Friends, our scripture today comes from the 12th
chapter of Genesis, a brief cliff notes version
to catch you up on what has happened by this
point in the story of Genesis. You'll recall
chapters 1 and 2 are the story of creation, everything
is as it's supposed to be, and then essentially
chapters 3 until 11 detail the train wreck that
humanity becomes. You have the fall, You have
Noah in the flood. You have Cain and Abel right
before where we are picking up today. You get
the story of the Tower of Babel where humanity
literally tries to become like God and it doesn't
go well. And so we meet God in this moment. That's
the beginning of chapter 12 where it becomes
clear that God does not desire for us, for humans.
to remain in this state of discontinuity, of
brokenness, of sin. God desires for us to be
healed, to be made whole and together again.
I've heard some people refer to this passage
that we'll read as the beginning of God's rescue
plan. There's a great children's Bible, the Storybook
Bible, and that's what it calls it, God's rescue
plan. It is a rescue plan that will ultimately
lead many years later to the person of Jesus
Christ. But it's a rescue plan that begins here,
with verse 1 of chapter 12. In a particular family,
a couple named Abram and Sarai. So let us listen
now for a word from God as we hear these verses
of Scripture, beginning with verse 1 of Genesis
chapter 12. 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 the one who curses you I will curse and in
you all the families, all the families of the
earth shall be blessed. So Abram went. As the
Lord had told him, and Lot, his cousin, went
with him. This is the word of God for the people
of God. Thanks be to God. Will you pray with
me? Gracious and loving God, send your spirit
now that it would stir within each of us. Through
its work, you would take not only the words of
my mouth, but the meditations of all of our hearts
gathered together here in your sight and use
them, O God. Use them to your glory. You and
you alone are our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
So Abram went. Can we just talk for a moment
about how crazy Just those three words of this
passage are. We have only known Abram and Sarai,
who will eventually become Abraham and Sarah.
Scripture has this tendency to take one person's
name and change it later on in the story. But
here we meet Abram and Sarai, and we've known
them for only about eight verses. And yet in
that eight verses, we get some pretty important
clues that help us understand a little bit about
who they are. So for one thing, if you read just
a few words after where I ended, we discover
that Abram is about 75 years old. Sarai, we'll
learn later, is about 10 years younger. So they're,
I'll be careful here, a little bit advanced in
age. Don't forget, right? Don't forget in the
ancient world to make it past 40 was a feat.
So 75 really is out there on the outer edges.
We learn, too, that they have settled in a place
called Haran. It's in modern -day southeast Turkey.
I've never been there. Perhaps you have. It's
situated in this geological area that stretches
all the way down to Africa, all the way up through
the Middle East, that is called sometimes the
Fertile Crescent. It's an area rich in agriculture.
And agriculture then and now, it spells life,
crops. You can sustain yourself, not just yourself,
but a whole civilization in that area. And sure
enough, Iran is a populous place. It's an urban
center. This is a place where trade and commerce
happen, right? This is the kind of place that
shows up on like a U .S. News World and Report
like best places to retire spot or fastest growing
regions in the country, right? This is a place
where Abram and Sarai probably have a Publix
around the corner. There's good health care.
Maybe even a Trader Joe's on the way. Fingers
crossed. That's what I'm always hoping for. It's
a good area. And we learn, too, it's subtle in
just these verses, but it's confirmed later on.
We learn that Abram and Sarai are well off. They're
wealthy. They have everything they could probably
need. Maybe a house on the golf course. Maybe
a river cruise in Europe every once in a while.
The point is, though, that they're comfortable.
And God calls them from all of this with only
this vague assurance that God will lead them
to the land that God will show them. And Abram
went. It's crazy. Last week, we started training
for our new officers. So in the Presbyterian
Church, officer is just sort of a fancy word
for leaders, the women and men who are called
to serve as leaders in our congregation. And
we do a series of training sessions through the
spring to prepare them to begin their service
later this year. And one of my favorite questions
to ask at new officer training is, why did you
say yes? When someone from the nominating committee
called you and asked if you would serve as an
elder or deacon in our church, why did you say
yes? And the answers are always beautiful. Incredible.
I was struck, though, this week, because as we
went around, there were two, maybe even three
folks who were brave enough to confess, you know,
when I first got that call, I said no. I said
no. And they had very valid reasons in a season
of life where there's just too much going on.
Maybe caring for a loved one. Maybe work is just
especially pressing right now. But there's one
person at the table who had made that confession.
And what she said was, I sat with it, though,
for a few days after declining, after saying
no. And what I couldn't shake was this unsettled
feeling. This unsettled feeling inside me. I
have to imagine that Abram and Sarai. as they
left all of that, surely they had and knew that
unsettled feeling. It is unsettling, isn't it?
To be asked to step into the unknown. If you've
ever moved yourself or your family from one place
to another place, maybe a place you love to a
place you barely know, it's unsettling. If you
have ever dropped your kid off at kindergarten
for the first day or college for the first day,
it's unsettling. If you've ever left a career
for a calling, it's settling. If you have ever
led a church visioning process, I'll say more
about this sermon series we're beginning today,
but we have been, as a congregation, for... onwards
of two years now doing this visioning work to
discern where God is leading us into the future.
If you have ever helped to lead a church visioning
process and you legitimately have no clue what
the outcome of that process is going to be, it's
a little unsettling. If you've ever been asked,
like those officers felt, to do something that
you feel wholly unqualified for, you know that
feeling, and yet, And this is the part that just,
hmm, every year. And yet the people around that
table said yes. And yet Abram went. The question
that is obvious at this point is why? Why do
we go even when we are unsure? Why does Abram
follow God's call to this uncertain future? Now
there's lots of possibilities, at least within
Abram's context, that we can point to. Maybe
just the promise of God's blessing, that word
bless, is sprinkled throughout these four verses.
