By Pastor Lynn Sawyer Parks

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; Genesis 12:1-4a

Today is the second Sunday of Lent, the season when we are making our way to the cross and the empty tomb. It’s a time when we think about the sacrifice of Jesus’ life and all that that means for us. It’s a time when we examine our lives and want to draw closer to God through prayer and, usually, through giving something up. By sacrificing something ourselves, it helps us to understand the sacrifice of Jesus. I read an article this week where someone was reflecting on Lent and said that for years they felt like a failure because they would try to give something up for Lent and halfway through Lent, which is about 6 weeks long, they had already taken back what they had given up. But one year they realized that Lent was about love and they found it so much easier to stick with it when they thought about someone they loved being the object of their fasting or sacrifice. So, for example, they found it easier to give up chocolate if it was a reminder to pray consistently for their friend who was trying to find a job. This really does reflect the sacrifice of Jesus. He gave his life because he loves us. It’s as simple as that. We didn’t have to do anything for Jesus for him to give up his life for us.

I want to also thank Kevin and Nes for preaching the last 2 Sundays. I was involved in an intense training the last 2 weekends around Generational Trauma Healing: the Black and White Experience. This is a way of looking at trauma in our families of origin and how racism has been a factor in those experiences. It looks at how trauma affects everyone in the family as well as extended family and the community around them. At the same time it looks at the effects of racism across generations because things have happened in our families of origin in specific time periods and the conditions of those time periods affected people. This curriculum shows how the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to heal individuals, families and communities. The hope of dismantling racism in our society lies in the message of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. The world might have some good ideas of things people can do, and ways of becoming more aware, but it’s the Holy Spirit who heals the wounds racism inflicts on our hearts and those wounds must be healed if we are to overcome the evil of racism. Ask me about this, especially if you would be interested in being part of a healing group.

Going through this training stirred some things up in me and I had to take the time to talk through some things with God. But it was all good. This goes along with our congregational commitment to spiritual growth. Identifying heart wounds and taking steps towards understanding and healing is spiritual growth. This year for Lent I am working through the book “The Emotionally Healthy Leader” by Pete Scazzero. I’ve been listening to this guy’s podcasts and I had read his book “The Emotionally Healthy Church” years ago, and its challenging stuff. He pastors a multiethnic church in Queens, NY and, one of the reasons I started listening to him is because he attributes his church’s growth and strength to these principles of emotional health. His church has over 75 nationalities represented and I thought it was amazing that such a diverse group could come together and stay healthy so I feel like he’s got some credibility and I’m learning a lot. This is part of my commitment to grow spiritually because if I’m not doing it, I can’t expect you to do it.

One of the first things it talks about in this book is that our being with God is more important than our doing for God. Our being with God is more important than our doing for God. He mentions the passage Nes talked about last week where Jesus was in the wilderness facing temptation and how Satan tempted Jesus to do something spectacular. If you are the Son of God, prove it by turning this stone to bread, prove it by jumping off the highest point of the temple. When neither of those things worked, Satan tried to get Jesus to desire all the splendor of the kingdoms of the world. These are the same ways Satan comes after us. He tries to make us feel that we have to prove ourselves in order to receive God’s love and forgiveness. Many people have fallen into this trap. They think they have to get themselves together and be perfect before God will love and accept them. Or he tries to get us to focus on all the shiny pretty things the world has to offer and go after those things instead of the splendor of the kingdom of God.

Jesus didn’t fall for it. He resisted Satan’s temptations and Satan left him. But Luke lets us know that Satan didn’t give up. He left Jesus until an opportune time we are told in Luke 4:13. He continued to look for an opportunity to tempt Jesus again. He looks for opportunities to tempt us as well. Just because we resist temptation once is no reason to get all braggadocious. He will come back and disguise the temptation in some new way so we don’t recognize it. His desire is our destruction. He came after Jesus with these temptations to prove himself because he knows that humans are susceptible to pride. He knows that we desire significance and to be recognized for the things we do. We are susceptible to shiny things. One of his favorite lies is to make us think we have to do something to earn God’s love and favor. He was saying to Jesus, if you really are the Son of God, if God really does love you so much, if you really are that important to God, then prove it by doing something destructive. If you really are who you say you are God will surely save you. Jesus answers, “No. The word of God says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” We don’t have to prove our love for God nor does God need to do anything to prove His love for us.

God loves us because we are. I tell my daughter that she gives me great joy just by breathing. She doesn’t have to do anything else to make me happy. I love her because she exists, not because of anything she does. I am proud of her and her accomplishments but my love doesn’t depend on those things. If this is how we can feel about our own children, how much more does God love us without conditions. Paul is writing about this in Romans 4. He says in verse 3 that scripture tells us that Abraham believed God, believed God’s promises to him, and it was credited to him as righteousness. This happened before Abraham was circumcised. Remember that the Jews of Jesus’ day placed a lot of importance on circumcision. In the early Church it was a point of debate as to whether or not the Gentiles who came to faith in Jesus needed to also be circumcised. Circumcision was a sign of the covenant relationship the Jews had with God. But Abraham was credited with righteousness because he believed in God’s promises, years before he was ever circumcised. The story is found in Genesis 12.

