Today’s Scripture

Psalm 105:4-11           Genesis 12:1-8            Romans 4:1-5, 13-17               John 4:5-26

 

            Next to eating, boasting must be the world’s most favorite pastime.  Did you ever notice that whenever we gather together, the stories abound until the meal is served?  It is only then that everyone becomes quiet over the most important part, consuming the food.

 

            We get pretty good at boasting.  If it isn’t what I did at work, it is what I did at home.  If it isn’t what I did, it is what my children did.  After all, they are fruit of my tree.  And, if I do not boast about my children, then it is the grandchildren.  You see, I not only did such a good job with the kids, it rubbed off all the way to the next generation, and on it goes. 

 

            This does not mean stop telling me about yourselves, what you do and have done, and about your families.  I do enjoy hearing your story and learning about you.  And all should share the good things that are happening in personal lives, your work, and in your families.  Those are the great joys that God has given in this earth.

 

            That is the point God makes through Paul’s writing to the Romans today.  Even those day-to-day events in our lives are gifts from God in his creating power and love for you.  Abraham is used as the example of faith to us because that of what God gave Abraham then and gives to all today. 

 

            When we look at the account in Genesis, we do not see Abraham saying, “Hey, God!  How about giving me a special place to have for my own and for my descendants?”  It is clear that God spoke directly to Abraham and said, I am going to lead you to a place that will belong to your descendants.  Abraham trusted and followed God for these promises to him. 

 

            As great comfort to each one who studies Abraham, we note that Abraham was sometimes pretty scared and doubtful of some of the situations he was in.  We are shown an Abraham whose faith faltered at times, taking things into his own hands.  He lied about Sarah being his wife not once but twice.  He took Hagaar to birth a son when it appeared Sarah couldn’t have one.  Yes, his faith was weak at times.  His doubts were there.  It was God who remained faithful to Abraham and never gave up with him and never let him down. 

He did continued to give Abraham tests to build Abraham’s faith as God delivered each of his promises, even when they looked humanly impossible.

 

            Those tests were not just to try Abraham, but they were tests God laid out to display his faithfulness, his holiness, his almighty being who can and does accomplish all things.  The most significant test God passed was Abraham and Sarah having a child, a son, when it was humanly impossible to do this.  God performed a miracle with them in this way to strengthen their faith then and your faith today.

 

            Faith is believing in something one cannot see and that one cannot understand.  The longer one lives, the more one ceases to have faith in the things of this world.  A cough or congestion that once healed itself, later in life is treated with a simple syrup, much later in life cannot be stopped even with the finest medical technology and pharmacology.  As we gain in understanding the world we find that peace and tranquility just cannot be attained.  Promises to work together evaporate as fast as the next congressional session calls its first roll or the ambassadors board the jet to take them home.

 

 

 

            Paul reminds us that wages are what one earns and are an obligation to the worker.  What we earn by our own work, and what God is obligated to give us is not good.  As we live according to God’s law, we do not measure up at all.  There is no one who does good, no not one, [Psalm 14:1].  No one can do any good on his own.  No one is righteous of his own work.  There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins [Ecclesiastes 7:20].  We condemn ourselves when we look at God’s commands and see that we have not and cannot keep them.  What we have earned is God’s wrath, his anger at sin.  What we have earned is death, what sin gives.  What we are not is righteous, good and perfect and holy in God’s sight.  What we cannot attain in any way by ourselves is righteousness because we cannot take away any one sin, let alone all of them.

 

            Salvation is God’s work, not our work.  He credits it to you.  To credit is to give. He gives it to you.   Your faith is the object of God’s love.  In faith, you receives his gift.  And his gift is this, forgiveness of all sins and being justified, that is made just as if you have no sin.  Abraham and Sarah could not give themselves a child.  God gave them one in that miraculous birth of Isaac.  Just as Mary, a virgin, could not conceive a child in her virginity, God conceived his son within her to be born from her.  Abraham did not know how or when God would send the Savior to work salvation for him, but Abraham believed that God would.  God’s gift to Abraham for that faith was giving him credit as if he were righteous, deserving God’s blessings of eternal and glorified life.  God’s gift to all who trust in his saving grace in Jesus Christ receive that same gift, being credited as righteousness.  You are given that gift as you confess your faith in the words of the creed.  The creed is what you believe, confess and teach.  You do not earn heaven by your faith.  You are given heaven as a gift by God’s grace through faith. 

 

 

 

            Yesterday was a baptism here.  Little Linnea could not speak for herself.  But she received God’s gifts in baptism, forgiveness of sins, sealed in faith in that forgiveness of sins, God claimed her as his dear child, and the gift of the Holy Spirit working that miracle of faith and sanctification (being made holy) in her for all of her life.  God’s gift of baptism is like the quilt banner we use at baptism.  As a quilt is wrapped around a baby to protect and comfort that baby, in baptism God wraps himself around you, protecting and comforting you throughout your life, knowing that he has taken care of your every need for all eternity.  An infant trusts his/her parents for all things because he/she cannot do them for himself.  We trust God for those things we know we cannot do ourselves too.

 

            All that Abraham got, he got as a gift and not what he earned.  It was not Abraham who worked and God received, but God worked in Christ and Abraham received the blessing.

 

            That is always the way of God’s promises, his covenants that he makes and keeps with his people.  He gives them as gracious gifts whether the things of this earth or the eternal things of heaven.  Although we live in a works-righteous society and world, God’s gifts are nothing but simple in faith as this verse of today’s Epistle states, “Abraham did not receive the Lord’s promise through the Law but through faith.”  [v. 13]

 

            You have been given and you have received everything God has promised.  This you receive only as you trust what he has told you.  That is faith.  Go in faith and in the peace that faith is given and receives.                 

 

Amen.