Last week in the adult bible study class, the topic was "The Promise." The chapter explored the nature of God’s promise to the early patriarchs and matriarchs of the Hebrew people. This promise is the source, the spring, from which the whole history and development of the people of God flows. Earlier stories of creation and the flood are found in Genesis, but it is God’s promise to Abraham that begins—for Christians, Jews, and Muslims—the story of humankind as people of faith, as God’s people. In Genesis, chapter 12, the Lord says to Abram, "Go from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Words of grandeur and nobility. Perhaps they evoke for you a mental picture of Abraham as tall, infinitely wise, strong, with eyes and thoughts deeper than the deepest sea.

On the other hand, when I think of these words from Genesis, I cannot help but recall words from the New Testament book of Hebrews. The author of Hebrews writes of the promise to Abraham and Abraham’s role in history. "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called… By faith he stayed… By faith he received the power of procreation… Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’"

I can hear the amazement, astonishment, disbelief in the voice of the writer of Hebrews. The great patriarch Abraham, the founder of the faith, wasn’t tall, wise and strong; he was probably short and feeble. He was "as good as dead!" God’s great promise, the promise of a future for the people of God, was given to a man who was "as good as dead."

This morning’s readings speak of some other individuals who could have been called "as good as dead." Naomi has lost her husband and her sons. She has no male provider and she is living in a land far from her own home and heritage. She had no future. The lepers in the gospel would certainly have been considered "as good as dead." Many undoubtedly felt that lepers would be better off dead. They had an incurable disease; they were deemed ritually unclean and ostracized from all human society.

It all depends upon how you define life, doesn’t it? Abraham was old, beyond the years of procreation. Within the society of his time, he literally was "as good as dead." An individual life that was not able to generate children was not life. Similarly with Naomi. She had no husband. She had no sons. She had no purpose, no identity. She had no life. And in Jesus’ day people certainly did not see lepers as having life of any meaning or value. In fact society went so far as to rob lepers of any shred of meaningful life that might have remained to them, forcing them to wear rags and bells and to "live" apart from human contact, totally dependent upon others for mere subsistence.

I am reminded of what modern society calls "life support…" the sort of mechanical "life support" that has become a part of today’s medical care. I expect at some point or another almost everyone here will be touched by this phenomenon of so-called "life support." My family dealt with it during my father’s final illness, and, like many families, had to decide how long to prolong "life support." Please do not think that I am critical of "life support" measures or opposed to their use. I am not. These machines are powerful and positive tools of modern medicine, but I think they are misnamed. Just think: How have we defined life if we consider that those machines provide "life support"? The machines provide mechanical function. Is mechanical function the definition of life? And is it life when existence is 100% dependent upon electricity? These machines delay death, but they do not support life. Again, I repeat that life support machinery can be a powerful tool for good, but I expect that all of us would say that the actual time on life support is not good. And it is not life. It is a time when the eternal life of death is held at bay, but it is not life. In a way, it is a modern image for someone who is "as good as dead." In the eyes of society in their own times, Abraham, Ruth and the lepers were people "on life support." As life was defined in their time, they were not alive. They had not yet entered into the eternity of death; but they were not alive.

What does all of this mean for us? How do we really define life today? Not in the physical, medical sense, but in the fullest sense of human life? Especially for us as heir of the promise of Abraham, as people of faith, what does it mean to be alive as children of God? How do we define life that is from God, of God, with God? And then the bigger question is: Are we living that life or are we on life support?

How do we define life? Full, Christian life? Life in which our spirits are alive as well as our bodies? Maybe we can come at a definition from the backdoor. The most striking characteristic of the non-life of existence on life support is its passivity. So we might say that full, true life is not passive; it must be active. Life must be defined by our own ability and desire to choose and act and participate and engage our spirits and souls. Another aspect of the passivity of existence on life support is its monotony; the impossibility of initiative or creativity. So, by contrast, to live fully and truly, honoring the fullness of life God has given us, must be characterized by taking initiatives, pursuing creativity. Further, existence on life support is not only passive, it is dependent. Dependent upon the machine and those who service, adjust, maintain, plug in the machines. So, if dependent life is not true life, then true life is life that does not depend upon others to maintain or sustain our bodies and our souls. Yet true life involves others. Perhaps the greatest lack of life on life support is the inability to communicate, interact with others; the impossibility for a relationship to be mutual and therefore real. So true life must be characterized by mutual relationships. Real relationships of conversation, interaction, provocation. And, if we remember that we are thinking that full life involves our spirits, then real life includes an active, mutual relationship with the real presence of God in addition to relationships with other human beings.

So, are we living such a life? Active, creative, responsible, rich in relationships with God and others? Or have we somehow slipped into some sort of an existence that is more like being on spiritual life support. This isn’t about the mechanics of life… walking, breathing, how full our calendars are. It’s about the fullness of life that involves body, heart, mind, and soul. Are we living that life? Or are we merely delaying death… passive, dependent, monotonous, isolated…

Abraham, Naomi and the lepers in Luke were forced into their lifeless situations by circumstances beyond their control, by the culture and the people of their time. I’m not sure how it happens to us. It just sort of sneaks up on us. We don’t know quite how to avoid it or stop it and before we know it we are no longer living. Even that piece of our lives that we dedicate to the church. Our religious lives so easily become passive, dependent, monotonous, like the endless pump and hiss of the hospital ventilator.

But there is hope. There is always hope. After all, even a man "as good as dead" became the father of a great nation. Even Ruth, whose husband was dead would find in the distant and foreign land of her mother in law Naomi the blessing and new life of a new husband and their son would be the grandfather of King David. Which also makes Ruth, according to Matthew, a direct ancestor of Joseph, the husband of Mary. And even lepers get off life support with Jesus’ help. A Samaritan leper… a foreign, unclean, incurable, outcast receives new life. All these, as good as dead, received new life. God never gives up. God never stops offering us full, new, vibrant life. And God’s power is stronger than any power that might seek to rob us of life. Even us, spiritually "as good as dead" can receive new life.

But we must accept the gift. Abraham, Naomi and Ruth journeyed far into new lands to live into their new lives. The Samaritan leper acted joyfully upon the gratitude he felt and sought out a whole new sort of worship and faith and life. All these accepted, lived into, the new life God offered them. God never gives up offering us new life for body and soul, but we must choose to accept the gift.