Learning through generations

There is a well known story that I would like to begin with this morning. It’s the story of a man who fell off a cliff. After falling off the cliff the man managed to catch a branch as he fell. From this rather difficult position he shouted out, "Is anyone up there?" 

He heard a voice say, "I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?"
"Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer."
"That's all right, if you really believe then you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch."
A moment of pause followed and the man said: "Is anyone else up there?"

To be honest this mornings readings can either seem like a mad attempt at trusting or an attempt to try God out, to check how faithful He is. 

I told you this story about faith because our readings this morning are all about faith. In the reading from Genesis (15:1-6) we heard of Abram almost negotiating with God. To be honest I think Abram should have thought this one through a bit more. There is God the almighty, the creator and Abram, not saying thank you to God for His promise of a great reward, asked, “well what is it then ?’ Talk about lack of patience. 

Abram decided that negotiating and perhaps pouting would be best as He reminded God that He didn’t have an heir and he deserved one. God’s response is for Abram to trust, to have faith. 

In our reading from the letter to the Hebrews  (Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16) we were reminded that faith is the evidence of things unseen. In the reading we heard about the faith of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. The faith is great but they were all people who had a relationship with God. It can feel a little like we are being given the names of some very faithful believers, heroes of our faith. I think the names are given both to encourage us, and also give an example of faith, which always trusts in God.

This could leave us with a question as followers of Jesus today. The question is, are we always prepared to have faith in God because of all that He has done for us. I have to be honest I have questions for  God at times, there are times when I say to God, ‘Lord I really trust you and I have faith, but just in case …. ‘

Faith is what we are about, it is who we are. Our response to God is to thank Him for all that He has done. It’s not about testing God, will He pull through for me ? Will things turn out the way that I want them to ? It’s about knowing a peace that even in the midst of confusion, God is with us. 

The world at the moment is pretty confusing and we could sometimes wonder what is going on and struggle to trust that God is in control. But, God who came amongst us, God who died for us and rose again, God who made sure that Abraham and Sarah a couple over 100 years old could have a child that began a whole nation,  is still there. The problems are that we are humans and we sometimes mess up. 

Our gospel reading this morning (Luke 12:32-40) reminded us that God will turn up unexpectedly like a master whose staff wait for him. I love the fact that in the illustration Jesus used, the master didn’t turn up in the middle of the night expecting to be waited on hand and foot but served his servants with a meal! 

We can take that to remind us that God comes amongst us not to surprise and scare but to love and support.

I am really happy to have faith in God who does this, faith in God who has proven time and time again in the lives of so many people that He is worth trusting in. 

This is what we hear in the Bible as we read about the people who have gone before us.  We are like them, we share their heritage, a heritage that trusts God.  We are part of their family. 

This means that in our family we can claim people who have trusted God, people who have doubted God, people who have done really bad things and people who have done amazing things. It would be a fun thing to do sometime, to think of our favourite or less favourite people from the Bible and think, ‘hmm’, they are in my family – the family of God !!

In the Rees family my sister-in-law worked very hard on building the family tree. This was certainly an interesting exercise and when Ian and I were getting married I decided that I should look at my own family background as well.  I discovered that I am a third cousin of Tom Jones …. Tom Jones who owned a fairground in Weston- Super-Mare, (not the singer!), I had a great, great uncle who had been an international footballer and another great, great uncle whose sporting prowess was discovered on a trophy that we found. A trophy for first prize in donkey racing in Weston !

Ummm… maybe not all of our family backgrounds are things to be proud of. 

We know that God is great, we know that in the family of faith God has provided us with promises that do not fail and they are a lot better than donkey riding in Weston, with God incredible things can and do happen.

This is a lesson from history, from our heritage that asks us how easy we find it to trust God, when to trust Him doesn’t seem just potentially scary but to be honest just seems to be illogical. It’s hard to always trust and it is at times like this, that we can feel really uncomfortable as we realise that we have to trust God and let Him take over, it’s not easy to do, but the results of doing this can be amazing. 

So, remembering who we are as the children of God may we be ready to be more like Him and do something amazing for Him today and always. This is because we can both know and trust that God is our help, always there for us and always with us.