Scripture can be found here…
Do you remember that song by that band, Fastball? From the late 90’s?
“They made up their minds, and they started packing…
They left before the sun came up that day
An exit to eternal summer slacking
But where were they going without ever knowing the way…”
That song always reminds me of Abraham and Sarah…
Here they are. Abraham is 75. Sarah, we will learn later, is ten years younger, so she’s 65. And God, for reasons known only to the divine mind, zeroes in on this couple, and says you. Yes, you.
Get up and go!
Those are the first two words of this reading in Hebrew. “Lekh Lekah: Get Up And Go!”
And how quickly, how without hesitation Abraham gathers together all his worldly goods… tents and flocks and herds and humans… and answers this call with a resounding “Yes”! How very eagerly this senior couple embarks on this journey that they will be on for the rest of their lives!
God doesn’t soften the request either: Go, God says, from everything and everyone you know, everything and everyone familiar to you. Leave your home and don’t look back, because I have another plan for you.
Maybe there’s no hesitation because of the promise God makes to Abraham: I will make you a great nation.
Now, when the Hebrew Scriptures talk about nations, they don’t have the same thing in mind that we do. They are not thinking of a specific geographic place, surrounded by a particular border, with a particular kind of government, and a certain way of choosing their leadership, complete with national anthems and flags.
In the bible, a “nation” is really a tribe, a people. God promises that Abraham will be first in a long line of people. God promises that he’ll be the patriarch of an enormous and powerful tribe. That he, through his offspring, will be great.
Or maybe it’s God’s promised blessing. I will bless you, God says. I will bless those who bless you; and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
An amazing set of promises: Abraham (and Sarah… God eventually clarifies this) will be the ancestors of a great people. And blessing will be poured out upon them so abundantly, it will flow through them to the whole world. No wonder they didn’t hesitate!
But wait. God says, Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
But God does not say which land that land will be. Not yet. Not at first.
Abraham and Sarah, and Abe’s nephew Lot, and their flocks and herds and humans and tents leave Haran (that’s Turkey to you and me) with their the large caravan and travel about 500 miles to Canaan (and that is the modern state of Israel).
But God doesn’t tell them where to go. God says, Go, and I’ll show you… later.
And it’s only after the five-hundred mile journey—which would have taken them about a month—it was only then that God spoke up. It was only after Abraham had come upon a sacred place—Shechem with its sacred oaks, terebinths—and recognized for what it was, what Celtic spirituality would call “a thin place,” with the presence of God buzzing and flowing. And of course, Abraham settles there. If there’s holiness, there should be Abraham’s God.
And it’s only after all that—the five hundred mile journey, and the discovery of the holy place—that God says,
Here. Of course. Canaan. This is the land I will give to you and all those children who will number as many as the stars, who will be as plentiful as the grains of sand on all those beaches I made.
So, where were they going without ever knowing the way?
That’s always the question, isn’t it? I mean, we can look at our lives in one of two ways. We can say, “Every choice I’ve ever made has led me to this place… it all makes sense.” Or, with David Byrne, we can ask, “How did I get here?”
And both are true, I suppose.
But this is the story of faith. God invites us on a journey. And we take God up on it… sometimes, with a very clear idea of where we’re going, and other times, without one single clue.
Many of us are in that latter category these days—people who had real and specific plans that have been turned topsy turvy by the events of the past few months. People who had a great Plan A, and then a good Plan B, and who just about now are zeroing in on plans D, E, and F.
God may have another idea. An idea that, when you first catch a glimpse of it, seems both wondrous and absurd. Like, the best idea ever AND the most impossible idea ever. One of the gifts/ challenges of being human is learning to live in just that tension… learning that there are times in our lives when we just don’t know.
Where are we going, without ever knowing the way?
You know what? It’s ok. It’s ok not to know. It’s ok to be in a time-of-not-knowing. God is big enough and bold enough to hold us in and through times like this… and mischievous enough to throw us curve balls at just the time we’re ready to swing away. Or maybe a little sooner than that. Or a little later. But God is with us, whatever state of readiness we’re in.
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the bible, at a whopping 176 verses. Fun fact! It’s written as an acrostic, with twenty-two stanzas, each stanza starting with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Verse 105 begins with the Hebrew equivalent of the letter “N,” with the word “ner,” which means “lamp.”
In Hebrew it reads, “Lamp for my feet, your word! Light for my tracks.”
Your word, O Lord, is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. Which is a funny image, if you think about it, because a lamp held at foot level is only good for the next step or two, for making sure you don’t trip over this rock, or that crack in the sidewalk. God’s word is a lamp to our feet, though, which enables us to set out on a journey, without ever knowing the way, but knowing that we’re not alone, and, if we watch our step, we’ll have just enough light to keep from stumbling badly. A constant presence, a humble guide.
I’d like to share a prayer with you that I discovered recently. It’s from the Lutheran tradition, and it seems to me to be just the right prayer for a time such as this; as well as for Abraham and Sarah’s story. It’s called the Prayer of Good Courage:
O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God is with us. God is with us when we know exactly where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there, and which birds we might be able to spot on the way.
And God is with us when we set out on an uncertain path to a place we can’t imagine, with provisions and reassurance and a lamp, just about at foot level, so that we can take one step at a time.
God is with us.
Thanks be to God. Amen.