A Promised Life

 September 25 2022

Genesis 12:1-8

         Many times when I mow my grass I think back to when our son Matt was in middle-school and he really, really wanted an I-Pod. Do you remember the I-Pod, that magical device that could store thousands of your favorite tunes on it? Well, I knew we didn’t have the money to buy it for him so we instead told him that he could use our mower and he could mow people’s lawns all summer and when he had enough money saved up he could get an I-Pod. So, he put out some ads at the Senior Center and different places and soon he was in business which also meant that we were also busy driving him around to all of his customers. I have to say that everything went according to plan because at the end of the summer, Matt had saved enough up to get an I-Pod. That’s the good news, the bad news is that these days the I-Pod is hopelessly obsolete being replaced by cell phones which do just about everything. This is just the way that technology seems to be, isn’t it, the new and latest gadget soon becomes old news, abandoned without much fanfare. All of the newest techie stuff that we used to use and love, like VHS tapes and Walkmans are relegated to the Smithsonian. Even Apple continues to evolve its I-Phone with version number 14 being trotted out this year making my I-Phone 6 seem like a relic. What seems to have happened with technology is that this phenomenon of our world being a place where everything is constantly changing, this just seems to happen at a faster pace.

         Our experience with technology simply reinforces what all of us know to be true but just have a hard time admitting that it is true, namely that there is very little that lasts forever. Now, it may seem odd, but it is this realization that what humanity makes seldom lasts and endures, this is what is has gone before what we learn in our scripture for today. You see, we have to figure out what has happened in the eleventh chapter, to grasp the significance of what is going on in these first few verses of the twelfth chapter of Genesis. What is going on in the eleventh chapter of Genesis is a fairly well known story called the Tower of Babel, which should not be thought of as just some ancient tale but rather a story that describes very much this modern experience of constant change.  The story of the Tower of Babel is a story which begins by telling us that at one time all the people of the whole earth had one language and the same words. In other words, they could communicate effortlessly. So, this helped them immensely when they all came together in the vast plains east of Eden and there they decided to build a city and a tower. They worked together making bricks out of clay, firing them until they hardened, ready to be given to the brick layers who used tar dug out of pits in the ground, to build a huge structure that climbed up to the clouds. So, here we have people, making something new, something that had never been built, a tower so high that its very nose could poke through the veil that separated heaven and earth. The whole reason that they were putting forth such effort is that they desired to make a name for themselves. Again, this is not much different than what we see now, people building whatever their imaginations can think up all so that their name might become famous. We know of Ford and Chevy and Walton of Wal-Mart fame, and on and on. All those who start out as simple entrepreneurs want to make a name for themselves. Well, these people building this tower were no different, they wanted people to know their name, that here were the best tower builders ever. This most surely would have happened if only all of their building had not caught the attention of God who, we are told, came down to the job site and he did something very strange; God confused their language. God made it so that these diligent workers could no longer communicate with each other, which put the brakes on all their efforts to make a name for themselves. The reason that God did such a strange thing is that if he did not do something to make so the human race could no longer understand each other then nothing that humanity could propose would be impossible to do. As we read this, we are left wondering just why would God think that people working together would be a bad thing, something that God should intervene in a big way and not let happen? The answer just might be what we already know, and that is that nothing that humanity proposes and builds ever lasts. Just like all the wondrous gadgetry that we used to love, everything eventually becomes obsolete. The greatest schemes, the most impossible of endeavors all in the end get mothballed all so that the next impossibility might be worked on and brought into our reality. Over and over again, we have people busying themselves with projects that seem daunting, projects that seem impossible, but in the end through countless hours of blood, sweat and toil the difficulties are overcome all so that in a relatively short time said project is no longer necessary or wanted by anyone. So, people become so focused on achieving the impossible, all so that their name might be held in high esteem to the point that the real work God has always had for humanity gets lost in the shuffle. You see, the problem is that we as people can get so caught up in being busy that we forget just what it is that we are to be busy doing. The clue as to what God expects us to be doing is found in this strange statement that tells at the end of the eleventh chapter, God dispersed humanity all over the face of the earth. Why was it so important that humanity be found throughout all of God’s creation? The answer is found in the first chapter of Genesis where we are told that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Then the story continues and we are told that “God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth...” So, the original mandate that God had for his highest creation was that they were to fill the earth bearing his image out to the farthest ends of the world. What happened between God creating humanity in his image and these image bearers being found throughout this world God had created is this strange act of God, this blessing of his highest creation so that they might be fruitful and multiply. So, it appears that what God is doing after the building of the Tower of Babel is that he is going back to the beginning, working back by first filling the earth and, as we soon find out, God is going to bless his people once again.

