The Saving Link
Sermon
CALLED TO JERUSALEM: SENT TO THE WORLD
Sermons For Lent And Easter
If we think much about it, the link between salvation and damnation has often seemed precarious. Over and again in the biblical story it has depended upon a good and faithful response from some ordinary people, folks not all that much unlike us. Isn't it so!
Suppose Abram, whose name means "exalted father,"1 had said "No!" His name might never have been changed to Abraham, "the father of a crowd."2 God's drama of salvation, the Bible's single story, might not have been written at all. Suppose Mary, barely a teen according to some, had said, "No!" Just suppose Joseph, disdaining the counsel of an angel, had decided to "put her away privily," as one quaint translation of Matthew 1:19 reports it. The incarnation might have waited until God could find a "yes."
What might have happened if the word "nevetheless" had never been spoken in Gethsemane; if Jesus, taking the disciples' earlier counsel,3 had in a moment of terror slipped away under the cover of darkness, back to the quiet and safety of Galilee?
Throughout the scriptures God had insisted upon the partnership established at the time of creation when we were created in the "Image of God." God created us to be accountable stewards of his creation, responsible to tend, to till, to plow and to manage. There has been from the beginning something of an intentional partnership. When atonement became necessary, that partnership still functioned. God works through us to bring healing and redemption.
In today's lesson this partnership comes to Abram in a special way. Abram is called to be God's saving link, one by whom "all the families of the earth shall bless themselves (Genesis 12:3)." The link between salvation and damnation is down to the response of but one person. His name is "Abram," "exalted father" indeed. Through his father, Terah, he is linked to all creation, all the way back to the beginning. Through Abram's obedience and God's promise, he is linked to the blessing of all the families of the earth, then and now. He is for us, too, the father of faith and the example of faithfulness.
I. A Stream Of Generations
After the opening stories of creation, the Genesis writer has chronicled a stream of generations and of problems as quickly as the new earth is populated. In just 11 chapters we have learned so much about God and about ourselves.
God has affirmed our stewardship and our partnership. We learned that we were created to live in community (Genesis 2) and that conflict will be a part of this community and family experience (Genesis 4). We learned that there is tension between siblings and tension between children and their parents (Genesis 9).
Repeatedly we have learned the prices of our pride in the stories of the murder of Abel, of God's anger and the flood, and of the disastrous tower of Babel, a project the people undertook to take control of their destiny and to "make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:4)." Still wanting to be like God, they took things into their own hands, seeking to reach the heavens and to be like him. (Echoes of Eden!)
Through this stream of generations we have come from Eden and creation to the scattering of people over the face of the earth. The expanse and complexities of human history begin to unfold. Digging into the remnants of these very days, the shovels of the archaeologists have been able to bring us right up to "Father Abram's" front door - or at least, to his home town. It was in 1854 that archaeologists first unearthered inscriptions that identified an unnamed ruin4 as the ancient city of Ur of the Charlees, the orignial home of Abraham and his family. Founded in the third millennium B.C.E., Ur was an important religious and commercial center in the region of the lower Euphrates river. It helps us date the time of the patriarchs at 2,000 B.C.E., giving an archaeological foundation to the story of the patriarch that begins in Genesis 12.5 Also at Ur, the uncovering of the base of a huge tower a "ziggurat," has brought new insights to the Genesis report of the tower of Babel.
There is also evidence that the migration of Abram and his family from Ur to Haran was typical "of Amorite migrations of the period of 1,800 B.C.E."6 These people migrated from Mesopotamia to Haran (modern Turkey) and Canaan, known today as Palestine, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank territories. The stories of the patriarchs contain the memories of a migration of Semite peoples from the region of the Fertile Cresecent during that second millennium B.C.E.7 The closing words of Genesis 11 fit what we know. Terah, Abram's father, took his family and "they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there (Genesis 11:30)."
Though as a nomadic people living in tents they left little for archaeologists to dig, Canaanite, Egyptian and other sources tell of a nomadic people named the Habiru. The names of the patriarchs appear often in these sources, suggesting that these names were in popular use throughout the Middle East between 2,000 and 1,000 B.C.E.8 With some reliablility, we can say that the events that unfold in today's lesson took place in the early years of the second millennium before the birth of Christ.
