There were two groups of Christians in the early church, who came at things from very different perspectives.  The first “on-ramp” to the Christian way was by being Jewish.  The Jewish people had been expecting a Messiah for centuries.  The very first Christians were Jewish people who met Jesus for themselves, or beginning with Pentecost, heard about Jesus, and believed the long-awaited Savior had come in the person of Jesus from Nazareth. Not long into the history of the Church, though, the book of Acts tells us about how Peter came to realize that the Savior had come, not just for the Jewish people, but for Gentiles, too.  This led to a second “on-ramp” to the Christian way, which bypassed Jewish teaching.  Gentile Christians recognized Jesus as Savior not because of the hundreds of years of prophecy that he fulfilled, but because of how he fulfilled a need in their hearts.Jewish Christians, and Gentile Christians.  These two groups of people, while travelling the same “way” of Christ, struggled to understand each other.  And because they struggled to understand each other, they struggled to understand just what it meant to be a person of the Christian faith.  What would it take to be, not a Jewish Christian or a Gentile Christian, but just a Christian?To answer this question, Paul offers up a role model from way back.  Abraham.  I grew up singing the song, “Father Abraham has many sons, and many sons has Father Abraham.  I am one of them, and so are you, so let’s all praise the Lord.”  This in a nutshell is what Paul was arguing to the Christians at Rome.  All of us, whether we come to Christ through the Jewish on-ramp, or the Gentile on-ramp, are children of Abraham, who was God’s chosen person from before there was such a thing as Jewish or Gentile. “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations.”  I love how Paul describes Abraham’s faith.  “Without weakening his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead–since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver.”  Maybe not the most eloquent way of describing the situation.  But we get the picture!  Abraham and Sarah were childless, and their window of opportunity had long past.  Yet when God promised them an heir, Abraham believed God, and persisted in his belief.  This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”  Abraham had a unique mindset:  one that faced facts of his earthly situation, and kept believing in the promise of his heavenly Father.  It is this mindset of faith that Paul longs to foster amongst the Christians in Rome.  It is the common denominator, the vital element that unites them. Do you remember Venn diagrams from school?  Usually there are two circles that overlap somewhat.  The overlap shows what the two groups have in common.  This week the weather has been so nice, I’ve been driving with my car windows down as I run errands.  It reminded me of a comic I saw once of a Venn diagram that didn’t intersect at all.  In the one circle:  people who drive with their windows down.  In the other circle:  people who listen to good music!  Have you noticed that, too?  When I am sitting in traffic, it’s always the people with their windows down that seem to be playing music I don’t enjoy listening to!Sometimes it feels like this Venn diagram described the early Church.  There were Jewish Christians, who were circumcised, and obeyed the Jewish law, and felt they had come to faith by way of an inheritance or legacy deemed just for them.  Then there were the Gentile Christians, who were not circumcised, didn’t care about following the Jewish law, but who had experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and were transformed by grace.  There was considerable tension, even one upsmanship between the two groups.But if Paul were drawing a Venn diagram, this is what it would look like.  Yes, there are two circles of people, who have vastly different experiences.  But look at what the two groups have in common!  Not only the same beliefs about Jesus being God’s son and Jesus being their Savior, but a mindset a faith.  A mindset of unwavering belief regarding the promises of God.  They have in common the way they are staking their lives on the trustworthiness of God; that faith in Christ is their way of life; that even though their bodies will one day be as good as dead, they will live forever because of the saving love and power of God.Facing the facts of our situation on earth without weakening our trust in the God who made heaven and earth.  This is our spiritual inheritance.  This is the way of life Paul is advocating.  This same mindset is known today in the business world as the Stockdale Paradox.  This term was coined by Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great.  Jim Collins and his team were researching what set “good” companies apart from “great” ones, and they noticed a common thread in how the great companies handled adversity.  They were much more likely than the average companies to truly face the brutal facts at hand.  But they didn’t let the facts, no matter how grim, discourage them.  They maintained faith that they would prevail in the end.This duality was articulated clearly when Jim Collins had the chance to interview Admiral Jim Stockdale, who spent 8 years as prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton in Vietnam, from 1965 to 1973.  Admiral Stockdale was tortured over 20 times, had no idea when the war might end or when he might be released or if he would ever see his family again.  We can only imagine how easy it would be to fall into despair in that situation.  