         With the story of the Tower of Babel as the backstory we come, at last, to our scripture for today. Here, like in the story of Noah, we discover that God brings his world back to its original intent through a promise. This time though, the promise God makes is not to all of creation but rather his promise is made to one man and his wife. This man is called Abram and his wife is named Sarai. Their journey with God begins when Abram hears a voice, a voice which tells him that he must cut ties with all that anchors a person, to leave his homeland, to say good-bye to his network of friends and family, to head down the road from the home he had grown up in, ceasing forever to be the dutiful son, all because he has heard a voice whispering in his ear that now is the time to go. And where will you go Abram? We can hear the concerned voices probing as to know just what might the plans be for him and his wife but alas there were no itinerary just a summons to go. And go he went. Where the people who built their grand tower did so east of Eden, Abram instead went west of there, going across the river, from which the name, Hebrew, is derived. Abram went hoping that the voice which had told him to go would be polite enough to once again whisper in his ear and let him know when he had arrived. Yet, even so, he knew there was reason to trust this voice because this voice had made to him some fairly audacious promises such as that this voice was the one who would make of Abram, a great nation. How could such a thing be even possible when Abram and his wife Sarai were two old people long past being able to have the children they had hoped for? Where the people who gathered on the plain east of Eden had gathered to make something great out of the something of the earth, here God was going to make something great out of the nothingness of two people’s lives. God was going to do the impossible for this is what God does, and he does so through speaking forth life in what we call his blessing. This word, “blessing”, is rather difficult to define but it can best be thought of words which signify that the one who blesses is united with the one on whom they place their blessing. When God blesses Abram he is stating that he is in a profound relationship with him, one where the life of God is pledged to be united with Abram and his family.  This is why Abram was told that he would be a blessing himself because in him others would come to experience the very life of God. So, unlike the people who came together and became united in their efforts to build a great tower, here there is a unity that begins when God unites his life with the life of Abram. Through this blessing that God speaks forth upon Abram, we are told that all of the families of the earth will be blessed. This is the way that humanity is supposed to be united together not through attempting to fulfill some seemingly impossible project but through being blessed by God through Abram. And just as the people who built the great tower did so because they desired their name to be great, here as God speaks to Abram we find that it is God himself who will make the name of Abram great. The greatness of Abram then was not dependent upon his effort or ability but rather he would be remembered because God remembered him.

         Now, what is also interesting is that God tells Abram that those who blessed him would be blessed and those who dishonor Abram would be cursed. These words sound harsh to us but what must be remembered is that Abram was to be the one whose life bore the marks of being united with God. For a person to come against Abram meant that they were also coming against God and if a person is against God they by all means would be cursed. The point is that the blessing experienced by Abram was all about God uniting himself with Abram therefore if someone was against Abram then quite naturally they would be against God. Through uniting his life with the life of Abram, this act of blessing, God was going to bring the people he had created back to fulfill the purpose for which he had created them, to bear his image out in the world. The problem is as Paul teaches us in the first chapter of Romans is that even though people “knew God they did not worship him as God or give thanks to God but instead they became futile in their thinking.” Through God’s blessing of Abram people would come to know and experience the life of God freely given to them which would hopefully result in those who received this blessing a response of gratitude, thankful that the life of God being united with their life was what God desired most of all. This meant then that they would find God worthy of their praise and obedience because they had at last understood that they were found worthy to be blessed by God out of his sheer unmerited grace. In this way they would be at last set free from the thinking about achieving the impossible which was just an exercise in futility.

