Genesis 12:1-4.                                 ‘Trust me,’ says God!!                                                    12/3/17

(1)  The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. {2} "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. {3} I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." {4} So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.

“Trust me!” is a comment we hear a lot as we go about life. “Trust me!” We’ve just about had enough of ‘trust me Dave’s’ as we go along that we no longer believe the concept. When we go to buy our used car, we are very wary of the salesman, because time after time we have been taken down; told things that were not quite true. Our politicians tell us to trust them; and the they are caught out telling us lies or half-truths. The media is doing the same. Many a young person is wary about going into marriage with the ‘one they love and who loves them’ because experience and society has told them that even their loved one cannot be fully trusted. Our insurance policy all sound so good, until you go to make a claim. And we could go on with many other examples as well.

So, ‘Trust me’ is something that we are not so sure about any more. A person’s word is, in enough cases, not worth the paper it is written on, that we go forward either sceptical or with a great amount of naivety. This surely has placed a great burden on each of us and our relationship with others, and for us as a society. Can there not be something in which we can trust with confidence and certainty? Sadly, we have to say that as long as we live in this sinful world, we will suffer in this area over and over again.

However, does that mean that we have to go forward in life full of negativity and scepticism?  Surely we have to be able to trust in something and be able to be trusting and positive in life or we are doomed. Yes, definitely! Here also we need to say sadly though that the old saying; If you don’t believe in something, you will fall for anything, is so often true. What we trust in; where we look to for hope and security; is important, or else we will fall for anything and everything that goes. That too is disastrous.

That is where our reading today points us to the ‘who’ and what that we can trust, and what the implications are of this for us.

The ‘who’ that we can trust in life is of course none other than the Lord himself. He alone is the one who is truly trustworthy. After all he is the one who always was and always will be God.  He is the God who created all things. He is also the one who sustains and directs it all for his good purpose. And he is the One who has also chosen to be with and guide us human beings through this life and to be in a loving relationship with us.

Here however we are confronted with the question that if he is such a great, loving and trustworthy God, how come all the evil, tragedies, hurts and death. How can we trust this Lord with all of this around us? Surely he too is untrustworthy! His church also, too often, has said and done things that are not in accord with what is good and right. Many have become disillusioned with the church because of its false teaching and practices.

It is here in these few verses we that we catch a glimpse of how and why this Lord can be trusted. We can also begin to see that in this trust, great blessing comes to be known; in the midst of the harshness that sin has wrought on life in this world for us. We see again that the Lord gives his word to humanity when we are most vulnerable; and in that word was life and blessing.

Here we have Abram and Sarai, whom the Lord later changed their names to Abraham and Sarah, already into the later years of their lives. They were childless and beyond the years where this was any longer possible. So they had no means of being cared for as they moved into their twilight years; there was no social security network in those days. Life was beginning to look rather grim for them, when the Lord comes along and tells Abram that he should get up and leave his home, his country, his relatives and head off to an unknown land. Then on top of that the Lord would give him descendants and make him into a great nation. Then to go even further he says all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through him.

Now if ever there was a sales pitch, that one takes the cakes. Dream on! This is pie in the sky stuff. Start a family at 75; In a far away country, where you are fair game for every murderer and rip-off merchant; then to become a great nation. Come on that is just so far-fetched, that it is impossible. Yet Abram left, as the Lord had told him to. Abraham believed God and went forward. Come in spinner! Here’s another sucker we would think.

Yet we know from history that Abraham did go on to have children. His descendants did become a great nation; and from that nation Jesus came, and was shown to become the saviour of all humanity. The Lord and his Word prevailed. He can be trusted, despite the impossibility of it, humanly speaking.

So we find here; but not only here, but also in many other places in Scripture, the Lord and his Word can be trusted. The central message throughout and the focal point of all of these promises is of course Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. There we have the assurance that God loves us so much that he sent his Son to die so that we might be forgiven and assured of salvation and eternal life with God in heaven, despite what we might experience in this life. Then three days later he rose again, just as he said he would, so that we can be absolutely sure that he is true to his word.

Along with that each one of us are connected to this death and resurrection of Jesus at our baptism, and so we are assured that we personally are forgiven and brought into God’s family. Through his Word he continues to remind us of our inability to gain God’s approval by what we do and how good we are; and then of all that he has done for us through Jesus Christ.

Then through Holy Communion he comes to us again and gives us his very body and blood which he shed on the cross, so that we can be absolutely sure that he forgives us and has eternal life for us; and of his presence with us as we go on in this life.

Just as he has been true to his word to Abram and many others throughout history, so also can he be trusted here when it comes to this most essential area in our lives. This promise and assurance overshadows ever other thought, feeling, desire or experience that we might have, no matter how good or bad.

Even though our life might look impossible for us; even though we might be suffering big time, we have that assurance of the Lord’s love and acceptance of us. In fact, now we know that somehow the Lord is using those experiences for good, in order to bring and keep us and others connected to Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection for us.

This brings us to the other great truth that comes to us through this text that we have before us. So Abram left, as the LORD had told him. Abraham, despite what seemed to be an impossibility, believed that the Lord and his word could be trusted. He set off trusting that the Lord would do what he said he would.

 It took another 25 years before Isaac was born; many more before Israel become a great nation; and approximately 2,000 years before the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it did happen, just as the Lord had said; and Abraham believed that it would be because the Lord had said so.

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." (Rom 4:1-3)

 

So here we find that Abraham is held up as the great example of what God seeks from us as we go forward in life. In light of who he is and what he has said and done through Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection, all we are called on to do is trust.  Trust the he is the Lord, the Almighty God of all history; that he loves, forgives and accepts us as his very own; and that he now has a better way for us to live and act, not only in heaven, but also here and now.

Trust that, Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:14-17) 

Now we have someone and something that we can truly and fully trust in as we go forward in life. It is this Lord and his Word which enables us to have a real sense of hope and trust in a world full of that which is untrustworthy. Now we can be realistic about what we see and experience around us, without being burdened with negativity and hopelessness.

For now, we have one in whom we can fully trust, and in whom we are assured will see to it that life will end up right for us, even though it may look impossible. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. We too can trust the Lord and know that because of him we are now in a right relationship with him.

So to him again be all glory and honour now and always. AMEN.

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish