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APPLYING OUR FAITH IN OUR LIVES |
| "Adam and Eve. They are at the beginning. Adam and Eve are symbols of all men and all women. They remind us of the first great sin, the first great separation from God and from each other. Adam and Eve represent wrong choice, disobedience, shifting the blame, wanting control, power—'me first and me always.' "Adam and Eve have children—the long line of humanity that includes each of us. Recent study of world-wide genetics repeats the Bible messsage of human solidarity. Science itself tells us that we are one family of gifts, potential and behavior. After the vivid figures of Adam and Eve there are centuries of legend, centuries of change, centuries of human exploration of the planet. At last, the cities of the river valleys begin to rise, begin to center, begin to discover things that are with us still—religion, entertainment, manufacture, trade—the great cities of the ancient Near East are the laboratories for the first 'politics'—the first act of living together with order and shared duties. "Adam and Eve did their work well. They gave us flesh, blood, bones—they gave us attitude, quarreling, confrontation, war and death. They were in a Garden—we are in cities. One of our cities is Ur—a solid place with solid temples, palaces, markets and houses. Ur is no dream—it is mud, brick, cast bronze and carved cedar. Ur was already old and rich in 3000 BC. Ur on the Euphrates. Ur within miles of the early coast of the Persian Gulf. "Something strange and biblical happened in Ur—something strange and typically Biblical. God discovered Abraham at Ur. Abraham discovered God at Ur. Because of God, because of himself, Abraham became the first patriarch, the first to know God as God. "Patriarch? Yes, Abraham was that. He was obedient, faithful, willing to serve God. He was not an oppressor—he was a responder. So, let us rescue the Bible word from its present political problems. Remember that Abraham is 'father of faith'—servant of God, servant in a pattern that continues to Christ and is the pattern even yet for Christians male and female. "Much could be said about Abraham in a lecture—for a sermon just a selected idea must do. Abraham was one who lived in terms of God. Psalm 138 was written long after Abraham, but Psalm 138 begins with words Abraham would have understood: 'I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart, before the gods I will sing your praise.' "Here is our lesson—here is our invitation. Like Abraham, like the Psalm writer, we are surrounded by gods. We deal with the gods of self-reliance, the gods of indifference, the gods of sex, status and whimsy. There are the cruel gods of Communism, Fascism, and Humanism. There are the teasing gods of indulgence, egotism, money-above-all, and explain-it-all atheism. There are many gods, and it is a rare person who does not have a tiny chapel for one of them. "And Abraham had his slippage and his doubts. Genesis 15:3 captures a very personal worry: 'Thou hast given me no children, and so my heir must be a slave born in my house.' The point is that Abraham did more than complain or wonder or debate. He listened and he did—he obeyed God—'and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.' (Genesis 15:6) "Remember that Lent is a time for Christian study—a season for reviewing Christian basics. This is why we meet and talk to Abraham today. "But to be an heir of Abraham, we do more than talk or listen. We do things. We allow God to invade and to change our lives. We praise the Living God in the presence of the deadly gods. We allow the Bible Lord to make us Biblical. Does our relationship with God make us do things we would not do by nature? Because of God do we feed a stray cat and help the homeless? Because of God do we struggle for patience and insist on better health insurance? Because of God do we give up a bias and sacrifice a prejudice? Does God not only shape our prayers but also our politics, our choices, our desires? "I raise questions. I struggle with these things. At the very least, God should force us to self-examination and to a tender conscience. At the very most, God leads us to our best humanity, a humanity that is faithful and courageous because it is in communion with the one to whom we say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.' "Abraham shows us faith. It is obedience to God—prayer in action. Jesus shows us God—love stronger than sin or death. Now, what do we show each other?" |