Genesis17

Introduction 

How long have you been waiting for something? 

 Maybe you've been waiting for something until you feel you can't wait any longer – like for the holidays to come. Maybe you're still waiting for god to do something – to answer one of your prayers...

This is the fifth time God has spoken to Abram. 

 Key verses are v 1-2. 

He has already promised that Abram would be the father of a nation. After thirteen years, they still have no “proper” child of their own, (they cheated by Abram taking Sarai's slave as second wife!). The story is that by now Ishmael is just about a teenager! Abram is 99 years old. Sarai is 90. And God comes again and says, “I am God All-Powerful. Obey me and do what is right.  I will make an agreement between us and I’ll give you a huge family.” How long have you been waiting for something?

What’s God like? 

God says to Abram “I am God Almighty”. 

In Hebrew, it is “El Shaddai” …. Let's speak that Name out a few times, quietly, as part of our worship. So what is god like? He is “Almighty”. He is strong, and big... When we say God is big, we are not just talking about his size. We are talking about the way he exists . He exists more fully than we do , in a bigger way than we do . He is more real than we are , not less so. He exists as father, son, and Holy Spirit , at the same time. He really is father son and Holy Spirit , at the same time . Today is “Trinity Sunday” when Christians remember that God is that big – he is Father, Son and holy Spirit.

As father, 

He creates us, loves us , and looks after us , working things out in our lives

As son, 

he shows what God is like, he set up God's kingdom, and he died for our sins.

 As Holy Spirit 

he comes like breath to live inside us , to give us power, to help us understand, and to make us like Jesus .

 What does God want to do? 

First of all, a Covenant relationship. 

Through his encounters with Abram, God has been drawing him into an “Agreement” – a “Covenant”. We've already learned a bit about that, but to remind you, there are two things we have learned...

Firstly, this agreement is not a deal between equal partners. 

It is a “Vassal Covenant.” It is not an agreement to share things out equally. It is an agreement between a Master and a Servant. God didn't come to Abram and say, “Abram, If I answer your prayers, will you make me your God?” He doesn't even say “If you make me your God and keep my law, I'll give you what you ask for.” Now, what God says is “I want to bless you and do something very special in your life. You make me your God and do what I say!” God comes as the Boss, and chooses to enter into an agreement with us. He makes the rules. We don’t' negotiate with him. If we don't like it, we take the consequences. And God has the right to do that – because he is God.

Now, this Covenant was life-changing

 – so much so that even Abram's and Sarai's names were changed. Abram (“exalted father”) became Abraham (“father of many”, and Sarai was to become Sarah (both words mean “princess but the first probably relates to the dialect of her old home in Ur of the Chaldees and Sarah to the dialect of her new home, new life, new hope, in Canaan). Occasionally someone like me – who doesn't like their name – will change it just to get rid of it and gain a new image: “Max Power”. Usually it's no big deal, but it was a big deal in Abraham's time. Your name was your identity, it revealed something about you and your destiny; it pas part of your personality. In our covenant with Jesus, we have been given a new name – we have been called “Christians”, people of the Way is the New testament word for it. We have been given the name of Jesus, not to use as if it were our name, but the right to act on his authority.

Lambs. Photo by G Lilly

And when God begun to make that covenant with Abram, he did it with a sacrifice. 

 In the last chapter we read that Abram sacrificed an animal, and chopped the sacrifice in half.. Today, God makes a new agreement with us. A New Covenant. He does it through a sacrifice – the sacrifice of Jesus for us on the Cross.

Secondly, specific promise 

 But then there are specific promises he makes: for Abram, there there were going to be descendants – whole nations that would say “We come from Abram”. Specifically, Sarai, who was ninety, was going to have a baby. Now, that is very old. It was going to be a miracle, because poor Sarai had never been able to have any children even when she was young. But God was going to do that miracle for Abram and Sarai. And then there was a land God was going to give him, and his sons, grandsons, and descendants. Those are some pretty amazing promises.

God has made some pretty amazing promises to us, too. He has promised that when we believe in Jesus, we have life that lasts for ever. He has promised to give us his Holy Spirit, to live
inside us. He has promised to hear and answer prayers. He has promised to give us peace. He has promised we will never, ever be alone.

What does Abraham do? 

 I can find four things that Abraham did in this chapter:

 1. He fell on his face

Photo: D Shankbone. Creative Commons license

 – in awe and wonder and worship.

2. He laughed 

– not in unbelief, but in joy and surprise and astonishment. Abram is not questioning God, he is enjoying the moment as he reflects with joy on what God has promised.

3. He prayed. 

 He asked God to bless Ishmael, the son he already had through Hagar. Poor Ishmael wasn't the son God wanted to give to Abraham. But Abraham doesn't want him to be left out, to miss the blessing, so he prays with tenderness and compassion for Ishmael. It's really important that in the midst of times of blessing and joy, we pray tenderly for broken, lost people.

 4. He obeyed. 

 He, and every male in his family, was circumcised: a minor surgical procedure, a little cut to the body of each male. It was Abraham's signature to the agreement, a sign of commitment to God and to God's people. We don't do that today: Paul argued fiercely, that since the coming of Jesus, this “rule” no longer applies: “Circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit” (Rom 2. 29) “When you came to Christ, you were 'circumcised,' but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature” (Col 2. 11) Now, today, the covenant God imposes involves this kind of circumcision, the painful “cutting away of our sinful nature”. God's spirit comes to us like fire, to burn up the rubbish in our lives; he comes like water, not only to refresh but to cleanse. He comes like a dove – and in the Bible, a dove is a clean bird. Doves and pigeons were used as sacrifices. When the Holy Spirit comes he wants to inhabit clean, surrendered lives.

