Train to Mumbai

First Lesson: Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16
Responsive Reading: Psalm 22: 23-31
Second Lesson: Romans 4: 13-25
​Gospel Lesson: Mark 9: 2-9

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Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
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The place is Mumbai, India[1].  Mumbai is the twelfth largest city in the world with a population of over 12 million people.  Mumbai is a small city with its square area 1/5 the size of Rhode Island, making it one of the most population dense cities in the world[2].  The time is 7:00 A.M.  A businessman leaves his home for the City Centre 19 miles away.  The problem with leaving the house at 7:00 A.M. is it’s too early to prepare a proper lunch that’ll stay fresh for six hours.  Few people want to eat from street vendors day after day.

In 1890, a lunchbox service was started where men would seek to deliver home-cooked meals to others while away from home.  The process seems to be impossible.  9:15 A.M. lunchboxes are picked up at residences throughout the outskirts of Mumbai[3].  The men that pick these boxes up are called walas.  The boxes are marked without smartphones, scanners, bar codes, or GPS or any other modern technology that would seemingly make the job easier.  Walas then load up to fifteen separate lunch bags on their bicycle.  They bike down to the nearest train station.  They then meet with other walas to sort and separate bags for delivery into separate sections of Mumbai.  Everything for the walas is dependent on getting onboard the 10:51 train[4].  Miss the train the whole system collapses, no lunch gets delivered during India’s normal 1-2 lunch hour.

The Walas upon sorting the bags then sit together in a luggage compartment, where they do their daily joking upon the train ride to Mumbai.  The train stops on the Southern Tip of Mumbai after a 40-minute train ride.  Walas from all over the city gather, they then hop on bicycles left behind by other Walas for them.  They then have to navigate the streets of Mumbai through cars, trucks, rickshaws, and even the occasional cow.  Most days traffic is at a stand-still.  Such a business seems like nothing but a recipe for chaos and disaster.  Present the following model as a business plan and you would be subjected to ridicule[5].

How accurate are the Walas.  Their error rate is reportedly 1 in 16 million[6].  Their efficiency is so renowned that they’ve been celebrated by Prince Charles of England and studied at Harvard Business School.  Walas have no special background most of them have what amounts to an 8th grade education.  Many of them are unable to read[7].  Here’s the thing about the Walas though which makes them so unique, they have managed to establish perfect timing in the midst of all chaos.  The Walas promise to deliver lunch by 12:45 every day and they seemingly never disappoint regardless of how long the odds. 
Today’s Old Testament lesson tells a similar story[8].  It’s a story where the timing seems to be impossible.  It’s a story of the most remarkable of promises being fulfilled in the life of Abraham. 

The story of Abraham’s life is one of God coming through on unbelievable promises given to Abraham.  Abraham’s story spans thirteen chapters of the Book of Genesis and in nearly every chapter, promises of some sort are given by God to Abraham[9][10]. 

The first major promise that God gives unto Abraham is in Genesis 12 where God promises Abraham a land where he would become the Father of a great nation[11]. Abraham is seventy-five years old at the time.  This promise seems unlikely to be fulfilled because Abraham is already getting up there in years.  Today’s lesson takes place twenty-four years in the future.  Twenty-four years after God’s original promise Abraham and Sarah are still childless. Abraham’s now ninety-nine years old to be exact.  Abraham’s wife Sarah not being a young woman herself is believed to be barren.  Within our lesson for Today, both Abraham and Sarah are promised by God that they would give birth to a child.  This child would be the fulfillment of God’s previous promises to Abraham to descend from his blood a great nation. 

Here’s what should be noted about God’s promise to Abraham.  God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah occur without conditions[12].  When Sarah hears she’s about to become pregnant at the age of 90, she laughs at God[13].  She believes such a thing is impossible.  God could have moved onto someone else at this point, yet what the story of Abraham and Sarah illustrates the nature of God’s promises is they are unconditional.  God’s response to us is more important than our response to God.  We call this Grace.  God’s ability to carry out his promises is stronger than our ability to run away from these truths. 

Here’s the thing about God’s promises to Abraham.  Abraham nor Sarah do not live to see all of God’s promises fulfilled.  The most important promise that God makes to Abraham is that through his family tree, a great blessing that will be received by not only Abraham’s family but all the families of the Earth.  God’s promises would eventually be fulfilled through Abraham’s descendant Jesus Christ.   The Cross of Christ which we look ahead to this Lenten season will be the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises given to Abraham many generations ago[14].  Eventually, all the nations of the Earth will be saved from their own sin and suffering.  The idea that a Savior would eventually overcome death seemed like nothing more than a distant dream during the life of Abraham.  Resurrection is no more impossible than a hundred-year-old man having a child with a ninety-year-old woman[15].  The thing about promises is the best promises seem foolish at the time they are given.  The thing about promises though is even if they seem a little unbelievable, there’s something sacred about a promise.

