Genesis 12:1-9
1 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. 2 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. 3 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." 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with
him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took
his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had
gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth
to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram
passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that
time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and
said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an
altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved on to the
hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the
west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked
the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
The message
We are now
in the second week of our very long Advent, a 3 month walk through the Old
Testament leading us from creation to the birth of Jesus, the long awaited
Messiah. We remain with the Book of Genesis.
Last week, I mentioned that the book of Genesis could be divided into 2
parts. Chapters 1-11 are a sort of primeval history, focused on cosmic events,
mysterious and profound stories about the origins of life, sin and God’s
earliest communication with us. This is the view from an airplane from 30 or 40,000
feet up. This is attempts to explain cosmic things with regular words.
I still
remember the first time I flew and saw what highways look like from a few
thousand feet, the great distance that they stretch across the land. Since you can only see a few miles ahead of
you and get on and off roads, you don’t notice this when you are driving on
them. This first section of Genesis
includes creation, Adam and Eve, the disobedience and fall, Cain killing able,
Noah and the flood and the tower of Babel.
It is rather impersonal, we do not know the name of anyone who dies in
the flood, the size or technology of any city destroyed and we do not know who
tries to build the tower of Babel. It seems like a lot of this primeval history
is forgotten when Abram is called. People were not worshipping God who sent the
flood, stopped the tower or created the world. There were various polytheist
religions that people were following, Parthenons with all kinds of different
gods and monsters.
Now, In
Genesis Chapter 12, things get personal, people get named, their decisions and
daily lives become very important. God calls out to Abram, giving him
instructions (to leave home for an unidentified place) and making 3 great
promises, Descendants (“I will make of you a great nation”) Land (“To your
offspring I will give this land”) and blessing (“I will bless you and make your
name great, so that you will be a blessing). This is a major change, not only
for Abram and his family but for all life. A few chapters later, Abram gets a
new name, becoming Abraham. This promise will be at the heart of the history of
Israel, God will not be known as the God of Adam and Eve or the God of Noah and
Shem, God will be known as the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, this will be
God’s community. One of the issues with the tower of Babel, the attempt to
build one mega city for all people with a shared language, which is told right before this story of Abram’s call, is
that it was people, not God, building the great city and community. This is a very important moment, God will act
though this family.
We are
getting a little ahead of ourselves though, there is an obvious question we
need to ask, Why Abram, why did God choose this guy? The only information we know about Abram is
his geneology, he is a descendant of Noah’s son Shem, but so are many
others. Abram and his family leave for a
new place, a common decision a family might make to find a better life and one
his father was probably the main decision maker on. During this move, Abram is called by God.
There is really nothing in his life that is mentioned that makes him the right
person to choose or seem like a good choice for this awesome responsibility.
Over time, Abraham proves himself. He obeys God, trusting to the point that his
is willing to sacrifice his son Issac, who was born to him and Sarah by God’s
intervention (a killing God calls off at the last second). St. Paul picks up on
Abraham’s faithfulness, noting that before the law, Abraham believed and it was
accounted to him as righteousness, but here in today’s story, there is nothing. This question, Why Abraham has puzzled and
challenged people of faith for a long time.
There is either something we do not know, something outside of the bible
or this choice is simply grace.
For many
people, there needs to be a reason, some virtue or power Abraham has that makes
him worthy of this honor, there has to be some pre-knowledge God has that makes
this choice wise. While preparing for
today, I read through a commentary on working preacher and learned that in Jewish
traditions, rabbis have said, it was because Abraham was the first monotheist.
Rabbinic literature tells a story not in the Bible itself: She writes: Abram’s father,
Terah, was a maker of idols (Joshua 24:2 said to all the people, “This is what
the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah
the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped
other gods. ). Abram, while still in his father’s household, discerned that the
idols were false gods and that there was only one true God. So one night he went
into his father’s workshop and smashed and burned all his father’s idols.
Therefore, the rabbis concluded, he was worthy of God’s choosing. Of course, like I said a few moments ago,
this is not in the story of Abram or anywhere else in the Bible. This is an
ancient attempt to answer the question “why Abram”.
One of my
professors at seminary would always respond to a question by asking “why do you
ask that question”. It would reveal some
misunderstanding or issue, most of the time, it would reveal some drive or
desire to earn salvation, don’t we do something to set ourselves aprt.. Asking
this question, why Abram, reveals a lot about people, about our desire to be
important. King david centuries later,
turns the question around, pointing us to an all powerful God, David will
ask When I look at your heavens, the
work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what
are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them.
Today, our
reading at the start of this very long Advent, is an invitation for us to sit
with the idea that Abram, the great pataricah, is not so worthy or special and
therefore, you and I are not so special. Instead, we are invited to be
thankful. Abram does not celebrate; brag, make a statue of himself for others
to worship, ask for tribute, sell this great news, try to gain power or throw a
party, he builds an altar to God,
This story
is not about Abram, it is about God’s promises. Over the years, I have helped families mourn
and celebrate the life of loved ones probably 70 and 80 times with prayers,
conversation and funeral services. I have said virtually the same thing at each
of them, I have a 3 minute version for graveside services, an 5 or 6 minute
version for funeral homes and a longer one for at church services. I talk about
2 promises, Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us when we die and God is
present with those who mourn. I say this
with different bible verses and things about the person who died but it’s the
same promises . God is with you in the storms of life, God is with you in the
valley of the shadow of death, nothing
can separate you from the love of God, not even death, not even being unworthy.
Next week, we move ahead to
the story of Joseph, which fills about 13 chapters of Genesis, God’s providence
in keeping these promises, in unexpected ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment