Lent 2C
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Ps. 27; Luke 13:31-35
A
lot of people have asked me how Michael and I met. I love “how we met” stories,
so I’m happy to share: we met online, on a free dating site. The best part of
sharing that fact is seeing what reaction we get from people. If they are in
our generation, then usually it’s, “Oh yeah, I’m on the site, too,” or “Oh, I
met my spouse there, too.” This might even be the response from an older crowd
– I know more and more couples, even retirement age, who met online, including
my uncle! But there are always some, and likely even many of you, who think,
“Online dating?? Is that even safe?!”
Thing
is, the stories you hear in the news about weirdos finding people online and
stalking them and doing bad stuff – those are only the stories you hear about. There are many, many more stories that are not
newsworthy, like, “Two people went out on a date, and then they fell madly in
love and got married.” I could just as easily meet someone in a bar, at a
dinner party, or even in church who is dangerous, and in that case, I wouldn’t
even have had a chance to do a Google background check on them! (Yeah, I did
that for Michael… he did it for me, too! Turns out, neither of us is crazy!) Online
dating is just as safe – or as dangerous – as any sort of dating, maybe even
safer.
But
ours is a culture that often gets caught up in fear and safety. We find so many
things in this life to be afraid of, and at some point even perfectly safe
things become boogie-men to us: big scary things that are going to come and get
us, but that are, in reality, only in our imagination. Still, we take extra
precaution, because among the many sorts of hungers that we feel, we have a hunger
for safety.
Just
look at our Psalm for today. The Psalms are wonderful for many reasons, one of
which is that they often speak directly to our very human emotions and
experience. Throughout this Psalm, the Psalmist refers to several things that
cause us to fear, things from which we seek safety: evildoers, foes and
enemies; war; loneliness; family strife; violence… Even centuries later, these
are the very sorts of things that we still fear, from which we seek safety.
Even if we feel safe at this particular moment, there’s no telling when
loneliness will creep up on us, or sadness, or anxiety, or any number of things
from which we long to keep ourselves safe and protected.
One
looming danger from which we hunger for safety is apparent in our Old Testament
reading, and that is doubt. In the
part of the Abraham story we hear today, Abraham (who at this point is still
Abram), is having some serious doubts. He is old and despite that God has
assured him countless descendants, he still hasn’t had even one proper heir. He
has just one child, but that is the son of Abram’s slave girl, and this fact
embarrasses Abram. But he and his wife Sarai are old, so he is understandably
doubtful that they will ever conceive a child together.
We
have been there – we know in theory that God will provide and protect, be our
“shield,” as God promises Abram, but sometimes that is just really hard to
believe, and we find ourselves overcome by doubt. I guess God has a plan, we
think, but it sure isn’t apparent to me right now. I know I should believe this
or that, but I just have a really hard time getting on board with that. Surely
God will make something good of this, but right now, that is hard to believe.
Even as we try to trust and believe God, doubt sometimes gets the best of us.
And
that’s what we need safety from:
not doubt, but letting doubt get the best of us. Because doubt, in and of itself, is not a bad thing.
I feel a lot better about doubt than I do about blind, thoughtless belief,
because even as doubt challenges faith, it has the potential ultimately to
strengthen our relationship with God. Furthermore, there is biblical precedent
for doubt. Abraham is the shining biblical example of faith and trust, and yet
here he is, doubting. See, doubt and faith are not opposites; they are a part
of each other. But what puts us in danger of doubt getting the best of us is letting
it eat away at us without acknowledging it, keeping it hidden away, secret, and
consequently letting it drive us into despair. Don’t keep your doubt shoved in
a bottle! It is okay to ask questions. I love it when you ask me questions! Abram
asks questions. The Psalmist does it. Jesus’ disciples do it. I certainly do
it. When we are willing to ask questions, we leave ourselves available for God
to come into us, and consequently, to keep us safe, to be our “shield,” as he
promises to Abram.
Another
thing from which we seek safety, and what the Psalmist especially dwells on, is
our enemies. The way the Psalms talk about enemies can be confusing to us
sometimes. When we think of enemies, we normally think of people, and those of
us who are so lucky might then think, “But I don’t have any enemies.” So let’s
broaden the definition, then. One classic way to think about enemies,
especially in the Psalms, is as sin. That is, your enemy is anything that pulls
you away from a relationship with God. Last week we talked about being captive
to addictions or to illness – these can certainly be considered enemies. An
unhealthy behavior can be an enemy – maybe you spend too much time at work and
not enough with your family. Maybe you are a stress eater, and so food becomes
your enemy. There are lots of little enemies that creep into our lives,
sometimes without our even knowing it. How do we keep safe from them?
As
with doubt, it’s not so much that we need to keep safe from the enemies
themselves. Like with doubt, it’s not unusual to have an experience with one of
these enemies, and after your struggling with it you come out on the other side
stronger, wiser, or closer to God. So again, it’s not so much the enemies
themselves that are a problem, but rather, it is when we let our enemies have power over us.
Our
Gospel text is a lesson in how not to let enemies get the best of us. The Jesus
that we see in today’s text is… well frankly, kind of snarky! “Go tell that fox for me, listen up!” he says. Such confidence! Did he
not just hear that Herod is out to kill him? That’s a warning I would think is
worth heeding!
But
Jesus is unswayed. For one thing, he can probably tell that the Pharisees
issuing this “warning” to him do not have his best interest in mind. They
probably just want him out of town, and thought this might get the job done.
Second, Herod is powerful, yes – but he is not God. And Jesus is confident that
he is there doing God’s work, the very thing he was sent to do: casting out
demons and performing cures. He is there to bring safety and health and
salvation to God’s people, even as he prepares to turn his head toward
Jerusalem, where he will bring about the ultimate salvation for God’s people –
the part of the story we will get to in a few weeks. So what is to notice about
Jesus’ interaction here is this: his physical enemies are after him. Perhaps
his spiritual ones are as well – though Luke doesn’t go into that here. But
even as his enemies are on the prowl, Jesus’ confidence remains with God, and
in the fact that he is living out God’s mission. As the Psalmist writes, “The
Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?” Certainly not
that fox, Herod, nor any of our enemies!
This
week I got an email with the subject, “In God (not guns) we trust.” Receiving
that in the context of working on this sermon, I thought, Wow, whatever your
stance on gun control laws, I hope we can agree on that! We go to great lengths
to protect ourselves, to keep ourselves safe – with more guns, with fewer guns,
with more laws, with fewer laws... And yes, safety is good – I’m not telling
you not to wear your seatbelt when you leave church today! But at the end of
the day, we cannot find our safety only in earthly things. Guns and seatbelts
and traffic laws won’t keep us safe from the ever-present threat of those
spiritual dangers we face. Only God is our safety from these dangers. Our
stronghold is the Lord.
That doesn’t mean God will eliminate all those
dangerous things from our lives – we will still doubt, we will still be
challenged by our enemies, whether people or illness or behavior. It does mean that Christ walks with us in those things. It does mean that, if we allow God to be present with us as
we endure life’s challenges, then we might just grow from them instead of be
hurt by them. And it does mean
that through all of our doubts, our challenges, our enemies, our questions –
everything! – God will continue to love us, from now until eternity.
Let us pray… Lord God, with you as the stronghold
of our lives, we have nothing to fear. Guide us to satisfy our hunger for
safety by looking to your Son, who feeds us and loves us and walks along with
us through all of our fears, doubts, and challenges. In the name of the Father,
and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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