Ready, Set, Go: Genesis 12:1-9 - Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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. (NRSVue)

 

 

Long Road Ahead by Sathish J on flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Last Sunday during confirmation class, I asked each of the students one of life’s most complicated questions: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

When I was thirteen, I wanted to be an architect. When I was seventeen, I wanted to be a high school band director. When I was twenty, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be, so I majored in business. When I was twenty-four and working in business, I was sure that I didn’t want to do that. And when I was twenty-eight, I was a student in seminary and not sure if I should be doing that.

I am sure that some of the students will turn their aspirations into successful careers. But not everyone. Life has a way of interfering with your plans. And yet, you all need a sense of purpose, no matter how old you become. 

In our sermon text for today, Abram is seventy-five years old when God appears to him, and his wife Sarai was 65. In those days, this was quite old. Most people didn’t live anywhere near that long. They were also wealthy. They had flocks, they had numerous possessions, and (I regrettably say,) they had slaves. The only thing lacked was children. 

Nevertheless, they were in a comfortable and secure place in life for people their age. That is, until God shows up…

God says, “go from your country and kin, leave your family behind, and go to a place you’ve never been. I will make you a great nation. In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Needless to say, these are some grandiose promises to make to a couple that’s way beyond their childbearing years. The Scriptures do not tell us Abram and Sarai were righteous people who walked with God, as we were told about Noah. And unlike Noah, God’s call does not involve a gargantuan building project, rounding up dangerous wild animals, and surviving a global flood. All that God tells them to do is go. 

In this short passage, Abram and Sarai go from living in wealth and security to living in a tent in a foreign land, with all their possessions, livestock, and servants in tow. They probably thought their lives were nearly over; but in reality, they were just beginning. 

One lesson to be learned from this story is that you can never be too old for God to call you and use you to do amazing things in the world. You will never reach a point in life when you become useless to God.

But the biggest lesson to be learned here is that before you can learn what God wants you to do, you must become who God wants you to be. Abram and Sarai were chosen to be God’s people in the world, and for God to bless the world through them and their descendants. You are a child of God, created and love, chosen by God, blessed to be a blessing. This is who you are. 

To put on your God-given identity, to become all you were created to be, however, demands leaving behind who you were and the priorities you once lived by. 

Abram and Sarai could not become what God chose them to be if they had chosen to stay where they were. They had to leave behind comfort and security. They had to venture out into the unknown. They had to trust God’s promises in the face of overwhelming odds. In fact, Abram and Sarai will wait twenty-five years before the child God promised is born to them, and in those years of questioning, doubting, struggling, and failing, God forms them into their identity.

Just the same, Christian identity is not something you put on, like a hat. It is what you become, gradually, over time. It’s formed not in the absence of struggle, but in the midst of struggle. It’s not just formed when life is easy, but when life is hard. Going with God involves exchanging the life you know now for a life and a purpose that you will neither shape or control. It’s about letting go of what you cannot live without so that God can give you something greater. You’ll never know how good God can be until you go out from where you are. In other words, you grow as you go. And sometimes, you will wait a long time for God to keep his promise. In that time, you will wrestle with questions and doubts. Waiting is hard, but God is always working while you wait.

But understand—you are already a child of God. You are already chosen. The Holy Spirit already lives in you, making you a blessing wherever you go. Those who bless you will be blessed.

So, don’t fret if your childhood dream of becoming an astronaut or a movie star didn’t come true. The road to wealth in power is a road to nowhere if you aren’t going with God. 

Instead, hold fast to your God-given identity. The blessings God promises await you, not in the place of comfort and security, but out in the unknown, where you trust in God. Where you turn your faith into good deeds. When the best things in life aren’t the things you acquire, but the things you give away. When you choose hope over fear. When you trust God to do the impossible so that all may know the blessings of God. So, get ready for when God says, “go.”