November 20, 2000

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December 10 Lesson

Worship will keep life centered upon God's call ___Genesis 12:1-9 ___1The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. ___2I will make you a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. ___4So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. ___6Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites we in the land. 7The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ___8From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

___By Joe Blair
___A call from God means we understand God wants us to work within his will to accomplish his purposes for others and us.
___Sometimes God calls his whole people to specific tasks. The church, for example, is called to be the body of Christ, to be Christ wherever the church is with all the specific actions that entails to minister as Christ ministered.
___God's call also is individual within his purpose for his people. Deborah, Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mary and the apostles are just a few examples. Christians believe every person is called to serve, to minister, although not every function of service is the same. Whatever the function, however, God's people find true meaning to their existence by committing themselves to the will of God.
___The fact that God calls people into service is evidence that God cares about humanity. He desires to see them delivered from their quandary of self-destruction.
___Their self-destruction capacity is evident in chapters 1-11 of Genesis. In these chapters we witness the fall of Adam and Eve, the flood, the tower of Babel and sad, destructive activities of people in between these events. The human condition was a dire one, with humanity doing itself in and unable to extricate itself from its downward spiral. In the midst of the spiral, God acts to rescue those who will listen and respond from the sad destiny they framed for themselves.
___God's acts of salvation in the midst of history may be called his salvation history.
___"The Lord said to Abram ..."
___In his history of salvation, our Scripture text pulls us into his next big act on the Genesis stage. God calls Abram. God engages in this call because he cares for his humanity. Abram's call is a call to serve God as a means, an instrument, of God's salvation.
___The man's name at this point is Abram, meaning "exalted father." Later, he is Abraham, "father of a multitude."
___God's call is to a specific person, Abram. While we can speak of God's call in a general sense, such as God calls all people to service, which is a true statement, experience in following God teaches us that he calls us specifically to specific service. God is always faithful to his commitment to us, and our faithfulness to our function in our call to service makes us effective participants in his salvation history.
___"Go from ... go to ..."
___Abram's call means leaving some things behind in order to serve God and find his place in God's world. Abram's call requires him to leave his country, his people, and his father's house. Leaving his father's house meant he left his blessing of sonship from his father. The blessing would have included land and a people or family of which he would have been the head. Abram's call really means that he must go and build a new life.
___When we understand our calling, we understand we are called to leave some things behind or put them aside. Some of those things may be good, but we must leave them in order to focus faithfully on our task.
___A young man, already with a number of years in a business profession, came to my office to tell me that when he was younger he had been called to preach, but failed to respond at that time. Now he was ready to put everything aside and follow that call. His wife was in complete agreement with him. At great sacrifice, he completed college and his theological education, and now serves a church in Texas.
___We do good things at times that we think will really fulfill our lives, but if we are not within the purpose of God, we are not fulfilled.
___Responding faithfully to "going from" may not mean moving geographically or vocationally. "Going from" may mean turning the focus of where we are and what we are doing into service to God.
___For example, a very successful career person reached the point at which he could expand his service in his local church. So now he is securing a theological education in order to equip himself better for service in what he does in the church as a layperson.
___"Going from" is not completion, so God calls us to "go ... to." Abram, called to leave his land, his people and his blessing, is promised a land, a people and blessing (12:2-4).
___In other words, God made a covenant with Abram for the land and the people and the blessing. Of course, God is always faithful to his commitment; Abram now must be faithful to the call for God to work with him and through him to accomplish God's will.
___"We never give to God without getting more in return," is a statement that we perhaps have heard many times. The statement is true as long as we are open to the definition of what "more" is. A health and wealth expectation flies in the face of the penniless carpenter from Nazareth, Jesus Christ. Sometimes health and wealth are part of the Christian experience, but even these are the call of Christ are called into radical service in his cause. Nevertheless, in some way we will be blessed and be a blessing to others.
___The blessing that is ours and the blessing we may become in the service of God we may not see in our own lifetimes. In addition, service to God in Christ has an impact far beyond our meager contributions.
___Abram hears in his call that "all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (12:3). Abram had many struggles in his lifetime, and in reality never possessed a geographical promised land; nor did he live to see all the families blessed by his blessing.
___Likewise, faithfulness to our call by God is inclusive in its impact, extending beyond our limited sphere of contacts. Also, God turns faithfulness into impact out of proportion to our contribution. God does so much more with our efforts than we can imagine.
___Abram's faithfulness, insofar as he was faithful, had that kind of inclusiveness of humanity and impact far beyond his contribution of energy, abilities, resources and time in service to God.
___"So Abram went ..."
___Abram is admired for many reasons by three major religions, but one of the major reasons he is admired was his willingness to drop everything and risk all on the will of God. Abram became an example of faithfulness, although not perfect, for Israel and for others.
___Ultimately, to follow God's call is to trust one's life into God's hands. Even when things do not seem to be going right, indeed even when they seem to be going counter to our understanding of what our call is supposed to accomplish, we must trust the matter into God's hands. We can say to ourselves that "this is God's call on my life and I will remain faithful come what may."
___Of course, we need to be sure and honest enough to acknowledge that it is God's call we are following and not our own.
___The text tells us Abram journeyed to three areas--Canaan, the land east of Bethel and the Negeb. In large measure, Abram did not know where all this journeying would lead him.
___We are not given many details of these journeys, but we can reasonably arrive at some conclusions. We can understand that most events of each day were new to him. New people, new encounters and caring for his extended family and possessions were challenges to be met each day.
___Also, as we read the account of these journeys as far as Abram is concerned, he seems to accomplish so little. Nothing happens. He goes here and there. He understands he has entered the land of promise as he comes into Canaan, as God told him (12:7). But what should he then do? No one comes to him and says, "I am the developer of your land. Here is what we shall do for housing, economic and political development, and social structure and well-being."
___Abram does all he knows to do, which is simply travel through the land at this point.
___We can see against the background of God's salvation history that Abram's travels from one place to another had great significance. But put yourself in Abram's place. He could not see the whole story, and although Abram did not know how his call was going to work itself out, he did have a constant anchor for his life everyday.
___Twice in the course of his journey, the text tells us that Abram "built an altar" (12:7, 8). God was his stability, and the worship of God kept him on center.
___Many times as we follow faithfully the call of God, not much seems to be going on. We may even ask ourselves, "What is the significance of what I am doing anyway?" and not really have much of an answer for that question. Again, we are called to act faithfully, and to keep doing each day what is befitting our call, as we have understood it to this point.
___We need to leave the large picture to God, allowing him to fit our part into the total landscape as only he can do. Also, we need to have our "altars" to God in whatever "land" we find ourselves in our personal pilgrimage.
___Like Abram, we depend upon God. Our worship of him keeps us centered to faithfully discharge our call.

