Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

The Reverend Paul DeLain Allick, St. George’s Episcopal Church, February 28, 2010

 

 

The Thursday before last I was driving down Maryland Avenue in St. Paul. I was crossing a stop-light intersection. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a large van coming right at me. Before I could react it hit me. I rolled up into a service station parking area. I sat there stunned wondering what just happened. Did I just run a red light?

 

 

The driver of the van informed us that her breaks didn’t work. She was bringing the van in to get them fixed. I thought to myself, “Um, you shouldn’t operate a vehicle if the breaks are not working.”

 

 

All of us on Maryland Avenue that day were living in an implicit relationship. I am trusting that you have breaks and you will stop when the light turns red. The driver of the van wasn’t thinking about those relationships. My guess is that she was thinking of other relationships. She needed to get that vehicle fixed. I am guessing that she could not afford to get the van towed and in desperation was taking her chances.

 

 

We all live in a myriad of relationships with implicit and overt covenants. We are all struggling to trust in those relationships. We all try to keep our own anxieties in check as to live well with others.

 

 

Abram is getting anxious in his relationship with God. He still has no heir, the heir that God promised him. God offers to cut a deal with Abram, to make a covenant. Abram gets the instructions for the religious ceremony and then falls into a deep mystical experience. He rises and performs the ritual. He literally “cuts the deal” by cutting the sacrifices in two. Now maybe Abram can trust God because they have an overt covenant.

 

 

 

 

 We have covenants all over our lives. Those of us who are married have vows. Those of us who cannot be formally joined to our partners find ways to covenant with each other. We have implicit covenants among parent and child. We have covenants with our religion. All baptized persons are living in a covenant with God and each other. We have promised to respect and care for each member of the Body of Christ: you respect my dignity as a person and I will respect yours.

 

 

Relationships help us to live more fully and because of that when they fail the hurt is awful. But we never stop making the covenants and seeking out more relationships.

 

 

 As Sandy Stonhouse said in our Catechism class Wednesday night, “That’s what Lent is all about.” It is about renewing our covenant, our relationship with God. We explore within ourselves through self-examination where we have failed. And we search our hearts to see where we think God has failed us and remember that God never fails us.

 

 

We have the example of Jesus. His is a singular mission to live in a wholesome relationship with God the Father. Jesus will not let anything turn Him away from the direction of the Father. The Father asks the Son to trust Him completely. Even when things get scary, Jesus never lets His anxiety turn into distrust.

 

 

The Pharisees, Jesus intellectual sparring partners, come to warn Him, “Get out of here. Herod is going to have you killed.” Jesus brushes it off. He knows that God has a plan. He knows that all of His experiences are adding up to a fulfillment with God.

 

 

Jesus knows that with God we have a partner who will never fail us. Our expectations about God and our relationship with God will fail us but God never will.

 

 

 

 

Jesus sends a message back to Herod, “Tell that sneaky fellow that I have work to fulfill. Today and tomorrow I will be healing and casting out evil from among God’s children. My time will come after I have suffered and endured. On the third day it will all make sense.”

 

 

 

After the van hit me it kept going. It ran right into the building across the street. It was an injury lawyer and chiropractic office. Right above where the van hit, the sign read, “Have you been hurt in an accident?” That sign has become a metaphor for me: In the midst of the craziness of life there is always hope and humor to be found somewhere. God is very present to us.

 

 

In all of our relationships God is there waiting to help us and heal us. In the relationships which fail He is there. In the relationship which survive He is there to celebrate with us. Today and tomorrow we strive and often suffer. On the third all will be fulfilled.

 

 

It’s when we take God out of our relationships that we are in trouble. If we keep our relationship with God at the center of every relationship we are working on, we will make it through. We don’t always know how that “making it through” is going to look in the end, but we do know that we will rise from the tomb and live again.