There can be little doubt that the writer of Genesis had no intention to chronicle all the events of human history in these 11 chapters. These chapters were written to introduce us to God and to ourselves. They are a carefully constructed survey of history intended to introduce basic understandings of spiritual import. Deliberately the writer had brought us to the moment of crisis. "So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore the name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth (Genesis 11:8-9)."
Confused and scattered, this is the hopeless point to which sin always brings us. It always destroys our sense of community and our unity of spirit. As the writer of Genesis saw it. That's what God's creation had come to - confused and scattered over the face of the earth.
Now what? There seems to be silence this time. We go on with a new family story. God is not mentioned. Will God leave them forever? After their sin, God had allowed Adam and Eve to live and had himself sewn clothes for them. After Cain's murder of Abel, God mercifully marked him and protected him (Genesis 4:15-16). After the terrible flood, God vowed never again to destroy humankind in so great a catastrophe. Up to and until this moment, God's grace had "followed hard upon man's sin, protecting him from total annihilation."9 Now, in the middle of chapter 11, there is only the silence of God. We hear no word of forgiveness, no word of mercy and no word of divine love.
From Eden we have come to this place. People are scattered, restless and confused. There are migrations and wanderings. Many are just nomads. They appear to be alone. Slowly the bright light of the stage dims. The drama falls silent. There is darkness. The overture to the story of our salvation has been finished. Like a profound prologue, it has touched upon all the themes of salvation. The story that will be the theme of the remainder of the scriptures and the fulfillment of all human history is about to begin.
II. God's Second Mighty Act
Suddenly and without warning, our attention shifts to a remote corner of the stage. A small spotlight brightens upon one man. He is Abram, the son of Terah, and the husband of Sarai. From the whole of creation we now turn to the story of one man and his family. From family, to tribes, and finally to a nation, the concept of the "people of God" will find its first expression in this single man. God's redemptive purpose for the world is focused in this man's family and descendants. He is the "saving link" between all the history before him and all of God's ongoing work for our salvation. In Abram, soon to be named "Abraham - the father of a crowd,"10 all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The God who scattered the people at the tower of Babel has set about to gather them through Abram. He links the stories of the patriarchs that are about to unfold with all of God's action until this day.
God's second mighty act, therefore, is to choose, call and establish a special "people of God." God acts to "carve out a channel"11 for the execution of his will, calling key individuals and people, people like Abram and his descendants.
The fundamental significance of this lesson (Genesis 12:1-8) cannot be overlooked. God's call to specific men and women to become a part of the "chosen family" whom God has called and set apart to be the saving link in the work of salvation, is a theme that will be repeated steadily throughout the Old Testament and the New.
Moreover, it is a theme solidly rooted in the creation story itself. The stewardship and accountability of these stories must always, sooner or later, change our view from generic issues to the call of God to be channels of grace to specific people, places, issues and times. With a consistent voice, quoting Isaiah, Exodus, Deuteronomy and others, the writer of 1 Peter 2:9-10 puts it together for us. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy."
With Abraham God begins this focused and intentional series of covenants and promises that continue throughout the scriptures and into our own day and our own lives. Abraham becomes the example for our obedience, and in matters of faith, the "father of us all."12
God's second mighty act,13 the call of Abraham and the promise of a posterity that will be a blessing to all, is repeated for each of us in our baptism. The call to participate in salvation history is a theme common to all the scriptures. It is not a call restricted to the "religious life," but a call to specific tasks that requires of us a response of obedience.
III. The Model Of Obedience
The call and the promises of God were sudden, abrupt and precise. "Leave! Go! I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. By you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves."
The call of God always demands a response. When a gift is offered or an invitation extended, one has no choice but to respond. To think overlong about the desired response is to telegraph a lack of enthusiasm at the very least, and an attitude of rejection at the worst. As the story unfolds for us. Abram's response is totally committed.
The Hebrew writer uses only one word. We need three. "So Abram went (Genesis 12:4)." All the pondering and meditation, the fateful moment of decision, and the farewells to family and friends are embraced with three words: "So Abram went." Two thousand years later the writers of the New Testament shook their heads and their pens in amazement: "He went out not knowing where he was to go (Hebrews 11:8)."
