ABRAM, THE LIONESS AND THE LAMB OF GOD

 A sermon about serious faith (March 2023)

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The Lord said to Abram: GO.  And Abram WENT.

He didn’t have to. He could have refused and stayed put. He didn’t know where this land was that he would be shown. He had free will, he had a choice. But there was a carrot, an incentive: God told him “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

 And Abram decided he would TRUST God, he would BELIEVE what he was being told, he would have FAITH and he would OBEY.

Well, now. Are all the families of the earth to be blessed because of Abram’s (or Abraham’s as he is also known) faith? A lot of people think so in spite of everything. By a lot of people I mean all Muslims, Jews and Christians. The three great monotheistic religions in the world are known as Abrahamic faiths. They all have this patriarchal figure from the 2nd millennium BC at the root and origin of their faiths.

For Muslims, he comes between Adam and Mohammed (peace be upon him) as a prophet. For Jews he comes before Moses. For us, he is the founder of the faith into which Jesus was born and which Jesus fulfilled.

 I said in spite of everything. In our own day, in spite of the Holocaust, in spite of the destruction of the twin towers, in spite of Russian Orthodox Christians fighting Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, in spite of Israelis fighting Arabs in Palestine. Over history as a whole, in spite of man’s consistent inhumanity to man.

 But, unless we are going to give up, wash our hands of all the mess and suffering and live a pointless, meaningless life, we must have HOPE, even if it is hope against hope. Abraham trusted and obeyed God.

According to S.Paul, we should look to Abraham because Abraham teaches us to trust. Jesus Christ once said in exasperation to the Pharisees “Before Abraham was, I am!”, but that was only because they preferred to pay lip service to Abraham rather than recognise the Word made flesh staring them in the face.

Jesus recognised and respected Abraham as the founding father of the faith into which He was born.

And our lives only mean anything if we have FAITH in God.

Let me tell you a story about a young American missionary who was tasked with evangelising a tribe in East Africa. He was a wet-behind-the-ears Roman Catholic priest.  At the time his church was rather paternalistic and complacent. It thought it sufficient to make its would-be converts learn the catechism and to receive them once they could recite enough of it.

But the tribe thought his official line was a pale imitation of full-blooded commitment. Here is how he describes the experience:

 I was sitting talking with an elder about the agony of belief and  unbelief.

  He pointed out that the word I had used to convey FAITH was not a very satisfactory word in their language. It meant literally “TO AGREE TO”.

 He said “to believe”in that sense was like a white hunter shooting an animal with his gun from a great distance. Only his eyes and his fingers took part in the act.

It was just a question of skill. He was not emotionally engaged..

 He said for a man really to believe is like a lioness going after her prey. Her nose and eyes and ears pick up the prey. Her legs give her the speed to catch it. All the power of her body is involved in the terrible death leap and single blow to the neck with the front paw. And as the animal goes down the lioness envelops it in her front legs, hugs it, and makes it part of herself.

This is the way a lioness kills. This is the way a man should believe. This is what faith is. The young priest looked at the elder in silence and amazement.     

 If WE could each only embrace God with that fierce unshakeable faith as strong as the grip of a lioness, what marvels God could work in us and through us.

And sometimes it doesn’t seem all that impossible. When the sun shines on you. When you feel “richly blessed”.

But what about the dark days, when, like Jesus Himself, we are despised, rejected, abandoned, given some cross to bear?  Will our faith, like his, stand the test?

 When we kneel to pray in sorrow or perplexity, God cannot help us if our faith is smothered by worldly fears, by anxiety about what we can do or what will happen to us.

Perhaps you will lose your home next month because you can’t pay the rent or the mortgager. Well, perhaps you will.

Perhaps your daughter may die painfully of the cancer which has just been diagnosed. Yes, perhaps she will.

Perhaps your wife or husband may leave you and not come back to you. Maybe not.

BUT THE POINT IS THIS. Am I willing to keep faith with you, my God, whatever happens and to trust you with the outcome? Like Abraham did.

For this, as S.John says, is life eternal: that I should know you, the one true God, like Abraham but not like Abraham through Your Son who you sent to us.

 As for that Son, Jesus Christ, without waiting for any assurances He glorified you, He accomplished the work You gave Him to do and was faithful even unto death on a cross. And so You glorified Him.

And this faithful Son of God will come to us on the altar this morning, as near and as alive as He was in Palestine all those years ago to those who trusted and believed in Him then, whose faith made them whole.

 Is our faith as strong? Don’t let’s kid ourselves - if we only have a half-hearted belief, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament cannot help us.

 When I show the consecrated host to you, I borrow the words of faith spoken by John the Baptist when he saw the man Jesus coming down the road: LOOK. HERE IS THE LAMB OF GOD.

And you answer in words of faith borrowed from the Roman Centurion:

LORD I AM NOT WORTHY TO RECEIVE YOU BUT ONLY SAY THE WORD AND I SHALL BE HEALED.

Please don’t ever say those words casually, like a mechanical formula with your thoughts on other things.

 Grasp the miracle of the real presence with Abraham’s trust, with a lioness’s grip of faith. Hug the risen Christ to yourself in a fierce embrace - and He and His father will come, as He promised, and make their home with you.

 That is the gift which is given to those who can say “Firmly I believe and truly”, to keep the faith as fearlessly and as hopefully as our forefather Abraham.