Luke 12:22-34 (Pentecost 9C )                                                   
St. John, Galveston 8/10/25
 “The Father’s Good Pleasure”
Rev. Alan Taylor
 
+ In Nomine Jesu +
 
Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

    All three of the readings for this morning deal with faith in God and in the promises He has made. The passage from Hebrews defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.“ In the Genesis passage, Abraham struggled to believe God’s promise that he would have an heir, and yet, he did believe. In the Gospel reading, Jesus said, “by faith Abraham dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God…from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.” 
 
    There are many people who think that the Bible is a foolish book because its characters, namely, the prophets and the apostles, are portrayed with many flaws. Of note, after God delivered Noah and his family from destruction in the flood, Noah wallowed around in his tent in a drunken stupor. Abraham, the greatest patriarch of the Old Testament, a man given as an example of great faith, worried that God wouldn’t bless him with heir as He had promised. And then there’s David, Israel’s great King, who committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah murdered on the battle field. In the New Testament, Peter was given to impetuousness and finally, in that well known act of cowardice, he denied three times that he even knew Jesus.
 
    Some say that men chosen by God should be of greater purity and steadfastness than the rest of us. And yet, these men, and others like them in the Bible, call out to the church of all ages, directing our eyes and ears, our hearts and minds to Christ, their redeemer and ours. We find hope in reading about people like Noah, and Abraham, and David and Peter?  Why? Well, at least in part, because we can relate to them. We identify with their plight.  And perhaps more than that, we reason that if God could use such flawed men as these to accomplish such great things, perhaps He can use us, though our character is no better, and our sins are no less.        
 
    In his commentary on the Book of Genesis, Luther handles this passage with Abraham doubting God’s promise in a masterful way. He says, “It is very profitable to consider these examples, (here he speaks of Abraham who doubts God) namely, that the saints who are bold in the Holy Spirit are bolder than Satan himself. On the other hand, when they are in the clutches of a trial, they tremble so much that they are afraid even of a rustling leaf.  We are reminded of our weakness in order that no matter how great the gifts are that we possess, we may not exalt ourselves but may remain humble and fear God.”  
 
    The truth is, if faith were perfected in this world, certainly you and I would never worry about anything, much less fear it. Remember, faith is being sure of, it is being certain of things that are not seen. If we believed in God perfectly, in the grace and mercy of Christ, everything in life that could cause us unrest would simply role off of us like rain off of a leaf. But, as it is, though we are redeemed, we are, nonetheless, born in sin, and thus we cry out “I believe Lord, but help my unbelief.” 
 
    If you go back and look at the verses that precede the Old Testament reading for this morning, you find that Abraham had just come off of a “mountain top” type experience. He had emerged victorious in rescuing Lot, his nephew, from his enemies. Melchizedek, the King of Salem, the priest of God Most High, the pre-incarnate Christ, brought out bread and wine to celebrate Abraham’s victory. He blessed Abraham and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth.”
 
    Life was good! In fact, how much better could things have been for Abraham? What more could he want from life than to be blessed by the priest of God Most High, to know that he was in God’s favor? And yet, Abraham was worried and afraid. He was worried because God hadn’t given him any offspring. Everything he had was going to go to Eliezer of Damascus, a house servant. Certainly God had blessed him in enabling him to rescue Lot against overwhelming odds, but, a question continued to haunt Abraham…would God bless him again? Would God be faithful to him yet again?     
 
    Luther points out that when God’s saints are exalted they are often quickly humbled, and that by God’s design. He says, “there is nothing which this nature of ours is less able to bear than its own honors and God’s favors.  Consequently, God turns His face away for a little while and leaves man to himself. Then distress and hardship immediately arise.” For Luther, that is exactly what was happening to Abraham when he feared that God wouldn’t bless Him with an heir. 

    He says, God did with Abraham exactly what He did with Paul and his “thorn in the flesh.” To keep Paul from exalting himself God sent a messenger of Satan to buffet him, to keep him humble. Luther suggests that perhaps the same has happened here with Abraham. He had seen God’s power at work in the defeat of his enemies. He had stood before Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High. And now, in worrying about an heir, he saw just how weak he was in faith toward God.
 
    Worry is really the antithesis of faith, isn’t it? “If God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith.” To worry about the future is to believe that God won’t be good tomorrow as He was today! 
 
    And yet, worry has its salutary effect. It demonstrates, in some sense, just how needy we are of God’s grace and mercy. Life presses in from every side and it tests, if you will, God’s provision, even the truthfulness of His Word. The fact is, without the trials and sufferings that cause us to worry and to be afraid, God’s Word would be merely a book of theory, and faith would simply be an academic exercise.   
 
    “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God promised Abraham that his heirs would be greater than the stars in the sky. Abraham couldn’t fathom how tremendously God would bless Him, anymore than he could count all the stars in the sky. What he couldn’t comprehend was the purity and faithfulness of God’s love. It is little wonder that St. Paul, in writing to the Christians at Ephesus, would offer the following benediction…”Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations.”      
 
    And here you are, my friends, an heir of Abraham, believing in The Heir of Abraham, Jesus Christ the crucified. The Son of David, the Son of Abraham has added unto you all of the blessings of the kingdom of heaven, forgiveness, life, and salvation. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you everything He has to give. Did you hear that? It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom…everything He has to give.
 
    One dark, pitch-black night a man was walking down an unfamiliar road. On either side there was a deep ravine. Suddenly he took an errant step and he began to fall. Fearful that he was falling to certain death, he began flailing his arms and clutching for anything he could get his hands on. He was able to grasp a bush along the side, and there he held on for dear life. It was agony. His body became numb. At last, in that final moment of weakness and despair, he let go and dropped—all six inches to the ledge that was right below his feet. 
 
    Like you, I wish there were some button to push to turn worry off. But, as you well know, for some, perhaps more than others, there isn’t such a button. Still, by God’s grace, you believe in what your eyes can’t or don’t see. In fact, you are certain of it! God is good! His goodness being most clearly seen in the cross of Crucified One! And so, in the midst of worry and fear, we learn to repent, to ask God’s forgiveness and to lean more and more on the grace and mercy of Christ, the Heir that was promised to Abraham.  

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 
 
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.
 
+ Soli Deo Gloria +