The Abrahamic Journey

The New Revised Standard Version The Call of Abram

The Call of Abram

(Acts 7:2–5)

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. 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.”a

Intro

GM, Its been about 6 years since Ive stepped on this stage and given a sermon.

For those who don’t know me, my name is Juli\o and I was the youth pastor here for several years. It was at Olivet that I received my first full time job in ministry, it was during my years at Olivet that I met my wife, it was during my years at Olivet that my first child was born and now he is 7 years old and alost 7 feet tall, It was also at Olivet where I felt a deeper sense in my calling to go on my journey in faith. My years at Olivet were very significant and transformational so it is my honor to be here this morning and share the great news of th e Lord with you today.

In these past 6 years, I have been on a JOURNEY and this journey has had its ups and downs but ultimately I believe it was me answering God’s call to trust and follow in faith, this has been part of my Abrahamic journey, and today we are going to dig into Agraman’s call, his journey, and how that relates to us today, Are you ready to go on this journey?

Let’s pray

Abraham is on a journey... well, surely you mean Abraham WAS on a journey and we will get to that when we go into where Abraham leaves his home snd left for a new destination but I want to show that Abraham is STILL on a journey. This is the journey of the figure of Abraham and his role in the story of Israel, in Christianity, in Judeism, and in Islam. What Abraham stands for what he represents, his vision and ideal, the history and tradition of Abraham. he is journeying with us stopping along the way with our understanding with our lifes and out faith but moves beyonds us to a larger goal a destination of a new creaition..

Now Abrham is the figure and symbol of that new xcreation. We too are on an Abrahamic journey! We are impeled by this compeling figure and so we journey with him, sometimes we are repeled by this hoistoric figure like when he goes to plunge a kniofe into his son Issac and was stopped by the angel “Abram abram stop dont do anything to the boy” did he really thinnk God wanted him to do that? These are issues we wrestle with, is this the type of God we serve? A God whjo commands of me to kill my own child? What kind of God do you serve? but even then something compels us to continue this journey with Abraham.

We all have journeys which take much faith making our lives the unique, adventurous expedition God places us in. Journeys have settings, and characters, plots, and adversities. This are the pieces that make the journey good and interesting. OUr journeys are not two dimentional but a 4 dimensional story with depth and a living message. My story started in Puerto Rico and at this moment is here at a place where I am married with two children and a most wonderful job that serves a great population of students… but in between there were many steps to get here to this moment.

There were characteres such as my mother, who sacrificed all that she had to go and leave her family in order to provide a flourishing future for her and her decendants. There is my wife jennifer whose faithfulness to God has given me a partner in this journey to challenge live’s adversities… many of yu have been important characters in this journey and even this place has been a crustial formind setting to what my life’s journey has been. So what does your journey look like, what does the journey of Olivet look like?

Now Yahweh said to Abram ,

Now Yahweh said to Abram ,

“Go forth from your land and from your family and from your father’s house to the land I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless youzxzxz and I will make your name great, now be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you but the one who disdains you I will curse. And by you, all the families of the earth will bless one another. “

The call of Abraham comes out of nowhere, there is nothing to prepare us for this in any previous account. There is nothing to prepare us and suddenly in 12:1 God speaks, in fact it says Yahwey speaks, the God of Israel, the God who later speaks to Moses and the prophets, this very God, and how odes God speak, iis it in an audible voice, in Abrahams mind? We are not told. God just says GO, the hebrew term is Lekch Lecham (REPREAT). In fact this lectionary readong in hebrew synogouges is known as the Lekch Lecham reading which meand GO FOR YOURSELF. It kinda means You… YES YOU GO! Noboby else, Im talking to YOU. and we are told in verse 4 that Abraham went as Yahwey told him. But what exactly does God tell Abrwham besides just go?

So God’s speech starts with an imperative, “GO, leave, seperate” literally WALK… WALK away from the land, frm the ERETZ (Hebrew) where you are living. Walk away from your large family or clan. Walk away from your father’s house your BET AV. To leave your Father’s house in Hebrew is a term referring to your extended family. Leave your fatther’s extended family and start your own, move on. Walk away from it all God says TO a destination that Im going to show you but Abraham does not know where that is yet, sort of like us in our journey in our walk of faith. We MAY HAVE an inkling towards the direction but not to the Journey’s ends … do any of us know where we are going to end up.. do we know where we will be next year even? but things do get revealed when you walk by faith not sight, things get revealed bit by bit.

The call of Abraham comes out of nowhere, there is nothing to prepare us for this in any previous account. There is nothing to prepare us and suddenly in 12:1 God speaks, in fact it says Yahwey speaks, the God of Israel, the God who later speaks to Moses and the prophets, this very God, and how odes God speak, iis it in an audible voice, in Abrahams mind? We are not told. God just says GO, the hebrew term is Lekch Lecham

Pastor Jin, did you know growing up that one day you would end up here in Pittsgrove NJ? … in the same way, I never thought I w0ould be called to Rochester NY. When I felt tugged awayI had a conversation with God that went a little like this…

Pastor Jin, did you know growing up that one day you would end up here in Pittsgrove? …

God- “Julio”

Julio- “Yes Lord”

God- I want you to Go from your home from your extended family

Julio- “Yes Lord”

God- and go to NY”

Julio- and go to NY”

Julio- “Yes Lord, that sounds like a great idea I love the big city”

God- “Noone says anything about New York City..”

