"Hope In Suffering" March 4, 2007 Lent 2

(First, read the text for this sermon: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18)

Have you noticed how the church year leads us through all the seasons of life? Much of life is “routine,” and so it is appropriate that the season of Pentecost lasts for half the year! But there is also the anticipation of Advent. There is the high celebration of Christmas and Easter. There is the suffering of Lent.

Whenever we assemble for worship, on any given Sunday, there are those of us experiencing all of these seasons of life. Some of us are celebrating – because of awards received, victories won. Some of us are in pensive anticipation – hopefully expecting the birth of a baby, or anxiously awaiting surgery, or an important medical test.

Whenever you suffer, you experience Lent. But God leads us to be hopeful in suffering. Where does that hopefulness come from?

In Genesis, the stories of Abram and Sarai speak to this. The stories begin in the 11th and 12th chapters of Genesis. The 11th chapter concludes with a genealogy, and near the end of it we read this: Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah…. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. Those are some of the saddest words in Scripture. A husband who could not produce a child was humiliated in that ancient culture. A son was needed, so there could be inheritance! And a woman who could not produce a child (to put it crudely and simply) had no value. And pay attention to the words. It is not that Sarai hasn’t had a child yet, but she might someday. Instead, she is barren. It is hopeless.

Here’s what comes next, in the Genesis stories. Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.” I love this. God says to Abram, “Go. Leave all that is familiar and all that has been familiar. Go to a new land – and I’ll tell you when you get there.” Do you know how old Abram is at this point? He’s 75 years old! Sarai is 65.

And here’s what else Abram hears God saying to him: “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." Here is the promise from God that is the origin of the people of God. The promise includes land, and it includes people, which means descendents: “I will make of you a great nation.” But how is that going to happen? How can God give descendents to Abram and Sarai? Do you remember about Sarai? She is barren. It is hopeless.

Infertility is a particularly intense suffering for a couple who would like to bear a child. Month after month, they harbor hope. Month after month those hopes are dashed. It is a cruelty! Couples who suffer in this way describe a crushing desperation as they are reminded of their infertility, month after month.

Here’s what we read next, in the fourth verse of chapter 12 in Genesis: So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Now, stop there. Abram goes, at Yahweh’s command and promise! Sarai goes too, of course. And Abram persuades his brother, Lot, and his family to go as well. But isn’t it a shocking thing?! So Abram went, as the Lord had told him. What if you had heard the same command and promises from God, at ages 75 and 65, when you had lived in the same place all your lives, and when you had produced no children, and so, obviously, it would be hopeless to believe in the promises?

If you know the stories in Genesis, you know that, for years, there continues to be no reason for Abram and Sarai to believe in God’s promises. Does Abram stay quiet about this? No! For decades (past the age of 75!) Abram questions and challenges God. He is not hesitant to give speech to his skepticism. (That’s called prayer, by the way.) In response, in the stories, God repeats his promises four times over a period of 25 years, until Abram and Sarai (now named Abraham and Sarah) are 99 and 89 years old, respectively![1]

Our reading this morning is one of those challenges from Abram and responses by God. We read: 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." I am not a scholar of Hebrew. But two commentators who are caution us not to understand the word “reward” as we use it in common conversation: as something we gain because we deserve it. Instead, these commentators write, the same Hebrew word is used in other places in Hebrew Scripture and given the context of grace, of a gift. And so, it is not something that is earned, but it is a rewarding experience – of God’s grace.[2]

Now that I’ve established that God is a Lutheran, look at how Abram responds to this repeated promise of grace. He responds with severe skepticism – because there is no earthly reason for him to believe the promise! But Abram said, "O Lord God, 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, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." Abram is reminding God that there is no reason for him to believe what God has promised. It is utterly hopeless.

It is out of such hopelessness that God creates faith in Abraham.

Here’s what we read: But the word of the Lord came to [Abram], "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." [God] brought [Abram] outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then [God] said to him, "So shall your descendants be." Now, listen to this: And [Abram] believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Why did Abram believe the Lord? Abram stands face to face with God, in complaining prayer, and then, somehow, he moves from resistance to belief. For some reason, Abram comes to certitude. It is because God is God. And [Abram] believed the Lord. Abram repents (which means, he returns to God). Abram “abandons a reading of reality which is measured by what he can see and touch and manage.” God creates faith, so that Abram can know that “there is a future to be given which will be new and not derived from the present barrenness.”[3] God creates hope, even in the midst of suffering.

This is not simply a Bible story of something that happened long ago and far away. God creates such faith and such hope among us, in this community. God creates such faith and such hope through our preaching and our teaching and our mutual conversation and consolation. We bring to each other an awareness of God’s presence in our suffering, because God took on human flesh to participate fully in our human lives. And so, you and I are as Christ for each other. We take turns carrying each other through periods of suffering. In the night-times of our fears, we take turns holding the Christ-light for each other.[4]

Whenever we assemble for worship, on any given Sunday (today included!), there are those of us who are suffering through experiences that make it feel as if the world has fallen apart. But we hang on to each other. Those who are experiencing strength carry those who are suffering. God, in compassion, enters into our suffering. When I find it hard to believe in the promises, others believe them for me – until God can create new hope, new faith. Those who are suffering come to know that God will deliver them from their present barrenness!

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

[1] See Genesis 13:14f; 15:1-6; 15:18; 17:1f.
[2] See Isaiah 40:10; 62:11; Jeremiah 31:16.
[3] Both quotes are from Walter Brueggemann, Genesis (1982: Atlanta, John Knox Press), page 144.
[4] Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Hymn #659.