The Call
Genesis 12:1-4a
In terms of verse count, the reading from Genesis is almost as short as it gets… especially today… but these three-and-half verses get us started on a journey that is a foundational core of our faith. Seriously. Last week we dealt with “The Fall” –the story from Eden where the relationship between humanity and God was damaged, because of our natural human tendency to avoid responsibility for our actions. Yet the story didn’t end there… following the stories of the flood and Babel, which were almost afterthoughts to Eden, something new begins with a man and a woman… and a sense of call. “Abram, Sarai… let’s take a walk, and let me show you something.”
From this begins a whole series of stories, where a childless family pull up their roots and travel beyond the Fertile Crescent on a matter of faith. From Chapter twelve until twenty-five there are a series of episodic stories that tell us how Abram and Sarai become Abraham and Sarah, and how these two become the bearer’s of God’s promise of a true and lasting relationship that would continue right to this very day.
But it all started with “The Call.” How Abram or Sarai might have heard it is a matter of some debate, but God calls to them to leave the life that they know behind and to follow that call wherever it might lead. The way it has been left up until this point is that God has really been out there, up there, and distant. Even with the story of Noah, God only seems to interact with one family for a short period of time… but with Abram and Sarai, this is a long-term commitment. The period of the post-Eden broken relationship with God changes substantially when God calls out to Abram… but unlike Noah, God has a long-term plan to repair what once was broken. It would begin with a conversation, and a road trip… and would continue across generations of people… Abram would have only been able to barely glimpse and what God has in mind… and he would have no idea how his saying “yes” would ripple across time.
Some of you might remember back in January when The Rev. Sarah Travis preached a sermon on the call of Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John from the Gospel of Matthew… how Jesus called to them and immediately they left their nets and followed Jesus. Sarah spoke about how we often like to say “can I think about this first?” –But that’s not what happened for those first Disciples, nor is it what happened for Abram and Sarai. God said “go!” and they went… notice they didn’t ask for a detailed plan, or specific goals and objectives… All God says is “Go! And I will make of you a great nation…” and is otherwise sorely lacking in the kinds of details that we would want.
I think this is where we get into real trouble with a story like this. We want more certainty, more detail, more… well… specifics on what exactly it is we are getting into. All of the advice that we are given as children “Look before you leap!” Make plans, set goals… all that stuff seems to be cast aside when Abram pulls up the stakes and wanders off on what really is a vague promise.
But that “vague promise” is where God is. It is venturing into the unknown, taking the risk of exploring the places one has never been, and to go to the places that we never expect. Had Abram been a bit more after specifics, this whole venture may not have unfolded how it did.
Rabbi Mark Gellman tells a wonderful story based on this passage, where he expands a bit on what we find in Genesis. He spins out the idea that in fact Abram is not the first person that God called… and has a bit of fun with it by injecting some of our own very human shortcomings into his own take on the story.
Instead of having God coming to Abram first, Gellman has God approaching three other people first before getting to Abram. God approaches each of them, and in turn, they either don’t believe what God has to offer, want God to provide for them in the short term, have a tangible idol to worship… all three of them don’t seem to get what God is after… until Abram.
It’s a fanciful story to be sure, but it does ask the question… why Abram? Why did God call Abram? Was it because he was particularly righteous? No… despite what Paul has written. We know that in his travels, he nearly messes up the whole deal. He was not perfect by any means. He was just willing to follow God to see where this road leads… he didn’t otherwise deserve it in any way.
It comes down to the one thing that as human beings we still don’t truly get: Grace.
God had absolutely no good reason to come to Abram, to call him, and to invite him on a journey across generations. He had no good reason to suppose that Abram might be any different than anyone who had come before him… Humanity hadn’t shown any real progress in understanding what responsibility truly meant… so why bother?
Because as much as the relationship between God and humanity, between the Creator and Creation had been damaged. God still loves us… and in any sense of love, God wanted and wants to be in a healthy relationship with us. To show that, God was willing to show grace…. the undeserved gift… so he called the most unlikely of people… Abram… and with him Sarai… to explore a promise that was only just beginning…
As much later, John’s gospel would say “For God so loved the world…” Many of us know the second part of that verse by memory, but long before then, God so loved the world that he called humanity to be in relationship with him, by calling Abram to begin on the road to a Covenant… and this covenant, this promise would cross hundreds of generations, and would be realized in the life and work of Jesus Christ. There is this connection here, from Abram’s call, to Jesus, there is this thread that God wants to be in relationship with us… no matter how flawed we might be, no matter how much we want to shift our responsibility somewhere else. God is willing to take that first step, and call out to us.
Our question this Lent, is we know how Abram responded. How might you or I?
