The Seven Virgins

Palm Sunday/Passion SundayB, March 29, 2015 Sullivan Park Care Center by Annette Fricke

            In the Oxford Book of Carols, on p. 82, there is a song titled, “The Seven Virgins” that goes like this:

All under the leaves, the leaves of life, I met with virgins sev’n, And one of them was Mary mild, Our Lord’s mother from heav’n.

‘O what are you seeking, you seven fair maids, All under the leaves of life?  Come tell, come tell me what seek you All under the leaves of life.’

‘We’re seeking for no leaves, Thomas, But for a friend of thine; We’re seeking for sweet Jesus Christ, To be our guide and thine.’

‘Go you down, go you down to yonder town, And sit in the gallery; And there you’ll find sweet Jesus Christ, Nailed to a big yew-tree.’

So down they went to yonder town, As fast as foot could fall, And many a grievous bitter tear, From the virgins’ eyes did fall.

‘O peace, mother, O peace, mother, Your weeping doth me grieve; O I must suffer this,’ he said, ‘For Adam and for Eve.’

‘O how can I my weeping leave, Or my sorrows undergo, Whilst I do see my own Son die, When sons I have no mo’?’

‘Dear mother, dear mother, you must take John, All for to be your son, And he will comfort you sometimes, Mother, as I have done.’

‘O come, thou John Evangelist, Thou’rt welcome unto me, But more welcome my own dear son, That I nursed upon my knee.’

Then he laid his head on his right shoulder, Seeing death it struck him nigh: ‘The Holy Ghost be with your soul,---I die, mother dear, I die.’

Oh the rose, the rose, the gentle rose, And the fennel that grows so green!  God give us grace in every place, To pray for our king and queen.

Furthermore for our enemies all Our prayers they should be strong.  Amen, Good Lord! your charity Is the ending of my song.

            Who are the seven virgins?  Mary, the mother of God is the only one who is identified by name.  And if you look at the canon of scriptures, Mary was not a virgin with only one son.  Mark 3:31 states clearly that Mary had brothers and we also know that one of Jesus’ brothers later became a follower of Jesus’ teaching.  Later scholars also discovered that the translation in the book of Isaiah, commonly translated as the Messiah will be born of a virgin is not accurate.  The actual Hebrew word means young woman and could either be a virgin or married.  The sense of the song, regardless of whether or not Mary was a virgin also begs the question as to whether or not the others were virgins.  Maybe we need to put on glasses that are able to see a snippet of another culture.  We know that Paul thought that remaining celibate was a way to honor God in the body.  This, of course is a way of life that doesn’t pay attention to the particulars of what happened prior to that.  A person can be married, divorced, and then remain celibate either for the rest of that person’s life or until getting married again.  If you follow a strong Biblical teaching, one cannot marry again after a divorce.  If one were to judge from the frailty of life in the early years of the church and the short life expectancy, you can see how this biblical injunction would prove to be wise advice.  As we move further and further away from when Jesus walked this earth, we discover more and more that some of those things in the Bible thought to be absolute truths simply aren’t; for example, the whole practice and concept of slavery.  To go a step further, the relationship between husband and wife has also been brought into question. Most people no longer hold to St Paul’s concept of a man as the head of the household and see marriage more as a partnership of separate, but equal roles.

            So how do we make modern sense of the seven virgins, only one of whom is identified?  In the gospel according to Mark, we have identified 1) women looking on from a distance, 2) Mary Magdalene, 3) Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and 4) Salome.  I would have to conclude that the number seven is not to be taken literally, but is a representation.  In the book of Revelation, the number of churches is seven.  Seven, in this sense is a representation of the entire church since the actual number of churches in the province of Asia at the time was more than seven. If we go with this understanding, these women all together comprise the seven virgins. Women didn’t count in that culture, so nobody would have kept track of the exact number.  It was common to list the number of men, not including women and children.

            As for virgins, the term means far more than just a physical state.  It can mean innocence, modesty, and purity, not previously exploited, cultivated, tapped, or used.[1]  Considering what we know of the male followers of Jesus which is far more, I would suggest that this is a very accurate term to describe the women.  These followers who supported Jesus with their hospitality as opposed to some of the Pharisees who questioned Jesus’ every move were generally accepting.  They were accepting of Jesus because Jesus accepted and listened to them in a way that they probably never experienced before.  Jesus took the time to impress upon them that they also were viable human beings who mattered to him and to the world around them.

