It
\nis commonly said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a
\nsingle step. \u00a0It seems, in this story of Abram, that this is true.
\nGod says \u201cgo\u201d and Abram takes the first step. \u00a0By the accounts of
\nthe Bible, it will be about 2000 miles, this journey he goes on.
\nWhich is about the same distance as walking to Atlanta, Georgia \u2013
\nand back. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
Or,
\nits the same distance as walking the Appalachian Trail (AT) as it
\nwanders from Maine to Georgia. \u00a0Thru hikers on the AT are able to
\nmake the hike in 5-7 months. \u00a0Abram and Sarai will take quite a bit
\nlonger than that.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
Thru
\nhikers on the AT, however, usually have lives to go back to. \u00a0They
\ntake time off, hike the trail (with food mailed to them along the
\nway), and then return to their houses, jobs, families, friends, and
\nformer lives. \u00a0Its said that 3 in 20 people who start out on the AT \u2013
\nusually with the best hiking boots, water sanitizers, backpacks, and
\ntents \u2013 will complete the journey.<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/p>\n
\nAbram
\nand Sarai will eventually complete their journey, albeit with
\ndifferent names by the time they are done. They and Lot and their
\nservants and their animals traveled for 2000 miles and even when they
\n\u201carrived\u201d where they were going, they would never settle. \u00a0The
\nstory claims that Abram was 75 when he left on the journey, and 175
\nwhen he died. The land where he and Sarah were buried \u2013 purchased
\nat Sarah’s death \u2013 would be the only land they would call their own
\nagain. \u00a0There were no more houses that they lived in. \u00a0The rest of
\ntheir lives would be lived in the tents of a nomad. \u00a0Once the journey
\nmoved them from the city of their home, they wouldn’t hear their own
\nlanguage ever again. \u00a0And, maybe it was important, and maybe it
\nwasn’t \u2013 but the religion of his birth \u2013 the gods that the people
\nworshipped in the Land of Ur \u2013 were left behind as well. \u00a0Abraham
\nleft on this new journey called by a God who, as far as we know, had
\nnot spoken to him until God said, \u201cGet up and go.\u201d \u00a0And he left.<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/p>\n
\nAbram,
\nSarai, and Lot model listening to God’s call and trusting that God
\ngoes with us on our journeys. \u00a0 \u00a0That said, sometimes God calls us to
\nstay put too. \u00a0God’s calls can’t be predicted, we aren’t all Abrams
\nand Sarais. \u00a0And while God will call where and how God will call, we
\nall also have yearning for both journey and for stability. \u00a0(Which
\nsometimes matches God’s call and sometimes doesn’t.)<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/p>\n
We
\nwant stability (like
\nPsalm 121): to have a routine, to have deep connections to people
\nwe see on a regular basis, to know and understand the systems and
\ninstitutions around us, to have some predictability to life, to sing
\nsongs we KNOW, to eat familiar food, to have our view of the world
\nunperturbed. \u00a0I have been in Schenectady longer than anywhere else
\nsince I graduated from high school, and I can assure you that there
\nis a magic and a wonder to knowing where you are going without
\nneeding a map, to learning a grocery store well enough that you can
\nmake a shopping list in the order of the store’s aisles, to having
\nyour doctor actually know your medical history, to having colleagues
\nwith whom you’ve built deep trust over time. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
We
\nalso want change though: we want new experiences, we want to travel
\nand see new things and learn different ways of being, we want to meet
\npeople who teach us about seeing the world differently, we want
\nbetter than what we’ve already known \u2013 systems that WORK for
\neveryone, we want to sing new songs that resonate with our beings, to
\neat new delicious food, to have our worldview expanded. \u00a0We want to
\ngrow, and change, and become. \u00a0We want things to be BETTER.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nThe
\ntension between stability and change, between journeying and staying
\nput is a major tension in life. \u00a0Immigrants and refugees live lives
\nof the journey, Abram and Sarai among them. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/p>\n
Years
\nago I heard this poem, and its been playing around in my head ever
\nsince:\n<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/p>\n
\nThe (“Now Talk This I At Let God You \n<\/p>\n I \n<\/p>\n I \n<\/p>\n See, \n<\/p>\n The \n<\/p>\n But \n<\/p>\n If \n<\/p>\n Abram \n<\/p>\n Its \n<\/p>\n So, The Call of Sarah by Sara Baron<\/b> When you’ve been a failure, an outcast, a useless lump, You learn how to hold your head up, I heard it first. After I told him, he looked at me strangely for a while. That was 20 years ago. We’re too old.<\/p>\n But then again the rituals of worship feel like lies now. I’m not sure when we decided, After all, we’re old. I’m ready to leave the pitying eyes, We come very late, One-God, very very late. Remember 1<\/a>http:\/\/www.saintjohnsabbey.org\/mcdonnell\/poetry.html#The%20Call%20of%20Abraham<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nCall of Abraham\u00a0by Kilian McDonnell1<\/sup><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n
\nthe Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country.’” Gen 12:1)<\/p>\n
\nabout imperious.
Without a by-your-leave,
or, may I presume?
No
\nprevious contact,
no letter of introduction,
no greeting,
just
\nout of the blue
this unknown God
issues edicts.<\/p>\n
\nis not a conversation.
Am I a nobody
to receive decrees
from
\none whose name
I do not know?
And at our first encounter!<\/p>\n
\nhave worshipped my own god.
To you I had addressed no
\nprayers,
offered no sacrifices.
asked no favors,
but
\nquick,
like sudden fire in the desert,
without the most
\nelemental ritual,
I hear “Go.”\n<\/p>\n
\nseventy-five,
am I supposed to scuttle my life,
take that
\nancient wasteland, Sarai,
place my thin arthritic bones
upon
\nthe road
to some mumbled nowhere?\n<\/p>\n
\nme get this straight.
I will be brief.
I summarize.
In ten
\ngenerations since the Flood
you have spoken to no one.
Now,
\nlike thunder on a clear day,
you give commands:
pull up my
\ntent,
desert my home,
the graves of my ancestors,
my friends
\nnext door, leave Haran
for a country you do not name,
there to
\nbe a stranger,
a sojourner.<\/p>\n
\nof the wilderness,
from two desiccated lumps,
from two parched
\nprunes
you promise to make a great nation.
In me all peoples of
\nthe earth
will be blessed.\n<\/p>\n
\ncome late, Lord, very late,
but my camels leave in the morning.\n<\/p>\n
\nlove the tension in the poem, the anger, the annoyance, the worry,
\nthe fear, the humanity of it. \u00a0The ending is perfect, because despite
\nit all or because of it all, he goes. \u00a0Abraham is the father of
\nfaith, the beginning of the monotheistic tradition. \u00a0Christians,
\nJews, and Muslims look to him as father.\n<\/p>\n
\nlooked at Genesis chapter 11 this week, and noticed something
\nimportant. Abram’s father, Terah is the one who starts the Journey.
\nWe say that Abram went from Ur to Shechem, BUT REALLY his father
\nseemed to make the decision to go from Ur to Haran, which is the
\nlonger part of the journey. \u00a0Abram heard the call and left Haran for
\nShechem. \u00a0That changes things.<\/p>\n
\nif Abram was called out of no where and nothing to do this, with no
\nprior relationship with God, and he did… and he is the father of
\nfaith, then we might conclude that we’re called to do that too. \u00a0But
\nreally it wasn’t like that. \u00a0Whether or not Terah knew it, he started
\nthe journey. \u00a0Whether or not Terah knew God, he started the journey.
\nAbram had already experienced migration, and move, he had already let
\ngo of some of the things you have to let go of to leave. \u00a0Further,
\ndespite the poem, we don’t really know how long God and Abram had
\nbeen talking, it may have been a lot longer. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nscripture says, \u201cNow the LORD said to Abram,
\n‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the
\nland that I will show you. \u00a0I will make of you a great nation, and I
\nwill bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a
\nblessing. \u00a0I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses
\nyou I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be
\nblessed.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\nit actually doesn’t say, \u201cSuddenly, out of no where the LORD
\nsaid….\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAbram hadn’t done it, would we be here today? \u00a0I don’t think so.
\nBUT, if Terah hadn’t gone, we also wouldn’t be, and if Isaac hadn’t
\nbeen faithful we also wouldn’t be….<\/p>\n
\nwas ONE PART of a journey<\/b>. \u00a0His part was spectacular and still
\nstartles us today with its faithfulness. \u00a0But the journey started
\nbefore him, and it was 500 years or more before the promise he heard
\nwas fulfilled. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nnot ALL on us, my friends. \u00a0We’re called to do our part, but God is
\npatient, and has long range plans. We aren’t going to solve world
\nhunger or bring world peace, or even just transform poverty in
\nSchenectady by ourselves. \u00a0We’re just a part \u2013 an imperative part,
\nbut not the only part. \u00a0The calls to stay, and the calls to go,
\nthey’re all a part of a larger picture \u2013 and when we are faithful,
\nwe enable God’s work in the world to grow ever more complicated and
\nbeautiful. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nI couldn’t help but counter the Call of Abraham poem. \u00a0I just don’t
\nbuy that it was sudden, as beautiful as the first poem is. \u00a0Nor do I
\nthink Abram’s version is the whole story. So, having considered it
\nfrom another angle, here is the Call of Sarah.<\/p>\n
(\u201cNow, the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country.\u201d Gen 12:1)<\/p>\n
an ancient wasteland, like I have -which is to say:
a barren woman –
for your whole life, you learn the things others do not.<\/p>\n
when there is no reason to be proud.
You learn how to find peace,
when there is no peace to be found.
And ever so slowly,
so slowly indeed that you don’t notice it coming,
you learn that your value is not
what everyone else believes it to be.
You learn that you are not just a failed child-bearer.
You learn that you are alive and good and loved and worthy as just a person, even without being a mother.<\/p>\n
I heard it many decades ago.
I heard it when we were still in Ur.
It took me a decade to admit it to myself.
And another to admit it to Abram,
sweet husband though he is.<\/p>\n
Then, a few years later, he started to hear it too.
He looked at me even more strangely after that.<\/p>\n
The call has become louder every day.
It has started to seems reasonable to us,
which just proves that we’re crazy.<\/p>\n
We’ve come to know this one who talks to us, this One-God.
The rest of them fade away as if to nothing in the light of the One-God.<\/p>\n
it took so long, and we went back and forth and back and forth….
and then back and forth some more.
It was about when Terah died, that the back and forth line moved so we talked a bit more about going than about how crazy we were.
Then, later, we slowly eliminated our excuses.<\/p>\n
What do we have to lose?<\/p>\n
and move to the desert where I can be free,
To worship and to love the One-God,
To love and connect to my Abram,
To be a blessing, even without being blessed.<\/p>\n
But our camels leave in the morning. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\ndear ones, there is more to the story than meets the eye \u2013
\nincluding the ones who started the journey and the ones who complete
\nit. \u00a0Our parts are imperative, but they’re just a part of what God is
\nup to. \u00a0Thanks be to God. \u00a0Amen<\/p>\n