Bible Study Guide for Second Sunday in Lent, Year A

[Genesis 12:1-4a,  Romans 4:1-5, 13-17,  John 3:1-17,  Psalm 121]

The readings this week are entwined with and in conversation with each other. In the Old Testament reading we have the beginning of the Abrahamic covenant. And in the Gospel we have the promise of the new covenant in our Lord Jesus Christ, including and summarized in John 3:16 -- one of the most well-known and beloved verses in the entire Bible. In these readings and the Epistle and the Psalm there appear to be two key themes. Firstly, the importance of faith in God, and in His covenants. Secondly, about our place in His covenants and relation to them, and to use a phrase I have long disliked but find unavoidable “works-righteousness.”

The Old Testament reading this week is the call of Abram, and gives a very general outline of what the later covenant between God and Abram, who will be renamed Abraham, will be. God says that he will bring forth from Abram a great nation, and will bless his descendants and through them bless the whole world. While this is still very early in the story and so Abram’s faith being tested is not as visible a theme as it will become later, nevertheless Abram must go from the land of his birth and to a land that God will show him. The strength of Abram’s faith, in his belief in things unseen, cannot be overstated.

In the Gospel we move from Abram to his descendant who will finally bring God’s blessing to the world. In his discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus summarizes God’s plan to reconcile creation to Himself: That the Son of Man should descend from heaven and be exalted on earth, “so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” While this is the climax of the scene and one of the best remembered sections of the Bible, it comes at the end of the discussion about the nature of faith and the relation between the temporal and the heavenly. It is to Nicodemus’s annoyance a rather abstruse conversation. Nicodemus is concerned with how Jesus can know the things he does and how one can be reborn. Christ addresses his concern by juxtaposing the worlds of flesh and spirit and by telling him that he must be reborn of water and Spirit, which is usually taken to refer to Baptism. He then compares the mystery of faith to the wind as neither can be seen or necessarily understood but both can be heard and so believed in.

Lastly, we turn to the Epistle. In his letter to the Romans Paul ruminates on the nature of faith especially in relation to the story of Abraham, and juxtaposes the worlds of faith and the law. It is at this point that I should confess my biases, whenever Paul discusses Faith and Works, I instantly put my guard up. My best friend in middle school through college was Roman Catholic, and the schools we went to and, in particular, the student bodies we were a part of, were very suspicious of and ignorant about Catholicism and catholic-leaning theology. Most of the time Paul was used to theologically cudgel other Christians from more liturgical backgrounds. Paul argues that faith is what rectifies us and that The Law cannot justify us to God, and that Abraham is remarkable because he was a paragon of faith, and not that his good works redeemed him. As Christians we hold with Paul, however that in no way ends or simplifies the conversation.

One of the main sticking points which has always disturbed me is rather simple. How do I know I have faith? There are plenty of times when I am feeling spiritually dry, and anyway Faith is more than just an intellectual assent -- it’s a way of inhabiting God’s Truth. But it is not knowledge, as it is in things unseen. For me what has always made the most sense is that one has faith because one acts like one has faith, and one believes one has faith. We know that Abram had faith precisely because of what he did, and it does not seem to me to be absurd to suppose that Abram knew he had faith because he did what he did either.

There remains one more step. I cannot think of many people who are as moral and as just as they would like to be. We all fall short. And while I often feel accused by my own complicity in things I know to be evil or in my inability to do any truly meaningful good, there have been times where I have been terribly afraid for my soul and I am sure there will be more to come. I think broadly speaking I am a fine guy and I try to do what I can, but I have never done anything so spectacular as to give up everything and give it to the poor and the hungry. This being accused of by my own conscience seems to me further proof that I live in faith. Even when we are feeling spiritually dry, or are disgusted with ourselves or are just plain tired I believe we can have faith in our own faith.

– Ben Watts

 

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How do you try to inhabit faith? How do you try to display it?

How do you interact with your spiritual life when you feel spiritually dry or overworked or even just bored?

What parts of scripture do you have a hard time with due to previous experiences?

How can we have serious discussions about scripture and doctrine in more inviting and open minded ways?