| June 30, 2022 You’re probably tired of hearing me talk about how we are in uncharted territory. I’m tired of hearing me talk about all the change and major shifts and unprecedented experiences we’ve been going through for the last few years. We truly are entering into a new landscape, a changed world in this moment. So was Abram in our reading Sunday from Genesis 12. God sends Abram to a new and unknown land, to an unfamiliar landscape away from his family, to live a way that will bring abundant life for him and for the generations to come, and with God’s promise to the whole world. God does not send Abram without first promising him that he will have a place, a family, and that his family now and to come will be blessed and loved. God shares with Abram a view not only of the promises God has in store for Abram but the new thing God is inviting Abram to experience and co-create that will transform and bless the entire world. I imagine it would have been easy for Abram to get lost in the implications for himself and his immediate family – “what does this mean for me, how will I travel, I’m worried, I’ve never done something like this, I hope it is worth it, what will I get out of this?” What God does is expand Abram’s perspective and lift his head up to look out to the world and toward the future. God gives Abram a new way of seeing and understanding. After all, love is not a thing we see, but the thing by and through which we see everything else. And a perspective of love turns our eyes away from self-centeredness and toward God and neighbor as we trust the same boundless love of God we see for others is for us, too. Resting in God’s promises to be with us and to bring life abundant and steadfast love to all creation, may our perspective be transformed to see and empathize with our neighbors and our world and to know that the promises and blessings and grace and forgiveness and love of God given freely to us are meant to be shared as we dare to hear God’s call and go into an unknown and changing world to share the good news of another way of abundant and everlasting life for all in Christ Jesus. Grace & Peace, Pastor Drew |
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