One thing I learned a long time ago is that if you want anything to make sense, you have to understand it in its proper context. You don t begin telling a joke with the punchline you have to give the context, set the scene and then you hit them with the punchline and only then is the story funny. That s how it is with the bible stories. In order for bible stories to make sense, you have to understand the context of the story, otherwise, we jump to conclusions that may be false. Today s scripture lesson is the Call to Abram that is found in Genesis 12. I think we can read it and make sense of it well enough, but what I really want to do is put this story in its proper context, so to do that we need to back up a little bit. And, since I like to be thorough, and since we are pretty close to the beginning of the whole story anyway, let s just go all the way back to the beginning. Yes, that beginning In the beginning, way back in Genesis 1, the story of God, which is what the Bible is primarily about, gets off to a wonderful start. When I said In the beginning you probably envisioned beautiful nature scenes, like mountains or sunsets or pristine forests or an island paradise or some such thing. You probably called to mind an awesome God wondrously and magnificently creating the heavens and the earth and all that is in it. It s an awe inspiring story that moves us. We read the account of creation and we simply feel good. Well, until Adam and Eve come along. Then the story takes an ugly turn. It doesn t take them long to mess up the whole deal. They sin and everything falls apart.
Disobedience is their sin. God gave them a beautiful garden to enjoy with just one restriction that I see. See those two trees? They re not for you. Help yourself to anything else But they just can t help themselves, 6 So when the woman saw that the tree (the tree that God had told them to stay away from, the tree about which God said You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die you know THAT tree? When the woman saw that it was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband. Well, you know how the rest of it goes Now think about this for a minute. God gave them everything they needed. But they weren t satisfied with everything they needed, they wanted everything. The root of their disobedience was selfishness. I would argue that the root of all sin is selfishness. The good news about this story is that God didn t give up on them when they sinned. God gives them another chance to trust and obey, if you will. Oh, there are ramifications: They get kicked out of the garden, there are some new rules and regulations implemented, they have some new responsibilities, but God gives them another chance How did they do? Well, the next really big story in the bible is Noah and the Ark. And, well, you know how that went. Chapter 6 God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. Sounds like more sin and disobedience to me. So, this time, God deals with human sin by starting over. God saves a remnant, Noah s family and a boatload of animals, and then gives the earth a good scrubbing. After the flood waters dry up, God tells Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.
And they did. The earth was populated again and everyone remembered the Lord God and honored God and worshipped the Lord God Well, no. Because in the next story we find the inhabitants of the earth have taken it upon themselves to build a tower. The Tower of Babel. Why? Well, Genesis 11:4 says, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves. Soungs like more selfishness to me. They built a tower that reached the heavens to make a name for themselves. Again, God s not happy with these humans, so God comes and confuses their language and scatters them with the winds of the earth. Which brings us to this mornings scripture lesson. Genesis 12:1-3 The Call of Abram. Now, here s how I ve got it figured. I get the idea that God wants to be in relationship with creation, especially the people. And I get the idea that God wants the people to be in relationship with creation and with God -- especially God. These first 11 chapters of the bible is the story about the struggle people have maintaining that relationship with creation and each other and God. They are selfish, they disobey, their actions are described as wicked and evil -- they people of God s creation generally make a mess of things. That s the setup. That s what s going on when God calls Abram in Genesis 12. The people aren t doing a good job of honoring God so God calls Abram and establishes a covenant with him a call and covenant that marks the beginning of a very intentional relationship between God and humans. You see, I think the call of Abram is best understood as God s response to the dilemma created by the sin and evil that had been so pervasive among the people.
