Go Forth and Be a Blessing
Text: Genesis
12:1-9
Aldersgate
Act
Last Sunday, when I was announcing that this would be
Senior Sunday, I realized that there are two very different ways to think about
seniors; senior citizens or seniors graduating from high school. One we might think of as old and the other as
young. But then again, I’ve been
listening to my Mom tell me about something she did last night and I’m not so
sure she is old.
My Mom is a member of a small Methodist church that’s
going through some hard times. They used
to be a large church and a leader in the Conference, but because of some inner
turmoil about how to spend their very large endowment of about $600,000 and now
a two year saga related to an incident of clergy sexual abuse, they are really
struggling.
Well, my Mom got tired of waiting around for others to
step out in faith and decided that she would answer God’s command to “Go
forth!” She came up with a plan to
invite people into her church, earn some money for the budget, and redirect
their focus. She announced that they
would have a public supper. Now for some
here at Aldersgate this does not sound like such a
big deal, but no one in my Mom’s church had ever undertaken a public
supper. Oh sure, they had church fairs
and hosted families when church members died.
They even hosted the District UMW a few years back, but they had never
had a public supper.
So my Mom has been talking with me about this project for
the last few months. She’s had lots of
people helping her; but she was clearly the lead and this would not have
happened without her energy. A few days
ago, as they were getting ready for the supper which was last night, Gwen, who
has been helping out said “Sylvia,” that’s my Mom, “I don’t think I could have
ever do anything like this!” My mother’s
response was “Well, Gwen, I never did anything like this before!” Now my Mom celebrated her 78th
birthday on Thursday, but in my view she’s not old. She’s young because of her willingness to
step out and try new things.
My Mom reminds me of Abraham. He was old, right? But maybe he was young; he was still willing
to step out in a new direction. “He did
not linger, hesitate, or bargain. He
simply went.” (Texts for Preaching, p. 357) In his willingness to go we hear God’s
call to us to act by responding to God’s call, to find our identity in our new
location and to be a blessing to others.
Abraham did more than listen; he responded to God’s
command “Go forth!” The word that God
uses here is quite interesting. I’ve
talked with you about it before: Lek leka. It places an
emphasis on establishing the identity of the actor or speaker by removing him
from his familiar surroundings and calling him to a new place. Abraham can no longer look to his
surroundings for identity. The only
other place where this word is used in the Bible is when Abraham is called out
by God to sacrifice Isaac, his only son.
Lek leka conveys a
deliberate, purposeful action that isolates and emphasizes the reliance on God
that is necessary for survival. Abraham
acted and in his acting he found his identity as a son of God.
Graduating seniors, you may be a little nervous about
leaving home in the fall. Those of you
who are going off to college may be wondering if you’ve made the right
choice. This summer when you begin to
have second thoughts, pray for a portion of Abraham’s courage. Those who have recently made decisions about
which college to attend or whether or not to enlist in the military might be a
little envious of Abraham’s security in knowing. Yet when one is young it’s easier to just “go
forth” and not worry about bills, or child care, or car payments. Most seniors don’t even worry about tuition fees. That’s what parents are for! Am I right?
Find Your Identity
And remember, seniors, you get to come back home. Sarah and Abraham couldn’t. They left behind all that was familiar, even
the places that had given names to their ancestors. At first, I thought that Abram’s brother
Yet, on the other hand, Abram’s great-grandfather is
named after a city west of
Abraham did more than listen; he responded to God’s
command “Go forth!” But when he arrived
at the land God had promised he found that the land that was supposed to be his
was already occupied by the Canaanites.
I wonder if Abraham started to second guess his decision then. Maybe he started thinking about where he had
made a wrong turn.
An old mariner’s chart, drawn in 1525, and on display in
the British Museum in London reveals the fears of sailors in the Middle Ages
and the hope of explorers in the 1800’s.
Along the coastline outlining
Abraham decides to live on the edge between God’s promise
and the reality of what he discovered.
He might have said, “Okay, so this place has been settled by
others. God will work that out in God’s
good time.” Instead of pushing through
he decided to wait upon the Lord.
