The God of Abraham: God's Promises, God's Blessing
Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7
IntroIn my Thursday e-mail, I told you that I plan to focus on Genesis this summer. I have also encouraged you to read this amazing book of scripture, in whatever translation you prefer, to get some sense of its broad, deep scope.We must remember that in the great faith story of God’s people, the pivotal event is the Exodus. In fact, the book of Exodus was likely written before Genesis. In some sense, the Exodus happened, then people began to ask “How did we get here? How did we begin? Why do we worship this God?” With that in mind, we might consider Genesis to be the “Prequel” of Exodus.You may ask, as many have, whether the people in Genesis—Adam, Eve, Abraham, Sarah, etc. are real people or not. No one knows. If you are familiar with American Mythologist Joseph Campbell, you know that in every world religion or culture, there are types of people. There are also common patterns: a hero’s journey, suffering, death, transformation (and usually, also a return home). So whether Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, were real, historical people is beside the point. The point is that they are archetypal figures who point us to the Holy One who created us, the One who continues to sustain, to strengthen, to dwell among us (Emmanuel).
Larger PerspectiveBefore we focus on this morning’s story—Abraham and Sarah’s three divine visitors—I would like to step back and look at a larger view in this prequel of Exodus. This begins with the land.Land is critical in Israel’s history. Remember that after being exiled from the Garden of Eden, Adam tilled the land. Cain harvested from the land. Noah planted a vineyard and tended the land after the flood. Now, we have Abraham—who has no land. Earlier in his life, when he was called Abram, God commanded him to leave his ancestral home. God said:“Go-you-forth from your land,from your kindred,from your father’s house,to the land that I will let you see.I will make a great nation of you and will give-you-blessing and will make your name great.Be a blessing!”[1]
God promised three things: God promised Abram land. God promised Abram as many descendants as there were stars in the sky. God promised that Abram and his descendants would be a light and blessing to the nations. When God made these promises, Abram was seventy-five years old. Ten years later, he and his family had traveled all the way to Egypt because of a famine, then back to the wilderness of the Negev. Still, God’s promises had not been fulfilled.There is no land to call his own. No child. Not a blessing to anyone, because in that ancient culture, to be away from the land of your ancestral fathers, and to be without heirs, you had no hope, no future.
Prompted by Sarai, Abram took matters into his own hands. They had brought a slave girl named Hagar back from Egypt; because Hagar was his property, Abram could, and did, father a child with her. Then things went terribly wrong. Hagar taunted Sarai because Sarai had no child, and Hagar was going to. Sarai abused Hagar, prompting the young slave woman to run away.Out in the wilderness, an angel appeared to Hagar. This angel said: Go home, have this baby, and name him Ishmael. But the angel also told Hagar that Ishmael—which means “God Hearkens”—“shall be a wild-ass of a man,his hand against all,hand of all against him,yet in the presence of all his brothers shall he dwell.”[2]Here is the etymology of the struggle—still obvious today—between the Jewish people and the Arabs, between Israelites and the Palestinians.What about Abram, the patriarch of both these tribes? Both these boys? Abram was eighty-six when Ishmael was born. Thirteen years later, Abram lives in Hebron. First the Lord appears to Abram and makes an official covenant with Abram. God changes his name to Abraham—which means “Father of a multitude”—and changes Sarai’s name to Sarah—which means “Princess.” [Side Note: this is the only time in scripture that God changed a woman’s name—this means Sarah is a significant character! ]God promises Abraham that Ishmael will not be the son by which this patriarch will be blessed. No. There will be an official heir, and Sarah will bear this promised son. Mind you, by this time, Sarah is ninety years old, and Abraham is ninety-nine! Thus we arrive at today’s story.Where Abraham is At This PointSo far, none of God’s promises have been fulfilled. No land. No official descendant. No blessing to the family or anyone else, because no heir equals no blessing. So Abraham continues to wait—as the people of Israel will often wait—in hope. But a shadow lies across this hope. As one theologian notes, “Israel waits and hopes—in joy, in perplexity, in eager longing, but also, in wonderment and near-despair, because most often the promises are not yet kept, and Yahweh’s oath is held in abeyance. This abeyance makes Israel as a people of hope, waiting in expectation.”[3] God may have made an official covenant with Abraham, yet Abraham still waits. In eager longing. In near-despair. Then one day, three strangers show up at Abraham and Sarah’s tent.
