Sermon 20th June 2010

Today, our trainee Lay Reader, Simon Brindley, preaches, based on the reading from Exodus 32:1-14

Even now, when I hear the name “Moses” I am reminded of something that was broadcast on British Forces Radio, in 1970, to thousands of British servicemen and their families stationed in what was then West Germany, all of 40 years ago…. and a cold shiver runs down my spine. At that time there were about a dozen English-speaking senior schools in Germany for the children of army personnel and other British people living there and each year, the British Forces Broadcasting Service would hold a radio quiz, a sort of university challenge for schoolchildren. I was 13 years old and the son of the school chaplain or “the padre” as he was known and I was on our school quiz team. “In the Old Testament, which famous character was found, as a baby, floating in the bullrushes?” came the question to me. You could almost feel the school audience breathe a sigh of relief. “That’s two points for us then....he’s the padre’s son. How could he possibly get that one wrong??”…..Yes, you’ve guessed it…..my mind went blank and…..(pause)…. “..er…Solomon….?” came the answer. Oh the shame of it….the shame! So if I suddenly get Moses’ name wrong as I speak this morning, please have sympathy…..there’s a painful history behind it!

You’ll probably remember the story of course….hundreds of years before Moses, Joseph had arrived in Egypt after being sold into slavery by his brothers and when they were finally reconciled, together with their father Jacob, the family all went to live in Egypt. In the hundreds of years since then, the descendants of this Israelite family had themselves actually become slaves to the Egyptians. The King of Egypt at that time was so concerned at how many of them there were and that they might become a threat to him, that he gave orders for all the Hebrew boys to be killed at birth. Moses’ mother hid him for 3 months after he was born, but when she could hide him no longer she put him in a waterproof basket in the rushes at the edge of the river where he was found by the king’s daughter who adopted him as her own son and he grew up in the King of Egypt’s household.

When he was a young man, Moses saw one of the Hebrew slaves being killed by an Egyptian. So he killed the Egyptian and hid the body but as a result Moses had to flee to a land called Midian where he married the daughter of a man called Jethro. And you probably remember how Moses was looking after Jethro’s sheep and goats one day when God Himself spoke to him from a burning bush and told Moses that He had chosen him to lead the oppressed Israelites out of Egypt and take them to a new, rich and fertile land.

After some persuasion, because he didn’t see how he could possibly do this thing, Moses agreed. He went back to Egypt, met up with his brother Aaron and together they asked the King of Egypt to let the Hebrew people go…and eventually, after a series of dreadful plagues culminating in the original Passover, where the angel of the Lord passed over the houses and killed all the firstborn sons of Egypt, the Egyptian king relented and allowed the Israelites to leave. So Moses led them out into the desert with a pillar of cloud in front of them by day and a pillar of fire to lead them by night.

It’s an astonishing story and the highlight is probably when the Egyptian army comes after the Israelites and a strong wind causes the Red Sea to open up in front of the people of Israel and allow them to walk safely through but the wind then drops, the sea rushes back and swallows up the entire Egyptian army before they can get across, an event so powerful in the memory of these people you’ll find it recorded in their worship poems and songs which have come down to us in the Old Testament, for example:
“Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he does for his people! He made a dry path through the Red Sea and his people went across on foot”

are the words of Psalm 66, verses 5 and 6.

You may also remember the story of what happens next as Moses leads the people of Israel through the desert and it’s a story of hardship and miracles as time and again God provides and Moses leads until after a few months they all come to the foot of Mount Sinai and Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God. And there God gives Moses the Ten Commandments and a large number of other laws which will govern the way this people are to live and which will cement Moses’ place in Jewish history as Moses the Law Giver. There are so many laws and instructions, just at this stage, that it takes over 10 chapters of the book of Exodus to describe them and Moses is away up the mountain for a long time as God sets out the terms of his new covenant, his new promise to the people of Israel and then finally sets out the commandments themselves on two tablets of stone.