         Well, all Abram has at the beginning of his story with God is a promise, a promise to make out of the nothingness of his life, something great, a nation whose existence only lay somewhere out in the distant future. This God whose voice had called Abram from all security promised to bless Abram, to unite his life with the life of Abram so that Abram would be known as being a great man of God so that Abram himself would be a living vessel of blessing. Through this one man in a far and distant place, God states that every family all around the world would come to experience the blessing of God, the same blessing that Abram was about to experience. Even so, all of this lay ahead of Abram, none of what this voice had whispered had yet been actually experienced by Abram, yet even so, Abram went and listened to that voice. When we read such great promises given to Abram we quite naturally wonder, did these promises that God had made to him, come true? Here we must once again heed what Paul wrote in the first chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, that “all the promises of God find their Yes in Jesus Christ.” When Jesus tells us in the tenth chapter of the gospel of John that he has come that we might have life and have it more abundantly, he is speaking of a life that is blessed by God. Jesus has come so that we might understand that the truly abundant life is the blessed life. This is what Paul also understood because as we read in his letter to the Galatians, Paul tells us in the third chapter that God preached the gospel before hand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all nations be blessed. So, then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Paul goes on to explain just how this can be so when he adds “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, …so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Jesus our righteous Judge took our place upon the cross, taking upon himself our sin, condemning the sin in our flesh which made us accursed before God so that we might at last be able to receive the blessing God had promised would be ours when he spoke to Abraham so long ago. When we place our faith in Christ, through this gracious act which he has done for us out of his great love for us, we are united with Christ so that as Paul goes on to tell us at the end of this third chapter of Galatians, if “we are Christ’s people, then we are the very children of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.” So, when you and I place our faith in Jesus Christ, we then are people who make up that great nation that was promised to Abraham thousands of years ago. We are living proof that God has made good on his promise, living examples that the word of God is true. As Abram was blessed by God, God having spoke his solemn intention to be united forever with Abraham so that the very forces of heaven would be at work in the life of Abram, so now because of the faith we have in Jesus Christ this promise is for us as well. This gift of blessing by God creates in us first a heart of gratitude because the blessing of God needs to be received with glad and thankful hearts and second, our hearts should respond with worship for our God has found us worthy to receive such an amazing gift of grace, a gift obtained through the shed blood of God’s own Son all so that at last we might experience the blessing of God, a life united with the very life of God, a life where all the goodness and glory of heaven is united with our own.

         So, at last we are able to answer the question just what is it that we as people are to be busy with, if chasing after the next big thing is not what God has created us to do? The answer is that God desires that we get busy blessing others just as our forefather Abram was told to do. We need to speak of all of the ways that this God who has united his life with ours has poured out heavens goodness and glory on our lives. We need to acknowledge that God is faithful because we, as the children of Abraham, we are living proof that the promise God made to Abram thousands of years ago is still being fulfilled. Only as those around us know that our God is faithful to fulfill all of his promises, that all of his promises find there yes in Jesus, will people come to have faith in God and they too can know themselves as children of Abram. 

         You see, what we as people can create while often very thrilling, is not a great enough purpose for us who are the very highest of God’s creation. Think of all the seven wonders that used to marvel people that now have turned to dust. All of the kingdoms which once were so feared and so impressive have all become history. No, what goes on is life. It is what God can create out of us, this is what matters. The great nation God promised to Abram goes on because it is blessed by the eternal life of God. This is what God has created us to do with our lives, be a blessing to others so that in some way they might experience the blessing of God for themselves. This is the way the blessed life goes on and on. May this be your experience as well! Amen!