suffering and free will, 11.10.13

Deuteronomy 31:15-20

¹⁵See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. ¹⁶If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Romans 7:14-25

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. ¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

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            Theology is the study of God, and for people who like philosophy and Bible study it is a great area of study to really immerse oneself in. It’s important too, because without theology we don’t really know what we believe about God, but those unconscious beliefs have a big impact on how we live our faith. So it’s important to be thoughtful about what we believe.

            It’s also been important historically in the church. Last week was Reformation Sunday, a day to reflect on our history as a church founded on bringing the church back to God’s calling. The reformers saw problems within the institutional church, ways that the teaching and structure of the church were actually getting in the way of people’s faith. Their close attention to scripture made the whole church stronger and more faithful.

            The trouble is that anytime we think or talk or write about God, we’re trying to capture something that is beyond our ability to understand. We can approach truth about God, but we can’t capture it all. We can’t grasp the height and depth and breadth of God’s love and holiness and power. God is limitless and we are limited. So our attempts to express the truth of God will always be imperfect and incomplete.

            Classic reformed theology teaches that God knows and determines the way things are going to happen; that’s where the idea of predestination comes from. Predestination expresses an important truth: God is really in charge of the world and we aren’t, and salvation is a gift, not something we earn through our actions or choices.

            Like everything else, too much of a good thing isn’t good. While a lot of power in the Protestant tradition comes from knowing we’re saved by grace instead of by works, we have sometimes let that truth take over so much that we forget how important individual choice is. So today, I’m talking about choice, human free choice.

            This is the most intellectual of the sermons on suffering because I’m taking my best shot at explaining why God allows suffering. It’s in the middle of the series, because I don’t think, “why “is the most important question to ask about suffering. I think the more important questions about suffering are the ones we’ve talked about over the last few weeks: How can we stay faithful when the world is a mess? How can we be good friends to those who suffer? What are we doing that contributes to other people’s suffering? What do we need to change in our life? How can we help those who suffer. Those are the most important questions. And the best response to the problem of suffering is the one Sally’s going to work through on November 24^th. God responds to suffering by joining human suffering in the life and death of Jesus. God is not distant from our suffering.

But it’s impossible to avoid the “why” question. So I need to take a shot with my best answer, even though it’s incomplete. When we see the enormous suffering in the world our first reaction is to ask why God allows it. That leads many people to doubt either God’s existence or God’s love, because we feel like a loving and powerful God should do something to prevent the terrible suffering we see.

            When God created people God decided to give us free will. It would have been simpler to just program us to do the right thing all the time, but God chose instead to let us make our own decisions. I guess that’s part of what it means for God to love us. God wants us to have the freedom to choose how we will live. A lot of our suffering comes from human choice, and God loves and respects us too much to take away our freedom.

Our first passage is Moses’ farewell sermon to the people of Israel. He’s been God’s appointed guide and leader to bring the people out of slavery into freedom. Along the way God has tried to teach the people how to create a just, loving, holy society through rules that structure community life. Moses knows he’s not going to be with them as they build that society in their land. God has given them great laws, but the crucial question is: will the people follow the law? Will they chose the way of God or not?

            We each face that question every day. When we get up in the morning are we going to choose love or chose defensiveness? Are we going to treat our coworkers with respect and care or suspicion and contempt? Are we going to respond to negativity with hostility or forgiveness? Are we going to build community despite our differences and the difficulties created by everyone’s issues or are we going to retreat into the isolation of only letting the “worthy” into our lives? Are we going to choose caring for those in need or caring only for our family? What will we choose?

            Paul gets at the difficulty of that choice as he thinks about the law of God. He says he wants to do what’s right; his soul, his best self delights in the ways of God. He loves the grace and peace that comes from loving others. He feels joy at the contentment that comes from controlling our urges through reason and restraint. In his depths he wants to follow God’s will.

            But it’s not as simple as that. The word he uses is flesh, but that’s not really it; a better word for our time might be temptation. The power of temptation is strong. It’s so tempting to respond to a cruel comment from a neighbor with biting sarcasm. It’s tempting to put aside our resources for what we need and want instead of sharing with others. It’s tempting to simply check out and turn away when a coworker is acting in a way that is hurtful to the team instead of confronting them with love and honesty. It’s tempting to look out for ourselves and let others do the same.