            Do the women of today feel the love of Jesus in a similar way?  And do they respond to Jesus in the same way as so many years ago all the way to the cross?  When I think about Mary in particular, she surely had a relationship with Jesus like no other.  She and she alone raised Jesus from birth after carrying him in her womb.  She probably had only a partial understanding as to the pain she would go through watching him die at such an early age.  Back then, the age of 30 was thought to be when a person reached maturity.  That means that Jesus died just three years after reaching maturity.  Yet she and many other women remained faithful to the very end.  They watched as Jesus hung on the cross, as he was taken down by Joseph of Arimathea and put in his own grave spot.  They were eye-witnesses and did what they could to show their undying respect for the one who cared for them so much.  They saw how Joseph wrapped up the body for burial.  More than anything, I am sure that the words of the centurion echoed in their minds for weeks and years afterwards, “Truly this man was God’s Son.”  And just as surely, their lives were changed forever by this one life and this one death.

---

[1] Dictionary.com

The Velveteen Rabbit Lives Again

5LentB, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 22, 2015   by Annette Fricke

My favorite toy, as a child, was a sawdust stuffed dog.  I named the stuffed dog, Doggy Daddy not knowing till much later that it was also the name of a cartoon character.  I toted Doggy Daddy around with me around the house and my parents’ property, but nowhere else.  I was not allowed to take him in the car as is a more common practice today.  But like the Velveteen Rabbit, it did not have hind legs, only front ones. 

            The original Velveteen Rabbit was written in 1922 and has survived the test of time.  It is still available in the original version at the local library.  It is a story told from the perspective of the Velveteen Rabbit who is a Christmas present that originally sits on the shelf or the floor of the nursery and is not played with by the boy.  The feeling of aloneness of the rabbit, which doesn’t get playtime, is expressed by the rabbit. Finally, the boy’s favorite toy is nowhere to be found, and the Nanny replaces it with the Velveteen Rabbit. The rabbit sees himself and all of the toys as being similar to people, especially the Skin Horse who talks to him and says that he is real and that the rabbit can become real as well when loved by people.  The horse explains that the reason the horse looks so beat up and has most of his hair missing is because he was loved by the boy’s uncle.  When the nanny gives the rabbit to the boy, the boy loves the rabbit and takes him everywhere he goes.  When the boy gets sick, the rabbit is still there in the bed with the boy and stays the duration of his illness with Scarlet Fever.  The rabbit senses, from his conversation with the horse, that the way to become real is the goal and to become real is to receive and be loved. There is also a hint that perhaps the rabbit loves the boy, although it is quite clear that the boy is the initiator of love and the rabbit is dependent upon the boy.  The Velveteen Rabbit ends up on the burn pile because spending all that time with the boy meant that he was full of Scarlet Fever contagion.  Burning, as most of you know, was a common way to attempt to alleviate the spread of disease before vaccinations were developed.  If you don’t know the story, you will be thinking surely this is the end for the Velveteen Rabbit.  He will be burned up with the rest of the heap.  But that isn’t what happens.

The whole idea of losing in order to win, of dying in order to live, of sacrificing in order to save, runs counter to reasonable living.  It goes against the common sense of humankind’s basic instinct to survive.  It is nonsensical.  I am sure that many in the crowd that day walked away scratching their heads, confused and bewildered by the words they heard, disappointed in Jesus.  I am sure others in the crowd understood on some level what Jesus said and reckoned him a madman.  And a few, I am quite sure, of those who came to see Jesus were inspired, encouraged, and greatly challenged as they began to follow the teacher and his new teaching. It is my hope that these passages from the scriptures are always challenging despite their source from the scriptures. We can learn much, even from people very different from us. I also hope that you may find inspiration and encouragement to continue your journey with God.

            That is how it is when a teacher teaches.  Children as well as adults will come away with different things when someone teaches them.  They knew that Jesus was a fellow Jew and had been known to attend Temple like other religious Jews.  They also knew he was the son of Mary and Joseph and enough about him to consider that he had something a bit different in his teaching and therefore was worth a serious hearing.

