Sermon - September 30, 2012

Genesis 12:1-10; 14-20 NRSV

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. ²I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I 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.” ⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵Abram 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,

⁶Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷Then 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. ⁸From 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. ⁹And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb. ¹⁰Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land. ¹⁴When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵When the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. ¹⁶And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels. ¹⁷But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.” ²⁰And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him; and they set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had. 

The story of God and the creation of mankind is something that many people know and can easily see.  Look in the mirror and you will see you were created.  Look around you and you will see the creation God has entrusted to us.  Yet that story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden seems so far away.  The story of Noah and the flood, they seem so distant to us.  Something that happened so long ago but they may not have any impact upon us.  However it is these two stories that many of us, often live out within our Christian lives.  For each one of us are born into the world and into humanity.  We are so happy for the new child, we see the hope and potential that this child has in store for their future.  Then after a few weeks, we shall Baptize that child. 

Within our tradition we Baptize as infants because the grace of God is poured out upon them.  With the pouring of those Baptismal waters over a child.  We are drowning the old sinful self in which this child is born into and allowing God to claim this child as his very own.  Through this claiming, God unites this child with his own son, Jesus Christ.  For just as Christ was baptized, lived, died, and was resurrected.  We also may be baptized, live, die and be resurrected.  The child receives the very love and grace that was poured out upon Jesus Christ that day of his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.  It is through these waters, the same waters that flooded and cleansed the Earth of Evil, has just done the same for this child.  Here at the river, people said that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove giving Jesus the spirit for his ministry to begin.  We also receive a new spirit within our Baptism, one that is not focused upon ourselves, and what is best for my own but a spirit that is actually focused upon God and the work that God is doing among the entire people.  We baptize babies and have the parents agree to raise their children in the faith.

This new spirit is the spirit that we should be listening to but it is something that we wrestle with every day.  For every day, we are alive and still part of the sinful creation.  However, God is working within this world, breaking into our lives and helping us to be disciples.  This is what is known as the daily dying and rising of the Christian.  We are to die to our own sinful self by realizing that we are in need of God's grace and mercy.  For only by ending our selfish desires and visions are we then able to understand and take on God's vision for the world and our community around us.  By no means is this easy, and it is something that we must face every day.  It is one of the largest struggles that we face as Christians each and every single day. 

Today, we are focusing on Abram being called by God to: “Go from your home, taking all that you can with you and I will give you land.  I will make you into a great nation, with a great name and will bless the world through you.”  Abram was 75 years old. This is the promise that God makes to Abram.  This is the very start of a relationship that becomes us, God’s Chosen People.  Yes, if you have not noticed, God still loves the humans that God created. By saving Adam and Eve, God wanted to have a relationship with them, even when God is angry and regrets making the world.  By saving Noah and his family, God wanted the people to know of his power but also know that he would provide for them. God still loves and cares for us. 

Abram is being called by God to become the beginning of a nation.  So what qualifies Abram to do this?  To answer this call and become this nation that God will bless within the world?  Absolutely nothing.  Abram is not righteous like Noah was.  He is old and well past his prime, remember he was 75 years old and was receiving this call. Sarai his wife, was 65.  Men, how many of you are 75 or older?  (men raise hands) Women, I am smart enough not ask the women to raise their hands about their age. (joke)  Yet imagine, God saying that he would do this and you believing it to be true.  Abram leaves his homeland with his wife and brother Lot.  They take out their GPS and all it says to them is keep going. 

At last God has Abram stop and says look around, this is the land that I will give to you and your ancestors forever.  Forever is a long time and soon there is a famine.  There is not enough food and Abram and his wife Sarai have to go to Egypt where there is food.  Now Abram is afraid because even at 65 Sarai his wife is very attractive and sought after that he fears he will die.  So they say that Sarai is his sister and not his wife.  Now within the culture at this time, a man could have as many wives as he could afford and in order to acquire a wife, the man simply needed to pay the family for her.  Well when the Pharaoh hears about Sarai, he pays for Sarai and fearing death, Abram agrees that Pharaoh will marry Sarai.  However, God does not like this and sends plagues upon Pharaoh.  Now Pharaoh puts 2 and 2 together and realizes Sarai is the cause and God is doing this.  So Pharaoh pays Abram to take back his wife and leave the country.  By this time, Abram is rather wealthy.  Of course, Lot was the tag along nephew and received wealth as well.  They travel together but then eventually, they have too much stuff, too many animals, too many servants, and basically things to care for.  The land cannot sustain them, so they part ways.  Lot goes to lands near Sodom and Abram goes further towards Canaan. 

Now God is laying the foundation or a nation, wealth to support the nation but there is no son as an heir, how can a nation be without people???  So Sarai gives Abram her slave girl, an Egyptian named Hagar and she bears a son and they name him Ishmael.  This son Abram loves very much but Sarai treats Hagar very harshly.  Then God says to Abram, I will give you a son with your wife Sarai.  But no longer shall you be called Abram but now Abraham.  This is quite the change. Abram is one Hebrew name for Father now with this new name Abraham means Father of many.  Sarai, means my princess but she is now to be called Sarah, meaning queen.  Their names bear the covenant that God has promised to them.  Great nation and blessing to the world.  Sarah bears a son named Issac. 

How many of you knew this story?  (look to see who raises their hands) Good because now we are getting to the good part.  After a short while, God has Abraham take his son, his beloved son, to be sacrificed to God. But which son was it?  Ishmael or Issac?  Muslims say it was Ishmael because from Ishmael comes the Twelve Tribes of Muslim people and the prophet Mohammed.  We are Christians and we say Issac.  Issac was the one bound and prepared to be sacrificed.  For with Isaac is the promise of the son made with Abraham and Sarah.  However, this sibling rivalry has been the cause of wars for centuries between Christians and Muslims.  Turn on the news and you still hear about it today.  However, when you go to the Hebrew, the name of the son is not mentioned. Regardless, God stops Abraham from sacrificing his son.  Yet God provides a ram, a ram caught in the thicket to be slaughtered in the son's place.

Now some of you may be wondering, why am I sharing some of these stories.  Why are we talking about them, we know them, we talked about them in Sunday School.  However, within these stories are lessons and things that we need to be reminded of.  There are things that we will see for the first time and more importantly things that we have been longing for.  For in Sunday School, the stories were made for a child to understand but now that you have heard it once, you can go back and understand the wealth of knowledge that is there. But more importantly it is to remind us that though God may promise us something, we have to wait and participate to make that promise a reality.  God promises to provide and care for you but you are asked to trust God.  To do the work that God is calling you to do and even realize the choices you make will be used to fulfill that promise of God. Trust in this covenant that God made with Abraham and trust in the covenant that God made with you in the waters of your Baptism through Jesus Christ, your savior, your redeemer and the one who brings you into the new covenant with God. God the Lamb of God that is sacrificed in our place so that we might be saved.  That we might be in this covenant with God.