Sermon for Second Sunday in Lent 2018, by Fr Peter Wolton, St Georges Church Campden Hill

Sermon for Second Sunday in Lent 2018, by Fr Peter Wolton, St Georges Church Campden Hill

This week one of the world’s most celebrated preachers died. Billy Graham. I wonder how many of you here today heard attended one of his talks/ crusades.

Today I want us to concentrate on the words of one of the greatest evangelists, in history. I am of course referring to St. Paul. His words on what it means to be the children of Abraham – for us to be the children of Abraham.

The extract we have heard is I think is quite difficult.

Takes a bit of unpacking, especially for those of us reading them 2000 years after they were written.

To be clear. This is some of Paul’s most radical writing – it’s a complete redefinition of traditional Jewish beliefs by Paul.

I would like us to explore why it is so radical – and why it can be such a pillar to our faith – even if at first it’s not obvious. So please bear with me. Like Abraham and Sarah, and St. Peter in his journey from the fishing boat to founding the church, we are going to go on a journey

We can pass by major landmarks but fail to notice them, and that I think is what can happen with this reading.

That’s in a way what happened when Peter rebuked Jesus when Jesus foretold the events of Holy Week – so  Jesus ordered him to “Get thee behind me Satan for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

To return to Paul, one of the foundations of Paul’s letter is the reading from Genesis we had as our first lesson – the story of Abraham and Sarah, who are promised by God that Abraham “will be exceedingly numerous”

“I will make you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.”

This is the message given by God to a couple who have been unable to have children together, the man is almost 100 years old, and the wife is of almost the same age. There must have been many dashed hopes and a lot of pain and doubt, so much so that when Sarah overhears a message from God to her husband “your wife Sarah shall have a son” Sarah laughs.

Yet Paul understands that the promise to Abraham and Sarah has been fulfilled, that they will have a son and “so numerous will your descendants be.”

Abraham is seen in Jewish faith as the father of the Jewish nation. To him was given land in Canaan. The promise of land gave a sense of belonging. The promise of a child was the gift of hope.

Paul stresses how Abraham and Sarah are clear examples of what it is to have faith, to “hope against hope.” God who acts – and we should not be surprised that God who created the world is able to fulfil his promise to give Abraham and Sarah a son.

But more than that. God created the world, so explains Paul, why should he restrict himself to be just the God of Israel, a small strip of Holy Land. All the world is holy! All peoples are the children of Abraham. We, the peoples of a multitude of nations are those descendants that God told Abraham about

The covenant made between God and Abraham is a covenant between us and God too.

As Paul says: The words “”It was reckoned to him” were not written for Abraham’s sake alone, but for ours too.” The covenant relationship is ours and it is through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that we know we have this relationship with God.

Lent is a time when we contemplate our own separation from God, and our need to turn again in repentance. But perhaps if we start to view the world through the eyes of St. Paul, perhaps if we start to see ourselves as descendants of Abraham and heirs of the covenant, our faith is strengthened and the distance between us and God is narrowed.

And the distance between us and our neighbours narrows too.

In the past week, I have experienced this first hand.

I have visited the headquarters of Glassdoor, the homeless charity we support, to learn more of what they are doing to support the homeless, to get them into permanent accommodation, and to get them back on their feet when the slings and arrows of life have felled a person. I have attended a book launch of poetry by prisoners. And on Ash Wednesday I “ashed” 40 people coming out of or going into Notting Hill Gate tube station, ranging from our local traffic warden to commuters to a homeless person. God’s promise to Abraham reminds us of how connected we are.  And from such a reminder it is easy to follow the two commandments, to love God and love our neighbour.

During Lent, by all means let us consider our separation from God, but even more importantly let us pray about how we can narrow the divide.

Let us seek inspiration from the examples of Abraham and Sarah and Peter, from their faith – how they moved from doubt to faith.

We can also learn from the faith and example of members of own community.

So let me close, by inviting you to attend our Lenten “Why Me?” addresses held at St. John’s during the Sunday evening service. Tonight’s talk will be given by Andrew Wells, our Director of Music at St. George’s and will include some of his organ music. Do come and hear Andrew talk about his journey of faith.

Fr. Peter Wolton.