Righteous Risk
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Covenant with Abraham
Rom 4:13-25
Mk 8:31-38
Abraham, Paul and Jesus lived a covenant relationship with God. It meant taking God seriously, listening and being willing to follow God instead of their good ideas. It meant taking righteous risks for God.
Abraham is an interesting guy, often seen as a paradigm of faith, though we know several examples in his character that oppose our sense of faithfulness. God does not seem to mind the little manipulation Abram and Sarai concoct to have a child by Hagar. Even when the mother and child are abandoned in the desert, God promises to watch over them and bless them. God renames Sarai, Sarah and Abram, Abraham (meaning the father of multitudes) and reassures them that they will have a child. Sarah laughed but the promise was true. Isaac was born. And Isaac’s son was Jacob and Jacob was the father of 12 sons, representing the 12 tribes of Israel.
Abraham received the “everlasting covenant” initiated by God to a specific people. This covenant is good news because it indicates acceptance. God accepts these humans with their brokenness, misperception of the good and true, their confusion and lack of deserving and right in the midst of this mess, God offers a covenant of acceptance. For every person who feels unacceptable, for whatever reason, take heart. Listen to the psalm declare the universality of God’s outreach to humanity, to all the nations, to all who sleep in the earth, to future generations: all shall stand in awe before our God. The divine gaze is on us, as it was on our ancestors. Do we trust like Abraham, cleaver in our creativity, or do we snicker like Sarai when God suggests something we consider unreasonable?
Peter is unwilling to accept Jesus’ prophetic warning of his persecution, rejection and death. Crucifixion was a terrible way to die and no citizen of Rome would ever be executed this way. No one bragged or wanted to be crucified. Peter trusted his experience and reason in objecting. Jesus’s response to Peter is shocking: “Get behind me, Satan!” You are thinking like a human, not with divine insight.
Jesus taught that his way was one of self-denial, the way of the cross. Jesus sees more clearly than Peter that his willingness to speak truth to power is dangerous. Moreover Jesus cannot do less than expose the injustice of the status quo. The powerful do not like to lose control of their privilege, then or now. Peter may hope that an earthly kingdom will provide a place for all of them to be admired and given privileges the common people don’t enjoy. Peter may dream about being on the winning side.
Today there are people who still wait for the Messiah because peace and justice has not come to our world. The feeling that prevents many from being Christian is that God has not fulfilled the promises befitting the Messiah. Jesus asked, who do people say that I am? The question is put to Christians of every age. What answer do we offer? Peter is right in saying; you are the Christ/Messiah. Peter is wrong about what that title means.
What do we mean when we confess Jesus is Lord, Christ, Messiah? Do we expect that knowing and claiming a relationship with Jesus will rescue us from all hardship, all suffering, even death? Do we expect that alignment with Jesus the Christ will lead to a special place in the future coming kingdom? Do we think it is a path that protects against illness and hardship and ensures success, power and privilege? Do we understand that Christ is a vocational title earned through a life of suffering, self-sacrificial love? In rare moments of interior searching and bold honesty before the searching glare of God we may admit to being as confused and bewildered as Peter.
We want divine intervention when we are in trouble, when we are sick, when we face death. We long for a king of peace for the nations, and a king of glory with power to transform our world. But the good news of the gospel is: the divine transcendent has entered our world. The message of the cross is not something Jesus did once to resolve some heavenly metaphysical transaction that was needed. The cross is a message from God telling us that God can and must be seen in all things, especially in sinful, broken and tragic things. The place of punishment became the place of reconciliation. The mystery is that if we can trust the transforming pattern – that God turns death into life, God makes the wounds of the cross sacred signs of redemption. If we can believe this as revelation, then we can begin to trust God in all things.
The heart of God is revealed upon a cross is a new covenant, one of grace. Like the covenant with Noah and Abraham, we did not initiate it, we did nothing to earn membership in it, but recognize grace as unmerited favor. Abraham, Paul and Jesus found covenant relationship with God costly. If it was costly for them, it is costly for all. In this holy season of Lent, the church recognizes the vulnerability and fragility of human life. We know we are sinners redeemed by grace. We can be a church of forgiven sinners, sharing our struggles to live faithfully even when the cost of doing so is high. We can be a community of persons pardoned and forgiven, accepted and set free to forgive and accept.
In the movie, Miracle at midnight, a physician in Denmark knew that the German occupying troops would soon begin to round up and persecute his Jewish neighbors. Word was spread from the top echelons of power, student groups, hospital staff, to all neighbors and a plan was devised for Christians to take Jews in on the night of Passover so that when their homes were raided they would not be there. We observe two families seated at the Passover meal hiding in the attic of the home of the host. The Jewish man explained the symbolism of the meal, the sacred practice of their people, the teaching of the Scriptures. The youngest member of the Christian family offered a plate with bitter herbs and honey and said she had read about the foods meaning. In reply the Jewish father said, and I have read from your scriptures that one who loves God also loves and serves their neighbor.