Lent II - Sermon given on March 16 2025

Gen. 15:1-12, 17-18; Philip. 3:17-4:1; Lk. 13:31-35]

 

Peace to all of you who are in Christ. Amen.

 

 

The passage from Genesis we read this morning is known as the Covenant of the Halves or Covenant of the Pieces. It’s not the first Covenant we encounter in the Scriptures and it won’t be the last.

 

In fact, Abraham’s entire life story is one whole Covenant, one that changed human history.

 

This is his tale,

 

 

“It started with a voice on the wind.

 

“At first I thought an evil spirit was trying to trick me. There are many trickster-spirits, you see, but the voice claimed to be El, God, and this El insisted I move away from Haran, where I had buried my father.

 

“I had heard of this El before, but I hadn’t worshiped this deity; in my family we worshiped other gods.

 

“This new god swore to bless me and protect me as long I would trust in him.

 

“So, I gathered up all my belongings and the people of my extended family, and I travelled to the land of Canaan, which this God promised to give to me and my descendants, even though my wife and I had no children.

 

“When famine hit Canaan and we were forced to relocate to Egypt in order to survive, I started to wonder about the voice, if indeed it had truly come from this El or some trickster.

 

“But while in Egypt, I witnessed first-hand how powerful and knowing God really is.

 

“We moved back to Canaan, and God reiterated his promise that I and my descendants would own the land. God hadn’t forgotten me.

 

“One of the priest-kings of the city-states, Salem, came and blessed me in the name of the Highest God, as he called this deity. It was then that I realized that others knew God as well.

 

“Over and over, the Lord God reaffirmed that my descendants would be like the number of the stars, like the grains of the sand: too many to count.

 

“God called this promise a covenant. History would call it the Covenant of the Pieces.

 

“Then a slave-girl bore me a son. I loved him very much, but I longed for a son by my wife.

God repeated the covenant and changed my name and my wife’s name: Abram and Sarai became Abraham and Sarah.

 

“As a sign of this latest Covenant, all the men of my tribe were circumcised, a risky operation.

 

“By that time, I had settled at the oaks of Mamre, and our family had expanded into a large and prosperous tribe. We were the envy of the neighboring peoples.

 

“It was there, in the shade of those oaks that the Lord God appeared to me. I had encountered God before, and I had built an altar at each location where the presence of the Divine had been very real to me, very close-by.

 

“This time, three men visited my camp and the Lord had never felt so close, so real. They promised me a son and my wife had laughed.

 

“Many in my tribe had their doubts, but out of respect for me they obeyed and followed me to the land God had shown me.

 

“My wife bore me a son, and I had to send away his half-brother and his mother, but God looked after them, and his descendants too became numerous. The Lord is generous and faithful.

 

“It came as a real shock when one day God the Highest commanded me to sacrifice my son.

 

“My wife and I had waited and prayed for so long and now that we had been given an heir, the Lord was going to take him from us. I was confused but I obeyed. As I bound the boy and laid him on the makeshift altar, I felt numb. God however intervened and provided another sacrifice.

 

“When my wife died, I buried her near Mamre, where the divine presence had never been stronger. It’s a pity she never got to see our boy grow into a man, get married and become a father himself.

 

“When I myself died, my sons buried me there also, next to her.

 

 

“My story is one of an ongoing conversation with the Lord God. It’s the story of a God who’s always there.

 

“During my lifetime I’ve been blessed to experience God’s grace and care and love without fail.

 

“From that very first time I heard El’s voice on the wind, God has never stopped calling me.

It’s important to discern the different voices vying for our loyalty; it’s important to listen to God in prayer, even if sometimes we would prefer not to listen, or we think we’re listening when in fact we’re replacing God’s voice with our own.

 

“I had never thought that I would be considered the archetype of a man of great and unshakable faith: God’s friend. The compliment is greatly exaggerated, I’m a human being who has led his life to the best of his abilities. There’s good and bad in all of us. I’ve certainly made mistakes.

“I will admit, there were times when I thought about returning to Ur of the Chaldeans, to leave behind this endeavor with this El, a god I had never worshipped before. There were times when I just couldn’t believe that this Highest God would fulfill all the promises made to us, when my soul was heavy with darkness.

 

“Yet, the Lord God has kept our conversation going, God has kept our covenant alive, at every step God has rekindled hope for my own and my tribe’s future. To me, the Lord has proven his holiness and righteousness, even when testing me to the brink of insanity.

 

“I was to become the father and forebear of many great nations and three world religions, which proves that for God nothing is impossible.

 

“God answers prayers, even if it doesn’t seem like it, even if God does so in his time and according to his will, not ours.

 

“The Lord defends those who call on him, who turn to his care, to God’s parental arms, and does so without us asking for it or deserving it, without us realizing God’s mercy is acting in our lives.

 

“There have been many signs from the Lord God.

 

“The most intrinsic characteristic of a sign is that it serves as a reminder that the Highest God remembers the promises and stands firm on them.

 

“Whether these signs are from long ago or they’re new symbols in a new time, they’re gifts to cling to.

 

“God doesn’t trick. God doesn’t forget. God fulfills all promises. God keeps the Covenant.”