By the Rev’d Jim Lam

Season: 2nd Sunday in Lent
Readings: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 | Philippians 3:17-4:1 | Luke 13:31-35

Many of us gathered around here today have experienced migration – from Britain, Hong Kong, South Africa and various parts of the world. I still remember the days when we first arrived in this country. Everything was new, elating and at the same time, a bit confusing. I can still recall the day when I stood in the middle of downtown, holding an envelope and looking lost. A kind passer-by offered his help. And so, I showed him my envelope, and said, “Could you please give me direction to this address? ……um, Private Bag 3624…….”

Abraham was the first immigrant in the Bible. He is called the father of faith. If we examine the life journey of Abraham, it can be summed up in three words: faith, acceptance and covenant.

The Lord told Abraham, originally known as Abram, to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a land God would show him. Abraham obeyed and set out on a journey into the unknown. And it was Abraham’s faithful and obedient answer to God’s call that marks the beginning of a new history. Faith means trusting in God: in who God is, in what he is willing and able to do, and in humbly trusting that his guidance will lead the faithful to abundant life.

Abraham believed. He believed God’s promise without having any concrete evidence that God’s promise would come to pass. Indeed, Abraham’s faith had been enabled because God particularized his promise by addressing the specific situation opened up by Abraham’s needs, which were offspring and land. These were essential components of people’s identities during biblical times. However, it is worth noting that Abraham was relying not on God’s promise, but rather, on the one who made the promise.

And so, in a vision, Abraham asked the Lord whether he would remain childless. God responded that he would not only have an heir, but innumerable descendants. When Abraham asked for a sign, the Lord made a covenant with him, an unconditional one sealed with an animal sacrificial rite, a ritual that Abraham would understand.

Kingship is the main metaphor used in the Bible to describe God’s activities and his relationship with humans. God is king. In the ancient world, kings related to others in the kingdom primarily through covenants. In an unconditional covenant, the king pledged a royal favour on behalf of a subject, perhaps to reward a special service to the king.

According to practices of that time, animals were slaughtered to make a covenant. The animals were than ritualistically divided into pieces and laid opposite to one another. To conclude the covenant, the parties involved must pass between the divided pieces, signifying that if they broke the covenant, they would suffer a similar fate. We may note that the patriarch himself did not pass between the sacrifice. But God invoked a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch to pass between the pieces. By this, according to Eastern ideas, God bound himself.

But why did God so favour Abraham that he would even make a single-sided covenant with him? It was because “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God” (James 2:23).

What, then, is true faith? Let us ask ourselves a few questions: am I willing to accept God’s plans for my life? Do I believe that such plans are devised by God Most High? Even though the future so envisaged might deviate so greatly from my current path of life and expectations that I have difficulties to really believe that it could happen? In the case of Abraham, the answers to these questions are resounding yeses. Just consider: God’s blessings for him would occur in two main ways: offspring and land. Abraham was in his 80’s. For a childless migrant in his 80’s who lived in a foreign land, these might sound so very far-fetched. Nevertheless, Abraham believed and accepted God’s promise and his plans for his life.

Let us turn to today’s gospel. We can read it as another temptation that Jesus faced. Surprisingly, this came from a friendly Pharisee who warned him that Herod wanted to kill him. However, from Jesus’ answer, he seemed to be looking at dangers greater than the potential mortal threats. At that moment, Jesus was in Galilee, in Herod’s jurisdiction, and the threats on his life could be immediate and real. And yet, he grieved instead for the destruction of Jerusalem. He was more concerned for a greater future, on greater threats that his people would be facing. He was more concerned for his dying and rising again, because he knew that it was only through his suffering that his mission of salvation would be completed. And he was determined to accept God’s plans for his life.

In Philippians, Paul wrote that “many live as enemies of the cross of Christ”, because their minds were set on earthly things. He talked about citizenship in heaven as a matter closely related to his audience. This is also a matter closely related to our way of living. Just as God’s plan of salvation is related to Abraham and Jesus, so is it related to each one of us.

Abraham’s story shows us that deciding to accompany God on this journey of faith is the wisest decision a person can make. This is the decision that leads to life, blessing, and the Promised Land. Are we willing to believe God and his plans and his promise for us? Even when our plans for the future and God’s plans for us might be drastically different? It really depends on how much we are willing to entrust our lives and our future with God. What we can do is to work harder to set our minds on divine things rather than on human things. This way, we may hope to walk closer to God on our journey of life. Through this, and with God’s blessings, can we gain a better knowledge of our Lord and of ourselves.

Now that our church is in a period of transition as we have farewelled one Vicar and now go through the process of finding another, it is particularly important for us to hold on to the God we trust and serve. As a faith community and as individuals, let us reflect on God’s plans for us, while we seek the Lord and his strength, and seek his presence continually. Only then, can we have hope to really trust in him and accept his plans and promises for us. Amen.