There’s an episode in a sitcom that was popular a generation ago. I’m sure most of you have at least heard of it, if you haven’t watched it. I am referring to the show Seinfeld.
In this episode, Jerry calls a car rental company at an airport to make a reservation. He wants a midsize sedan. Now this is an era before smartphones and apps, and so he has to speak with an actual representative on the phone.
After the deal is transacted, Jerry assumes that a car will be waiting for him when he arrives at the airport. In other words, Jerry has faith in the promise the rep made to him. “We will have your car waiting for you when you arrive, sir.”
Soon Jerry arrives at the car rental desk. “I’m Jerry Seinfeld. I made a reservation for a midsize.” The rep replies: “I’m sorry. We have no midsize available at the moment.”
“I don’t understand. I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation?” Jerry asks.
“Yes, we do.” the rep assures him. “But unfortunately we ran out of cars.”
In his confusion, Jerry protests: “But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the reservations.”
To this the rep brusquely responds: “I know why we have the reservations.”
Jerry says: “I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have my car. You see, you know how to take the reservation. But you don’t know how to hold the reservation. But that is the most important part of the reservation, the holding.”
In our lessons today, God makes a promise. He has promised “to hold in reservation” unimaginable blessings for his chosen ones.
For Abram, later called Abraham, it is an heir. The problem, however, is that the interval between the promise made and the fulfillment accomplished has been long.
We know how trying this can be. The longer the delay, the greater the doubt. And you begin to wonder about the promise itself. If the promise was indeed made, you begin to wonder about the promise-maker. If the promise-maker is indeed reliable, you begin to wonder about yourself.
In Abraham’s case, the delay is so long that its fulfillment has become utterly impossible. You see, the content of the promise is that his heir would come from the union between Abraham and his wife Sarai, later called Sarah.
But Sarah is way past her childbearing years. She does not have the benefit of modern biotechnologies. She does not have recourse to in vitro fertilization, as did Erramiti Mangayama, a woman from southern India, who became a mother for the first time, when she gave birth to twins at age 74.
But there’s no scenario in which Abraham can even conceive this as a possibility for his own wife Sarah. He’s already resigned himself to appoint his household servant, Eliezer of Damascus, as his heir.
Abraham already has a plan B in case God does not fulfill his promise. Can there be a plan B if we have pledged to walk with God, if we have decided to be followers of Christ?
In principle, I suppose, there can always be a plan B. But it’s difficult in this case, because to walk with God, to be a follower of Christ, you have to be all in. Remember, Abraham went out from his country, his people, and his father’s household to the land that God would show him (Gen. 12:1). He was all in. The followers of Christ sell their possessions in exchange for an unfailing treasure in heaven (Luke 12:33). They were all in.
The word of the Lord came to Abraham: “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir” (Gen. 15:4).
Let us reflect on the significance of this moment, this moment when the word of the Lord came to Abraham. God makes a promise to us. We choose to believe him, to trust in him to instruct and to guide us, to protect and to deliver us, and at last to bring us to our desired destination.
But faith is hard. There are forces in our world that work against it constantly. And there can be long periods of time when God seems absent from our lives. He seems to be the uninvolved parent, all too common for far too many neglected children today.
This is faith’s struggle. It is to this struggle that Jesus points in the parable he tells in our Gospel lesson. The master is going to return from the wedding banquet. That is the promise. Therefore, his servants must be ready to open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.
The master is at the wedding party, and has not notified the servants about the time of his return. It may be the middle of the night; in which case they do not have to wait as long. Or it may be near dawn, at which time they may begin to grow weary and wonder where he is.
In that case, those appointed to wait for the return of the master of the house had longer to wait.
So, what is the point Jesus is making? The longer the delay, the greater the doubt. And the greater the doubt, the easier it is to give up, and to go in search of plan B.
Are there any perfectionists out there? We who are perfectionists are hard on ourselves when we don’t measure up to our own standards. There can also be spiritual perfectionists. We who consider ourselves to be spiritual reproach ourselves when we find we are so easily captive to doubt. We cry out as did the boy’s father in Matthew’s Gospel: “I believe; help my unbelief” (Matt. 9:24).
But God is far easier on us than we are on ourselves. He does not reproach us for our imperfect faith, but encourages us, as we have already mentioned.
God brings Abraham out under the night sky and invites him to look up at the stars. In the original language, the phrase “look towards the heavens” contains a particle of speech that is difficult to capture in translation. The particle is typically used in polite speech, even to mark tender speech, towards the addressee.
