You get a ‘call’ from God…should I go or should I stay? What to
do? Is it really God speaking? Maybe it’s my conscience or maybe I’m just
hearing voices. Can I trust the feeling that I should go? Should I go or should
I stay? What should I do?
I wonder if Abram had questions like this bouncing around inside
his head. I wonder if he lost any sleep pondering this ‘call’ from God. I
wonder if he had doubts. Don’t you wonder the same thing?
Abram wasn’t young when God ‘called’ him; neither was his wife,
Sarai. You know what the scary thing is…if God ‘called’ Abram at 75 then that
means he could ‘call’ us to go on a journey for him…or something equally as
hard, something folks might call foolhardy. I’ve always said there is no early
retirement from this call to be a follower of the Way of Jesus.
In this Lenten season how do you feel God speaking to you? As you
spend time with God what is he ‘calling’ you to do? What do feel him ‘calling’
the Church to do? How does this story from Genesis speak to us today?
Let me ask you something. Have you ever felt or heard God telling
you to do something that the world would call totally inappropriate? Have you
ever sensed God telling you to do something that was a risk? Maybe it was risky
financially or maybe it was a risk in that people would ridicule or think you
foolish for doing it. What did you do?
What Abram did had a certain amount of risk and danger. Don’t you
think that his family and friends probably counseled against his going on this
journey? He went anyway and we should thank God for that since we who trust in
Jesus are his ancestors.
So, what is God ‘calling’ us to do during this Lenten season? What
radical journey is God ‘calling’ us to go on? I wonder.
You know some people give up things for Lent. Here’s something
radical. What if we gave up going to church for Lent? What if we closed the
doors and put up a sign that the doors weren’t going to open until Easter
morning?
What if we did that and then went to live somewhere beyond our
community and live simply by faith, kind of like those who are homeless. What
if we just went and lived solely trusting in the things we say we trust in?
What if we became people of the Way like Abram who set out on faith traveling
through the wilderness? What if we gave our weekly nap in church and gave up
our comfortable life?
What if we just went and put our trust in those things we talk
about, the things that give us life and give us the strength to keep going when
life gets tough?
What could we accomplish and how would our lives change if we
trusted God, believed his words, and let them hold and guide us through the
wilderness? What if we only unlocked the doors when the sun rose on Easter
morning?
Would the church be the same? Now that the tomb of Jesus has been
broken open will the church be ready for us?
Until then maybe we should survive on our faith and dreams and
hope. In this wilderness of our world let’s trust these things.
If we took hold of the Lenten gifts of longing, expectation, and
promise do you think we could recognize and know and…believe the resurrection.
What if….?
