Going With God

This morning we look at the life of a man who said “Yes” to the journey of a lifetime; a journey that had such deep ramifications that a majority of the world’s population...All the Jewish people of the world, all the Muslims of the world, and all the Christians of the world, call this man “Father.”
It was Abraham who first gave us the notion that faith calls for us to “venture out.” Humans are almost by definition creatures on the move. The word for “human” in the Tibetan language means “one who moves.” Someone once suggested that the scientific name for humans should not be “homo sapiens,” but “homo mobilius.”
Today’s scripture, from the twelfth chapter of Genesis, describes the call of Abraham to move...to travel...to venture out with God. I don’t think there is a more important text in the entire Old Testament. This is where the history of the people of God really begins. This text marks the end of primeval history, and the start of God’s historical relationship with Israel.
Last week we looked at the story of Noah, and saw how God allowed all the inhabitants of the earth to perish in a great flood...all except for Noah and his family. When the ark came to rest at the mountain called Ararat, Noah stepped out into a new world, and guess what happened next. Did everything miraculously change for the better? Did the human race shape up? Far from it. In the generations following Noah, humanity once again displayed amazing proclivity to turn away from God and follow other paths. Man grew proud...and industrious.
There in the river valleys of the Ancient Near East, people began to build a city–and an empire. “Come,” they said, “Let us build us a city and a tower with its top in the sky...(let us) make a name for ourselves...” Have you ever known someone with an “edifice complex?” Here’s where it started. Let’s build a house...a big house. Let’s build a church...not just any church...let’s build the biggest church in town. Or let’s build a company...a Fortune 500 company. Let’s make a name for ourselves. People aspired to be like God...maybe even to BE God. They started with a city of stone, with towers that stretched to the sky. They started with enough ambition to make God laugh. It is estimated that the city of Ur had 200,000 people and was built around a huge ziggurat that stretched toward the heavens. Genesis said God reached down into a mighty brick city like this and confused the people’s speech, effectively scattering them over the face of the earth. The kingdom of God would not be built with brick and mortar, not with tall buildings that reached to the heavens, not with mighty governments or massed armies. How would God build his kingdom? How would he establish his relationship with people? God started his plan to redeem all of creation with one man. The real beginning of the history of salvation begins here...with the call and choosing of Abram.
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. 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. I will bless those who bless you, and one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went as the Lord had told him... Genesis 12:1-4.
Fast forward about 4000 years to 1948. Israel once again raised the flag in the land of their ancestors. This was big news...a people who had no home for nearly 2000 years once again took their place among the family of nations. Is this an example of God holding true to his ancient covenant, lifting up his chosen people? Many Christians think so. Support for Israel is incredibly strong in the US, where each year every man, woman, and child in America gives Israel about $300 apiece in foreign aid...with most of that going to buy weapons and armies. Many Christians believe so strongly in Israel’s status as the chosen people that they don’t want to hear about problems Israel has with its neighbors, they don’t want to hear about what happened to the people Israel shoved out to occupy their rightful space.
Let’s pay very close attention to this passage, for there are messages here for us all. There are actually two important parts to God’s blessing of Abraham. God says in Part one of the blessing: “I will bless you...I will make you a great nation.” The fact of Israel’s continued existence through centuries of incredible suffering indicate God isn’t through with Israel. But there is another part of story. God says in Part Two of the blessing: “I will make you a blessing... in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God has blessed Israel, and kept his eye on her through all her trials and persecutions. But we must not hold on to only Part One of the blessing...(God’s choosing of Israel) without also seeing the importance of Part Two of the blessing: God wants to use Israel as an instrument to bless the whole world. You can’t hold only one section of this covenant. God’s choosing doesn’t exclude others from the blessing...it includes them.
Brian McClaren writes: “I believe the idea of exclusive election has twisted sectors of all three Abrahamic faiths. If we perpetuate this misunderstanding, earth’s future will be darkened by our religions, not enlightened by them. But if our understanding of chosen-ness, calling, or election can be corrected, wonderful new possibilities can arise. All nations, truly, can be blessed. (“Chosen for What?” Tikkun May-June 2008: 59-60)
God started our story of faith with one man, one 75 year old man named Abram, and his 65 year old wife, Sarai. They were an unlikely couple for such a bold plan...blessing the whole world. God’s promise to make a great nation out of Abram and Sarai seemed downright laughable. I don’t know much about nation building, but starting out with two senior citizens who had no children presents some obvious population problems right up front.
