The Second Sunday in Lent, March 7, 2004
Gen. 15:1-12,17-18; Psalm 27 or 27:10-18; Phil. 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:(22-30)31-35
The readings from holy scripture on this Sunday express the call of God to us to be faithful in the midst of all our reasons for doubt and uncertainty. Affirming what we pray in the collect, that our God’s “glory is always to have mercy,” we and “all who have gone astray” are in need of a “steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth.” This faith is in our Lord Jesus Christ, whose merciful will is to draw us to himself “as a hen gathers her brood.”
The faith of Abraham, the father of the faithful, is expressed in the familiar verse from the passage in Genesis, “he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.” This steadfast faith, this belief in the Lord, emerges out of reasonable doubt. The promise of God is for Abram and his descendants. Yet when the promise was received, the patriarch was aged and childless. Trust in the Word of God inspired belief in the truth yet to be made manifest.
Such hopeful faith is likewise expressed in the psalm: “What if I had not believed that I should see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!”
This belief in God’s goodness, this trust in his mercy, encourages patient strength. “Be strong, and he shall comfort your heart; wait patiently for the Lord.” The letter to the Philippians speaks similarly of patience: “… we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,” and strength of faith: “… stand firm thus in the Lord.”
In the gospel, Jesus invites us to “Strive to enter by the narrow door” though the realization that “many will seek to enter and will not be able” may evoke feelings of grave uncertainty. As those who proclaim him, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” we may believe that we shall “see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God” and not be “thrust out.” We may have faith in spite of every tendency to doubt that with all who “come from east and west, and from north and south,” we shall by his glorious mercy “sit at table in the kingdom of God.”
Look It Up
Read the fourth chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans and reflect on how it is that Abraham became “the father of us all.”
Think About It
We often think of doubt as the opposite of faith. But is faith possible when there is no room for doubt? Might distrust be more appropriately considered faith’s opposite?
Next Sunday
The Third Sunday in Lent, March 14, 2004
Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 103 or 103:1-11; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
