Workouts

Genesis 15: 1 - 18; Psalm 27; Luke 13: 31 - 35

Do you remember a real high in your faith walk? Maybe it was time when you were having a hard time in your life but you felt completely at peace in God? When you trusted that, however things turned out, everything was going to be ok because you knew in your heart that God had things under control?

Do you remember a time when you didn’t feel this way?

I’ve had a lot of difficult times in my life, and sometimes I had inner peace, and sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I trusted God and sometimes I didn’t. And that’s the truth about the faith journey. We don’t always have the same high level of trust in our Lord and Savior. There are times of great intimacy and we want them to never end. We want to always feel like our faith is fresh and new and front and center, but these times don’t usually last forever. When we have them, it is because of grace. And likewise, when we feel distant from God, or we wonder if God has forgotten us, or we can’t seem to find any real enjoyment in prayer and church, believe it or not, those are times of grace as well. It’s at those times, that our faith muscles and our hope muscles can be developed and strengthened. It’s a bit like a really good work out. I checked with Dorian, one of our high school football players – and he verified that it’s true: A good workout causes small tears in your muscles, so that when they heal, they are stronger.

So whether you are enjoying the great grace of God’s consoling presence, or whether you are in the desert and do not feel God’s presence – know that, either way, you are journeying towards the heart of God. If you’ve ever walked a labyrinth, you will have had a physical experience of this. In most labyrinths, the path takes you towards the center, and then far from the center, and in the final round, just before you enter the center, the path takes you the furthest away yet, all the way out to the perimeter….and around, and then in to the center. So however close you are, or far away you are, you are, in actuality, not lost, but getting ever closer to the center, the heart of God.

I have not read Mother Teresa’s book, but apparently this was her experience. Much of her life took place in interior spiritual desert, without any felt sense of God’s presence. And yet, look at her life! She lived and served and loved the poor in utter faith and abandonment to God. That is walking the path of faith.

Abram is known as the icon of faith. He was a prosperous man, a wealthy man, an old man - when God asked him to pull up stakes and leave for unknown places. And he did! He gathered up his family and as much of his wealth as he could take - and followed. He and God regularly talked and enjoyed great closeness. “The word of the Lord came to Abram: Do not be afraid Abram. I am your shield and your reward shall be very great….” And yet, he walked mostly in darkness – not knowing where God was taking him, or why.

In the reading this morning, he finally argued: “OK, I’ve followed you. I’ve done everything you asked. But I don’t get it. You promised an heir. And I don’t have an heir, other than my slave. And I’m getting ready to die. So, God, what’s going on?”

And in return, God gave him an astronomy lesson! “Look at the stars….that’s going to be the number of your offspring.” It’s a promise that is so over the top - it’s of such abundance that it is overwhelming.

But Abram had asked to know… and now, instead of keeping him in the dark – God revealed more to him. In the portions of the reading that have been left out, verses 12 – 17, God revealed to Abram what would happen with this offspring, probably far more than Abram wanted to know. It was knowledge that would leave him wounded for the rest of his life….

“12As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. 13Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; 14but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16And they shall come back here in the fourth generation;”

Be careful what you ask for! As a German child, Corrie ten Boom’s parents took in Jews and hid them during the holocaust. They were eventually arrested and sent to Buchenwald. Out of her entire family, only Corrie came out alive. When they were boarding the train that would take them to Buchenwald, Corrie asked her father why God would allow something like this to happen. They were good people and had done only good on God’s behalf. Corrie wrote later that her father set down the very heavy suitcase that he was carrying, and told her to pick it up. Corrie, being a young girl, could not lift it. That, her father said, is like the knowledge that God has and that we do not. There are things that are simply too heavy, too much for us to bear, and so God carries them. Our job is simply is to continue walking alongside of him and trust.

Sometimes God lets us in on the big picture – as he did Abram – and sometimes he doesn’t - as in most of the time. And like Corrie’s wise father told her, and as the Psalmist verifies, and as countless people of faith throughout the centuries have tested out, our job is to wait patiently and trust.

Of course, that does not rule out some complaining and arguing! When you are close to someone, do you always just take their word for it? Of course not. You ask, as Abram did. You plead, as the psalmist does. “Hearken to my voice, O Lord, when I call, have mercy on me and answer me. You speak in my heart and say, seek my face. Your face, Lord will I seek. Just don’t hide your face from me!.”

The truth is, we all set out on this journey of faith with the greatest of intentions – to know Christ, to make more room for God, to be an excellent parent, to love more deeply and less conditionally - but as we travel along, those intentions can get bruised and forgotten under the pressures of life. That happened with the Psalmist - in the beginning, he had passionate confidence in the Lord, great intention to trust no matter what, and then, in the space of one verse, it is obvious that he ran into trouble. That he lost his way, and couldn't really find God and had trouble with his original intention to "just trust." What did he do? Well, what he didn't do, is despair. He turned and asked for help. “Show me your way, O Lord. Deliver me.” He acted his way - he talked his way – he prayed his way - into faith and trust. Only this time without the bravado and gung ho confidence that he had had at first. By the end of the psalm, he spoke with greater simplicity and greater wisdom. “O tarry and wait the Lord’s pleasure. Be strong, and he shall comfort your heart. Wait patiently for the Lord.”

This morning, if you are in a place in your journey where it is easy for you to trust and you feel God’s presence close by – say "thank you, thank you, thank you." But, if, this morning, you are in a place in your journey, where it is not so easy to trust, where you are more like Abram and questioning, and like the psalmist and pleading, “where is your face, O God?”…. Say "thank you" and add, "Help me!" As your faith muscles and your hope muscles are being torn, these same muscles are also being made stronger. And believe me, the best course, the safest course to follow when this is happening, is to trust, and wait patiently even - especially at the times when it is hardest to do – and God will comfort you and God will bring you into the land of the living.