Genesis
15:1-12, 17-18
It
came to be called the “Marshmallow Test,” and it was conducted at Stanford
University in 1970. The test subjects were some 600 children, ages 4-6. One by
one, they were brought into a bare room with only a chair and a table, and no
other distractions. They were offered a choice of a treat — a marshmallow, an Oreo
cookie, or a pretzel. The treat was laid on the table, and the children were
told that they could eat it right away if they wanted to, but if they didn’t
eat it and instead waited 15 minutes, they could have a second treat as well.
The researchers then left the room and observed. Many of the kids just ate the
treat right away. But others tried to hold out, and they exhibited a wide array
of behaviors. Some turned and faced away from the table so that they couldn’t
see the food, and some covered their eyes with their hands. One little girl
pulled on her pigtails as she fought temptation. A few children, interestingly,
stroked their marshmallows like they were stuffed animals. But in the end, only
one third of the children could hold out for fifteen minutes. Two thirds had to
have their treat before that, even though that meant missing out on a second
one.
It’s
a truism that our society is not so great at delayed gratification: instant
gratification is our MO. We want what we want and we want it now, or at least
as soon as possible. Some of the ads and headlines I have seen recently
include: “The 8-Week Total Body Makeover Plan,” and “30 Days to a Better You,”
and, my favorite, “Play the Piano Overnight.” We like to see positive results
and the sooner, the better. So, if I were to offer you a way to become fully
alive in the Holy Spirit, filled with love, joy, and peace, radiating the light
of Christ, and being an agent of God’s goodness in the world, hopefully many of
you would be interested and say, “Yes!” But would you still want it if I told
you that it would take the rest of your life and beyond to fully experience it?
I
want you to keep that in mind as we look at this passage from Genesis. It’s an
ancient story, and so crucial in our tradition. It lies at the heart of Paul’s
letter to the Romans and his letter to the Galatians. God promises Abram that
his descendants will be as numerous as the stars of heaven. But at this point
in the story, Abram is more than 75 years old, and he has no children. It’s an
outrageous promise, and by definition, Abram will not live to see it fulfilled.
But in one of the great lines of the Bible, Genesis says, And he believed the LORD, and the LORD reckoned it to him as
righteousness. According to the story, what makes Abram righteous, what
will eventually lead him to be renamed Abraham, “the father of many,” is not
that he is morally upstanding or law abiding or ritually pure: what makes him
righteous is that he believes God. He is willing to trust in God’s promise —
even when it will take ages for that promise to be fulfilled.
I
cannot tell you how often I have talked to people who have begun something with
enthusiasm — and then faded and fell away. Maybe they have started praying
every day or coming to church every Sunday, but after a few weeks or a few
months, the excitement wanes, they don’t get the immediate results they desire,
and so they stop. I have not only dealt with that pastorally, I have struggled
with it personally. As a young man in my twenties, I often got fed up and
frustrated when prayer and spiritual disciplines didn’t magically and quickly
take away all my issues and transform me into a saint. I remember the
temptation to give up. But all these years later, I am so glad I didn’t. There
are some lessons we can only learn over time. There are truths about love,
faith, and hope that cannot be acquired in a day or a year or a decade. On Ash
Wednesday, we confessed, among other things, “the pride, hypocrisy, and
impatience of our lives.” Like Abraham, we live with great promises. Not just
that we will share in the resurrection of Christ when we die, but that we are,
in Paul’s words, being transformed into
[the likeness of Christ] from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3).
That is not something we do: the Holy Spirit does it within us. And that Spirit
moves within us every moment of every day, often in ways we can feel and
discern. But the great work of the Spirit, making us more like Jesus,
transforming us into vessels of love, joy, and peace, is the work of a
lifetime. There is no rushing it. Our job is to trust that and to keep saying
yes, by worshiping in community, praying, serving, loving, and never giving up.
That’s
true for us as individuals and that’s true for the world. The Great Plan is not
to make everyone a member of the church; the Great Plan is to usher in the
reign of God on earth, the reign that Jesus Christ embodies, a reign of justice
and peace for all people. And that obviously takes time. Both Scripture and
science tell us we live in an evolutionary universe, and God’s purposes slowly
unfold over ages. We humans have come a long way, but clearly we are still in
process. The horrific massacre of Muslims in New Zealand sadly reminds us of
how far we have to go. But to live in faith means to keep on going, to keep on
loving — grieving with all victims, and not giving into hatred and not giving
into despair. We are people of promise, and to have faith means to trust that
God will fulfill God’s promises to us. That willingness to trust — like
Abraham, like Jesus — is what makes us righteous in the eyes of God and able to
receive all that God will give us in the fullness of time.
One
of my heroes in faith is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the great French
scientist, priest, and philosopher. He wrote a meditation that speaks to all
this and I will close with his words:
Above
all, trust in the slow work of God.
We
are quite naturally impatient in everything
to
reach the end without delay.
We
should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We
are impatient of being on the way
to
something unknown, something new.
Yet
it is the law of all progress that it is made
by
passing through some stages of instability
and
that it may take a very long time . . .
Only
God could say what this new Spirit
gradually
forming in you will be.
Give
our Lord the benefit of believing
that
his hand is leading you,
and
accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in
suspense and incomplete.
Above
all, trust in the slow work of God.
Amen.
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