“God’s Covenant with
Abraham and Sarah”
Third
Sunday of Lent
Celebrating
the Gifts of Women
©Thomas
B. Cundiff
Genesis 17: 1-10 and
15-19
1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD
appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be
blameless. 2And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you
exceedingly numerous.” 3Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4“As
for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude
of nations. 5No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be
Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6I will
make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall
come from you. 7I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your
offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant,
to be God to you and to your offspring£ after you. 8And I will give to you, and
to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan
15God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife,
you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16I will bless her,
and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give
rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17Then Abraham fell on
his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is
a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18And
Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” 19God said,
“No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I
will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring
after him.
I.
In the past month since the birth of
my grandson, I can’t tell you the number of times I have found myself staring
at his picture with chills running up my spine thinking about his name:
Kenneth Thomas. Not since Emily
was born to us over thirty years ago have I found myself contemplating God’s
majestic and creative powers in giving us life -- My grandson’s is going to be called: THOMAS!
The word for "name" in the Greek is "onoma" and is found in the bible
over 500 times. Before even the work
of God could be described in using human language we had to come up with a name
even for – the one who gives us everything!
God! Jehovah.
Yahweh. Allah. Creator.
Redeemer.
In human terms a
name points to our identity and personal attributes and those things only “God knows about me and who I am and
everything I do from the moment I was born until the day I die.” More
than a way of identifying us, behind every name is who YOU are…..a unique
person, a child of God, a continuum of legacies that live forever.
Psalm 139 comes to
mind:
“O Lord you have
searched me and known me. You know when
I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and
are acquainted with all my ways.” YOU
KNOW MY NAME! (my words)
Think
about : To know that God knows my name and your name is something beyond what I
can imagine. Born and given a name. Baptized in Christ by name! The God of this vast universe knows my joys
and my pain; God knows my path; when I
am on or off track; God knows when I get
up and when I go to bed. GOD KNOWS
EVERYTING. Even as I preach God knows
your thoughts.
God,
who knows us by name, wants the very best for us. How could God want anything less! How could God knowingly want something bad or
evil befall anyone!!! The God who made
the heavens and the earth with registers of all human life….all species past
and forevermore….LOVES each and every one of us.
II.
A name from Ancient
Hebrew for us to think about today.
ABRAM. From the ancient book of
Genesis an important naming process is taking place. ABRAM was a ninety-nine year old man when the
Lord appeared to him and says, "I am God almighty". God
speaks directly with Abram, the only time in all of ancient scripture God is
recorded talking directly with Abram.
God says, "This is my covenant with you:
“You shall be the
ancestor of a multitude of nations. No
longer shall your name be Abram (which means ‘exalted ancestor’) … your name
shall be Abraham (which means ‘ancestor of a multitude’). For I have made you the ancestor of a
multitude of nations. I will make you
exceedingly fruitful.”
Behind the name is
the change God is working through the life of Abram in his becoming
Abraham. We see God pulling Abram out of himself to
focus on what he will become as the father of humanity. From this point on this 99 year old man is not
just an “exalted ancestor”. He becomes
the “ancestor or forebear or of all nations”!
A secondary point
for those who may think you are too old for God to work through change in your
life. Just remember the way God worked
through the life of Abraham at the age of 99!
The story builds and
becomes even more exciting when it comes to Abraham’s wife:
“As for Sarah
your wife, you shall not call her Sarai but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her and moreover I will give you
a son by her. I will bless her and she
shall give rise to nations: Kings of
peoples shall come from her.”
Sarah and she
becomes the "Mother of generations
of humanity". Together, look at
all that Abraham and Sarah accomplish!
Powerful scripture that affirms (1) Family and (2) equal partnership in
baring children and (3) the role of women and men in building nations!
So the question this
ancient scripture calls for us to answer this morning: Can God work through similar changes in our
lives? Regardless where we have been or
what we have done or how old or young we
are? Regardless whether we are born male
or female? Within the context of the New
Testament God and our being Christ’s church, God has given each of us a name to
cherish and carry with us everywhere we go:
This name? CHRISTIAN!
Oh yes, there is another theme to be address in this scripture. God has a sense of humor. One of the most delightful stories in all of the bible:
“Abraham falls on
his face and laughs….and says to himself, ‘can a child be born to a man who is
going to be 100 and a woman, my wife Sarah, is 90?”
The story
continues. God continues to speak to Abraham
and the scriptural naming process continues:
“Sarah will bear a
son and you will name him Isaac”. There is also humor in this name for Isaac
means: “The One Who Laughs”.
With scripture
backing me up, I dare anyone say it’s not okay to have a sense of humor or to
laugh in God’s presence in the church!
We may laugh at the
idea that God could work change in our lives -- with all the bad habits and
ruts and ways we have become stuck with issues in our lives over the
years: Miracles happen! As
ancestors that go back all the way to the stories found in Genesis, God's Covenant
is with us today as it touched Abraham and Sarah thousands of years ago. It was also thousands of years ago God gave
us through Joseph and Mary a baby who would grow to be known to us as God’s
Only Son – our Lord and our Savior – with the covenant of love as the bond that
still binds us together in helping us move forward and sons and daughters of
Abraham and Sarah…..ALL WITH UNIQUE NAMES
that identify us as we live as followers of God, and disciples of Jesus Christ.
Finally, we are
God’s covenant people living with the new covenant era with the commandment of
LOVE that supplants all that Hebrew scripture teaches. LOVE.
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