On this second Sunday of Lent, we realize that trust is not an easy matter. We hold ourselves back, we wait to see, we long for proof. Today we listen to the ancient stories that become our stories of faith, and hope, and struggle, and promise.

The Mark passage we read is about loss. Jesus began to talk about his own loss when he taught his disciples that he must undergo great suffering, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days he would rise again. Peter confronted Jesus about his blatant prediction of a violent end. Jesus knew that not to approach loss, not to approach what you have to give up, is indeed the greatest challenge that Peter and the disciples faced and that we face as well.

Jesus rebuked Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” But Jesus was not actually calling Peter Satan, he was speaking to the part of Peter that was so contrary to who Jesus was and what Jesus taught. The most important Jesus taught was the giving up of self. He said, “For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things,” to help Peter understand.

What does it mean to have our mind on human things and miss the divine things? Peter rebuked Jesus for the human part of what Jesus said– the suffering, the rejection, and murder– those are things that would capture the headlines any day. Peter totally missed the divine thing that was tucked away at the very end, that Jesus would rise again in three days. Let’s not be too hard on Peter; he faced the loss of Jesus and the realization that the disciples’ own lives and ministry were in danger.

Then Jesus goes on, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 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.” Do we really understand what that means? That kind of loss?

Isn’t it true that we don’t have the resources or the capacity to make a good life on our own? When we are able to deny ourselves, we recognize that we cannot be self-starters or self-sufficient, or rely on our own initiative and power. This goes against what we have been taught to believe by society. When we attempt to live in our own power, we become a victim of isolation and fear. This doesn’t work because we are made to be in a relationship with God.

How can we move beyond our past and our current day to day existence to imagine new understandings of God’s desire for us? Abraham trusted and his trust was an example of his obedience to God.

Our Old Testament reading is another story of God’s covenant, this time with Abram and Sarai. In Genesis chapter 12, 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 you and make your name great so you will be a blessing.” In other words, God asked Abram and Sarai to leave the familiar and walk into the unknown. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.

In chapter 15, Abram is overwhelmed and discouraged that he still has no son. God brought him outside and showed him the stars saying, “if you are able to count them, so shall your descendants be.” In chapter 16, Sarai takes things into her own hands, providing her servant Hagar to Abram and Hagar bears him a son, named Ishmael. This is more than 10 years after leaving Haran.

As we read this morning in chapter 17, Abram was 99 years old and the Lord came to him saying “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.” Last week we said that “covenant” is the Bible’s word for the strong relationship between God and us. The heart of the covenant is our belonging to God and God’s belonging to us.

More than 20 years after Abram left Haran, Abram is still waiting. Covenant is bigger than a promise. In Abram’s life God’s promise was bigger than becoming a parent of his own child. God changes the name of Abram and his wife Sarai. A name in this culture was indicative of character. We keep focusing on a child and cannot fully grasp what it means to be a spiritual father that is beyond one household. Their name changes who Sarai and Abram are as Abraham and Sarah are called to become more than they can even understand or grasp.

Abram and Sarai have not been sitting still during this long period. They have had ample opportunity to learn to trust God without knowing for sure how things will turn out. Life could be a dead end, in their ancient world, being without an heir. God comes to Abraham and Sarah and announces a future that requires incredible trust on their part; Sarah would bear Abraham’s son.

In our Lenten Bible study this past week, I heard in response to our reading of these scriptures that our group wanted to put in a good word for Sarah. Being barren is a cultural stigma and in this patriarchal world it was never acknowledged that Sarah is the mother of a nation. Sarah would also face change and challenge at this stage in her life. Abraham and Sarah received the renewed covenant along with their names. God recognizes Sarah as a full partner in this enterprise both by giving her a name and promising her a blessing of her own.

How are we taking steps into God’s future? We are worshiping, welcoming strangers, singing hymns of our faith, providing music opportunities for students and the community. We have been listening to stories of Presbyterian World Service that provide our tangible support to those in desperate need. And as importantly, right here on our corner of Broughton and Douglas streets, some are here to open the church for a quiet meditation time each Wednesday, a few of you provide muffins to the AA groups that meet here and three of you, who are often here during the week, took time to make coffee and visit with ballet parents as they waited for their children. And so in this great church ,how do we continue to live out our covenant with God that opens a new future of possibility?

We have a long history of our own faith, with all the saints, and the stories of Abraham and Sarah and Peter and the disciples walking into an unknown future with God. Lent is a time for sorting this out. Often Lent can be too focused on giving up guilty pleasures. But not here. Lent is examining how to step into God’s future so that we are no longer defined by what is past and no longer distracted by what we have treasured or feared about the present.

God, you are the one who gives us a future that shatters our limitations with extravagant generosity. Make us ready to receive this Lenten season. Amen.