Sermon Transcript: September 15, 2024
We continue with our fall theme, which comes to us from Father Greg Boyle, whom I had the privilege of hearing this summer. He preached every day for a whole week, and I was just blown away by his genuineness, his storytelling, but most of all, his language that he uses for God. Sometimes when we say “God,” we all assume we’re talking about the same thing. But “God” is a very vague term, and what I mean by it, you may understand or hear something different, and we may be talking past each other.
One of the things I love about Father Boyle is he is so descriptive in his language of God. One particular name that he uses again and again really struck me and has clung to me, and I’ve made it our theme: “the God who loves us into loving.” The God who loves us into loving. I think that says so much more about which God we are talking about when we say “God.” Now also, we are continuing, as is our custom here, through the narrative lectionary.
We started last week with the second creation story. We skip ahead several chapters in Genesis to chapter 15, to the story of Abraham, who is one of the most important figures in the Hebrew scriptures. We get this story today of Abraham’s call. It is, in many ways, a problematic story because it deals with Abraham and his wife being unable to conceive children well into their old age.
As that conflict is resolved, and God grants them children in their old age, that resolution, while the Bible looks at it very positively, can be a very painful reality for some people who have longed and hoped for children but, for one reason or another—biological or otherwise—are unable to conceive or have children. One of the things I want to say is it’s important to remember that the Bible, especially the book of Genesis, is not biology. It does not understand the science of childbirth. The fact that God gives to Abraham and Sarah a child in their old age is not a comment on the biological reality that many do face. It is rather about the trustworthiness of the promises of God. It speaks to all of us, in that often in our life, we experience anxiety and worry in the midst of waiting on God’s promises, where those promises feel delayed or denied.
This story, I think, speaks very powerfully to that reality, but maybe not always comfortingly, because ultimately the answer that the story gives is: Abraham, this is not your story. Sarah, this is not your story. This is God’s story. The good news is you get to be a part of God’s story, but that doesn’t mean things will always go the way you want them to. And isn’t that true to the way we experience life as well?
So, with those words, I invite us into listening to these words from Holy Scripture and what the Spirit is speaking to our hearts and our community today:
Genesis 15:1-6
After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look up toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
For the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, for the word of God within us, thanks be to God.
German mystic Meister Eckhart once wrote: “How long will grown men and women in this world keep drawing in their coloring books an image of God that makes them sad?” How long will grown men and women in this world keep drawing in their coloring books an image of God that makes them sad? Too often we settle for an image of God that is so much less than the God we actually have. Too often we carry an image of God that weighs us down like an anchor rather than the God who tells us to look up at the vast sky and see the limitless opportunity and possibility stretching before us.
Father Greg Boyle tells a story of finding himself at a fancy dinner table in middle America, in a country club ballroom, with a fairly conservative Catholic crowd in attendance. He is the speaker. Sitting at a table with him is a young couple in their early 40s. The wife asks him a question. She says, “Father, I have a dilemma. One of my best friends in the world is getting married. She’s lesbian. Should I go to the wedding?”
Now, to give her question some context, Father Boyle explains that this happened many years ago. But before Father Boyle can respond, the husband intervenes and says, “Oh, honey, come on. If you go to the wedding, it’ll be like you’re co-signing on gay marriage.” There’s an awkward pause, and they both stop talking and look at Father Boyle, indicating that it’s time for him to answer.
Very aware of his surroundings, he pauses and takes a deep breath, knowing that he must answer carefully. Finally, he simply asks in return, “What would Jesus do?” And there’s no hesitation. The woman says, “He’d go.” And even the husband nods.
Then Father Boyle says, “You know, when you stop to think about it, that was all Jesus did in his earthly ministry. He went to lesbian weddings.”
Mary Rakow says the church is always coming to us from the future. In Genesis 15, God comes to Abraham from the future—a future he cannot conceive or imagine yet. Abraham encounters the living God, and he cannot believe how expansive, gracious, merciful, and inclusive God is. God shows him the night sky, shows him the stars, and says, “Abraham, your children, and your children’s children, and their children will outnumber these.” How much time had Abraham wasted drawing the wrong picture of God?
Abraham thought that God had abandoned him, thought that God did not care about him, had come to the conclusion that he, Abraham, must not matter in the big scheme of things. But he could not have been more wrong.
Father Boyle writes that at one time or another, we all had a version of God that was rigid. But the depth of our own experience tells us that our idea of God wants to be fluid and evolving. And as we grow, we learn to steer clear of the wrong God. Father Boyle says: If our God makes us feel unworthy or in debt, wrong God. If God frightens us, wrong God. If God is endlessly disappointed in us, wrong God. How long will we keep painting pictures of God that make us sad? How long will we settle for the wrong God rather than the God we actually have?
You see, the God we have is always surprising us by showing us a future with possibility. The God we have is always shocking us by including those we have excluded. The God we have is the God that declares: you matter. The God we have says: you are exactly who I had in mind when I created you. The God we have is the God who finds us endlessly lovable, worthy, and interesting. The God we have loves us into loving—loving ourselves and loving each other. And the God we have is always coming to us from the future. The God we have says: stars in the sky—that’s you. You are the light of the world.
Father Boyle reminds us in the quote that’s on your bulletin cover that Jesus doesn’t say: “One day, if you are more perfect and try really hard, you’ll be light.” He doesn’t say: “If you follow the rules, cross your T’s, and dot your I’s, then maybe you’ll become light.” No, he says straight out: “You are light.” It is the truth of who you are, the truth of who we are, waiting only for us, like Abraham, to discover it.
Amen.