© Gilmour Lilly June  2015

What not to do with a Promise! (Genesis 15-16)

Fresh from a victory over local tribes, and his meeting with this strange figure called Melchizedek, Abram was  feeling a bit stressed by life's responsibilities. And he has yet another God encounter...  God comes – as he keeps on doing – and makes a promise to Abram.  “I am your great reward”. 

This is now the fourth time God has spoken his promises to Abram (12. 1-3; 12. 7; 13. 14).  Is Abram getting just a wee bit tired of it?  In a mixture of faith and exasperation he says “Lord, You keep telling me you're giving me and my descendants the land – but where are my descendants?   Right now the nearest thing I have to an heir is my servant Eleazar of Damascus!”  (If that's what the Hebrew means: verse 2 is difficult to translate but verse 3 is quite plain!)   It's a bit much, Lord; promises, promises.  When am I going to see some action?    We don't want to hear “I am your great reward!”.  We want the descendants!  So Abram, reminds God about that bit of the promise as well.  And that's OK as a prayer of faith.  Jesus told two stories about that sort of prayer.  “Once a poor widow kept pestering and badgering the judge, to give her justice.  And eventually the judge decided 'If I don't give her her due, one of these days she's going to slap me in the face – so I had better do what she asks.'”  (Lk 18. 1-8) And “Once, a man woke his friend up at midnight, looking for food to give to a visitor who had just arrived.  Even although it was inconvenient he got out of bed and gave his friend what he asked for – because he was cheeky enough to ask!”  (Lk 11. 5-8) Sometimes our prayers are just too polite!  And on this Pentecost Sunday, the  Holy Spirit is both our rightful inheritance – because Jesus died to make us God's children – and the resource we need to feed a hungry world. So it's right to say to God “Lord, give us your Spirit! You promised!”

Abram believed God – and that was enough.  The NIV says “it was credited to him as  righteousness”:  Tsaddiq – the right, correct, just thing to do.  That is a key verse that Paul (Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6) and James (James 2:23) both quote.  . That's what we need to do with the promises God gives us.  Believe them.  God looks at that, and credits it to our account as “righteousness".    It's something we need to take on board.  That's basic and fundamental.

Maybe you are at the beginning bit of your journey as a Christian.  You are thinking through what it means to walk with God.  “What do I need to do?”  Be nice to everyone?  Work harder?  Clean up your life?  Take communion regularly?  Put money in the offering? Help out with the Foodbank?  Give money to famine relief?  All of these are good things to do.  I'm not saying “Don't do these things!”  But God makes is so simple.  Believe what he says.  He will count that as doing something right.  (And in fact, if it's for real, it will begin to change your life: you'll begin to do some of these other things I've been talking about as well!)

To confirm the promise – publicly signing the contract – God has Abram prepare a sacrifice.  And as he waits, the darkness comes; he feels “the terror of the Lord.”  That's part of how God works.  His agreement with Moses, was spoken out of a cloud.  Even the New Covenant, the agreement God made thorough Jesus, began in darkness and earthquake (Matthew 27. 45, 51)   God is Holy.  He is perfect; he is pure, he is clean.  He speaks to Abram so intimately; but he is the Holy One.

Now, just an observation here: God's promises are there for the dark as well as the light.  He is able to make his promises come true for Abram's nation – even though they will, as a nation, spend 400 years in Egypt, in slavery, to all appearances finished as a clan with any hope of real nationhood.  We should not confuse God's promises with our own wishful thinking.  We should not extend God's promises outwards to include all we desire.  That's a road to heartache and disillusionment.  

So then, Abram has a promise.  But still no heir.  Then someone has a good idea.  Sarai suggests that Abram get her servant Hagar pregnant: a king of bronze-age surrogate mother.  I don't think my wife would have come up with such an idea – but it was OK in Abram's world.   And – whether because Hagar was quite good looking (!) – or more likely because ten years had passed since the first promise and he was desperate to have the promise fulfilled – he accepted.  It seemed like God was not answering.  It was legal (at that time!) It was a good idea – on the surface at least.  But it caused immediate tensions between Hagar, Sarai, and Abram.  It brought out the worst in each of them. (Derek Kidner neatly sums it up: “False pride, false blame, false neutrality.”) It resulted in the powerless ones – Hagar and her unborn child – being treated as objects that could be disposed of.  And in the end, when God has told Abram that Sarai will have a child, Abram is trying to reason with God just to bless Ishmael instead.  “Lord, can't you just use our plan B instead?”  (See Gen 17.18)

So what are we NOT to do with a promise?  Make it come true ourselves.   If you promised your child something – a new toy maybe – you would be angry with them if they got fed up waiting and took the money for it from your purse, and even more annoyed if they simply went and stole it from the local shop. But we do that to God all the time.

In Galatians 4. 22f, Paul says this: “Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman.  But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise.” Hagar and Ishmael represent the old covenant, the law, the flesh, and slavery.  Sarah and Isaac represent the New Covenant, the promise, the Spirit, and freedom. The whole story, and that choice between old and new, law and promise, flesh and spirit, slavery and freedom, applies to the whole of the Christian life, the whole business of journeying with God.

God has made a promise: he who believes on the Son has life. And we have replaced that with good ideas: give to the poor; be a nice person; go to Church; or ignore God and buy the life you want; or contact the supernatural through spiritualism or astrology.   We ignore God's voice and listen to other voices instead.  