Maybe just the promise of God's blessing is enough
to make Abram and Sarai feel confident enough
to take those first steps. Maybe two, because
we've just learned at the end of chapter 11 that
Sarai is barren. This is a theme that will continue
throughout Abraham and Sarah's story. Maybe the
promise that God will make them the parents of
a great nation, no matter how unlikely, how unlikely
it is that that will ever actually happen. Maybe
just that one pinprick of hope is enough to make
them say yes. But I actually think maybe there's
a simpler answer. I think perhaps, perhaps Abram
goes, perhaps we go, simply because God calls.
So we're starting this series. It was supposed
to start last week. The snow sort of disrupted
everything. But this series, God's Vision for
Us, and it's intentionally meant to sort of parlay
with our vision work that we've been doing as
a church. Many of you participated in listening
sessions or a survey last year. That work is
about to finish. We're about to offer a report
to our session, to those leaders, and then we're
going to offer that to the congregation as our
roadmap, our map for what is ahead. point us
in a new direction. And so this series, God's
Vision for Us, is meant to go with that. It's
meant to ask, what lessons does Scripture have
to teach us about God's vision, both for our
church, but also for our individual lives? And
I think the first lesson, the first lesson offered
to us today through this call of Abram and Sarai,
is that in order to know God's vision, we must
first learn to recognize God's voice. Before
Abram knows where he is going, he knows who is
speaking. You see, vision in Scripture, and we
have all of these different stories where vision
is offered to individuals or communities or to
a world. Vision in Scripture is rarely about
having the full picture. It's about trusting.
the one who holds the full picture. It's like
Leslie was talking about with our children. When
we face those scary things, can we trust that
there is one who goes with us? It's about being
willing to take that step, that very first step,
even when the map we are stepping onto is incomplete.
Abram does not go in this story because he has
every detail figured out. Remember, we've only
known him for eight verses. There's no way he
fully has it put together what is about to happen.
Rather, he goes because he has heard the voice
of the one who calls him blessed, the one who
calls him beloved. Now, it's worth offering a
note here because I don't know about you, but
there's lots of voices that bounce through my
head every once in a while. Don't be scared by
that. And certainly all of us, we are awash in
voices every moment of every day. People who
are willing to tell us what God's vision is for
us. So how do we tell the difference between
those voices and God's voice? We talked about
this at that... training session on Wednesday
that Presbyterians, in my opinion, actually have
a pretty good response to that. You can discern
God's voice by praying, by studying scripture,
and by actually turning to others who are in
community with you and asking them, do you hear,
do you see what I hear and what I see? We always
talk in our tradition about being a connectional
church. We don't believe that we get to do this
faith business alone, whether individually or
as a congregation. We are connected to others,
and that's not by accident. We're called to actually
turn to those who we are in community with and
to ask them, are you hearing, are you sensing
what I'm hearing, what I'm sensing? Abram goes,
not because he knows where it is he is going,
but because he has heard the voice of the one
who calls him and each of us blessed and beloved.
And I'm mindful as I stand here and just look
out across this space about how many incomplete
maps there are here today. about how many unseen
things each of us are carrying. In this space,
right here, right now, there are unseen decisions.
Maybe it's about your job. Do I stay? Do I go?
Do I risk something new? Unseen decisions may
be about a relationship, whether to begin one
or to end one. There are unseen struggles. So
many. Maybe it's struggles about school. Maybe
it's struggles about an illness that we're facing.
Maybe struggles with addiction, with anxiety,
with grief. So many unseen questions. Questions
about calling, purpose, and faith. All of us
stand at places where the path ahead is not clear.
And the temptation for us, the temptation can
be to wait. I'm just going to wait it out. Wait
until it does become clear. Wait until it does
feel safe. Wait until that thing I'm hoping for
is actually guaranteed to actually happen. But
the story of Abram and Sarai, the story of God's
blessing being stitched back, into the world
after the train wreck of chapters 3 to 11. The
story of God's blessing being stitched back into
the world, of God's rescue plan beginning to
unfold, it moves forward because someone trusted
the voice of God more than the comfort of Haran.
See, friends, when we choose the path that might
unsettle us. When we trust that there is one
who sees the things that we cannot yet see. When
we take that step, our yeses, our yeses become
threads in God's healing of the world. There's
that piece in this passage we shouldn't overlook.
where God tells Abram and Sarai, I will bless
you that you might be a blessing for others.
There is this reality that when we trust in the
unseen, when we are faithful in taking the step
onto that incomplete map, God can use our yes
to bring healing to churches, to communities,
to the world. To those who maybe we are sitting
beside in this very moment. We don't always understand
how it all connects. And I'm here to tell you,
I love to connect the dots more than anyone.
We do not always control how that story will
unfold when we take that first step. And I, for
one, love to be in control. We do not always
know. what it's going to look like. And oftentimes,
friends, I hate to break it to you, but what
we imagine it looking like in our future is not
always the same as what God imagines. And yet,
and I know how crazy this sounds, and yet, Abram
went. And so do we. Friends, will you pray with
me? Gracious and loving God, for the faithfulness
with which you abide in our lives and in your
world, we give you thanks. God, there is so much
unseen before us today. So much unseen and unknown
about not just what tomorrow will bring, but
what our next breath might bring. Assure us once
more, O God, that we do not step alone. Tune
our hearts once more, O God, to hear your voice,
to be courageous in following it. We pray it
in the name of the one who leads us now and always,
your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.