Second Sunday of Lent, March 16, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Moonlight
Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Last week’s full moon, blood red to those who could see, was totally eclipsed for about an hour on Thursday night. It was cloudy in Austin, and we could not see, but the moon was still right up there and above the clouds it disappeared in the middle of the night, then reappeared an hour or two before dawn.
Just so shall your descendants be.
Millions upon millions of stars, uncountable to our human eye, and now billions upon billions of boys and girls growing up to be men and women, in hundreds of countries, speaking thousands of languages, oh my … praise our profligating God! From one tribe who called themselves Hebrews to the entire population of the earth, God has given us life. We belong to him, just as we belong to the dust he made us from.
I am the Lord who brought you out to give you this land as a possession.
Abram, soon to be renamed Abraham, was blown away by this vision, this certainty provided by Yahweh. He needed to respond somehow. Could he be given a gift without giving in return to the giver?
OK, well then, bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. After cutting up the heifer, goat and ram, birds of prey swooped down and ravaged them, but Abram sat stock still.
Abram’s offering of turtledove and pigeon, not ravaged by birds of prey, pleased Yahweh. Abram’s vision continued into the darkness, after the sun had set and the moon had not yet risen.
There appeared a smoking fire pot and flaming torch, and now the Lord said to Abram, “To your descendants I give this land.”
It doesn’t get any better than this.
Abram neé Abraham and Sarah had yet to birth their single son Isaac and then be obedient to God’s hard-to-believe command to sacrifice him on an altar of fire, and then be rescued from this awful order by God’s voice once more. STOP!
The Lord is my light and salvation. Whom shall I fear?
Our citizenship is in heaven and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Abram learned to wait upon the Lord. His obedience to every instruction from Yahweh marked him as a hero of the faith, leading all of us toward salvation, until the moment when all of us can see the smoking fire pot and hear the voice of our Father.
While Peter was still speaking, a shining cloud came and cast a shadow over them on the mountain, and when they entered the cloud they were frightened. But from the cloud a voice called, “This is my beloved Son; I have chosen him. Listen to my Son!”
Open my ears, Lord, that I might hear. Open my eyes, that I might see. Open my hands, that I might receive, and give, receive, and give. You are here.
(Genesis 15, Psalm 27, Philippians 3, Matthew 17, Luke 9)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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