2026 03 01
Lent 2 A
Genesis 12.1-4a Psalm 121
Romans 4.1-5, 13-17 John 3.1-17
“Father Abraham has many sons….” This was the song I learnt when I was
little. Through it, I learned that
Abraham is considered our father in the faith.
He is the father of all who live by faith. I have
recently returned from a holiday where I cruised to New Zealand. Through this we met a variety of people,
notably a ministering couple from Ohio.
They shared with us that their church has a core motto; “Love God. Bless People”. To make it clear what it means to love
others, they used the word “Bless”. Be
a blessing to others. Abram was called,
and in him all the families of the earth were to be blessed.
God called Abram (at this stage God had not changed
his name to Abraham), and gave him a very sure promise. "Go from your country and your
kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will
bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one
who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be
blessed."
The promise was to make of him a great nation and make
his name great. Did God keep his
promise? yes, his name is great and his
nation is the nation of Israel….
Although it could be correctly noted that he was the father of the Arab
tribes, the Edomites and many others also… but the nation through whom the
promise of God was through, is Israel.
Abraham is most famously considered the father of those who have faith
in God. God spoke and Abraham
believed what God said. This is an
important aspect in the story of Abraham’s life and through that faith and
trust and belief in God, Abraham is considered to be righteous. This important understanding about the Good
News, is explained in the letter to the Romans.
Abraham was justified by his faith and not by his works. He trusted in God. Faith is not just about believing in
God. It is about trusting as well, and
therefore, following what God says.
Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldeans. Ur was THE main center for the worship of the
moon god, Nanna - also known as Suen or Sin.
It is safe to say that Abram was well acquainted with this god. When God called Abram, he was called to leave
his country, his home and his family…. Not an easy thing to do, but also God
was calling him to leave behind the religion that worshipped many gods. Abram obeyed
because he believed what God was telling him.
As we follow the story of Abraham we find that he had chosen to turn
away from all other gods and serve the LORD.
We are told when Abram reached that land, he built an altar to the LORD. It would be many years- many, many years
before Abram would have a child. Abram’s
wife was barren. Abram still remained
faithful to God. Many years of being separated
from his homeland and family. Many years
of waiting to become a great nation and still no child. Abram up and left all that he had known
because God called him, but here he was living in what seemed to be exile and
the promise was not fulfilled. He passed
through towns where he could well be murdered so that others could have his
wife, who, as rumour would have it, was very beautiful.
It was a treacherous time, and God was with him to save him
and confirm his blessing on him, but still no child to fulfill the promise of
the great nation. Why I’m highlighting these
tough times of Abram is because we are living in times that are tough. We are a church hard pressed by legal and
financial demands. We are in a position
where we wonder about our future. There
is a scripture verse that is quoted about us paying for the “sins of the
fathers”, but this is actually only part of the scripture passage. It actually says
in Exodus 20: 4-6 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of
anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship
them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for
the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my
commandments.” The second
and more important part of the scripture says that God shows love to a thousand
generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. We are recipients of his love and favour.
We too, are like Abraham.
We have been given a promise by God. He will show love to the thousandth
generation. We have a hope and a future. We, like Abraham, are always being called to
leave behind the things that might ensnare us.
We are always being called to let go of any false gods that we’ve been
inclined to trust in rather than trusting in God. The people of Abrams home-town trusted in many
gods – Abraham made a choice and he chose to believe the ONE God El Shaddai/
the Almighty…. then he put his faith into action. We are always being called to let go of
the sins of yesterday and walk into the promise of what God will do in our
tomorrow. God promised to make
Abraham’s name great. Why? So that he would be a blessing. The point of the promise was so that others
could also be blessed. The world is
blessed through Abraham, because it is through him that Jesus came into the
world. Through him we are brought into
the family of God.
In our Gospel reading Jesus tells Nicodemus that just as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. What he is referring to, is his crucifixion. Through his death anyone who believes in him
can have eternal life. Eternal life is
an amazing gift, and we receive it, not by anything we do to be “good enough” –
because we can never in our own strength BE good enough. However, simply by making a definite choice
to believe God and by believing that God is who he says he is and knowing that
he is Good and loves us, we are counted as the people of faith, and we like
Abraham are considered righteous and acceptable to God. Our
challenge is always to get our lives to line up with our spiritual
reality. Our spiritual reality is that
we are considered clothed in Christ through our baptism. In other words, Christ has atoned for the
sins of the world and God the father sees us as perfect and acceptable through
him. Yet, the fact is we fall even in
our faith. Even in our believing in
God…. We doubt. Last week our readings
talked about Adam and Eve and how Satan planted doubt about God. It was that doubt that led to the fall. It was doubt that the devil tried to plant in
Jesus’ mind when he said, “IF you are the son of God….” “IF” – it was a vain
attempt to planted doubt about Jesus own identity.
Our call is to BE the people of faith.
It is easy to be people of faith when all is going our way. It is harder when things are not going
well. It is harder still when everything
goes “pear-shaped”. How hard was it for
Abraham to believe in God’s promises of making him a great nation when his
barren wife reached 90? It is easy in
those times to doubt. Abraham didn’t
know how God would make him into a great nation, but he continued to be trust
God.
Nicodemus struggled to understand Jesus, because he had a
cultural understanding about his world and the spiritual world. What Jesus was telling him was new, about being
born from above. He had to let go of his
prior understandings, to accept what Jesus was saying. We are challenged likewise to let go “Other
gods” that we are inclined to put our trust in, rather than God. Our own efforts? Our own intelligence? Our own culture? Are we accepting the worldview of those
around us and becoming no different from our secular culture? This is why God called Abraham to leave his
country – so that he could be different and true to the living God, the LORD
almighty. No doubt, as the years without
an heir went by, many would have said to Abram, “Did God really call you?” The world around us would say to us “Did God
really call you?” “Is God really with
you?” It seems to me, through last
week’s message, and this week’s, we are encouraged to remember that God loves
us. Remembering this is important so
that we don’t fall for the devil’s lies.
"Hosanna" is
a word we hear, mostly when we read about Christ’s triumphal entry into
Jerusalem as the word of praise, but the Hebrew phrase hôšîʿâ-nā means "save, I pray" or "save
now". It is a plea for help that became a shout of praise. It is the praise we give God expectantly sure
of His deliverance before the battle has even begun. It is the image of the small shepherd boy
David declaring his trust in God as he stands before Goliath. Be encouraged to stand firm in times
that are tough and, like Abram, answer God’s call – We chose God, the LORD
almighty. We are his and we are in his
hands. God has chosen us and has called
us to be blessed - and blessed we will
be, because he wants us to be a blessing to our world. Hosanna!
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