Proper 14C’25
10 August 2025
Gen.15.1-6; Ps.33
Heb. 11.1-3, 8-16
Luke 12.32-40
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield, for in his holy name we put our trust. Amen. – from Psalm 33
I’m a leavin’ on a jet plane, I don’t know when I’ll be back again,
O babe, I hate to go1
Have you ever flown on a jet plane? If you answered “yes” then – Congratulations! You have faith, and better still you have exercised it! Think about it! We, somehow managed to place your trust in several total strangers, the pilot, the co-pilot, and the maintenance crew, folks we don’t even see, trusting that you would arrive safely at your destination.
On a daily basis we trust strangers with our very lives. When you at your cereal or drank your coffee, milk, or tea, you must surely have believed you wouldn’t be poisoned. All people everywhere take risks and put this kind of trust in strangers. These daily choices echo the ultimate choice whether to place our trust in an unseen God or not.
Today we hear in the readings about the original parents of all who put their faith and trust in God – Abraham and Sarah. Abram and Sarai as they were first called, were a nomadic couple of the desert. A few chapters earlier in the book of Genesis we see where God makes the first move:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”2
The stage has been set for all future people of faith:
God moves toward us, calls us the chosen of God, and asks for each of us to step out on the road and start walking, trusting that an unseen God will lead us to a better place in life and at the end, for a place for eternity. As Jesus put it “I go to prepare a place for you, and where I am, there you will be also.”3
But we don’t get to choose our beginning and we don’t know the day or hour of our departure from this life. What remains is life in the hyphen, you know, that symbol that winds up being written in our obituary and carved into our tombstones – the journey of our lives between the beginning and the end. During the middle part is where all the trials, tribulations, joys and sorrows happen. This is the journey of life that all plant, animal, and human life must take, but not all have faith in God. Many try to trust in their own talents, abilities, and resources alone to make something happen and hoping for the best. It’s all up to them and fate.
But the invitation of the Christian life is just like the invitation given to Abram and Sarai – will you accept that you have been chosen in love by God, and that life is to be lived with an unknowing trusting that the God who calls is the one who knows.
Think about it, the first step in the Christian life, a life of faith is to take the step of baptism. Whether as an adult or as a baby presented by our parents, we come to the baptismal waters where it is declared that we are beloved, chosen by a God we can’t see and called to go on a journey that we have no idea where the road will lead or what will happen to us, or how long we will survive, or when and where we will die.
In today’s reading from Genesis, we pick up in the middle of Abram and Sarai’s journey. In order for their tribe to continue and to keep their wealth in the family they need an heir, but and there always is a but at this point where what we desire seems blocked. They were both passed the age of fertility. There was no way humanly possible for them to conceive. But God…but God…but God had a plan that involved children – the miracle happens and Sarai gives birth to Issac and God changes both parent’s names to Abraham and Sarah, to mark the rewarding of their faith.
What is it that we desire, those of us in the hyphen of life between the beginning and the ending? It’s true our desires can be misguided and selfish but as St. Ignatius of Loyola pointed out, our deepest desires have been put into our hearts by God. When we know what they are, and when we know what we really want, we know what God wants. This, dear friends, is where our faith is invited to be exercised
When me and Shannon were dating, we asked each other if we wanted a child, both of our answers were “yes” and that we wanted it to be a girl! When we got married neither one of us were expecting infertility to be a problem – but a problem it was and it stood in the way of our dream. St. Paul was right, “faith without works is dead,” so we made an appointment at Arkansas Fertility and Gynecology and began our journey of faith towards pregnancy. We learned that there were so many ways for pregnancy to fail but we also learned that childbirth truly is a miracle – if a child makes it here it is an act of God. After months of treatment, we both got to witness the ultrasound that revealed a growing baby with a beating heart – it was then we both learned that a baby’s flapping heart valve is connected to the parents tear ducts. This image on a screen will turn 17 this week.
When we place our trust in God and we ask we aren’t guaranteed to hear a yes from God, sometimes we will hear a no, other times we will hear a maybe or a wait that is the journey of faith where, although we don’t know what the future holds we know who holds the future – a God of love who has chosen us, who calls us his beloved child, and invites us to walk toward our destiny with faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out…not knowing where he was going.
1 John Denver, “I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane” original song, 1966
2 Genesis 12.1-2
3 John 14.1-6