1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,266 Grace to you and peace from God our Father from our Lord and Savior Jesus 2 00:00:04,266 --> 00:00:11,733 Christ. Before you put your hymnal away I'd like you to take it out and I invite 3 00:00:11,733 --> 00:00:17,933 you to open up to page 12 Roman numeral 12 right up in the very front. Roman 4 00:00:17,933 --> 00:00:21,266 numerals at the bottom of the page at the top of the page you'll see the red 5 00:00:21,266 --> 00:00:29,800 heading commemorations. Today we find ourselves commemorating Abraham and on 6 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:36,166 Wednesday we're gonna find ourselves commemorating Philip the Deacon. Now I'll 7 00:00:36,166 --> 00:00:42,066 admit that in my years in the parish in Minnesota and Michigan I was not one who 8 00:00:42,066 --> 00:00:48,166 regularly observed commemorations from page 12 and 13 or feasts and festivals 9 00:00:48,166 --> 00:00:53,000 from pages 22 and 23. We didn't have a weekday service in either place and 10 00:00:53,000 --> 00:01:00,866 that's where one would normally do these things. But every once in a while every 11 00:01:00,866 --> 00:01:06,333 once in a while these days fall on a Sunday and if you use the regularly 12 00:01:06,333 --> 00:01:10,333 supplied bulletins from Concordia publishing house and they're putting the 13 00:01:10,333 --> 00:01:13,866 readings on the back of the bulletin for you well you go with the readings that 14 00:01:13,866 --> 00:01:17,333 are there and if they choose to commemorate or to feast and festival 15 00:01:17,333 --> 00:01:26,133 well so do you. So I use those as teaching opportunities a time to talk to 16 00:01:26,133 --> 00:01:34,266 my people about what do we think about the Saints how is it that we should work 17 00:01:34,266 --> 00:01:40,533 with these feasts festivals and commemorations. And wonderfully page 12 18 00:01:40,533 --> 00:01:46,566 of our hymnal helps us here and so I want you to look at page 12 at the very 19 00:01:46,566 --> 00:01:51,633 top of the page under the red heading commemorations we have from Augsburg 20 00:01:51,633 --> 00:01:58,800 Confession article 21 this sentence. Our churches teach that the remembrance of 21 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:03,133 the Saints is to be commended in order that we may imitate their faith and good 22 00:02:03,133 --> 00:02:09,633 works according to our calling. And then if you move down into the next paragraph 23 00:02:09,633 --> 00:02:18,833 we get from the Apology also Article 21 three reasons for such honor. First we 24 00:02:18,833 --> 00:02:26,933 thank God for giving faithful servants to his church. Second through such 25 00:02:26,933 --> 00:02:31,833 remembrance our faith is strengthened as we see the mercy that God extended to 26 00:02:31,833 --> 00:02:38,933 his saints of old. And third these Saints are examples by which we may both 27 00:02:38,933 --> 00:02:45,200 imitate their faith and their holy living according to our calling in life. 28 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:51,366 And so I want us to keep in mind these three points today as we commemorate 29 00:02:51,366 --> 00:02:57,533 Abram as he was called in our Genesis 15 reading soon to be called Abraham in 30 00:02:57,533 --> 00:03:07,766 Genesis 17. If we're gonna think about Abraham we probably ought to think 31 00:03:07,766 --> 00:03:13,566 broader than just chapter 15. Abraham's narrative begins back in chapter 11 32 00:03:13,566 --> 00:03:18,933 after the long genealogy connecting things forward. At the end of chapter 11 33 00:03:18,933 --> 00:03:25,000 we hear of Abram being called of out of Ur of the Chaldeans and his narrative 34 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:29,433 his account his story goes on and on until we get to chapter 25 where we 35 00:03:29,433 --> 00:03:36,266 finally hear about his death. And if you were to sit down and review that account 36 00:03:36,266 --> 00:03:43,600 and to process through it well you might just wonder why are we commemorating 37 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:52,600 Abram at all? Abraham like every biblical character who gets any kind of 38 00:03:52,600 --> 00:04:01,400 airtime apart from Jesus of course like every saint of old like every saint of 39 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:10,866 today he does not seem so very worthy of commemoration. Now of course we can go 40 00:04:10,866 --> 00:04:16,466 through and pick the parts just like we can go through in our own saintly lives 41 00:04:16,466 --> 00:04:22,566 and pick the parts that we want out there on public display. We can spin our 42 00:04:22,566 --> 00:04:27,566 story the way we want it and we can do the same thing with Abram if we choose 43 00:04:27,566 --> 00:04:35,266 to. But there's always the rest of the story. 