But Admiral Stockdale was able to master a paradoxical way of thinking that saved his life.  He faced the brutal facts of his situation:  he had no idea when he would get home or how much he would suffer on any given day.  But he said, “I never lost faith in the end of the story.  I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”Facing the brutal facts, but never losing faith in the end of the story.  That is what carried Admiral Stockdale through.  He would go on to point out that this mindset is NOT the same as optimism.  Stockdale noticed that the optimistic prisoners, men who set their hopes on being home for Easter, and when Easter came and went, set their hopes on being home for Thanksgiving, and then when Thanksgiving came and went, set their hopes on being home for Christmas—these positive thinkers died of broken hearts.  When their hopes went unmet time and time again, they were crushed. The Stockdale paradox is a tough needle to thread, but it is the faith God is calling us to have.  We must face the facts of our situation, naming what is not in our control, facing the truth that our suffering may indeed be prolonged—but at the same time, never losing hope in the end of the story.  Abraham was 75 years old when God promised him and Sarah a son, and 100 years old when Isaac was finally born.  Twenty-five years of waiting must have been a long time for Abraham and Sarah.  They did not have a perfect track record when it came to obedience.  But they are held up as role models in the faith because their experience can be ours as well.  Facing the facts of your situation, how matter how bleak or grim PLUS never losing faith that you will prevail through God’s strength.  This is the faith we see modeled in Father Abraham.  This is the faith we see modeled in Jesus. This is the faith we see modeled in the Apostle Paul.  And this is the faith God is calling all of us to, not just the Christians in Rome, but every Christian. One of my favorite Bible verses is Jeremiah 29:11, which you heard Pastor Karen read at the beginning of the worship service.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  What I most like about this verse is what comes just before it in verse 10—Jeremiah says these good things will happen only after 70 years of exile!  There was another prophet on the scene, Hananiah, who told the people not to worry, the exile was only going to last two years.  Only two years of suffering, and they would be all set.  But this message was a lie.  This was false hope.  Jeremiah’s message was much harder to hear, but it was ultimately the truth.  Jeremiah invites the people to a different mindset:  to face the facts that they are going to be in exile for a long time, but to never lose faith in the end of the story.And ultimately, the end of the story is unity.  It’s perfect communion with God, with each other, and with all of creation.  Paul lifts Abraham up as our common spiritual ancestor so that we will not be swayed by false prophets.  The Christian life is NOT about following a set of rules, as the Jewish Christians might have been tempted to think.  Nor is the freedom Christ offers us license to live selfish or shallow lives, as the hedonistic gods popular in Rome might have tempted the Gentile Christians to believe.  What makes us righteous is our willingness to put our trust in the God of all creation, made known to us by his Son Jesus and through the wooing, justifying, and refining work of the Holy Spirit.I have a clergy colleague who has dabbled in stand-up comedy, and he introduced me to this book called, “Does God Have a Big Toe:  Stories about Stories in the Bible”.  It was written by a rabbi from New York named Marc Gellman who has a great sense of humor.  His chapter about Abraham is called “Finding the Right Man”.  Rabbi Gellman says that most people don’t realize it, but God put in calls to other people before talking to Abram.  First God called Eber and said, “Eber, leave your country and your neighbors and go to a land that I will show you, and I will bless you and make your name great, and through you all nations of the earth shall be blessed.”  But Eber’s response to God was, “Who are you?”  He couldn’t believe that it was possible for a God with power to transcend time and space like that could exist.So God tried again with Peleg and offered him the same deal.  But Peleg’s response to God was, “Where are you?”  He couldn’t believe in an invisible God.  Where was this God’s statue so he could down down in front of it?  He only wanted to talk to God if he could see him.  This wasn’t going to work, so God tried with a man named Serug.  Serug was okay with God having power and God being invisible, but Serug wanted to know, besides the great name and being a blessing and all of that, what was God going to give him?  Give me the blessings up front, and THEN I’ll go where you send me. Finally, God approached Abram.  Abram’s only reaction was, can I take my wife with me?  Right then God knew that the right person had been found, a person willing to do the right thing for the right reasons.  Rabbi Gellman ends the story by saying, “God also knew that such things hardly ever happen.”Today we get to decide if we want to align ourselves with the end of the story Rabbi Gellman wrote—will faith like Abraham’s hardly ever happen?   Father Abraham’s faith, his example of facing the truth but never wavering in trust, has blessed the world.  He has indeed gone on to have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.  I want to be counted as one of them.  And so I hope do you.  So let’s all praise the Lord!  Amen.