Year C
Luke 13:31-35
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Trust in God’s Promises
Today, we start the second week of our Lenten journey to Jerusalem with Jesus. Last week, each of the Lenten texts helped us to begin our journey at the right place so that we can come out ready for the good news of Easter. Deuteronomy had us start with our Jewish roots because they remind us that we cannot get a good grasp on where God is taking us without understanding what the journey has meant up to now. It’s important to understand where God has been leading us in the past to help us better navigate the present. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, reminded us that we can’t make the journey with Jesus unless he is Lord of our lives and we proclaim him as our Lord with our minds, believing and experiencing him in our hearts, and then confessing this belief with our lips.
Jesus had us start our Lenten journey last week in the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan for 40 days. His example of rejecting the false paths the devil offers him shows us his faithfulness to God amid the testing which prepared him for his mission. It is not enough to be chosen and anointed by baptism for ministry we must be tested also. It is only then that we learn dependence on God because there are many voices crying out to us on this journey telling us who to be, how to live, what to do. Jesus was able to resist the tough wilderness and stay on the right path because God’s Spirit walked with him as God’s Spirit walks with us and helps us.
Today’s texts all speak about the need as we make our journey to trust God’s faithfulness, God’s promises to us. Abram in our OT text is in a quandary today as he decides whether he can count on the past history of God delivering on promises, or does he doubt what comes next. Abram has followed God pretty faithfully and been blessed by God. Yet, now he wants more. He wants an heir, a son to carry on his line and inherit his property, wealth, and most importantly his line of descendants. The enormous compassion of God in responding to what Abram desperately wants is matched only by Abram’s trust that God will deliver it at their ripe old age. Abram believes that the life God promises to give him is the path he should try to follow.
Lent is a time when we should look into our hearts and see if we are ready to believe all that God has promised and follow the paths God has given us. It can be hard at times to trust, but God through the help of the Holy Spirit, can give us the strength to believe. God sees Abrams trust and “reckoned it to him as righteousness.’ This abiding characteristic of God, this willingness on the part of God to accept our human trust and count it as goodness, is seen over and over again in the scriptures. What is extraordinary in this passage from Genesis is that it is God who binds Gods self to the promise made to Abram by passing between the animal pieces as a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch. God comes to us ready to bless; hoping we will be trusting.
Paul’s letter to the Philippians picks up the theme of trust in God’s promises. Paul urges his readers to trust in the bigger promise, just as Abram trusts that God will give him a son, a land, and an inheritance as numerous as all the stars in the sky, our trust is to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul strongly expresses his unhappiness with those who put their trust in ‘earthly things,’ but if we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit how much we do and at times have to put our trust in earthly things. Lent, rather than being simply a time of stricter discipline, is a time to reflect on the lives we are called to live throughout the year. As Paul reminds us, our citizenship is in heaven not on earth. He says in a previous chapter, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Christ is the one we should follow in all things. But like the Philippians who had never met Jesus in the flesh, it’s hard for us to see the bigger picture sometimes to guide us.
They needed living examples of Christ, persons who followed Christ, who modeled their lives on Christ and this need is no different today. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry just issued this statement on Friday based on a study titled ‘Jesus in America,’ released this month. The study found that the global pandemic has negatively impacted participation in organized religion or religious activity. This is no surprise to many of us because we see the numbers. He says, “We are encouraged that research shows that Americans still find Jesus compelling, but we also see that the behavior of many of his followers is a problem, and it’s not just certain Christians, he said; it’s all Christians”. “This is a wake-up call for us, and based on what we have learned, we are refocusing our efforts on being a church that looks and acts like Jesus and model’s its behavior on his teachings.”
Yes, there are many examples in our lives and in others of behavior modeled on Jesus. We are seeing some of this Christ modeled behavior taking place around the world today in response to the invasion of Ukraine. People are coming together all over the world to pray for their safety and for peace, to send money to help the refugees, to isolate and sanction Russia. We have the model in Jesus Christ for how we are to love God and our neighbor. Lent is a good time to re-remember this model for our lives.
Paul was concerned about the Philippians following the right model and Bishop Curry is stressing with Paul that the only hope there is for the salvation of the body of Christ is to learn and follow God’s ways, God’s purposes for it. Christ’s purpose for us is so much more than we can even imagine, but there is no way to it except by trusting in God all the way to the cross. The Son of God, to fulfill God’s purpose and promise, allowed him-self to be slaughtered like Abram’s animals. We can only follow in the way of the cross by standing firm in the Lord. For the path we imitate is nothing less than love and peace.
We see all these themes coming together today, in the reading from Luke’s gospel. In Jesus, we see both the human trust in God and God’s own commitment to what God has promised. Nothing will deter Jesus from the path laid out for him to Jerusalem and the cross and nothing will deter God from what God has bound God’s self to for our salvation. Jesus knew he was walking into danger and the end was near. Yet, he was setting an example, but he was also following the example of generations of prophets who died before him. As Jesus looked toward the city that would ultimately reject him, he lamented how often he desired he could spread his wings like a mother hen and gather all the children together. Like a mother hen, God seeks to draw, embrace, include, and welcome God’s children into the family of God that God has intended from the beginning.
That desire to draw God’s children closer and closer in God’s embrace and love, that mission and commitment, is at the center of Jesus’ work as he spread his arms on the cross to embrace and gather all children under the wings of God’s love and mercy. We, the church, who follow Jesus, should be the people most open to God’s continuing work. But are we? This Lent, maybe we need to work on trusting God’s promises like Abram and seeking God’s will as Paul reminds us and Jesus shows us in his journey to Jerusalem.
As we journey with Jesus, we stand and weep with him over Jerusalem, over our cities, over Russia and Ukraine, and over ourselves. But there is also hope, for Lent comes to remind us that Jesus went from Palm Sunday, to the cross, and died for us to give us a second chance. ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’ And blessed be those who come in the name of the faithful Lord of heaven and earth.