Here God says to Abraham, or Abram as he was then called, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’ So Abram went as the Lord had told him.” Abraham doesn’t speak in this passage, he just acts. He does what God says to do because he believes the promise God gives him. If he didn’t believe God would follow through on his promise, why would he leave his home and family and everything he has known to go to some new place? God doesn’t even tell him the name of the place where He wants Abraham to go. This is faith. Abraham believes in the promise of God and Paul says his faith is credited to him as righteousness or right standing with God. And 4 times in this passage God speaks of blessing. God will bless Abraham, Abraham will be a blessing, God will bless those who bless Abraham and finally, all people on earth will be blessed through Abraham. That’s a lot of blessing going on.

What this tells us about God is that He wants to pour out blessing. He wants to love on people. My child comes to my home and she knows if there is something she needs or wants, and I have it, I will freely give it. I want to bless her and I’m just happy that she’s there. I even try to give her stuff she doesn’t want. I love it that Kevin, my son-in-law, will now come to my house and go into the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee or to find something to eat. He doesn’t have to ask. He knows he is welcome to it because he’s my son and I love him. I want to bless him. When he was a teenager, spending Sunday afternoons at our house, I would practically beg him to eat sometimes. I would even buy his favorite type of poptart so there would be something he liked and he still wouldn’t eat very much. So it makes me so happy that he now helps himself to whatever he finds. This is how God wants to be with us and we see it in this story with Abraham.

God’s love to us is a gift that He freely gives. Righteousness, right standing with God is a gift that God freely gives. Paul is explaining this to the church in Rome. Abraham wasn’t made righteous because of anything he did. He wasn’t made righteous because he followed the Law because the Law hadn’t been given yet. He was credited with righteousness when he believed God. So for the Gentiles who are coming into the church, they are also made righteous because of their faith in God. They believe God loves them, they believe Jesus died for their sins and rose again, and they are made righteous regardless of circumcision and following the Law. And so Paul writes in verse 16, “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring – not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.” This is the fulfillment of God’s promise that all the world would be blessed through Abraham. Through us believing in Jesus, we are adopted into this household of faith that began with Abraham. We don’t have to earn a place in this family. We don’t have to work our way in. We enter by faith, by believing in God’s promises, just as Abraham did.

We don’t need to fall for Satan’s lies that we have to prove something to God or that God has to prove something to us. We just need to believe that God so loved the whole world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him might not be destroyed but will have eternal life. God loves us because we exist and because God loves us, God wants to bless us with eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t matter how we then live. Once we have received the gift of righteousness, we are then connected to Jesus like branches are connected to a tree. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Being connected to Jesus, we receive life from him and this life results in something. Things will grow in our lives. We will find ourselves wanting to live in new ways, wanting to grow in new ways. Our doing will flow from our being, not the other way around. This is why I said earlier that our being with God is more important than our doing for God. Being connected to Jesus and receiving life from him comes first. Then comes our doing.

When Bethannie was born, she had no control over whether Vandy and I would love her or not. There was nothing she could do to make Vandy and I love her or accept her as our daughter. In fact it is ludicrous to suggest that a newborn needs to earn their parents’ love and acceptance. Everything a newborn does is against that very thing. They keep you awake all through the night, they cry and make noise, they are a lot of work, they spit up on you and poop on you. But we love them insanely don’t we? It doesn’t matter if they are our child or not. We love cousins, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, friends’ kids, even stranger babies on Youtube. My baby didn’t have to do anything to earn my love. But as Bethannie grew, Vandy and I had to teach her how to behave in our home. We taught her what was acceptable behavior and what wasn’t. We taught her how to contribute to the household and gave her responsibilities. Our love never depended on how well she behaved or followed through on things. Our love was always a certainty. But there were expectations for how she would live. The way she lived life in our home flowed from her relationship with us. It is the same with God. His love is a certainty, but as we grow in Christ, the Holy Spirit teaches us how to live, how to produce good fruit and that is when our doing flows from our being.

God loves us. Nothing will ever change that. If we can just let that thought impact us fully, it transforms our lives. God’s love for us will never depend on what we do. God loves us because we exist. And because God loves us so much, He sent Jesus into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. Whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life. Whoever believes in Jesus is given the gift of righteousness and made right with God. Whoever believes in Jesus becomes a member of the household of faith, the household that began with Abraham. The Holy Spirit then teaches us how to live in that household of faith. This is our process of spiritual growth and we have to be committed to that process. We have to respond to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives which is why we need to prioritize being with God over doing for God. We all live busy lives but my challenge to myself and all of us is to prioritize being with God. If you are still thinking about what to give up for Lent, give up some time doing other things in order to prioritize spending time with God.