Sunday Homily - March 8, 2020 - On the Wrong Trail

God's Promise to Abraham (illustrated)

I.

Spring and fall are some of my favorite times of the year,
 even if these seasons only last for a couple of days,
  at least if you live in Arkansas.

The weather is cool in the morning and a pleasant warm in the afternoon,
 it is often windy and brisk,
  and most importantly,
   it is the perfect weather for hiking.

If you hike a lot,
 you will have noticed that on many state park trails
  there will be markers for which trail you are currently on.

For example, if you hike the base trail at Pinnacle Mountain state park,
 which is about 1.5 miles,
  you will see a pinkish paint that mark that particular trail
   on the trees as you travel down the path.

But some paths are easier to see than others.
 Which is why you need to pay attention to the paint markings
  more than I paid attention to them one time when out in the woods.

When I was hiking at Pinnacle Mountain in Little Rock,
 there is a branching path that follows the base of the mountain trail,
  and one of those paths goes off to a different trail.

Well, me and my stubborn male sense of direction,
 looked at the branch in the route and determined that the north trail
  has to be the trail that goes up the shorter side of the mountain
   while the south trail must continue around the base.
    That being settled, I continued south.

But then after about 5 minutes,
 I began to see white paint marking the trail that I was on
  on regular intervals.

I had a moment where, in the back of my mind,
 I could have sworn that the trail markers were pink.
  But, stubbornly confident, I chalked that up to not remembering the color.
   Because, after all, I was certainly on the right trail.

But it kept nagging at me,
 this little voice in the back of my head that was saying,
  "Maybe you should check the map in your backpack?"

Again, I stuffed that voice and kept barging on.
 20 minutes later, I was noticing a terrain change.
  No longer was I on a trail that was around the base,
   but a much flatter trail that seemed, paradoxically,
    to be sloping the wrong direction.
     After all, I knew that the mountain was north of me.
      It didn't make any sense!
       I just knew I was on the right trail!

Well, I finally checked my map,
 and boy am I glad that I did.
  Because I was not on the base trail anymore.
   I was on the Scouts of America trail,
    which was not 1.5 miles long,
     but a whopping 24 miles long that headed due east
      away from the mountain I was trying to climb!

All the while I was so sure of my direction that I was traveling,
 but yet I could not be more wrong.

I was trying to get up the mountain to get to the top.
 But in my own refusal to listen or look or get my bearings,
  I was actually traveling a great distance away from that very mountain I wished to scale.

If I'm honest with myself and with y'all this morning,
 a tension that I felt within myself as I hiked along was this:
  "If I turn back, that means I would have to admit that I was wrong."
    And, of course, in order to assuage that tension,
     I made the decision to charge straight ahead because I just couldn't admit that I could be wrong.

But, of course, as we all can clearly see,
 the longer I kept on the wrong path,
  the MORE work I was making for myself because of my stubbornness.

I had to hike a REALLY long way to get back to that branch in the trail,
 a branch that, if I had just looked at a map,
  I would have clearly determined which way was the correct direction to travel.

I was not open to changing my mind about my own self-assurance.
 And it was this resistance to changing my mind that made me go so wrong.

II.

Changing directions,
 changing one's own mind and going another direction,
  is something that Abraham teaches us
   throughout the story of his most fascinating life of faith in God.

Abram, as he was known before God gave him the name "Abraham,"
 is a man that God came to,
  seemingly out of the blue,
   in our reading from Genesis this morning.

"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 that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him."
 [Genesis 12:1-4a]

But, don't let how short this reading is fool you.
 Abram's life didn't get easier,
  nor did Abram's relationship with God lack the need for changing his mind about some things.

As soon as Abram was called by God in Genesis 12,
 and God showed him the land that he would give as a Promised Land,
  Abram then went right on and settled in Egypt,
   which was NOT the Promised Land.
    He then lied that Sarai, his wife, was actually his sister,
     and the king of Egypt attempts to take her as his wife.
      Abram wasn't exactly headed toward the mountain, more like lost on the Scout's trail.
       [Genesis 12:10-20]

But of course, the main story we probably know about Abram was about the promised son.
 God tells Abram that he will have a promised son through Sarai,
  even in her great age.
   But then, right after that promise, Abram and Sarai come up with a plan to have the promised son
    with Hagar, one of Sarai's servants.
     [Genesis 16]

This is somewhat emblematic of Abram's relationship with God:
 he does something incredible, then he follows it up with something really bone-headedly stubborn.

He gets it right,
 then he gets it wrong.

He goes on the right trail toward the mountain,
 and then he trusts too much his sense of direction when he gets to a branch in the trail.

But nonetheless,
 God accomplished something incredible through Abram's simple faith:
  because, just as God has promised,
   "...in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,"
    one of Abram's line comes the Savior of the World,
     Jesus Christ.

But, even when Jesus becomes Incarnate,
 we stubborn people still have some changing of our minds to do still.

Think of Nicodemus in today's Gospel.

He, as a teacher of the Law of God,
 gets completely stumped by Jesus's revelation of God.
  "Very truly, I tell you,
   no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

Well, thinks Nicodemus,
 how on earth can one be born a second time?
  What are you saying Jesus?

And then Jesus shows us how we have to change our minds,
 as he expounds on being born of the Spirit,
  trusting in Jesus's sacrifice as he is lifted from the earth,
   and in the love of God shown to all the world
    that "whoever believes in Jesus Christ should not perish but have everlasting life."
    [c.f. John 3:16]

Both Abram and Nicodemus show us that we can indeed be faithful,
 and yet still have some changing of our minds to do.

And, guess what word literally means "to change your mind?"
 Repentance.

III.

Repentance is a call we constantly must respond to,
 because God constantly calls us to this central act.

You see, repentance and penitence is not merely being sorry for where we mess up.
 Repentance is making a concerted effort to turn around from where we went wrong
  and begin again following God in faith.

This is why Lent is so important for us Christians.
 We often get stuck in our ruts of how we think about things,
  that we don't allow for God to get hold of us and show us something new.

Faith in God is a holy gift,
 a holy offering to the one who loves us more than we can imagine.

And because God loves us,
 we are called often to change our minds,
  to repent,
   of the ways we live that are contrary to what is good for us.

Too often we trust in our own sense of direction,
 and we head off in directions that we think are right,
  but that actually lead us farther away from our destination.

And so God calls us,
 as he called Abram and Nicodemus,
  to repent,
   change our minds,
    learn something new about God and his love for the world,
     and then keep walking in faith.

How is God calling you today to change your mind,
 to repent,
  and walk in faith?

Has God been calling you to begin a relationship with him through Baptism?
 Because in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism,
  God plants that seed of life within your soul
   and waters it with life-giving faith.

Has God been calling you to begin again in your Christian life?
 Have you been away from God, and you have heard his loving call to come back?

Has God been calling you to change your mind about something or someone?

Undoubtedly, we all have places where God calls us to repent and change our minds.

But, friends in Christ,
 remember this if you ever get discouraged:
  repentance is an essential part of faith in Jesus.

So take our your map,
 get your sense of direction,
  walk back up the trail you thought was right,
   and begin again in faith.

In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.