            The Greeks mentioned in this gospel reading appear to be Gentiles.  They are trying to get to Jesus through Philip.  They say to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  These Greeks are not Jews, but they see something of value in Jesus, something they want.  The Velveteen Rabbit sees something in the Skin Horse that he wants, too.  He wants to be loved and accepted, not a discarded, forgotten toy.  He wants to become a real bunny.

            How can we see Jesus?  The Jews at both the juncture of the life of the prophet Jeremiah as well as the life of Jesus worshipped God in the Temple.  Both Jeremiah and Jesus suggest a different way to worship God.  God says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”  “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  Just as a wood carver goes deep into the wood carving with loving care the vines, fruits, animals and people desired for all to see; just as the crafters of the sawdust stuffed animals of times past; so also is God’s love except God’s love is even deeper. The law of love is the standard.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with your entire mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.  Just like the relationship between the Velveteen Rabbit and the little boy, so also and even more so, God has loved us in Jesus Christ, and so also are we to love God.  That love of God goes beyond this life.  It is not the end when we die, but a new beginning.  The Velveteen Rabbit begins a new life, transformed into a real bunny---the same, but qualitatively different.

            It is easy to sit around and complain about loss of hair, constipation, poor appetite, and feet that are painful and various other ailments of getting old.  But it happens to all of us, to one degree or another.  Sometimes we focus so much on ourselves that we forget that we are God’s creation, created to love as God loved us.

            “What is REAL?" asked the Velveteen Rabbit one day... "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When [someone] loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.

"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand... once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.”  ― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real

Believing Requires Action

4LentB, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 15, 2015, by Annette Fricke

            How would you describe your life as a Christian?  I think this phrase sums it up pretty well. “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” ― Marcel Proust.  When a child is very young, everything is a new discovery.  This world is not the same as the world inside the womb of the child’s mother.  A child is fascinated with light switches and the opening and closing of the refrigerator door.  But amongst the discoveries are the pitfalls.  A common error is using crayons on something other than specific paper.  For example, crayons are not to be used on the wall or in books, especially a library book.  We need strong guidance as a child. As we get older, we no longer need instruction for how to use a crayon, but for other things, such as how to prepare a meal, behavior on a first date, how to create a budget, or how to interview for a job. We need life skills to live the life of an adult which often boil down to living life on the fly or by the seat of one’s pants.  There are those moments when we simply have to choose one way or another.   Am I a follower of Jesus, or not?  Does what I say and do really matter?

            Some would say that these are not the right questions at all.  Do I have a choice in being born into this world?  No.  Conception and growth in the womb or our mothers is a process by which all of us were not born by our desire.  The family we were born into also was not ours to choose. Those of us who were baptized as an infant did not have a say in that either.  Our lives as humans are marked by the need for guidance and instruction from the day we are born into this world. This is our world where the complexities of our choices can take us in a myriad of directions, where we frequently get caught up in the thought of, “Did I make the right choice given my circumstances?”  The common answer in therapy for past mistakes is, “You did what you did because at the time, it was the right decision to the best of your knowledge.”  Was it?  I understand the purpose of that phrase.  It is meant to keep a person from dwelling on something they still feel uneasy or guilty about.  Dwelling on the past continually can get in the way of living in the present.  A cruder way of saying it is, “Get over it.”  Sometimes that is the more effective way to say essentially the same thing.  But the work of therapy, to be the most effective, always asks the question, “What am I doing in the present that keeps me stuck, from moving forward with my life, and keeps me from being happy or fulfilled?”  “Why is satisfaction so elusive?

            Was it the best I could have done at the time or am I just trying to tell myself that it was?  Maybe I could have done better in that situation, maybe not.  There is no real way to know.  We are not always aware of the impact we have on other peoples’ lives.  And this, more than anything in my mind is the reason that we should confess all of our sins, not just the ones of which we are aware.  We impact people both positively and negatively all the time without even knowing it.  Some of us grew up in that world where it was not polite to tell people certain things, so we didn’t, some of which might make us feel good if we knew what it was and other things would be good to know for our own instruction in selfhood.  How is it that I can grow as a person if I am not given feedback and yet some feedback needs to be taken with a grain of salt?  Some feedback says more about the person giving it than the person it’s supposed to be about.

