Promises

Genesis 15:1-18

A few weeks ago, our cell phone contract was fulfilled. Like a lot of people, we were in a 2-year contract and it expired in February. We decided to sign up again for another two years and I can remember cringing a bit when I signed the paperwork. This is a 2-year promise. Every month for the next two years Verizon Wireless is counting on my promise to pay. I don’t like these kinds of obligations.

Every time I’m asked to promise something, I tense up a little bit. I’ve never failed in fulfilling a financial promise but there are plenty of other promises where I’ve fallen short. “I promise I’ll have that to you by the end of the week.” “I promise that tomorrow we’ll go fishing.” “I promise I will never let that happen again.” Oh, the promises I have let fall through the cracks of life and I haven’t even touched on all the promises where I’ve stiffed God. Are you good at keeping promises…all your promises?

Making good on promises is only half the story. What about waiting on promises that have been made to you? In this age of instantaneous transactions, why does it still take 6-8 weeks to get a rebate check for something purchased? Someone promises to call us by bedtime and we get all twisted in knots waiting for that call that doesn’t come until two days later. Someone promises they will complete a job for us and we ask for that promise in writing with a specified completion date because we want to know how long we’ll have to be patient. As the world has sped up, waiting on promises has become more difficult. And what about God’s promises? Have you ever felt God has stiffed you? Are you good at waiting on promises?

Keeping promises or waiting on promises. Which is easier? The first, of course, requires faithfulness, honesty, and determination: I will do what I said I would do. The second, however, requires faith, or the willingness to be patient. Someone else controls the timing of when the promise will be completed.[1] I find both sides equally difficult. I cringe when I have to make promises because I don’t want to fail to keep my word. I also cringe when someone makes me a promise because too often the words are empty.

The season of Lent is a march toward promise – the promise of redemption. There’s a promise we are called to make: I will be open to the voice of God that calls us “son” or “daughter.” There’s a promise made to us: Your redemption is through Jesus. I’m not always sure which is easier to deal with. Promising that we’ll be open to God’s voice can be a scary endeavor. God can be overwhelming. Believing in a promise of redemption knowing our sinful selves is equally scary. Which Lenten promise is tougher for you: the promise you’re called to make or the one you’re called to believe in?

Genesis 15 reveals to us a promising God. This is a God whose love is not mere sentiment or feeling, but is bound by a pledge that must be realized over the rocky, dangerous and uncertain path in history.[2] You’ve probably heard this story before – at least parts of it. Abram receives a promise from God that he will have a son and be the origin of a great nation. He was seventy-five when he received this promise.[3] Will it surprise you to learn that he had to wait twenty-five years for that promise to be fulfilled?[4] Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born. Be honest now, would you have given up on this promise if you were Abram? Twenty-five years of waiting is a long time.

Our text today happens somewhere between Abram’s seventy-fifth and one hundredth birthday. And Abram is doubting whether the promise of an heir will ever come true. It’s hard to blame him. We’ve heard this story so much our senses are dull to the absurdity of it all. I was thirty-seven when I first became a father and that’s a lot older than most men’s experience. But I’m still a baby compared to Abram. My mind can’t even make the leap to being a father at one hundred! Yet, God invites Abram outside to count the stars...or at least try. “So shall your descendants be,” says God.[5] The very next verse says that Abram believed God[6] yet throughout this whole section there’s a waffling between belief and doubt.

Think, for a moment, of all the promises…much less dramatic…where we begin to question God. I’m not as successful as I wanted to be. Why God? My children are not what I hoped they would be. Why God? I don’t have the comforts of life that I wanted. Why? Why do I suffer from physical ailments and my friends are healthy?

Lent is about honesty and too often we turn our wants into things we believe God should have promised us. And if somehow our belief of what’s promised lines up with God’s blessing, we’re sure we have proper timing all worked out. If nothing else, this story reminds us again that God is unbelievably gracious.[7] God is gracious to us and blesses us even when we twist things around for self-serving gain. God is gracious to us and blesses us even when we’re sure our timing is the best. God is gracious to us and blesses us when we waffle between doubt and belief.

Recently, I learned about personalized children’s books. Have you heard of these? You send your child’s name, age, address, pet’s name, friend’s names, etc. away to this company and they create a customized story with your child as the main character. For example, once upon a time in a place called Orcas Island, there lived a little boy named Gregg Hemmen. Now Gregg wasn't just an ordinary little boy. This is a story about one of his adventures. It's the story of the day that Gregg met a rhinoceros. What little kid isn’t going to like a story like this? We love to hear stories about ourselves![8]

The scriptural story is just that story. It’s the story of God’s gracious promises to us that are worked out in God’s timing. The call to Abram is the same that is to us: We are to faithfully seek out the voice of God and not give up. Can you promise to do that? And then, can you trust that God will make that promise real to you according to God’s timetable and not your own? Amen.

[1] Randy Cross, Lent 2007: Bound for Golgotha, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2006), p. 15.

[2] Rodney J. Hunter, “Pastoral Implications,” Lectionary Homiletics, March 7, 2004, p. 42.

[7] Roberta L. Rhodes, “Exegesis, Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18,” Lectionary Homiletics, March 7, 2004, p. 39.

[8] Bob Benson, See You at the House: The Very Best of the Stories He Used to Tell (Nashville, TN: Generoux Publishing, 1986), pp. 38-39.