God's Vision for Us: Trusting the Unseen

Friends, our scripture today comes from the 12th

chapter of Genesis, a brief cliff notes version

to catch you up on what has happened by this

point in the story of Genesis. You'll recall

chapters 1 and 2 are the story of creation, everything

is as it's supposed to be, and then essentially

chapters 3 until 11 detail the train wreck that

humanity becomes. You have the fall, You have

Noah in the flood. You have Cain and Abel right

before where we are picking up today. You get

the story of the Tower of Babel where humanity

literally tries to become like God and it doesn't

go well. And so we meet God in this moment. That's

the beginning of chapter 12 where it becomes

clear that God does not desire for us, for humans.

to remain in this state of discontinuity, of

brokenness, of sin. God desires for us to be

healed, to be made whole and together again.

I've heard some people refer to this passage

that we'll read as the beginning of God's rescue

plan. There's a great children's Bible, the Storybook

Bible, and that's what it calls it, God's rescue

plan. It is a rescue plan that will ultimately

lead many years later to the person of Jesus

Christ. But it's a rescue plan that begins here,

with verse 1 of chapter 12. In a particular family,

a couple named Abram and Sarai. So let us listen

now for a word from God as we hear these verses

of Scripture, beginning with verse 1 of Genesis

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. 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, all the families of the

earth shall be blessed. So Abram went. As the

Lord had told him, and Lot, his cousin, went

with him. This is the word of God for the people

of God. Thanks be to God. Will you pray with

me? Gracious and loving God, send your spirit

now that it would stir within each of us. Through

its work, you would take not only the words of

my mouth, but the meditations of all of our hearts

gathered together here in your sight and use

them, O God. Use them to your glory. You and

you alone are our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

So Abram went. Can we just talk for a moment

about how crazy Just those three words of this

passage are. We have only known Abram and Sarai,

who will eventually become Abraham and Sarah.

Scripture has this tendency to take one person's

name and change it later on in the story. But

here we meet Abram and Sarai, and we've known

them for only about eight verses. And yet in

that eight verses, we get some pretty important

clues that help us understand a little bit about

who they are. So for one thing, if you read just

a few words after where I ended, we discover

that Abram is about 75 years old. Sarai, we'll

learn later, is about 10 years younger. So they're,

I'll be careful here, a little bit advanced in

age. Don't forget, right? Don't forget in the

ancient world to make it past 40 was a feat.

So 75 really is out there on the outer edges.

We learn, too, that they have settled in a place

called Haran. It's in modern -day southeast Turkey.

I've never been there. Perhaps you have. It's

situated in this geological area that stretches

all the way down to Africa, all the way up through

the Middle East, that is called sometimes the

Fertile Crescent. It's an area rich in agriculture.

And agriculture then and now, it spells life,

crops. You can sustain yourself, not just yourself,

but a whole civilization in that area. And sure

enough, Iran is a populous place. It's an urban

center. This is a place where trade and commerce

happen, right? This is the kind of place that

shows up on like a U .S. News World and Report

like best places to retire spot or fastest growing

regions in the country, right? This is a place

where Abram and Sarai probably have a Publix

around the corner. There's good health care.

Maybe even a Trader Joe's on the way. Fingers

crossed. That's what I'm always hoping for. It's

a good area. And we learn, too, it's subtle in

just these verses, but it's confirmed later on.

We learn that Abram and Sarai are well off. They're

wealthy. They have everything they could probably

need. Maybe a house on the golf course. Maybe

a river cruise in Europe every once in a while.

The point is, though, that they're comfortable.

And God calls them from all of this with only

this vague assurance that God will lead them

to the land that God will show them. And Abram

went. It's crazy. Last week, we started training

for our new officers. So in the Presbyterian

Church, officer is just sort of a fancy word

for leaders, the women and men who are called

to serve as leaders in our congregation. And

we do a series of training sessions through the

spring to prepare them to begin their service

later this year. And one of my favorite questions

to ask at new officer training is, why did you

say yes? When someone from the nominating committee

called you and asked if you would serve as an

elder or deacon in our church, why did you say

yes? And the answers are always beautiful. Incredible.

I was struck, though, this week, because as we

went around, there were two, maybe even three

folks who were brave enough to confess, you know,

when I first got that call, I said no. I said

no. And they had very valid reasons in a season

of life where there's just too much going on.

Maybe caring for a loved one. Maybe work is just

especially pressing right now. But there's one

person at the table who had made that confession.

And what she said was, I sat with it, though,

for a few days after declining, after saying

no. And what I couldn't shake was this unsettled

feeling. This unsettled feeling inside me. I

have to imagine that Abram and Sarai. as they

left all of that, surely they had and knew that

unsettled feeling. It is unsettling, isn't it?

To be asked to step into the unknown. If you've

ever moved yourself or your family from one place

to another place, maybe a place you love to a

place you barely know, it's unsettling. If you

have ever dropped your kid off at kindergarten

for the first day or college for the first day,

it's unsettling. If you've ever left a career

for a calling, it's settling. If you have ever

led a church visioning process, I'll say more

about this sermon series we're beginning today,

but we have been, as a congregation, for... onwards

of two years now doing this visioning work to

discern where God is leading us into the future.

If you have ever helped to lead a church visioning

process and you legitimately have no clue what

the outcome of that process is going to be, it's

a little unsettling. If you've ever been asked,

like those officers felt, to do something that

you feel wholly unqualified for, you know that

feeling, and yet, And this is the part that just,

hmm, every year. And yet the people around that

table said yes. And yet Abram went. The question

that is obvious at this point is why? Why do

we go even when we are unsure? Why does Abram

follow God's call to this uncertain future? Now

there's lots of possibilities, at least within

Abram's context, that we can point to. Maybe

just the promise of God's blessing, that word

bless, is sprinkled throughout these four verses.

