Amazing Grace

 

Sunday 28^th February – Lent 2

Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16. To inaugurate a new status and new responsibility, the Bible assigns new names. Abram and Sarai, meaning “High Father” and “mockery” are now to be known as Abraham and Sarah meaning “Father of many” and “princess”. It is a story of God’s grace and faithfulness that his promises will be fulfilled that people of such a great age are to become parents against every natural expectation and biology.

Romans 4: 13-25. Abraham was righteous before God through Faith because he lived centuries before the law was introduced to Moses. Therefore, Paul returns to the very genesis of the people of Israel to argue that being declared righteousness before God through Faith is the original godly position and is true for all “his descendants”, that is us! The law was introduced to teach/guide an errant people, but it is faith in God that makes us right with God.

Mark 8: 31-38. Peter is told he is satanic for daring to suggest that Jesus not follow what has been discerned by Jesus to be the will of the Father. Jesus then goes on to say that anyone who tries to follow in his footsteps must do likewise. What this looks like in practice has been debated in the church for 2000 years. Courage to stand up and be counted? A devotion to speaking the truth despite where it might lead. A willingness to stand up to powerful interests if that is what is called for. A keenness to see people through impartial eyes. All said, it means discerning God’s will and having the strength to follow where that leads.

 

Salvation through faith in God’s grace has become a cornerstone of the Christian faith as though it was always self-evident but how did St. Paul arrive at that judgement?

Surely the Jewish faith was built on law and observing the law that was inaugurated through Moses receiving the ten commandments on Mount Sinai and all the subsequent revelations that governed every aspect of a person’s life?

Paul goes back far further than Moses – to the very Father and progenitor of the people of Israel, Abraham.

Everything flows from Abraham, He is the start of it all and today three faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam recognise Abraham as our spiritual Father. Those three religions are all cousins to each other.

What struck Paul like a sledgehammer was that when Abraham was declared righteous before God, it wasn’t through observance of any law because the law didn’t exist yet and wouldn’t do for another few hundred years.

No, Abraham was declared right with God because he believed God (Genesis 15:6) and as Abraham is the spiritual father of us all, we inherit that blessing.

Belief can be expressed as trust and trusting that God can achieve his promises despite all evidence to the contrary.

Trust existed alongside doubts in that original story. Both Abraham and Sarah famously doubted and laughed at God’s promise so if we are taking this story as our template for faith as Paul did, then we see for ourselves that trust and doubt do go together in human beings.

I wonder how many Christians have beaten themselves up because they feel guilty about having doubts. Trust is an act of will that transcends the doubts that are normal in all people.

We choose to trust despite our fears and doubts and in the case of Jesus despite where it could lead.

How much Jesus intuitively perceived what might happen when he went to Jerusalem I don’t know but he trusted his Father that it was the right and good thing to do.

So much so that when Peter suggested that he avoid the suffering that was God’s will he called Peter Satan which I think you’ll agree is pretty strong stuff.

It’s a commonplace that nowhere in the New testament does Jesus ever ask for anyone’s worship but he does ask or instructs us directly 13 times for people to follow him so imitating Christ is very important.

As Jesus says himself “I am the way, the truth and the life” The way or road that Jesus walked is our template for how we approach life.

He didn’t want to do it – think of the prayer in the garden of Gethsemene where he sweated blood and yet said “Not my will but your will”

He trusted that God would stay faithful to him despite anything and everything that would happen to him.

When Jesus died on the cross in agony, preaching forgiveness of his persecutors as he died – so continuing to trust God and his way of forgiveness and peace – everyone thought that he had been abandoned, friend and foe alike and the disciples scattered, but God remained faithful and raised Jesus victorious on the third day.

The faithfulness of God extends beyond this mortal life which leads me to remember the old maxim about finding belief in God difficult and fraught with doubt, that while you may have no belief in God, God believes in you.