Loading...I love this reading from Genesis! For one thing, I imagine Sarai’s reaction:
either “What?!? What have you done, Abram?”, or “Oh, how exciting! Let’s start packing!”
Many people hear in this part of Abraham and Sarah’s story the words from God that they will be “blessed to be a blessing”.
That is a great promise and reminder.
But, what my ear always hears and what captures my imagination
is the call and the invitation to go on a journey.
Where are we going?
How far is it?
Why are we going?
This is an adventure. A challenge. An exploration!
And, Abram’s response to this call from God to go on a journey?
Trust: “Yes, I will go.”
He heard God’s promise and trusted it.
It was, as St. Paul puts it, “reckoned to him as righteousness.”
It’s remarkable!
After all, most of us like the familiar. We want the known quantity.
We generally don’t like change and the unknown.
We even go so far as to try to insulate or protect ourselves from change.
But, it happens. Change is part of life. There’s always something new.
For Abraham and Sarah, change became their “new normal”;
they always were the “resident aliens” in the promised land.
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This story, and Abraham and Sarah’s response, reminds me of so many other stories of people of faith! I thought of two (out of the vast array of options):
Mary, mother of Jesus. She found out from the angel Gabriel that she would have a child – the incarnation of God. Rather than freak out or say “No way, Angel guy!” she trusted God and said yes: “Here I am!”
And, a college student named Wes who had found out about an abandoned mining village in the mountains that he thought would make a great church camp and retreat center. He wrote to the company that owned the village asking for them to give it to him. They refused; but offered to sell it to him for a high sum. After numerous letters pestering the company about the possible gift, they finally agreed to sell it to him for $1. Of course, he still had to clean it up and fix it up before it could be used as a retreat. And, the road has not always been smooth for the center, but –
following God’s call and invitation with trust, Holden Village – the retreat center in question – has become a place of rest and renewal for many people of faith on their own journeys of trust.
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Your life, my life, our lives:
as baptized people of God, we are on a journey of faith and of trust.
Like it or not, comfortable or not—
this is the nature of the journey with God.
We are called into a Way of living,
and we don’t know where we are going or what we will encounter.
Like Nicodemus, we may feel confused – or, even a little frustrated!
We are asked to forgive when we’d rather not.
We are asked to reach out to those who are hurting
when it would be easier to look away.
We are asked to speak up and advocate for people and creation
even if it is unpopular or difficult.
Why? Why would we do these things?
Not to earn our salvation!
Not to work hard enough to prove to God that
we are worthy and loveable and forgiveable!
We live this way and we do these things of compassion, of courage, of hope—
because God first loved us and first reached out to us.
St. Paul used the phrase “reckoned as righteousness” when writing about Abraham.
In other words, Abraham heard God’s invitation to trust
and to go on this life journey.
God called; Abraham and Sarah followed.
They didn’t do so because they had to,
or to prove to God that they were good enough.
After all, there was no such thing as the Law
or the 10 Commandments or Sinai Covenant yet.
There was simply God’s invitation.
And Abraham and Sarah’s faith.
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It is hard for us to really, truly believe this:
The world around us demands that we prove our worth.
We hear over and over again that we have to earn our place in life.
But, we don’t!!
And neither does anyone else:
“For God so loved the world” – even the part of the world that rejects and shoves aside God – “that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes [or trusts] in him may not perish” (or feel lost or abandoned or rejected) “but may have eternal life [e.g. joy and lightness of being]. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17, KM’s emphasis and additions)
The gift of possibility and of relief comes from God
not as a rewards, but as a gift.
The call to love and to forgive comes from God
not as a test of worthiness, but as the way to live
as the way of life.
The invitation to the journey into the unknown comes from God
not to stymie or lead astray, but as an opportunity to truth the life and hope from God for you and for the whole world.
I’ll send us today with the prayer used every week at Holden Village as we send the volunteer staff members who are leaving in the following days:
“Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is guiding us and your love supporting us; through Christ our Lord. Amen
