Sermons

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Then God Said . . . “Go,” Part I
November 10 , 2002
Pastor Dan Baumgartner
Tenth in a sermon series, "Back to the Beginning," on Genesis
Genesis 11:30-12:4

It’s good to be together, isn’t it? And to have the privilege of reading God’s Word together. We’ve been reading through most of the first 11 chapters of Genesis this fall. These chapters have contained really the history of all people, and have tackled some of the most universal of questions:

• How was the world created?
• What is a human being?
• What is God’s intention for the relationship between people?
• Where did evil come from?

By the time we arrive at the end of chapter 11, it is clear that things are very, very far from the way God intended them to be (starting out in Genesis 1).

The world, and human beings…went badly astray. It’s all there in 11 chapters, even despite Noah’s story and God’s covenant…everything is messed up. So where to from here?

God begins to call…A people. A family, even, to be His people, His family.

So this guy Terah lives in “Ur of the Chaldeans,” in what today would be southern Iraq. And he takes his family, his son Abram and daughter-in-law Saraii, the ones who cannot bear children. And he moves Northwest, following the Euphrates river. He intends on eventually heading south toward the land of Canaan…where we would think of modern day Israel and Palestine. But when Terah gets to Haran, before heading south…for some reason, he stops and settles in. The family calls it home. They find community, they make a living, they buy some land and a house.

Eventually Terah dies. Abram and Saraii are now head of the clan, and there they sit, entrenched. And then it happens. The Lord speaks to Abram. The Lord SPEAKS to Abram! The Lord has been speaking all over Genesis … spoke the world into existence, spoke to Adam, spoke to Noah … and now he speaks to Abram and says very simply, “Go.” Such a little word for such a big, risky act.

Now, I have to tell you right now … I come from a family that typically avoids risk. In fact, is VERY risk-averse. My parents landed in Seattle when they were seventeen. My dad never changed jobs his entire career…45 years. I never stepped on an airplane until after college. Our longest vacation was out to the Washington coast. We never, ever moved…in fact, my folks still live in the house I grew up in on Queen Anne. We never heard “go,” and we never went!

But to Abram, God says, “Go.”

So why did God pick ABRAM to give this message to? Why Abram? Because, as he had with Noah, God perceived Abram to be a very righteous man? We’re not told that here.

Because Abram was a man of such impeccable character? Unlikely…in future chapters, two times Abram will tell his wife Saraii to pretend she is his sister, not his wife, to save his own neck. Even to the point of her being taken by another man! No, it isn’t because Abram is extra righteous, or has spotless integrity. And in future years, Abram will doubt God, he will take decisions into his own hands…no, it isn’t because of Abram’s deep faith. In fact…we just don’t know why it is Abram that God speaks to. Abram is simply chosen by God. We would call that grace.

I’m not sure God knew what he was doing when he asked Abram to pack up and move. Did He? It is a HUGE undertaking.

Since 1992 Anne and I and the kids have moved three times, the last time from Minneapolis back to Seattle. I vividly remember the weeks of work packing up the household, and the sound of strapping tape closing cardboard boxes. I remember perfectly the big moving van pulling up to the house. But more than that, I remember all of the painful goodbyes. I remember driving “one more” time past our friends’ houses, past my favorite coffee shop, past Broder’s, our favorite pizza place. I remember driving past the lake where we had biked and skated and gone running. We finally drove off in tears. It’s a huge thing to move. And all of the second thoughts. “Are we really supposed to be leaving? Will we ever find friends like we have now? We were just getting really settled in, getting comfortable.” There’s lots of risks in moving.

The Lord says to Abram: “GO.” GO from your country (with all its familiar landmarks and customs). GO from your kindred (all of the people you are familiar with... no more seeing Uncle Bob down at the market, or strange Cousin Agnes at the Thanksgiving dinner). GO from your father’s house (all of your closer family). In other words, leave every familiar, comfortable, secure thing that has become your life. Leave them, Abram: “GO.”

If God had stopped right there with Abram, it probably would have been okay. Difficult, but okay. But God doesn’t stop there. Instead, he keeps talking, and says some truly outlandish things. Three preposterous things. Literally three things Abram couldn’t even imagine, let alone believe.

1. “Abram, GO and I will make of you a great nation.” Hah! Abram and Saraii are 75 years old, and have no children, are UNABLE to have children. And God says GO, and you’ll have a huge family … eventually, “as many as there are stars in the sky.” Abram’s NAME itself will one day be changed from Abram (“ancestor”) to Abraham (“ancestor of a multitude”). It was laughable.
2. “Abram, GO and I will make your name great.” Already, as we saw with the Tower of Babel, humans were concerned with making their own names great…and maybe Abram had already started there in Haran, with people who knew him…but God says, “Leave that part up to me…you just GO.”
3. “Abram, GO and you will be a blessing to ALL the families of the earth.” God, you see, has plans beyond just the formation of Abram’s immediate family. Bigger than just worrying about one group of people. God has not abandoned his intentions for ALL of humanity, for ALL of the earth. God has not, in fact, changed his mind…and he intends on using Abram and his family to redeem all people.

It all starts out with this two-letter word, “GO.” If Abram hears the word and doesn’t go…it’s all over, before it even really begins. It’s an amazing thing, isn’t it, that the God of the universe puts into the hands of silly, safety-seeking people…the risky proposition to redeem the earth?

“Abram, GO. Go to the land that I will show you.” If Abram doesn’t go, it doesn’t matter what might happen in the new land, it doesn’t matter how enticing the rewards could be if Abram won’t take the risk. “Abram, GO.”

It is a risky proposition. And if Abram is going to go, he is going to have to trust the voice that sends him out. That is why this quickly becomes… a matter of faith. A matter of trust. Abram is in this amazing position, this crossroads. I imagine him standing at an intersection between two roads, out in the middle of acres and acres of wheat fields. He looks around the horizon. It’s this pivotal moment. What will guide His life? One road will lead towards home, where he knows everyone and everything, and it is terribly familiar and comfortable. The other road has only the whisper of God’s voice, and leads off into the complete unknown. What will it be, Abram? Abram is being asked to trust God for his future…and it’s in that risky position that things will begin to happen. Incredible things.

It almost makes you wonder, doesn’t it…do WE have to take risks…in order for our faith to grow? Do we have to step (or get pushed) outside of our comfort zones…to really learn how to trust God?

In China (you knew I was going to talk about China!)…this certainly seemed to be the case. I was talking with some of our group this week, and somebody said, “You know…every time we took a risk…that’s where we found God really meeting us.” And when you look back through the trip, it is absolutely true. The really profound moments, the places where we found Jesus right with us…were the places that we stepped out of where we were comfortable.

There was one day, as we drove from Beijing to Inner Mongolia on a bouncing bus (yep, one of those rides you see in movies, swerving around bikes with crates of chickens, and wagons loaded down with straw). Brad had the driver pull over so we could see a tiny little village. A nameless, faceless village, of which there are millions in China. No particular reason to pick this one. But we stopped, and there was a little main street, and what looked like a grocery store. A few flakes of snow were coming down. A few people loitering around, gawking at the 10 Anglos getting off a van in their village. It wasn’t an everyday occurrence. There was a gate right next to where we parked, and if you peeked over the top, you could tell it led to a courtyard that had several households in it. Brad poked open the gate, looked at a couple of us, and said, “Let’s go in!” Instantly, every American and human instinct took over. “You don’t just walk into someone’s front yard, do you? Isn’t it rude? Is it safe? Is this really okay?” Some hung back…but gradually we ended up in the courtyard with the goat and the chickens that were there.

An old Chinese woman, a “granny” with a bright cap sat looking out of a window, a woman with the most fascinating face, lined and wrinkled as though she had a line for each worry she’d ever had. A woman came out of her house, fascinated at who had showed up in her world…and wanted us to go in. Should we? Was it okay? Oh, we wouldn’t want to impose? But we all ended up there in sort of a living room, in front of the granny. Fortunately our translator was with us.

