Lent
February 15, 2016

Scripture Reading: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Then he said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.’ But he said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?’ He said to him, ‘Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.’ He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. –Genesis 15:7-12

How do we know that God will do what God says? First, we might want to consider how do we hear God’s voice? How do we discern among the whisperings in our ears that voice which is truly God’s? Abram had sensed God’s presence in Ur, followed God’s call to leave Abram’s home, travel to a far land, and he obeyed that call. Now that he had arrived that age old questions haunts him. “Have I done the right thing?” In a culture where having children was as much an economic necessity as it was a way of continuing one’s heritage, not being able to have children was a particularly powerful loss.

I was an adoption worker for a while many years ago. I have heard the pain of parents longing for offspring that never arrived. I do not know whether it was worse for those who knew the reason they could not conceive or for those for which there was no known reason. I always thought it was harder for the latter, if there were no reason, then surely they must have done something wrong for which they were being punished.

Abram faced the dark night of the soul in our scripture today. He is questioning the very validity of the faith he had been so sure of many miles ago. Jesus put this experience into words from the cross by quoting Psalm 22:1, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In reality neither Abram or Jesus had given up on God, they both still called on the Lord, fully expecting a response and so should we.

 Prayer:
Hear my cry, hear my call
Hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand, precious Lord
Lead me on*. Amen.

*Words from the hymn Take my Hand, Precious Lord. See the full lyrics at https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=Precious+Lord&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4WQIB_enUS519US519&q=precious+lord+take+my+hand+lyrics&gs_l=hp..0.0l5.0.0.1.255730………..0.4dgmVf3nwz4

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.