So what do the people do, these people who have survived seemingly endless plagues, seen the sea itself parted as God led them safely through, seen endless miracles including God’s provision of manna, the bread from heaven and also quails, birds in abundance to feed them when they were hungry? You would think they might just be prepared to be patient…just for a while? But no…as Aaron puts it to Moses when Moses comes back down from the mountain top, “these people are determined to do evil..” They start complaining that Moses has been away for a bit too long. So that’s that then, forget him and that God he keeps talking about, forget being brought safe thus far, forget something as commonplace as that parting of the Red Sea, let’s melt down our gold and make ourselves a new god, let’s shape it into a golden bull and we can worship that instead. The golden bull must have been the one who led us out of Egypt! And while we are at it, let’s all get drunk, have a big party, throw all our standards out the window and sleep with anyone we want! Why not eh? Moses has been gone a few weeks so he’s obviously not bothered!

Pause..

It’s easy, isn’t it, to lay into these Israelites…just look at them! Evidence of God’s presence and God’s provision is staring them in the face but as soon as they get the chance it’s all back to normal and their basic instincts, forget God and just do what you like. We’re not harming anybody…Let’s just worship something that looks nice and shiny and doesn’t demand too much of us…

Pause…

But I wonder whether at the heart of this story is not something incredibly human and something that actually rings very true in our own experience? I wonder whether we are not better looking at this story from the bottom of the mountain among the people watching Moses coming down with the heavy tablets of stone in his hands…is that him?.....what on earth is he carrying?? rather than from the top of the mountain through Moses’ eyes as he treads wearily downhill, sighing.. looking down at the noise and the rabble below..

Have you ever had an experience where you have cried out to God to help bring you though a difficult time..whatever that might be?…a problem for your child being picked on at school, perhaps issues for your child around a change of school, financial worries, safety, illness of a close friend or relative, a crisis at work or in your family…Lord give me strength just to get through this day or this night…Lord don’t let these waves overwhelm me, Lord get me safely to the shore, bring me safely to dry land and cut off those who are coming after me and my family…the bullies, the authorities, the creditors…those who would make my life a misery. Free me Lord and I’ll be free to follow you and I’ll never doubt you again. Have you ever had an experience similar to that? I know I have…

And have you ever found yourself on the far side of a crisis, all is well, life is back to normal, there’s football on TV, a few drinks with some mates….all is well… and a few weeks later that reliance on God is starting to drift a bit…because all is well..

He doesn’t seem to have been around much for a while…

I’m OK aren’t I? I’m actually feeling quite strong today, I’m a coper, a strong man, this feels good…I reckon I can do this on my own now….and anyway there are some pretty good rational arguments you know that God doesn’t even exist at all.

Have you ever drifted off in that direction, whether occasionally or in a big way? I know I have…..from time to time.

And have you ever had an experience where some thing that means a lot to you or that looks really good or attractive begins to take over your life just a bit too much and to push some of the most important things out of the way? For some people it can be work…just one more deal, just one more promotion then I’ll be free to spend more time with my children…..for others it might be sport…just one more race, one more bike ride, I reckon I could shave ten minutes off my best time next Sunday…that’s OK, the family can go to church for all of us…for others in our society it seems to me that it can be money itself….I remember once hearing a keen young Christian I was introduced to talking very excitedly about the £34,000 worth of fittings that had come with the house he had just bought. £34,000 eh? And all of it fittings….gosh…and this was in the 1980’s….OK, OK. Have you got any other things in your life that you value highly to impress people with?

Have you ever worried that some thing that means a lot to you or looks really good or attractive is becoming valued more than it really should be? Are there things that have more worth to you than they really should….do you give them more worth than they should have. Do you worship them? I know that from time to time I have faced that challenge in relation to things that make me tick.

Please note here that I am not saying at all that we should deny ourselves things that give us pleasure…I am reasonably convinced that we cannot effectively love others over time unless we also love ourselves and give ourselves time and space….but I do think what God asks of us is not to be replaced at the heart of our lives. These things have a rightful place but they should not take God’s place. They should not become false Gods. They should not be where we put our ultimate trust. They are of limited value. I believe God longs to be at the heart of our lives and not an add-on, barged out of the way by worldly standards and our very human desires…..but it is a very human thing that we replace our loving Creator God so easily with things that look superficially attractive….I think it would be rare to find anyone in our churches who did not understand that dilemma. Perhaps we are not really that different from the Israelites after all.

