As promised, my sermon I preached last Sunday at Trinity Episcopal Church in Tulsa.

There are three connecting themes running through our Genesis lesson this morning: Lamenting, waiting, and sacrificing.

Abraham is lamenting that he is still childless. He is crying out because he has no offspring and his servant will become his heir. More than likely it is a public lament. People back then didn’t go quietly to their rooms and have quiet discussions with God. They lamented loudly and publicly.

Abraham has been waiting. God has called Abraham out of Ur to go to a strange land. He has been wandering around for a long time and is still homeless and is still without a child of his own.

Abraham laments to God and God answers by having Abraham look to the heavens and promises that his descendants will outnumber the stars. God promises land and he promises children. There is no real sign that either one of these promises will come true, only God’s word. Yet Abraham believes God and his faith makes him righteous in God’s eyes.

God makes a promise, and even though Abraham will have to wait for the promise, he believes and a covenant is born. Abraham offers a sacrifice of a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon to seal the deal.

Lamenting, waiting and sacrificing.

It reminds me of marriage. Girl laments that she can’t find a suitable man to marry. After much searching and waiting Mr. Right comes along. During the marriage ceremony, the couple makes a promise to each other. Each one believes that what the other has promised will last “till death do us part.” Then comes the sacrifice. A sacrifice is always part of a covenant. Each and every day of a couples’ life together is full of sacrifices. When and if children come, the sacrifices get even bigger. But the sacrifices are worth it, because of the love and commitment that each partner has for the other, because of the covenant they have made together.

Think of the hen who gathers her brood under her wings. Can you picture it? The little chicks keep darting out, away from their mother’s protection and she keeps bringing them back in. It is a full-time job. Full of sacrifices. There is no time for herself. She might lament loud and clear to her chicks and anyone else who is around as she tries to gather them up, but she will go without food to make sure her babies get enough. She sacrifices because she has waited a long time, sitting on her nest waiting for her brood to arrive. And as she sits she makes a promise, a covenant that she will love and protect her little ones at any cost.

That is Jesus’ lament this morning. He so longs to gather Jerusalem together like a hen gathers her brood but they are not willing. God has been waiting since Abraham for his people to get their act together and they just don’t get it. So, he makes the ultimate sacrifice that seals the covenant forever. But in this covenant God makes the promise to love us unconditionally, and makes the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Then God waits for us even if it takes forever.

That is the promise, the covenant that we spend Lent pondering. God’s love, so complete that God will make any sacrifice necessary for us to get it, to receive it, to embrace it. Lent is the time for pondering the Love that is so perfect that the ultimate sacrifice of death on the cross is not too much to bear. It is a most profound mystery that the church encourages us to focus on during this time of preparation.

Lent is all about lamenting, waiting and sacrificing. On Ash Wednesday we lament as we pray the Litany of Penitence. We confess that we are unfaithful, self-indulgent, envious, exploitive, and negligent in our prayer and worship. We say we are sorry for false judgements, uncharitable thoughts towards our neighbors and our prejudice and contempt; for our waste and pollution and we lament that we have not loved God with our whole heart and mind and strength.

Then we make a sacrifice. We give up something that we like or we take on some discipline that is difficult for us. And then we wait for the resurrection. Even when our sacrifice is trivial, like giving up soda or chocolate or sugar, it makes the forty days seem a long time to wait.

But often in today’s world we want the promise, the covenant, without the wait or the sacrifice. We want to go straight to Easter without experiencing the forty days of Lent or Good Friday.

Remember the young woman waiting for Mr. Right? Sometimes we don’t want to wait for the good thing to come along, sometimes we choose Mr. Wrong because we want the promise without the wait. Perhaps that is why divorce is so rampant today. Or perhaps it is because couples forget that in order for love to be complete, sacrifices have to be made.

Think about credit card debt in this country. It is skyrocketing. Why? Because people want the promise of material things without the wait or the sacrifice.

Our teenage pregnancy rate in Oklahoma is among the highest in the nation. What surprises me is that many of these teens get pregnant on purpose. They want the promise of unconditional love and they are tired of waiting to get it from their family or friends. What they don’t understand is the sacrifices that come with it.

How many times have I heard a young girl say, “I want something of my very own who will love me unconditionally.” The amazing thing is that they get what they long for but don’t always see it. I have worked with enough kids to know that a child’s love for their mother is the strongest bond on earth. No matter what that mother does, the child never stops loving her. She can be a drug addict, an abuser, she can go to prison but the child never stops loving her. A mother’s love for her children is strong as well, but she doesn’t always want to make the sacrifices that come along with being a parent. Unfortunately it is often the child who has to make the sacrifice. Sometimes they give up playing with their friends or going to school because they are caring for a sick, addicted mother. Sometimes they sacrifice their entire childhood when they are victims of abuse

We want the promises without the waiting, and without the sacrifice.

God wants to gather us under his wings but we are an impatient people. We want to do things our way. We are not willing to sacrifice anything and we are certainly not willing to wait on the Lord. We want what we want and we want it now period.

The problem is, when we do get those things that we think we want, we are not really satisfied, we never have enough and we are not truly happy.

This Lent let us lament. Let us confess our faults to God so that we are open to God’s healing embrace.

Next, let us wait on the Lord. Sometimes it takes a long time. But God still speaks to his people, count on it. God may put something on our hearts. God may speak to us through someone else. God may whisper his love in the stillness of the night.

And when God does speak to us, and he will, we must be ready to make a sacrifice. It might be a sacrifice of time. It might be a sacrifice of money. It might be a sacrifice of pride or lust or greed. God might be calling us to forgive someone we don’t really want to forgive or to love someone who is hard to love.

If we lament and open ourselves up to God; if we wait on God and listen for his call to us; if we make sacrifices necessary to answer that call, then we will experience a resurrection more glorious than we have ever experienced in our lives and we’ll know that eternal life begins right here, right now.