God has made a promise:  “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”  (Acts 1. 8)   And we have replaced that with good ideas:  we put on events to attract people; we have websites and public transport advertising campaigns; we pressure people to share their faith.  We put our faith in evangelists; in campaigns; in processes like Evangelism Explosion or even Alpha.  We run organisations – BB or Urban saints of a Coffee Morning.  We try to make our churches look lively by having  the most vibrant praise; the greatest kids' work.  So we have great schemes and we pressurise people to be part of them. We jump in and do the witness, instead of waiting for the promise, believing that the Spirit will make us witnesses. 

The Christian world is littered with the casualties of good ideas.  Churches and individual Christians burned out on activism, disillusioned by hype and human attempts to look “successful”, worn out by clever ideas that are greedy for cash and time, pressured to perform to fulfil someone else's vision.  You know what really happened to Mary’s little lamb? Mary had a little lamb; it never was a sheep – because it joined a Baptist Church and died of lack of sleep.  And in the midst of all that, truth is a casualty; and ordinary little people are casualties. 

So, on the Day of Pentecost, I believe God is speaking to us.  He is challenging us – to have the courage to wait for the promise of the Father (Acts 1. 4).  To stop saying to God “Please may our schemes and ideas live under your blessing.”  and instead, to wait upon God to fulfil, in our day, the promise he has made.  “We need another Pentecost. Send the Fire today.”  And maybe, like Abraham, and like the woman with the judge or the man bashing his friend’s door at midnight, to remind God of his promises and call upon Him to fulfil these promises in our day.  “We need another Pentecost. Send the fire today.”   Send the Spirit.  Lord, you promised; Jesus died to give us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  Send the Spirit.  Our friends are hungry for the Kingdom and we haven’t anything to set before them.  Send your Spirit, Lord.  “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”  (Lk 11. 18)

© Gilmour Lilly May  2015

Genesis 12. 10-20 Faith and failure.

Living in the Negev, the “Dry Place” ( where there can eb no rain throghout the summe) on the southern side of Canaan, Abram found himself in the middle of a famine (v. 10).  This, in the land of promised blessings,  was a severe test of Abram's faith.  So, he headed off  to Egypt, a fairly prosperous place where people commonly went in times of famine. Records from Egyptian border officials show that people were often allowed to enter the land to find food. Years later, Abram’s grandson Jacob would look to Egypt in time of famine. But there's a problem, entering into this big, powerful pagan country.
Fear cut in as Abram analysed the facts (you are a woman beautiful to behold) and assumes the worst (the Egyptians will kill me).  (11-12)   Remember Dr Hook?  “When you're in love with a beautiful woman...”
When you're in love with a beautiful woman You know it's hard
Everybody wants her Everybody loves her, Everybody wants to take your baby home.
Only it wasn't his friends Abram had to watch, it was the king, Pharaoh., who would “want to take his baby home” and kill him to get him out of the way. 

We open ourselves up to fear when we add to the facts (Sarai was no doubt a beautiful woman) and add in our own assumptions, as though they were part of the facts.  Functioning well in challenging times, depends in part, on knowing the difference between the facts, and our negative assumptions about the facts. 

Failure. But don't worry. Abram had a scheme, so clever you could pin a tail on it and call it a fox.  In fact he had already decided, before they even set off on their journeys, that the time might come when they would claim to be brother and sister.  It was a  half-truth: Sarai was his half-sister (an arrangement we find abhorrent but which was tolerated four thousand years ago) and there is ancient evidence for the idea of  there being a  special social status attaching to a “sister-wife”.  But despite all that, the intention was to deceive.  So Abram said to Sarai, “Say you are my sister”. (13-15).   You remember the phrase “being economical with the truth”   made famous by Lord Armstong during the “Spycatcher” trial in Australia.  At that trial when barrister Malcolm Turnbull asked a really good question: “What is the difference between a misleading impression and a lie?”  

So here was Abram, set on minimising the risk to himself while subjecting Sarai to the discomfort of separation from family, living in a Royal Harem, with the possibility of having to give herself physically to a man she didn't love.  Abram was no gentleman at this point in his life.  He was a coward.  And he was so short sighted.  Sure, nothing happened. Abram rightly guessed that Sarai would not have been allowed anywhere near the Pharaoh for months, but would have joined a Harem and had a lengthy time of preparation: but that wouldn't last for ever.  Abram  told himself he would eventually think of something.   We all know that realities are better faced, and unpleasant tasks don as soon as possible.  And it was unbelief.  After all, God had said “I will make you a great nation” so Abram's life wasn’t' going to end at this point in some Egyptian dungeon.  

For a while, none of that seems to bother Abram:  as Sarai's brother, Abram was treated generously by Pharaoh, and  he gained considerable wealth (counted in cattle and sheep).  It may have been short sighted, cowardly, and downright dishonest: but it seemed to be paying off.

“Found out!”  Then people in Egypt started to get sick and to suffer from insect attacks.   God judged Egypt with plagues.  (17-19)   We actually don't know quite what they were.  Humanly speaking, maybe some kind of “public health” issue.   Now not every plague or flood or earthquake is “God's judgement”.  We live in a  broken world, where the good God spoke into the world in creation has been damaged and spoiled.  But on this occasion, as they struggled with the outbreak, and (presumably) used their own diviners and magicians to find out the cause, the Egyptians discovered that it was God.  It was happening because one beautiful woman who had been taken into the Harem – Sarai – was already married. Pharaoh  summoned Abram in, and asked him what he thought he was doing?  I imagine at that point, Abram swallowed hard: he's made the situation ten times worse. Not only was Pharaoh powerful enough to kill off Abram but now he was really angry, too.   God was at work – but Abram was still in a tight spot!

