"Inheriting the promise"
Knox, 30 October, 2011 © Scott McAndless – Baptism
Genesis 25:19-34, Psalm 77, Acts 2:36-47, Matthew 3:4-10
We are told in the Book of Genesis that a long, long time ago when Abraham was nobody – when he was just a guy named Abram living in the land of Haran – God came to him in some unmistakable way and said something amazing: “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.” It was an incredible promise – a promise that would turn this nobody into somebody – would make him the father of a people of promise. Even better, it was a promise that would ultimately transform the whole world through blessing.
But there was a problem with the promise – a big problem. It really didn’t mean anything at all if Abraham couldn’t pass the promise down to his children and the thing was this: Abraham didn’t have any children. Not only did he not have any children but he was also really old – beyond the age when most men can have children. Even worse, his wife Sarah was way, way beyond the age when any woman can possibly have children. So at once this great promise was thrown into jeopardy. If Abraham was not able to have a child, the promise would die.
And so the next dozen chapters of the Book of Genesis are completely consumed by Abraham and Sarah’s quest to have a child. It is a high stakes struggle and it finally ends when Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac, the heir of the promise is born. But if you think that that should be the end of the struggle for the promise, you are wrong as we see in our reading this morning.
The promise has just been saved for one generation – Isaac has been born, has grown to manhood and has even married – and then what happens? We immediately run into a snag – in fact, the very same snag all over again. It turns out that Isaac and his wife Rebekah also have a hard time having a child. So once again the promise is in danger of failing.
If there is a lesson I would take from that, it is this: some things are hard to pass down from one generation to the next and some things are easy – too easy. Problems, they are easy to pass down. In this story, it seems, infertility is the problem that is passed down. And it can indeed happen like that. When one generation struggles to have children but then ultimately succeeds, it is not at all uncommon to see the next generation of that family go through the very same struggle. In the same way, we all know, other medical problems like certain cancers, heart disease and many others can easily be passed down. Even problems like alcoholism, drug addiction and anger issues can be passed down as well – when the parents struggle with these problems, so will their children. Oh, not always; sometimes through extraordinary effort the cycle can be broken and the next generation saved from such a curse, but it is certainly not easy. What is easy is to simply pass down the curse from generation to generation to generation.
But blessing and promises they are hard to pass down from one generation to the next. That is clear to see as first Abraham and then Isaac struggle to do exactly that. And that is an important thing for us to recognise on this day. We are here because two people, Nicole and Greg, are resolved to pass down a blessing and a promise to their children. The promise is central to the Christian faith – the promise of hope, of salvation, of knowing God and enjoying him forever. This is what is symbolized in the sacrament of baptism.
You can probably figure out why, as I thought about today’s celebration of baptism, my thoughts turned to the story of Isaac, Rebekah and their children in the Book of Genesis. I couldn’t resist it. I know that Evelynn and Quintin aren’t exactly like Esau and Jacob – the genders are a different for one thing. But they do seem to have a few things in common. I do hear from Nicole that her two babies, like Rebekah’s children, did kind of jostle within her when she was expecting them (which caused some distress at the time, I am afraid). Also, like Jacob and Esau, Evelynn and Quintin have already shown that they have two very different personalities. And so I do suspect that reflecting on their story in Genesis may help us to support Greg and Nicole as they seek, like Isaac and Rebekah, to ensure that their children inherit the promise.
Of course, the big complicating factor in Esau and Jacob’s story is that only one of them can inherit the promise. This leads, of course, to much more jostling for position even after they have exited the womb. Esau is strong and talented and has the advantage of being the eldest but Jacob is tricky and this proves a greater asset in the long run. We read only the first story of how they strove with one another as young men this morning. If you are familiar with the Book of Genesis, you will know that in many ways the two brothers will continue to jostle with each other their whole lives long.
