Engaging the Living Word

December 21, 2022

What is this particular text?

How does the text function within the scriptural story?

Fulcrum text
- Human beings rebel
- God continues to bless
Watershed
“lynchpin of the Bible” – beginning of new kind of stories to reconstitute at broken world
The whole biblical story going forward is different, focused after Abram’s call o Themes are the same: creation, rebellion, redemption
Beginning of a new beginning
God has a new strategy
Beginning of a long term God-project
It’s about Abram and Sarai – but it’s about so much more

How can this text function in the church today?

Invitation to consider the church’s call
Where/how is God calling us to go?
What is God calling the church to leave behind?
What are the promises of God that sustain the church in our “going from…” today?

What does the text do to you? How do you react to the text? What feelings does this text engender in you?

What do you have to say to the text?

What do you see through this text from the story itself?

What do you see from within your church/community/world? (2022)

Watershed time in the church – call to do something new
- Racism can no longer be ignored
- Current systems are proving to longer be functional
- Church is being called to leave behind systematic ways of being and doing that perpetuate white supremacy
- Church is being called to new ways of being as communities of well-being
- The call of God to leave behind and go to new places is coming from
  - The Gospel itself
  - Young Adults
  - BIPOC siblings
  - 2SLGBTQ+ siblings
  - Those disenfranchised with institutional religion
Crises of our current time
- Ideologically divided society
- Guns/violence
- Racial disparity/injustice/reckoning

What do you see within yourself?

What is the context – textual and historical?

What questions does this text raise for you?

What about Sarai? What was her take on all of this? How would she tell this story?
Were they excited, afraid, resigned?
Why Abram and Sarai?
Was it easy or hard for them to leave?
Did they hesitate at all?
What was the most difficult for them to leave behind – land, kindred, father’s house? ● What did they think this was all about?

What words/themes seem of particular import?

What is the Gospel / transforming Good News within this text?

God’s chosen people never exist in isolation
It’s always about us – and more than us
God will bless
God does promise
God has a vision beyond what we can see
God’s vision see beyond impediments (i.e. Abram is old; Sarah is barren)
Call to leave behind an old life and look forward to a future not yet seen
By God’s call, we are set free to journey into new territories, new promises, new hopes, new lives o And in all things, God goes with them
The promises are unilateral – they flow from God to Abram and Sarai
The promises are unconditional – God says “I will do this”
God’s blessing is both specific to us – and universal

What is the as-over-againstness of this text?

It was only a promise … there was no certainty that God would keep up God’s end of the bargain ● There were impediments – Abram’s age; Sarai is barren; how will God actually give them the land
There is much that Abram and Sarai must leave behind
- Country
- Kindred
- Father’s house
- He goes out into nothing … with nothing
- What was left behind was crystal clear … what lay ahead was distressingly devoid of detail
- What are you called to leave behind in your own life or in your own congregation?
  - It’s a “leave everything behind” kind of word

Who does this text say that Jesus is, or if not Jesus, then who does this text say that God is? What does this text say about God?

What have others said about this text?

“In this chapter, one only sees the uncertain beginnings of a family who find themselves at the threshold of a new tomorrow.” Juliana Claassens, Professor of Old Testament, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa
“YHWH acts in a new way. YHWH now calls a foreign man, Abram (“mighty father” or “father of many”), to enact the work of God. Rather than speak to the mass of humanity, expecting them all to do YHWH’s will, YHWH now chooses one person through which YHWH will attempt once again to effect the divine work in the world.” “Abram Went: Reflections on Genesis 12:1-4a,” by John Holbert
“Because call isn’t always comfortable. And when God calls us to something, God doesn’t promise it will be easy… usually it involves getting stretched and pulled out of our comfort zone and most of the time, well past where we thought we were capable of going.” “Abraham Series Part 1- Step By Step,” by Linda Pepe, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Moorestown, NJ.

What will I teach or proclaim?

God called Abram and Sarai; God has called you
Abram and Sarai left everything behind to journey into the future that God has in mind; God calls you to do the same
There will be struggles
There will be unknowns
There will be twists and turns along the way … (be specific in naming what those twists and turns are, depending upon your context)
God still calls today … ongoing discovery of your understanding of self and call …
God will go with you through it all
You may wonder – what am I doing here?
You will wonder – what am I supposed to do with my life? What am I supposed to do in this moment?
You will wonder – who is God calling me to be (over and over again)
You will ask – why am I here – why are we here – on this planet at this time in history, and why am I, are we, are here in the particularity of each time and place – God will be present with you to help you figure it out …
At this beginning you are being called into a new territory, a new promise, a new hope, a new life …