In the Name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer

          A young man was learning to fly. It was his first flight at night. Looking into the darkness, he asked his instructor what we should do if the engine failed. “Get the plane gliding in a controlled descent,” said the instructor, “then attempt to restart the engine and make a ‘Mayday’ call. The only difference between day and night flying is that the terrain below will not be clearly visible, so you should point the aircraft toward whatever looks like a clear area and it should be pointing into the wind.”          “Then what?” the young student pilot asked.          “Conserve your battery,” said the instructor, “so don’t turn on your landing lights until you’re close to the ground. If you like what you see, land.”

          “Okay,” said the student, “but what if I don’t like what I see?”          His instructor gave him a compassionate look inside that dim cockpit, then said softly, “Turn off the landing lights.”

          In that situation, if we don’t like what we see, it is too late to do anything about it. We might as well turn off the lights. We’re in trouble.

          It’s like the old joke about the pilot who asked the same sort of question and the instructor said, “If you don’t like what you see, repeat after me: Our Father, who art in Heaven . . .” And sometimes life is like that.   An old man named Abram is nearing the end of his life. Abram was not a perfect man by any means. But he was a man who tried to do what God wanted him to do.

          But Abram was no longer young, and he was troubled. His wife, Sarah, and he had no heirs. And she was far past her child-bearing years. When he was younger, Abram had obeyed what he believed to be God’s leading. He left his prosperous homeland and struck out to where the Lord called him to go. In return he understood that he was to father a great people.

          That was a long time ago. And Abram had prospered. God had kept God’s promises to Abram in every area except one. How could he father a people when his wife Sarah was old and barren? With tired eyes Abram looked into the future and the future looked unpromising. But it was a little late to change his course.

          There are many people today who look into the future and the future looks unpromising--just as it did for Abram. Let’s be candid about it. Life has many heartaches, many dark and terrifying moments. If we have ever lost someone we loved, if we have ever sat in a doctor’s office and heard him pronounce a death sentence, if we have ever asked questions like, how can we ever pay my health insurance premiums with no job? What will the children do with no parent? Are we destined to live our lives with no hope of bettering our situation? We have all been in one or more of these scenarios. Sure we believe in God, sure we know that miracles occur, but we also know the realities of our situation. And we know that better people than us have been in difficult situations and found no relief except in death. I don’t want to sound too morbid, but for many people this is life!

          Surely part of Abram’s discomfort was a realization of his own mortality. Author Maya Angelou wrote something I thought was interesting. She said, “I realized when I was about 20 that I would die . . . It so terrified me that I double-locked the doors; I made certain that the windows were double-locked--trying to keep death out--and finally I admitted that there was nothing I could do about it. Once I really came to that conclusion, I started enjoying life, and I enjoy it very much.”

          We don’t know how Abram felt about death. All we know is that he looked into the future and was troubled by what he saw. He had no heirs. All that he had worked for would soon be lost. Even more important, God had let him down. He had been promised an heir, but it seemed clear, he would have none.

          And then, Abram had a vision. God came to Abram to affirm the promise that God had made to him years ago. God said to him, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then God said, “So shall your descendants be.” That’s quite a promise to make to a man of Abram’s age. Here he was an old man. He didn’t even have a child, and God was promising that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. "Get real!" Abram thought to himself.

          Actually, that’s not what Abram thought to himself. Even though he was nearing 100 years of age and his wife Sarah was nearing 90, when God told Abram that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, Abram believed it! Now that’s faith! Such faith says a lot about the kind of man Abram was.

          Why is it that some people can maintain a hopeful attitude in the face of a dark situation, while others, confronted with the same situation, see only reasons for despair?

          At the age of 98, comedian George Burns said, “I’ve fallen in love with my future.” At age 98! Didn’t he know that he was in the last years of his life? Didn’t he understand that he could fall sick at any time? Didn’t he worry about Alzheimer’s? Wasn’t he afraid of dying? Why is it that some people see the glass half-empty and others see the glass brimming over?

