The Cathedral Church of the Nativity
Sunday March 1, 2015 Lent 2
The Very Rev. Anthony Pompa
Everything gets a name when it
is new! We had our children’s name picked out of course before they were born.
Faithful and beauty in the end where the names we hedged our bets on (Dillon a
celtic- gaelic name for Faithful, Isabella, an Italian name for beauty).
Even the internet got a name
when it was set up in our home. Flash it is called. Quick was our hope. (and it
is named after our dog so we wouldn’t forget). Everything gets a name when it
is new. Typically naming brings with it descriptions of truth and hope.
Our story in Genesis today speaks
a truth and hope about God and God’s people. Abram and Sarai, those nomads of
ancient times, come to a place of relationship and covenant with God that
promises them the two things they hope most for and the two things they can’t
imagine they will ever see. The first, a place to be, that is land. Land of
their own. Land to stay still on. Land to till and to farm. Land to live on and
live off of. A very different existence from that of the nomad. The second
promise is that they will have descendants as many as the eye can see. A far
reaching and curious, if not, foolish promise, given Sarai is of an age
advanced. The thought of her aged womb bearing a child, unimaginable.
Yet- that is the deal that is
struck. The covenant that is made and their end of the bargain is simply
faithfulness and trust in this foolish promiser. To seal the deal and to name
their partnership- they themselves get new names- Abraham meaning Father of
multitude, Sarah, the princess. How unimaginable-the old man Abraham a Father
of a multitude, Sarah-A Nomad now princess of a kingdom yet to be formed.
At least Sarah response to this
new naming, this new promise, this new covenant seems appropriate. She laughed
and laughed and laughed. This laugh perhaps in response to the crazy promises
God has made, her laugh perhaps a giddy laugh in response to something long
hoped for and long given up on- children. She laughs.
Everything gets a name, when it
is new. And even as things get named for
truth and for what is hoped for, everything and everybody continually lives
into the promises for who and what they are made. Even as we live into what we
hope for we sometimes need refreshment and reminder. Even Flash the internet at
my home needs to be re-set sometimes so that it may be placed back on the path
of this speedy destined purposefully named truth- Flash.
So it is with us on this Lenten
Journey. You and I are wonderfully made and perfectly named for truth and for hope.
For the truth of loving our God, ourselves, and our neighbors as faithfully as
we can. For the hope of giving our faith and trust to a God who makes
outrageous promises-----sometimes promises that make us laugh at both how
ridiculous they are Or at how
scintillating they are.
Everything that new gets a name.
What is your name this Lent? What is your truth this then? What is your hope
this Lent?
