Go!
Go!
That is what God told Abram.
Go!
Have
you ever had that said to you?
Go! Do! Get
moving!
I
know I have heard that said to me more than once and usually with a
sense of underlying urgency.
“Let’s
go or we are going to be late.”
“Do
this now because it is due by the end of the day.”
“Get
moving, something is about to begin.”
Go!
But
when God spoke to Abram,
there was a deeper meaning
that
just a straight forward command saying Go!
In
the Hebrew it has the meaning ‘get
up and go’;
So,
that still sounds like an imperative, an order,
and
it is,
yet
there is more…
The
command ‘go!’
is followed by promises
from God.
Promises
God wants to give
and
all that is required of Abram
is to get up and go.
There
are blessings
in Abram’s
future; freely given blessings.
God
is reaching out to him and offering him a future;
This
is call and response:
And
Abram
must respond
to God’s call!
How
does Abram
respond to God’s command to go?
He
responds with obedience
and faith;
this
is the beginning of a journey.
This
is not an easy call to responds to:
he
is told to leave his country
and his kindred
and his father’s
house.
Imagine
if someone said that to you. Could you go?
What
if it was God saying Go?
In
Abram’s
world there is uncertainty.
There
is risk.
What
dangers may Abram
and Sara meet on the road?
How
long will the journey take?
What
comes next?
Theologian
Walter Brueggemann says:
“to
stay in safety is to remain barren,
to leave in
risk is to have hope”
This
journey is about faith and hope;
about
a life of faith.
On
this journey, Abram
is taking a risk of faith
as
he is commanded to ‘get up and go’.
This
is the beginning of the journey of who
Abram
will become –Abraham,
the
patriarch of a nation, God’s chosen people.
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.
The
promises God makes to Abraham are not
only for him,
but
for his descendants as well.
The
promises made by God include descendants, land,
and
divine blessing. Divine
Blessing!
Abram
begins the journey
that
will continue into future generations.
Even
if the promises are not
fulfilled in a present generation,
the
promises continue into the next.
There
is always a continuation of the hope.
This
new beginning is the start of the story of
God’s
covenant relationship with the nation of Israel.
Promises
are not
new.
In
Genesis, there are themes of promises, covenants,
and
blessings come before and after the call of Abram.
God
had hopes for Adam and Eve in the garden.
God
makes a covenant with Noah after the flood,
never
again to flood the world.
Adam
and Eve are creation, Noah is re-creation,
and
Abraham
can also be seen as
a beginning of something new; God’s hope for humankind.
All
of humankind:
God’s
blessings are not just for Abraham and his descendants,
God
blessings are for all.
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.”
The
promises are inclusive.
And
God’s promises continue into the New Testament,
God’s
new covenant with humanity;
God’s
gift of Christ Jesus.
God’s
blessing is for all,
not
for only those who
follow ‘the law’ ( the Jews)
but
for all the nations of the earth (the Gentiles).
According
to Paul, Abraham is righteous by faith and
God’s
covenant is inclusive.
For
the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham
or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness
of faith.
Paul
understands Abraham’s connection to all:
the
inclusive promise.
For
this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest
on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the
adherents
of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he
is the father of all of us,
as it is written, “I
have made you the father of many nations”)
Through
Abraham, all nations are blessed.
God
does the blessing to all;
the
families of the earth cannot bless themselves.
Through
Christ, there is new life for all;
you
and I cannot bless
ourselves, save ourselves.
God
reaches out to us,
with
love and blessings,
with
mercy, and grace.
There
is a purpose in our journeys,
led by God’s
guiding hand.
The
Heidelberg Catechism asks the question:
What
do you understand by the providence of God?
The
answer:
The
almighty and ever present power of God
by
which God upholds,
as
with his hand,
heaven
and earth and all creatures,
and
so rules them that leaf and blade,
rain
and drought, fruitful and lean years,
food
and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—
all
things,
in
fact, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.
God
is active
in life in the world.
God
calls to us.
How
will you and I
respond?
As
individuals?
As a community?
As the church?
How
has
God provided blessings to you
and to me in the past?
Blessings
of family, friendships, fellowship.
Blessings
or work, purpose, discipleship.
Uncountable
blessings in everyday
life.
Do
you see blessings in your life today?
The
trust of God’s ongoing providence in your life.
What
hope do you and I
have of blessings that are yet to come?
It
is not
about what we want
but what God is
calling us to do.
Abraham’s
call story is a narrative of hope;
Whatever
is to come next is guided by God’s promises.
The
‘I will’ statements of God to Abraham
gives
hope of what the future will be.
God’s
call to you and to me
may not be an easy journey.
Psalm
121 is a psalm about a journey.
Like
so many psalms it recalls and gives thanks for help in past;
and
prays and trusts for help in the present and future.
There
is trust and courage present in the journey.
Psalm
121 is part of three songs of pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Psalm
120 speaks of longing for Jerusalem’s peace;
Psalm
121 is an approach song;
and
Psalm
122 a song of arrival.
As
the pilgrims approach Jerusalem:
I
lift up my eyes to the hills.
God’s
protection has brought them within sight of the hills
of
Jerusalem.
In
his commentary on the Psalms, James Mays says Psalm 121
“speaks
of a trust that can sustain the journey of life
and
the journey that life is.”
Hope. Faith.
You
and I are called to
journey, to ‘get up
and go’.
That
is life.
A
life ever changing,
a life where there
is risk,
a
life full of faith and hope.
A
life of promises and blessings given by God.
The
promise God gave was not to Abram
alone,
but
to his descendants;
an
inclusive
covenant that is a blessing
to
all the families
of the earth.
Paul
reminds us God’s promise is realized through faith;
God’s
promise for Jews and Gentiles and all nations.
You
and I are all brothers
and sisters in Christ.
We
can respond to God’s call in our lives.
What
is God's call to you and to me?
to
reach out and spread God's message of love and grace, and proclaim
Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior;
to
learn and to grow;
to
be in community and fellowship;
to
care for others;
to
love life,
embrace
creation,
and
live in hope.
So
‘get up and go’!
Go
because God is guiding you.
Do
because you are a disciple of Christ.
Get
moving because the
Holy Spirit is at work within you.
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