It’s almost as if God is repeating what he said to Abraham at the beginning of the lesson. The sense is something like this, if we are permitted to paraphrase: “Don’t be afraid, Abraham. Don’t be discouraged. It’s okay. I’d like you to look up into the night sky. There you will see an illustration of what I am promising you. If you can count the stars, so can you count the number of your descendants.”
God is faithful to remind us of his promises. He does not make a promise, grant us the faith to receive it, and then leave us on our own. He encourages our faith, even as he did Abraham’s, our father in faith.
The same tender speech marks the beginning of Jesus’ address to the disciples in our Gospel lesson. “Do not be afraid, little flock. For it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
This is one of the reasons we go to church each Sunday. We go in the hope that God will address to us a word that we need to hear at the moment, a word to encourage us, a word to help us press forward in our walk with God, in our following of Christ.
Have you ever had this experience? You had a concern, a problem, which was weighing heavy on your mind. And what you read in the Bible during your devotions, what you heard on Christian radio, or at Sunday morning worship at church, directly addressed your concern or problem. It was exactly what you needed to hear. God noticed and encouraged you.
In the case of Abraham, the encouragement graciously given by God achieves its intended effect. “He believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
Abraham is in the right, in right relationship with God in virtue of his faith, his trust in the Lord. God recognizes and affirms this faith and reckons it to him as righteousness.
We should remember that this theme plays a central role in Apostle Paul’s presentation of the gospel. “Now to the one who does not work, but rather trusts God who justifies the ungodly, his faith his reckoned to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5).
The promise is received through faith, so that it may be by grace and may be confirmed to all who have the faith of Abraham (Rom. 4:16), as Paul continues. That is why the words “it was reckoned to him as righteousness” were not written for him alone, but also for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, the one who was delivered over to death for our sins, but raised to life for our justification” (Rom. 4:23-24).
The words of Jesus in the parable also serve to encourage his followers. They—and we—have dressed for action and have our lamps lit. We are ready to serve and let our light shine before others, so that they may see our good deeds, and praise our Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16).
But the tasks become monotonous. And those around us seem indifferent or even hostile to our witness. We grow weary in well-doing; we become faint-hearted, and need to be encouraged.
The parable reminds us that, whether the time be long or short, the master will return, and his recompense is with him.
What the master does is really remarkable. Remember the point we made about parables, that they are calculated to surprise or even shock? No one in Jesus’ time and place would have ever expected of a master a willingness to serve his servants!
But that is precisely what the master is willing to do. In the middle of the festivities at the wedding party, he remembers his servants. And so he withdraws himself to go and see how they are doing. What he really wants to do is to give them a share in the joy of the celebration. In this connection, Bible student Kenneth Bailey suggests that the meal that he serves them when he has them sit down to eat comes from the wedding reception itself!
What is the parable implying here? That the Lord will make himself a servant to his servants. This is what Jesus himself enacted when, on the night of the Passover, he took off his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel (John 13:4-5). “Who is greater, the one at the table, or the one who serves? But I am you as one who serves,” as Jesus says later in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 22:7). He is the lowly God, in the arresting language of St. Augustine, the God who came to serve and thereby save his people.
This is what is in store for the followers of Jesus. Now, we must be alert and ready to serve. But then, when the master returns, it will be no longer we who serve, but the Lord himself will welcome us to his table.
Indeed, on this note, we can say that God encourages us not only in word, but also in sacrament. For we remember his promise each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, or share in Holy Communion, as we are about to do in a few moments. In the Supper, the Lord provides for us a pledge and foretaste of that great banquet that awaits us and all who are eagerly expecting his coming, and we are encouraged.
In closing, we should point out that our language is limited when it comes to speaking about the imaginable blessings that God has in store for his chosen people. That is why Jesus used parables. What awaits us is like a kingdom, it is like a treasure, it is like a wedding banquet.
All this may be hard for us sometimes to grasp. But by these and other images, the Bible presents to us the big picture.
Has anyone ever told you to step back and see the big picture? So often we get caught up in our problems and concerns, our disappointments and sorrows, that the big picture fades from view. But that is when we need to see it the most!
According to the Bible, we are Abraham’s descendants, as many of us who have the faith of Abraham. Like Abraham, we live under the sign of the promise. And God is loving and trustworthy. Because it is impossible for God to lie, it is impossible for God to betray our trust.
And because that is so, our encounter with Christ on that glorious day, when the night is over and the new dawn is breaking, cannot be like Jerry Seinfeld’s encounter with the rep at the desk of the car rental company. We will not find out as he did that God did not hold the reservation after making a promise that he would.
That is why the Apostle Peter can break out in praise in these words from his first epistle:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in these last days (1 Pet. 1:3-5). Amen.