The Second Sunday of Lent – Year C
February 28, 2010
The Reverend Robert W. Cowperthwaite
When I first came to Tennessee, we had an “Affirmative Aging Office” in the diocese. As I looked at our readings for today, I thought it might have been a good day for what they used to encourage us to celebrate once a year: "Age in Action Sunday." Our readings tell us about Abram, whose faith is really tested. Abram - at the ripe young age of 75 - is told that he would still have a child, and that he would have as many descendents as there were stars in the sky.
Some people make fun out of growing old - but it is something our culture has taught us to fear. We can buy all sorts of pills, creams, lotions and potions to make us look younger. Birthdays become symbols of how far "over the hill" we've gone. The underlying message is that opposite of "old" is "young." There is another way to look at it. The opposite of "old" can also be "new." If we think in those terms, we see Abram in a different light. Instead of trying to hang on to something elusive called "youth," he was, in fact, open to the "new" aspects of life, “he “believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” [Gen. 15:6]
It is that openness to what is "new" which God looks for in us. Abram wasn't any different from any other old man living in Haran. That is what Paul was talking about in the 4th chapter of his letter to the Romans it was Abraham’s faith, which God “reckoned to him as righteousness,” that set him apart. We are too often more comfortable with a "works-righteousness" model. So much of what we do or have in life flows from that model, that we assume it is true about faith as well. From childhood we learn the reward/punishment scheme of things. Scouts earn merit badges, and thereby attain higher and higher rank. Frequent fliers "earn" miles that can be cashed in for upgrades, free tickets. If we do our jobs well, we earn raises and/or promotions. Old Abram simply believed, in spite of his and Sarah’s age.
Abram knew he hadn't done anything near enough sufficient to have earned inheriting the world, having a great name and being especially blessed. As today, in Jesus' day people presumed that those with wealth and health were blessed by God - had earned God's favor. If that was the way the system worked, we would look at what professional athletes and some entertainers make, and we'd have to say that compared to them, we must not be very righteous.
Lent is a season associated with sacrifice. We "give up" things. We need to be careful how we think about what we are doing. If we are trying to buy some "kingdom credits" which will be "banked" for us in order to win favor with God, then we miss the point. Like Abram, we have already been chosen by God - we do not need to try to get "chosen." Instead, our fasting and prayer is a way of recognizing that we really didn't deserve to have been chosen, and therefore we need to be more thankful. We also come dangerously close to missing the point of who is doing the real giving. We think we are doing something great by giving-up this or that. God is the one who is the great giver!
Abram was old, had lived his life - could have plugged along as he was until he died. Instead, he chose to believe God, to claim new life, new purpose, new vision and new hope. Old age was not a problem, but a new challenge; not full of death but full of life, not hopeless, but hopeful, not driven by fate, but with faith. Judaism, Islam and Christianity all recognize "Father Abraham." And as Paul writes, not because he was rewarded for his good works, but simply because he believed God - he believed in God's righteousness - and found out that that faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. He didn’t have to “do” anything, his faith had taken care of it all.
St. Augustine once wrote, "Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of faith is to see what we believe." After Thomas recognized the risen Christ (having refused to believe what the other apostles told him) Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
Abram never saw the fulfillment of God's promise, but he did see the seeds sown. Think of the picture in his mind of descendents as many as the stars, of what it would be like to be blessed and to be a blessing. What more could anyone hope for? We talk about "blind faith," but that is really a misleading phrase. We do not go into faith blindly, but with the assurance of the promises of Jesus Christ. We do not have to earn God's love, in the way that we earn recognition or earn credits toward some prize. What we give up is worth little compared to what we gain. Our reward is to see the fruit of our faith, in our own changed lives, and in the new awareness of how blessed we are. We haven't earned it, but we have been given it, and our thankful response is to live lives that demonstrate our appreciation of all that we are, all that has been given us.
The opposite of old is not young, but new. No matter how old we may be (or how old we may feel), it is never too late to look for, and celebrate what is new, what is still out there waiting for us. In the Revelation to John, it is the Lord sitting on the throne who says, "See, I am making all things new." May this Lenten season be a time of New Life for each and every one of us. AMEN.