Julio- “Then where?”

God- “Rochester NY”

Julio- “Rochester NY… Noooooooooooooo”

How in the world would I convince my wife to up ad GO, to leave our families and Go, to leave the comfortable jobs and Go and go to Rochester. When i was little I had an uncle who lived in rochester, and al I rememebr was that I hated Rochester, I told myself I would NEVER move to a place like this. but I went in obedience and faith.

Ironically the Lord led me to a place I never wanted to go… my prayer life looks a little different now. Now you catch me praying, “Lord I never want to serve in Rome Italy or in Paris or a tropical island in the beach. Ever try using reverse psychology on God? That doesnt work either.

but it was in faith and in this journey that I went through the hardest struggles of my lif. It was through this harsh storm and dessert that brought me down to humility and showed me te magnificence of a greater God who loves his creation. God does not often call to easy places, nor does he map out a safe journey… and it is through faith that we persevere and grow stronger in our knowledge of God as we continue to travel in our Abrahamic journey.

Ironically the Lord led me to a place I never wanted to go… my prayer life looks a little different now. Now you catch me praying, “Lord I never want to serve in Rome Italy or in Paris or a tropical island in the beach. Ever try using reverse psychology on God? That doesnt work either.

Remember, things do not get revealed when we walk by sight, things get revealed when we walk by faith.

After Abraham bengs his journey in verse 4, at the ruipe old age of 75… (most of us are not there yet so God is still using us) . HE travels all the way to Schechem and then and onoy then does the Lord reveal… THIS is the lnd im going to give you… “Oh thanks alot Lord, but I had to get there first huh?!”

This is the land the Lord gsve the Abraham and his descendants. then he continues his journey with some important promises…

So the first promise God gives Abraham is, “Im going to show you a land” but only if you start journeying.

Then follows a new promise in verse 2 “I’ll make of you a great nation” so begins the two paired promises of Land and descendants that God will grant Abraham tat are defined in the book of Genesis.

I believe this is where the song comes in “Father Abraham had many sonbs and many sons had father abraham...”

THis promise of decendants is going to be challenged by tye childlessness of Abram and Sarai for many many years to come. And this childlessness gets signaled already in the genealogy of Abraham where we are told “Now Sarai was barren and she had no child...” Thats going to be a problem in the promise of dexcendants and you all jknow what happens later on when they take matters into their own hands and tries to find a child through Haggar. but this promise of decendants and the promise of land will be directly challenged by Abraham in chapter 15 when “What are you going to give me Lord… Im childless.” Then later on, “how do I know Im going to have the land” and the Lord actually answers him. But God does not just promise him descendants his promises are more specific than that. “Your decendants will be so many, there will be a nation. Later on in the book of Gebnnesis God REAFFIRMSand expands the promise stating that Abreaham’s decendants are so numerous they’ll be like the dust of the earth, like the sand on the seashore, like the stars in the heaven and not only will his descendants be a great or large nation but they wil be a source of many naitons and even kings will come from his line. Thats quite the promise and future God has for this man. At the age of 75 … this could only take faith.

Before we even see the fruit of the promise we see God in chapter 12 God begins to flesh out the promise by adding in verse 2 “I WILL BLESS YOU” that is I wil cause you and your decendants to flourish.

Now blessings in hebrew ABARAKAH, is one of the most complicated words in the bible for flourishing for . Christians like to quote the word SHALOM as a metaphor for blessing and healing but it is actually the word Abarakah blessing that is the broadest term in the bible itself.

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So Im going to make you a GREAT NATION, im going to BLESS YOU, and finally God adds I will mske your name great… I will make your reputation great.

So we have three pro,mises in a row in vesrr two.. one generalized promise of blessing sandwiched between tewo specific promises of greatness… GREAT NATION, BLESSINGS, GREAT NAME.

We’ve touched on great NATION, also on the blessing the Abarakah, now we see a GREAT NAME.

Here this promise of a grest name ecchoes fromt he previous chapter in the story of Bavel. In the tower of Bavel we have the builders of a city decide they want to make a great name for themselves in the building of a cityby their imperial civilization built as we now know on the back of slaves. They hope for great reputation one that would earn for themselves that the nations of the world would know who they are. and today we know the name. Babylon. They have become the symbol of greatness in a certain cense. In the book of Revelation babylon is a symbol for the roman empire, for corporate systemic evil.

So the story of Genesius 1-11 that begins with creation and ends with the story of Babel sets up the Abrahamic Journey. It tells of a tragic tale of a world gone wrong. A story that starts with God bringing in a flourishing world that is pronounced VERY GOOD in . Accompanied by Gods gracious call to human beings to be his representatives made in his image to reign on earth till and keep the creational garden. So the bible starts with people and a land and God’s intention for blessingand yet we sought to use our power not to tend creation in stewardship and communitybut we’ve used that power against God in rebellion and against each other in violence.

So if violence fills the earth soubds so modern (this could of been written yesterday but it was written thousands of years ago this means that humans have multiplied and filled the earth as God asked them to do. bit instead of finctioning as God’s representatives and the image of God instead we have filled it with violence and distruction… but the journey has not ended.

God resets the humanity through the flood but that did not stop the problem of evil so he attempts again with Abraham and his journey and the promise of great Nation, Blessings, and Great name.

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