Genesis 12:1-9 Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 Romans 4:13-25
How do you explain Christianity to the people around you?
I think that you know what I mean. Your friends certainly know that you are a Christian, or that you regularly, or… occasionally, attend church. And, if they are comfortable in their relationship with you, they may eventually ask a question like, “How does that work… exactly?” How does one become a Christian, and what do you have to do because you are a Christian? Some of that we know, and if we’re honest, we spend years of our lives working out some of the other parts of it. But we also know that many people who claim the name of Jesus Christ, and who call themselves Christian, get a lot that wrong. But, as confusing as that is, I think, or at least I hope, that our study of today’s scriptures should help clear away some of our confusion.
But before we jump into our scriptures, I want to read two quotes that will frame our discussion.
First, Margaret Mead, a well-known American anthropologist who spent her life studying human behavior, once said, “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” This explains an awful lot about politics but reveals the truth that we see in our everyday lives. “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” The second quote, from Sir Winston Churchill, is similar, but the focus is different, and will lead us very well into today’s scripture, and that is, “I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.”
“I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.”
That really is powerful.
And so, I want you to keep these ideas in mind as we read and think about today’s scripture lesson. We begin this morning reading from the story of Abraham in Genesis 12:1-9 which says:
12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspringI will give this land.” So, he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
I pause here to do something that Engineers rarely do. I pause here to teach a little English. You are all familiar with the past, present, and future tenses, but English also has an imperative, which we use in instructions and commands. This is important, because while every sentence typically requires both a noun and a verb to make sense, in the imperative, a noun is only implied and not required. This is why commands like “Jump” or “Get out” make perfect sense even though they don’t have a noun in them. The noun, typically “you” is implied. And this is what we see when God commands Abram. If we include the implied noun in the first verse, God says “You go” or “I command you to go” from the places, people, and things that you know, and to the place that I will show you. But, then in the second verse, God explains that Abram’s obedience is not pointless, but that God is offering a transaction. Verse one says “You go” but in verse two, God says that if Abram goes, then “I will” do these things. And this becomes God’s promise to Abram.
But as we noted earlier, regardless of what Abram might have said, which is not recorded, it is important for us to watch what Abram does. And as we read the story, we see that Abram does several things. First, Abram goes. He is seventy-five years old, well-established, and reasonably wealthy, and he leaves it all behind, family, friends, and everything familiar, and heads off into the unknown. But on the way to the place that God is leading him, he stops, twice, both in Shechem, and in Bethel, and builds an altar to worship God and to give thanks, while he is still on the way to the blessing that he has not yet received. And, after giving thanks to God, Abram packs up and continues the way toward wherever it is that God is leading him.
And we see something similar in the gospel of Matthew as Jesus calls the disciple Matthew to follow him. But we also see something quite different, even the opposite, in the same story. In Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, we read this:
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.
So, where we saw God and Abram in the previous story, here we have Jesus and Matthew having a similar conversation. Jesus says, “Follow me” and Matthew gets up and follows. But as soon as Jesus arrives at Matthew’s house, the Pharisees complain that Jesus is socializing with the wrong kind of people. Jesus says, “It is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” But where Matthew did what Jesus told him to do, the implication of the story is that the Pharisees surely did not. Jesus said, “go and learn” and the Pharisees ignored his instructions.
But to add contrast to the contrast between those two stories, the gospel writer immediately follows that story with two more in which people act in ways that demonstrate their faith through their actions. First, by a woman who gave herself directions to touch Jesus’ cloak, and second by a synagogue leader who asked Jesus for help, and then did whatever Jesus asked him to do even when the crowd of people, in his own house, laugh at Jesus, and by extension, the synagogue leader himself, for even imagining that the girl could be alive.
And that’s where we get to us. In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he explains what following Jesus means, how we become followers, or what we now name as being Christians, and also covers how many Jews of his day, and Christians today, get the whole thing wrong. Reading from Romans 4:13-25, we hear this:
13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Paul reminds the Jews of the first century that while Abraham was the father of their tribe and of their religion, he did not possess the writings of the Law or the prophets in which the Pharisees, teachers of the law, and so many others placed so much importance. Paul says that it wasn’t the ten commandments that made Jews righteous, nor was it the Law, or the prophets, nor the adherence to the hundreds of rules that regulated the behavior of obedient Jews. Instead, Paul explains that the thing that made Abraham righteous, and the thing that lay at the core of what made people righteous for all time, was that they had placed their faith in God. Paul says that now, for us, this is what we have as believers in Jesus Christ. It isn’t because we adhere to the ten commandments, or because we follow a bunch of rules about alcohol, tobacco, snake handling, how we say our prayers, how we dress, how we speak, how we worship, or dozens of other rules that people say Christians are supposed to follow, but that God credits us with righteousness, God sees us as righteous, simply because we believe in Jesus Christ.
Just as the Pharisees thought that Jesus’ faith was wrong because he ate with tax collectors and sinners, lots of people, church people, and non-church people alike, often get this backwards. We aren’t Christian because we follow a bunch of rules. We are Christian because we have put our trust in Jesus.
But then why do we follow some of the rules and behave in certain ways? The example that springs to mind is the reason that I do not ride motorcycles. I like them. I once thought that I would surely own one. But the idea of me riding a motorcycle would worry my wife to no end. I stay away from motorcycles, not because Patti has made some kind of rule, or because she has forbidden me from doing so, but because I love her, a choose to behave in ways that give her comfort and not worry. And the same can be said for why Christians do many of the things we do. We do not follow rules because following rules makes us Christian. Putting our faith in Jesus is what makes us Christian. We follow certain rules, and adopt certain behaviors, not because we must, but because we choose to do so because we love Jesus and want to honor him.
*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com . All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
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