Maybe just the promise of God's blessing is enough

to make Abram and Sarai feel confident enough

to take those first steps. Maybe two, because

we've just learned at the end of chapter 11 that

Sarai is barren. This is a theme that will continue

throughout Abraham and Sarah's story. Maybe the

promise that God will make them the parents of

a great nation, no matter how unlikely, how unlikely

it is that that will ever actually happen. Maybe

just that one pinprick of hope is enough to make

them say yes. But I actually think maybe there's

a simpler answer. I think perhaps, perhaps Abram

goes, perhaps we go, simply because God calls.

So we're starting this series. It was supposed

to start last week. The snow sort of disrupted

everything. But this series, God's Vision for

Us, and it's intentionally meant to sort of parlay

with our vision work that we've been doing as

a church. Many of you participated in listening

sessions or a survey last year. That work is

about to finish. We're about to offer a report

to our session, to those leaders, and then we're

going to offer that to the congregation as our

roadmap, our map for what is ahead. point us

in a new direction. And so this series, God's

Vision for Us, is meant to go with that. It's

meant to ask, what lessons does Scripture have

to teach us about God's vision, both for our

church, but also for our individual lives? And

I think the first lesson, the first lesson offered

to us today through this call of Abram and Sarai,

is that in order to know God's vision, we must

first learn to recognize God's voice. Before

Abram knows where he is going, he knows who is

speaking. You see, vision in Scripture, and we

have all of these different stories where vision

is offered to individuals or communities or to

a world. Vision in Scripture is rarely about

having the full picture. It's about trusting.

the one who holds the full picture. It's like

Leslie was talking about with our children. When

we face those scary things, can we trust that

there is one who goes with us? It's about being

willing to take that step, that very first step,

even when the map we are stepping onto is incomplete.

Abram does not go in this story because he has

every detail figured out. Remember, we've only

known him for eight verses. There's no way he

fully has it put together what is about to happen.

Rather, he goes because he has heard the voice

of the one who calls him blessed, the one who

calls him beloved. Now, it's worth offering a

note here because I don't know about you, but

there's lots of voices that bounce through my

head every once in a while. Don't be scared by

that. And certainly all of us, we are awash in

voices every moment of every day. People who

are willing to tell us what God's vision is for

us. So how do we tell the difference between

those voices and God's voice? We talked about

this at that... training session on Wednesday

that Presbyterians, in my opinion, actually have

a pretty good response to that. You can discern

God's voice by praying, by studying scripture,

and by actually turning to others who are in

community with you and asking them, do you hear,

do you see what I hear and what I see? We always

talk in our tradition about being a connectional

church. We don't believe that we get to do this

faith business alone, whether individually or

as a congregation. We are connected to others,

and that's not by accident. We're called to actually

turn to those who we are in community with and

to ask them, are you hearing, are you sensing

what I'm hearing, what I'm sensing? Abram goes,

not because he knows where it is he is going,

but because he has heard the voice of the one

who calls him and each of us blessed and beloved.

And I'm mindful as I stand here and just look

out across this space about how many incomplete

maps there are here today. about how many unseen

things each of us are carrying. In this space,

right here, right now, there are unseen decisions.

Maybe it's about your job. Do I stay? Do I go?

Do I risk something new? Unseen decisions may

be about a relationship, whether to begin one

or to end one. There are unseen struggles. So

many. Maybe it's struggles about school. Maybe

it's struggles about an illness that we're facing.

Maybe struggles with addiction, with anxiety,

with grief. So many unseen questions. Questions

about calling, purpose, and faith. All of us

stand at places where the path ahead is not clear.

And the temptation for us, the temptation can

be to wait. I'm just going to wait it out. Wait

until it does become clear. Wait until it does

feel safe. Wait until that thing I'm hoping for

is actually guaranteed to actually happen. But

the story of Abram and Sarai, the story of God's

blessing being stitched back, into the world

after the train wreck of chapters 3 to 11. The

story of God's blessing being stitched back into

the world, of God's rescue plan beginning to

unfold, it moves forward because someone trusted

the voice of God more than the comfort of Haran.

See, friends, when we choose the path that might

unsettle us. When we trust that there is one

who sees the things that we cannot yet see. When

we take that step, our yeses, our yeses become

threads in God's healing of the world. There's

that piece in this passage we shouldn't overlook.

where God tells Abram and Sarai, I will bless

you that you might be a blessing for others.

There is this reality that when we trust in the

unseen, when we are faithful in taking the step

onto that incomplete map, God can use our yes

to bring healing to churches, to communities,

to the world. To those who maybe we are sitting

beside in this very moment. We don't always understand

how it all connects. And I'm here to tell you,

I love to connect the dots more than anyone.

We do not always control how that story will

unfold when we take that first step. And I, for

one, love to be in control. We do not always

know. what it's going to look like. And oftentimes,

friends, I hate to break it to you, but what

we imagine it looking like in our future is not

always the same as what God imagines. And yet,

and I know how crazy this sounds, and yet, Abram

went. And so do we. Friends, will you pray with

me? Gracious and loving God, for the faithfulness

with which you abide in our lives and in your

world, we give you thanks. God, there is so much

unseen before us today. So much unseen and unknown

about not just what tomorrow will bring, but

what our next breath might bring. Assure us once

more, O God, that we do not step alone. Tune

our hearts once more, O God, to hear your voice,

to be courageous in following it. We pray it

in the name of the one who leads us now and always,

your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.