          Let me tell you about a lady who is part of the “glass brimming over” crowd. Helen Boardman likes to say that she robbed the cradle when she married her husband, Bill. Bill was just a spry 79-year-old when Helen caught his eye. She was 99-years-old. The two of them have been happily married for the past eight years. At 87 and 107 years of age, Bill and Helen like to go dancing, and they act in plays at their retirement center---plays which Helen frequently writes and directs. At age 90, Helen tried white-water rafting.

          Helen claims that she stays vital by learning new things and keeping a positive attitude. As she says, “You can tell I’m an optimist--grateful for everything, every day. The cup is always full. Everything’s good. After reading my memoirs, my nephew asked if there had ever been anything bad in my life. My answer: ‘If there was, I forgot it!’”

          It may be that Helen is a good “forgetter.” But how do we explain why some people always see the dark side--as if every silver lining had its dark cloud--while others always seem to walk on the sunny side of the street?

          Abram believed God, and--says the writer of Genesis--”the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Here is the Old Testament verse that is the foundation for so much of the theology of the New Testament. In the Hebrew faith salvation came through righteousness. Only people who did right in the eyes of the Lord could expect to be rewarded. But, says the writer of Genesis, because Abram believed God, it was counted as his being righteous. Believing God was more important than keeping the Law.

          I wonder how many of us believe God. This may be why so many of us have a sour attitude toward life. We believe in God, but we do not believe God. We believe that God exists, but we don’t really trust that God is aware when a sparrow falls to the earth--and that we are of infinitely more value than a sparrow.

          We believe God exists, but we do not trust that God will always ensure that we are not tested beyond our ability to endure. We believe there is a God, but we’re just not sure about the promise of the Christ that, “in my Father’s house are many rooms . . . I go to prepare a place for you that where I am so you may also be.”  This is certainly why the glass is half-full for many people--we really do not believe God.

          Abram trusted God! Even though he had his doubts--just as all of us have our doubts--Abram had a basic sense of trust in God.

          We think that things were different with heroes of the Bible. They lived much simpler lives. God was much more real to them than to us. That just is not true. It is interesting what happens next in this story. Abram says something that you or I would say. He asks God, “But how can I know that all this will come to pass?”

          Then in this vision God tells Abram to perform a ritual that seemed to have little practical effect. As instructed, Abram gathered animals that the Lord prescribed for him to gather, and he slew them on the altar, then he drove away birds of prey that came to eat the flesh of these carcasses. What was the point of it all? We are not told. And then the Genesis writer adds, “As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.”

          We have made the point that Abram trusted God. Abram was a believer, but that does not mean that he did not have his doubts, his uncertainties. He has had a wonderful vision of God, yet later that night as he lies in his tent “a terrifying darkness descended upon him.” This is real life. If you and I have not experienced that terrifying darkness yet, just wait. Fortunately the story does not end here.

          Abram believes God and Abram discovers that God keeps God’s promises. In his old age, Abram’s wife Sarah does bear him a son. And his descendants are as the stars in the sky--both biological descendants and spiritual descendants--for all three of the great monotheistic world religions--Judaism, Islam and Christianity--trace there history back to Abram, whom we know as Abraham. God fulfilled God’s promise to Abram. Though Abram had his times of backsliding, ultimately he took the promises of God seriously and he was rewarded for his faith. It’s wonderful to encounter somebody who takes God seriously--who believes God’s promises.

          Some know the story of William Wilberforce, the Christian statesman who led the fight for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Wilberforce was a frail man with a weak voice, but he fully trusted God. The writer Boswell once said of William Wilberforce, “I saw what seemed to me a shrimp become a whale.”

          A shrimp became a whale--what a graphic way of describing what can happen to a person who trusts God. William Wilberforce not only believed in God, but he believed God and his life reflected that belief.

          How about us? Are we troubled about our future? Are we lying awake at night while a terrifying darkness descends upon us? Trust God’s promises. God will not forget us or forsake us. Hang in there and we will see the promises of God fulfilled.

S H A L O M