Freedom  What Pharaoh does is say  “Here is your wife, take her, and be gone.”  (19b, 20). And Abram is able to escape with Sarai – and all he had gained in Egypt....  This is a remarkable foretaste of the plagues of the Exodus; hundreds of years later Abram's descendants would end up stuck in Egypt; God would send plagues to persuade Pharaoh to let his people go, and when they eventually did escape, they left with the gold and jewellery the Egyptians had given them.  

This is grace at work! Despite the fact that Abram has badly messed up, God has given him the intervention he didn't have the faith for and indeed he didn't deserve!  The plagues – sent by God – were enough to chasten Pharaoh so that he as prepared to let Abram go.  Wasn't god good to Abram?  Despite his complete lack of faith, he spoke to Pharaoh through a series of natural disasters.  And he gave Abram the kind of Pharaoh who was prepared to listen, and let him go.  He was working his plan out all the time, even through Abram's unbelief, cowardice immaturity and immorality.  I'd say that was grace.  It was mercy. 

• “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. (or Because of his steadfast love we are not consumed) his mercies never come to an end.   (Lam 3. 22).  
• “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” (Malachi 3. 6).
• “No, I will not unleash my fierce anger. I will not completely destroy Israel,  for I am God and not a mere mortal.”  (Hosea 11. 9)  

So God was working things out.  He was looking after Abram; he was protecting both Abram and Sarai, and even adding to Abram’s wealth at the same time.  That's grace. 

Abram journeyed back Northwards, towards the Negev – the dry place, with his wife, his sheep, his cattle.  And with the Lord; with his faith.  God had proved himself capable of providing for Abram's needs and protecting him.  A dry year or two was a problem to Abram, but not to the Lord.  And God had proved himself faithful, generous and loving, even in spite of Abram's failure and weakness and sin. 

He had obviously learned and grown thorough his experience in Egypt.   There would be plenty more challenges to Abram's faith. Some of these challenges, he would face with faith and wisdom.  That's a story for another time.    

If we were journeying with Abram, back to the Negev, what would we want to say to Abram? Possibly “You plonker Abram; what were you thinking about?  How could you?”   But I don't think we should be too hard on Abram: not because his mistakes weren't serious –  they were serious – but because they are our mistakes as well.  We recognise deception, fear, cowardice, short-sighted thinking, unbelief, in our own lives. 

This old man, who had such amazing faith as to get up and go, to an unknown land, because God said so, can encourage us with his faith.  In fact Rom 4. 11 says “Abraham is the spiritual father of those who believe ” whether or not they obey the Jewish laws.  But he can encourage us with his failures, too.  Because it took him the rest of his life, years and years of small victories and serious defeats, to be able to overcome the unbelief, the instinct to fix things himself, just in case God didn't do it.  His experience shows us that it is possible for us, too, to be men and women of faith.    

© Gilmour Lilly April  2015

Genesis 12. 1-9: Abram: Stepping out in faith

Just over a week ago I had my 59th birthday!  It sounds “old”;  it makes me feel old.   Roy didn't help by mentioning the prospect of having a bus pass in another year's time!   It all made me think about the changes in life as we get older: less energy, maybe less options and choices; being shaped and held by the consequences of decisions in the past, and maybe losing potential and a bit of the zest for life. You feel you no longer can; and you feel you no longer care. When you are in your twenties you think you can conquer the world. At sixty it's a bit late to be starting; there's the temptation just to mark time...  and maybe the possibility of taking things a bit easier.

Abram was 75 years old when his story begins.  Now a while ago Ruth said to me “70's the new 50”... and Abram's father was 130 when Abram was born … but Abram had plenty of reasons to think that some of his hopes in life were not going to be fulfilled; and to settle comfortably with what he had.... He could easily have decided eh was too old to be starting a new venture...  And God spoke to him.... Abraham at 75 : too old to be starting a new venture? But the very fact that God spoke to him  should encourage us if we are feeling to old or we've made unwise choices or in some other way come to a point where we feel we have no future.  Abram certainly wasn't too old to start an adventure of faith!

So this morning I'm speaking to all of us who think we are living with the consequences of decisions we have made and things we have done.  I'm talking to those of us who feel we've missed the boat, had our chance; those of us who feel frustrated and tired.... if we are feeling to old or we've made unwise choices or in some other way come to a point where we feel we have no future.   And God wants to speak to us.....that should encourage us.

When God speaks, listening isn't optional.
The chapter actually begins not with how old Abram was – it begins with the voice of God.  It is god who takes the initiative and begins this covenant relationship with Abram.  This is where the  Abraham story begins.  And these are not just random, nice words of encouragement.   This is a “covenant”... a treaty,  a special promise, that the Lord makes with Abram. 

Covenant.   In the ancient world, these treaties or covenants were often made between different rulers or groups of people.  They could sometimes be pretty much between equals: “We will allow you to pass through our territory, and you will allow us to pass through your territory; If you have a war, we will send our soldiers to help you fight; and if we have a war, you will send soldiers to help us.”  But sometimes these covenants were made between a powerful king, and a much less powerful country.  They usually went something like this: “You will pay taxes to our king every year; and send soldiers to fight in our army; and if you do, we will leave you to live in peace”.  Now God doesn't come as  an equal to make an agreement with Abram (or with us) he imposes a covenant, like this: “You do exactly as I say, go where I tell you – and I will make you a great nation through whom all nations on earth will bless themselves.”   It is a covenant that establishes Abram’s family as “A divine protectorate.”  Idols had to be forsaken, and commitment given to the Lordship of Yahweh. God speaks to us – invites us into what he wants to do – and makes a covenant with us.  We don’t' negotiate the terms.  We don’t' say “OK, Lord, I'll go where you tell me, so long as I am kept healthy and safe and prosperous.  But if you don't look after me, then I'm cutting loose and living for myself.”   We either say “OK, Lord, I accept your terms!”  or we walk away.  It's that simple.

