Wha. . .?? You Chose Me?
Genesis 12:1-9 June 1, 2005
Now the Lord said to Abram,
"Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father's house,
To the land which I will show you;
[2] And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
[3] And 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 forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. [5] And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. [6] And Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. [7] And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. [8] Then he proceeded from there to the mountain 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 called upon the name of the Lord. [9] And Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.
CCI: When God calls and blesses, God also commissions
Intro: The call of Abram is the beginning of a new work of God in the world. In the call of Abram, we learn the beginning of the story of the nation of Israel. Abram lived at a time when a large number of people began a migration across the fertile crescent of the middle East. There was a movement from Babylon to Palestine and even into Egypt. There were many nomads in that day, people who had no permanent home, yet found the land to be their home.
At some point, early in Abram’s adult life, his brother, Nahor, died. Shortly after that, Abram’s father, Terah who was 70 years old, gathered the family and became a part of the migration. They journeyed from Ur, near Babylon, to the region of Haran and there they settled. While in Haran, Terah died. Abram was now 75 years old, he had no children and his wife was beyond child bearing age. He had grown comfortable in Haran, his brother was well established and he had begun to acquire a large storehouse of posessions.
Then one day God spoke to Abram. This is an amazing statement. God spoke to Abram. Why did God speak? And why did God choose Abram?
As I was reflecting on this message this morning, I ran across the following comic strip from Kudzu for June 4. I don’t know. That is precisely why we practice a faith. Why did God choose Abram? One of my college professors said that when he was in Seminary, he was taking a class in Old Testament theology. When the time came for an exam, each student brought in their blue book and there was on question written on the board. “Why did God choose Abram?” He said, “I started writing furiously, I gave moral reasons based on Abram’s behavior, I gave theological reasons based in God’s nature and God’s desire for fellowship. I filled the entire blue book.” He then told us that he looked over at his neighbor who had been doing little throughout the test. His blue book was open and there were only a few lines in it. He looked and read, “Don’t know, do you?” He told us he was feeling very superior. The ignorance and arrogance expressed by his classmate appalled him, but he figured his work would impress the teacher when compared to his neighbor. Several days later the tests were returned, my prof was disappointed to see he had received a “C-”, but then he remembered the foolish guy next to him (after all, nothing can make you feel better than knowing that someone else did worse). “What you get?” he asked with an air of superiority. The guy handed him his test, my teacher opened it and was shocked when he saw in red ink, “Sure don’t, wish I did! A+”
Why did God choose Abram, don’t know, and that is the marvelous truth. God did not choose Abram because he was moral, God did not choose Abram because he was smart, God did not choose Abram because he prayed a lot or gave a lot to the poor. God simply chose Abram.
For some that may be troubling, we want to think that we have done something to that makes God want to choose us. We want to believe that we can impress God. The truth is, God simply chooses to use people. And God calls whomever God chooses to call.
Look at the call and the promise: Go from your country, leave your father’s house, leave your family, leave all that is familiar. Go from your country, to a land I will show you.”
God’s call to Abram was a call to radical change at a time in his life when he was probably not thinking a lot about change. At 75, God interrupted his life with an invitation to go on an adventure. How does that sound to all of you? Who here is ready to pack all your belongings and move to a place you know nothing about until you arrive? Not very many of you, I am sure.
But listen to that call again, “Go to the Land I will show you.” Though Abram may not know about the land, he may not even know where it is, God has promised that He will reveal it to him.
When God calls, it is always to an unknown place. God calls us, not to our past, but to God’s future. And while we may not know what the future holds, God does and God will walk with us into that future.
We live in an anxious world, our society is gripped with anxiety as we fear terrorism, economic collapse, and the effects of war that we can not control. The unknown is often used by leaders and media to keep us dependant upon them. But I want to suggest a path to freedom from the anxiety of our society. While the future may be unknown, God, who promised to show Abram a new land, has promised to be with us wherever we go. We are never alone if we are walking with Christ. The peace of God that gave a 75 year old man the freedom to leave his home for a land God would show him, can be our peace. We must simply trust Him with each day.
The first part of the promise to Abram is that God will show him a new home. The second part of the promise is, “I will bless you.”
