Second Sunday in Lent, 2011 Genesis 12:1-9
“Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” wrote Dr. Seuss.
Today is your day,
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
Later he writes of the journey,
All Alone! Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
You’ll be quite a lot
And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance
You’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
That can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.
Dr. Seuss is onto something isn’t he? Who knows where life will go, when we’re off and away? When we’re young we start a family. Suddenly we’re absorbed into a life of putting one foot in front of another and one dollar in front of another. One spouse works nights and the other days. We pass one another in a foggy daze. My wife and I, with four kids, did just that for more than a few days. At a wedding and we come to those vows where each person says to the other, “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish,” I want to say, “Before you answer, ask my wife how many hours she has spent in the surgical waiting area, waiting for me to come out of surgery. Then come back up here and say your vows.”
When we grow older, health issues arise. Doctors’ appointments dominate the calendar. A pastor friend of mine, who has since passed on to the church triumphant, liked to say, “Whenever a bunch of older people together you have an organ recital.” At some point we may have to leave our home and downsize. We face giving up a Drivers License. As Dr. Seuss writes, “Sadly, it’s true that Bang ups and Hang ups can happen to you.” We hope that when we come to the end life’s journey, it won’t be a dead end.
At a dead end is what the world had come to in the book of Genesis. God judged the history of humanity to be a disaster after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and discovered good and evil. Things degenerated to the point that he terminated the earth’s history in a great flood, save for a bobbing ark containing Noah and his family and their collection of animals. However that proved to be no remedy. In the plains of Shinar people sought to make a name for themselves. Uniting in a grand technological effort they stormed heaven by building a tower to reach the skies. They feared being dispersed. What they feared God caused to happen confusing their language and scattering them across the earth. The future of the world was hopeless and barren.
Elizabeth Achtemeier writes, “God created the universe ‘very good.’ But still today our human attempts to…be our own gods and goddesses, determine our own right and wrong and our own destinies, have corrupted every area of God’s creation… the way to paradise has been lost. And over all hangs the curse of futility, of pain of loneliness, and finally of death.” Into this situation, God speaks his word into human life and begins that history of salvation which will finally reverse the effects of human sin and bring his blessing to all humankind.”
We read in the gospel lesson, “God so loved the world.” Because of his love he spoke to a man in Paddam Arram who lived in the city of Harran, “Go from your country, your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” The man’s name was Abram and his wife was Sarai and they were barren. God’s selection of a barren husband and wife to be a blessing to others emphasizes that it is first and foremost God’s power and initiative that will accomplish God’s purposes. “Go,” says God, and “Abram went,” literally to God only knows. God will show them where they must go. God will be Immanuel, God, who goes with them. When we belong to a congregation of people whose name is Immanuel, then every time we speak our name we are reminding ourselves that God is with us.
But there is more. Of this elderly couple without children, “as good as dead” God promises, “I will make you a great nation.” That’s a preposterous promise to make to this elderly barren couple. But this is God who said in the beginning, “Let there be…” and the creation took shape. Who said, “Let us make man in our own image and likeness” and formed humanity. This is God whose a messenger would tell Mary, with God nothing is impossible. And in her womb Jesus Christ the Savior took shape. This is God who allowed himself to be put on the cross, to die and then do the impossible, come back to life again. The result is that all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life. This is God whose Spirit cannot be controlled by our meager minds; no matter how smart we think we might be.
But God isn’t through with making promises to Abram. Abram will be the antidote to the tower of Babel who sought fame for their own names. To this day we know not their names. But Abram we do. And in Christ we are children of Abraham. As children of Abraham we bear the name which is exalted above all names, the name of Jesus Christ. There is no name given under heaven by which we might be saved from our own undoing.
Abram will not be a great nation in order that he might dominate other peoples. God will not make his name great that he might hoard fame for himself. He has received all these blessings so that he would be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Now through Abram and Sarai, a childless couple beyond the years of being fruitful and multiplying, God would bring the blessing of salvation and eternal life to all the families of the earth. This would not happen overnight or even in nine months. It would be 25 years before Abram and Sarai had a child. It would be several centuries before their descendants received the land promised after serving as slaves in Egypt. It would be 17 centuries before God would send his son into the world to save the world from its own condemnation and destruction. Jesus would be one of whom it is proclaimed on Palm Sunday, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Now in faith we are part of that great nation, bearing the great name of Christ. We go not alone, but always in the company of our Lord, for we are Immanuel, God with us. Our purpose is the same as that given to Abram, blessed to be a blessing. Be a blessing exalting the great name of the Lord wherever you journey, for then anyplace is a great place and any day is a great day.
Dr. Seuss concludes with words we can apply to ourselves.
Be your name Busbaum or Bixby or Bray
Or Mordicai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!
Comments