            What can we glean from the interaction between Nicodemus and Jesus? For one, Nicodemus is interested in what Jesus has to say and listens carefully.  He wants to know what Jesus is talking about.  In exchange for Jesus’ recognition of Nicodemus under the tree as an upstanding teacher, Jesus describes his role and purpose in this world.  He is making an analogy to the bronze serpent Moses made in the Old Testament text for today.  That text is known as a “complaint” story in which the people complain to Moses, but this, which is that last murmuring, is a complaint against both God and Moses.  God has apparently lost patience with the tenth complaint already telling even Moses that he will not see the Promised Land.  The people are murmuring about something that seems legitimate: they are angry that the snakes are biting them and they are dying. They beg Moses to speak to God for them to take away the snakes. What kind of a God is this that brings death?  And yet the connection to the previous narrative in chapter three of John’s gospel does make sense.  In baptism, we die with Christ in order to be raised with him.  The difference now is that it’s not the people dying; a sacrifice in itself, but it is Jesus dying.  You see, despite what you may personally believe as to whether or not Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice that puts us right with God, this is what the text appears to be communicating.  Just as the people were instructed to look to the bronze snake on the pole, so also we are to look to Jesus who in his death is our source of life and salvation in God. 

            Our covenant with God remains.  Our journey is our spiritual pathway in which we try to live our lives within that covenant without straying so far that we lose our salvation in the present.  We also are to inherit that Promised Land, but in a different sense than the Promised Land of the Jews.  Our Promised Land is what follows our life here on earth.  Our baptismal covenant is our living in and struggling with remaining faithful to God and God’s expectations of us.  God accepts us just the way we are.  The Ten Commandments or teachings remain as the measurement of how to live a life that is pleasing to God.  It does not apply only to the Jewish people, but Christians as well.  Yet despite our continued failure to live by its teachings, God is always there to take us back.  God’s love never fails.  But maybe there’s another way to look at it.  The interpretation of these commandments in Jesus’ day was troubling to him.  Jesus regularly healed people on the Sabbath.  That was clearly against the law.  He was called on it several times by the Pharisees.  Jesus was thought to be the fulfillment of the law, but if even he was found guilty of keeping it, how are we able to do that?  Perhaps there is something to keeping not to the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law.  Maybe there is another way in which we can show love for God and our neighbor since the Ten Commandments or teachings really were tied not only to the prevailing culture of the time, but also to specific interpretation.  Maybe we should listen to our hearts and assess what is it that my neighbor needs and what am I able to supply?  How can I help supply what my neighbor is requesting?  What are the qualities in me, the caring, compassion, and concern that will help my neighbor feel cared for and loved and in turn feel loved by God?  I may not be the friend or relative that my neighbor misses due to loss by death or lives far away, but I may have some of those same qualities.  I may be the one who fills the need of being like a mother or daughter.  You may be the one who fills the need of someone who longs to have a relationship with the mother or grandmother this person never had.  Sometimes death brings with it new beginnings.  It opens opportunities for new relationships.  Believing requires action.

The Ten Teachings

3LentB, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 8, 2015 by Annette Fricke

            My summer as a camp counselor came much later than for most.  I was already fifty years old.  I was the oldest on staff.  The year previous had been spent at the Catholic seminary learning about the origins of the liturgy.  I dreamed of the use of liturgy at camp, my own camping experience didn’t have it.  Well, it probably did, but it was so long ago, I don’t remember it.  Of all we sang and did at camp this time, this is the phrase that I recall the most.  “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  We all tried to modernize the words or melody to no avail.  I think it still stands this way.

            “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” is found at Psalm 119:105.  It is the phrase sung just prior to the reading of the Gospel for every Sunday service at Camp Mowana in Ohio.  It is a reminder that God’s Word is like a light source that shows us the way through our journey in life.  More specifically, this was part of the service attended only by the counselors.  It was a reminder that the Word of God was to guide all of our decisions as counselors as we sought to teach and model the words of Jesus for the children in our charge.  Counselors need guidance and instruction in the course of their work to bring structure and order to the children in the absence of their parents. That is the way of the camp and that is why at least one branch of the Lutheran Church prefers that their future pastors prepare for their ministry by participating as summer camp counselors at one of their church camps.  Summer church camp is a solid basic foundation in Christian teaching.  And for those of us unfamiliar with such things as tornados and bad thunderstorms, it teaches us how to cope with and respond to such weather aberrations and how to comfort the children when they become frightened.

            Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.  You and I are in a covenantal relationship with God.  As Christians, we have inherited that covenant from Abraham and Sarah.  For many years, Sarah has wrongly been ignored in the church’s song and liturgy but she should not have been.  Sarah is equally important as a mother of the church just as Abraham is a father of the church.  Faith in God began with this couple.  Although this phrase probably originated after their death, it rings true as something they believed and practiced.  If we are to take the season of Lent seriously, it will also be descriptive of our own lives.

            Although these words are powerful, short, and to the point; you might ask about specifics.  Specifically speaking, the covenant we have with God is further elucidated when Moses brings the Ten Commandments down from God’s presence on Mt. Sinai.  There are a few different explanations in the Bible, one which is in the Old Testament text for today, but most Christian denominations agree on the content of the Ten Commandments, even though they may be numbered differently. 

A Jewish point of view, however, states that our stress towards seeing the Ten Commandments as law is not accurate and is actually a mis-translation.  Our concept that leans towards seeing the Ten Commandments as a hammer over our head is not the thrust or intention of them.  They are meant to be instruction, to become our way of life.  In Jewish parlance, this ought to be translated the “Ten Teachings” instead.  This designation takes on more of the intent of the purpose of God’s giving them to us.  We should also be aware that these teachings have been in existence for a very long time, originally as oral tradition before being written down.  These are what God expected of the people of Israel and what God continues to expect of us.  It is not something that God beats into us, but is to be our guide along the journey of life.

It is no longer God saying, “Do this, or I will destroy you.”  It is more like “I will always be in covenant with you.”  God is the giver of the covenant who will always be faithful, no matter how many times we stray this way or that.  No matter how many times we break this or that commandment, God remains God.  God remains the faithful one who responds with the grace of God in Christ Jesus. 

This rendering of the Ten Commandments gives us some context to explain the reasoning for these particular commandments.  In the first one we hear the frequently repeated word of the Old Testament, “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…”  First and foremost, God is reminding us of our slavery.  Even though originally this bondage was in reference to the Egyptians many years ago and subsequently by other nations, for us and for modern Jews, it is a slavery to sin.  It is God’s way of freeing us from that sin to follow God in a way of life that is befitting as the people of God.  It is also a connection with our ancestors because we share God in common with Abraham and Sarah.

Speaking of Abraham and Sarah, the fourth/fifth commandment states, “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”  Luther explains this as, “We should fear and love God, and so we should not despise our parents and superiors, nor provoke them to anger, but honor, serve, obey, love, and esteem them.”  However, this sounds as though it is addressed to children and it is because this is part of the catechism, the teachings agreed to for full membership in the church.  Originally, according to Jewish tradition, this was given to the adults.  It actually is meant as a protection to the community to pass on the traditions of the faith from generation to generation.  It keeps the status of men and women on the same plane, side by side and one of equality before God and neighbor.  Each generation still seems to struggle with this one.

Lastly, since I don’t have time to go through the intent of all the commandments or teachings, number two, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them.”  We live in a world where some have many possessions and the acquisition of these is a constant preoccupation.  We are constantly bombarded with the “need” to buy them.  We see them on TV read them in the newspaper and hear them on the radio.  They range from diet pills to fast food sales, and jewelry. A word to the wise: you don’t need those things; your life is complete when you live it in God’s grace that always welcomes you, always receives you back in loving embrace.  God’s love will never die.  Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Amen.   

The Mark of Discipleship

2LentB, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 1, 2015 by Annette Fricke

            It all began at creation, that’s for sure but since we don’t really have a physical description of creation, that’s all we know about that subject.  Creation seems to somehow have failed by way of the description that we are given as to what transpired in the Garden of Eden.  All was as it should be with God until people decided to follow what they wanted rather than what God wanted.  They tried to second guess God.  I suppose that is what really happens when people decide against God even to this day.  We pretty much know what happens in this life when people turn away from God: to put it simply, they become selfish.  They seek their own will while blinding themselves to the needs of those around them.  Instead of following God, they seek to follow their desires for fame and fortune to become well known and admired and amass all they can before leaving this world for the world beyond.  They seek to please the people around them or to be in competition for recognition, sometimes the recognition is accomplished by doing something clever, but evil.  We hear every day about a shooting here or there, a war being waged halfway around the world.  Violence is what makes the headlines.  People complain and argue about what it means to have a separation between church and state.  The words of the pledge of allegiance or where it should be recited are more and more debated.  The children seem to be undisciplined and uninterested in getting an education beyond high school.  Rules are no longer to be followed blindly, but challenged on several levels.  Morality in a work setting has many facets.  Some people no longer accept the authority of employers and certainly do not trust the big corporations or the people involved in trading on the stock market.  Other people frequently question with suspicion, whose needs are being met.  Just how do we serve God and our neighbor in such a world as this?

