Second Sunday After Lent

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Psalm 27

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Luke 13:31-35

March 17, 2019

Steven H. Strain

A friend of mine recently lost her only son to a tragic accident. Other people walked away from it but her son was killed instantly. Her world was turned upside down by the late-night visit from the police bearing the news that would devastate her.

I went to the funeral home and hugged her by her son’s casket. “How will I get through this?” was the question she asked. I told her we would pray for her and left her to the gathering of friends and family. Driving home I wondered if she questioned God.

It is easy to be a person of faith when all is well. When the kids are doing great, work is rewarding and lucrative and your spouse is fabulous. Good times are not the times that challenge our faith. Indeed, it is easy to be smug and believe that God has rewarded us because we are such good people. Some would refer to this as the gospel of “evangelical prosperity.” This is not the time when we question our faith. Or, doubt the presence of God. It is not a time of struggle.

We may credit Him with our good fortune. Praise be to God we shout out on Sunday morning. But at some level it is our success we celebrate as we find pride in our self-sufficiency. It is praise that hovers just above lukewarm. It is not the wail, or lament, that pierces the night when things are not good.

Indeed, it is easy to be faithful during times of prosperity. When tragedy strikes, we call out, “where was God; why did he let this bad thing happen?” When other things happen in our lives, a job loss or a divorce, we question God. How could He let this happen to me? It is a time when we doubt the presence of our Lord.

There is a notion that one is not a person of faith; not a believer, if one questions God. Or has doubts. Faith becomes a rigid thing, a dogma to be followed blindly without thought. And yet, in our reading from Genesis, Abram questions God. In verse eight he asks;

“O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”

We have all heard the term, “crisis of faith.” When something bad happens, we look for somewhere to place the blame. Or we look for someone to hold responsible. That person can be the other driver, an employer or those who look different from us. A Presbyterian pastor, Daniel Debevoise, wrote of the crisis of faith;

What is the character of faithfulness? So often when people face perplexing questions --- when they feel the anxiety of doubt and uncertainty, when they struggle with frustration and disappointment --- they think of it as a crisis of faith. We are tempted to think of faith only as unquestioning acceptance or silent submission, but as we follow Abram on his journey of faith, he clearly comes to where he challenges and questions God’s claims. This kind of struggling with God can also be a part of faith.

Abram’s question to God is an affirmation of faith. It is a question borne out of the belief, the faith in God, that God can act in his life. It speaks of a relationship with the Almighty; one in which Abram can express his fears and God listens and responds.

There are those who would say that faith is an easy thing. That it is not ambiguous and once you have been saved or born again the discussion is over. It is an ever cheerful and unflinching look at our faith in the Lord.

We want God to respond to us. We want divine help to get us through the night. We come to Him with our hopes and fears; which are linked. The poet, William Cowper wrote;

“He has no hope who never had a fear.”

There is a tension between our fears and promise of aid from on high. This tension is found in our psalm for today. Faith is there along with doubt and fear. In verse one of Psalm 27 the psalmist is safe with God:

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

Of whom shall I be afraid”

The psalmist names those “of whom shall I be afraid;” evildoers, adversaries and an army. The question is not rhetorical for the psalmist nor for us. We can pose the same question:

Of whom shall we be afraid?

An adversary may be human but it might also come in the form of disease, or injury, or financial burdens to name a few. “Evildoers” evokes a powerful image of something or someone beyond a mere adversary. This is language from the heart; the raw language of the psalms; it comes from our deepest fears; of a place without hope.

A place where we believe God has turned away from us. In verse nine the psalmist pleads:

"Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn away from your servant in anger,

You who have been my help.

Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,

O God of my salvation."

In our reading from Genesis, “a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.” Yet Abram awakes to the Lord’s covenantal promise giving the land to his descendants. It is in the darkness that we feel alone and we must rely on our faith, with all its doubts and questions to get us through the night. At times the presence of the Lord may be clear; at other times it may be difficult to see. Samuel Roberts, a theology professor writes:

On one hand, human freedom from fear is affirmed in the wake of the clarity of divine presence. On the other hand, human freedom from fear is affirmed even in the opaqueness of divine presence, when God seems hidden or obscured. When God seems obvious, hope is vindicated; when God seems hidden, hope requires faith for sustenance, faith being, to quote from Hebrews, chapter eleven verse one; “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

We think God is hidden when He doesn’t respond as we would have him. We all would stop the accident before it happened, if we had the power of our Lord. In this belief we ascribe to the Lord our view of what should be. As Abraham Lincoln said; “the Almighty has His own purposes.”

We want our faith to be clear. Without questions or doubts. It is as if we want to check faith off our list of things to do; it becomes complete and God’s presence is clear and never obscured. But faith is not about doctrine. It is not about what we think. It is a living, breathing thing. It is a journey that takes a life time. It is a journey in conversation with Scripture, our liturgy, the walk every Sunday to the altar rail for the Lord’s supper. Our response to God is one of faith. With its questions and doubts and days when it seems elusive. Professor Roberts wrote:

The response to the hidden God can be nothing other than a response of faith, couched in the assurance of hope. Even the hidden God will be evident to the believing community, providing they see such a God through the eyes of faith.

This journey requires patience. We are not a people inclined to be patient. Yet the psalmist tells us to be patient. This patience comes through spiritual practices, through seeking and searching, as we travel on this journey. Our psalm concludes:

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord

In the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;

Be strong, and let your heart take courage;

Wait for the Lord.

My friend who lost her son saw the goodness of the Lord in the people who gathered to comfort her and pray for her and her family.

Faith with all of its questions and doubts was there as was the Lord our God.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage;

Wait for the Lord.

Amen