Larry E. Lenow

FUMC

6-8-08

Pentecost 4A

 

 

“Call and Promise”

Text:  Genesis 12:1-9

 

Let me tell honestly that sometimes people mystify me.  Quite often I hear things said, I encounter attitudes that simply do not compute for me; I simply cannot understand them.  For instance, there are countless people who seem to think that the stories of the Bible are boring and irrelevant to their lives.  Some of you might be harboring those very thoughts right now. Even more baffling, there are very many faithful Christians who seem to have the attitude that the Old Testament is confusing, obsolete and unimportant.  “Forget all that, just give me the Gospel.” I know who you are but don’t worry, I won’t reveal any names.  If you think that the stories of our Bible are boring and irrelevant then you haven’t heard them, at least not really.  And I tell you will never, you can never understand the faith of the New Testament unless you know, unless you understand the faith of the Old Testament.  And when it comes to Bible stories this morning we’ve got one of the granddaddies of them.  This is the story of Abraham, and this story is so big, so important, so consequential that I don’t know what else to say other than I am humbled before it.

 

Let’s do this right.  Why is Abraham so important, you ask?  Before we get into the story let me very quickly give you a little background.  Abraham is at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Twelve million Jews consider Abraham their Patriarch, their biological progenitor or father through his son, Isaac.  Twenty million Arabs consider Abraham their Patriarch, their biological progenitor or father through his other son, Ishmael.  In Jerusalem, the heart of the city, Temple Mount, the site of the Muslim golden Dome of the Rock, the site of the Jewish Western Wall, the site of the Temple, the place where Jesus taught all built on Mt. Mariah, the site where it is believed that Go told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.  In Mecca, the Ka’aba, the heart of the city, the site that Muslims face to pray five times a day, the stone around which Muslims circle in the haj pilgrimage, believed to be built at an altar build t by Abraham and Isaac.  A plurality of people of this planet, 2 billion Christians, 1 billion Muslims, 12 million Jews consider Abraham the father of faith because of this very passage.  You cannot engage history, religion, political science, art history, linguistics and other disciplines as well without knowing this story.  It’s that big.  But…it’s also as close, as personal and ass relevant as your own life experience.

 

As big, as consequential as this story is, we know surprisingly little about Abraham.  We are talking more or less 2000 B.C.  The Bible doesn’t include dates.  Abraham, or Abram as his name originally was, Abram’s family was from Ur of the Chaldea’s.  Ur is near modern-day Basra, in Iraq.  Abram’s father Terah took his family from Ur to Haran in southern Turkey.  That’s where Abram grew up.  This is the Fertile Crescent.  This is where civilization was in 2000 B.C.  They were polytheists, worshipping many gods; every family had its household idols, that’s the way things were in 2000 B.C.  And the house of Terah does very well.  Abram grows up and becomes the Patriarch the head o the family.   He has relatives, he was herds and livestock, he has people.  There they are in Haran in the middle of civilization.  Abram is accomplished.  He’s successful.  He has lived there his entire adult life.  He is part of the establishment, part of the fabric of the community.  In today’s terms you might think of him as owning his own successful business.  And then he gets the Call.  “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

 

Abram hears from God.  May I point out to you that Abram doesn’t know God.  As I say these people are polytheists with all their idols.  Abram has a profound spiritual experience with a God he has never encountered before.  “Abram I want you to follow me.  I want you to leave everything that you have ever known.  I want you to leave your community, your country, your people.  I want you to let go of everything you have accomplished, established, achieved and become.  I want you to leave the life you have known behind and go to a country that you have never seen and that you know nothing about.  Leave the Fertile Crescent, leave advanced civilization, leave city life behind and follow me into the wild hinterlands.  Do it because I compel you to.

 

A helpful hint:  right about now you might be comparing what we call faith, what we think of as obedience, what passes for us as our version of following or discipleship with that of Abram.  And if so, you may be humbled, dumbstruck, blown away.  I know that is my first reaction.  How could he do that?  What kind of experience was that?  Let yourself be humbled; this is the father of faith.  Let it percolate; give it a minute to sink in.  But while that’s happening you are probably connecting the dots to your own life story.  When was your first journey?  Maybe you are the graduate heading off to college leaving family and friends and going to a new place for the very first time?  Maybe it was long ago traveling around the world first on a troop ship coming into adulthood oh so fast?  Was it leaving home heading to the altar for matrimony?   Wait, this isn’t just a story about growing up.  Maybe it's the new job offer now, or the relocation to a new city or the change in vocations.  Those of you who are settled and reflecting on your past, Abram was seventy-five years old when we got this call.  This story is about you, here, now.

 

Yes, let it percolate, give it a minute to sink it as you compare what we call faith, what think of as obedience, what passes for us as our version of following or discipleship with that of Abram.

 

Abram hears the call but with it the promise.  “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and 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.  I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  Abram takes his family, his household, his herds and they leave their country, they leave their people, they leave everything that they know.  They come into the land where God directs them and God keeps all God’s promises.

God makes of Abram a great nation, in fact as we have said several nations.  God gives Abram the land, indeed his children are still fighting over it.  And indeed anyone who wades into the Middle East or for that matter the world without understanding the story of Abraham, the history of the children of Abraham or what drives the religion that honor him does so at great peril.  Yes, God makes of Abram great nations, gives to Abram the land but the heart of the promise is this: I will bless you that you may be a blessing…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.   My friends, God doesn’t call out Abram for a privilege, but that Abram can be an instrument of God’s will.  Abram would bring the faith and the knowledge of the One True God to all the world.  His faith and obedience continues to shine in the lives of countless multitudes of people of faith around our world.  The example of our father of faith teaches us that we are blessed to be a blessing.     

 

This story is our story it is part and parcel of who we are.  This story is your story and I challenge you this morning to take in to your live anew.  You can never be happy living for yourself; you are blessed to be a blessing.  Hear God, have the courage to follow, let God use you to bless the lives of others.  This is your story.

 

Did you know that some people think the stories of the Bible are boring and irrelevant?  Go figure.