Call to significance.   You see, this was not just about Abram.  Don't get me wrong, Abram was an immensely privileged person.  His very name would be changed to reflect the change in his status, from Abram (“The father is exalted”) to Abraham (“The father of nations”).  But the terms of what God said to Abram, refer to “the land that I will show you” (and that Hebrew word “ha-'erets” – the land – is still important to Israel today.  And God promised to make Abram's family into a “great nation”: it wasn't just about the land (and it never is!) but about the people, the community. And God promised   “by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves”.   God was calling Abram, this seventy-five year old man, who had lived in a close-knit family and followed where his father Terah had led, to a place of global significance, poses sign a land, fathering a nation and blessing the nations.  We need to hear God's call to significance.   It's not too late.  You're not too old.  You've not used up all your chances.  You don’t' need to be “stuck” spiritually.  God calls us to significance.  To possess the land, to spawn a growing people, and to bless the nations.   

Creative blessing    This is not just a call but a promise.  When God said to Abram, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” he was speaking a blessing over  Abram.   And these words are “Creative words” like in Genesis 1.3 where the Lord said “Let there be light and” there was light.  God's word doesn't return to him empty but accomplishes God's purpose  (Isa 55. 11)  So, when God speaks these words, the very act of speaking them out, begins the process of making them happen.  God speaks over us in creative blessing, and that word does something.  Think about what God has said about us:  “Whoever believes in me has eternal life.”   “You shall be my witnesses to the ends of the earth”.  “It is the father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”  “If you forgive anyone's sins they are forgiven.”

We need to hear God's call to significance , his imposed new covenant, and his creative blessing. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it amazing.  For us, the ones who feel we are to old, too tired, too late; tied up in our circumstances, God speaks, with a covenant, a call to significance and a creative blessing.  God's purposes were bigger than Abram.   God perspective was higher than Abram's.

When god speaks, listening isn't enough.
“So Abram went” (v. 4)   Abraham responds with obedience that is rooted in faith. 

The Faith When God spoke again and said  “To your descendants I will give this land,”  there were two particular problems:

• There were Canaanite in the land.  This land wasn't just sitting there waiting to be occupied.    IF God was going to give Abram's descendants the land, he would need to do something about the Canaanite who were already there.  and
• Abram didn't have any descendants, nor much likelihood of having any. 11. 30 tells us that Sarai was infertile.. 

So what did Abram do?  He built an altar, believing God was and is bigger than the obstacles.  Faith steps out – despite the obstacles – the problems that shout at us “There is no way that is going to happen.  
The obedience is seen in getting up and going.  Now, remember all the obstacles to obedience:  Abram was older in years; he was already fairly prosperous and comfortable. He was responsible for a significant family group that included not only his own wife but also his nephew, the son of his deceased brother.  He could easily have said to himself, “I'm too old for this – I'm doing rather well here in Harran, other people depend on me for their livelihood.  After all, when my father was alive we already did this once, and we settled here because its' a good place to live. So why should I move on?  Especially since I don’t' actually know where I mm going to?  It's not sensible; it's not prudent; it's not convenient; I'm too old for all this.”   But “Abram went.”  And even when God had promised, “To your descendants I will give this land” Abram kept on going, because God hadn’t' said “stop!”  He kept going, even though he was heading for the “Negev” - the “dry place”.  He set the character of the nation for the next several hundred years, as pioneers and pilgrims rather than settlers. He was obedient. 


© Gilmour Lilly April  2015

Matthew 21 v 1-13. Palm Sunday

1. Jesus claims what is his:

• the obedience of his disciples; they had to go into town, acting like horse thieves, and risk retribution, to obey what Jesus said.
• a donkey; the owner was perfectly content with the explanation “The Lord needs it”.
• a city, Jerusalem, that he enters like a King.
• and the praise of all the people.
• And within that city, in verse 12, a temple;

Was Jesus being like a two-year-old – who insists that everything in the room is “mine”...    As C S Lewis says, there are three options in dealing with Jesus' claims about Himself: either Jesus ' claims were correct; or they were deluded (Lewis colourfully says, if Jesus was wrong about being God he would be as crazy as a man who thought he was a poached egg!); or they were deliberate deception. The events that followed Palm Sunday - the death and resurrection of Jesus, confirm that his claims were absolutely correct!

2. The underlying history; the sub-text...

In the second century BC, the Eastern Mediterranean was ruled by the Seleucid Empire – which was formed after Alexander the Great's empire collapsed. In 169 BC,King Antiochus IV (whose nickname was Epiphanes – meaning “God manifest”) had removed gold and silver items from the temple. On 25 December 167, Antiochus was back, and this time he desecrated the temple by setting up a pagan altar in the Holy of Holies and offering pigs flesh to Zeus, as well as using the temple rooms used as a brothel. Three years later, in 164BC, a man called Judas Maccabeus had led a revolt, defeated Antiochus and rededicated the temple to God. After the dedication, the people sang hosanna , waved palm branches, and looked forward to redemption. The pagan yoke had been broken and they expect the son of David to come and set the whole world free of sin forever. This became the newest “Festival” in the Jewish calendar.

