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At first reading it seems as if today's text is all about Abram's journey from relative obscurity to universal fame; from being a childless husband in a tiny and insignificant family to becoming the founding father of a great multitude of nations. Now what would it look like if we read this story with God as the main character? What would it look like if we examined the text from the perspective of God's initiating action instead of Abram's immediate faithful response? After all, it's pretty intimidating to try to compare our own somewhat tenuous faith to the unquestioning faithfulness of a religious superhero.

Let's look at what God does for Abram and really for us as well. God enters an aging, aimless, and barren existence; one whose pattern seems set; whose future is inevitably established. God's people had been trapped in an incredible "same old, same old" reality from one generation after another, ever since the Lord confounded people's languages and scattered them throughout the earth following that tower of Babel debacle (Genesis 11). Barren and empty; meaningless and without direction... like being trapped in a vacuum. Have you ever felt like that?

Here's a story that some of you may have heard before. It happened in a high school physics class one cold and damp March morning. Mr. Jones was explaining that a vacuum was a space in which all matter and even most of the existing air has been removed. During his lecture, Mr. Jones noticed Bob and Bill talking animatedly in the back row.

"Gentlemen," he said in a stern voice, "I'm assuming that you are in the middle of a lively debate about the properties of a vacuum instead of arguing about the upcoming NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets. Am I right?"

"Ah, yes, of course," Bob replied.

"You bet," echoed Bill.

"Well, then," Mr. Jones responded. "Let me ask you an easy question. If you were in a vacuum and I was speaking to you, would you be able to hear my voice?"

"Uh, that depends, I guess," Bob stammered. "Yeah, it depends all right," Bill added.

"Okay, go on. It depends on what?" asked Mr. Jones, hoping against hope that Bob and Bill had at least paid some attention to the part of the lecture that described how sound waves travel through air.

No such luck, Mr. Jones. Together Bob and Bill proclaimed, "It depends on whether or not the vacuum is on or off."

Hmmm... The class laughed. Mr. Jones sighed. Bob and Bill left for the principal's office.

Indeed, it is hard to hear any voice, especially God's voice, in a vacuum. That's true if you are thinking of a life space barren of outside stimulation; devoid of personal and communal vitality and hope. It's also true if you are thinking of a life space full of noise and clutter, chaos and confusion.

What does your life space look like... in your family? Your community? Your congregation? In your own soul? Are you overwhelmed by the chaos? Bored to tears by endless monotony? Exhausted in helplessness? Abandoned by those close to you? Does it seem like all your energy is being sucked into a vast black hole from which there is no escape and nothing can penetrate?

This is where God enters and God's voice permeates the deepest vacuum of the soul. Abram did nothing special to make this happen. God's voice spoke to him anyway. Neither can we do anything special to compel God to enter our lives and speak to us. God just speaks anyway.

To Abram and to us God speaks both words of promise and of mission. Many Christians remember the mission: "Go! Move out and move on! Don't even think about where you're going. I'll tell you later!" (Genesis 12:1). Now, that's a pretty scary mission; one so challenging that most of us hope God never speaks to us like that. Better to live in a vacuum you know than start on a mission you don't know. After all, we are not now and never will be religious superstars like Abram.

Nevertheless, God enters the vacuum spaces of our lives and speaks words of promise and purpose. Look again at our text. God's promise (Genesis 12:2-3) comes before Abram does anything or goes anywhere (Genesis 12:4). God gives the mission and provides the promised blessing to complete it. God's blessing here does not simply mean God's approval. The gift of God's blessing is also a gift of God's power.

Pay attention to the words of God's promises here. "I will show you; I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you... so that you will be a blessing and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3). God gave Abram a mission and the promised power to complete it. Through Abram God created a new future and a new community that continues to be a blessing to all families of the earth. Remember that the promise of God's blessing is also the same thing as the promise of God's power.

So, what does this mean for us? The new future is now. The new community is the Church. God's promised blessing to Abram is alive within us today. The real power of God's promise swells within each Christian and each congregation.

Too many Christians may still be living in a "same old same old" vacuum; immobilized by overwhelming stress and barren of hope for renewal. Too many Christians may be forgetting that God's power is the essential ingredient in God's blessing. Too many Christians may still be thinking that "God bless you" only means "God approves of you, but hasn't given you any power to make a difference in your lives or in your communities." God just approves/blesses our living trapped in a fragile and self-defeating vacuum. God doesn't give us any power to do anything about it.

Not long ago, near Seattle, Washington, a baby whale and its mother were discovered in a river several miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. The huge creatures appeared to be lost. Many rescue efforts seemed to confuse the whales even more and only drove them farther away from the ocean. Finally, rescuers lowered speakers and played whale sounds into the water. The trapped creatures began to grow calmer and soon followed the familiar sounds back home into the vast Pacific Ocean.

What does God's promise sound like to you? What does God's blessing look like for you? What does God's power feel like for you?

Today, the Second Sunday of Lent, God chooses to enter your life, no matter how empty it may seem or how lost you may feel. Today God shows you a forever promise in the baptismal font. Today God gives you words of blessing from the altar table, "Given and shed for you." Today God gives you power for mission, to be a blessing to others.

So what does it look like to "be a blessing"?

Here are some examples discovered in just one day by listening to parishioners and reading the newspaper. Standing in a long grocery store checkout line, a woman was startled when the man behind her handed her an envelope and inside was a $50 bill attached to a note simply saying, "Take it if you need it. Pass it on." What was astounding here was not just that the envelope was passed forward, but that many people added more dollars.

Another man described a similar situation while he was in a long line of automobiles moving slowly toward a toll booth at a long bridge. When he finally arrived to pay his fee, the official in the booth said that his toll had been paid by someone in the car ahead. You can guess what happened next. The man paid the toll for the next automobile and so on.

When Sam returned from a youth mission trip into a hurricane ravaged area, he organized monthly "mini-mission" trips into his local community. When Mary's twelve-year-old daughter received a kidney transplant donated by a stranger, Mary developed an organ donation advocacy ministry in her local conference of churches. When Thomas had a birthday party, he asked that all gifts be soccer balls and equipment that he could donate to his congregation's missionary in East Africa. When his brother Stephen celebrated his birthday, he donated his gifts to the local chapter of Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

What does it look like to be a blessing?

Look around a bit. You will see examples everywhere. Watch what happens with the folks who observe these often small acts of kindness. Watch for the smiles, the sighs, the changes in facial expressions and body postures. Being a blessing often shows God's power and love. Being a blessing brings a contagious excitement and purpose into the empty spaces of life.

Pay attention here. Abram does not just hang around the campfire with old friends and relatives waiting for folks to come to him to get a blessing. Because he received God's promise and power, he set off on God's mission to pull up stakes and go to an unknown destination of desert spaces: parched lands, frozen hearts, and false promises. Abram met with people who didn't look like him, didn't think like him, didn't speak like him; people who were broken, fragile, empty, oppressed, searching.

Hey, that sounds a lot like us. And Abram's mission sounds like it might be ours too. But how can we do that really? How can we ever be a blessing to others when we are struggling in our own vacuum with our own problems?

Oh yeah, that's right. We can't do this alone. Neither could Abram. God gave Abram promise, purpose, and power. He received a blessing so that he could be a blessing.

Today God gives us the blessing of promise and power in Jesus Christ and sends us to be God's blessing in the vacuum of others' lives. Amen.