Lent 2(A): The Dance
By: The Rev. Charles Lane Cowen
When I think of traditional Lenten themes, I think about penitence, repentance, self-reflection, self-denial, and meditations on mortality. While I whole-heartedly support these traditional themes of the season, taken alone, they can be a real bummer. Yes, we should remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return, but that does not mean that we are to sit around moping until the end arrives.
One way to reinvigorate our Lenten disciplines might be to expand our practices to the role of blessing. While practices of penitence, repentance, etc. allow us the self-reflection necessary to be in right relationship with God and to hear God’s call, today’s story of Abram shows us how that self-reflection can lead to a life of blessing.
If we look at the narrative arc of Genesis up to this point, it has been one of disobedience, destruction and curse. Adam and Eve are expelled from paradise and cursed. Cain slays Abel and is cursed. The people reject God, so God curses them with a flood. The people build a tower in Babel, and God curses them.
Finally, we come to today’s lesson about Abram, and the narrative shifts from cursing to blessing. Other than a genealogy, this is our first introduction to Abram (later Abraham). God calls Abram to leave his native land in a threefold litany of departure: “Go from your country [land], your kindred, and your father’s house” (Gen 12:1 NRSV). Furthermore, God tells Abram that he will lead him to a new land in order that God “will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Gen 12:2). God does not make Abram and his descendants a great nation to the end that Abram have power and dominion, but in order that Abram and his descendants “will be a blessing” (Gen 12:2). Through this give and take of inward reflection leading to outward movement, we see God, Abram, and the world engaging in an intricate dance of blessing. When Abram follows God’s call into new and scary places, God blesses Abram in order that Abram might bless the world.
Remembering that this story of Abram comes after the many stories of disobedient humanity and God’s curses on the disobedient, I would highlight the willingness of Abram to listen and respond to God’s call. In Genesis 12, we have not yet been told that Abram is a righteous man, but his ability to hear and follow God’s call demonstrates his righteousness.
An ability to listen and respond to God lies at the heart of our Lenten disciplines and begins the dance of blessing. Practices of prayer, fasting, and self-denial focus our hearts on God’s call. Through self-examination and repentance (metanoia—turning back toward God) we realign our lives with the path that God has laid for us. Through these practices, we, like Abram, can move out from our comfortable places of home and church and into the world where we can both share God’s blessing with others and be blessed in return.
The dance goes something like this:
- God calls
- We respond
- God carries us into new territories
- God blesses us through others
- God blesses others through us
This dance of blessing lies at the heart of God’s covenant with Abram, and it is the blessing that Paul finds in the cross of Christ, particularly in his Epistle to the Romans, which we will read much of during Lent. Through Jesus, all the Gentiles are brought into the family of Abram, whose primary purpose in life is to bless. A sermon built upon today’s lesson from Genesis provides the opportunity not only to create a Lenten discipline around blessing, but to illuminate the difficult readings found in Romans in our Lenten lectionary. [1]
How might we as churches, communities, and individuals take our Lenten practices of self-reflection and transform them into ways of blessing the world? If we take Abram as our example, it means that we must leave our comfortable places of our own neighborhoods and families. It means going out into new territories where we might be cursed by others. God’s promise—the same promise God makes to Abram—is to journey with us.
Into what uncomfortable territories might we journey this Lent? How might God bless us, and how might God use us to bless others?
[1] Much of my thought on Paul and Judaism comes from Mark Nanos. For further reading, I suggest his commentary on Romans in The Jewish Annotated New Testament, 2nd Ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017) and his book Reading Paul Within Judaism (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017).
The Rev. Charles Lane Cowen serves as Associate Rector at Trinity Episcopal Parish (Trinity and Old Swedes) in Wilmington, Delaware, working alongside English and Spanish-speaking congregations. Prior to ordained ministry, Charles spent over a decade working in the professional theatre world as a director, actor, and puppeteer. His love of story informs his passion around biblical studies and sharing the Gospel of Christ.
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