God's Calling...
Text: Genesis 12:1-9
I have to admit, I feel a lot of kinship with Abram these days. I started life in a distant land, far away from here, and admittedly never quite expected to be working in a church on the shores of Lake Ontario. I also hadn’t expected to be married to a wonderful woman who also happens to bear the name “Sarah.” So whenever the stories of Abraham and Sarah come up in the cycle of readings, there is a certain resonance for me.
All of today’s readings tell us about God’s calling… of how God calls the most unlikely of people to step out of their otherwise ordinary existence and be a part of something extraordinary. While many more would follow, including Moses, Elijah, Matthew, and Peter, Abram was one of the first.
Abram, an otherwise unremarkable man who lived near the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, finds himself struggling with the feeling that there is so much more. He and his wife have no children, which is often seen as a divine curse or punishment for some otherwise long lost wrongdoing. By all accounts, by all conventional wisdom, Abram would not be the first on the list of people that God would pay attention to… and yet God does.
God says to Abram and Sarai, “go… go to a land that I will show you, and your descendants will become a great and prosperous people.” He tells them to leave everything that they’ve known behind: their extended family, their friends, all of those things that they had worked on in their own lives. None of that matters… God has called to them and said, “go!” Notice that neither of these two say anything at this point. Dutifully, they pack up everything, an entire entourage, including their nephew Lot, the kitchen sink, and soon they are on their way. Never mind that there is just one small teeny tiny weensy detail that seems to have been left out: Abram and Sarai have no children of their own.; not only that, just a few verses before this story, we are told that Sarai is unable to have children. God says “go!” and at least as far as the story tells us, off they go…
Maybe Abram is not the type of person who is overly talkative; maybe he’s more the introverted type who needs to take time to work up the nerve and say, “but…” So off Abram goes, not entirely sure of what God has said, but willing to kind of “go with the flow” for the time being. “Sure, okay… whatever…” and off they go. Maybe they’ll figure out the details later… To be perfectly honest, this is not the kind of example I would expect to see from our ancestors. Yet more often than not, it is very much the “ordinariness” of those people that God calls that stands out.
Yet there is something very trusting about Abram. He and Sarai don’t need all the details ahead of time, they don’t need the plan, they don’t need to know everything that God has in store. They just go… God calls them, says “go…” and they do.
If only it could be that easy. For a very brief moment in their story does it really work. In fact, at the later points in the tale where they do start asking about the details, where they do start taking matters into their own hands, and assuming they know what God s up to, is where they get in trouble.
When it comes to matters of faith, this is where we tend to get caught up. We want to know the results, we want to know the details, we want to know precisely what it is that God is calling us to be. In essence we don’t trust God to be there along the way. Like Abram and Sarai it’s precisely at those moments that we start taking matters into our own hands, assuming that we know what God is up to, is precisely the point when we get in trouble.
In being a community of faith, listening for God’s call can be a great challenge. Within our churches, many of us have invested a great deal in being where we are, and take great pride in where we have been and our accomplishments. It’s natural, after all, to treasure and celebrate all those things that have worked and do work… but the real danger and temptation that we face is to become complacent, to dwell on the events of the past, and begin to lament about the glory days gone by.
We are reminded through this story it isn’t where we’ve been, but where we are going that matters. I think we often forget that God’s call and promise to Abram and Sarai is one that extends far beyond their lifetime. The full scope of God’s covenant would only be realized long after these two were gone. Remember, when God says “I will make of you a great nation” the only person of this great nation that they really ever meet is Isaac… their own son. They only ever see one person of what would eventually become a great multitude. That is a great deal of trust.
There is a story by Rabbi Marc Gellman who is best known for his series of stories called “Does God have a big toe.” He spins a rather humourous tale of all the people that God approached before getting to Abram. Each one that God approaches is either wants to see results, something tangible, and wants to know what’s in it for them.
