Pivot Our Lives Toward Jesus

Homily for Sunday, February 25
The Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a
John 3:1-17

“Go,” said God to Abram in this morning’s lesson from Genesis.  “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”  It is not by accident that this reading from Genesis is in our lectionary this morning as we look toward the baptism of Amelia and Jess at the Easter Vigil.  Today’s reading from Genesis has been used since the early Church to tell us something about what it means to live as the baptized.  

First, some context… This morning’s reading from Genesis chapter 12 comes on the heels of two chapters of genealogy in which we read passages such as “The descendants of Japheth [are] Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras” (10:2); and, “The descendants of Shem [are] Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud,and Aram (10:22); and so on and so forth until we come to…

Terah was the father of Abram… Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot… and his daughter in-law Sarai… and [and this is important] they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there (11:31).

By the time of this morning’s reading, the Bible is not even twelve chapters old.  And yet the two chapters preceding today’s lesson (chapters 10 and 11) and still another earlier chapter in Genesis (chapter 5) are spent with genealogy.  Genealogy was so important to the authors o Genesis that three of the Bible’s first eleven chapters are genealogy.  The role that genealogy plays, what genealogy does for a text, is to serve as an anchor. Genealogy anchors a character in both time and space and also in the character’s relation to others, so that the character has ground from which to pivot to something new.  Wherever there is genealogy, we know that the character is about to enter something new.  And – sure enough – after two chapters of genealogy, in the opening verse of chapter 12 God tells Abram to, “Go!”  “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”    

I’m going to take a few lines of this passage and tell how they might relate not just to Amelia and Jess but to all of us who are baptized…

What Baptism asks us to do is to “Go from our country and our kindred and our father’s house.”  Which is not to say that Baptism asks us to leave behind families and friends.  But – taking our cue from the Bible’s use of genealogy – going from “our country and our kindred and our father’s house” is to say:  “Keeping your family and those close to you and allowing them to serve as an anchor, use that firm place to be the ground from which you pivot into a new place.” God gathers up and uses all our relationships and all our past to serve as a firm ground from which we can pivot into something new.   God is calling you, Amelia and Jess, and God calls all of us who are baptized, to use the “ground” of our relationships and of our past to pivot and to grow into a place that is even more expansive, into a life even more filled with blessing.

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Note that God does not give Abram a destination; God tells Abram only to “Go… to the land that I will show you.”  God is showing you, Jess and Amelia, and God will continue to show you throughout your lives, the “land”to which God is leading you.  Those of us who meet with you after the liturgy can help point you toward this “land.”  And all of us who are baptized, by our lives and witness, can help point Jess and Amelia toward this “land.”  But ultimately like Abram, we the baptized are called to listen and to be open to an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus, who continually shows us the way to this “land.”  We may not know exactly the destination, but if we like Abram “go” following God’s call, the Lord will lead us.

“So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.”  Abram heard God’s call and obeyed.  Jess and Amelia and all of us, whether we are consciously aware of it or not, we have heard God’s call and obeyed: God has called you, Jess and Amelia, to “go,” and here you are in the process of preparing for Baptism; God has called each of us to “go,” and here we are continuing to gather to hear God’s word and to celebrate the Eucharist.  Ideally our lives as disciples are one long journey of “hearing” and then “going.” To borrow a line from the Baptismal liturgy, “with God’s help,” may we continue to “hear” and to “go” throughout our lives.

“So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.”  Notice how Abram did not travel alone, but “Lot went with him.”  Jess and Amelia, you are not making this journey alone; we are here with you.  Though it may be tempting at times to go it alone, the journey of being a disciple of Jesus is best made in company.  It was not for nothing that Lot went with Abram; it was not for nothing that Jesus surrounded himself with “the twelve,”or that the Apostle Paul travelled with Barnabus or John Mark or Silas.  I encourage all of us always be part of a Christian community, to always have a “Lot” to go with us and to surround ourselves with “a twelve.”  Though community is sometimes difficult, in the end being a disciple of Jesus is best done in company.

And lastly, recall how I mentioned that the passage about Terah, Abram, Sarai and Lot “going out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan,” was an important passage, “but when they came to Haran, they settled there”?  When God called Abram, even though the genealogies of the preceding chapters had anchored him in a place and time and in relation to others, yet Abram was not “home.” Canaan eventually would become the Hebrews’ home; “but when they came to Haran, [Abram] settled there” instead. Jess and Amelia, you temporarily may have “settled” elsewhere, but Jesus is calling you to be “home” in his body, the Church, among us the baptized.  And all of us who are baptized, if at times we are tempted to “settle” elsewhere, know that God is calling us to “go,” to pivot our lives toward Jesus, and to find our home with him.

In a moment we will recite the Creed, which is a genealogy of sorts, anchoring us in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Then we will pray, practicing intimacy with Jesus by speaking to him.  And then we will go on to the Eucharist, which is the food served at the table in our “home,” food that nurtures us and gives us strength so that we might indeed pivot as needed and “Go… to the land that God is showing us.”

I invite us in the coming weeks to hold especially Amelia and Jess in our prayers, and to also pray for us that we might faithfully companion them as they – as we – “go” to the “land” that the Lord our God is showing us.

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