Abram "pulls up stakes" (no pun intended for this nomad!) and burns bridges behind him. He leaves family, friends and even the gods of his tradition,14 beginning an epic journey in search of spiritual affirmations, a quest that constitutes the central theme of all biblical history.15 He will cover hundreds of miles in obedience to a call and in the confidence of promises made. The spiritual objectives of the journey, the call and the promises, are implicit from the outset. They will be mutually confirmed often throughout the journey. Nothing is held back. Everything is committed. And, he was 75 years old when he left Haran for Canaan!
Abarm and Sarai must have left Haran with mixed emotions. On the one hand, the strong family ties marking the social structure of the Middle East of this time - underscored repeatedly in the stories of the patriarchs - would have made their departure difficult. Turning from old loyalties and traditions never comes easily for any of us. It would have been especially so in those days.
On the other hand, the journey's length and even its unclear destination would not have been all that intimidating in themselves. After all, Abram and Sarai were nomads living in tents and tending flocks. They were not unlike the wandering Bedouins one sees in Palestine today. Nomads do not have a "homeland" as such, and the command to move on is often seen as a "saving word" from a protective deity.16
There may even have been a note of expectant joy. Abram was 75 years old and Sarai was childless. God's promise included a posterity of descendants, enough for a nation. That had to mean that there would be a child born to Abram and Sarai. On the day they left, they may well have been laughing!17
God's call and Abraham's obedience forge for us all the saving link for God's work toward our salvation. He becomes one by whom all the families of the earth are blessed. And it is so!
The key to understanding this model of obedience is found in Abraham's faith, a faith that believed the call of God and trusted the promises of the God who called him. Faith is always more than belief alone. Faith is belief mature enough to beget trust. Faith is trust enough to beget risks and to acknowledge blessings. No wonder it is written both in Genesis and in the New Testament: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3)."
IV. Affirmations And Altars
All of this is not to say that everything went well for Abram and Sarai. Often they would have their faith tested. It would be years before the "child of promise" would be born. So strong was his trust that Abraham (now no longer Abram) believed, at times, in spite of the evidence. Which of us can forget Isaac's plaintive question: "Father, where is the lamb?" and not hear Abraham's steadfast answer, "The Lord will provide a lamb, my son." There was no evidence whatsoever other than the promise of God. Should Isaac be killed, there would be no "posterity." Throughout the wanderings in Canaan and in Egypt, Abraham would walk steadily in the promises of God.
And as he walked, it was as if God was walking before him. Each of Abraham's steps seemed to walk toward God. When he arrived at Shechem, the ancient Canaanite holy place between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, in the valley near the modern city of Nablus,18 God was already there to meet him and to affirm his promise: "To your descendants I will give this land." God had shown him, just as he promised. Immediately Abraham built an altar to the Lord. There's no mention of a sacrifice. Perhaps it was just an upright stone, a "massebah," marking the place where God had encountered him. It would be a sign for the wayfarers, a testimony and a witness of Abraham's claim to the land and to the promises. Coming to Bethel, he pitched his tent. Here he erected another altar. The place was called "Beth el," the house of God. Abraham's travels and his faith can be followed through Canaan by a trail of altars like the bread crumbs of Hansel and Gretel - signs to the traveler and places at which the partriarchs after him could come home to the roots of their fathers.
The messages of Abraham's altars are clear. Destinations had been reached and promises had been kept on both sides, God is as good as his word. Abraham had no idea of his destination when he left Haran, but God had it clearly in view all the while. As long as God had it in view and Abraham walked toward God, all would be well. The altars proclaim it to be so.
V. Still The Call Comes
"So Abram went." Just a few words tell us so much. He left security and serenity behind him. Without a road map in his hand or a known destination he set forth. Not at all clear about what he was getting himself into, he knew only that he had an irresistible call to which he had to respond. He did so in faith. And it seems a good thing for all of us that he did. For all the breadth of creation, God's plan had narrowed down to one man and his response. He became in that moment the saving link for us all. By him all families of the earth shall bless themselves. And we still do.
Just as Abraham is the father of faith, truly the "father of a crowd," and the first of a chain of saving links for us, so God calls us to be a part of that chain for others. Our presence and our witness may be the right and passing moment for someone else as Abraham has been for all of us. In our baptism, we are called to be witnesses, a holy nation, God's own people set apart to declare the deeds of him who has called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). In the name of the kingdom we are called to launch ourselves out into this ministry.