And when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, claiming it as his own, claiming to be its King, people recognised the signal: it was like the festival of Dedication. So they began to wave their palm branches and to sing the Hallelujah Palms. “Hosanna!” It had echoes of that great victory nearly two hundred years earlier. And that in turn had echoes of the feast of “Tabernacles” when the people remembered surviving in the desert, and made shelters of palm branches. So as people come to Jerusalem for the Passover – when God's victories for his people began – Jesus' action takes them right through to the latest of God's victories. It places Jesus as the saviour, the bringer of a new age. And yes, that is what he is!

People were beginning to get carried away with the idea that Jesus the King, was going to do what Judas Maccabeus had done two hundred years earlier, get rid of the foreigners, drive them out of God's land, set up “proper” worship in the temple and establish a reign of peace and prosperity for the Jewish people.

But, the way Jesus does this, shows the real nature of that new age. Matthew says he is riding “A colt, the foal of a donkey” And it almost reads like Matthew thought Jesus was riding on both the mother and the colt. Except that "them" refers to the cloaks, not the donkeys. I believe Matthew is right to include the mother and the colt  the best and most humane way to deal with an unbroken colt would be to bring its mother  along also. So even the donkey that he claims as his own, is treated with gentleness and respect.

And it is worth noting this is the only time we see Jesus travelling in any other way than on foot. He enters his capital, not as a messianic figure on a warhorse but gentle and riding on the donkey (Zechariah 9.9) By riding a colt, Jesus wants to make the people of Jerusalem see that though he is their rightful king his reign is one of peace and service. Jesus is acting out the principle of humble service he is just enunciated in the previous chapter.

Michael Green points out, "He has come to rule over the hearts and lives of men and women not to kick the Romans out". Jesus is the suffering Son of Man, who comes to Jerusalem to give his life as a ransom for many.

But the suffering servant, the humble King is still King. He exercises his rule and authority. Judas Maccabeus Jesus entered the Jewish temple, to cleanse it from Gentile defilement. Jesus enters the temple, to cleanse he court of the Gentiles from Jewish defilement! His rule is inclusive, international, for everyone.

His reign is cleansing, and it is healing. I like Peterson's rendering of v. 14: Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus and he healed them.

3. Jesus' actions raise the question – “Who is this?” The question is important.

• The answer supplied by the crowds “The prophet Jesus” seems trivial. But it looks back to Deuteronomy 18.15. where Moses prophesies that God will sent “A Prophet like himself.”)
• Matthew says that the entry of Jesus in to Jerusalem fulfils Zech 9. 9: “Your King is coming”. Jesus is Messiah; he is saviour, combining in himself both suffering and glory. Jesus is the Victor, achieving that victory through his death and resurrection. Jesus is King – a king whose rule is global, and deeply personal.
• The Galileans in the crowd can identify Jesus as theirs: He's from Nazareth. The daughters of Zion – the people of Jerusalem – are told he is theirs. He cleanses the court of the gentiles so all nations can pray so he's for the whole world. Is he yours?

Matthew and Zechariah say “Your King is coming...” And the Church could read that, as a renewed promise of the fulfilment of the Kingdom, when Jesus come back.

The Church would read it as a reminder that Jesus was the Suffering Servant.

They would read it as a reminder that their suffering servant was the Victor.

We have learned as we have prepared for Easter this year that suffering and glory go together. That the way to victory is through sacrifice

They would read it as a reminder of Christ's right to rule in their lives, over all the details.

Matthews readers would realize the implication of the story was "God will judge bad Churches " , this judgement on the temple having been fulfilled in 70 A.D. " his severest judgement will be at is reserved for those Churches whose  worship is hollow, where  corruption and dissension are rife, and which repel rather than attract 'gentile' outsiders."

They would read it as a reminder that their King – the same Jesus who came on the donkey – was coming again, in victory.

 © Gilmour Lilly March  2015

Suffering, and Glory John 12. 20-32

Suffering, and Glory

Some Greeks came ….Jesus has just recently raised Lazarus from the dead. Then, he has entered Jerusalem as King – and shown his Kingly authority by cleansing the temple of all the money-grabbers trading there. People are getting annoyed. The Jewish leaders are scratching their heads. What are they going to do about this trouble-making young preacher? They agree “The world has gone after him!”  

And then – to show just how right they were, John records this little incident: some Greeks either "God-fearers" or proselytes had come to Jerusalem to worship – curious about the Jewish faith, impressed by the sensible idea of one supreme holy God instead of a whole load of gods who squabbled like schoolboys. And now some of them want to “See” and have a conversation with Jesus. It is possible that they had witnessed the cleansing of the temple, and been impressed by it. So they come to Philip (who has a Greek name!) and announce that they want to see Jesus. Philip tells Andrew (another Greek name) who accompanies him to tell Jesus.

Isn't that an exciting mission story! It's about these Greeks, coming to a point where they want to meet Jesus. It's about two of the disciples using what they have to hand – in their case the fairly weak and tenuous connexion of having Greek names and being perhaps more “Hellenistic” than some of the others.

And this request of the Greeks to see (talk seriously with) him is like an exploding fuse in the mind of Jesus. John's gospel quotes Jesus as saying,a number of times, “My hour is not yet come” (e.g. John 8. 20) Now at last "the hour" has come Jesus recognises this as “The Son of man being Glorified!” It sounds good; it sounds positive. That is what we are here for. To reach these guys.

What does that glory look like?  

It looks like a grain of wheat, sown into the ground, to die. The son of man will need to plant himself in the ground like a seed – “crucified, laid behind the stone”... we need to know that.

Catholic theologian Karl Rahner said death is “Guilt made visible.” Bruce Milne says “Death proclaims that there is nothing in our lives which is finally fit to endure to eternity.” And Jesus, the perfect, sinless son of God, the timeless, ageless Son of man, faced death. He took our death, our guilt, our sin.

