Facing a Frightening or Unknown Future

Sunday, February 25, 2024 – Mark 8:31-38 Also Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Psalm 22:23-31, Romans 4:13-25

After I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in communications from Purdue University, nothing seemed to go the way I’d planned it. I originally thought I’d move to Florida to work for Walt Disney World, but that dream got cut off at the knees by a policy that would likely be considered highly discriminatory today. I worked for a short period in encyclopedia sales, ending up in more debt than when I began, and out of desperation, took a seasonal job as a clerk in the Treasury department of an agricultural chemicals company.

I quickly moved from seasonal to permanent, and then moved again from credit clerking to managing advertising and communications for the company with my boss. I enjoyed the work, but after the company went through a leveraged buyout, they eliminated my position. That was only the first of probably seven or eight times of being downsized out of a job. Things were especially volatile when I worked in the software industry.

The first time I was laid off, I was devastated. But by the third or fourth time, I became much better at rolling with the changes. In fact, I was often a supportive coach to several co-workers, telling each one that they shouldn’t just look for the same old job in the next go ‘round. I suggested they be willing to follow where the energy was leading them, to those conversations and possible opportunities that may arise that looked nothing like their last job. In my own life, I kept asking where my soul wanted to go and where God was leading me.

When I read our lessons for today, I see a theme of facing an unknown or even frightening future. This is true for Abraham and Sarah, and it’s also true for Peter and Jesus. What good news do we see in these texts? For me, there are three movements that I want to talk about.

• Trusting in the flow of God’s life
• Releasing our preconceived notions
• Living God’s Big Life vs. the ego’s little life

Trusting in the Flow of God’s Life

In our culture, we’ve come to use the terms faith and belief interchangeably, as if they mean the same thing. When we say, “I have faith in God” we sometimes lump that in with the idea that we believe a statement like “God is real.” We can even connect that to our church doctrines and creeds. We see this when we say the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed which usually begin with the phrase “I believe” or “we believe.” In this understanding, the word “believe” means to agree to a statement or concept, like “I believe the earth is round.”

But the Latin word credo (the root of the word “creed”) in its original sense had nothing to do with agreeing to particular statements. It had everything to do with commitment, covenant, and with where we put our hearts. In fact, the Greek word in the New Testament that is typically translated as “faith” can just as easily mean “trust.”

The story of the calling and renaming of Abraham and Sarah shows us the importance of human openness and trust in the flow of God’s work in history. In the same way that it’s Mary’s willingness to be intimate with God that gives birth to Jesus and his saving life, Abraham and Sarah’s willingness to walk with God gives birth to an everlasting covenant with God’s people. Abraham, Sarah, and Mary are all fallible humans, imperfect people, but through them and through us God makes a way for birth, growth, and transformation.

But there’s no doubt that trusting in God and walking where God leads brings life-altering changes. Abraham’s faith doesn’t just bring God’s promises. It radically re-orients his entire life. As we see even more clearly in Sarah’s pregnancy and the birth of Isaac, following God means that Abraham and Sarah had to give up all of their preconceived notions of what their life would be like.

Releasing our Preconceived Notions

All outer signs pointed to the impossibility that any future would come from Abraham and Sarah. Their bodies were seemingly infertile, and as Paul says, due to his advanced age, Abraham’s body “was as good as dead.” But Abraham “hoped against hope” and “did not weaken in faith.” He wouldn’t let his preconceived notions about his situation cause him to waver in his hope, and he grew strong in faith because he gave glory to God.

Now what about Peter? Immediately prior to today’s Gospel text, we read that Peter had literally just acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah. He clearly had faith. But as soon as Jesus begins to talk about suffering, rejection, and death, Peter says, “Whoa, hold on a second now.” He takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke him, which means “sharp disapproval or criticism.”

Jesus then turns back to the disciples and says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” How can we understand these harsh words? First, we need to understand the meaning of the word “satan” in the bible. It really just means “adversary.” And so “satan” represents all the forces in the world that work against God or against the ways of God.

Jesus knew that anytime we tell truths that are inconvenient to the powers that be, we will surely undergo great suffering and rejection. We don’t have to invite suffering, it’s just an assumed reality of the human experience. Jesus also knew that God’s answer to the human condition was not violent overthrow of the Roman authorities and the returning of Israel to its old glory. It was something much different.

But Peter had preconceived notions of what Messiah meant. So, when Jesus begins to describe his journey of suffering and death, Peter wants no part of that. Jesus sternly tells Peter and all those listening that God’s way is about sacrifice. It’s about giving up what our small selves have imagined was necessary for life and embracing the unknown, embracing God’s bigger vision and bigger life.

Living God’s Big Life vs. the Ego’s Little Life

Jesus trusted the flow of God’s life. He was committed to living the truth of God’s love, of God’s promises, and of God’s restoration of all to wholeness no matter where it took him. Even if it inevitably led him toward a frightening future.

Jesus says, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel [the truth, the good news of God], will save it.” Jesus isn’t saying here that each of us has to be martyred and crucified by the Roman government. He’s saying that following his Way means being willing to let go of the demands of our small, separate selves so that we can be part of God’s bigger plan. Losing our lives for the sake of the gospel means being willing to live God’s Big Life vs. our ego’s little life.

We see this in Abraham. The reason the covenant God made with Abraham, and with Noah before him, is an everlasting covenant is “because it is grounded in the will of God, not human behavior.”

God calls us forward not backward. God calls us into the unknown. To a life that is oriented around godly priorities and trust in God’s ways, and not oriented around the past or our small life priorities.

In some ways, we might think of ourselves here at Redeemer as having been downsized out of the job we got in the 1960s. It’s a job that we loved and a way of being in the world that made sense to us. In a way, we’re also like Abraham and Sarah. Our congregation is not young. Our people have earned their right to rest and enjoy their older years. So are we “as good as dead”?

We may look at ourselves and think along with Sarah, “surely we are too old to give birth!” We may wonder if we have a future because sometimes the evidence around us looks pretty bleak and we may feel like our golden years are behind us. But Paul tells us that God “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.”

Since I’ve been in this role as your interim minister, I see a lot of smiles, I see a lot of hugs. I see seniors coming together and working really hard to offer a rummage sale, to make soup for services, and I see people who are enjoying new styles of worship at Advent and Lent. I see stirrings of hope and an interest in what may be next for us even if that future pathway is unclear. In Abraham and Sarah, and in Jesus and Peter, we see their astonishing moves to trust the promises of God beyond all evidence and all reasonable expectation. What is God asking of us today? Where is the energy leading us? And are we willing to follow God into a future that may look different from our past? Those are the questions we must ask.