Were I of a mind and had the time to write out sermons in manuscript fork, I would probably title this week’s sermon as Are we there yet? As I was recovering from my technical difficulties and dealing with 815 tech representatives, who highly recommended the bashing monkey technique that caused me to spend more time trying to log in to the parochial report submission site than I spent uploading our information, I found myself in a bit of need of some refreshment. Me being me and always up for a good study, I returned to our Jewish roots for ideas on a sermon on the Genesis passage today. I read some rabbinic commentaries and found myself amused and excited at the same time.
But back to my title . . . I am sure your families
are different, but when we travelled in the dark ages before mobile devices,
our kids got bored on long trips. To be fair, sometimes Karen and I made
them take really long trips. The older four have done non-stop trips from
Des Moines to Maine and from Des Moines to HHI. The trips to see my
family from Des Moines to WV seemed short by comparison. As we drove and
drove and drove, the Beetle Bug game and I Spy games got old. Eventually,
they would ask are we there yet? Ah, I see by your elbows and
faces you have heard such questions in your own travels!
If you are relatively new to Advent, Karen and I
have seven kids. And even if you are old to Advent and know us well,
unless you have five or six kids, you cannot understand how grating that
question can become—yes, I imagine those with eight or nine kids would tell me
the same! So, when you travelled in those days with, say, the normal two
kids, each had to ask the question at different times, as if the answer you
just gave a couple minutes ago to the sibling did not count for them? Ah,
again I see the nods and some pained expressions. Maybe I should have
said this sermon needs a trigger warning! In any event, picture yourself
in a minivan with seven kids, each of whom does not accept the answer for any
of the other six siblings. The cacophony was impressive, to say the
least. For at least the last half day of such travels, Karen and I were pushed
to asking each other are we there yet?
I am glad most of you are laughing and have recovered from those
journeys. If the emotions of such
pestering in confined spaces are still too raw, give it time. And if you have no idea of which I speak and
why your pew neighbors are elbowing and whispering, give thanks to God that you
traveled after the invention of mobile devices!
I was put in mind of that question and those
memories thanks to a couple rabbis, whose commentaries pointed out something I
had missed repeatedly over the years when I read the passage from Genesis 12.
Our passage today, by way of explanation, is the turning point for God’s
relationship with the world, according to the Hebrew perspective. Until
this point, God has been dealing with the whole world. Now, God turns His
focus to one family and announces He will work His plan of salvation through
them. Interestingly, the Hebrew of our reading today begins with the
phrase Lech Lecha, my apologies to those Adventers who speak Hebrew
better. The phrase, which our translators rendered as “go from your
country,” is more literally translated as “Go to yourself” or “Go for
yourself.”
It is an interesting command from God to
Abram. Abram is living some 500-600
miles northwest of the Land that God will promise him. Just to remind ourselves, planes, trains, and
automobiles did not yet exist. That
meant you walked or rode a beast. As
much a 5-600 miles seems like a long trip to us today, imagine having to walk
it! And for those adults and youth among
us, there were no mobile devices to distract us. We often focus on the fact that God calls
Abram to leave his family and his community and follow where He leads. Some of us wonder aloud at the faith it must
have required for Abram and Sarai to follow this command. But God’s command has a note or hint of promise. Go where I lead you and you will come to/find
yourself. I see by expressions, this
is a new thought to many of you.
Understand, this is an incredible challenge
for Abram and Sarai. Many of us gathered
here grew up in family systems and communities where people were not encouraged
to move away. The younger of us gathered
live in a culture where video calls are normal.
We can stay connected with family no matter how far away we are in the world
now. But for the more mature of us, such
was not the case. Just a couple
generations ago, it was often more common for people to live and die within a
hundred miles of the place where they were born. Family systems dictated some of that. Some children needed the support of the
parents, be it financial, emotional, or other.
Some parents, likewise, needed the support of the children. Since most families in an area had
overlapping systems, the culture around them made this seem like the normal way
of doing things. And woe to the black
sheep of the family or community who wanted to leave and see the world. Again, I see nods of understanding. And just to remind us, one of the great fears
of leaving more idyllic communities, if we can use that word superficially, was
how would we or a loved one ever find support or connection in the big city or
in another culture?
God’s command to Abram and Sarai implies
that our cultures and our systems often hinder us from becoming ourselves. In Bible studies Adventers probably feel like
I clobber them with nepes. Most
understand what is meant and can give you a nice explanation. But one of the teachings of Scripture is that
God gives each of us “that which makes us us.”
The word often gets translated as soul, but I think soul has too much of
an insubstantial meaning in our context.
God breathes or fashions or creates a nepes for each of us. Each of us is unique, and what separates you
from your neighbor from me and from everyone you encounter, is that unique gift
of God that makes us a unique individual.
Grab me later this week, or better yet, grab someone who goes to Psalms
or Luke and let them tell you about it.
Often, our family systems and our contexts
prevent us from becoming who God intended us to be. Please, do not hear this as a criticism,
necessarily, of all family systems or cultures.
