I apologize for missing on Thursday; I’m trying to make amends by posting on Saturday.
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By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would
later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know
where he was going. By faith he made his
home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in
tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same
promise. For he was looking forward to
the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And by faith even Sarah, who was past
childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him
faithful who had made the promise. And
so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as
the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. Hebrews
11:8-12
I finished up yesterday by
suggesting that the fact that we are unable to understand the who, what, where,
when, and whys of what God does is actually forms the basis for deeper trust in
God. This seems counterintuitive because
from our experience with human relationships, the less we understand someone,
the less we trust them. And at first,
this is how it is with God. We learn
more about God and it seems like we can trust a bit more with our growing
relationship. We find God faithful and
that our prayers seem to be answered and our life is blessed. Our trust grows.
But sooner or later, something
terrible happens that seems to call that trust into question. We lose someone
we never thought we would. We are
stricken with a terrible illness or tragedy.
Or like Abraham, we are faced with a terrible choice that one should
never have to make. As we talked about
yesterday, these events force us to see that God is “wholly other.” We are reminded of the words of Isaiah:
“For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:8-9)
This wholly otherness of God causes a crisis of faith; are we going to trust God despite what I
cannot comprehend or overlook or do I walk away. Most people face this crisis at some point in
their life. Some even face moments like
this more than once. Soren Kierkegaard,
one of my favorite theologians, spoke of these moments as the most important in
forging deep faith that goes beyond reason and common sense. One of his more famous quotes alludes to
this:
“Faith sees best in the dark.”
Here’s the larger quote from Kierkegaard’s Gospel of
Suffering:
“The believer humanly comprehends
how heavy the suffering is, but in faith’s wonder that it is beneficial to him,
he devoutly says: It is light. Humanly he says: It is impossible, but he says
it again in faith’s wonder that what he humanly cannot understand is beneficial
to him. In other words, when sagacity (definition of sagacity: acuteness of
mental discernment and soundness of judgment) is able to perceive the
beneficialness, then faith cannot see God; but when in the dark night of
suffering sagacity cannot see a handbreadth ahead of it, then faith can see
God, since faith sees best in the dark.”
The promise to Abraham was indeed fulfilled, but Abraham
never got to see it in his life on earth.
But what is obvious is that Abraham was able to see God in the darkness
of that unfulfilled promise and keep obeying anyway. We are all sons and daughters of
Abraham. May we all inherit his
unshakable trust in God, even in the darkness.
Prayer: God, give us
faith that sees in the dark. Amen
Prayer Focus: Pray
for God to give you the name of someone to invite to online worship tomorrow.
Song: I double-dog dare you to dance along to this one as we
wrap up our celebration of Abraham.
Father Abraham - Kids on the Move
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