Genesis 15:1-6
What is God’s plan? Many
times, in some of the darkest moments of our lives, people (well-meaning
people) tell us that God has a plan for our pain, that what has happened to us
makes sense in a grand scheme, that we are not hurting in vain. Yet think about
what that says about God: that God uses pain as a means to an end, to bring us
where God wants us to be? That there is a long-range plan, full of illnesses
and pains, which is how God is bringing the kin-dom into fruition? That the
forces that oppose God, including cancer, chaos, and criminal actions, do not
really have any power- though we go through the motions of renouncing them at
baptism.
If
God’s plan for the world is down to the tiny details, what’s our part in it? Do
we play a role? Are the encouragements in the creation story, the relationship
that we see there between God, humans, and the rest of creation, is that a real
relationship or just a backdrop while God moves us around according to a plan?
If
we take a look at Abraham’s story, we can see two things: one is God has a plan
and two, people are participants in that plan. God’s plan for Abraham is no
less than God’s plan for anyone of us- a future, hopes fulfilled, abundant
life. God draws Abram out into the dark of the night and promises that, though
currently childless, he will be a father to many generations. God has a plan
for Abram’s future… including a name change, but God’s plan requires trust and
faithful action on Abram’s part.
See chart above:
The chart moves from the idea that God has an over-arching plan, but we are called to respond, through the gifts of faith and free will. Consider the choices Abram/Abraham made.
God
helps those who help themselves: Hagar and Ishmael
Expedient
Choice (ending up badly): Passing Sarah off as his sister
Faithful
action: leaving homeland, creating Isaac, arguing on behalf of Sodom and
Gomorrah, near-sacrifice
Each
of this situations arise from choices that Abraham makes, just like each of us
find ourselves in situations because of our own choices. Occasionally, we find
ourselves in situations, good or bad, because of someone else’s choices. As
participants in God’s work in the world, as co-creators and communicators of
God’s blessings (just like Abraham), we are continually called to think through
who we are as people, as families, as a faith community, as a
city/state/nation.
The
idea that God is micro-managing us and everything else leads to a kind of
carelessness- a disregard for ourselves, for others, and for creation. The idea
that God helps those who help themselves inevitably leaves someone out in the
cold and, eventually, leaves many people feeling separated from God.
Faithful
living, on the other hand, is hard work. It comes from trust. Trust can only be
based on a foundation of fulfilled promises, consistent action, and a
reasonable expectation of future care. The Abraham story lets us see that we
can only expect those things from God and not because of God’s reign in minutiae,
but because God is the details of care, of peace, of justice, of community
relationships.
Because
we see through scripture and through experience that we can trust God and that
trust makes the foundation of our faith, which God graciously counts to us as
righteousness. We get credit for the right response because of God’s history of
faithful action to God’s people and through Jesus.
God’s
plan is always for creation in the way he explained it to Abraham- a plan for
generations, a plan for descendants, a plan for a future hope and a fulfilled
promise. God also graciously invites us into that plan, gives us the solid
foundation of faith, and allows us the freedom of choice in how to respond. Do
we deserve this? No. Did Abram deserve a special promise? Did Mary deserve to
be chosen by God? It’s not about what we do, any of us, it is always about what
God does. God’s plan always included the curious, the stubborn, the little, the
lost, the least, you, and me. And that plan, into which you and I are invited,
is always for hope, for justice, for blessing, for creation, for relationship,
and for peace.
Amen.
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