Lenten blog | February 22, 2024

From sacred visions to prisons 

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for February 22nd:  Genesis 15:1-6, 12-18; Psalm 22:23-31; and Romans 3:21-31.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Sometimes it just takes faith.  Abram (not yet named Abraham) was promised an astounding future by Yahweh.  “In a vision” Yahweh converses with Abram.  It is not possible to define such an experience because the vision occurs at the threshold of worlds, while our experiences and language are earth-bounded.  We read in Genesis of this vision’s revelation: “[Yahweh] brought [Abram] outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’”  This experience reminds me of Paul’s vision where the apostle, who is seldom at a loss for words, relates not once but twice, “[W]hether in the body or out of the body I do not know.” (2 Corinthians 12:2, 3) Such ecstatic experiences must be amazing, but also terrifying as we will get to in a moment.

Before that, however, this vision-revelation about countless descendants is spoken to an aging man who has no physical heir.  It is becoming less and less practical for Abram to imagine anything other than his DNA ending with his demise.  Visions live at the boundaries of worlds, but procreation is inherently a physical reality.  Which future will Abram invest in?  Yahweh’s vision or the obvious reality of an aging body?  It is with this unspoken question in mind that Genesis continues by saying, “And [Abram] believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.”

Abram believed, trusted, Yahweh’s promise, and this belief/trust is recognized by God as righteousness.  In other words, to live rightly (righteously) is to believe in God’s truth.  This need not be practical, logical or experiential.  To believe is to venture to that threshold between worlds that we cannot approach except through the rarest of extraordinary interventions.  And these boundaries can be terrifying, which we can now discuss.

What is the difference between Abram’s awake-vision where Yahweh takes him outside and then this even less explicable encounter that Genesis tries to explain as:  “As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.”  This imagery draws Genesis’ reader back to 2:21 when God “caused a deep sleep” to fall upon Adam as Eve was about to be created.  Both of these are creation accounts.  The Adam myth is about the physical human creation.  The Abram myth is about the creation through faith of the people of God.  Both are mysteries that are part physical and part mystical, and the dual nature of both can only be seen through belief, through trust.

Paul synthesizes the Adam and Abram myths by teaching that in Christ all creation (Adam) are the people of God (Abram).  He writes for us today:  “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.”

On June 4, 1988, Mother Teresa visited the Massachusetts state prison in Concord.  She told the inmates that she would never forget them, that they were all precious to her.  After her visit, a reporter asked her at a press conference if the inmates were sinners.  She answered, “We are all sinners.  And that is why we need the tender mercy of God.” (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/17/metro/mci-concord-prison-closing-stories/ )  Adam, Abram and Jesus are all stories of renewal, of renewal based on belief, on trust.  May Lent help us to see the unseen threshold that Jesus promises to all of us because all of us are known and precious to God.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.