In the same way, I think too many of us would have been far more demanding, about seeing goals, results, and a timeline. For Abram and Sarai, they go… even at their age… they go. When it comes to God’s calling, it takes a great deal of courage to simply let go and trust God in the moment. It isn’t where we have been, but where we are going that matters. God is calling us to “go.”
“Go…” It doesn’t need to be a physical move, as much as it is an emotional and spiritual one. Our willingness to let go and let God will help us be a part of God’s promise in this place… to trust that God can take ordinary people like you and me and do extraordinary things.
It is a subtle reminder that had Abram and Sarai not taken those initial steps to “go,” we would not be here today. Had they been content to stay where they were, and ignored God’s call, we would not be gathering around this table today. God’s calling continues to be with us through this table… reminding us that those original promises made continue with us today. We remember God’s promises to us not only through Abraham and Sarah, but as that covenant continued down through history and into the person and work of Jesus Christ.
When we gather around this table, we are remembering that God fulfills promises: “I am your God, and you will be my people.” When Jesus said “take, eat; take, drink” he was offering a means by which we can be actively and consciously part of God’s ongoing story. Through the stories of Jesus, we know that God’s covenant continues in us these many thousands of years later. When we repeat the words “Do this in remembrance of me,” we are doing so to affirm that God’s call to Abraham and Sarah is still just as valid today as it was then. We affirm that God pays attention to us… and calls us to be a part of something extraordinary.
For us as the church today, particularly as this congregation, in this place, remembering that God’s calling is just as important today… if not more so. What is God calling us to do, what is God calling us to be, and where is God calling us to go are questions that we need to be asking today. We may think of ourselves as plain ordinary people, with no real gifts to offer. As we learned from Abraham and Sarah, God calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Maybe we can, for just that one, brief moment let ourselves go, and let God be. Maybe we can really trust that God is in the midst of this, calling us, and enjoy the ride while we’re at it.
Amen.
Sermon preached Sunday, June 5th, 2005
Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church; the Rev. John Crowdis
I have to admit, I feel a lot of kinship with Abram these days. I started life in a distant land, far away from here, and admittedly never quite expected to be working in a church on the shores of Lake Ontario. I also hadn’t expected to be married to a wonderful woman who also happens to bear the name “Sarah.” So whenever the stories of Abraham and Sarah come up in the cycle of readings, there is a certain resonance for me.
All of today’s readings tell us about God’s calling… of how God calls the most unlikely of people to step out of their otherwise ordinary existence and be a part of something extraordinary. While many more would follow, including Moses, Elijah, Matthew, and Peter, Abram was one of the first.
Abram, an otherwise unremarkable man who lived near the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, finds himself struggling with the feeling that there is so much more. He and his wife have no children, which is often seen as a divine curse or punishment for some otherwise long lost wrongdoing. By all accounts, by all conventional wisdom, Abram would not be the first on the list of people that God would pay attention to… and yet God does.
God says to Abram and Sarai, “go… go to a land that I will show you, and your descendants will become a great and prosperous people.” He tells them to leave everything that they’ve known behind: their extended family, their friends, all of those things that they had worked on in their own lives. None of that matters… God has called to them and said, “go!” Notice that neither of these two say anything at this point. Dutifully, they pack up everything, an entire entourage, including their nephew Lot, the kitchen sink, and soon they are on their way. Never mind that there is just one small teeny tiny weensy detail that seems to have been left out: Abram and Sarai have no children of their own.; not only that, just a few verses before this story, we are told that Sarai is unable to have children. God says “go!” and at least as far as the story tells us, off they go…
Maybe Abram is not the type of person who is overly talkative; maybe he’s more the introverted type who needs to take time to work up the nerve and say, “but…” So off Abram goes, not entirely sure of what God has said, but willing to kind of “go with the flow” for the time being. “Sure, okay… whatever…” and off they go. Maybe they’ll figure out the details later… To be perfectly honest, this is not the kind of example I would expect to see from our ancestors. Yet more often than not, it is very much the “ordinariness” of those people that God calls that stands out.
