Growing by Going
a portion of today’s text from Genesis, 1611 KJV Bible (Replica Edition) photo by jch
Sermon Series “Through the Bible,” № 5, Genesis 12:1-9
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.” –Genesis 12:1
Years ago, I purchased a collection of fiction by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. One of my favorite stories is about what happens one winter night on the windswept prairie northeast of the Black Sea.[1] A nobleman and his sleigh driver set off down the frozen road toward a distant station, just as a snow storm strikes. As the snow deepens, they realize they are off the road, and turn back. When the postal sleigh goes by in the other direction, they feel rather embarrassed, and turn around to follow. Losing the trail again, they hear familiar bells signaling that they’ve circled back toward their starting point. Throughout the night, they alternate between hope and despair, sometimes running into landmarks or fellow travelers who seem to know where they are going, at other times blinded by whiteout conditions.
“Just see how the snow drifts along the ground!” says the driver. “Nothing of the road to be seen. O Lord!”
“Yes, but you’d better tell me whether you expect to get me to the next station or not,” says the nobleman. “Shall we get there?”
“We ought to manage it,” says the driver.
“I say, driver, do you think we shall reach the next station without losing our way?”
“God only knows,” he answers.
After several misadventures, the morning dawns just as the sleigh pulls up to the clean-swept entrance of the next station house, the smiling driver triumphantly announcing, “We’ve got you here after all, sir!”
Tolstoy’s story offers a commentary on the journey of faith. Sometimes, we start out enthusiastically into a crisp cool night under the stars, imagining the glowing sunrise when we arrive at our destination. At other times, the cold wind stings our face, and the snow closes in all around. We wonder whether our sleigh will fall into a ditch or crash into a tree, and whether we’ll freeze to death. In those moments, we probably think to ourselves how nice it would be to stay at home, warm and well fed, and just watch the snow fall through our window.
Certainly the person in today’s scripture readings must have felt the same way.
Today, our sermon series “Through the Bible” moves from the sacred myths of Israel’s pre-history into what Bible scholars tell us are the first characters grounded in history. Abraham and Sarah are the founding Patriarch and Matriarch of Israel, and lived approximately 2000 BC. They were part of a nomadic tribe that originated in ancient Mesopotamia. Their families had migrated up the Tigris River to live along one of its tributaries. Before they could get comfortable there, God called them to move again.
The nature of God’s call to Abraham is mysterious. There’s nothing to suggest that he was smarter or more righteous than his father Terah or his brothers Nahor and Haran. For no apparent reason, God simply chooses Abraham for the next pivotal step in divine history.
God’s call begins with a command to abandon everything and everyone that Abraham has previously known, and move on, as blindly as Tolstoy’s sleigh through a snowstorm, to a new land Abraham never has seen. Gerhard von Rad, in his commentary on this text, tells us what this came to mean for the Hebrew people. “In this call and this road which was taken, Israel saw not only an event in her earliest history, but also a basic characteristic of her whole existence before God. Taken from the community of nations and never truly rooted in Canaan, but even there a stranger, Israel saw herself being led on a special road whose plan and goal lay completely in Yahweh’s hand.”[2]
You only have to think about major characters in the Bible to recognize the truth of what von Rad is saying, to see that God’s people are on the road more often than at rest, always on a journey, always moving somewhere. It’s not just Abraham and Sarah. Later in the history of God’s people, we hear God say to Moses, “Go down to Egypt and say to Pharoah, ‘Let my people go!’” The whole Hebrew Testament contains a record of the Hebrew people escaping, wandering, on the march, driven into exile, returning to their ancestral land, always going somewhere.
When we get to the New Testament story of Jesus, early on there is the part of Mary going to see her cousin Elizabeth, then Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem. After Jesus’ birth, the shepherds go to Bethlehem to see what the angels have made known to them. The wise men from the east go to the place where the young child resides. The family goes down to Egypt to escape Herod, then goes to Nazareth. Jesus becomes a teacher and healer, always on the go, first to Galilee, eventually to Jerusalem. After the resurrection, Jesus tells his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
If we were to name a biblical champion of going, then perhaps it would be the Apostle Paul. Remember, he went on three missionary journeys. After planting a new congregation, he would go on to another place, and start another. Occasionally, he would loop back to reinforce a congregation he planted earlier. Sometimes, Christianity is referred to as a “movement,” and I think that term is at least as fitting as the term “religion.”
On Thursday evening, I attended a meeting at Edwardsville High School regarding a new strategic plan being developed for the school district. The meeting prompted some personal reflection on past strategic planning efforts in which I’ve participated. Many strategic planning efforts begin with enthusiasm, continue on to bold mission and vision statements, and bullet-pointed lists of values and priorities that people in the group hold dear. But only a smaller subset of strategic planning efforts actually achieve meaningful goals.
Looking back on the multi-year process we lived through leading our church to this new building and campus, first we spent two years in conversation that resulted in our “Study Report,” a kind of self-analysis with general recommendations for future ministry. Then, we spent an additional year forming a “Ministry Plan” with goals that were specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timed-based. We agreed who was responsible for moving toward each goal, and agreed to hold one another accountable for accomplishing these goals in a reasonable time.
Now, what I want to point out is this: none of the preliminary planning would have made any difference at all if we did not take steps to fulfill the plan. Years of study would have been largely meaningless if it had not led to action. The work in our heads would have made no difference without the walk of our feet.
A similar message is at the heart of the Bible’s teaching about faithful living. The author of today’s New Testament lesson sums up Abraham’s story this way:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
A Methodist minister writes, “Abraham’s life was the journey and so is ours, a fact we tend to ignore. We keep on trying to build permanent places for ourselves in this world when it is clear that we’re not here to stay. We are not permanent residents. No one ever has been. We come from a beginning we cannot remember and we journey toward a future we cannot see. We are on the road.”[3]
Think back on your life’s journey, and the times you moved to a new place, into a new job or venture, or on a travel pilgrimage to another country and culture. Perhaps these movements were freely chosen and exciting, or forced on you and filled with stress. Still, it's likely they were times you had to think in a new way, or consider a different pattern of living than ever before. You were challenged to grow in your trust in God, and obedience to God. In the life of Christian faith, more often than not, we find ourselves growing by going.
NOTES
[1] Leo Tolstoy, “The Snow Storm,” Collected Shorter Fiction, Vol. 1, Everyman’s Library. Trans. by Louise and Aylmer Maude and Nigel J. Cooper. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001, pp. 227-260.
[2] Gerhard von Rad, Genesis: A Commentary, Revised Edition, The Old Testament Library, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1972, p. 159.
[3] Thomas Lane Butts, “The Journey,” a sermon delivered to the First United Methodist Church, Monroeville, Alabama, 22 Oct. 2000, accessed sometime in 2001 on the website of Day 1: A ministry of the Alliance for Christian Media, Atlanta GA.
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