After arriving, Abraham undertakes two explicitly
religious acts that indicate his willingness to wait for God. First, he builds an altar to acknowledge his
God. (vs. 7) Second he speaks God’s name and identifies
himself as belonging to this God. These
acts might be compared to the astronauts landing on the moon after a long
journey in 1969 and placing a small American flag on the surface. They symbolically claimed the moon for the
As
the seniors prepare to head out into the world, I want to ask them what object
will you place in your new location to show who is
central in your life? Think carefully
about this for that identity will be the promise of your future and the central
subject of your story.
I encourage our seniors to accept the gift of life as a
gracious gift from God. This life is not
a test about living a faithful or faithless life as some would have us
believe. It is a gift to be valued so
that it will grow and change. Life is
not life when it is stagnant.
Just as your parents have given you the gift of an
education, so also God offers the gift of life.
Both are hopeful that you not squander that gift, but use it wisely.
An ancient story told by several storytellers makes me think
about what it means to be old. There was once [an
old] miser who sold all his possessions
and bought a large piece of gold. He
buried the treasure in the earth near a large wooden fence. Each day he dug up the gold and admired it.
A
gardener observed the miser’s daily ritual and wondered what the old man was
doing. One night he crept to the exact
spot where he had seen the miser and discovered the magnificent gold
piece. He immediately placed it in his
pocket and left the country.
When
the miser discovered the empty hole the next day he let out a loud cry of
anguish. A neighbor heard the scream and
came running to the aid of her friend.
Full of grief, the miser told her the entire story.
“Stop
your crying,” the neighbor advised, “and find a stone
of equal size. Paint it the color of gold and put it back in the earth. Each day you can come and pretend that it is
still here. The stone will serve the
same purpose since you never meant to use the gold anyway.” (Stories for
Telling, p. 102-103)
Become a Blessing
Perhaps being old has more to do
with one’s decision of whether to use or hoard the gifts of God. “
As one who is farther away from being a senior graduating
from high school, it’s been 39 years, and closer to being a senior citizen, I
envy these high school graduating seniors.
I envy their youth, I envy their energy and enthusiasm, I envy the opportunities that are open to them. I remember almost 40 years ago when I was
graduating from high school. I remember
feeling that I wanted to make a difference in the world. I remember thinking that some day I would be
in the Peace Corps. I remember that hope
and idealism of my youth that I have found again in recent years. I thank God for my friend Joy Cushman and
some other young adults who have helped me to regain some of my hope for the
future.
Who first asked you the
question that made you think? You know, the question
that begged a solicitous action, not a knee-jerk reaction?”
Her response in an article called What Difference Do You Want
to Make? starts out
like this:
For me that person was Lauren
Murphy, my volleyball
coach in
senior high school. Her question: "What
difference
do you want to make when you grow up?"
Please understand that until that
moment the only
question
parents and teachers, advisors and preachers
had asked
me was what I wanted to BE when I grew up.
I certainly knew the answer to that
question. I want to
be a
doctor, lawyer, preacher, or teacher -- a professional,
successful. That answer didn't take much thought at
all.
But, what difference did I want to
make? I didn't know.
I'd have to think about that one. I
couldn't get the question
out of my
mind. Over and over again my mind played
with the
query: What difference do I want to make
when
I grow up? What difference do I want
to make?
God calls each of us to act, to move
out and find our identity, and to become a blessing for others.
“Disciples bless
others, [t]hey leak onto others the blessings that they have received from God,
pouring all over the hungry and the thirsty, the stranger and the sick, the
poverty-stricken and the prisoner, the weary and the war-torn. And then the blessing comes full circle. The blessed and the blessing-leakers are
blessed again and again when they inherit the new heaven and the new earth God
promises.” (Sue Gamelin
in Lutheran Woman Today (September
2007), as quoted by Homiletics, May/June,
2008)
“Go forth,” Lek
leka, God says to Abraham, to our seniors, both young and old, and to people of
all ages. May we act on God’s call; may
we find our identity in the new places of our future; and may we leak blessings
on others because God has so blessed us.
Amen.