Have No Fear
1 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. 2 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. 3 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." 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.
Genesis 12:1-4
Before Abram left, things were going just fine. They had done pretty well, Abram’s family. They made it halfway to Canaan, which seemed good enough.
Here’s what Genesis says in chapter eleven, right before we get to the part where Abram, or Abraham, packs up and leaves. It says:
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
The word here, settled, I’m sure is just supposed to mean that they lived there. Stopped and stayed a while, set up a few homes, kept the sheep on a shorter leash. But I can’t help but hear the other definition of the word. They settled by only half making it to the promised land. They made it to something good enough and they settled.
Until God goes on ahead to boot Abram and Sarai out into their next big adventure, because apparently, God doesn’t settle.
Once again, this is a bible story I don’t particularly like because it perhaps means a little too much for our lives today. I did not pick this story for the week, this is part of our regularly scheduled lectionary readings. And yet this is also the week in which Ruth and Roger are going to also be on their way and follow their call to Florida. Because apparently they don’t want to settle for Ohio winters anymore, either.
Here we are.
What a miserable, wonderful story about big risks. About not settling. About God being a God of challenge, of the long game, of not stopping halfway.
I think perhaps we are so keen to stop part way because our vision, at least in comparison to God, is so limited. All we can see is where we are. We can’t see the next step, the impossible promises being fulfilled. All we see is Haran and that’s good enough!
Haran forever!
At least that’s what I think.
This halfway point, Harman, might be a little something like this.
Haran is nice. You know where all the grocery stores are. People know your name, your family. We’ve got a little bit of power and privilege in Haran, why give it up?
The church in Haran is especially nice. Our family even donated money to put a plaque on the back pew. You know the songs.
Why leave Haran?
Harman forever.
Other questions we could ask when we are in the middles places, the Harans of the world—why change? Why do anything untested? Why take risks? Why dream big?
If it were up to us, we could stay put. We could settle. Settling is nice. It keeps your heart rate at a nice, even tempo. It means safety. And best of all, you never have to confront the things that scare you. It’s nice to not be scared, to keep your soft underbelly hidden.
But it’s not just us. It’s God at work. And that really just turns this all upside down.
I was inspired this week by the stories I heard from some of you Wednesday night. Which reminds me, here’s your Lenten disclaimer. On Wednesday nights at 6:00 we’re going to be gathering for dinner and a bible study where we study the scripture for the upcoming Sunday. And if you attend this bible study, I may use some of your insights in my teaching, because they’re really good! And if you’re not at the bible study, well, you might as well be because you’re just going to miss half of the good insights about the scripture that I can’t stuff into a Sunday morning sermon.
Anyway.
On Wednesday night, some of you all shared stories about when you heard a voice, more metaphorical than literal, and decided to take a risk, to not settle, and head out to a new adventure. You think Florida is bad? Alphine once moved to Arizona--ask her about it. Doris moved cross country, too. But it wasn’t even just the stories about moves, but also about the call to show up at church, to try a thing that hadn’t been a habit for a while. Some of the stories weren’t so much about showing up somewhere new, but leaving something else behind.
As your pastor, I could not be prouder to hear how you were able to tell stories about God calling you out, about how you didn’t settle halfway but made courageous choices and changes.
There’s this Rumi poem that goes like this:
All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.
-Rumi
Which is to say, have no fear. We’ll end up there, wherever there is.
God doesn’t want us to settle, as much as I want us to settle.
God wants us to have the courage to leave Haran.
Now what leaving Haran looks like for you, I don’t know. Except I know it doesn’t mean all of you now get to go to Florida now, please and thank you.
You might have to clear some space to hear this voice. If you haven’t stopped moving lately, you likely haven’t heard this voice. I think about this for our church as well. God is certainly calling us forward to something. But we might not know exactly what if we don’t listen.
This is a very important part of all of this. Hear me on this—we know from Genesis that God spoke to Abram and called him out and away from Harran, but we don’t know exactly how that message got relayed. I also firmly believe that God was recruiting Sarah, too. She must have gotten some kind of message as well. And when we don’t hear exactly how God has spoken, it allows us to distance the voice of God from our lives. But God is, as we say, still speaking. Which means God is still speaking to you.
You may be skeptical. I get that. I mean look, clearly this is all about Ruth and Roger, right? They heard the call to move and now they’re moving. But what Ruth and Roger are leaving with us with us a model of how to courageously live while listening to God in our lives.
We must listen and open ourselves, without numbing ourselves in the comfort of Harman.
I think we’ve taken powerful steps in this direction with our prayer vigil last year, and our continuing ability to take time to be silent together. I know we have been creating this space because I hear from you about when you’ve taken more time to read scripture, or try a new prayer practice.
You might have started to get a few whispers from God even, while we’ve been camped out in Haran. And we can hear them and go, no thank you. I’m good, I’m safe.
But have no fear. Take courage. There is more to come. God is at work.
Hear these words from Isaiah, words from God.
Listen to Me, you who pursue justice,
You who seek the LORD:
Look back to the rock from which you were dug.
Look back to Abraham your father
And to Sarah who brought you forth.
For he was only one person when I called him,
But I blessed him and made him many.
Isaiah 51:1-2
Have no fear. Look back to Abram, and then look ahead. You don’t have to settle halfway.
Go, said the Lord. So Abram went.