This was the first Sunday I preached on the preaching series "Lenten Questions." Although I briefly outlined the series at the Ash Wednesday service, our Associate Pastor Dr. Lisa Patterson preached the first full sermon of the series last Sunday (I was baptizing my granddaughter at First Presbyterian, Dallas!!!). She had a great quote from Frederick Buechner to begin her sermon and the series: "the Bible asks more questions of us than it answers."
As I note in the introduction, this text has many facets to it, but I could only focus on the question. Actually, if I had planned properly, I would have noted there are two important questions in the text: "What will you give me...." and "how shall I know that I shall possess it?" Both of which are challenging questions, but perhaps the first question, the one on which I based the sermon, might have been the easier question.
the section on "he believed" is a challenging one. On the one hand, I don't want people to go away thinking believing is simple matter. On the other hand, I also want people to reflect on the fact that Abram did believe!
“What Will You Give Me?”, 2nd Sunday in Lent; march 16, 2025; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; Genesis 15:1-22
Genesis 15: After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
2But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”
4But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” 5He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
7Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” 8But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10He 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. 11And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. 13Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; 14but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Introduction: The men’s Wednesday morning Bible study/breakfast is following the lectionary right now. So each Wednesday, I join them in discussing the texts we will read in worship and will be preached on Sunday morning. Really interesting tool for preparation.
This week, as they reflected on the Genesis passage, I realized that there are many things of interest and worth pursuing in this story:
the way Abram seems to prefigure the path the Israelites will follow through Egypt and into the Promised land;
the whole sacrificial rites things going on in this story; the names mentioned at the end of the passage.
Abram’s deep sleep,
a smoking pot and flaming torch
All worthy of our consideration, and if one captures your imagination, go with it, it will surely be time well spent in reflection,
but in keeping with our Lenten questions Preaching series, we are going to focus on Abram’s question we just heard.
So let us listen and learn from Abram in the question he asks and how he responds to God’s answer.
Move 1: Let’s start by looking at how things are before Abram asks his question.
a. This is not the first time God and Abram have had a conversation?
1. In fact, God already has made a covenant with Abram and Sarai.
1. Go back to to Chapter 12 and we hear God telling Abram and Sarai to go from their country and God will make a great nation of them as a witness to the world.
2. So they left and went as God asked.
3. Note they are still Abram and Sarai.
they will not become known as Abraham and Sarah until a later confirmation of the covenant God has with them.
b. Abram seems to be doing well.
1. Lots of goods and other resources.
2. If he were to judge his relationship with God based on how well he was doing btw worldly standards, he would no doubt be pleased.
c. But Abram wonders,
we might say he doubts that God will be true to the promise because Abram had no offspring,
no heir.
1. How will his family be a great family that will be a blessing in all the world if his family does not extend beyond himself and his wife Sarai?
2. Does he need to redefine how he understands family?
3. When he got up and hit the road at God’s command did he somehow miss the memo and get it wrong?
4. Maybe in your Lenten reflection you know what Abram is feeling - not quite sure if you have heard God’s answer correctly?
maybe looking at where you are and wondering if this is what God really has in mind for you?
or looking for some confirmation that what you hear God calling you to do or be is correct.
I suspect we know what Abram is feeling before he asks the question.
Move 2: Then Abram asks:
“what will you give me….”
a. Before Even considering the question, we note that Abram knew where to turn with his question.
1. He turned to God.
2. the questions we encounter during Lent from the lectionary texts may not be your questions.
Maybe you finish Lent and go “none of those questions really me or my life….”
But, at least we will have been reminded by Abram that the place to begin looking for answers is in a conversation with God.
3. In this case, his question: what will you give me?”
b. The challenge with reading the story and not being there to hear and see it play out is that we do not know what Abram’s tone of voice is when he asks God, “What will you give me?”
1. Was it a negotiating tone? “What will you give me?”
Most of us know what it is like to negotiate with God, but I’m not sure it is the recommended pattern of communicating with God.
2. Maybe Abram had a submissive tone, “what will you give me?”
sort of just finding out the next step in a dutiful way.
4. Maybe there is An edge of disbelief? “What will you give?”
God has already promised him a future for his family, but so far that seems in doubt because he has no child with Sarai.
5. Maybe an expression of Abramss growing faith. “What will you give me?”
more a “what’s next” than challenge,
“I’m yours God. Now what is the next thing you reveal to me.”
b. We do not know how Abram asked the question, but We do know that God spoke with confidence.
1. Abram may wonder about the future for his family;
Sarai may wonder about the future for her family.
But God does not wonder.
2. God knows.
c. Into the uncertainty Abram feels, God invites him to know the certainty of God’s promises.
1. God takes Abram out and shows him the stars in the sky and announces that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars.
quite a sight.
quite a promise.
2. Some of you may remember Drew Calhoun, who was a member here many years ago. he was known as the peppermint man because he always had peppermints in his pocket that he would give them to kids at church (that must have been before the basket of candy was outside Dr. Patterson’s office!). Mr. Calhoun was married to his Margaret for many, many, years.
3. One night when I was in high school I happened to be leaving the Oak St. door exit with mr. Calhoun. AS we stepped out from the vestibule into the night, he stopped and put his arm around me and said, “Richard, do you want to know the secret to a long and wonderful marriage?”
i’m not sure I really did want to know that secret at that point in my life, but he was going to tell me anyway.
he pointed up to the night sky and said, “Go and look at the stars in the sky every night with your wife”
I have failed to do that.
4. But i bet Abraham understood that comment.
Every night he could look at the stars
see the way lit up the sky
see the way they filled the sky
and be reminded of God’s answer to his question,
God's promise to him
5. Abram has a question.
We have questions.
God has answers.
Just ask.
Move 3: now Let’s look at what happens after the question is asked.
a. Abram believed.
1. The text makes it simple, but I suspect it was not quite that simple.
2. H. Richard Niebuhr, Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School, maintained that the first response of humanity toward God is that of distrust. (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol 2, Darryly Trimiew, 50).
3. It’s hard to believe God’s promises sometimes.
we look at our world with all its fractures and divides and hard to believe that God once called it good.
sometimes it is hard to imagine that God is at work when all the evidence seems to be otherwise.
3. But Abram believed.
b. He could not have believed the answer would be easy or would be played out instantly.
1. God gives him a glimpse of the future.
a future that will include his ancestors living in a land that is the not the land God has promised to them.
a future that includes his ancestors living in slavery
a future that we know is full of turning away from God and wondering if God will in fact be true to the promises made to Abram.
2. But, the promise invites Abram into a journey full of waiting,
a journey full of challenges.
a journey in which God will go alongside him and his family
a journey that will not end until God’s promises sometimes is fulfilled.
a journey in which we join him.
3. But, Abram believed.
maybe something in what he had experienced already in his relationship with God led him to believe.
or something in the vision God sets before him led him to believe.
we do not know exactly why, but we know in that pivotal moment when God answers Abram’s question, Abram believes.
Conclusion: As you move through the Lenten journey, reflecting on your life,
maybe asking a question of two,
perhaps trying to find clarity in your life,
you have Abram’s example before you: he asked and then he believed.
And it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ Genesis 12
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