Risking the unknown is not an easy thing for us. Unlike Abraham, we are not nomads either by nature or by tradition. We are a sedentary people who travel only with flight plans and rental cars awaiting us at our destinations. We have confirmation numbers for our hotel reservations. We have packed travelers' checks and credit cards. As little as possible is left to chance.
Believing and trusting must be the marks of our ministry. Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, President of the Lutheran Church in America,19 had learned of his terminal illness just weeks before the denomination's 1968 convention. Stunned by his untimely death, the delegates gathered. President Fry's report gained a prophetic tone. He began with a note on the troubled times for the church. The crises of the Vietnam war, conscientious objection, racial and political violence in our streets, drugs, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. were some of the issues of the day. President Fry wrote: "Many are exhilarated, others so panicky that they are ready to throw the rigging overboard; all of us are at least perplexed and to a degree insecure.... The comforting thought is that even men don't build their ships for calm weather and placid seas. Still less does God! ... Even though it may be buffeted by contrary winds and adverse currents may threaten to drive it off its course, Christ's church is on its way with all the certainty of his promise to its home port in eternity. Unlike the frail bark of Paul in Acts 27, both the ship and all who remain aboard her will be saved. Our Captain is the victorious Lord, the One who dies no more"20
Abraham is our saving link and our model. Though he could not see clearly his destination, God could. So, "he went out not knowing where he was going." He believed God and trusted him. So too must we. "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 go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."21
End Notes
1. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, The Mighty Acts of God, revised and updated from a work by the same name by Robert J. Marshall, (Minneapolis, Augsburg Fortress, 1990), p. 38.
2. Ibid.
3. John 11:5-10, 16.
4. This ruin is located in today's nation of Iraq. In ancient times it would have been in the area most widely known as ancient Babylon.
5. Claus Westermann, Genesis 12:36 - A Commentary, John J. Scullion, S. J., translator, (Minneapolis, Augsburg Fortree, 1985), p. 59 Westermann references the work of L. Woodley, Excavations at Ur - A Record of Twelve Years' Work, published in 1954.
6. Foster R. McCurley, Jr., and John Reumann, Understanding the Bible I, Word and Witness Series, (Philadelphia, Division for Parish Services, Lutheran Church in America, 1980), p. 78.
7. Helmut Koester, Proclamation - Lent, Series A, The Exegesis, (Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1974), p. 21.
8. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, op. cit., p. 39.
9. Charles T. Fritsch, The Book of Genesis, The Layman's Bible Commentary, Balmer H. Kelly, Editor, (Richmond, John Knox Press, 1959), p. 52.
10. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, op. cit., p. 39.
11. Reginald H. Fuller, Preaching the New Lectionary - The Word of God for the Church Today. (Collegeville, The Liturgical Press, 1974), p. 152.
12. Romans 4:16-18 is the Second Lession appointed in most of the Series A Lectionaries on the Second Sunday in Lent.
13. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, op. cit., p. 38.
14. Joshua 24:2a tells us that "They had served other gods." This is from a short history of Abraham's journey as recorded in Joshua.
15. E. A. Speiser, Genesis, The Anchor Bible, Vol. 1, William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman, General Editors, (Garden City, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1964), p. 88.
16. Claus Westermann, op. cit., p. 147.
17. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, op. cit., p. 41. Years passed before this promise was fulfilled. In fact, when the time was announced, Abram and Sarai were so old that he fell upon his face laughing at the foolishness of such an idea. So the name of their true son, Isaac, recalls laughter.
18. John's story of Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well in the village of Sychar is the Gospel Lesson appointed in the Lutheran and Methodist lectionaries for this day. The well is "Jacob's Well" and is in the modern town of Nablus today.
19. The Rev. Dr. Franklin Clark Fry was president of the Lutheran Church in America from its beginning in 1962 until his death in 1968.
20. Franklin Clark Fry, "Report of the President," Minutes of the Fourth Biennial Convention of the Lutheran Church in America, June 19-27, 1968, (Philadelphia, Lutheran Church in America, 1968), p. 37.
21. The Lutheran Book of Worship, "Evening Prayer," (Minneapolis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1978), p. 153. This prayer appears as Collect 96 in the Service Book and Hymnal (Minneapolis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1958), p. 231, reprinted by permission. The prayer originated in Eric Milner-White's book, Daily Prayer.