So what then does Moses bring back down the mountain from his long period of absence? I think first he brings understanding of human frailty in his pleading with God to show mercy to the people…and he also brings ten commandments, ten rules for living written on two tablets of stone:
- worship no God but me – there is only one Creator God who sustains the universe;
- don’t worship idols – don’t give created things more value than they in truth deserve;
- don’t misuse my name – respect the one who gave life to you and everything around you;
- rest once a week – don’t drive yourselves too hard and fail to give yourselves time to recreate yourself and to remember me;
- respect your father and mother – they will try to show you how to live;
- don’t murder – the gift of life is too valuable for you to take it away like that;
- don’t commit adultery – the bond of trust and affection in families is too critical for everyone involved for that;
- don’t steal – there will be chaos in society if you take what belongs to another;
- do not accuse anyone falsely – justice is critical to a fair society and proper self esteem;
- don’t hanker after what anyone else has – it will not serve you or society well in the end.

I remember seeing a programme some time in the last year or so where the former Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe set out to defend the ten commandments and to argue that a society based on them is better than a society without these rules. She was lambasted by the TV presenter Stephen Fry who wanted to argue that societies based on the ten commandments had inevitably been oppressive. For me this is not a debate on which to try to score cheap points. All I would say is that on this argument I think I would side firmly at the end of the day with Anne Widdecombe and I am not a natural conservative. I think God knew what he was doing when he gave the Israelites rules to live by. I don’t find anything to disagree with in these laws. I don’t see anything oppressive..

Rather, I think there is something fundamental going on here. I actually believe we need guidance from outside, we need to understand that there are principles that are in the end good, perhaps we need to understand that left to our own devices we will inevitably put ourselves and our selfish desires ahead of others. I heard a passionate defence recently of the humanist perspective, at a talk being given in my Office to a group of 80 or so people of different faiths. “Do anything you want as long as it does not hurt anyone else” was the one rule we were asked to consider. I just didn’t find it compelling….it didn’t seem to me to have the urgency that is needed to deal with real problems in real life. Interestingly, it seemed that very few people in the room found it compelling either, whether they were Moslem or Hindu, Jewish or Christian.

Do we need to rediscover the idea that what God gives us is in the end for our good, it is the gift of a loving heavenly father who understands our frailties and weaknesses. It is a gift not intended to oppress us but to build us up in a lifelong relationship with the God who made us?

Of course as Christians we believe that there is whole new chapter to God’s gift, where everything comes together in God’s new covenant as God himself comes to earth to join us…..but that story we also know, that story is for another day and I don’t think His is a name that we would ever get wrong, even if we found ourselves under the pressure of a radio quiz show.

(Amen)

Sermon 13th June 2010

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adjoa Andoh Cunnell, preaches about Jacob, based on the reading from Genesis 32:22-32

Well these are anxious times!
The Global Recession, American oil spills and of course Ghana v Serbia 3pm kick off today.
Later I’ll have the shirt on, I’ve got the flag in the car and draped across the house as I also have with the England flag much good that did us hmmm… Yes World Cup season is upon us and across the globe the hopes and fears for the national teams futures have reached fever pitch. Well we fans are doing all we can to help secure our team’s future but all we can do, won’t be enough to guarantee that success.
In this morning’s reading we meet Jacob son of Isaac grandson of Abraham, whose life John shared with us last Sunday. Jacob tries all he can throughout his early life to secure his own future, but his efforts alone are not enough to guarantee that future.