For thought and discussion
___ We need to see Abram's call as an act of God's saving action toward humanity. What does that mean to you?
___ How significant are God's "callings" for you? Is it legitimate to say that people who followed their calls faithfully enabled you to be where you are now?
___ Have you thought of your life in terms of God's call? A working definition of call might be a life direction according to the will of God in which you serve God and others in all relationships in play and work. All vocations may be included--homemaker, student, farmer, accountant, clerk, informa-tion systems analyst, etc. If not, then frame who you are and what you are doing in terms of Gods calling for you. If you do see your vocation in terms of call, how are the focus and faithfulness doing?
___ What has God's calling on your life caused you to leave behind? Do you look back on those things left behind with a sense of regret or release?
___ What have you been called to go to? Is it a place you would have chosen for yourself, or has falling God's calling taken you to a place you never expected?
___ In what ways may Abram serve as a model for you? What comparisons would you make between his situation and yours?
___ Has anyone ever told you that you life is one they are trying to model their's after? Did this bring you a sense of joy or instead a great sense of responsibility or maybe even fear?
___ Is it easy to describe your call, or is it a hard thing to put into words? How would you counsel someone who is having a hard time identifying their call, or someone who senses a calling but is having a hard time nailing it down?
___ Tell someone about your call. Your call is important in God's will. That means who you are and what you do are of great significance to God.
___ Abram was told that he would be a blessing to all people. How would you react to a word from God of that sort? How can you become a blessing, if not to all people, then to more people--including people you will never meet?

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