Yet there is something very trusting about Abram. He and Sarai don’t need all the details ahead of time, they don’t need the plan, they don’t need to know everything that God has in store. They just go… God calls them, says “go…” and they do.
If only it could be that easy. For a very brief moment in their story does it really work. In fact, at the later points in the tale where they do start asking about the details, where they do start taking matters into their own hands, and assuming they know what God s up to, is where they get in trouble.
When it comes to matters of faith, this is where we tend to get caught up. We want to know the results, we want to know the details, we want to know precisely what it is that God is calling us to be. In essence we don’t trust God to be there along the way. Like Abram and Sarai it’s precisely at those moments that we start taking matters into our own hands, assuming that we know what God is up to, is precisely the point when we get in trouble.
In being a community of faith, listening for God’s call can be a great challenge. Within our churches, many of us have invested a great deal in being where we are, and take great pride in where we have been and our accomplishments. It’s natural, after all, to treasure and celebrate all those things that have worked and do work… but the real danger and temptation that we face is to become complacent, to dwell on the events of the past, and begin to lament about the glory days gone by.
We are reminded through this story it isn’t where we’ve been, but where we are going that matters. I think we often forget that God’s call and promise to Abram and Sarai is one that extends far beyond their lifetime. The full scope of God’s covenant would only be realized long after these two were gone. Remember, when God says “I will make of you a great nation” the only person of this great nation that they really ever meet is Isaac… their own son. They only ever see one person of what would eventually become a great multitude. That is a great deal of trust.
There is a story by Rabbi Marc Gellman who is best known for his series of stories called “Does God have a big toe.” He spins a rather humourous tale of all the people that God approached before getting to Abram. Each one that God approaches is either wants to see results, something tangible, and wants to know what’s in it for them.
In the same way, I think too many of us would have been far more demanding, about seeing goals, results, and a timeline. For Abram and Sarai, they go… even at their age… they go. When it comes to God’s calling, it takes a great deal of courage to simply let go and trust God in the moment. It isn’t where we have been, but where we are going that matters. God is calling us to “go.”
“Go…” It doesn’t need to be a physical move, as much as it is an emotional and spiritual one. Our willingness to let go and let God will help us be a part of God’s promise in this place… to trust that God can take ordinary people like you and me and do extraordinary things.
It is a subtle reminder that had Abram and Sarai not taken those initial steps to “go,” we would not be here today. Had they been content to stay where they were, and ignored God’s call, we would not be gathering around this table today. God’s calling continues to be with us through this table… reminding us that those original promises made continue with us today. We remember God’s promises to us not only through Abraham and Sarah, but as that covenant continued down through history and into the person and work of Jesus Christ.
When we gather around this table, we are remembering that God fulfills promises: “I am your God, and you will be my people.” When Jesus said “take, eat; take, drink” he was offering a means by which we can be actively and consciously part of God’s ongoing story. Through the stories of Jesus, we know that God’s covenant continues in us these many thousands of years later. When we repeat the words “Do this in remembrance of me,” we are doing so to affirm that God’s call to Abraham and Sarah is still just as valid today as it was then. We affirm that God pays attention to us… and calls us to be a part of something extraordinary.
For us as the church today, particularly as this congregation, in this place, remembering that God’s calling is just as important today… if not more so. What is God calling us to do, what is God calling us to be, and where is God calling us to go are questions that we need to be asking today. We may think of ourselves as plain ordinary people, with no real gifts to offer. As we learned from Abraham and Sarah, God calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Maybe we can, for just that one, brief moment let ourselves go, and let God be. Maybe we can really trust that God is in the midst of this, calling us, and enjoy the ride while we’re at it.
Amen.
Sermon preached Sunday, June 5th, 2005
Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church; the Rev. John Crowdis
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