Daily Journey Through the Great Fast With the Early ChurchSample

How long are you willing to wait for your food at a restaurant before you begin to get “hangry” or how long are you willing to wait at the doctor’s office before you get impatient and ask when you can see the doctor? How long are you willing to wait for God to: bring healing, work a miracle in your life, to fix your marriage, to bring back your prodigal child, to give you a promotion, etc?

Why is it that sometimes we can choose to wait on God a bit longer than other times and for some things we choose not to wait on Him at all? When is it that we determine God is just too slow and He has crossed the line by making us wait so long? Do we choose to give God no more than a year to fix my marriage or I’m walking out? How long do you choose to give God to help you find the person you’re going to marry before you take matters into your own hands? How long do you wait until you yell at God for not giving you children? How long are you willing to wait on God’s timing? How long are you willing to wait for God to save you from (fill in the blank). If God’s answer is not what you want to hear, are you willing to still believe in Him and His goodness or do you choose to take matters into your own hands?

In Genesis 12, Abram (Abraham’s name at that time) was told by God that He will make Abram into a great nation - Abram is 75 years old at this time and Sarai (Sarah’s name at that time), his barren wife, is 65. Skip forward to chapter 15 and we see a direct mention of God promising Abram an heir. That heir would be Isaac, who is born in chapter 21. It is easy for us, the readers, to read those 9 chapters, which fly by quickly, and not really understand the full gravity of the situation - Abram and Sarai were told a promise at the age of 75 and 65, respectively, and when God fulfilled the promise, they were 100 and 90, respectively. Theywaitedfor 25 years for the fulfillment of God’s promise.25. How long do you wait in rush hour traffic before you move from one lane to the next? They waited for 25 years! How is that they could wait for 25 years?

Twice Abraham built altars for the Lord, twice he called upon Him, for 25 years he walked with God, he obeyed the Lord in Ur of the Chaldeans and went up to Haran then down to Canaan. He left everything and walked - where to? - to a place that he knew not of and that God wouldeventuallyshow him. What about all those things? Weren’t those faith? No, those weren't faith. God took Abram out at night and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” [Genesis 15:5-6] Wasn’t Abram listening, obeying, following and submitting a showing of his faith? It was different than all that. So then what was that faith?

God told him that his heir wasn't Eliezer of Damascus but his heir would come from his body (Genesis 15:4). Abram felt God's word enter into his deadness - he felt the energy of life. “So he believed in the Lord”. What happened? God touched death, and life emerged from death. “So he believed in the Lord” - based on what? based on thatGod can raise from the dead. This is faith in God. This is what the whole world inherited and what we received in Christ Jesus. In Romans, Paul says, “not for Abraham alone was it accounted to him for righteousness but also for us. It shall be accounted to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead.” [Romans 4:23-24]

If we believe in Him who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, then our faith will be accounted to us for righteousness, just like Abram's faith. This is the Christian faith, it is exactly the same as Abram's faith - that God can raise from the dead. But Abram's faith is higher - do you believe that Jesus Christ died and rose? The devils also believe this. What Abram believed is that God is capable ofRAISINGfrom the dead - not just to believe that Christ died and rose, as if He died for Himself and rose for Himself, no. Our faith will be like Abram's faith if we believe that Christ is able toRAISE(not just rise) from the dead. To raise who? YOU! If you believe that Christ is able to raise YOU from the death of sin -thatis faith in God.

When I feel, the way Abram felt, that Christ RAISED ME, and WILL RAISE ME and IS RAISING ME now from death, that is an active faith in God. He didn't rise for Himself, He rose for us. His death and Resurrection became for us and with us. He raised Lazarus from the dead, to show you and me that we are Lazarus - that we can be raised, even if we have lived in sin for so long, as Lazarus was in the tomb and the stench of death for four days. “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” [John 5:25] - this is the raising from the dead. This is faith. This is how Abram was able to wait 25 years - because he hadtruefaith in God. Because of that true faith in God, he was able to have patience and endure - it was an active faith, a faith that produced works.

Do we have the faith of Abram? Do we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior? Do we believe that He is able to raise us from the dead? Do we believe that He is able to raise us up from our sins? If so, brothers and sisters, let us produce the works that show this active faith.

“Do you wish to honor the Body of the Savior? Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honor it in church with silk vestments while outside it is naked and numb with cold. He who said, “This is my body,” and made it so by his word, is the same who said, ‘You saw me hungry and you gave me no food. As you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me.’ Honor him then by sharing your property with the poor. For what God needs is not golden chalices but golden souls.” [St. John Chrysostom, the 4th century Archbishop of Constantinople and a “doctor of the Church”]

Adapted from a sermon by Fr. Matthew the Poor, a Coptic Orthodox monk and author who departed to the Lord in 2006.