From Adam and Eve to the folks of Babel and nearly everyone in between. Up to this point God dealt with disobedience and sin by kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden and starting over, by washing away the sin of the world with the flood and starting over, and now by confusing the language, scattering the people and starting over with Abram. The Call to Abram begins a new chapter in God s relationship with the world. God calls Abram away from his home, away from what is familiar, away from everything he knows so that he can learn about God and God s kingdom and laws upon which God established this world. And the foundation of the God s relationship with this, the basic principal by which God will operate is this: I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And that s it right there. That s the key to the whole thing. God blesses God s people, but not for their sake. God blesses God s people so that God can bless EVERYONE. In other words, Israel, the chosen people, weren t chosen for their own sake. Israel was chosen for the sake of the rest of the world. God will use Israel as a vehicle to teach the entire world about God. And the rest of the OT is really an accounting of how this call to Abram plays out. It is an accounting of the successes and failures of Israel to fulfill that call. The rest of Genesis is about the formation of Israel. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Esau, the twelve sons who are the fathers of the 12 tribes. How they end up in Egypt and become a great people. Exodus is an account of the desert wanderings of that people. God lead them through the desert to teach them about trust. God used that time to give them the law. It was like college. It was the time for Israel to learn about God and God s law so that they could become the Godly people God wanted them to be. Joshua:
The Promised Land is in the middle of everything for a reason. You have a major civilization to the Northeast (it changes names pretty often Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Persia but its all the same plot of land populated with lots of people) and you have Egypt to the Southwest. Joshua figures it out. At the end of the book, he just puts it out there. Choose this day whom you will serve. And Judges, well, Judges is the story of Israel s struggle to be a nation amidst other nations. What will we choose? A nation who depends on God? Or a nation who wants to be like others nations, defending borders, amassing wealth, looking out for ourselves like everyone else. Well, Judges ends with Israel begging God for a King again, God, we can do this on our own Keep the blessing coming, of course, but we re going to keep them for ourselves. selfishness. Kings David did a great job for the most part, but selfishness got the best of him He wanted something (someone) that didn t belong to him Solomon started out fine, but he got caught up in the world. After he died, the great Kingdom of Israel split And each successive King, both in the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, with very few exceptions, grew further away from God and drew closer to the selfish ways of the world. Until finally, because of their disobedience, because of their selfishness, because of their refusal to honor their God who provided everything for them by using the blessings God gave to them to bless the world around them, because of their selfishness, God allowed both kingdoms to fall. The Promised Land was stripped from the Chosen One s because of their failure to honor God and be the people
God called them to be. They selfishly hoarded the blessings of God, refusing to share them with the world around them and so God allowed their defeat. And God s chosen people wondered, Now what? Have you ever noticed, Jesus is what Israel was supposed to be? The gospels are full of stories about Jesus blessing the people around him, even if they were people who weren t supposed to be blessed. Israel was supposed to share God with the world, everyone in the world. But they were selfish. They took God s blessing and circled the wagons and fought the rest of the world to keep those blessings to themselves. Through his teaching and through his actions, Jesus became what Israel was supposed to be. His teachings, his miracles his interactions were all demonstrations about how to use God s blessings to bless others. Some people got it, others didn t. The disciples did their best to understand it, but it didn t click. They marveled at Jesus and his works, and Jesus even told the disciples that the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these. And they did. The Acts of the Apostles is a marvelous story about the amazing things God does through those Apostles. They received the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and they got it. They were supposed to give their lives to God, and use the blessings that God had given them to bless the world around them. And because of their obedience and unselfish ministry, people followed Jesus. All kinds of people Jews and Gentiles and men and women and, people from all nationalities. And churches popped up all over in places like Thessalonica and Corinth and Rome and Thyatira and Finally, you get the feeling that The Call to Abram is alive and well Finally, with the help of Jesus s teaching, and the power of the Holy Spirit, people get it and want to share. They go into all the world preaching the crucifixion and