I have to admit to being one of those people who looked again at the story of Jacob’s early life and briefly got a bit holier than thou about his behaviour.
Rebekah wife to Isaac becomes pregnant with twins, and we are told is a particularly tough pregnancy
Rebekah takes her anxieties to God about this turbulent pregnancy and is reassured by God with the most extraordinary promise
Gen 25:23
The Lord says to her
“Two nations are within you:
You will give birth to two rival peoples.
One will be stronger than the other:
The older will serve the younger”
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided:
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.”
Now although Rebekah has God’s assurance that unusually in Bedouin culture the younger brother will rule over the older, Jacob over Esau, as Jacob grows up, this assurance isn’t enough to keep the young Jacob from wanting to secure his future himself.
It is a tricky family dynamic.
Verses 27/28 of Ch25 tell us that Esau is the outdoors type, the archetype hunter/gatherer man, while Jacob is more a stay at home type. Esau is his father’s favourite and Jacob his mother’s.
You get the impression God’s promise of future success notwithstanding, that Jacob is the calculating type relying on nothing but his own ability to make things happen.
When Jacob swindles Esau’s inheritance as the first born, by making him swear to hand it over, in exchange for a bowl of the bean soup, his hungry older brother craves, I’m struck by several things: firstly that action man Esau is extremely cavalier with his birthright and as such frankly he loses a bit of my sympathy, but secondly I’m struck by just how ambitious Jacob is, and what an opportunist! He goes against the Bedouin tradition of offering hospitality to all, in denying his own brother food, and further he uses the promise of food, as a lever to take what is not rightly his. Surely his mother must have told her favourite son, of God’s promise that
“the older (brother) will serve the younger”
Why does Jacob have to swindle Esau’s birthright from him, why doesn’t he trust God’s promise?
Again later we see Jacob and Rebekah’s lack of faith in that promise from God, when they now plot together to swindle Esau out of his blessing from his dying father Isaac.
It’s pretty low stuff.
As a parent I can’t conceive of plotting so thoroughly with one of my children against another, and encouraging a son to deceive both his blind, ailing father and his already once cheated older brother…not good parenting, not a good model of behaviour for Jacob to follow.
And so it proves.
Having fooled Isaac into giving his blessing to Jacob and not Esau the consequences are severe for Jacob and unsurprisingly so, when we reflect on the contrast in blessings offered to the two brothers.


To Jacob, believing him to be Esau, Isaac says Gen 27:28-29
“May God give you dew from heaven and make your fields fertile!
May he give you plenty of corn and wine!
May nations be your servants, and may your mother’s descendants bow down before you.
May those who curse you be cursed,
and may those who bless you be blessed.”

“May God give you of the dew of heaven,
and of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and wine.
Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you
Be lord over your brothers,
And may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

Contrast that with the sorrowful conversation between Esau and Isaac his father, when the truth of the deception comes to light. Isaac has to tell Esau that a blessing once given cannot be taken back. “ There is nothing `I can do for you my son” Isaac tells his weeping pleading eldest child.
Isaac says in Gen 27:39-40
“No dew from heaven for you,
No fertile fields for you.
You will live by the sword,
But be your brother’s slave.
Yet when you rebel, (or grow restless)
You will break away from his control”

“See, away from the fatness of the earth
shall your home be,
and away from the dew of heaven on high.
By your sword you shall live,
And you shall serve your brother:
But when you break loose,
You shall break his yoke from your neck.”

No wonder Jacob has to leave home to flee his brother’s rage and go and live with his mother’s brother, his Uncle Laban, in Mesopotamia.

It seems for the time being at least that all Jacob’s plotting has brought him is the rage of his brother and exile.
And yet for all his dreadful behaviour God keeps faith with this ambitious younger son, coming to him in a dream at the start of his journey to Uncle Laban.
Jacob sees a stairway to heaven from earth and God standing beside him, expanding on the promise made to his pregnant mother all those years before.
Not only does God promise at Gen 28:13
“I will give to you and your descendants this land on which you are lying”

“the land on which you lie ,I will give to you and to your offspring:”

But also God reminds him at verse15,

“Remember, I will be with you and protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised you.”

“Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land: for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Yet Jacob, even after this dream, recognising that he has seen God, building a traditional mound of stones in recognition, dedicating that memorial to God, naming it Bethel, meaning house of God, even after all this Jacob still cannot bring himself to trust his future to God’s care.
The most he will allow God is a fairly mealy mouthed vow
Gen 28:20-21

“If you will be with me and protect me on the journey I am making and give me food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then you will be my God.”

“If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God,”

It’s hardly a ringing endorsement of Jacob’s faith in God’s promises and he continues to hold this attitude during the many years of his exile in Mesopotamia with Uncle Laban.

It is a long and eventful exile too, having fallen in love with Rachel, Laban’s younger daughter and worked 7 years for his uncle in order to marry her, on his wedding night Jacob is tricked into sleeping with the older sister Leah, and ends up marrying them both, but at the price of having to work another 7 years for Uncle Laban.
And Jacob’s troubles continue, with wives and children and childlessness and competition between wives and children, never mind an unreliable and at times dangerous uncle.
Through it all Jacob does well materially, but he is never at peace. Worried domestically, threatened by his Uncle’s jealousy at his growing prosperity and still in truth in exile, eventually Jacob and Uncle Laban reconcile and Jacob leaves for home.

