The Rev. Jimmy Abbott
Second Sunday in Lent
February 25, 2024
Genesis 17:1-5, 16-17 & Romans 4:13-25

Gird yourselves for some bad news. The city of Galveston has told us that the construction all up and down 23rd Street is now coming for this side of Broadway. For months we’ve been watching them – tear up the road, put it back, tear it up again, put it back again. Pipes and pumps and detours and so many traffic cones. Apparently, they have to reset a 20 inch water main. And now, it’s our turn. I’ve dubbed it, “The Nightmare on Ball Street.”

We all get it. Construction is messy. You can have the greatest plans laid out by the smartest engineers, but the instant that first jackhammer breaks the concrete and you can actually see what’s down there, all bets are off. That’s when they have to improvise, to make do, to figure out how to fix it as they go. Construction is messy.

As is creation. And like a bunch of engineers mapping out their charts and surveys, the story goes that God created humans, people, represented by Adam and Eve, to be the masters of creation. Together, Adam and Eve would be the caretakers of the world so that it could be fruitful and multiply, all in praise of God. But things didn’t quite work out that way. Adam and Eve turned their backs on each other and on God. In the same way, you and I blame each other for our own mistakes. We have broken God’s trust in us, and we have broken our trust in each other. Adam and Eve are also us.

So, the story goes on. Like an engineer scratching their head at what is actually down there, God improvised. God appoints Abram and Sarai to take over the role that Adam and Eve once played. Abram and Sarai, who become Abraham and Sarah, will have children and offspring; a multitude of nations. The idea is that together, Abraham and Sarah will institute a new covenant. This time, God would make it clear. God would give them laws. They and their people will follow the laws of God, and this law will be their covenant with God. And by following these laws, Abraham, Sarah, and their descendants will be the means through which the whole world would know God. And all will be well and the street will be finished. 

But once again, it doesn’t work out that way. The offspring of Abraham and Sarah, that’s us, try to follow these laws, but we can’t keep them. The laws, in fact, show how only how weak our hearts and minds are. This sends the engineers back to their surveys and plans and maps; it sends God back to the drawing board.

This time the covenant will not be with just Adam and Eve, this time the covenant will not be only with the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, this time the covenant will be with all people of faith, through Jesus. As Saint Paul says, “For the promise that Abraham would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:16). It’s like Saint Paul is standing over an open pit, with a jumble of pipes and broken concrete, and just trying to make sense of what all had happened before and how God can make it work going forward. And the way forward, is by faith. 

I hope you see this for the radical message of good news that it is. All people – all people – are invited into this life with God. It does not matter where we have come from or our background or lineage or family history; it’s not about trying to follow all the laws in order to please God. God simply wants to have a covenant, a bond, a relationship with any and all people. God will do whatever it takes to fix this broken creation.

But you know, it’s not really about fixing the street or getting the pipes right. No, the point of all this work is so that you and I drive on the street without having to dodge potholes; and so that the water pipes work; the point of all that construction is about making our lives better in the long-run. Even if it causes a headache now. That is God’s project in this world. It’s not about saving souls or growing the church or getting more people; no, it’s about making our world a better place to live. That is the point of it all. God is working on our hearts, not just so that we are closer to God, but so that we would be a conduit of that same love out into the world. You know a street is in good shape when nobody is talking about it; you know that pipes are working well when people turn on their faucets and don’t think about it.

That’s what God has called you and I to do. Our job, our point as the church is to be a conduit, an avenue, a 20 inch water main, of God’s grace and mercy. We have been brought into this life of faith not to simply get more faith, but so that through us the world would be a lovelier place to life. I believe that “The Church is the only institution in the world that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” The Church is the only institution in the world that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members. (Quote attributed to Archbishop William Temple) Like Adam and Eve, like Abraham and Sarah, like all the people of faith, we are in a relationship with God because it’s good for us, but because it’s good for our community. Like a water pipe, silently, dutifully doing its job, we silently, and lovingly, make this world better.

Even if that means the headache of a construction project. That is Lent for you. This is God’s time for construction, when the Holy Spirit jackhammers our hearts and minds and souls to work on us. And for forty days and forty nights, the Spirit works to make the love flow through us again.

And, we pray, that we come out of this season as different people. Newly renovated people. So that you and I can go back to our lives and families and work, and transform them all in the name of Jesus; transform them for love. All throughout the scriptures, God is calling normal people like me and you into a relationship with God. Not so that we just go to heaven, not so that we can be self-righteous, not to make the church bigger; but so that through us, this world that we see would become the kingdom of God. The idea is that God blesses us, so that we can be a blessing to someone else. 

I feel like I need to add final caveat. The construction project, the work that God does on our hearts, well, it’s not like the work on 23rd Street. We can reasonably assume that one day, it will be done. We hope. The construction project, the work that God does on your heart, well, it’s more like I-45. It’s never over. God is never done with us. From Adam and to Eve, to Abraham and Sarah, for two thousand years of church history, there have been headaches and traffic jams and holdups, as the Holy Spirit works on us. Do not despair. In fact, rejoice. Rejoice that God has the patience to stick it out with you. Rejoice that when God looks into your heart, and sees the mess that it is, God doesn’t just close the street and start somewhere else. You are where God wants to work. Rejoice, God looks at you and sees an opportunity; you are the opportunity to be a blessing. 

Reference

Wright, N. T. Christian Origins and the Question of God. 1st North American ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.