            That’s why God gave the law, because our good intentions aren’t always strong enough to overrule the temptation we face. The law, the rules remind us of the obligations our best self wants to fulfill. They put a fence between us and our temptation so it’s harder to make the wrong choice and easier to make the right choice.

            The crazy thing is that temptation is so strong, the power of evil is so strong in our world and in us that even those laws can be used in the wrong way. If the law says we have to care for the poor, we can take that law, do the bare minimum and feel justified carrying on with our own selfishness. We can hear the law against murder and see only that killing a person is off limits without also seeing that it’s our duty to protect those in danger. And, like any system of rules, clever, unethical people can use that system to take power over other people.

            We see the suffering that comes from free will in the devastation of the Congo where violence, pillage and rape are rampant. We see it in the rule of warlords in Afghanistan and central Africa. And we see it in the hesitation of the rest of the world to find a way to address that suffering.

            God calls us to love, to work for peace, to take care of others. Temptation pushes us the other way. When temptation overrules our best nature we make others suffer and we suffer ourselves. So what will we choose, and how will we give strength to our choices for good?

            A lot of our suffering comes from free will, but human free will doesn’t do much to explain the natural disasters: the typhoon that just killed a thousand people in the Philippines, the earthquake that devastated Turkey last year, the hurricanes that flooded New Orleans and destroyed villages throughout Haiti. And free will doesn’t do anything to explain the enormous suffering of someone dying of cancer or Alzheimer’s or HIV. It doesn’t explain the suffering of a wife or husband or child watching someone they love suffer either.

            Part of me wonders if God’s gift of free will extends to the turning of the earth and the out of control growth of cancer cells. Maybe God’s decision to give us free will includes setting the physical and natural processes of the world free to create and destroy. Maybe the balance of water and minerals and a molten planetary core that enables life to flourish on this globe goes hand in hand with earthquakes and devastating storms.

            Maybe the freedom for us to make bad choices and pursue our interests and desires instead of the flourishing of others is the same freedom at work in the renegade cell that divides until it is a metastatic tumor. Maybe the freedom for humans to pile up wealth instead of distributing it is the freedom of a virus to seek out new cells to take over as it expands its empire. Maybe the thoughtless greed of bacteria killing its host and thus itself is the same as the freedom for us to destroy the environment we count on for survival.

Maybe all free will is the same. I don’t know; there are things about the universe I will never understand. We can’t change the laws of climate that lead to hurricanes; maybe if we could it would mess up something even bigger. But we can reach out to those who suffer. We can try to comfort those who mourn. We can pray for those in need, and feed those who are hungry. And we can work together to make this community a home for some who are lonely.

Like the people of Israel standing at the border of the promised land, each day, each week, each moment brings us a possibility and a challenge. Are we going to choose life, community, love, nurture, faithfulness, welcome and gospel life? Are we going to do the good we see before us or allow the temptations surrounding and inside us keep us down? We are free to choose, free to love, free to risk and dare and act. So choose love and stick fight for that choice no matter what.

Thanks be to God.

forgiveness (9.11.11)

Matthew 18:21-35

²¹Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” ²²Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

²³“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. ²⁵and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. ²⁶So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.

²⁸But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. ³¹When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. ³²Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. ³⁵So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Romans 14:1-12

¹Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. ²Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. ³Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. ⁴Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

⁵Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. ⁶Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.

⁷We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. ⁸If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. ¹¹For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
          and every tongue shall give praise to God.”
¹²So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

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            We’re not really going to dig into this Romans passage very much because we’re pretty good about accepting differences of opinion here. But I do want to lift it up for a moment because it’s one of the most important things about faith in community. We are not all the same. We have different strengths and weaknesses; we even have different beliefs.

            Often we grow in our faith and understanding through study with other people who see things a little differently, but there is no point in getting upset about those differences.

Paul would be quick to point out that there are limits to this; there are false teachings and dangerous ideas in the church that can hurt our faith and our witness to God’s love. But most differences of opinion in the church are not worth arguing about. Instead of worrying about what someone else believes, we should focus on how we can be better, more faithful disciples of Jesus. If the Presbyterian Church could learn this lesson we would be much stronger, more joyful, and better witnesses to Christ’s redeeming love.

Jesus reminds us that the heart of community is forgiveness. Matthew is more interested in how the church functions than the other Gospels are; probably because he writes somewhat later than Mark. So here he’s talking about forgiveness within the church, but the lesson goes further than that.