            But let’s back up for a moment.  What story comes after the story of creation and Adam and Eve?  Cain and Abel were born, but Cain killed Abel, so Adam and Eve had Seth.  In comes a whole lot of genealogy and then Noah is born.  Things just seem to be off track big time, so the flood comes and God saves only Noah and his family and some animals.  God sets a bow in the clouds and promises that he will never again flood the earth to destroy all flesh.  Then we see more genealogy.  We then go to the building of the tower of Babel whose purpose was thwarted by God because the reason it was built was for the builders to make a name for themselves.  Then we have more genealogy and Abram is born.  Abram and his wife Sarai settle in a spot called Haran.  In chapter 12 of Genesis, we get the nice, succinct description of God’s covenant with Abram: I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. In other words, God will take care of anyone who stands in the way of Abram and Sarai.  She is part of this deal as well by the time we make it five chapters down the road and into the land of Canaan.  He journeyed into Egypt, then back out.  He separated himself from his brother’s son Lot.  Lot went to Sodom and Abram to Hebron.  God’s promise was good.  Lot was rescued by Abram.  God blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”  And God once again comes to Abram, promising a great reward and to be Abram’s shield.  But Abram wants offspring, which God also promises.  God tells him to look to heaven and count the stars.  His descendants will be that many.  Abram believed that God would deliver.  After God delivers the bad news that Abram’s offspring will be enslaved for four hundred years, he is told specifically the land that God’s giving him.  Only after Abram has a son with his Egyptian slave-girl Hagar does he finally have a son with his wife Sarai. Today’s narrative begins with “When Abram was ninety-nine years old” God appeared to Abram saying “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.”  We aren’t given any details other than we know that at this time, circumcision was not part of the Jewish ritual as the covenant people.  God makes the covenant first by way of the changing of names to Abraham and Sarah.  This covenant now bears the distinction of an everlasting covenant, a covenant that extends to Abraham, Sarah, and their offspring.  To these people, God will give land, the land of Canaan perpetually and will be their God. It is at this point that all males will be circumcised as part of the covenant with God.  As at creation itself, God once again creates something out of nothing.  Abraham is very old and Sarah, prior to this is barren, unable to conceive.  Separate story lines in the book of Genesis tell us that Abraham laughed and Sarah laughed.  God has kept what was promised so far, but this seems utterly ridiculous.  How is it possible that a very old man and an old woman past child-bearing age can conceive and bear a child?  Apparently, by this time in history, humanity has figured out the relative ages at which women and men are able to make a child.  They are probably saying to themselves that God has suddenly gone mad---either that or God really is the ruler of heaven and earth and all that exists.

            Spring ahead to that baby born at Bethlehem to a very young female, perhaps just old enough to conceive.  It is an opposite situation in many ways and yet just as unlikely.  God is still seeking the welfare of the people of the everlasting covenant.  God still seeks to gift them with what they need to be the people of God, a blessing to all nations.  God tells Abraham and Sarah to walk before God and be blameless.  Here is where I think we can meaningfully connect the instruction given to Abraham and Sarah with us, as Christians.  In our gospel text for today, Jesus tells his disciples and the crowd that gathers, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

            It means this: anyone can be a follower of Jesus.  The everlasting covenant of God is no longer limited to the physically circumcised Jewish people.  God has opened the kingdom of heaven to everyone.  However, part of discipleship means the denying of oneself.  We are called to always be of service to one another, just as Abraham looked after the welfare of his nephew Lot and made sure that Lot was safe from harm.  But we are to go beyond taking care of blood relation, beyond those who believe as we do, beyond our own community or own neighborhood.  Our reach and concern for others is to be global.  That’s what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus.  When we help the sick and the suffering, we are serving God and we are practicing our discipleship. But it is not us who act, it is God who acts through us.  To God be all the glory. Amen.