Suppose Abram, whose name means "exalted father,"1 had said "No!" His name might never have been changed to Abraham, "the father of a crowd."2 God's drama of salvation, the Bible's single story, might not have been written at all. Suppose Mary, barely a teen according to some, had said, "No!" Just suppose Joseph, disdaining the counsel of an angel, had decided to "put her away privily," as one quaint translation of Matthew 1:19 reports it. The incarnation might have waited until God could find a "yes."
What might have happened if the word "nevetheless" had never been spoken in Gethsemane; if Jesus, taking the disciples' earlier counsel,3 had in a moment of terror slipped away under the cover of darkness, back to the quiet and safety of Galilee?
Throughout the scriptures God had insisted upon the partnership established at the time of creation when we were created in the "Image of God." God created us to be accountable stewards of his creation, responsible to tend, to till, to plow and to manage. There has been from the beginning something of an intentional partnership. When atonement became necessary, that partnership still functioned. God works through us to bring healing and redemption.
In today's lesson this partnership comes to Abram in a special way. Abram is called to be God's saving link, one by whom "all the families of the earth shall bless themselves (Genesis 12:3)." The link between salvation and damnation is down to the response of but one person. His name is "Abram," "exalted father" indeed. Through his father, Terah, he is linked to all creation, all the way back to the beginning. Through Abram's obedience and God's promise, he is linked to the blessing of all the families of the earth, then and now. He is for us, too, the father of faith and the example of faithfulness.
I. A Stream Of Generations
After the opening stories of creation, the Genesis writer has chronicled a stream of generations and of problems as quickly as the new earth is populated. In just 11 chapters we have learned so much about God and about ourselves.
God has affirmed our stewardship and our partnership. We learned that we were created to live in community (Genesis 2) and that conflict will be a part of this community and family experience (Genesis 4). We learned that there is tension between siblings and tension between children and their parents (Genesis 9).
Repeatedly we have learned the prices of our pride in the stories of the murder of Abel, of God's anger and the flood, and of the disastrous tower of Babel, a project the people undertook to take control of their destiny and to "make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:4)." Still wanting to be like God, they took things into their own hands, seeking to reach the heavens and to be like him. (Echoes of Eden!)
Through this stream of generations we have come from Eden and creation to the scattering of people over the face of the earth. The expanse and complexities of human history begin to unfold. Digging into the remnants of these very days, the shovels of the archaeologists have been able to bring us right up to "Father Abram's" front door - or at least, to his home town. It was in 1854 that archaeologists first unearthered inscriptions that identified an unnamed ruin4 as the ancient city of Ur of the Charlees, the orignial home of Abraham and his family. Founded in the third millennium B.C.E., Ur was an important religious and commercial center in the region of the lower Euphrates river. It helps us date the time of the patriarchs at 2,000 B.C.E., giving an archaeological foundation to the story of the patriarch that begins in Genesis 12.5 Also at Ur, the uncovering of the base of a huge tower a "ziggurat," has brought new insights to the Genesis report of the tower of Babel.
There is also evidence that the migration of Abram and his family from Ur to Haran was typical "of Amorite migrations of the period of 1,800 B.C.E."6 These people migrated from Mesopotamia to Haran (modern Turkey) and Canaan, known today as Palestine, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank territories. The stories of the patriarchs contain the memories of a migration of Semite peoples from the region of the Fertile Cresecent during that second millennium B.C.E.7 The closing words of Genesis 11 fit what we know. Terah, Abram's father, took his family and "they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there (Genesis 11:30)."
Though as a nomadic people living in tents they left little for archaeologists to dig, Canaanite, Egyptian and other sources tell of a nomadic people named the Habiru. The names of the patriarchs appear often in these sources, suggesting that these names were in popular use throughout the Middle East between 2,000 and 1,000 B.C.E.8 With some reliablility, we can say that the events that unfold in today's lesson took place in the early years of the second millennium before the birth of Christ.
There can be little doubt that the writer of Genesis had no intention to chronicle all the events of human history in these 11 chapters. These chapters were written to introduce us to God and to ourselves. They are a carefully constructed survey of history intended to introduce basic understandings of spiritual import. Deliberately the writer had brought us to the moment of crisis. "So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore the name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth (Genesis 11:8-9)."
