Scripture Readings for June 25, 2025

Genesis 15:1-12,17-18, Psalm 105: 1-4, 6-9, Matthew 7:15-20

It seems to me that today’s readings are about having faith.

In Genesis we hear one of the foundation stories for Judaism and Christianity. God making promises to Abram. It is worth noting that God acts first by promising to protect Abram and only once God speaks does Abram raise the legitimate question about whether God’s protection will end up meaning anything because Abram doesn’t have any children to be heirs of God’s goodness.

Before I raise a question about this, notice that next God promises to give Abram a lot of land that belongs to someone else. Abrams responds by asking “how will I know that I will possess it?”

Here we have God offering Abram his protection and land for his use and Abram first reaction is to question its value and then whether he can trust God or not. Doesn’t that seem pretty bold to you?

I would like to suggest that’s not unlike today. You can’t always tell when God is tapping you on the shoulder. That is exactly what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel. Maybe it’s not God, maybe it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I write this blog because I am a confident believer in Christianity. I think Jesus was God’s son, that the God Jesus shows us is for real and that living based on the Gospels is the right thing to do. But I have met people, some friends and other acquaintances, bright people, honest, sometimes amazingly open and loving people who aren’t sure of anything about the outcome of this life. They believe all sorts of non-Christian, unorganized, speculative things about how life works. I’m not talking about people who have faith in other religions. I mean people who are unsure of any religion or randomly combine ideas from here and there and in the end aren’t sure what they have. My point. It is still pretty tough to tell if God is talking to you. Jesus’ comments don’t just apply to people in sheep’s clothing but also situations in life. How do we read them. Are they telling us something good or bad? I don’t think it’s easy even if you do believe in God to know how to respond in some situations.

So that reality makes Jesus advice helpful. Does the person or situation you encounter bring about good things for life or bad things? What kind of fruit comes from this tree, this set of circumstances, this person and who they are? That might seem like too easy an answer. But I don’t think it is, because in order to determine the nature of the person or situation you have to be able to judge what is good and what is bad. Making that judgment can be difficult for a number of reasons but I would like to focus on one. You can’t make a judgment about good or bad if you haven’t settled on some way of life, some standard. If you haven’t already said you believe in something. If a person just keeps flittering around different ideas, concepts or people with different opinions, that person will never be able to decide what is good and what is bad for them. You have to accept something for yourself, without that, you are lost.

This happens in our reading today when after the Lord promises Abram that he will have descendants like stars in the sky, Genesis says, Abram “puts his faith in the Lord.” Abram decides he will trust God in that moment and God accepts his trust as an act that defines something about Abram. Abram has taken a stand. It doesn’t end here. Even with this trust in God, determining what is from God takes real effort. Notice that when Abram is told to offer a sacrifice of animals he has to stay with the carcasses when birds of prey threaten and finally goes through a terrifying darkness before he hears God promise him and his descendants they will inherit the land.

All this is to say that paying attention to what life is telling us is not easy. It demands attention and perseverance in tough times. But most all, before anything else, making good judgments about God’s presence and what God offers us in this life demands faith. Real trust in the very God who wants to protect us.