Loving God, your blessings continue to come to us day by day, even when we don’t notice them.  Grant us an awareness of all that you have done for us, and the openness to continue to learn from Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

           God, it seems, likes to operate through covenants, and most of them are covenants of promise.  Last week we heard about God’s covenant with the whole creation after the flood.  This week, we have moved from primeval history to one specific couple: Abram and Sarai.  While the word “covenant” is not used in the reading we heard today, the promises that are part of God’s covenant with Abraham are all there.

         There are three promises that God makes to Abraham in this covenant.  The first promise is offspring.  Abraham will have so many descendants that they will become a great nation (Gen. 12:2).  The second promise is land.  Once Abraham has arrived in Canaan, God promises, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7).  And the third promise is blessing.  God will bless Abraham, and in him, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).  So: offspring, land and blessing.

         As you may recall, these promises took a very long time to be fulfilled.  In fact, some of them were not even fulfilled during Abraham’s lifetime. In the end, Abraham ended up with several children, but he was 100 years old before he and Sarah had a child. This child was Isaac, and it was through him and his descendants that the other promises to Abraham were fulfilled.

         As for the promise of the land, by the time that Abraham dies he owns a plot of land with a burial cave on it which he purchased from the Hittites.  That’s it.  And as for being a blessing to all nations, that doesn’t happen for many years to come.  As Hebrews says later on, Abraham and Sarah are among those who “died in faith without having received the promises” (Heb. 11:13).

         Abraham, in fact, is mentioned many times in the New Testament.  Most often, there is some sort of reference to his faith.  The reason for this should be obvious from today’s reading.  How many people would actually leave their country and their relatives behind in order to go to an unnamed land that God will show them?...  This would have taken a tremendous amount of faith, as well as the ability to trust God’s leading.  Yet, be careful about thinking that Abraham is somehow different from us.

         Anybody who has ever read the entire story of Abraham and Sarah knows that Abraham sinned just like the rest of us.  There were times when he tried to take matters into his own hands.  There were times when he lied in order to protect himself. Yet, in spite of his failings, he continued to walk with God and is in many ways an example of faith.  Still, the promises given to Abraham and Sarah were pure grace.

         Out of the three promises that were given to Abraham, it seems that the promise of blessing was forgotten over the years.  Jesus has many conversations with people who claim to be children of Abraham, and yet these same people had absolute hatred for the Gentiles – the people who were supposed to be blessed through Abraham and his offspring.  In fact, when Jesus mentions some of the stories from the Scriptures where God was merciful to Gentiles, the people of Nazareth get so angry that they almost throw him off a cliff.  It got so that they were happy to receive God’s blessings, but they had no desire to share any of those blessings with people of other nations.

         Ultimately, it was through Jesus that this finally happened.  His coming and his salvation were not just for the Jewish people, but for all people.  It is through Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, that all the families of the earth have been blessed.  And we, too, have been blessed in order to be a blessing to others.

         The end of the gospel of Matthew, which we heard today, could have been quite different.  Jesus could have left the disciples to rejoice and give thanks for the gift of salvation and the promise of resurrection and eternal life.  However, these blessings are meant to be shared.  And so, instead, Jesus commissions them to go and make disciples and baptize and teach in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Salvation through Jesus Christ is a gift worth sharing, and this same command to go and make disciples applies to all those who have put their faith in Jesus, including you and me.  And just as Jesus promised to be with those first disciples as they fulfilled his commission, so that same promise applies to us.  For without the Spirit of Jesus at work, nobody ever comes to believe.

         At the same time, God has blessed us in other ways that can also lead to blessing others.  Many of us in North America have far more than we will ever need, and we have been given the means to be able to share with others who have far less than we do.  At the same time, I keep thinking of the parable of the talents.  God has blessed us not only with material resources, but with gifts and abilities that can also be used in order to be a blessing for others. As the gospel of Luke says, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required” (12:48).

         We are blessed to be a blessing just like Abraham and his descendants, and we give thanks today for the blessing of Abraham.  Without his faith and trust in God, there would not have been a nation and a people dedicated to telling God’s stories.  And without his descendant Jesus, we would not have access to salvation or to the Creator of heaven and earth. We are among the families of the earth, and we have been blessed through Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Pentecost 17 (NL 1)                                    Genesis 12:1-9

September 16, 2018                                   Matthew 28:19-20

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2018 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved