March 16 | Lent 2, Year C
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35
It is natural to fear reprisal when you have intervened in the affairs of others. The hatred of the vanquished foe smolders beneath the surface and can emerge with ruthless and pitiless vengeance. Into the midst of Abram’s fear, after the defeat of the King of Elam and his four allies, God comes with a reassuring vision showing Abram that he has nothing to fear. In turn, that vision becomes the opportunity for Abram to disclose to God an even greater personal fear: he has no progeny.
God has promised that Abram’s descendants will become a great nation (Gen. 12:2), but real doubt about the validity of the promise is engendered by the simple reality that Abram does not have a son. God affirms his promise, however, by assuring Abram that he will have a son, and through that son a multitude of descendants. Abram, against all physical evidence, believes God’s word is true. Abram understands that the responsibility for fulfilling the promise rests only with the promise-giver who is the subject of his faith. We are reminded that Abram has chosen correctly when we are told that God credited it to him as righteousness. When God makes a covenant with him, Abram receives further assurance. That covenant will also provide assurance to his descendants.
In the Gospel reading, the power of faith appears again. The faith of Jesus precluded any fear of the threats from the world to frustrate his purpose. He knew that he was doing God’s will, and he knew that in God’s perfect time he would indeed die. There was no need, as a result, to fear either Herod or the king’s plan to kill him. Jesus was saying he had to focus on what God’s will for that day and all the days leading up to, and including, his death. In effect, to try to avoid death by ceasing to do God’s will is to die spiritually, and earlier rather than later.
As disciples of Jesus, we should live with this same assurance. Christ won the victory over sin, death, and the devil two millennia ago on the cross in Jerusalem. The proof of his victory was his bodily resurrection, which Christians celebrate every Sunday. What does the Church lack for fearless witness in the world? It cannot be an insufficiency in the work of Christ. Neither can it be a lack of historical evidence that the events of his death, resurrection, and their effects on the world are a reality. No, the problem lies in our insufficient faith. We believe in Jesus, but we find it hard to see progress toward the victory of the kingdom in the contemporary world. Our natural response to worldly opposition is to close our eyes or to wring our hands in despair.
Jesus presents us with another way—the way of faith. His was not a pie-in-the-sky faith. Jesus did not discount circumstances or choose to live in some altered reality. He lived amid opposition with the eyes of faith. Those eyes see the world, but they focus on the kingdom. The eyes of faith are like the night-vision goggles used by the military, which allow soldiers to see by spotting radiation. Similarly, the eyes of faith discern the kingdom of God at work, even in a world that desperately tries to obscure it. Belief in Jesus and the eyes of faith are the tools we need to orient our lives properly, according to God’s will, with the assurance that his purpose will be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven.
Christian faith is believing that what God has promised in the future is a reality (no matter how long delayed) because we know that the One who makes the promise is eternally trustworthy. Our ultimate faith must be placed in God alone. We hope for the fulfillment of his promises, but we only have that hope because of our faith in God, who has revealed himself as faithful and worthy of our trust. We cannot achieve righteousness on our own any more than Abram and Sarai could have a baby at their advanced age. But by faith in God through Jesus Christ, we can be sure of God’s will being done, and that we too can be credited as righteous.
Look It Up: Psalm 27:1, 13-14
Think About It: God’s promises are true today.
The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School.
