By Michael Sherer, director of graduate and continuing studies
Scripture: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 (NRSV)
In one of my finer acts of parenting, I once read the book of Genesis to my 7 year-old daughter Monica as series of bedtime stories. I had found Jess Hurlburt’s ‘Bedtime Bible Story Book’ on the bargain rack and was struck that the author had done an amazingly good job of turning stilted chapter and verse into compelling kid-friendly narrative—a narrative that is rooted in today’s passage on God’s covenant to Abraham. Night after night I regaled Monica with tale after tale—Abram passing his wife off as his sister, twice! Geriatric Sarah getting pregnant! Abraham coming within a whisker of killing his only son—the heir to the promise! Jacob stealing his brother’s birthright! With mom’s help! Laban tricking Jacob into marrying his beauty-challenged daughter Leah! Rachel stealing the family idols! Joseph’s brothers faking his death and selling him to bedouin traders! On and on.
In today’s passage on God’s covenant with Abraham, God promised to bless Abraham and give him many descendants. They’d become a great nation. In the stories that follow, we indeed see God holding up his end of the bargain, but with the most improbable collection of flawed individuals—rascals, cheats, liars, suckers—the covenant promises are always in jeopardy, not because of God, but because of us. Plenty has changed in the last three millennia but this hasn’t: Old covenant or new, God keeps God’s end of the bargain. We are the unreliable party—imperfect followers of Jesus, in need of repentance, in need of encouragement, in need of enlightenment, in need of grace.
God, in this lenten season, we claim the promises of God made to Abraham in the covenant. Give us the humility to acknowledge that this possible thanks to God’s faithfulness rather than our virtue and effort.
Scripture: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 (NRSV)
When 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.
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.”