Grace is Free; but it’s not cheap...

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous." Then Abram fell on his face...

This wasn't the first, or the last time God and Abram had a conversation; in fact, the Book of Genesis is regularly punctuated with the words, "The Lord said to Abram:" It isn't even the first time that God "made a covenant" with Abram and promised him lots of descendants, as numerous as the stars in the night sky.

I also imagine that this was not the first time that Abram wondered, am I crazy? Is this even possible? What would it mean?

In order to live faithfully in this covenant relationship with god Abram and Sarai have to endure a lot. First they pull up stakes and leave Haran, to set out for a new home and a new future. Then at 99 they start the process of pregnancy, infancy, toddlerhood, and all those wonderful sleepless nights.

Later still, you may recall, Abraham is going to be asked to sacrifice his only son because of this relationship he has with God.

This is the beginning of our story.

It helps us understand what's happening underneath this story if we think about how it was written. The Book of Genesis, scholars generally agree, brings together the work of several writers who in turn brought together ancient traditions about the origins of the people of God (which sheds light on why some things are repeated). Consider the narrative so far, as it went from the vastness of creation, separating light from dark, to the story of the beginning of all humankind, to this story of Abraham and Sarah.

What we are looking at is a sort of pre-history, the prequel to the story of Israel. This whole book is meant to set the stage in a way that helps us to understand what it means to be God’s people.

You see, over time we have faced countless moments of pain, or exile, wars, destruction, economic downturns, loss... there have been many times when God’s people just hung their heads in sorrow, or fear.

It is at times like this that we need to hear the “original promise” of what life is all about. God will be your God, and you will be God’s people. No matter how hopeless it looks right now, your descendents will be as numerous as the stars. This is an "everlasting" covenant with the people, no matter what.

Do any of you have any doubts of that being true? Has anyone given any thought to the bird flu, the pandemic, global warming, the next ice age, food shortages, immigration, or the economy? I went out for Chinese food the other day and actually said to myself, I better eat rice while I still can; it might not be available next year.

One of the main points of religion is that those who follow it believe in something different. We set ourselves apart from the day to day workings of the world because we believe that there is a future, that we can have Hope!

This original promise is there precisely for moments like these; rough spots on the path of our evolution; times in history when we are not sure about the future.

We are just starting Lent, a long way from Easter, and whether we give something up or not, whether we want to or not, Lent is a time of self examination; a time to work on our relationships with each other and with God.

To use a good old fashioned biblical word; Lent is a time for repentance, too, for facing the ways we are broken and have broken others and the world.

The thing is, the original covenant promise is not one sided, it presents a hope filled future based on two things – God being faithful, and our faithful response.

There is no sitting back and waiting for God to save us.

There is this myth out there that as soon as we have become disciples, as soon as we set foot into church things will keep getting better and better. This myth has done more harm than any single other facet of our faith, because personal experience keeps rearing its ugly head and reminding us that our faith in something better does not necessarily make it so.

It was Jesus who first pointed this out. After Peter confessed that he was the Christ, Jesus began to predict his death, much to the shock of his disciples who were hoping for much more... like someone to take on the Romans.

A second shock then followed when Jesus insisted that this pattern of self-denying suffering was, well, was what any believer had to look forward to. After predicting his own suffering, rejection, and death to the disciples, he then turned to the larger crowd: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:34–35).
God’s grace is free, but it's not cheap, for it demands everything.

I want to suggest to you that we are back to the original pre-history stories. Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and Sarah – each of them came face to face with this harsh truth too; and each of them found it as difficult to truly take hold of as the disciples, and as we do, at first.

But it is there, and it is there in spades.

In the Gospel of Mark Jesus is continually talking about how real faith takes a change in heart and a change in behaviour. You would know the other stories really well, even if we don’t take them to heart; a rich young man comes up to Jesus and asks what he has to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus almost playfully says, what does the Bible say? To which he gets a summary of the Ten Commandments. Hey, not bad, Jesus responds, but there is something else... give up everything you have to the poor and follow me...

Faith is about a change of heart, it is not something you can “inherit” which is what the ruler was asking for, it is something that is given to you, and when you have it, it changes everything.

As Jesus himself taught, it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. We argue too much about what he might have meant... we know what it means... if anyone would come after me, take up their own cross, give everything to the poor, build and ark, pull up tent stakes and move across the country... if anyone wants to know what God is about – put God first and then we will be living quite differently.

The thing is, Jesus is talking to us. This is a message aimed squarely at me and you. We have a lot at stake in this world and we walk through it just as fearful as that rich young man who wonders what is next, and whether he is safe.

Take a second and ask yourself, what is your biggest fear right now? What are you most afraid of losing? What would Jesus say to you?

Listen to Jesus words again. “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”

Jesus isn’t talking about evangelism, he isn’t talking about foreign missionaries, he is talking about life. The right here right now down and dirty way we get through tomorrow. If we put being rich, being successful, and being safe ahead of everything else in this life we are never going to be happy; or fulfilled, and we will certainly never be safe.

But what if we put the gospel first? You remember what Jesus summarized the gospel as don’t you? “Love God, love your neighbour, love yourself with all your heart and mind and soul.” What if that was our focus. What if we made that our focus so much so that we lost out on what fame and fortune could bring us? What if we refuse to get rich by putting other people down, what if we refuse to buy things that force other people to work like slaves? What if....

What if we held up our part of the bargain and lived according to God’s covenant...
Remember the promise: “I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous... You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations... I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you... “

We need to remember that discipleship has a cost, a responsibility. Lets recapture that part of our faith and truly make a difference.