Genesis 17:1-16
Happy New Year! FaceBook and friends are all filled with memories of revelry, good times and celebrations. Perhaps a hangover or two.. or three or four. We are enjoying a milestone, a new beginning, an opportunity! Get your new years resolutions set - here we go! There is another group of postings though that seem to look a bit backward on this day. People are perhaps a bit introspective and meditate on what the previous year was like. This new year then marks a recognition of the good things we have been graced with and the good times, family and friends who we are thankful for. We mark down all the good things that have happened. In the eyes of faith, even when we look back and see who has left us to return to our Creator, even if we look at the sad or even horrific things that happened last year, we mark today as a sign of hope.
As a member of the LGBTQ community I could mark last year the time a horrifically homophobic person was elected President, a Vice president and numerous cabinet choices. Yikes! NOT looking good we might note. But as the saying goes it Gets Better.
How nice of God to remind us of hope in today's scripture passage. We look at major milestones to mark change and hope - like New Years Day. The truth is we see hope every day we wake up and we should never lose hope. We can note that Abram was ninety-nine years old when God spoke to him about the enormity of the future before him. I know that the ancients were not as scrupulous or had the same vision of what time and dates were as we do but it seems 99 years is a long time for anyone to wait no matter what the standard is. I was an astounding fifty years old when I embraced my sexuality and who I am. I can recall the story of Saint Monica who prayed for the conversion of her son, Augustin (Saint). It turns out she would wind up having prayed 17 years for the result she wished for. Certainly not a time frame we'd think she would have preferred. I never would have guessed, St Monica never gave up hope and I am sure Abraham never would have guessed what the future was going to hold. The love of God is so mind blowing, so big we cannot grasp it all with our limited human minds.
The connection between 'it gets better' and the passage of time may seem quite elusive if not disconnected. When will our lives get better? When will we be free of this our that which hinders us? When will humanity wake up to love, freedom, a unified community of humanity? Of course we are tempted to mark today as the day we begin the journey to wholeness for both ourselves and the world. The gym will packed tomorrow morning with earnest and motivated people who are trying.
As faithful people we see every day and perhaps every minute as an opportunity to change, to grow and to be filled and refilled with the hope that 'it gets better'. So read this on New Years day and feel strong in your convictions of hope and change but perhaps I should re-post it next week, next month or in July. We are constantly called to be people of hope and never, ever give up. God's graces are promised to us. Let's celebrate that today.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’ Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham;* for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring* after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.’
God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.’
God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’