In terms of verse count, the reading from Genesis is almost as short as it gets… especially today… but these three-and-half verses get us started on a journey that is a foundational core of our faith. Seriously. Last week we dealt with “The Fall” –the story from Eden where the relationship between humanity and God was damaged, because of our natural human tendency to avoid responsibility for our actions. Yet the story didn’t end there… following the stories of the flood and Babel, which were almost afterthoughts to Eden, something new begins with a man and a woman… and a sense of call. “Abram, Sarai… let’s take a walk, and let me show you something.”
From this begins a whole series of stories, where a childless family pull up their roots and travel beyond the Fertile Crescent on a matter of faith. From Chapter twelve until twenty-five there are a series of episodic stories that tell us how Abram and Sarai become Abraham and Sarah, and how these two become the bearer’s of God’s promise of a true and lasting relationship that would continue right to this very day.
But it all started with “The Call.” How Abram or Sarai might have heard it is a matter of some debate, but God calls to them to leave the life that they know behind and to follow that call wherever it might lead. The way it has been left up until this point is that God has really been out there, up there, and distant. Even with the story of Noah, God only seems to interact with one family for a short period of time… but with Abram and Sarai, this is a long-term commitment. The period of the post-Eden broken relationship with God changes substantially when God calls out to Abram… but unlike Noah, God has a long-term plan to repair what once was broken. It would begin with a conversation, and a road trip… and would continue across generations of people… Abram would have only been able to barely glimpse and what God has in mind… and he would have no idea how his saying “yes” would ripple across time.
Some of you might remember back in January when The Rev. Sarah Travis preached a sermon on the call of Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John from the Gospel of Matthew… how Jesus called to them and immediately they left their nets and followed Jesus. Sarah spoke about how we often like to say “can I think about this first?” –But that’s not what happened for those first Disciples, nor is it what happened for Abram and Sarai. God said “go!” and they went… notice they didn’t ask for a detailed plan, or specific goals and objectives… All God says is “Go! And I will make of you a great nation…” and is otherwise sorely lacking in the kinds of details that we would want.
I think this is where we get into real trouble with a story like this. We want more certainty, more detail, more… well… specifics on what exactly it is we are getting into. All of the advice that we are given as children “Look before you leap!” Make plans, set goals… all that stuff seems to be cast aside when Abram pulls up the stakes and wanders off on what really is a vague promise.
But that “vague promise” is where God is. It is venturing into the unknown, taking the risk of exploring the places one has never been, and to go to the places that we never expect. Had Abram been a bit more after specifics, this whole venture may not have unfolded how it did.
Rabbi Mark Gellman tells a wonderful story based on this passage, where he expands a bit on what we find in Genesis. He spins out the idea that in fact Abram is not the first person that God called… and has a bit of fun with it by injecting some of our own very human shortcomings into his own take on the story.
Instead of having God coming to Abram first, Gellman has God approaching three other people first before getting to Abram. God approaches each of them, and in turn, they either don’t believe what God has to offer, want God to provide for them in the short term, have a tangible idol to worship… all three of them don’t seem to get what God is after… until Abram.
It’s a fanciful story to be sure, but it does ask the question… why Abram? Why did God call Abram? Was it because he was particularly righteous? No… despite what Paul has written. We know that in his travels, he nearly messes up the whole deal. He was not perfect by any means. He was just willing to follow God to see where this road leads… he didn’t otherwise deserve it in any way.
It comes down to the one thing that as human beings we still don’t truly get: Grace.
God had absolutely no good reason to come to Abram, to call him, and to invite him on a journey across generations. He had no good reason to suppose that Abram might be any different than anyone who had come before him… Humanity hadn’t shown any real progress in understanding what responsibility truly meant… so why bother?
Because as much as the relationship between God and humanity, between the Creator and Creation had been damaged. God still loves us… and in any sense of love, God wanted and wants to be in a healthy relationship with us. To show that, God was willing to show grace…. the undeserved gift… so he called the most unlikely of people… Abram… and with him Sarai… to explore a promise that was only just beginning…
As much later, John’s gospel would say “For God so loved the world…” Many of us know the second part of that verse by memory, but long before then, God so loved the world that he called humanity to be in relationship with him, by calling Abram to begin on the road to a Covenant… and this covenant, this promise would cross hundreds of generations, and would be realized in the life and work of Jesus Christ. There is this connection here, from Abram’s call, to Jesus, there is this thread that God wants to be in relationship with us… no matter how flawed we might be, no matter how much we want to shift our responsibility somewhere else. God is willing to take that first step, and call out to us.
Our question this Lent, is we know how Abram responded. How might you or I?
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