Promises of God: Home and Family

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

    Twenty years ago in July, my dad’s mom’s side of the family got together at a Methodist camp in South Dakota for a weekend reunion.  My grandma had seven brothers and sisters, six of whom were still living at the time, and I don’t know how many cousins my dad actually has just on that one side – fifty at least, and almost everyone showed up, even the cousins from South Africa.  These are Norwegian South Dakotans, by the way, not Italian New Yorkers, but you know what I’m talking about. There were at least 100 people there, and it was an event to remember.  Twenty years ago, my grandma and her siblings were all “really old” according to my teenage-self, but still healthy and with-it, telling stories, singing songs, playing games, going boating and swimming out on the lake and swapping family recipes complete with some crucial lefse and kringla making sessions to pass down those traditions to the next generation.
    It was the last big family reunion we had on that side of the family, and today of that generation we just have one sister-in-law of my grandma living (quite well!) in her nineties.  Do you know what it’s like when one generation passes to another?  Suddenly, everyone going over to grandma’s turns into everyone going to mom or dad’s house, and then it’s your own turn to host.  It becomes a different everyone – not second cousins and great aunts and uncles coming over but college girlfriends, nieces, nephews, then grandkids and in-laws… or maybe family dynamics completely shift and you find just getting your own siblings or children together for a special occasion to be a challenge, COVID-restrictions aside.  While I am in a generation yet to take on the hosting responsibilities, and I feel fortunate I still have mom’s house to go, it is a sad and disorienting feeling at times to realize that the little town in South Dakota which used to be home to literally hundreds of my relatives has changed – my relatives have either moved out or are long gone, new people have moved in, the “home place” is Omaha for us now.  I know we have more generational changes to come as my parents age and my kids get older and build families of their own.
    If you were with us for worship this summer, you may remember that we spent a few weeks on Abraham and Sarah’s story.  Today we go back to their story but to a different reading from the summer.  We hear of the promise of God to the father and mother of the three major religions of the world, which we sometimes call the Abrahamic faiths:  Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.  The first thing our reading for this morning tells us is that Abraham and Sarah are really, really old.  They are about as old as my dad’s only living aunt.  Perhaps many of their friends and relatives have already passed away.  They are at the end of their lives – the end of an era.  This is especially concerning to them, because they have no children – well, Abraham has one child, Ishmael, from Sarah’s servant Hagar, but God has already promised them once in chapter 15 that as a couple, both of them will be blessed to be the ancestors of many nations, and how, exactly, is that supposed to happen? They are wondering.  Who will learn the family recipes and keep track of the family genealogy? More practically, who will inherit and manage the property and care for the livestock?  And, since Abraham and Sarah are still essentially nomads, where will future generations go to visit and remember their roots, where they come from?
    God promises Abraham and Sarah again, for the second time, that they will have a family, and their descendants will have a land to call home – the promised land, Canaan, later known as Israel.  In another year, when Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90, Isaac is born.  He is their only son, but that son is enough for them to continue to have faith in God’s promise.  The interesting thing about this second major covenant that God makes in scripture is that it is both particular and again, like with Noah, wide-sweeping.  God gives both Abraham and Sarah hope individually that their lives matter.  Their faith in God will be a legacy for future generations – even with just one son, their faith and traditions will be passed down so that the majority of the world still today calls Abraham their ancestor of faith.  But this promise is not just to Abraham and Sarah, or even to the people of Israel, but to all people who have faith in God.
    Last week, I said that when God makes a covenant there is usually a visible sign attached to the covenant.  For Noah and his family, it is the rainbow.  For Abraham and Sarah, there are really three signs:  first, God changes their names – not radically.  Unlike Jacob who becomes Israel, a totally different name, Abram, which means “exalted father,” becomes Abraham, “the father of multitudes.”  Sarai becomes Sarah, which means “princess.”  Their new names remind them and us of the new relationship they have with God, that God will keep this promise to them.  In the verses in between that we didn’t read in chapter 17, God also institutes the covenantal sign of circumcision – not as compelling of a sign as rainbows, and always a fun topic to discuss in confirmation classes with middle schoolers!  This sign of being a part of God’s family is still practiced by our Jewish friends today, and the sign of course is exclusive to men.  But the third sign is the one that is for all of us of every generation.  Back in chapter 15, God tells Abram, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them…so shall your descendants be.”  The stars in the night sky still today can remind us of this promise of God to us – that no matter how small our blood-related family may be, if we’re adopted or estranged from our family or whatever our situation may be – we have a family in God as numerous as the stars in the sky.  We are connected through our faith in God, from generation to generation.
    If we look back at our second reading from Romans, as Christians we hear the old, old promise made to Abraham and Sarah made new to us today:  we are a part of God’s family, too, through faith.  It’s not who we know or who we’re related to that counts, it’s our relationship with God that matters.  In baptism, we all received a new name – the name of Christ himself, God’s son and our Lord.  I hope that all of us have had the blessing of being part of a local church family that cares about each other sometimes even better than our blood relatives do.  Certainly here at Faith Lutheran we strive to be a healthy, supportive family that walks with people through the good and tough times in life, sometimes disagreeing with one another as anyone in any family does, but motivated by our common purpose and mission in Christ.  Beyond our local congregation, we also hear the good news in our readings today that we are part of a much bigger family of faith in the big “C” Church, beyond Lutherans and Catholics and Baptists, we are a part of the body of Christ and members of God’s family through Christ.  So wherever we go, if we move, when we’re travelling, if we need to find a different church to be a part of for whatever reason, we know that the church is there as our family in Christ.
    As Sarah and Abraham look back on their long lives, they must have been wondering at points what kind of legacy they were going to leave.  They could only see partially what God could see much more fully how much impact their simple actions of faith and trust in God’s promises would have for future generations.  As we all age, we also think about what kind of legacy we want to leave. May Abraham and Sarah’s story remind us to consider not just the legacy we leave for our immediate family, but for the generations who come after us – for the impact we might have in our communities, and certainly, in and through the church.  Whether we’ve been in Syosset for generations or are nomads like Sarah and Abraham moving from place to place our whole lives…whether we are blessed to attend family reunions in the 100s or fit everyone in our family around a small kitchen table, we have an eternal home with God, and we have a family in Christ forever.  Amen.