are saved on the ark (6:18-19), and God himself makes sure that the door of the ark is tightly sealed (7:16). And following the flood, an even fuller life is given to humankind with the rainbow promise that never again will the Lord destroy his creation by the chaotic waters (8:20--9:17).
Yet, we have to ask: Where is the grace at the end of the story of the Tower of Babel? Is Babel God's last word? Are we all doomed forever to have no love or peace or sense of community among neighbors and nations, between brothers and sisters, between husbands and wives? Are we all left with the beauty of the earth turned to thorns and thistles by our ravaging, and God's good gift of work turned into drudgery and futility (3:17-19)? Are we all cut off from our God forever and therefore fated to die, apart from him who is the one source of all life and good?
The answers to those questions are furnished by our text for the morning. God calls one man named Abraham out of his home in Mesopotamia, in about 1750 B.C., and he tells Abraham to leave behind his country, his kinfolk, and his closest relatives, and to journey to an unknown land that God will show to Abraham (12:1). At the same time, God gives Abraham a threefold promise. He will give a land to Abraham and his descendants that they may call their own (cf. 12:7). He will make of Abraham's descendants a great nation and make their name renowned (12:2). And through Abraham and his descendants, God will bring blessing on all the families of the earth (12:3).
Those promises pick up motifs from chapter 11. At the Tower of Babel, humankind has tried to make a name for itself (11:4), but it is God who will make Israel's name great (12:2). In 11:30, we read that Sarai, the wife of Abraham, is barren and has no child. But God promises Abraham that his descendants will be numerous enough to make a large nation (12:2). Thus does the Lord contradict the sinful course of our lives and history.
At the same time, God's promise to father Abraham is a vow to reverse the effects of our cursed rebellion that was portrayed for us in Genesis 3-11. We lost our paradise, said that primeval history, so God sets out to give Abraham and his people a new land "flowing with milk and honey." We made all community impossible, so the Lord will make a new community, a great nation called Israel. And the Old Testament later tells us that God's intention is to draw all peoples into that new fellowship (cf. e.g. Isaiah 2:2-4; 44:5; Zechariah 8:20-23; Ephesians 2:12-22). We brought upon ourselves the curse of devastation and drudgery and death. God promises to turn it all into blessing through his instrument of Abraham and his people.
In short, God calls Abraham because he loves us all, and is determined to overcome the effects of our sin in our lives and in our world. God sets out in the father of our faith to restore us all to the good life that he intended for us all in the beginning. There is therefore added to this threefold promise in Genesis 12 also the promise of a covenant with Israel, in which humankind's relation with God will be restored (Genesis 17:4-7). And when Jesus Christ sat at table at the Lord's Supper and offered us the new covenant in his blood, that promise was fulfilled (Mark 14:24).
That is what God is doing here and now in our world, good Christians. He is working to keep his word, to reverse the effects of our sin, to bring blessing on us all, to make of us a new people, living in a new community of peace and beauty, meaningful work and goodness, fullness of life (which is what "blessing" means) and love. And the story of how God works to keep his promises is the story that runs through the entire Bible.
If we believe that sacred history and make it ours, by trusting our God, we will be blessed, as our text for the morning says. For God tells Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you, I will curse" (Genesis 12:3). Our life or death, it seems, depends on our attitude toward God's promise and working, begun with Abraham. And if, in faith, we will accept God's words and his actions within our lives, we shall indeed know fullness of life.
The stories that follow the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3-11, then portray the spread of our sin among all humankind and God's increasingly severe judgment on that wrong. In the story of Cain and Abel, brother is set against brother, and Cain slays Abel. The result is that Cain becomes a fugitive and a wanderer on the face of the earth, cut off from all community (Genesis 4:1-14), and Cain is intended as the symbol of the hatred and dissension within our families. The sin spreads farther until we get the account of Lamech's terrible sword of vengeance, in Genesis 4:23-24, and he is the symbol of our violence and warfare that we wreak throughout the earth. That results in the story of the flood in the time of Noah, when God sees that "every imagination of the thoughts of (our) hearts is only evil continually" and so is sorry that he has made us on this earth (Genesis 6:5-6). God therefore destroys his creation with the waters of the flood, and yet human beings do not improve. The final story in Genesis 11, therefore, is the story of the Tower of Babel, when we human beings set out to storm the heights of heaven and to make a name for ourselves, in order to guarantee that we will have fame and security. But that attempt to prosper and save our own lives is thwarted by God's judgment on our sinful self-seeking. He confuses our language and scatters us abroad on the face of the earth (Genesis 11:7-9).
What is the state of human society because of our rebellion against God, therefore, according to this primeval history in the first eleven chapters of Genesis -- that account that is the story of us all? We could read of it in our morning newspapers. We have corrupted all of God's good gifts -- his gift of family and love, his good gifts of beauty and work, his gift of community among neighbors and nations, and yes, his gift of fellowship with himself. We are cut off from our God and from each other and from the natural world by our sin. We have passed the point of no return and have lost our paradise (cf. Genesis 3:22-24). And so we have brought upon ourselves the judgment of death, for "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
To be sure, at every point in the story in Genesis 3-11, God's grace follows his judgment. Adam and Eve do not immediately die. They are clothed by God himself -- God the tailor -- and God helps Eve have a child (Genesis 3:21; 4:1). Despite the fact that Cain is driven away from the face of God and from every human community (Genesis 4:14), the Lord nevertheless puts a mark on him, so no one will kill him (4:15). In the flood, Noah and his family and representatives of every living creature are saved on the ark (6:18-19), and God himself makes sure that the door of the ark is tightly sealed (7:16). And following the flood, an even fuller life is given to humankind with the rainbow promise that never again will the Lord destroy his creation by the chaotic waters (8:20--9:17).
Yet, we have to ask: Where is the grace at the end of the story of the Tower of Babel? Is Babel God's last word? Are we all doomed forever to have no love or peace or sense of community among neighbors and nations, between brothers and sisters, between husbands and wives? Are we all left with the beauty of the earth turned to thorns and thistles by our ravaging, and God's good gift of work turned into drudgery and futility (3:17-19)? Are we all cut off from our God forever and therefore fated to die, apart from him who is the one source of all life and good?
The answers to those questions are furnished by our text for the morning. God calls one man named Abraham out of his home in Mesopotamia, in about 1750 B.C., and he tells Abraham to leave behind his country, his kinfolk, and his closest relatives, and to journey to an unknown land that God will show to Abraham (12:1). At the same time, God gives Abraham a threefold promise. He will give a land to Abraham and his descendants that they may call their own (cf. 12:7). He will make of Abraham's descendants a great nation and make their name renowned (12:2). And through Abraham and his descendants, God will bring blessing on all the families of the earth (12:3).
Those promises pick up motifs from chapter 11. At the Tower of Babel, humankind has tried to make a name for itself (11:4), but it is God who will make Israel's name great (12:2). In 11:30, we read that Sarai, the wife of Abraham, is barren and has no child. But God promises Abraham that his descendants will be numerous enough to make a large nation (12:2). Thus does the Lord contradict the sinful course of our lives and history.
At the same time, God's promise to father Abraham is a vow to reverse the effects of our cursed rebellion that was portrayed for us in Genesis 3-11. We lost our paradise, said that primeval history, so God sets out to give Abraham and his people a new land "flowing with milk and honey." We made all community impossible, so the Lord will make a new community, a great nation called Israel. And the Old Testament later tells us that God's intention is to draw all peoples into that new fellowship (cf. e.g. Isaiah 2:2-4; 44:5; Zechariah 8:20-23; Ephesians 2:12-22). We brought upon ourselves the curse of devastation and drudgery and death. God promises to turn it all into blessing through his instrument of Abraham and his people.
In short, God calls Abraham because he loves us all, and is determined to overcome the effects of our sin in our lives and in our world. God sets out in the father of our faith to restore us all to the good life that he intended for us all in the beginning. There is therefore added to this threefold promise in Genesis 12 also the promise of a covenant with Israel, in which humankind's relation with God will be restored (Genesis 17:4-7). And when Jesus Christ sat at table at the Lord's Supper and offered us the new covenant in his blood, that promise was fulfilled (Mark 14:24).
That is what God is doing here and now in our world, good Christians. He is working to keep his word, to reverse the effects of our sin, to bring blessing on us all, to make of us a new people, living in a new community of peace and beauty, meaningful work and goodness, fullness of life (which is what "blessing" means) and love. And the story of how God works to keep his promises is the story that runs through the entire Bible.
If we believe that sacred history and make it ours, by trusting our God, we will be blessed, as our text for the morning says. For God tells Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you, I will curse" (Genesis 12:3). Our life or death, it seems, depends on our attitude toward God's promise and working, begun with Abraham. And if, in faith, we will accept God's words and his actions within our lives, we shall indeed know fullness of life.
