God's Covenant

One of my favorite things to do on cold rainy and windy weekends is to watch a movie. This Saturday was no different.

Somewhere in my research for today's sermon this past week, I came across the reference to a movie, Simon Birch, a movie based on the 1989 novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by American Canadian writer John Irving. And after completing my Saturday morning chores and bringing in all of my new spring plants in preparation for this morning’s freezing temps, I settled down to watch something I thought would be a short, humorous movie. However, I was terribly mistaken. I sniveled and cried through most of the 2 hours. There WERE times that I did laugh at the humor, and maybe even sighed a bit at the typical boy-like crass remarks and language, but I could not miss the profound theological undercurrent.

In the movie, there is a young teenager, Simon Birch, who is stunted in growth, sight, voice, and every other feature, except wisdom. In fact, he is so small that he is asked every year to play the plum role of the baby Jesus in the Christmas pagaent of the Episcopal church, mainly because he is the only child who can fit into the manger.

Like Jesus, though, Simon Birch is not often welcomed into the world because of his differences. But Simon Birch does not listen to his detractors. He believes that he has been given his “gifts” for some purpose, some design that God has for him. And through the challenges and the pain of growing up, he holds on to this call.

Simon Birch is even kicked out of his church. As the baby Jesus one year, he gets a little too handsy with the bosom of the girl playing Mary causing great chaos and once again embarrassing the priest and the Sunday school teacher. Despite the priest telling him otherwise, Simon continues to believe that God will use him for some greater good.

Simon has a best friend, Joe. They are inseparable. Both are outcasts of sorts. Simon because of his "gifts" and Joe because he was born out of wedlock and no one has any idea who his father is, not even Joe.

One of the games they play is for Simon to practice holding his breath beneath the water of the quarry they visit every day that they can.

“One Mississippi, two Mississippi”…. Joe counts the seconds that Simon is underwater, to see if Simon can beat his best time. You see, Simon is preparing. For what, he does not know. But he always felt that he was born to be a hero. That he is an instrument of God and that God had created him just the way he isto fulfill his destiny.

And with all that blatant foreshadowing, you know that the moment would indeed come. On a snowy, wintry day, Simon unwittingly ends up chaperoning a church outing, even though he has been banned from the church. It is a retreat for children who are half his age but exactly his size so they always listen to what he says. They travel on a large yellow bus, the road is icy and the forest on either side of the road is snow-filled. The children are even singing, when the bus-driver swerves to avoid hitting a single deer standing in the road.

Well, you can imagine what happens next. The bus careens down the mountain-side and ends up in a lake, with icy water pouring in the windows and doors. The bus driver immediately dives out of the bus and the only other adult, the priest, is knocked out. Everyone on the bus is in an uproar and chaos ensues.

And it falls to Simon Birch to save everyone.

Because of his size, the children listen and relate to him. And because he is older, he knows what to do. He orchestrates the quick and orderly removal of each child off that bus. And finally, only because he is small and can hold his breath for 300 Mississippi, he later tells his friend, he escapes himself through the small window of the bus after everyone else, including the priest, has been saved.

It seems like everything Simon has believed is true. He was meant to save those children. He was prepared. And he fulfilled his purpose as a servant of God. We are not told how Simon knew his purpose: what we are told is that his faith helped him to survive the ridicule he received his entire life for being different, knowing that God would use him for good because of his faith.

In our reading this morning in Genesis, we hear of the same faith in the story of Abram, later known as Abraham, a man who listens to the Hebrew God’s voice that he has been chosen for great things. A man who, in spite of his personal shortcomings, fulfills his purpose as a servant of God.

I went back and read Abraham’s story, a man who at the age of 75, was living in Haran when God made himself known and he called Abraham to leave the life that he knew and move to a new land and into a new relationship with his Creator and into a whole new world and life view.

Abraham is a great example of faith as he ventures off in obedience to God to settle a new nation for God’s people. But once there, he begins to question God. God tells Abraham not to worry, that he will be rewarded for his faith.

Abraham plays an important role in the Christian faith. It is through his lineage that the Savior of the world comes. No one can understand the OT without understanding Abraham for in many ways the story of redemption, our redemption, begins with God’s call to him. It is Abraham that God chose to be the father of many nations. Not because he was a great man. No, he certainly made some poor decisions along the way. But God knew that his struggle would produce great growth and faith.

As a matter of fact, Abraham is brave enough to question God. This morning in our reading, after God reassures Abraham that He is with him and that he will keep his promise, Abraham answers with, ”ok, so when? You have made this promise that my offspring will be the foundation of a new nation… but hey, I am getting pretty old as is Sarai and she is still barren. I think, God, that we are running out of time.”

We all know the rest of the story. Abraham in spite of God’s promise, still has some doubts. He becomes impatient in his waiting and has a child with one of his slaves, causing lots of strife and division in later years.

But here is the point. God did keep his promise, his covenant, even though Abraham grew impatient. Even though Abraham gave his wife to the Egyptians in order to save his life, even though Abraham was certainly not perfect. Boy, there are some good lessons for us there!

Through his life of faith, Abraham had a long and challenging journey in which he worked hard and experienced both grief and blessings. Most of the time he was not able to see the path ahead, but he held strong to the promise in his heart.

The Old Testament offers a wonderful image of a rite in which the two people making a covenant with each other, walk between the halves of the bodies of slain animals, as a promise that if the covenant is broken, the transgressor will be dead to the other. So we read of God following the smoke of the holy spirit going between the animals he has asked Abraham to lay before him split in two. Laying firm his promise to Abraham and his descendants who also follow the WAY.

Abraham’s journey was a personal journey with God. Note the “I” statements in our Old Testament reading. Both he and God use the first person as they talk to each other as one asks for signs and the other offers the security of his promise.

Just as our relationship with God is personal.

Our Gospel reading from Luke continues the theological message with clear and numerous references to the passion of Christ in the near future, thus again reflecting God’s covenant as outlined in Genesis. God sends his son who exhibits the kind of trust we are asked to believe in as he knowingly sets his face towards Jerusalem and his death. Who even after being warned that Herod is determined to have him killed, says, I know I am going to die, but I am not going to run. I will continue doing the work God has called me to do. I am on the way, and I am staying the course. And then whose death secures God’s promise of life eternal.

So back to our little guy Simon. His faith in his destiny transformed him as he patiently waited. He knew that he was led to believe in God as opposed to see his life as a mistake.

And Abraham, while impatient at times, believed and trusted that he would find his way to fulfill God’s destiny for him. His faith became a transformative walk through his life.

So, I ask you to ponder this week, this entire Lenten season as you spend time with God,

Who is your Herod?

What is the thing keeping you from your following the Way?

What is stopping you from your transformation?

How can you better open yourself to hear God’s whisper in your ear to follow the path that he has set for you as we all walk through our lives, knowing that God always keeps his promise then and now? Amen

Sources

The NIV. www.thenivbible.com

Prime Video. Simon Birch. Produced by Roger Birnbaum and Laurence Mark. Based on the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.

Lectionary Lab. Two Bubbas and a Bible. Two.substact.com.