No wonder his soul was “troubled” (v 27) which signifies shock, agitation, or even revulsion.  If an army is “troubled” it is thrown into disorder. If a person's bowels are “troubled” they have the runs! Jesus suffers severe, gut-wrenching distress, because he has to drink the cup of God's wrath. In a prayer that is echoed a little later in Gethsemane, Jesus says “Father, I don’t know how to pray... what shall I say, 'get me out of this'? No, this is why I came. Father, glorify your name, that's my prayer. Glorify your name!” (v 28) "Glorify your name" is synonymous with " your kingdom come, your will be done." In the Cross, jesus says and acts out “Your will be done – so the Cross releases the Kiingdom into the world.

And the Voice. Does anyone watch that kind of stuff on TV? This is the ultimate reality show. The Voice of God, the father . "I have glorified it and will glorify it again"

1. It's the Voice of his Father's approval. As in his Baptism, as on the mountain where he was transfigured, his father is pleased with him. He is fulfilling his call.
2. It's the Voice of his Father's promise: in Jesus death, the father will be glorified. The Kingdom will come; God's will is going to triumph.

Lesslie Newbigin, a Scottish missionary theologian said “In this act the glory which is the flaming heart of the Universe is revealed"  The Son brings glory to the father in a supreme act of obedience ; and in this action the father will crown the Son with glory.

The Cross is the Glory. It is not just the road that leads to glory: it shows the glory of god. The death and resurrection of Jesus are not divisible simple into a defeat at Calvary which was righted by the subsequent powerful victorious act of the resurrection. Rather both death and resurrection represent one inseparable event in which Jesus achieves the glory of God. Christian Faith, says Bruce Milne, is Easter faith.

That's the Cross; that's the glory. That's obedience; that's the kingdom. As Jesus yields himself, his very life, the the father’s will, the Kingdom comes; as Jesus – the One over whom death has no power, enters death, this terrifying dominion cannot hold him. Resurrection has to follow. C S Lewis puts it like this in the end of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: "If a willing Victim that has committed no treachery is killed in a traitor's stead, the Stone Table will crack; and even death itself would turn backwards."

Mission:

What about the Greeks?

Jesus is not described as having had a conversation with the Gentiles. It could almost look like a slap in the face for them. We don't know whether he spoke to them or not. We have no reason for being dogmatic one way or the other. But what we do know is that he did what needed to be done to bring these Greeks – and us – in.

The rest of the chapter shows us Jesus in conflict with the Jewish authorities: they respond to him with unbelief, self-interest and rejection. Jesus is winding up the “Jewish” part of his ministry; the scene is being set for Paul to say “I am going to the Gentiles”

“The way to the evangelization of the Gentiles lies through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and the mission of the church,” says C K Barrett.

 

What about us?
Jesus sums up by saying four things about the cross and resurrection, suffering and kingdom event.

1. It is the judgement of this world; (ESV) that is (1) it will pass judgement on the world; and (2) It will bear the judgement deserved by the world.
2. It will drive out the prince of this world
3. it will exalt Jesus : he will be lifted up in a positive and negative sense ; the cross is a throne.
4. It will bring a worldwide harvest: "all men" are drawn to Jesus.

Ultimately the "much fruit" which the seed of Jesus crucified brings forth, will be the church of the first-born from all the nations and ages.  We become part of that. How?

Jesus tells us “If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honour him.” (v. 26)

1. We enter eternal life through death to ourselves – taking up our cross –  ceasing to follow all the other “Lords and Kings”.
2. Kingdom fruitfulness is costly . It is in dying that we become life givers. Paul speaks of dying every day (1 Cor. 15.31).

The death and resurrection of Jesus, in its entirety, brings the kingdom and glorifies God. And it brings the kingdom to the whole world; all men. God is looking for much fruit. And we can be part of that as we surrender ourselves to Him.


© Gilmour Lilly March  2015

The True Glory of Jesus. Luke 9. 28-36

View from the Jungfrau. Image by G Lilly

You see some pretty amazing things when you climb a mountain.  We have seen mountain hares on Ben Chonzie, Ptarmigan on Schiehallion; we have seen glaciers and mountains stretch as far as the eye can see from the Jungfrau. But we have never seen what Peter, James and John saw. 

They (Jesus, Peter, James and John) have climbed a mountain to pray.  No surprises there.  Jesus seems to have been fond of the hills and to have appreciated the opportunities they offered him to spend time with his Father.  Possibly an all-night prayer time; almost certainly Jesus was praying about the knowledge that he was going to die on a cross. Jesus has been talking about his death – and about the impact of his death on us.

In prayer Jesus is caught up into the presence of God.    Suddenly, Jesus'  face begins to shine, like that of Moses on mount Sinai.  His dusty unbleached clothes become dazzling white like lightning.   It is more than God's Presence, it reveals his God-nature – for a while the divine glory squeezed into a human body, is allowed to shine out.  And Moses (the lawgiver) and Elijah (the first in a line of prophets who challenged kings and spoke to the nation)  are there, talking with Jesus.  It's kind of a hint that Jesus fulfils the “law and the Prophets”.

 The conversation was about his departure – his Exodus – that he was about to accomplish – to fulfil or complete – in Jerusalem.   That theme again: the Cross and resurrection.  But this time, there is an encouragement.  The Cross and resurrection together are Jesus' “Fulfilled Exodus”.  Luke intends to draw our attention back to the Exodus, the escape from Egypt.  The climax of the book of Exodus is the night when each family killed and ate their passover lamb and put its blood over the door of their homes; that night God's angel brought death to every household except those with the blood on the doorposts, and then the people escaped through the Red Sea from slavery in Egypt.

