Second Sunday in Lent

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Luke 13:31-35

In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland Alice asks the Cheshire Cat which way she should go, and the cat tells her, “That depends on where you are going.” When Alice replies, “I don’t know” the cat says, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

The same thing holds true for discipleship. We can say that in Lent we want to “return to God with all our hearts”, but discipleship isn’t about following blindly or without thinking; it is our response to the knowledge of grace that we have first been given. We can not return to an unknown God.

The Word of God tells us who God is. Last Sunday we heard Moses recount the promises God made to our ancestors in faith and heard how those promises are woven into our identity at baptism: living in the faith we have received, we have confidence in God because we know that we are God’s beloved children and we know what God has accomplished already.

Except when we don’t.
Because sometimes it is hard to believe.

Today, in the Genesis text, we meet Abram, the patriarch of our faith, and of Judaism and Islam. Earlier in the book, God made a three-fold promise to Abram:
first, that his name will be known;
second, that his descendants will be numerous and become a great nation,
and third, that he will be rewarded with land. 
These three things are what God will do for Abram.

But in this text, Abram has grown tired of waiting on God and he is arguing with God, questioning God’s faithfulness. He is struggling to believe.

Graciously, God doesn’t get angry, strike him down or revoke His promises. Instead God takes Abram outside and tells him to look up at the sky, saying, “Look toward heaven and count the stars if your are able to count them. …So shall your descendants be.” (15:5)

For generations, stars have helped people navigate or find their way. In Scripture, of course, the magi report the appearance of the star over Bethlehem at Jesus’ birth. (Matthew 2) But for centuries before and since, the stars have guided travelers on the way.

The North Star, which is located so near the earth’s axis that it appears to stay fixed in the sky, is one of the most well-known stars. “In Norse tales, [the North Star or] Polaris was the end of a spike around which the sky rotates; in Mongolian mythology, it’s a peg that holds the world together.”[i] And among the First Nations’ peoples, there’s the tale of Na-gah, a tenacious mountain climbing sheep, who climbs through tunnels to reach the top of the highest mountain he has ever seen. When he reaches the peak, he looks down on the earth from above but then he realizes he cannot get back down and he will die on that mountaintop. His father Shinoh is looking for him from the sky above him and he weeps when he sees that Na-gah can’t return to him. So that his son will not die, Shinoh turns him into a star who will be a guide for “all the living things on the Earth and in the sky.”[ii]

God directs Abram to look at the stars for assurance of God’s promises. The same Creator God who puts the stars in the heavens cares for each one of us. “We know,” from Paul’s letter to the Romans, “that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”  (Romans 8:28-29) This is the confidence we have in faith.

While Abram makes many missteps (because we know this isn’t the last time he will try to wrest control of his circumstances from God) today’s gospel shows us another way. When the Pharisees come to Jesus and warn him that Herod wants to kill him, Jesus remains steadfast. He is committed to the work he is doing – casting out demons and performing cures – and he is un-willing to change his plans for the convenience of avoiding confrontation or escaping opposition. He persists, telling the Pharisees he will finish the work he has been given and then he will leave. He will not let fear make his decisions for him.

Created by God and redeemed as God’s children, we too are called to obedience.

In modern culture where autonomy or independence are celebrated, obedience — submitting to the authority of anyone other than ourselves — is counter-cultural. In our school days, obedience might have meant a grudging and grumbling acquiescence accompanied by eye rolling. Even now a call to obedience might provoke resentment as though obedience to someone or something demands an unwarranted and undeserved sacrifice. But the late pastor and author Eugene Peterson described obedience as “the strength to stand and the willingness to leap.”[iii]

Obedience is our response to God’s good and generous grace that has been poured out upon us. In faith, we are freed for the sake of the world, and our obedience to God flows from our salvation.[iv]

This Lent as we commit to return to God with all our hearts, may we be confident in what God’s Word tells us about who God is and who we are as God’s children, and obediently follow Jesus, looking for the Light of the World to guide us just as the stars led Abram, the magi and centuries of travelers on the way before us.

Remembering God used the stars as a sign of the promises given to God’s people, I invite you to take the paper star that is inside your bulletin and write down a prayer or a promise that you want to make. You may put your star in the offering plate later during worship or keep it for yourself as a reminder of God’s faithfulness.

Let us pray.
Holy God,
You made the heavens and the earth and then you made us!
Thank for your creative and life-giving Spirit that enlivens us to witness to your abundant mercy and grace.
Help us return our hearts to You that we would obey Your Word in all things.
Strengthen us to follow Your Son Jesus and stand for those who cannot.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.

[i] Daniel Johnson. “Meet Polaris, the North Star.” Sky and Telescope, April 19, 2018. https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-resources/stargazing-basics/meet-polaris-the-north-star/ accessed 3/16/2019.

[ii] “Why the North Star Stands Still: A Paiute Legend.” https://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/WhytheNorthStarStandsStill-Paiute.html, accessed 3/16/2019.

[iii] Paraphrased from Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience, p. 164-165

[iv] Luther, Freedom of a Christian, 405.