Genesis 12: 1,2; John 3: 8; Romans 4:1

Keeping the faith 2: It’s not about you

Last week , in our first reflection  in the series “Keeping the Faith,”  we started taking how other people of faith, specifically other Christians, can disappoint us.  Then we started thinking about how we could keep the faith when we see that happening.  We realized we needed to focus on ourselves, that we must tell the truth about ourselves.  Like all people we get distorted by the things that happen to us and the things that we are exposed to.  This moves us further away from the self we are supposed to be.

Today we continue by reminding ourselves that we may be the center of the universe for ourselves and at most of one or two or three others, but that the world is not about us.

We are juggling three texts today from our lectionary and the fourth one is our call to worship. In Genesis, childless Abraham the old man gets the call to leave his land and become the father of a whole new nation in a new Promised Land to the northwest. Abram does not desire this task but he also does not resist it. He is obedient, even when his wife Sara laughs at how ridiculous the whole enterprise appears to be.  In his letter to the Romans Paul instructs two groups of people about what Abraham’s sacrifice means. The first group, Jews living in the capital of the empire, can claim Abraham as an ancestor. The other can claim to live in the capital of a huge powerful empire and such have co-ownership of its history and culture.  What a difference in the way these young Christians see themselves? Both are proud of what they bring to the table.  It was quite a task for Paul to address both groups. It was even harder for him to make them focus not on themselves, but on the humility of Abraham.  Finally in John 3, in one of the most well-known chapters in the Bible, Jesus speaks of the power of the spiritual and of renewal and rebirth. I chose verse 8 because it creates the metaphor of the God’s Holy Spirit as the wind which no one can stop or control. When we put this together, these  three texts from different times, we get a visual.  First we see an old man, tired from his labor, starting on a long journey to an unknown place, obedient and full of faith; next we see Jesus speaking in next “clip,” telling His audience that God’s Spirit is in charge, and that we should yield to it. Finally Paul reminds his new congregation that is part of this new spiritual movement in the center of power that they must remember this old wandering man and try to emulate him, for this Abraham is not proud like Paul’s audience.  Friends, you put these texts together and you get the message: the story is not about them.

This week in the Hirshhorn museum in Washington there is an exhibition of the work of 87 year old Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama featuring infinity mirrors.  When she was a child, Yayoi had a vision of polka dots which led her to a neurosis. Now polka dots are a prominent part of her work. She has set up very small rooms it the museum they say.  One of those rooms is white and visitors are asked to place polka dots all over that white room, on the white cups, on the white chair and on the white fruit. Eventually the polka dots will overtake everything, because the room will stay a room and the dots will keep on coming.   In another mirrored room a journalist (BBC) feels happy at first standing among pumpkins covered in polka dots of one color, but then she says you really get this sensation of infinity.   She reports that she really felt overwhelmed “by how insignificant you really are.”  It was not a good feeling.

So, friends, now let’s juxtapose this exhibit with the three snippets from the ancient book called the Bible and a picture emerges of people being polka dots, specks in a giant universe.  Ironically Abraham says he will become the father of a nation that will be as numerous as the grains in the sand.

So into the small room of Abraham’s life comes this message from infinity telling him to leave and start a new nation.  But as Paul says Abraham would not boast about that and neither should he.  He knew it wasn’t about him.  This is what Paul is trying to teach his new converts. God’ Spirit is like the wind, it moves at will, through our lives, across the face of the earth and through infinity.

So friends as we feel disappointed about the state of the world church and the people it consists of, let us remember  the greater picture of God’s work and that we are mere dots. Yet at the same time all those dots together can do something great and beautiful if we would only remember like Abraham that it is not just about us.  There is hope here, because the power behind that universe is loving toward each one of us with an infinite, unfathomable love.  Thanks be to God.