            Jesus hopes we will be incredibly persistent in forgiving each other. Frankly, I can’t think of anyone in any church I have forgiven seventy seven times. Long before we get to that point we’ve usually put our guard up so forcefully that the other person can’t wrong us anymore. But that’s not what Jesus has in mind. Jesus expects us to keep forgiving and forgiving; to keep opening our heart to other people whenever they ask us to forgive them.

            Reasonably enough, we worry about getting hurt or taken advantage of. We worry someone will pull something over on us. That’s not Jesus’ concern, but then look at Jesus’ example. The leaders of his faith rejected, accused and tortured him. His closest friends abandoned him; one even betrayed him. And he must have known that many of those he died to bring home to God would turn away too.

Still, instead of carrying a grudge, Jesus carried a cross. Instead of leaving us wandering on our own, Jesus keeps looking for us with a love that simply won’t give up. Jesus is our Lord and our example; while we won’t ever measure up to his forgiveness, we are called to follow in his footsteps.

lamentation and freedom

Psalm 13:1-6

¹    How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
          How long will you hide your face from me?
²   How long must I bear pain in my soul,
          and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
     How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

³   Consider and answer me, O LORD my God!
          Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
⁴   and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;
          my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

⁵   But I trusted in your steadfast love;
          my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
⁶   I will sing to the LORD,
          because he has dealt bountifully with me.

I want to spend most of our Bible time with our New Testament lesson, but I just couldn’t let this beautiful Psalm sit untouched. I couldn’t leave this painfully honest Psalm alone because too often the church isn’t painfully honest.

We put on our best faces for church, maybe we put on our best faces for other people in general. Someone asks how we’re doing and we say something socially acceptable. That’s actually an OK habit to be in a lot of the time. It’s not a great idea to pour our guts out to everyone we meet. But when we take it too far it kills genuine community and relationship. 

         When we come to church we are with our brothers and sisters in Christ. That means we are supposed to be in a safe place for honesty; a place we can share our struggles and our pain. We’re family, so we should be able to be vulnerable with each other.

         But that’s not always how it feels. One thing that gets in the way of honesty and openness is Sunday best syndrome. We feel like since our outfits are well put together, we’re supposed to button up our troubles too. We shine our shoes and our smiles and we tuck our problems and doubts under the carpet so we can do church “the right way.”

         That’s the smaller part of the problem. The bigger issue is that we feel we have to be careful with God. We use carefully crafted words and scripted prayers to talk to the God who is high above in heaven. The language in the Bible is stilted and our worship language doesn’t usually sound like how we would have a conversation. We don’t want to say the wrong thing or offend God.

         The truth is that God can take it. Look at this Psalm: “How long O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” Have you ever felt that way before? Did you cry out to God like the Psalmist did? Our polite religious tradition is hard to break, but when we open ourselves to God and to each other we learn how to actually trust God. Look where the Psalm ends up: “I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” If we open ourselves up and trust God with our doubt and pain, we’ll find out for ourselves that we can count on God. If we handle God like fragile, precious crystal we’ll never find out how strong and supportive God really is.

OK, like I said, we’re going to spend most of our Bible time on the New Testament reading. It’s kind of a doozie, so we’re going to play with it a little bit in groups. Each of you has a small piece of paper with a number and a piece of our lesson on it. I’d like you to get up and move to the section of the room with your number on it and arrange yourselves in groups of 4 or 5. Introduce yourselves quickly and read the passage together.

Once you’ve done that discuss the passage for a couple of minutes. If you have a hard time starting your discussion, you’ll find a couple of questions on your sheet that might help. In a few minutes we’ll come back together and talk about the whole passage.

Romans 6:3-23

³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For whoever has died is freed from sin. ⁸But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. ¹³No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

²⁰When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²²But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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          Sometimes we feel trapped and overwhelmed by our lives and situations. We feel the press of bills and family responsibilities. We feel the demands of our job or the stress of looking for work, while we also wrestle with to do lists at home. Sometimes guilt or grief or anger or addiction or hopelessness take hold of our lives and refuse to let go.

Anything that traps us and takes away our freedom releases its grip when we die. If alcohol or gambling or bitterness or fear holds you so tightly you feel like you can’t breath, imagine what happens to that clutching claw when you die. It can’t hold you anymore because those traps and prisons are part of life. They loose their power when we die. That’s why when people feel like they have come to a dead end in their lives suicide can seem like a tempting escape. Suicide is the wrong choice, but when we feel trapped, the temptation makes sense. Death breaks the bonds that trap us.

Jesus died.