Confused and scattered, this is the hopeless point to which sin always brings us. It always destroys our sense of community and our unity of spirit. As the writer of Genesis saw it. That's what God's creation had come to - confused and scattered over the face of the earth.
Now what? There seems to be silence this time. We go on with a new family story. God is not mentioned. Will God leave them forever? After their sin, God had allowed Adam and Eve to live and had himself sewn clothes for them. After Cain's murder of Abel, God mercifully marked him and protected him (Genesis 4:15-16). After the terrible flood, God vowed never again to destroy humankind in so great a catastrophe. Up to and until this moment, God's grace had "followed hard upon man's sin, protecting him from total annihilation."9 Now, in the middle of chapter 11, there is only the silence of God. We hear no word of forgiveness, no word of mercy and no word of divine love.
From Eden we have come to this place. People are scattered, restless and confused. There are migrations and wanderings. Many are just nomads. They appear to be alone. Slowly the bright light of the stage dims. The drama falls silent. There is darkness. The overture to the story of our salvation has been finished. Like a profound prologue, it has touched upon all the themes of salvation. The story that will be the theme of the remainder of the scriptures and the fulfillment of all human history is about to begin.
II. God's Second Mighty Act
Suddenly and without warning, our attention shifts to a remote corner of the stage. A small spotlight brightens upon one man. He is Abram, the son of Terah, and the husband of Sarai. From the whole of creation we now turn to the story of one man and his family. From family, to tribes, and finally to a nation, the concept of the "people of God" will find its first expression in this single man. God's redemptive purpose for the world is focused in this man's family and descendants. He is the "saving link" between all the history before him and all of God's ongoing work for our salvation. In Abram, soon to be named "Abraham - the father of a crowd,"10 all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The God who scattered the people at the tower of Babel has set about to gather them through Abram. He links the stories of the patriarchs that are about to unfold with all of God's action until this day.
God's second mighty act, therefore, is to choose, call and establish a special "people of God." God acts to "carve out a channel"11 for the execution of his will, calling key individuals and people, people like Abram and his descendants.
The fundamental significance of this lesson (Genesis 12:1-8) cannot be overlooked. God's call to specific men and women to become a part of the "chosen family" whom God has called and set apart to be the saving link in the work of salvation, is a theme that will be repeated steadily throughout the Old Testament and the New.
Moreover, it is a theme solidly rooted in the creation story itself. The stewardship and accountability of these stories must always, sooner or later, change our view from generic issues to the call of God to be channels of grace to specific people, places, issues and times. With a consistent voice, quoting Isaiah, Exodus, Deuteronomy and others, the writer of 1 Peter 2:9-10 puts it together for us. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy."
With Abraham God begins this focused and intentional series of covenants and promises that continue throughout the scriptures and into our own day and our own lives. Abraham becomes the example for our obedience, and in matters of faith, the "father of us all."12
God's second mighty act,13 the call of Abraham and the promise of a posterity that will be a blessing to all, is repeated for each of us in our baptism. The call to participate in salvation history is a theme common to all the scriptures. It is not a call restricted to the "religious life," but a call to specific tasks that requires of us a response of obedience.
III. The Model Of Obedience
The call and the promises of God were sudden, abrupt and precise. "Leave! Go! I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. By you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves."
The call of God always demands a response. When a gift is offered or an invitation extended, one has no choice but to respond. To think overlong about the desired response is to telegraph a lack of enthusiasm at the very least, and an attitude of rejection at the worst. As the story unfolds for us. Abram's response is totally committed.
The Hebrew writer uses only one word. We need three. "So Abram went (Genesis 12:4)." All the pondering and meditation, the fateful moment of decision, and the farewells to family and friends are embraced with three words: "So Abram went." Two thousand years later the writers of the New Testament shook their heads and their pens in amazement: "He went out not knowing where he was to go (Hebrews 11:8)."
Abram "pulls up stakes" (no pun intended for this nomad!) and burns bridges behind him. He leaves family, friends and even the gods of his tradition,14 beginning an epic journey in search of spiritual affirmations, a quest that constitutes the central theme of all biblical history.15 He will cover hundreds of miles in obedience to a call and in the confidence of promises made. The spiritual objectives of the journey, the call and the promises, are implicit from the outset. They will be mutually confirmed often throughout the journey. Nothing is held back. Everything is committed. And, he was 75 years old when he left Haran for Canaan!
