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A COVENANT OF FAITH

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Genesis 17:1-7, 15-17

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Faith defines our purpose, brings us joy, and heals = our brokenness.

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

February 17, 2008

There was a young paratr= ooper who was admittedly not the sharpest tool in the shed, not the brightest bul= b in the chandelier, if you know what I mean.&n= bsp; (You can draw your own conclusions about his country of origin, his = alma mater, or the color of his hair.) His sergeant gave him his instructions before his first jump. He was to jump out of the plane, w= ait ten seconds, and pull the cord to release his parachute. If the parachute did not open, he = was to pull the cord on his emergency ‘chute. When he got to the ground, there w= ould be a truck waiting to take him back to the base.

The airplane carrying = his squad ascended to the proper height, the men starting jumping out, and when= the young paratrooper got his order, out he went as well. He counted to ten and pulled the c= ord to release his parachute. Nothing happened! He pulled the cord = to release his emergency parachute. Nothing happened! R= 20;Oh, great,” he thought. “I’ll bet the truck’s not going to be there, either!”[1]

Do you ever feel like = that young paratrooper? Do you eve= r feel like nothing is turning out the way you planned? Does it ever seem like your life i= s in free fall and there’s no way to stop it? We need a parachute sometimes, don’t we? We need one t= hat works! We need something that= will hold us up and keep us from crashing, something that will give us a softer landing when we fall.

I want to suggest toda= y that faith can be our parachute. M= aking a covenant of faith can be the most important life-preserving decision you = ever make. Remember last week, we defined “covenant” as an agreement of faith made in a moment of strength so that in a moment of weakness, we cannot be released. Faith holds us steady when our liv= es are in free fall.

When we think about fa= ith, one of the characters out of the Bible that immediately comes to mind is Abraham, the father of faith honored by Jews, Christians, and Muslims today. Abraham lived by faith= , and his covenant of faith with God is the model for our faith in Jesus Christ.<= o:p>

Abraham heard a strang= e call from God when he was already 75 years old.= God called him to pull up stakes from his hometown and travel to a l= and that God would give to him. No further explanation was given. God’s promise to Abram, as he was known at the time, was that = God would make of him a great nation and that he would be blessed to be a bless= ing to all people.

So Abram went. He journeyed from his home in Haran down into Canaan and on down to Egypt, then back again to Canaan, the land God had promised. In= Genesis 15, God renewed the call he gave to Abram and promised again that AbramR= 17;s descendants would be as numerous as the stars in heaven. Abram responded by believing the p= romise of God. He had faith, and it justified him before God: “[A= bram] believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.”= = = [2] Though he was 86 years old by this= time, though he and his wife had no children, still Abram believed the promise of= God for many descendants. Responding to his belief, God made a covenant with Abram—a covenant of faith.

Genesis 17, our Script= ure for today, is really a second renewal of the covenant thirteen years later. God appears to Abram, = now 99 years old, and changes his name to Abraham, which means “father of a multitude.” He has been faithfully waiting for the fulfillment of the promise for 24 years now. God promises Abraham a nation of descendants and all the land he can see in Canaan. But there is a response that is required: all the males in Abraham’s household have to be circumcised= as a sign of the covenant. =

Scripture doesn’t record Abraham’s immediate reaction to God’s requirement. I’m guessing he probably sai= d, “Lord, I really liked the rainbow thing you did with Noah. Or how about an earring? Or a tattoo? That would be a nice sign, too.”

If Abraham would faith= fully perform this sign, then God promised that within the year, the son Abraham = and Sarah had waited on for over twenty years would be born. The whole scenario was so incredib= le that Abraham fell over laughing: “Yeah, right! An old man nearly a hu= ndred years old is going to father a child! A woman barren for 90 years is going to have a baby! And you want me to circumcise ever= y man and boy in my camp! You’= ;re killing me here, Lord!”

Evidently, God was not laughing. So when Abraham pic= ked himself up and dried his tears of laughter, he still believed. He circumcised all his males, and = within the year, there was a new kind of laughter in the camp, the laughter of new parents celebrating the blessing of a baby boy. His name was Isaac, which means &#= 8220;He laughs.” Today millions= of people around the world call Abraham their ancestor, a multitude like the grains of sand on a beach, like the stars in the sky, just as God promised.=

In the New Testament, Abraham is remembered for his faith. Paul talks about Abraham in Romans 4, as he points out that it was Abraham’s faith, not the sign of circumcision, that made him righteous before God. Salvation, theref= ore, is not about works; it’s all about faith. The writer of Hebrews holds up Abr= aham as a prime example of his definition of faith: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”[3]

But what about faith today? What does it mean to h= ave faith? How can faith keep us = from crashing? I have some suggest= ions.

First, faith defines our purpose.&= nbsp; In the covenant of faith with God, we discover why we are put on the planet. We understand what life is all abo= ut, and it’s not wealth, fame, power or pleasure. We get a vision for a God-driven l= ife that will mean something and make a difference while we are alive.

For Abraham, his purpo= se was found in the promise that God would give him descendants and land. He was to be blessed to be a blessing. He was to receive f= rom God so that he could give to others. Is that so different from today?&nb= sp; Faith gives our lives a perspective that is bigger than self-satisfaction. It’s= not about me! There is a larger context, a broader foundation, a meaning to life beyond the statement, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” In faith we know who we are, what we’re about, and to whom we belong.

So no matter what happ= ens to us, no matter how long it takes to achieve the dreams for our lives—Abraham and Sarah waited a quarter of a century—even if o= ur dreams and hopes are never fulfilled, we are still grounded in God. Our existence achieves significance through our faith.