As we visited a bit with the woman, someone noticed a cross on the wall, on a Christian calendar. That was very unusual, in the middle of rural China. Was she a Christian? “Oh, yes,” the answer came back. She had actually met the Lord through a pastor way back in her twenties. Now she was in her eighties. She hadn’t been to church much, she said (no surprise, as there wouldn’t have been a church for many miles), and she couldn’t see to read much anymore. But she had a worn old Bible on a shelf that she was eager to show us. After we’d talked for a bit, we asked if we could pray with her. She was eager for that too, and before we knew it she’d hopped up on her knees and folded her hands to pray like she was eighteen, not eighty-three. We prayed with her there in that tiny little house. It was then we had that feeling that we were standing on holy ground before God. After we prayed, in this beautiful moment, somebody said, “How about if we sing?” So the translator asked, “Could we sing for you?” And she eagerly said, “Yes.” But she misunderstood. She thought we wanted HER to sing. So she quickly spit out her two false teeth, and immediately broke into an old Chinese hymn, singing with gusto. When she was done, we sang Jesus to her.

It was one of those magic moments, full of God. The odds against our bus stopping in that village, of us picking that gate to walk through, of there even being a Christian person in the vicinity, of us finding our way to her…were astronomically against ever happening. But there we were. And in just the very, very small “risk” of walking through the gate, just past where it was comfortable…God met us and touched us…and her, I think…in a very profound moment. And I confess to you…if left to my own devices…I would STILL be standing outside that gate. But it was upon walking through that God met us. Literally, it seemed to happen like that the entire trip.

Anne and I went out to dinner on Friday, and we were talking about this. I said, “Think back through the significant times you’ve had with God this year…how many of them were attached to taking a risk?” Almost all. She asked me the same thing. Same answer. Almost all.

When we are put in a position of risk, God meets us there. I’ve learned something from one of our elders here at Bethany. Two times, now, I’ve been on the phone at the last minute with this person to see if she could fill in for leading worship or participating in a meeting. Both times, after my request, there’s a pause on the other end for the phone, and then the answer: “Well, that sounds uncomfortable and makes me a little anxious…so I guess I’d better do it!” She already knows what I’m being reminded of: God meets us in these places of risk.

Friends, I believe that God is quite possibly telling you, somewhere in your life right now, in some small or large way…what he told Abram. “Go.” It might not be a geographic journey…just a journey out of the comfortable, or the complacent. In some manner, away from the things that provide security and safety…because when your whole life is lived in those places…you are not dependent on God. Where is that for you? Risking in a relationship? In switching jobs? In leading worship? Maybe God is calling you to take a risk in your financial giving, or your lifestyle in some way. Asking NOT just for the sake of risk…but asking you to put yourself in a position where you have to trust Him for your future.

The word from God to Abram is a word for the future…to a family that just moments before didn’t HAVE a future. Abram and Saraii couldn’t have kids, and in that culture, children WERE the future.

It’s also a word for the future that keeps speaking thousands of years later, when the lights went out on a drama played out on a hill called Calvary. A hill where God’s long-promised, long-awaited Messiah, Jesus the Christ is dead. And buried. A time when the human race is once again, and this time with finality…in a place with no future. But even then…God had his original intentions in mind, the redemption of all the earth in mind. The resurrection of Jesus Christ shouted out HOPE, it gave people the means to TRUST…that they truly were people with a future…in an earthly life, and beyond.

And while the resurrected Jesus was still on the earth for a short time…guess what HE said?” “GO! Into all the world…and make disciples of all nations.” Same God. Same intentions. Working towards the same thing: the redemption of all people. You. And Me.

So…how about you? Is there an area of life, somewhere geographic or relational, career or spiritual, that God is calling you to take a risk, to step outside of the comfortable and secure…somewhere He is saying to you: “GO!”? That’s what God said to Abram. “And…” the scripture simply says, “Abram went.” Let’s pray.