Sermon February 28, 1999 Following the Call based on Genesis 12:1-7
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Last Sunday we heard of the first sin by Adam and Eve. We reflected on their disobedience to what God had commanded for them. We saw how they turned away from what God had called them to do. Instead, they went their own direction.
This week, we consider the actions of Abram in following God's call. Abram listened to what God requested of him. He was obedient.
Abram, you will recall is the earlier name of the man who was renamed by God to be Abraham. Abram was the father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob, who was the father of the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. Abram is rightly understood as the father of the Jewish people.
For us, Abram is rightly understood as the father of the faithful. He is held up by the Scriptures as an example of one who trusted in God. As a result of his trust, his faith, he was considered righteous by God. In other words, God forgave Abram's sins. He looked at him who was unrighteous, a sinner as we all are, and God saw Abram as righteous and without sin. This came about because Abram simply trusted in God and His mercy.
Abram demonstrated that trust in our text by following God's call. We may not use that word "call" with the same meaning as much today. God called Abram, meaning He summoned him. He requested or commanded that Abram leave where he was located and travel to a new place. Our text begins: "The LORD had said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.'" There Abram had God's call.
It is helpful to know the situation of Abram in a bit more detail. Just prior to our text, in Genesis 11 is described the travels of Abram with his father Terah and the rest of the family. It says, "And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there." Abram and his family had started out on a journey from their original home in Ur, which was among the Chaldeans or Babylonians. This region is now located in Iraq, near the Persian Gulf. They had started out on a journey to Canaan, which would be the eventual destination of Abram and the promised land. They traveled some 650 miles from Ur up the Euphrates river to a place called Haran. Abram's father was already over 100 years old and probably closer to 200 when they made this journey. His father, Terah, never made it beyond Haran and died there at 205.
Some of the details of the situation with Abram are reported for us in Acts 7, in the sermon of Stephen. He said, "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.' Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell." From this we learn that Abram had the call from God earlier, when he was yet in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is yet another name for the land of the Chaldeans, Babylonia, and where Ur is located.
Perhaps it is hard to grasp the magnitude of what God had called Abram to do. He was called to go for himself and break away from the rest of the group. He was called to continue the journey he had begun with his father from Ur. He was to leave the now familiar surroundings of Haran and go to a strange land where he would find isolation and loneliness. We are not sure exactly how long they lived in Haran, but it must have been a long enough time to accumulate some wealth. Later, our text reports that there were slaves which the family accumulated in Haran, which is a sign that they had settled in Haran. Now the Lord called Abram to give up many things which he certainly held dear and instead go to an unknown situation which he had from God on a promise. He was called to trust in the Lord's lead entirely. God would be the only one determining the outcome of the situation. It required faith on Abram's part to follow God's lead.
The call of Abram in our text is not just a simple call, but it has something special attached to it. It contains a wonderful promise of inconceivable blessings. God promises to Abram: "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
This set of blessing can be seen as an ascending stair. It starts with the promise to make Abram a great nation. Greater yet is the promise to bless him personally. Still greater is the promise to make his name great. At the top of the list is the promise that Abram himself will be a blessing. That fourth blessing is a special one, independent of the other three. Abram is given the appointment to be possessor and dispenser of the blessing. Abram would not only receive blessings, but he would be a blessing. He would not only be blessed by God, but he would become a blessing or the medium of blessing to others.
The promise to be a great nation was notable, for there are some 70 different nations which Genesis lists as being descendants of Noah and his sons. Abram is promised that his nation will be a great nation among all these others.
Abram's name will also be great. This reminds us of the major event in Genesis 11, which is the tower of Babel, where the men building the tower wanted to make a great name for themselves. They thought that their tower would make them great. Their own efforts at making a name for themselves were frustrated and prevented by God. When, however, God determines to make Abram's name great, God achieves His goal.
God's promise to Abram is that those who bless Abram will be blessed by God. On the other hand, those who dishonor, blaspheme, or disdain Abram will be judged as cursed by God.
The promise God made is concluded with what are perhaps some of the most delightful words of Gospel: "and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Notice how it first of all mentions all peoples will be blessed. The opportunity to be blessed is provided by God to all people through Abram. This comes, of course, through Jesus Christ. Jesus, according to His human nature is a descendant of Abram. We know that Jesus did indeed earn forgiveness for all people on the cross. There Jesus achieved all that was needed to wipe away every sin of every person. Therefore, every person is blessed by the work of the descendant of Abram. Some, really, many, will reject this blessing. They will turn, walk or run away from the gift of forgiveness that God offers to them for free. In turning down the gift, they lose it. For all people, however, the gift is offered.
The second delightful part of this concluding promise is not apparent from the English translations. It literally says, "all people of the ground, that is, soil or dirt, will be blessed through you." This should remind you of the result of the first sin we reflected upon last week. Do you recall what God said about that sin? Recorded in Genesis 3:17, God said to Adam: "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life." The result of the first sin was cursing of the ground. All people suffering because of sin are families of the ground, that same cursed ground. Now, in Abram is promised that all families of the ground will be blessed. All those who suffer because of sin will have their burdens lifted. This was realized through Abram's seed, Jesus Christ.
Abram received his call from God with a powerful promise attached, and so Abram went. The text says: "So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there." Abram is noted for doing just what the Lord told him. He was obedient to the Lord's call. He traveled some 350 miles from Haran into the strange land of Canaan.
Later our text comments that Abram built an altar at Shechem. Then at the camp east of Bethel, Abram again built an altar to the Lord and there he called on the name of the Lord. This is perhaps a reference to worship, but it also carries the idea that Abram remembered the Lord's reputation or name there. He remembered that God had taken care of him and had promised him so much more which was yet to come. God called Abram, Abram was faithful and trusted God, and God blessed him.
Now as we continue our reflection during Lent, we reflect upon our own calls from God. What has God called you to do? He gave each one of us calls as missionaries, to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching and baptizing. He called us to remain true to His Word. He called us to do everything, whatever we do in His name. This means we ought to do our jobs, our recreation, our parenting, our other relationships, our entire lives in Jesus' name. We are called to put away the things of this world and to focus on the world to come. You know the list can go on. God calls us to many things. He calls us so that He might bless us. He calls us so that others might be blessed through us.
So, how are you doing at your call from God? Reflect, now, on the quality of your response to God's call. Are you doing a good job?
Honest reflection reveals to each of us our dismal performance at those tasks to which God has called us. We don't meet up to God's call. We find ourselves too busy, too distracted, to tempted by the lusts of this world to give God's call the attention it deserves.
Because we are such failures, God sent one to take our places. Jesus took our calls for us. He was perfectly obedient even to the point of taking the punishment we were owed. Jesus was punished on the cross with the death we deserved for our failures to follow God's call. There Jesus satisfied all that was due for our failures. In Him our sins are forgiven. This forgiveness was earned there for all people, which is the fulfillment of the promise given to Abram. All the families of the ground, the ground cursed because of sin, are blessed through Abram's descendant Jesus Christ.
Now God calls us to trust in His mercy in Christ. In our God-given faith, we become sons of Abram and are receivers of his blessing. So says Galatians 3 "Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham."
Jesus took our calls and now calls for us to believe. This we do, not through our own efforts or decision, but because the Holy Spirit works on our hearts. God calls us to faith through Baptism. God calls us to faith through the body and blood of Jesus Christ, given for the forgiveness of our sins and received by us today. God calls us to faith through the preaching of His Gospel. Through this call, God lays before us the promise of the blessings of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.