Many stories of faith emerged out of the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Al Braca was a corporate bond trad= er who worked on the 105^th floor of Tower One in the World Trade Center. A week after the attack, Al’= s body was pulled from the rubble of the collapsed tower. According to his wife, Al hated hi= s job. He couldn’t stand the enviro= nment; it was totally out of sync with his Christian values. But he wouldn’t quit. He was convinced that God wanted h= im there for a purpose, to be a light in the darkness.

As reports trickled in= from friends and acquaintances in the days following September 11, the Braca fam= ily learned that Al had indeed been ministering in his final moments. Some of his co-workers were able t= o send out final emails or make phone calls to their loved ones, and they describe= d a man named Al who was leading the people in prayer. When he realized that they were tr= apped and could not escape, Al shared the gospel with about 50 co-workers and led them in prayer before the building went down.[4]

Faith defines our purp= ose in life, and faith brings us joy. What is your reaction to the p= romise of faith? Abraham fell on his= face and laughed! This was so incredible, that God would bless him in this way after all these years. He couldn’t believe it! Yet he had to believe it.

I think sometimes peop= le get the idea that being a Christian is like becoming an undertaker—every = day is a funeral. But Jesus descr= ibed the Kingdom of God as a banquet, a party, a celeb= ration of the highest order. Faith b= rings us joy.

In the fall of 2002 th= ere was a football game that brought particular joy to the heart of one young m= an. His name was Jake Porter. He was a senior at Northwest High School in McDermott, Ohio<= /st1:place>. Jake had a chromosomal condition t= hat rendered him unable to read, and he could barely write his name. But he did OK in his special educa= tion classes, and he loved being a part of the football team. He never missed a practice.

Jake’s coach, Da= ve Frantz, wanted to do something special for him in his last season. So he called his friend, Derek Dew= itt, who was coaching Waverly High, the team they were playing in the final game= . They agreed that if the game was n= ot on the line, they would let Jake come in, get the ball, and take a knee to end= the game. It would be a treat for= a really sweet kid.

So with five seconds l= eft in the game that next Friday night, Coach Frantz called time out. Waverly was beating Northwest High 42-0. Jake trotted in to the huddle, and the two coaches met at midfield. But there was evidently some sort = of disagreement. Waverly&#= 8217;s Coach Dewitt was waving his arms, and when a referee stepped in, he gathered his players for just a moment and returned to his sideline.

The ball was snapped, = and the quarterback handed off to Jake. He started to take a knee, as he had been told to do, but his teamma= tes stood him up and told him to run. He started running the wrong way, and a referee caught him and turned him around. As he approached = the line of scrimmage, the defense parted for him like the waters of the Red Sea for Moses.= Jake ran through the defense and kept running for the goal line. The players from both high schools= ran down the field behind him, cheering him on. Both sidelines held up their helme= ts and shouted encouragement. In the stands, the mothers cried, and the fathers roared. Jake Porter scored with no time le= ft, and his team lost 42-6. But t= hey never celebrated a victory like they celebrated that defeat! Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated called it the “Play of the Year.” The local paper = called it “The Touchdown Heard ‘Round the World.”

The disagreement at th= e time out came because Coach Frantz of Northwest High was reminding Coach Dewitt = of the plan for Jake to take a knee. Coach Dewitt, the opposing coach, said, "No, that’s not enough. I want him to score.&= #8221; Frantz objected, but Dewitt insisted. He told his defense not to touch the player that was about to get the ball. And Jake made the run o= f his life.= [5]

God has a special play= for each one of us, and he doesn’t just want us to take a knee and end the game. God wants us to score!<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> People of faith have every reason = to be joyful. God loves us. Jesus saves us. The Holy Spirit lives in us. We are blessed; we are gifted; we = are children of God. That brings = us joy!

Finally, faith heals our brokenness. Life, as you know, is not all a touchdown celebration. Someti= mes we get tackled behind the line of scrimmage, sacked for a loss, carried out on= a stretcher. The blows of life = can hurt. Faith is there to heal = our brokenness.

Abraham and Sarah had grieved for decades that they had never had children. Infertility was their cross to bear. But believing the promi= se of God, they waited, and their faith brought them again to joy and laughter.

Faith heals our brokenness. Faith heals the r= ift of sin that keeps us out of relationship with God. Faith can heal any kind of human brokenness there is—illness of body or spirit, grief, broken relationships, economic hardship, personal problems. Faith doesn’t take away the problems or even the pain sometimes. But faith gives us the resources of comfort, strength, courage, determination, and hope to deal with the difficulties, to overcome our obstacles, to land on our feet and walk on.

In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, there is a tree: a sprawling, shade-bearing, 80-year-old American Elm. Tourists drive from miles around to= see it. People pose for pictures beneath it. Arborists carefully protect it. The tree adorns posters and letterh= ead. Other trees grow larger, fuller—even greener. Bu= t not one is equally cherished. The city treasures the tree not because of its appearance, but because of its endurance.&= nbsp; This sacred symbol survived the Oklahoma City bombing.

On April 19, 1995, Tim= othy McVeigh parked his death-laden truck only yards from the tree. His hatred killed 168 people, wound= ed 850, destroyed the Alfred= P. M= urrah Federal Building, and buried the tree in rubble. No one expected it to survive. N= o one, in fact, gave any thought to the dusty, branch-stripped tree.

But then it began to b= ud. Sprouts pressed through damaged bar= k; green leaves pushed away gray soot. Life resurrected from an acre of de= ath. People noticed. The tree modeled the resilience of = the victims of that terrorist act. So they gave the elm a name: the Survivor Tree.[6]

That tree is a symbol of faith. When the bombs of life= go off at your front door, faith will help us survive. Faith defines our purpo= se, brings us joy, and heals our brokenness.&n= bsp; Faith is what holds us up, and faith is what keeps us from crashing. This is our indestructible, eternal parachute—the covenant of faith. Amen!