Abarm and Sarai must have left Haran with mixed emotions. On the one hand, the strong family ties marking the social structure of the Middle East of this time - underscored repeatedly in the stories of the patriarchs - would have made their departure difficult. Turning from old loyalties and traditions never comes easily for any of us. It would have been especially so in those days.
On the other hand, the journey's length and even its unclear destination would not have been all that intimidating in themselves. After all, Abram and Sarai were nomads living in tents and tending flocks. They were not unlike the wandering Bedouins one sees in Palestine today. Nomads do not have a "homeland" as such, and the command to move on is often seen as a "saving word" from a protective deity.16
There may even have been a note of expectant joy. Abram was 75 years old and Sarai was childless. God's promise included a posterity of descendants, enough for a nation. That had to mean that there would be a child born to Abram and Sarai. On the day they left, they may well have been laughing!17
God's call and Abraham's obedience forge for us all the saving link for God's work toward our salvation. He becomes one by whom all the families of the earth are blessed. And it is so!
The key to understanding this model of obedience is found in Abraham's faith, a faith that believed the call of God and trusted the promises of the God who called him. Faith is always more than belief alone. Faith is belief mature enough to beget trust. Faith is trust enough to beget risks and to acknowledge blessings. No wonder it is written both in Genesis and in the New Testament: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3)."
IV. Affirmations And Altars
All of this is not to say that everything went well for Abram and Sarai. Often they would have their faith tested. It would be years before the "child of promise" would be born. So strong was his trust that Abraham (now no longer Abram) believed, at times, in spite of the evidence. Which of us can forget Isaac's plaintive question: "Father, where is the lamb?" and not hear Abraham's steadfast answer, "The Lord will provide a lamb, my son." There was no evidence whatsoever other than the promise of God. Should Isaac be killed, there would be no "posterity." Throughout the wanderings in Canaan and in Egypt, Abraham would walk steadily in the promises of God.
And as he walked, it was as if God was walking before him. Each of Abraham's steps seemed to walk toward God. When he arrived at Shechem, the ancient Canaanite holy place between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, in the valley near the modern city of Nablus,18 God was already there to meet him and to affirm his promise: "To your descendants I will give this land." God had shown him, just as he promised. Immediately Abraham built an altar to the Lord. There's no mention of a sacrifice. Perhaps it was just an upright stone, a "massebah," marking the place where God had encountered him. It would be a sign for the wayfarers, a testimony and a witness of Abraham's claim to the land and to the promises. Coming to Bethel, he pitched his tent. Here he erected another altar. The place was called "Beth el," the house of God. Abraham's travels and his faith can be followed through Canaan by a trail of altars like the bread crumbs of Hansel and Gretel - signs to the traveler and places at which the partriarchs after him could come home to the roots of their fathers.
The messages of Abraham's altars are clear. Destinations had been reached and promises had been kept on both sides, God is as good as his word. Abraham had no idea of his destination when he left Haran, but God had it clearly in view all the while. As long as God had it in view and Abraham walked toward God, all would be well. The altars proclaim it to be so.
V. Still The Call Comes
"So Abram went." Just a few words tell us so much. He left security and serenity behind him. Without a road map in his hand or a known destination he set forth. Not at all clear about what he was getting himself into, he knew only that he had an irresistible call to which he had to respond. He did so in faith. And it seems a good thing for all of us that he did. For all the breadth of creation, God's plan had narrowed down to one man and his response. He became in that moment the saving link for us all. By him all families of the earth shall bless themselves. And we still do.
Just as Abraham is the father of faith, truly the "father of a crowd," and the first of a chain of saving links for us, so God calls us to be a part of that chain for others. Our presence and our witness may be the right and passing moment for someone else as Abraham has been for all of us. In our baptism, we are called to be witnesses, a holy nation, God's own people set apart to declare the deeds of him who has called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). In the name of the kingdom we are called to launch ourselves out into this ministry.