the resurrection and baptizing those who believe and repent and the early church grows by leaps and bounds. That ancient call to Abram, I will bless you so that you will be a blessing, was answered and fulfilled by the early church in places like Thessalonica and Corinth and Philippi and all over where believers gathered to worship, witness and serve. It is exciting to read about those converts to Jesus and those new followers of Jesus and their enthusiasm, but a read through those letters tells us that, well, the early church had its problems. And they could all be traced to one thing, I think. Selfishness. John Jantzi is the District Executive Minister of the Shenandoah District where I serve. A couple of years ago the local Church of the Brethren pastors gathered in a dining room at the Bridgewater Retirement Community to share lunch and fellowship. I don t remember who all was there, but I do remember that Paul Roth was sitting next to John Jantzi. I don t know if you know John or Paul. They are both very nice and kind men. There is some discrepancy in their size. John has an imposing presence. Paul does not. Again, both nice men. Anyway, the pastors gathered that day were just talking and the conversation went where it usually goes when you have a group of pastors together. There was concern about the church. Declining membership, declining interest among the membership, bickering, loss of vision, that kind of stuff. Well apparently John had enough of that kind of talk. So John sits straight up in his chair, his face gets red, the hair stands up on the back of his neck and he gets this look in his eye. The tone in the room changed markedly. John begins with, I m sick and tired of this kind of talk. There is no place for discouragement in the church. The spirit is alive and well and it is not our task to gripe and complain about the state of the church, our task it discern where the spirit is moving and faithfully follow, serving God instead of complaining.
And listen, John is getting wound up. And I m getting a little nervous because I have never seen him get wound up. And then, John looks at Paul Roth who is sitting right beside him and asks Is there a church in Thessalonica? Is there a church in Corinth? Is there a church in Philippi? Is there? And Paul just sat there. And I started to get a little nervous. I wasn t sure if those were rhetorical questions or not? I was glad that John wasn t looking at me, because I don t know if there are churches in those places. His point was, is there a church today? Our district board spent a good portion of the district board meeting talking about the things that some of the churches in the district are doing. And I applaud that. It can be encouraging to here how God is working in different congregations. Our District Board taken time at each board meeting to tell stories about congregations who are being moved by the spirit and following God s and proclaiming Christ in their communities in various ways. It is remarkable to hear the varieties of ways congregations are serving God in their communities. I thought about sharing stories of congregations that using their blessings to bless the world around them. But I don t have time. Rhonda told us preachers to keep these sermons short, and I m in danger of going over my time. Anyway, I was going to tell you about a congregation that turned its parsonage into a thrift store that serves its community by selling quality goods on the cheap, like clothes and some household good to the local community. Then I thought I would tell the story of a congregation that planted a garden behind the church and gave the produce to a local food pantry. I really wanted to tell you about a guy whose cow kicked him. He was so mad at that cow that church ended up donating ground meat to the local food pantry for the next couple of years.
And there are more stories that I could share, stories about lives that were changed because people decided to use God s to bless the world around them. But I won t. Sometimes those stories can go the other way. You know, well my church can t do that because we don t have But God has given you something. God has blessed you and your congregation in some way. The question is for what purpose? Well, for the same purpose that God blessed Abram. So that you will be a blessing and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed. God didn t bless you for your benefit. God didn t bless your church for the benefit of the church. God has given you gifts and talents and abilities to be used for the sake of God. And what we do, we don t do for our benefit, we do for God and for the sake of the Christ who gave his life that we might have it and have it abundantly. Again, not for our sake, for Christ s sake. And so, John Jantzi, to answer your question, Is there a church in Thessolonica? Is there a church in Corinth? Or those other towns that you asked about? I don t know. Near as I can tell there aren t. But there is a church. The church is alive and well in many places. Nigeria, Haiti, this: And I am glad for those places, but the more immediate question is Is there a church in your community? Does a church worship in your meeting house, or is it just a gathering of people more interested in rules and regulations and less interested in following
the Holy Spirit, in sharing your blessings, whatever tey may be, with your community, thus fulfilling the ancient call to Abraham, which is very much the call to you: I will bless you. So that you will be a blessing.