The Cross of Jesus is the death of the Passover lamb; it is the moment at which the people who choose to paint his blood on their doorpost are set free from the Angel of death; it opens up the day in which god's people are rescued from slavery.

This is an amazing moment:  Jesus is having this amazing time.  As Jesus glows with the glory of God, we see God is at work in power.  We see who Jesus really is. We see his engaging with the challenge and the power of the Cross and the Kingdom.  It's amazing! It's wonderful.

Wake up and receive God's gift!
But Peter, James and John nearly miss it.  They are asleep!  This amazing thing is happening. God is at work in power revealing who Jesus is and what he does – and those who could be witnesses are asleep.  That's a scary possibility for us as well.  We can be asleep to the fact that god is at work; we can be asleep to who Jesus really is; we can be asleep to the challenge and the promise of the Cross and the Kingdom.  All this stuff is there, happening., waiting for us to engage with it.  And we are asleep.  We are lulled to sleep by unbelief: “I can ignore all that 'god' stuff”.  We are sent to sleep by exhaustion.  Usually in Scotland, you wouldn't sleep on the top of a mountain – it's cold up there, even on a hot day, there's often a cold wind, and sometimes (is that the right word?) rain or sleet.  But if you've climbed a hill at the end of a day's work, and it's dark, and the wind is a pleasant breeze, you might doze off.  We doze off through the boredom of thinking we have everything sorted out and nothing more to learn. When I was at Primary school, we had French lessons.  There were gramophone records that always began with a jolly Frenchman saying “Bon Voyage...!”  to this day I have a great French accent but no French grammar, because by the time I got to Secondary School, and had “proper” French lessons from a “proper” French teacher, I thought I knew French.  I was  a wee bit ahead of the class – so I didn't listen and didn't learn.  Boredom can lull us to sleep and shut us up to the possibilities of learning and growing.  I believe God is telling us to wake up to what he is doing. To Wake up to who Jesus is; to wake up to the challenge and promise of the Cross and the kingdom.  Don't dismiss what God is saying; don't be too busy to engage; don't be bored as though you have nothing to learn.

Receive God's gift.     And so,  the light of God's glory penetrates the disciples' sleepy minds.  Peter and the others wake up, and see, and maybe hear.  They see his “True Glory” and they see Moses and Elijah.  And they recognise Moses and Elijah.  This awakening, the ability to tap into what is happening. to Jesus – so that the awesome, transcending experience of Jesus himself touches their lives – and the discernment to identify the two patriarchs with him, are God's gift to them.  We need to wake up, and receive god's gift.  Some of us sometimes think that there is a world of people who get special things in their walk with God – a world of Billy Graham or Selwyn Hughes, of Joyce Meyer, or Nicky Gumbell.  We look in on their world of insights and miracles.  But God has a gift, an insight, a miracle, for all of us.  Wake up and receive God's gift.

A monumental error!
Then the two patriarchs  – begin to take their leave.  Peter's instinct is very much like ours: he has to head that off.  “It's good that we are here” Freeze this moment, preserve it for ever: “Let's build three wee shelters – one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah” – "It is a good thing we are here" probably means "it is a good thing for us to be able to enjoy this experience and so let us continue it."  The three booths that are imagined, would probably be like those built in the feast of Tabernacle's. Luke helpfully throws in “not knowing what he said.”  Sometimes it's like that with us, too.  We want to freeze the moment, to preserve it in formaldehyde, to make some sort of commemoration.  Stick up a blue plaque: “on this spot, Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus!”

We don't know what we are saying some of the time.  We get obsessed with how to preserve the outward signs of revival.  We can't fully get to grips with the whole message: it's one thing to see the glory, and another to embrace the Cross, and to take up our own cross. And Peter's idea is such an irrelevance... Is freezing the moment really the best we can manage by way of engaging with what God is doing?     God has other plans.

Bring it home.
The cloud comes down, and the Voice speaks: “This is my son, my chosen: listen to him!”  It's a reminder of what we saw at Jesus' baptism.  The father is pleased with the Son, and lovingly affirms him, says “Well done Son, you're on the right track” when Jesus is holding Cross and resurrection , suffering and glory, sacrifice and Kingdom together. But the Voice is speaking to Peter, James and John.  “Listen to him” means obey him.  Do what he says.  Learn from him. Be like him.  

Then the cloud lifts, Moses and Elijah are gone and the three are left with Jesus, his face maybe returning to “normal.”  They say nothing at that point – not until after Jesus has risen from the dead (Mk  9. 9)  Talking about it can be just another way of building a monument.  Instead, they watch.  And they listen,. And they learn.   They have been involved in this strange, sobering, supernatural moment.  They have seen Jesus' glory.  Their call is not to hold onto the moment; their call and experience is to be transformed by the moment.

At the foot of the mountain, reality – the other reality –  the reality that can't imagine things any different, the reality that struggles to see God at work, the reality that just doesn't get what Jesus is all about – kicks in.  The rest of the disciples have failed to drive out a demon from a boy; the boy's Dad is disappointed and in despair.  And the greatness of God is seen as Jesus casts out the demon and makes the boy better.  Then Jesus is again talking about his death, and the disciples still don't get it.  They  want to have the ministry all to themselves, to call down bolts of lightning on people who won't listen, and struggle with the idea that the “”Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”.  And it is in that world that they are to listen, to learn, to obey, and to be transformed. 

It's not enough to build three shelters - to preserve the moment of blessing. We need to bring it home, to live in that blessing in the place where we are: in our home, in our real world! 

© Gilmour Lilly March  2015