When God gets ready to do something, however, he begins with nothing. All was darkness and confusion when he decided to create a cosmos. When God was ready to make humans, he reached down and formed a man from the dust of the ground. When he wanted to bless the whole world, he picked out one little old man and one little woman who had no hope, no children, no future. In God’s history with humans, barrenness is the arena of God’s life giving activity. Barrenness is the canvas on which God paints.
I know some of you struggle to make sense of your place in life. You think you ought to be further along; you don’t think your life stacks up to the accomplishments of wealth or influence of others. Perhaps you’ve been dealt a bad hand. Perhaps you haven’t had many breaks. Perhaps you’ve made too many mistakes. You haven’t found fulfillment in relationships. You don’t know your life’s vocation. You lack direction. You’re confused.
Listen to the Word of God: You may actually be in a better place than all those self-assured people around you who are building such impressive castles in the sky. The Word of God says that barrenness, emptiness, hopelessness is the place God loves to begin his work. He is the master of turning a dead end into a new avenue for growth.
What does it take to go with God? Look at the life of Abram and see. What does it take? It takes listening for his voice. Do you believe God still speaks today? Abram heard the voice of God say: Get up and go...I’m ready to bless you...and he believed. Many people say, “I’ve never heard the voice of God.” Have you listened? Have you really opened up your heart to let him speak to you? God doesn’t usually drag you out of bed and say, Come outside; I want to show you the stars. But God speaks in other ways too. Sometimes we hear his voice when the Word is read here on Sunday morning:
(Abraham) did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “reckoned to him as righteousness.” But the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord. Romans 4.
Have you ever heard the Lord speaking to you when the Word is read here? This morning we heard: As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. Have you ever heard the reader proclaim: “This is the Word of the Lord!” and thought, “Is it ever!” Are you listening for his voice? Are you seeking his will? Are you open for what he wants you to do? Listen for his voice.
Going with God also requires you to be willing to leave something behind.
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.” Will you leave something behind to go with God? We always talk about missionaries leaving behind families and homes. But maybe going with God will mean you leave something else behind. Is God calling you to leave behind your sinful, pride-filled ways? Is he calling you to leave behind your rights? Maybe he wants you to leave a certain job or career behind. Maybe he wants you to leave behind an ambitious dream that you cherish. Maybe he wants you to leave the security of home. Maybe he wants you to leave behind that wall of reserve that you have so carefully erected– the one that stretches all the way up to the heavens. Have you ever left anything behind for the sake of going with God? Can the journey that cost Jesus his very life be easy and pain free for us? It has to cost something...it just has to.
Perhaps the hardest part of going with God is that the journey pushes us forward into the unknown, forcing us to trust God to give us everything we need. Faith comes from following, even though you do not know the way. The journey will be hard on you; it will fill you with vexing questions: “Lord, how can you make a great nation of me...we don’t have any children?” You don’t get the answers on the front end...you get the knowledge, the faith, the grace to hang on right at the time you need it...as you are going. Can you trust a God you can’t see to walk with you into the unknown? Will he be there for you? Will he meet your needs? Will he watch out for you? It’s hard to travel without a road map. We don’t like uncertainty. But God asks us to put away our controlling nature and trust. Will you trust him to bring you home safely?
Journalist Bruce Feiler wanted to write a book about walking in the footsteps of Old Testament personalities. When he got to Jerusalem, his guide pointed to the Dome of the Rock and said: “And over there is the rock where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac.” Feiler said, “...it had never occurred to me that that story–so timeless, so abstract–might have happened in a place that was identifiable,...(a place) I could visit. It had never occurred to me that the story was so concrete, so connected to the ground. To here. To now.” (Bruce Feiler, Walking the Bible, 11)
The journey of faith begun by our father Abraham is real...connected to the ground...it is here and now. It is the journey that causes us to throw our lot in with people who have come from all over the place...a group of people who are trying to live as a real family of God. It is a journey that has taken people away from us and sent them to the ends of the earth. It is a journey that teaches us to care about people in far away lands, that teaches us to love our enemies, that teaches us to forgive others...and ourselves. It is a journey that our young people have embarked upon as they follow our footsteps for awhile then launch out beyond our reach. It is a journey of discovery...a journey of change...a journey of tears and laughter and great joy. This journey of faith is the road you contemplate when you think about your life–what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, what it means, where it leads. You are on the road with Abraham when you open yourself up to God. He comes to you in the turmoil of your soul and says, “Get up. Time to go. I’m taking you to a place you do not know. You won’t see the end, you won’t understand the journey, but I’ll put you on the path that leads in the right direction.” Will you make that journey with him? He gives you all you need for the road. Will you listen for his voice? Are you willing to leave something behind? Will you go where he leads, though you don’t know the way? Will you walk the path of Abraham? “So Abram went...as the Lord had told him.”