So the story in Genesis becomes the story of the jostling between Esau and Jacob to see which one will inherit the promise. But that is not the struggle that we want to talk about here today. I mean, sure, there will be lots of jostling between Evelynn and Quintin and Allison too. They will find a million ways to argue with each other and strive with each other for all kinds of things. That is what siblings do. But fortunately they do not need to strive with each other to inherit the promise.
The idea in this Genesis story is that this promise that was given to Abraham – even though ultimately all peoples on earth were supposed to be blessed through it – was to be restricted only to one nation descended from him. So it has either got to be Esau or Jacob who inherits but it cannot be both.
But something happened to that promise later. We see hints of it in our reading from the Gospel of Matthew this morning where John the Baptist looks out at the people who have come to him in the wilderness and says, “Do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”
You see, they went out there to find John because they were seeking to claim the promise of Abraham – the promise of God’s blessing that is able to transform the world – for themselves. But John told them that they could no longer claim it on the same basis that Esau and Jacob sought to claim it – based merely on their genetic descent from Abraham. There was now a new basis to claim the promise, John proclaimed as he led them into the waters of the Jordan River and baptised them. And, of course, it is in the waters of baptism that we have claimed that promise for Evelynn and Quintin today – for it is indeed part of the same promise.
John the Baptist seems to have come, therefore, to make the proclamation that the promise is not just available to a certain genetic group – that it has, in fact, been blown wide open and is now available to all. This is something that was, perhaps, anticipated in the original promise (for God had said that it was something that would ultimately bring blessing to all people) but John was saying that that had finally come to pass.
But what John wasn’t saying was that the struggling for the promise was over. Each one who would be baptised by him would have to “repent” and “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” And those are not things that come easily to any of us.
John the Baptist’s proclamations certainly widened and changed the message about God’s promise to Abraham and who could claim it. But there was a new understanding that was still to come. On the day of Pentecost – the day that is traditionally recognized as the day that the Christian Church came into being – the Apostle Peter stood up, as we read this morning, and addressed the crowd that had formed in the city of Jerusalem. According to the Book of Acts, he announced many surprising things that day, but one of the most amazing things he said came in response to a question from the crowd. “Brothers, what shall we do?” the people wanted to know.
And so Peter answered: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” But then he also added something very interesting: “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
What promise is he talking about? In a very real sense he is talking about the very same promise that was given to Abraham, the promise that was passed onto Isaac and, eventually, passed onto Jacob. Now it is available to these people and to their children as well.
Nicole and Greg, that same promise is for you too. It has not failed. It has been passed down to you through family and through church. And you have personally claimed that promise for yourselves by choosing to follow Jesus, choosing to place your trust in God and by living your lives in such a way as to produce the fruits of repentance. But that is not why you are here today. You are here because you seek to pass that promise down to your children. Is it going to be easy to pass that promise down to your children?
Of course not. As I’ve already said, though problems and curses are easy to pass down, blessings are hard. It will be hard for your children to inherit the promise but not because of you for the most part. It will be hard because they will grow up in a world that will teach them all the wrong things. They will be told, for example, that the things that make them important and valuable are silly things like how they look, what clothes they wear, how much money they have and how much stuff they own. They will be told that winning is everything and that love is for the weak. These and many other messages that surround them in this world will seek to destroy the promise for them.
But do not be discouraged. For this is the good news: “the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” God has provided for you the means to see that they shall inherit the promise. They have begun today with the sign of water and the words that have introduced them into the family of God’s people. And this church and maybe in the future other churches will be there to help you in your quest to see them inherit the promise. The church will be there to remind them that they matter, that they are valuable and that they are loved for who they are and not merely what they have or what they look like. Your families will be there to tell them the stories of the promise and to remind them that the promise is theirs.
And most of all God will be with you to strengthen you and help you in that most difficult of tasks – to raise your children in love and respect and honour. I’m not worried. They will inherit the promise.
And someday several years from now they will stand before a church and they will take the promise for themselves by their own free will as they place their trust in Jesus as their saviour. And your hearts and God’s heart will rejoice because you will know that the promise has survived for one more generation. And you will know that it all began here and in the waters of baptism. You have come to the right place.