The blessing of God has been misunderstood and misrepresented throughout history. What does it mean to be blessed by God?
I believe it means being willing to accept the gifts that God offers. Abram was made a great nation, was given a great name and experienced God’s blessing because he was willing to receive these gifts without looking for the hidden agenda. So often when we are given gifts, we want to know what the catch is. How often have you heard people say after a period of unexpected good weather, “We will have to pay for this!” Or when you get good news, do you wonder when bad things will start happening? So often we are unwilling to accept the gifts that God has for us. I believe that the blessing of God is the willingness to accept God’s gifts of salvation and peace and forgiveness and grace and purpose and direction.
David Jeremiah shared the following story that shows how important it is to accept the gifts God offers through the people around us.
Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the great name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy. "Now," she said triumphantly, "you can write your book!"
"Yes," replied the man, with sagging confidence, "and what shall we live on while I am writing it?"
To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial amount of money. "Where on earth did you get that?" he exclaimed.
"I have always known you were a man of genius," she told him. "I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping I saved a little bit. So here is enough to last us for one whole year."
And from the gift her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter. (David Jeremiah, The Power of Encouragement (Vision House Publishing, 1994))
What are the gifts that God is offering you right now? God’s blessing is waiting for us to receive it. It don’t mean that God has a Lexus around the corner for you, but I do mean that the gifts of God that are eternal, peace, joy, salvation and holiness are available if we will accept them. God has great expectations for each of us, and God will provide the means for those expectations to be met.
God has blessed us, but not so we can relax and take it easy. God has blessed us so that we may be a blessing to others. “I will bless you. . .” God said, and “You will be a blessing. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Early in our marriage, Sheryl and I determined that the things we accumulated would always be available to any who needed them. Sometimes we have done that well, other times we have failed miserably. But it continues to be one of the motivations in our lives. It’s one reason we open our homes to exchange students, this is a way we can share the blessings God has given us with others.
We have been blessed to be a blessing, and I would add, for other reason than because God chose to trust us with this privilege.
As Abram was called to go to a place he did not know, to be a blessing to people he did not know, so we are called and sent.
The book “Prison Angel,” written by Washington Post reporters, Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan, tells the story of Mary Clarke. Mary grew up in Beverly Hills as a strikingly beautiful blonde. By age 50 she had experienced 2 failed marriages, had built a successful family business and had raised 7 children. Then, after the death of her first husband, as she looked at her life, she heard God’s call to serve Him. She wanted to join an order of Catholic Sisters, but they told her she was too old.
However, Mary Clarke believed God was calling her to a new future. So she left her plush home in Southern California, and moved into La Mesa prison in Tijuana where for the last 28years she has been living with and loving and caring for the prisoners who have been convicted of robbery, drug trafficking, rape and murder.
Terry Gross recently interviewed Mary Clarke, who is today known as Mother Antonia, on Fresh Air (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4677076 ). She opened the interview with these words, “Experiencing a void in her life, and responding to what she believed was a call from God, Mary Clarke, a divorced mother of 7 left her suburban home in Beverly Hills, put on Nun’s habit and moved into La Mesa penitentary, one of the roughest prisons in Latin America. Ever since, she has been known as Mother Antonia, and has devoted her life to helping the inmates.” and addressing the injustices in the prison system.
It is a modern story of the call of Abram. She was called to leave her home and her family and her people and to go to a place she did not know. And because she was willing to go, lives have been changed, conditions transformed, riots stopped, and hope restored. She had been blessed and has become a blessing to Jesus who she believes is represented in the prisoners she continues to care for as she approaches 80.
Today, God has chosen you and me to go into a future that we do not know. And he has blessed us so that we can be blessing. The only question is whether we will answer that call. Abram did, and the nation of Israel was born, Sophia Hawthorne did, and Scarlet Letter was written. Mary Clarke did and La Mesa prison has been transformed.
Will you? Will we as a church? Time after time I have seen members of this congregation be willing to take tremendous steps of faith in both their private lives and as a congregation. And God has blessed us. But each day God continues to call us into new paths of ministry. Will you be faithful and go forward? Answer God’s call to follow, and then, together, let us receive God’s gifts, that we may share them with one another.
Links to Mother Antonia:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=796310&page=1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052502047_pf.html