We should be critical of abusive family systems and abusive cultures,
but many are not. As we grow up in
systems and cultures, we try to find our place.
We try to figure out our roles in those systems or cultures, and those
systems and cultures often try to “help” us figure out how we belong. Such systems and culture function, sometimes
well, but do the individuals become the person whom God has called them to be? What if you had a gift of great humor and
live in a no-nonsense family or culture?
What if you are an artist born into a more linear thinking family or
culture? What if you are a lifelong
learner born into a system or culture that does not value learning? Good, I see the nods. You can probably figure out how your own
system or culture, and your desire to fit in, left you feeling out of place or
disjointed. Those of us more aware may
even recognize how we slip back into those roles when we return to our culture
or attend family reunions.
God knows that Abram and Sarai will not be
able to grow into the patriarch and matriarch He intends them to become if they
stay in Ur. So He sends them on a
journey. Keep in mind, this is a
physical and metaphorical/spiritual journey that will take time for them to
complete. In some sense, the first step
of this journey is the easiest, and we who have moved away from home understand
the fear and uncertainty, and we can talk or text with loved ones before we are
out of the driveway and on the drive and in our new communities. Abram and Sarai’s step out lacks that kind of
crutch, and yet they do it. And though
we can imagine the hardship of the physical journey, especially when preachers
remind us of bandits and weather and predatory animals, how much harder was the
spiritual journey?
Lots of obstacles will appear, chief among
them God’s promise that they will have a flesh and blood heir. Abram and Sarai will “help God out” by Sarai’s
gift of a concubine and also by adoption.
Sometimes, the obstacles will be increased by Abram’s and Sarai’s
efforts to help God fulfill His promises to them, as if He needed their ideas
or power. And sometimes their own
insecurities will get in the way, resulting in a lot of unintended consequences. And THAT journey will take 25 years before
they begin to see God truly means what He says and is able to keep His promises
no matter the obstacle. And make no
mistake, though they are faithful and rightly admired for the trust, there is a
lot of stumbling recorded in Scripture about their spiritual journey.
Why do I mention all this Lech Lecha in
the season of Lent? Aren’t we supposed
to be focusing on sin? In a certain
sense, Lech Lecha is the instruction you and I get when we are baptized and confirmed. We frame it differently, as in we are buried
in Christ’s death and raised to new life in His Resurrection, but the intent is
the same. From the moment we are aware
of the Covenant that God makes with each one of us, we are on both a physical
and spiritual pilgrimage. Our life’s
journey, from that moment forward, will be spent learning about God’s
faithfulness to each one of us and His power to redeem sin in our lives and in
the world around us. And all of that
instruction and experience He gives us, ultimately leads to us finding ourselves. Not the garbage that the world likes you to
think it means, mind you, but discovering who God calls each one of us to be--a
beloved daughter or son in His household, an ambassador sent forth to represent
His character and wisdom to the world around us, a herald of His saving grace! And all of that is done in the knowledge and
certainty that our Father in Heaven loves what He created each one of us to be
and that He will lead us on that journey that we might find or go to ourselves.
Make no mistake, we are often like Abram
and Sarai so long ago. How often do we
fight God’s callings on our lives? How
hard do we try to convince ourselves that God does not understand how people
around us or how the world truly works?
How often would we rather spend our energy on selfish activities and
place God way down the list on our priorities?
How often do we dishonor God attempting to fit into our surrounding
culture? How often do we forget the
tender love and care He has for each one of us and would rather ignore it than
honor Him? Our list could go on and on
and on.
Unlike Abram and Sarai, though, we have
seen the fulfilment of God’s plan for them.
As happy and surprised as they were over the birth of their son Isaac,
even at their advanced age, God was only beginning His work with them and their
family. Eventually, the world would be
blessed by the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of their ultimate
great-grandson, Jesus of Nazareth.
Unlike them, you and I have the advantage of seeing God’s covenant
fulfilled to it ultimate purpose, the birth of Messiah, of Christ. Though the family often made a mess of
things, though the world itself pushed back against the plans of God, and
though Satan worked to tempt even God’s Son from this path of Salvation, God’s
plan won. Nothing could thwart His work,
not even death. And now you and I,
remined of God’s faithfulness and redemptive power, and in a few minutes
renewed by that holy food and drink, are sent back out there to find ourselves
and to help others find themselves in Christ, where there is true freedom, true
joy, and only the love of our Father in Heaven.
And though that might be a great place to
end this sermon, I do want to remind us of an important truth. As hard as we might try to live a holy life today
or this week or this season, like Abram and Sarai and all those who have come before,
save our Lord Christ, we will all fail.
The Gospel news is that we are called to live righteous lives, which
means we repent and give thanks to God for Christ’s redeeming work on the
Cross, and try again. In many ways, we
are like those kids trapped in cars for long journeys without mobile
devices. In many ways we are often
whining to our Father in heaven, are we there yet? Unlike us earthly fathers who snap and yell
and lose patience, our Father in heaven simply speaks to us in whispers of
promise. Soon, we will be, but for now
my child, focus on the journey that others may find me by following you.
In Christ’s
Peace,
Brian†
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