He takes with him, his large flocks, family and servants and begins the long journey back towards an uncertain welcome in Canaan. Fearful of his brother Esau still, Jacob now reminds God of his promise to keep him safe, and acknowledges how God has blessed him in exile with family and wealth. But still he is not content to leave matters in God’s hands.
He sends all his goods, family and servants on ahead with plenty of gifts to placate his older brother, telling his servants to address Esau as the Master to whom his servant Jacob has sent all these gifts.
Having sent the gifts and household on ahead Jacob spends a final night alone at the camp he made having seen some angels as he journeyed.
It is at this camp, Mahanaim (meaning God’s camp) that we meet Jacob in this mornings reading.
Now why have I gone into such detail around the life journey that brings Jacob to this point? Well partly to get us all back up to speed with the story and the events that led us here, but also to try to give a brief sense of who Jacob is at this moment in his life.
He is a wealthy man, successful with a large family, healthy children he should feel blessed by God one might think. Yet he is always anxious, everything has been a struggle for Jacob. Having been deceitful to get to where he is, deceived and threatened by his uncle, surrounded by a fractious family, it is now time to face the music at home.
Jacob’s ambition and scheming have not brought him contentment, and he has never trusted enough in God to really have confidence in the promise God has repeatedly made to him that all would be well, he and his descendents would be taken care of.

This is where I become rather holier than thou. I mean really what is wrong with the man, why can’t he just hear what God is saying and trust, really trust that when God makes a promise of care, he will keep that promise without the need for the obsessive human machinations that Jacob has employed.
But then I pause and take a look at my own life, my own stresses and lack of faith in God’s provision for me.
I’m self employed….the mantra goes “don’t work don’t eat”. Planning holidays bah! Guaranteed availability for a school sports day or concert, I wish! Holiday Pay? Sick pay? In my dreams! And I am sure we all have our own variations on that theme. The constant fretting about work and home and family and friends, about getting on and doing the right thing and making plans, keeping in with our work colleagues, worries about promotion, demotion, redundancy, falling out with family members, misunderstandings, can we make the rent or the mortgage this month, how can we afford that medical treatment, car repair, school kit, birthday present, how much longer will we have to wait for that appointment. We are beset with anxieties from all sides and we pray and we fret and we pray a bit harder… And when our prayers get the answer we’ve been hoping for, then perhaps for a while we worry a little less and can glory a little more in God’s faithful presence.

But what about when are prayers don’t get the answer we’re hoping for? Or when no answer at all seems to be forthcoming. When we don’t get the job, or someone else gets the promotion, when the person we love continues to be unwell, when we feel so anxious that we can’t see beyond our worries? Is it then that our faith in God’s provision for our physical and spiritual needs tails off? Is it then that we feel we have to step in, take action, and do everything we can, like Jacob.
And what then what if all our own efforts don’t seem to make it better?
I’m sure many of you will be familiar with the sentiment from war zones that ”there are no atheists in a foxhole”. Is it only then when we are in the most extreme circumstances that we can stop struggling and cling to God, recognise again his mighty presence in our lives?
Perhaps we now see Jacob in that foxhole place, lying by the river Jabbok, overwhelmed by anxiety at what the morning will hold, it has been many years now since he last saw his brother, will Esau still be raging about his stolen birthright, will he greet Jacob with an embrace or a sword.

In that night of wrestling the man Jacob comes to understand is God, his whole life is transformed. He wrestles that man, as he has wrestled life for everything he has, as he has wrestled with his confidence in God’s providence. During the fight with a touch of one single breath this creator God as a man, could destroy Jacob and yet for the entire night he meets Jacob where he is, until as the light of day arrives and Jacob must meet with the consequences of his life’s actions, the Man dislocates Jacob’s hip. Having dislocated my shoulder on the 3 separate and agonizing occasions, worse than giving birth, I dread to think how much pain Jacob must have been in. Exhausted and in agony he clings on to this strange Man, refusing to let go, like a boxer in the ring in the final round, hanging on to his opponent so as to avoid further blows, Jacob refuses to let go until the Man blesses him, an assurance that the struggle will be over.

