Faith Lutheran
Church, Staples
September 20, 2015/Vibrant
Faith Weekend
Genesis 18:1-15;
21:1-7 (Narrative Lectionary)
The
great American poet and author Carl Sandburg once said that “a
baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.”[1]
How
true! What wondrous hope is rekindled
in our hearts every time another child comes into the world. We feel in our bones that every newborn
infant is a downpayment on the future—a sign that life indeed goes on.
Alongside
this deep investment of ourselves in bringing babies into the world, there is
the heartache of those who find it difficult if not impossible to conceive and
bear children. The pain of that can be so
raw.
So
imagine the kind of emotional environment in which Abraham and Sarah must have
lived! They had longed for children for
decades—but to no avail. The biological clock was ticking, and the
alarm of menopause had already sounded—“ it had ceased to be with Sarah after the
manner of women.” (Gen. 18:11)
Abraham
and Sarah had been long resigned to the reality of childlessness, when three
strangers stopped by their tent and surprised them with a prediction that could
only make Sarah chuckle: “ Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you
in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’" (Gen. 18:10)
You
can’t blame Sarah for laughing. She
knew the score here: it was her
body, after all, that had already gone through the “change of life.”
But
the visitor to their tent by the oaks of Mamre did blame Sarah for laughing, because he had not just told a
joke here—they had moved into the realm of God and God’s astonishing,
reason-ignoring, death-defying promises.
Barrenness
of the womb was what it was (so Sarah and Abraham thought): a high, thick brick wall between them and the
future.
But
in God’s economy, in God’s realm, such brick walls are trifling things, with
nowhere near the power we assign to them: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”
(Gen. 18:14)
So
when Abraham by rights should have been drawing Social Security, his elderly
wife Sarah conceived and bore a son—and Medicare picked up her hospital bill! Instead of meeting with their lawyer, their
accountant and their funeral director to “set their affairs in order,” Abraham
and Sarah were comparing paint swatches for their nursery—their days now
punctuated by the pitter-patter of tiny feet.
And,
just so they would always be reminded of God’s promise, their incredulity, and
God’s last laugh-- Abraham named their baby boy Isaac, which in Hebrew means “he
will laugh.” Little “Ha Ha” growing up
under their ancient noses!
And
this child, this baby truly did
embody (in the words of Carl Sandburg) God’s opinion that the world should go
on. For little “Ha Ha” was the child of
promise—God’s promise—the progenitor of a people in whom “all the families of the earth shall be
blessed,” (Genesis 12:3)
The
babies would keep coming, for generation after generation among the descendants
of Abraham and Sarah, and one of those babies would arrive in the fullness of
time (Galatians 4:4)—and his name would be, not “Laughter” but “Jesus” for he
would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
Now
the year is 2015—over twenty centuries after the Real Child of Promise was born…..and
although physical barrenness (“infertility issues” as we like to say) still
happens….there is a plethora of medical treatments that can be tried….some of
which transition a couple from no kids to almost too many kids!
Physical
barrenness may no longer be the impregnable wall it once was….but I wonder whether
it might have been replaced, with a kind of spiritual barrenness we feel keenly
nowadays.
Will Our Children
Have Faith?
Is a landmark book written by Christian
educator John Westerhoff in 1976 (and still in print!).....a book whose title
some folks have turned inside out to craft an even more plaintive
question: “Will our faith have children?”
Childless
couples can explore fertility treatments….but what about this other body, the
Body of Christ? Our numbers as
Lutherans have been slipping for decades in North America. We seem to have lost the knack for bearing
and birthing children of God. My friend
Dr. David Anderson likes to say that the prayer uttered most often by Lutherans
is: “Dear
God, please get my grandchildren to church.”
This
“barrenness” of the Body of the Church looms like a high, thick wall between us
and the future, and we are tempted to lose heart…..
…but
when such ruminations lead us to start sinking
into a slough of despond, that question comes back—a question posed to our
great-grandparents in faith, by the oaks of Mamre so long ago: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”
The
“infertility issues” we recognize within our branch of the Body of Christ need
not have the last word. God has given us all that we need to start
bearing children of faith once again.
And
the “cure” isn’t some exotic, new-fangled concoction. The treatment for our loss of capacity to
form Christ in our young ones is right under our noses, graciously given to us
by God.
This
treatment starts with the Gospel itself—God’s sin-forgiving, barrier-breaking,
future-opening Word in Jesus Christ—who lived, suffered, died and rose again
for us and our salvation.
This
treatment focuses on recovering our capacity to drench, indeed to marinate our
young ones in the promises of God…from the cradle to the grave.
This
is what your congregation’s embrace of the Vibrant
Faith Frame this weekend is all about.
You are opening yourselves up to the “fertility treatment” God provides
in widening and deepening our appreciation for ALL the ways God labors over us,
with us and through us to “form Christ” in the next generation of believers who
are already in our midst.
Let
me describe five principles that undergird this understanding of how faith is
formed in us and our young ones:
First, God invites
us to remember that faith is formed by
the power of the Holy Spirit through
personal, trusted relationships, often in our own
homes.
Since
at least the 1950s we Lutherans have tended to “outsource” Christian formation
to the professionals, to think of our church-based Christian education programs
as the main (or in too many cases
the only) means by which Christian
faith is planted and grown. Just drop
your kids off at our church building for one or two hours a week and we’ll
teach them how to be Christians.
God
invites us to recover the other 166
or 167 hours in every week—to discover and leverage all the ways that passing
on faith happens through forming and sustaining Christian relationships.
Second, God invites
us to broaden our view of “church” as a
living partnership between the ministry of
the congregation and the ministry of the home. Your involvement in our synod’s Fostering
Vibrant Faith project will help you re-envision your congregation….to shift
from seeing it as an Old Country Buffet where we gorge ourselves with enough spiritual
food to last us until the following Sunday….and, instead to view Faith Lutheran
as a well-stocked grocery store where we pick up in and take home the
spiritual food we’ll eat throughout
the week.
Third, God opens
our eyes to see that where Christ is
present in faith, the home is church, too. Jesus is surely present here in this
congregation gathered around Word and Sacrament—that is and always will be the
flaming center of our life in Christ. But
it is from this flaming center that
we pick up the embers (the fire starter!) to kindle the fires that burn in all
the places where God’s people live and learn and work and love one another.
Fourth, God
surprises us with the awareness that faith
is caught more than it is taught.
As we grow deeper into reclaiming the other 166 or 167 hours of every
week in every place where the baptized children of God live….we remember that
there are not only facts to memorize
but practices to embrace…..like daily
prayer, dwelling in God’s Word, having caring conversations, serving our
neighbors, giving generously.
Fifth, God speaks
to us the truth that if we really want
Christian children and youth, we need Christian adults. I often hear the question: “What’s wrong
with kids these days that they aren’t coming to church?” That’s NOT the issue. The issue is how are we Christian adults
making good on the promises we utter at every baptism here in this
congregation?
For
in a great act of recklessness, the same God who has saved us in Jesus Christ
has also sent us--entrusted us with the holy privilege of passing on Jesus
Christ to others, starting most often with those who eat out of the same
refrigerator, under the same roof.
In
the name of Jesus. Amen.
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