{"id":6235,"date":"2014-03-22T11:34:44","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T11:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=6235"},"modified":"2014-03-22T11:35:03","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T11:35:03","slug":"what-value-has-a-promise-2nd-sunday-of-lent-16-03-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=6235","title":{"rendered":"What Value Has A Promise? 2nd Sunday of Lent (16.03.14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

2nd Sunday of Lent (16.03.14)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

What Value Has A Promise?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A promise\u2019s value is determined by the truthfulness of the promise maker. There\u2019s no greater exponent of truthfulness than God who has no equal. Even so, how do our 21st\u00a0century Gentile ears hear and evaluate God\u2019s promise to Abraham –<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the nations of the earth shall find blessing in you.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Gen:12:3)<\/p>\n

This Genesis quote is from the 1st\u00a0Reading of this 2nd. Sunday of Lent. Does God\u2019s promise still hold good? The short answer is \u2018Yes\u2019, for God never takes back a promise \u2013 His Word is forever:<\/p>\n

Jesus said:\u00a0\u201c<\/em><\/strong>I say to you very seriously that as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Matt 5:18)<\/p>\n

For people in our day to believe that all the nations of the earth shall find God\u2019s blessing through the Chosen Race demands deep, enduring faith. Despite a generations-spanning catalogue of exterminations, disasters, humiliations and exclusions that dot their history, Jews continue to believe in the promises of God. Abraham had no foreknowledge of what would befall his Jewish descendants, one of whom, Matthew the Evangelist, gives us Jesus\u2019 advice:
\n\u201cTherefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Matt 6:34)<\/p>\n

In our time-determined, clock-regulated, world, the involuntary cry rises to our lips, \u201cBut we see no sign of this! When will it be?\u201d In the Acts of the Apostles (1:6ff) the apostles question Jesus:
\n\u201cSo when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s European generations, infected with an all-embracing secular outlook, challenge God. More than ever our daily gift to God of unconditional service and love, to the best of our injured ability, gives evidence of our continuing belief in God\u2019s promises. All the nations of the earth already have access to God\u2019s single most important blessing through the Jewish people namely, the gift of His Divine Son, Jesus. He is the Divine Jew who, in Himself, unites both Jew and Gentile.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s promises are timeless and limitless. Reflecting on this Sunday\u2019s first Reading invites our prayer for our Jewish brothers and sisters that they may come to recognize in Jesus of Nazareth, their Jewish brother, the fulfillment of God\u2019s promise of The Messiah. Then the blessing promised in Genesis will find fulfillment.<\/p>\n

In his commentary of this Genesis passage, Soren Kierkegaard underscored the quality for which Abram, who became Abraham, will be forever remembered. He wrote: \u201cBy faith Abraham went out from the land of his fathers and became a sojourner in the land of promise. He left one thing behind and took one thing with him. He left his earthly understanding behind and took faith with him. Otherwise he would never have gone forth.\u201d (Provocations<\/em>, The Plough Publishing House, Farmington, Pa.: 1999)<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the nations of the earth shall find blessing in you.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Gen: 12:3) is a Divine promise to Abraham and his descendants already in the process of being fulfilled through the birth of God\u2019s only Son-made-Man. Christians, Jews and Muslims honour Abraham with the title \u2018our father in faith\u2019. With Abraham\u2019s support may Jews and Muslims come to belief in Jesus\u2019 Divinity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2nd Sunday of Lent (16.03.14) What Value Has A Promise? A promise\u2019s value is determined by the truthfulness of the promise maker. There\u2019s no greater exponent of truthfulness than God who has no equal. Even so, how do our 21st\u00a0century … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archdiocese-of-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6237,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235\/revisions\/6237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}