How one fulfills their promises speaks to whether their word is gold or garbage.  Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863[16].  The Emancipation Proclamation announced the freedom of three-million slaves within Southern states.  Among the three-million slaves, there was perhaps one man who was more remarkable than any other slave for how he understood this notion of promise.  Booker T. Washington tells the story of meeting a slave from Virginia[17].  The slave’s master had made a deal with him a couple of years before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation; the slave would be able in effect to buy his freedom from his master[18].  The master set a price from freedom, with an understanding that the slave would be able to find work wherever he pleased.  The condition was the slave promises to pay the master back.  The slave eventually leaves Virginia for better wages in Ohio.  The slave works in Ohio for a couple of years; Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation making the slave have no more legal obligations for his master.  Now the Slave would have been justified in never returning to Virginia, yet the man’s promise meant more than anything that had taken place in the past.  Upon earning money to pay off his master, he walked all the way from Ohio to Virginia to place every dollar he owed to his master into his hand plus interest.

Booker T. Washington hears this story and is shocked.  The man said his word would never be broken and he could never be truly “free” until his promise was fulfilled[19]. 

The point of the story of Abraham is this God’s promises are gold.  They will come through, no matter how much the circumstances ultimately change around us.

One last story for this morning as told by Leon Stier, the story illustrates how God’s promises are fulfilled no matter what takes place in our life[20].

Cleo was sixty-two years old.  She and her husband John had just retired.  The future was looking bright.  Cleo and John had all sorts of friends, all sorts of money, and really big plans for the years ahead.  Cleo’s plans collapsed as she heard that she had cancer and it was terminal.  Cleo still struggled to get to church every Sunday even as her body got weaker and weaker.  She eventually calls the Pastor over to plan her funeral.  Cleo had all her hymns and scripture readings picked out.  Cleo had one special request for the pastor.  She asked if he wouldn’t mind preaching her funeral sermon on her favorite Bible verse[21].  The verse came from the very end of the Book of Joshua.  Whereas Abraham was the Father of a great nation, Joshua was the one who led them back into the promised land of Israel after the death of Moses. 

The verse that Cleo picked goes as follows:
“Now I am about to go the way of all the earth.  You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God have you has failed.  Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.”- Joshua 23:14. 

God’s promises to Cleo did not include a long-life, nor a pain-free life, nor a life free of disappointment.  Here’s what God promised Cleo instead.  God promises to Cleo were instead eternal in nature.   God’s promises would not fail Cleo[22]. 

To quote the Apostle Paul: “Look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal[23].”

Consider how God’s promises work in our own life.  God’s promises were given to Abraham thousands of years ago in a land, far, far away from here.  The promises given to Abraham on this day, Christians believe are eventually fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ[24].  God’s promises have continually reached around the world since Christ rose from the dead.  These promises turned a small group of Disciples into a faith that reached our ancestors in Germany in the 8th Century[25], reaching Scandinavia shortly after that, and reaching nearly every corner of the world in the centuries that followed.  We gather here on this day because God’s promises that a 99-year-old man would become the Father of a great nation with his barren wife Sarah have come true.  No matter how long the odds of God’s promises seem to be.  The cross assures us that in his presence that any meals within his kingdom will be served on time regardless of schedule.  Amen
 
 
 


[1] Pink, Daniel. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. Riverhead Books. New York. 2018. Print. P.177-200. 
[2] Pink, Daniel. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. P.179
[3] Pink, Daniel. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. P.178.
[4] Pink, Daniel. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. P.187
[5] Pink, Daniel. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. P.188. 
[6] Pink, Daniel. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. P.188. 
[7] “Dabbawala.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 13. Jan.2018. Web. Feb.4.2018. 
[8] Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16. 
[9] Chapters 12-25. 
[10] Fretheim, Terry. “Commentary on Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16”. Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. 8. Mar.2009. Web. Feb.6.2018. 
[11] Genesis 12:1-9. 
[12] Fretheim, Terry. “Commentary on Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16”.
[13] Genesis 18:12. 
[14] Howard, Cameron. B.R. “Commentary on Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16.” Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. 1.Mar.2015. Web. Feb.6.2018. 
[15] Howard, Cameron. B.R. “Commentary on Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16.”
[16] “Emancipation Proclamation.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 29. Jan.2018. Web. Feb.4.2018. 
[17] Washingston gives the following example in his book Up from Slavery. 
[18] Moore. Douglas. E. “Promise.” Sermon Illustrations. Web. 4.Feb.2018. 
[19] Moore. Douglas. E. “Promise.”
[20] Steir, Pastor Leon. “Cleo and John (Part one of two).” Email Mediatations. 9.Apr.2015. Web. 4. Feb.2018. 
[21] Steir, Pastor Leon. “Cleo and John (Part one of two).”
[22] Steir, Pastor Leon. “Cleo and John (Part one of two).”
[23] 2 Corinthians 4:18. 
[24] Steir, Pastor Leon. “Abraham and Adamou (part one of two).” Email Mediatations. 26. June.2015. Web. Feb.4.2018. 
[25] Steir, Pastor Leon. “Abraham and Adamou (part one of two).”