When God calls Abram to a new land, it is for Abram and Sarai to let go
of the past and present. We may keep in mind, with regard to Abram’s faith,
that he is also called later to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, and in that act, to let go of the future. God calls Abram and Sarai, in other words, to step
outside of all expectation and hope, memory and familiarity, in order to listen
to the voice that comes from eternity.
How easy it is to look back on any of these
faithful responses and assume that each person knew what he or she was doing
and, more importantly, knew what God was doing. I suspect they knew neither of
these, but they did know something about God that enabled their response. They
knew our God is a God of impossibility. Our God is not rational or predictable,
not limited by what is heard and seen. Our God is a God of hope and calls us to
enter faithfully into these hopeful experiences. Living with hope rejects the
fatalism of the situation by recognizing that we humans don't have the right to
make that assessment. In other words, just because we can't find any
possibility amidst impossibility doesn't mean possibility is absent. ––
Jennifer Copeland
John 3:1-17
In this episode, Nicodemus' understanding
of Jesus is inadequate. However, Nicodemus continues to appear in John's
gospel. He challenges the chief priests and Pharisees. . . joins Joseph of
Arimathea in removing Jesus from the cross and tending to his burial. . . ;
ultimately, he became a true follower.
In this passage, we find remembrances of
the Jesus of history and the challenges to the early church when it was
expelled by the synagogue. Christians are called to identify with Nicodemus and
are challenged to consider how to hear the Gospel anew and “to enter ever more
fully into the mystery of divine revelation and thus to appropriate anew our
identity as disciples” (Sandra M. Schneiders, Written That You May Believe [Herder & Herder, 2003], 125). ––
Regina Boisclair
Genesis 12:1-4a
The story of God's call of Abram marks the
beginning of the story of God's relationship with the family who will come to
be identified as the people of Israel. God's call to Abram to move away from
homeland and family is accompanied with promises of posterity, prominence, as
provenance of blessings to all nations. . . This story conveys the idea that
Lent is God's call to leave aside the familiar and to seek where and how God
leads.
God's promises to Abram are God's assurance
that blessings come to those who do what they sense to be God's call. . . ––
Regina Boisclair
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
This passage. . . presents a central
feature of Paul's theology: through faith in God's gospel of Jesus Christ, one
enters into a right relationship with God. This reading links with the first
reading from Genesis and explains Abraham's relationship to Christians.
The selection likens Christian faith to
Abraham's trust in God's promises. Paul claims that those who have faith are
the true descendants of Abram and heirs to the promises. . . By stressing that
the promises to Abraham and his descendants were based on faith, Paul
identifies Abraham as the father of those who have faith in Christ, God's
Gospel. –– Regina Boisclair
Jennifer
Copeland, a United
Methodist ordained minister, served for 16 years as chaplain at Duke University
and as director of the Duke Wesley Fellowship. She is currently executive
director at North Carolina Council of Churches in Raleigh-Durham.
Regina Boisclair, a Roman Catholic
biblical scholar, teaches at Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, Alaska.
Homily Service 41, no. 2 (2007): 30-41.
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