"EXPLAINING MIRACLES" February 24, 2013

Genesis 15: 1-18 Luke 13: 31-35 This evening is the Academy Awards, when we are told the best performances of films of the last year. On Thursday of this week, Pope Benedict will resign. On Friday, unless something miraculous occurs, the Across the Board Mandatory Budget Cuts to force our Government to work together or else, will come. And before we meet again next Sunday, we will lose an hour, as clocks are set forward. It occurs to me, that before we rush to “And it was reckoned to Abram as Righteousness,” before we rush to Jesus' Resurrection Easter Morning, there is a recurrent theme in all of this: You have to get up every morning, where you are, and do the best you can with what you have. In the grand scheme of things, in the Big picture there may be miracles, and night by night there are laments, as we realize the cost of discipleship, the cost of what we have to become in order to achieve what we desire. In the film Zero Dark Thirty, it is an evaluation for the Navy Seal Team who killed Bin Laden, and for the Nation, what must we accept, what must we embrace, what must we become to bring a fugitive to justice? In Le Miserables the question is whether Jean Valjean can fulfill his promise, fulfill the dream of the Prostitute Fantine, to create a different life for her daughter before he submits to justice for stealing a loaf of bread. In Argo, in revolutionary Iran, when plunged into a world where everyone wants to kill you, and the best bad idea you can think of is to make a fake movie, then it better be the best fake movie ever. In The Life of Pi, when you are cast adrift in a lifeboat for half a year, with a beast wanting to eat you, you must create a reality where you co-exist. In Silver-lining Playbook, when the woman you loved has a restraining order against you, and your reality is different than everyone else's, get over your delusions, see the wonderful people right in front of you and work together to make sense of this crazy world. According to the movie Lincoln, in one dark night of the soul, the President asked “whether we are born into our time,” whether the Washingtons, Jeffersons and Lincolns are given by God as heroes to lead humanity, or whether our reality is just fate? Ultimately after all the political compromises he had to accept for the passage of the 13th Amendment, he concludes “we have to act with what we have, using what is right in front of us, doing the right thing so far as we can see the Right.” According to Genesis, when Abram and Sarai began this journey he was already 75 years old. For 20 years Abram wandered the Earth, arguing with his nephew Lot, fighting with neighboring Kings, putting one foot in front of the other, yet there was no promised heir and there was no promised land. Clearly, what Abram was trying to say to God was HURRY UP. At 95 living is a lot to do. The idea of conceiving a child, raising that child, making them an heir to all that will be, seems too much. Finally, Abram has concluded that what God had promised was not natural, is not possible, so Abram will have to make compromises and excuses to allow God to make it appear as though the Promise was fulfilled. Maybe what God had meant was that the child of a slave Abram owns, would be adopted as his child, who could inherit from him? To which, God says: NO! Later his wife Sarai will try to fulfill the promise with her slave Hagar, in which the child will be Abram's but different from God's Promise. Staring up at the stars, God reveals to Abram, that this is not about whether a Promise is fulfilled and how, this is a Covenant between God and a believer, Abram. Like the heavens a Covenant is a Mystery, a Miracle. A Covenant is not Natural. Based on the reality we know, a Covenant is not Possible. In order for a Covenant to be fulfilled, the answer is not what allowances, compromises and accommodations have to be made, but rather in the midst of every day, coming to grips with who we are and where we are, and what we have, lamenting that our past reality will not suffice, and the price we pay is becoming something we were not before. We are Children of the Enlightenment. No matter what we do, we must struggle with what we know, the reality we have been, before becoming something else. Our problem is not believing in Miracles. Our problem is letting go the reality we know, lamenting our control of what has been, in order to believe we could ever become something else. This is holy mystery, as Abram makes a Sacrifice, an offering of all he has. He cuts everything in two, representing God and humanity, the Past and the Future, laid bare. And when natural predators came, he chased them away. And a deep sleep came upon Abram. In the Book of Genesis, the last time a deep sleep came upon someone, it was Adam, to whom God had promised a companion to share life. God caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam, and God cleft them apart, separated them like two sides of beef. That they, Adam and Eve would continue to be the creature God formed to be in relationship with God, but they also would be individuals. As Abram was in a deep sleep, God explained the miracle, that a Covenant is not time bound to be fulfilled within 30 days or 30 years, or 30 lifetimes. Abram's descendants, like Abram would be nomads, as God dealt with the circumstances of other Nations. Abram's nomadic descendants would become slaves, and for 400 years would be oppressed and enslaved. Then when God had done everything possible with the nation they serve, God would lead Abram's descendants out of slavery into the Promised Land. Faith, Covenant is not time bound but will be fulfilled. When Christmas happened, it should have been enough. Almighty God, Creator of the Cosmos and everything therein, who had been the God of Adam and Eve, God of Abram and Sarai, Issac and Jacob and Moses and David and Solomon, the very same God chose to become human. The Messiah, the Savior sent from God was born into a world not yet ready. The Stable at Bethlehem, the Virgin Birth, is less about Mary and Joseph, and is declaration that after a thousand years of being prophesied, the Savior came into a world unprepared to receive him. Getting up every morning, doing the best he could with what he had, Jesus became the 30 year old adult who was Baptized. Jesus became one who healed and taught, who called disciples to leave what they had known and they followed not knowing what they would become. When the Pharisees describe reality, naming that Herod is trying to have you arrested and put to death, Jesus explains the miracle, but they do not understand. The Messiah will die. The Savior has to die to atone for the sins of the world. This is how the New Covenant comes to be. HOWEVER, the ones the Savior has come to die for are in no mood, Jerusalem which was to be the City of David, the City of God, instead enjoys killing its prophets. Have you ever taken your spouse out for an evening, and neither of you really care where you are going? As you drive, you become more and more frustrated by your mood, by accommodating this other person who does not care, that you are spending the evening with them, that you are trying to please them. At those moments, instead of continuing the drive, instead of turning around to go home, we need to pull off the road, and explain to one another how important they are to us, that everything we do in life is because we love them, and to listen as they have time to speak. At the conclusion of the film Lincoln, the Director could have closed with the Train carrying the corpse of the martyred President. Instead, he went back to the scene where the President and his Cabinet are arguing and angry over the compromises they have had to accept to pass the Amendment. And Lincoln declares: “Now, now, NOW! ...See what is before you! See the here and Now! That is the hardest thing, the only thing that counts!” Not what was. Not what I wanted, or You wanted or they wanted. Not what could have been, but NOW Seeing what is before us! After enduring all the trials and long nights of the soul, believing in the Miracles, the Covenant God has fulfilled, in what we have become. Tomorrow will take care of itself, do the very best you can with Today, knowing God makes miracles.