In all these years, since baby twin Jacob was struggling in the womb, this need for God’s blessing is what God has been yearning for Jacob to ask of him.
And in receiving that blessing Jacob is transformed.
There is no need for him to discover the Man’s name, he knows. He is no longer Jacob, whose name means supplanter or cheat, he is a new man named by God Israel meaning ‘he struggles or strives with God’, or ‘God Struggles, God Strives’ in Hebrew.

And what richness is there in that name!
God struggles to get us to see he is there and longing for a right relationship with us. He strives on our behalf, providing for us in His time, so that we can focus on him and on his Kingdom.

When will we stop struggling and realise that as with Jacob Israel, we too have met with God face to face in the face of Jesus. When will we take to heart those words of Jesus’ from the sermon on the mount
Matthew 6:31-33
“So do not start worrying: ‘where will my food come from? Or my drink? Or my clothes?’(these are the things the pagans are always concerned about.)
Your father in heaven knows that you need all these things. Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.”

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or what will we drink/’or ‘What will we wear/’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these will be given to you as well”
Next time we sing ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Hallelu hallelujah’, perhaps we’ll really check in with our own faith and be encouraged and comforted by God’s continuing promise to us.

As for Jacob who God transformed into Israel, the man and the Nation…. that morning after the night of struggle, when he crossed the river to join his family
Gen33:3-5 tells us

“Jacob went ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. They were both crying”.
“ He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.
But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and they wept.”

Our heavenly Father yearns to throw his arms around us, we just need to keep clinging to his faithful presence, at all times and in all circumstances
So this morning let’s be encouraged by Jacob, to seek the blessing of God’s peace in his promise to us, and be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what God requires of us, and know in faith that He will provide us with all these other things.”
Amen

Sermon 6th June 2010

Today, our Associate Vicar, John Itumu, preaches based on the reading from Genesis 17: 1-8

Abraham

In this new series that takes us to the end of July, we will look at some prominent heroes of faith in the bible. We will learn how our own lives could be enriched as we journey with them in their adventure. We begin today with the father of faith, Abraham.

I need to start by reminding us that the central theme and story in the Old Testament describes how God chose a particular family, the Abraham clan – and which eventually grew to a particular nation called Israel. He chose them to be his special people, to show the world what would happen if human beings shared their lives with God. We can also think of the Old Testament as a story of what happens, in terms of opportunities lost, when people choose to disobey God. It is equally the story of God’s love, his justice and mercy, his patience, his willingness to help human beings put matters right with him.

This story begins with God’s call to Abraham:

Chap 12
Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you...
I will make of you great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse; and in your name all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

That was a huge ask for a seventy-five year old man. It is an age one really doesn’t want to be moving about, and certainly not to the unknown. But there was an another bigger problem. The promise talks of ‘making Abraham into a great nation’ which suggests some progeny. Seventy-five years plus is not an age that one would normally think about bringing forth children. Abram himself concedes that he is too old to be a father. This is what God says to him:
You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you...
To make matters worse when he is ninety-nine, God appears to him again and says;
As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah - I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her... (Chap 17:15ffd). And Abraham laughs. Who wouldn’t? But even when Abraham laughs (17:17) at this God continues to reassure him, ‘...yes, your wife will bear a son and you shall name him Isaac...

If you think about it, this man has been on the road, obeying, trusting, showing faith for about twenty-five years since being commanded to leave all his familiar surroundings. Suddenly he begins to doubt the promise. The ‘father of faith’ laughs a mocking laugh...’how can a son be born to me?’

At another incident the same promise is repeated and this time his wife Sarah laughs as well. But God doesn’t stop the reassurances from flowing: Here is another conversation:
God: Do not be afraid Abram. I am your shield. You reward shall be great.
Abram in frustration can’t take it anymore: O Lord God, what will you give me for I continue childless...you have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir...
God replies:This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.

There are two issues in tension: the first is the powerful claim of the promise:
I will make you exceedingly numerous, exceedingly fruitful, you shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations...
The second is the powerful reality of being without an heir. These two issues are in conflict and Abraham finds it hard to resolve them. As the story goes, long before even the second reassurance comes at ninety-nine he had already given up. This man of faith had given up! He felt he couldn’t continue to wait on such a ridiculous promise any longer. He agreed to his wife’s plea to bear a child with his slave girl, Hagar, and Ishmael was born. This is the man, who had trusted God and left his country and familiar surroundings to go into the unknown in total obedience and faith; this same man decides to doubt and produces an heir in his own devious way. Just what has happened to the radical faith?