Risking the unknown is not an easy thing for us. Unlike Abraham, we are not nomads either by nature or by tradition. We are a sedentary people who travel only with flight plans and rental cars awaiting us at our destinations. We have confirmation numbers for our hotel reservations. We have packed travelers' checks and credit cards. As little as possible is left to chance.
Believing and trusting must be the marks of our ministry. Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, President of the Lutheran Church in America,19 had learned of his terminal illness just weeks before the denomination's 1968 convention. Stunned by his untimely death, the delegates gathered. President Fry's report gained a prophetic tone. He began with a note on the troubled times for the church. The crises of the Vietnam war, conscientious objection, racial and political violence in our streets, drugs, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. were some of the issues of the day. President Fry wrote: "Many are exhilarated, others so panicky that they are ready to throw the rigging overboard; all of us are at least perplexed and to a degree insecure.... The comforting thought is that even men don't build their ships for calm weather and placid seas. Still less does God! ... Even though it may be buffeted by contrary winds and adverse currents may threaten to drive it off its course, Christ's church is on its way with all the certainty of his promise to its home port in eternity. Unlike the frail bark of Paul in Acts 27, both the ship and all who remain aboard her will be saved. Our Captain is the victorious Lord, the One who dies no more"20
Abraham is our saving link and our model. Though he could not see clearly his destination, God could. So, "he went out not knowing where he was going." He believed God and trusted him. So too must we. "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 go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."21
End Notes
1. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, The Mighty Acts of God, revised and updated from a work by the same name by Robert J. Marshall, (Minneapolis, Augsburg Fortress, 1990), p. 38.
2. Ibid.
3. John 11:5-10, 16.
4. This ruin is located in today's nation of Iraq. In ancient times it would have been in the area most widely known as ancient Babylon.
5. Claus Westermann, Genesis 12:36 - A Commentary, John J. Scullion, S. J., translator, (Minneapolis, Augsburg Fortree, 1985), p. 59 Westermann references the work of L. Woodley, Excavations at Ur - A Record of Twelve Years' Work, published in 1954.
6. Foster R. McCurley, Jr., and John Reumann, Understanding the Bible I, Word and Witness Series, (Philadelphia, Division for Parish Services, Lutheran Church in America, 1980), p. 78.
7. Helmut Koester, Proclamation - Lent, Series A, The Exegesis, (Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1974), p. 21.
8. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, op. cit., p. 39.
9. Charles T. Fritsch, The Book of Genesis, The Layman's Bible Commentary, Balmer H. Kelly, Editor, (Richmond, John Knox Press, 1959), p. 52.
10. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, op. cit., p. 39.
11. Reginald H. Fuller, Preaching the New Lectionary - The Word of God for the Church Today. (Collegeville, The Liturgical Press, 1974), p. 152.
12. Romans 4:16-18 is the Second Lession appointed in most of the Series A Lectionaries on the Second Sunday in Lent.
13. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, op. cit., p. 38.
14. Joshua 24:2a tells us that "They had served other gods." This is from a short history of Abraham's journey as recorded in Joshua.
15. E. A. Speiser, Genesis, The Anchor Bible, Vol. 1, William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman, General Editors, (Garden City, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1964), p. 88.
16. Claus Westermann, op. cit., p. 147.
17. Robert J. Marshall and Craig E. Johnson, op. cit., p. 41. Years passed before this promise was fulfilled. In fact, when the time was announced, Abram and Sarai were so old that he fell upon his face laughing at the foolishness of such an idea. So the name of their true son, Isaac, recalls laughter.
18. John's story of Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well in the village of Sychar is the Gospel Lesson appointed in the Lutheran and Methodist lectionaries for this day. The well is "Jacob's Well" and is in the modern town of Nablus today.
19. The Rev. Dr. Franklin Clark Fry was president of the Lutheran Church in America from its beginning in 1962 until his death in 1968.
20. Franklin Clark Fry, "Report of the President," Minutes of the Fourth Biennial Convention of the Lutheran Church in America, June 19-27, 1968, (Philadelphia, Lutheran Church in America, 1968), p. 37.
21. The Lutheran Book of Worship, "Evening Prayer," (Minneapolis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1978), p. 153. This prayer appears as Collect 96 in the Service Book and Hymnal (Minneapolis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1958), p. 231, reprinted by permission. The prayer originated in Eric Milner-White's book, Daily Prayer.