44 00:04:35,866 --> 00:04:43,766 Wonderfully, thankfully the Spirit of God often inspired the human authors of the 45 00:04:43,766 --> 00:04:52,833 text of Scripture to give us more than that positive spin. To give us more about 46 00:04:52,833 --> 00:05:00,633 these people these saints of old than perhaps we're comfortable with. So let's 47 00:05:00,633 --> 00:05:11,933 think about Abram, Abraham. Abram or Abraham is probably a worshiper of false 48 00:05:11,933 --> 00:05:18,466 gods when he lives in Ur of the Chaldeans. At best probably a syncretist 49 00:05:18,466 --> 00:05:22,633 one who's worshipping those other gods alongside whatever knowledge he has 50 00:05:22,633 --> 00:05:29,766 of Yahweh the one true God. Joshua 24 tells us about worshipping the gods that 51 00:05:29,766 --> 00:05:41,433 the fathers worshipped across the river the Euphrates back in Ur. Abraham a man 52 00:05:41,433 --> 00:05:47,600 who twice allowed other men to take his wife into their homes to save his own 53 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:57,233 skin. A family trait that would be picked up on by his son. Self-preservation and 54 00:05:57,233 --> 00:06:09,133 scheming, deception, a trait exhibited masterfully by his grandson. Abraham a 55 00:06:09,133 --> 00:06:15,400 man who had the promises of Yahweh spoken directly to him and yet he tried 56 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:25,800 to find human ways, human means to meet the promises that Yahweh had made. Yahweh 57 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:34,800 sometimes seemed so slow to act. Though he was promised descendants in today's 58 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:40,466 reading we hear him wondering what is this Eliezer of Damascus a servant of 59 00:06:40,466 --> 00:06:46,233 mine in my house going to be my heir? And even when God comes to him and promises 60 00:06:46,233 --> 00:06:57,466 him no Abraham a son from your own body is going to be your heir. Even then 61 00:06:57,466 --> 00:07:03,833 Abraham and Sarah scheme figuring out okay well maybe we can do this as a son 62 00:07:03,833 --> 00:07:13,366 coming from Abraham's body through Hagar scheming to try and fulfill the promises 63 00:07:13,366 --> 00:07:18,566 of God. And then Abraham even has the audacity once that child of the slave 64 00:07:18,566 --> 00:07:22,800 woman is born to say to God oh no no just bless Ishmael I don't really need 65 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:37,733 any other son. And then he laughs, he laughs at Yahweh as does his wife Sarah. 66 00:07:38,033 --> 00:07:44,800 More could be said and I'm sure the Spirit could have moved Moses to write 67 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:51,600 down even more but we have enough to get the picture and as we like to say about 68 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:59,833 people who don't quite measure up Abraham was no saint. And yet the picture 69 00:07:59,833 --> 00:08:07,033 is far more complex it always is isn't it? Yahweh himself was at work for and 70 00:08:07,033 --> 00:08:16,200 through Abraham this possibly probably previous pagan. Yahweh was at work for 71 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:22,966 and through this self-preserving deceiver. Yahweh was at work for and 72 00:08:22,966 --> 00:08:30,033 through this impatient schemer who laughed at the Lord. The Abraham accounts 73 00:08:30,033 --> 00:08:35,233 are replete with the appearances and words and actions of Yahweh his God. 74 00:08:35,233 --> 00:08:41,533 Yahweh calls Abram and his barren wife from their homes to a new and distant 75 00:08:41,533 --> 00:08:48,200 land. Yahweh promises Abram that he will multiply him and bless him and that 76 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:53,766 through him all nations of the earth are going to be blessed. 77 00:08:53,766 --> 00:09:01,166 Yahweh works patiently with Abram and Sarah through their impatient years of 78 00:09:01,166 --> 00:09:09,366 waiting and wondering. And when questioned and doubted Yahweh reiterates 79 00:09:09,366 --> 00:09:17,766 and even extends the promises he has made. He even richly blesses Ishmael even 80 00:09:17,766 --> 00:09:24,033 though that is not the child of the promise. That child through whom Abraham 81 00:09:24,033 --> 00:09:31,266 and Sarah thought they could fulfill the Lord's promises for him. Yahweh 82 00:09:31,266 --> 00:09:39,266 patiently bore with their derisive laughter turning mocking laughter into 83 00:09:39,266 --> 00:09:47,633 laughter of joy at the birth of Isaac. Yes in the life of Abraham Yahweh was at 84 00:09:47,633 --> 00:09:54,266 work fulfilling His promises to Abraham and through Abraham in order to carry 85 00:09:54,266 --> 00:10:00,533 out his wondrous work of salvation and redemption promised far before 86 00:10:00,533 --> 00:10:10,066 Abraham promised to Adam and Eve. Through Abraham and Sarah Yahweh brought forth 87 00:10:10,066 --> 00:10:25,466 Isaac and then Jacob and then Judah and then David and then Jesus. It sounds so 88 00:10:25,466 --> 00:10:32,033 simple but you know the rest of all of those stories messy accounts messy like 89 00:10:32,033 --> 00:10:39,133 Abrams account and some of those folks in all of that mess also find themselves 90 00:10:39,133 --> 00:10:44,666 on pages 12 and 13 and 22 and 23 in our hymnals and well we can talk about them 91 00:10:44,666 --> 00:10:51,133 another time. Today we think of Abraham and if we think about Abraham we have to 92 00:10:51,133 --> 00:11:00,233 think about Jesus the fulfillment of all of the promises to Abraham. Think about 93 00:11:00,233 --> 00:11:09,766 when when Matthew begins the account of Jesus he begins with Abraham. When Paul 94 00:11:09,766 --> 00:11:19,266 wants to talk about justification by faith he takes us to Abraham. When Paul 95 00:11:19,266 --> 00:11:30,366 wants to talk about the salvation of all peoples he takes us to Abraham. When the 96 00:11:30,366 --> 00:11:35,566 writer of the letter to the Hebrews includes all of those different people 97 00:11:35,566 --> 00:11:41,600 the saints of old who lived by faith he spends quite a bit of time dwelling on 98 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:46,600 Abraham being far more generous to Abraham than I ever would have been if I 99 00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:54,366 were the one summarizing his life. So with these spirit filled spirit led 100 00:11:54,366 --> 00:11:58,766 authors of the New Testament and with those who subscribe to the Augsburg 101 00:11:58,766 --> 00:12:03,800 Confession and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession today yeah it's good 102 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:11,533 for us to commemorate Abraham and we do that first by thanking God. Thanking God 103 00:12:11,533 --> 00:12:20,866 for this faithful servant of the church yes of the church before what we know of 104 00:12:20,866 --> 00:12:32,000 as the church today. Even in the midst of struggle and doubt Abraham believed God. 105 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:42,400 The promises of Yahweh given to Abraham brought forth faith. Abraham believed God 106 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:49,566 and God reckoned it to him as righteousness and so we thank God for 107 00:12:49,566 --> 00:12:56,433 this faithful servant. And as we as we observe Abraham we also see the mercy 108 00:12:56,433 --> 00:13:02,366 that Yahweh showed to Abraham and through Abraham to all the world and so 109 00:13:02,366 --> 00:13:13,333 we rejoice and we give thanks. Hundreds of years later Yahweh would reveal to 110 00:13:13,333 --> 00:13:18,633 Moses that he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and abounding and 111 00:13:18,633 --> 00:13:24,266 steadfast love but if we read through and and process the accounts of Abraham 112 00:13:24,266 --> 00:13:33,133 already in Genesis 400 some years prior we see it there already. We see the mercy 113 00:13:33,133 --> 00:13:40,266 that Yahweh showed to Abraham. And finally as we commemorate Abraham today 114 00:13:40,266 --> 00:13:47,033 we pray that God would keep us firm in this same faith. Faith that is brought 115 00:13:47,033 --> 00:13:54,733 forth by the promises of Yahweh. Firm faith and firm in faith we pray that we 116 00:13:54,733 --> 00:14:06,600 may live holy lives according to our callings. Messy lives. Lives of daily 117 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:15,633 contrition and repentance. But lives of daily renewal in the forgiveness of sins 118 00:14:15,633 --> 00:14:21,166 that comes to us in the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham Jesus Christ 119 00:14:21,166 --> 00:14:32,200 himself. Messy lives like Abrams messy life lived in faith holding on to the 120 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:41,033 promises of Yahweh fulfilled in Christ. This is how we commemorate Abraham on 121 00:14:41,033 --> 00:14:48,000 this day. In the name of Jesus. Amen.