In baptism we become part of Jesus’ body.

That means in faith we have already died, and we are set free from all the concerns that take up so much of our energy and weigh so heavily on our shoulders and our souls.

The crazy thing is that Jesus didn’t stay dead, but instead he rose from the grave. By faith in Christ we are also part of his resurrection, which means we move from death to new life. So we are free from the tyranny of life and the cold grasp of death. We are free to do whatever we want with the amazing gift of new life in Christ.

All our responsibilities and relationships can be transformed in our new life in Christ. Instead of being traps and obligations we are free to see them as gifts and opportunities.

         In all the choices of freedom one of our choices is to fall back into sin and selfishness. We are free to get stuck again in the traps that held us before we found freedom in Christ. We don’t have to accept the freedom God offers; it is our choice.

         Sin isn’t an isolated thing. When we use our freedom to sin we become trapped in it, slaves to sin again. When we use our freedom to build up wealth for ourselves, for instance, we gradually become more and more attached to money. We start seeing other people as a threat to our financial security instead of being brothers and sisters we can share with. We use more and more of our time to pursue and secure wealth instead of following our calling to love and enjoy other people. Little by little the choice to make a little money becomes total slavery to possessions.

         We can imagine the same trajectory with any other sin if we want: pride, infidelity, racism, etc. One action leads to another and before long the trap is complete.

         On the other hand, we can use our freedom to follow God. Like with sin, choosing to follow God isn’t really an isolated choice. That choice leads to a life of service, a life even of slavery to righteousness.

When we choose to base our life on love we become trapped in the joy of fellowship, the freedom of giving, the warmth of acceptance. We loose the freedom to treat other people as objects because we know they are our brothers and sisters. We loose the freedom to build walls around ourselves and our possessions because we know we are connected to other people. A life of discipleship is slavery in its own way, because we give our lives to God, but it is a slavery full of joy, peace and fulfillment.

         In the freedom God gives us we choose whom we will serve. Will we choose to serve ourselves and the sinful structures of this world or will we choose to serve God and those who need us most? Will we choose the dead end of selfishness or the joyful road of community and discipleship? Christ sets us free for new life. How will you use your freedom?

Thanks be to God.

the gift of righteousness (3.13.11)

First Reading Genesis 12:1-4a

¹Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

⁴So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.

Romans 4:1-8, 13-25

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ²For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” ⁴Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. ⁵But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. ⁶So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: ⁷“Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; ⁸blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.”

¹³For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

¹⁶For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, ¹⁷as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

¹⁸Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” ¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²²Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

²³Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

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             We don’t use the word “reckon” very often. I remember my southern relatives saying they reckoned something was true. A lot of the people I’ve met from Australia and New Zealand say the same thing. But in Philadelphia or upstate New York we don’t reckon much of anything. That unfamiliarity can make it hard to hear the passage clearly.

            In this passage reckoning is almost an accounting word. Imagine a giant account book with every person in the world in it. God keeps track of each of us in that big book; he adds up credits; he figures, reckons our balance in a book.

            The question Paul answers in this part of Romans is how God reckons or figures our account. How does God determine our status, our credit, our righteousness?

            In Paul’s time the leading opinion in the Jewish community was that our righteousness was based on following the Law. God gave us the Law as a way to please God, to show us how to stay in the good column in God’s giant account book. Since Christianity was a movement within Judaism, the same idea was common in the church. The Law tells us how to be righteous with God like our 1040 form shows us how to keep our account right with Uncle Sam.

            There are some similar ideas today about how we keep our God account in the black. Maybe the most common belief is that we please God by being good people; by keeping our promises and being nice to others. Some people add to that going to church, giving generously and doing good deeds. Those are all good things, by the way; I’m not discouraging being nice or going to church.

            Paul says that’s not how God does math; that’s not how God reckons our righteousness. He looks back at Abraham’s story, because Abraham is our main ancestor in the faith. He remembers God’s promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. He remembers that God promised to bless all the families of the world through Abraham. Since we are all Abraham’s spiritual children we find an important clue to our righteousness by looking at Abraham.

            So we get to the key phrase in our passage: “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Abraham did plenty of good things in his life, some not so great things too, as we read a few Wednesdays ago, but plenty of good things. But that wasn’t what gave Abraham a good balance in God’s book. The foundation of Abraham’s righteousness with God was faith, trust in the God who called him, trust that God would keep his promises, even when Abraham couldn’t understand how that was possible.