Readings: Genesis 15:1-6 | 1 John 4:16-21 | Luke 16:19-31
Text: Genesis 15:1-6
“The Here and Now for the Now and Not Yet.”
St. Paul comments on these verses in Genesis by saying,
“In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:18-22)
How can Paul say this about Abraham, while we also read later in Genesis that he had a child with Hagar, his wife’s slave, and bore Ishmael? How can it be that there’s a man of such strong faith that he does not doubt God’s tremendous promise?
I think all too often, we measure the faith of the Patriarch Abraham by our own weak standard. We today suffer greatly from a longing for “here and now” affirmations of God’s truth. The trouble is that we have fewer than ever.
In the Old Testament for today, it says,
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6)
Here in the interaction with Abram, we see that God gives both assurances which he needs: a present assurance and a future promise. In Abraham’s own life, the Lord gives the promise of Isaac, his son. “Your very own son shall be your heir.” God makes a future promise here to Abram.
Yet it’s also genuine trust in God that Abram is commended by God. The Lord makes these tremendous promises to Abram, that something he has not seen will be brought to pass by God: “So shall your offspring be” (more numerous than the stars). God’s promise is not beyond reality. It’s not disconnected from reality; it’s only possible because of Him who gives the promise. So also, Abram’s faith is not in what he can calculate or understand, he can only trust that what God Almighty says is true—against what he sees, against what he can reason.
This is a fitting picture for us in our day. Every day, we confess our hope in a glorious, peaceful, and bright future which we cannot see: “He will come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end…I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.” (Nicene Creed) This is the future hope which the Holy Spirit keeps alive in all Christians, and which even the young and immature Christians understand and rely on.
But is that all? Well, no, because we have the Bible. It is a tangible thing to which we can cling. We can meditate on it, pore over it, study it, adorn our walls and our coffee mugs with it. And this is a good thing. Christians believe the Bible is God’s Word, and so they treasure it as the greatest treasure we could have in the suffering and uncertainty of this life. Just yesterday at the East Linn Christian graduation, the school board gifted each graduate with a Bible of the highest quality printing and binding—a gift which easily cost thousands of dollars for 29 graduates. This is a good and beautiful act, because recognizes the eternal treasure that is contained between these covers. “13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
But is this all? Not at all to diminish the labors of the centuries before us that made it possible for us to hold God’s Word in our own hands—reliably preserved and transmitted, faithfully translated. There is something more for the here and now which the Lord our God gives us. Abram was told that he would have a son, and he and Sarah rejoiced to hold their baby, Isaac: “And Sarah said, ‘God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.’ 7 And she said, ‘Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’” (Genesis 21:6-7) There is more to this “here and now” assurance for us: the Sacraments.
These gifts—the washing of Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the Absolution—have been with believers since the 40 days the resurrected Lord walked this earth. They are a gift which became misunderstood through false teaching and philosophy. They are now lacking in many Christian bodies today, but they are here and now assurances which the Lord nevertheless gives to His faithful.
“19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19–20) Baptism, as the Small Catechism says, is not just plain water. It is truly “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:5-7) Yes, in this washing, God is not only giving you a future hope that “if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5) But here today for you is the “gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38), the transformation already underway that you are “a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17), and that you “have put on Christ” and are clothed with His pure righteousness and share as “Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:27, 29).
Other well-intentioned Christians might look at us a scant for believing in baptismal regeneration or think we’re wrong for baptizing even infants. In the words of the Small Catechism, “How can water do such great things?” It’s not the water alone; we believe these things about Holy Baptism because the Lord Himself has said so. We, with Abram, believe God, even though He promises great things.
So it is with the Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist, or Holy Communion. “The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood [which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins, Matt. 26:28]. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25, also Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22) This is where Christ feeds us with His own Body and Blood. It is both our fulfilled Passover Meal and our Manna in this world—“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh… Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6:51-56) This is why the pastor, dismissing those who have communed says, “The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in body and soul unto life everlasting.” It may astound us that such a great thing can come from a ceremonial meal. But again, we take our Lord at His Word. This, we do in remembrance of what He has done, but also that in this eating and drinking, we receive His present forgiveness and truly abide in Him. We believe God, even though He promises such great things!
And this is how it is with Confession and Absolution. The Pharisees were offended in Matthew 9, when Jesus “said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.’ 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’ 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise and walk”? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he then said to the paralytic—’Rise, pick up your bed and go home.’” At which point, the “crowds…glorified God, who had given such authority to men.” (Matthew 9:2-8) And it would be audacious for anyone but Jesus Himself to speak forgiveness, for “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7)
Yet, that is what the Lord has given to His Church: “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18) and this specific charge to the disciples: “‘As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.’” (John 20:21-23). We believe in this great promise from our Lord, and trust such amazing things: “I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.” (Small Catechism)
So, take comfort, together with Abram, that the Lord has promised a future beyond all our present comprehension. He has also given you here in time these means of grace, these holy things: His Word, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Absolution. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
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