Lent 2 (A)
Genesis 12:1-4a
“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 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. 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.’
So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”
Playing It Safe Is the Most Dangerous Way to Live
Using abbreviations, acronyms, tags, formulas and labels has become second nature for us in American society. For example, if I ask you what NFL stands for, you would tell me right away National Football League. If I ask you what NRA stands for you tell me – National Rifleman’s Association. Or AA? . . . Alcoholics Anonymous. How about e=mc2? Yes there are even people here to tell us what that means.
We use these abbreviations and formulas and labels for all kinds of groups and concepts. It’s a kind of shorthand. It’s how we organize our world. It’s quicker. But not only do we use them for organizations and scientific and math concepts, we also use them for people. In the world of Glee where there is caste system among young people there are “jocks” and “cheerios.” You know what jocks are; the cheerios are the cheerleaders. They are at the top of the caste system. Everyone else falls below. Some fall to the bottom and join Glee: “cripples,” “Asians,” “blacks,” “stutterers,” and “pregnant chicks.”
All these and others fall under the general label “losers.” One of the recurring themes of Glee is Mr. Schuester, the Glee Club director trying to help the kids break out of their assigned roles. He sees past their various labels. He sees something wonderful and beautiful inside them that others don’t see. Maybe they don’t even see it themselves. In addition to teaching music, his mission is to help to kids move past, move beyond, and move over the labels that have been put on them. To be themselves. To dig down and find what is most true about them and offer it to the world without fear.
It’s a lesson Mr. Schuester has to learn over and over too. He wants his show choir to win, of course. So he has another choir visit his school to demonstrate how it’s done. When the visiting school performs for the Glee club, they are dramatic and energetic. They waved and flipped their hair from beginning to end, making quite an impression on Mr. Schuester. Afterwards he decides to put all of his kids in wigs, and tries to teach them to toss their hair and shake themselves like the inner-city school group did.
And they looked ridiculous, of course. It wasn’t them. In the end of the episode, they find a style and song that reveals who they are and what they are trying to accomplish.
To watch it click below:
One of the things the Bible makes abundantly clear is that God sees what others do not see. God looks on the inside of a person and not the outside. God sees in you what others overlook. If you were to ask Abraham’s neighbors to tag him with a word or phrase, I have no doubt the first word that they would use to identify him would be “old.” That about sums it up. He was simply an old geezer. 75 years old in a day when the average life span was 37. The man practically had one foot in the grave. All washed up. No place to turn. Way past time to put him out to pasture. Long in the tooth he was.
How would people tag you? When the world looks at you what shorthand would they apply? Dentist? Teacher? Sale rep? Doctor? Mother? Father? Mechanic? Democrat? Republican? The world has a way of boiling us down like that you know? Reducing us to a single word of phrase. As if you could understand what a person was about with a word.
But when God saw Abraham, he saw past old. God saw past the wrinkles, thinning hair, and weathered skin to a heart that was ready for action. God saw that deep down Abraham was a man in search for a new beginning, in search of adventure. Abraham was ready to strike out into the unknown to do the unthinkable and do it completely unprepared. God saw past his aged body to a person who was ready to risk everything.
I wonder. When God looks past the tags and labels the world has put on you, what does he see? Is it not true that your being a businessman doesn’t quite tell the whole story about you? Is it not true that being a politician isn’t the complete story for you? Is it not true that being a wife or a mother a husband or a father doesn’t quite get at the entirety of who you are? If the facts be known, the truth about you cannot be boiled down to a single phrase or label. You are far too complex and wonderful for that.
There is more, so much more, about you that others do not see. There is more, so much more that perhaps even you do not see. But God sees! God knows! And God calls to that part of you that is dying to get out.
He did to Abraham. The Bible says that God spoke to Abraham: “Go!” To Abraham who was willing to risk everything, God says “do it!” Let me give you a quick lesson in Hebrew. The word “go” seems simple enough. After all, it just has two letters. It comes out of the mouth pretty quick. But in the language of the Old Testament it’s a long word. In the language of Abraham, it’s a fat word. It’s a word that promises you the ride of your life. It’s a word that tells you to brace yourself.
When translated literally, the word in Hebrew means “Go to yourself” or “Go for yourself.” When God tells Abraham to “go” he’s letting him know that the “going” will involve more than just putting one foot in front of the other. The journey is more than about new scenery and spaces. The journey for Abraham runs deeper than the valleys he is going to pass through. Higher than the mountains he is going to climb.
The journey that Abraham goes on is as much an internal as an external one. He is going to face his greatest fears and his deepest inadequacies. And so will you, my brothers and sisters. Because God has not only spoken to Abraham, but God has spoken to each one of you. It is no coincidence that you are here this morning. It didn’t just happen. You are here because something in your soul heard the voice of God. Something stirred. Something ignited. And you came today. You put one foot in front of the other and you came.
And like Abraham, God brings you into the journey. Some of you may well need to pick-up and move as he did. Some of you may be called to a new land as he was. I don’t know those details. But this I do know. The journey God calls you to is going to draw you in and turn you inside out. So that what is deepest and most true and beautiful about you is apparent for the world to see.
Because there is something that God sees in you that others don’t quite see. And in Jesus Christ, that truest part of you is being awakened and made alive. In Jesus Christ, God reveals your true colors.
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