Divine VisitorsNow the reader understands these are not just strangers, because the passage begins with “The LORD appeared to Abraham.” But we, as readers, are not told exactly when Abraham realizes this is God.Yet Abraham hosts these divine visitors in first-class style. (You don’t kill a young calf for just anyone in that time.) Furthermore, it is significant that Abraham waits on these visitors himself, rather than to have Hagar or Sarah do that. The LORD again promises a child to Sarah and Abraham. Sarah, who is eavesdropping, probably just inside the tent flap, laughs. She is ninety years old. Her biological clock stopped ticking a long time ago, and clearly there is no longer a physical relationship with her husband. (No more pleasure for Sarah.) Now, the divine visitor promises a miracle, which Sarah finds very funny. Yet when the visitor overhears her laughter—which she lies about—the response is this: “Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?” Or, in another translation, “Is anything beyond YHWH?”[4] Obviously not.That is because despite Abraham’s falling on his face with laughter in Chapter 17 of Genesis, and Sarah’s laughter in Chapter 18, Isaac is born the next year. And what does Isaac mean? Yitshak: “He laughs.” Yet the preacher suspects that instead of laughing in disbelief, this laughter is full of joy and wonder at a God who finally makes good on a promise—one of the most important in the ancient world. There is now an heir. There is now the potential for blessing—to a family, and beyond, to the nations.
Waiting Now, In the Twenty-First CenturyI wonder what we wait for now, in the twenty-first century. What does God promise us, and where are these promises grounded for us? Is it in land? Descendants? Blessing to others?In 2017, we do not necessarily have, or even want, land. Yet perhaps our loss of connection to the earth, to the land, has wreaked environmental havoc beyond our control. Glaciers in Montana, in Alaska, and in the Arctic are melting. The sea level is rising so much on the South Florida coast that home owners in Miami Beach are gravely concerned. Closer to home, off the Eastern Shore of Virginia, out in the Chesapeake Bay, Tangier Island is slowly sinking from erosion and rising sea levels. It is possible that the approximately 250 people who live on Tangier Island will have to abandon their homes there in twenty-five to fifty years.[5] So our connection with the land is fragile. Yet this is difficult to see, because we, unlike ancient peoples, do not put our hopes in the promise of land. Nor do all of us want, or hope for, a descendant, per se. Today, some of us participate in the upbringing of children in a very different way: we adopt; we teach; we raise a grandchild; we are godparents; we parent within the “tribe.” For example, in this parish tribe, this happens at Sunday School, Camp St. Philip’s, at Coffee Hour, or as we pass babies around this worship space.What does it take to be part of a tribe? Several things.
- Common language.
- Understanding of common symbols.
- Taboos. There are always things you don’t do in a particular tribe; you need to know what those are.
- Shared rituals and customs—like initiation rites (Confirmation) or rites of transition (weddings, funerals) or both (baptisms.)
Now to return for a moment to the land. . .In our Christian tribe, we do not have a covenant of land. Yet if you think about it, the most desirable land—the land most fought over in any country—is land with water. Precious water. And what is the most important tribal rite of initiation and transition for Christians? The covenant of water. Holy Baptism.In this deeply symbolic rite—one that includes naming, water poured three times over one’s head, the invocation of the Holy Trinity, the blessing, a cruciform mark with holy oil, and the promises that all of us say—we are born and re-born by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ. We make our covenant, our baptismal covenant, with God and with each other.
People of Hope Amidst Near-DespairLike the ancient patriarchs and matriarchs, like the ancient tribes of Israel, we Christians may look at the world around us in near-despair. Will God save us? If so, when—and how— will God save us—from each other and ourselves? When will God fulfill God’s promises to make this world perfect, whole, and once again, a Paradise?In the meantime, we “live in the waiting.”[6] We live as “people of hope.”[7] We proclaim our “Ground of Being”[8] in God when we enter the waters of Holy Baptism. We renounce the evil powers of this world. We commit our lives to Jesus Christ. We promise to do all in our power to live as Jesus lived.We may or may not see God’s promises fulfilled in our earthly lives. Yes, we live in a world that is chaotic, violent, senseless, divided. Yet we stand firm. We stand in hope. We hold hands and work together for justice and mercy, bringing—as best we can—the kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven.So do not lose hope, children. Look beyond you—in space and time—to God’s vision. Walk together. Hold each other up. Encourage one another. Open your heart and welcome the stranger who shows up at the door. Because you never know. It just might be God.Grounded in this amazing, awesome, surprising God, this God who shares our sufferings and our joyful laughter, this God who blesses us, we will all become blessings. Because after all, is anything too wonderful for the LORD? Amen.
(c) The Rev. Dr. Sheila N. McJilton
[1] Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses, (New York: Schocken Books, 1983, 1986, 1990, 1995), 55.
[2] Ibid, 69.
[3] Walter Bruggeman, Theology of the Old Testament, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1997), 169.
[4] Ibid, 76.
[5] http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/ap/trump-calls-tangier-mayor-says-not-to-worry-about-sea/article_ef6683e1-e46a-5ff1-b188-ba8a3728bec2.html.
[6] Ibid., 166.
[7] Ibid., 169.
[8] This term famously used by existentialist philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tillich.
Pictures:
Picture of green leaf: sarah-dorweiler-211779 from www.unsplash.com
Picture of Sinai Desert from space accessed through Google images.
Abraham's Journey map accessed through Google.
Picture of Sarah & Hagar accessed through Google.
Artwork of Three Angelic Visitors with Abraham is Marc Chagall's work. Accessed through Google search.
Picture of Abraham cradling baby Isaac accessed through Google.
Photo of candles at Washington National Cathedral taken by McJilton