I wonder whether this sounds familiar! Have you found yourself in a circumstance that you felt the need to do things your own way because God took too long coming, or you could not trust that things would really get done if you didn’t ‘assist him’? Have you felt like Abraham, unable to trust God anymore and willing to rely on other more readily available alternatives? That remains a huge challenge even for those with a strong faith.

It is a bit like the incident when the disciples who witnessed the feeding of the 4000 in Mark 8:1-10 and who later in the evening, when they run out of bread, doubt Jesus’ sufficiency. The reason given for this is that their hearts were hardened. The failure to understand, to trust, to wait on God’s promises is not a matter of intelligence but of the will. In a similar way, this same crisis of faith is present in Abraham who fails to discern God’s promise and capacity to create a new life. He finds it impossible to accept the link of barrenness with an heir even though this is the background of the promise. God’s promise is simply beyond reason and belief!

This should remind us what a scandal and a difficulty faith is. Faith is not a reasonable act which fits into the normal scheme of life and perception.
It is not tidy and sensible – most times. That is why in fact the gospel of Christ, which must be received by faith, is not some conventional wisdom that is accommodated to everything else. For faith in God to operate, perspectives have got to change. Some things must give. The rich young ruler was told (Luke18:18) – if you really want to inherit eternal life, go sell all that you own and give money to the poor. He went away downcast, because he was too rich. When the gospel becomes a reality, it shatters and discontinues. Abraham had become accustomed to Sarah’s barrenness and accepted their hopeless situation as normal. God’s promise does not meet them in receptive hopefulness but in resistant hopelessness.
That is why the promise is nonsensical because they are resistant to the possibilities that God could do a new thing. Have you been waiting for the Lord to do a new thing? Then please don’t lose heart. Keep holding. Keep on praying. Keep on hoping. That is my prayer for you today. That you would feel able to wait on God’s promises for you. Why because God is faithful. He will deliver!

So did God select Abraham because he was superior than ordinary mortals in every way? Absolutely not. This is what God says:
‘I chose Abraham...’ (18:19) in Hebrew this suggests the act of God making Abraham a friend, a partner who will play a significant role in his plans. That is the same relationship that God has with you. God does not watch you from a distance, disinterested in who you are. You are the precious work of his hands. And he calls you to a higher dignity – to that of a friend, partner. He longs to have a personal relationship with you.The words of Jesus to his disciples are instructive here (John 15:15)
No longer do I call you servants...but friends. In the same way you are a friend of God. God loves you, unconditionally. Now, the question that confronts each of us, as we rest in this promise of a personal relationship with God who loves us is this: Is anything too hard for the Lord? This is what the Lord asked Abraham when he doubted. It is a valid question for us today.

It is an open question that each of us must answer. How we answer it determines how we live. If the answer is ‘yes, some things are too hard for God’ then this is failing to confess God as God. This is determining to live in a closed universe where things are stable and reliable - because we are in control. We know what the future will be, because we have put everything in place; but also hopeless because of failing to proclaim the radical freedom of God. God is God!
He alone controls the volcanic ash that scuttles our meticulous travel plans. He alone knows what our tomorrow will be. That is where the rubber hits the road – when realise how powerful ‘nature’ is.
If the answer is ‘no, nothing is impossible for God’ the answer fully entrusts all to God and to no other. It is a risky answer because it defies reason, wisdom and common sense. This answer is totally against our value systems. Yet if faith in God depended on these things, it would cease to be faith in God.

Does God then break his covenant due Abraham’s doubts? No. The fulfilment of God’s promise to bring a new heir through his own power is still accomplished regardless of Abraham’s scepticism. Even doubt does not thwart the gracious acts of a merciful God. He knows what we need! What about the issue of faith then? Well, faith does not make everything desirable possible, for the simple reason that God does not promise everything. What is possible is only what God promises. Only what corresponds with God’s good purposes is possible. And so when we pray we collaborate with God for his will to be done and in the process we discover more of what he is like. As we reflect on the life of Abraham, his faithfulness and doubting, and as we continue to claim our inheritance on this the covenant that God made with him and all who belong to the house of faith, may we be truly humbled by this knowledge as we discover more about our God who showers us with blessings and everlasting love. Amen.