Genesis

First Baptist Richmond, March 5, 2023

The Second Sunday in Lent

Genesis 12:1-4a

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

Today’s Old Testament lesson is the Call of Abraham from Genesis 12.  I love this story, if only because it’s the beginning of a saga that will go on for the next 38 chapters: one that will include God’s covenant with Abraham; the birth of his son, Isaac; Isaac’s near sacrifice on the mountain; the rivalry between Jacob and Esau; Esau’s stolen blessing; Jacob’s love affair with Rachel; Joseph and his coat of many colors, and many more.  But none of them would have happened if Abraham hadn’t said yes to God.  So, let’s take a closer look at that story.

It begins in the previous chapter, where we learn that Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.  It’s only a hunch, but I have a feeling that Haran, the youngest of the three, was kind of a wild buck.  He fathered a son named Lot (apparently out of wedlock) and died while he was still a young man (probably doing something stupid).  Rumor has it that his last words were, “Hey, y’all; watch this!”  Nahor and Abram were a little more respectable.  Nahor married a nice girl named Milcah and Abram married Sarai, who was beautiful, but, as it turns out, barren.  She and Abram may have taken Lot in because they couldn’t have any children of their own. 

It was about that time that Terah decided to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go up and around the Fertile Crescent to the Land of Canaan.  Abram and Sarai went with him and took Lot along.  But for some reason they stopped before they got to Canaan.  Maybe it was because Terah was getting old, or maybe it was because they found a place too beautiful to leave behind.  I can imagine Terah saying to Abram, “I believe this is it.  I believe I’ve found the place where I’m going to live out the rest of my days.”  They settled there, and Terah named it Haran, in memory of his deceased son.

It was a good place, and from all outward appearances Abram had it made.  He was living on his father’s farm with his wife, Sarai, and a nephew who was like a son to him.  His father was still in good health and as long as he was alive Abram would never have to worry about where his next meal would come from.  But one night the Lord whispered to him in his sleep, “Go, Abram.  Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

I read that passage to the church staff last Tuesday and asked them to listen for how many times the word bless or blessing is found.  “Five,” they said, counting carefully.  God is planning to bless Abram so that he can be a blessing; it’s as simple as that.  And then I told them that’s part of my daily prayer: that I would be “a conduit of God’s love and a channel of God’s blessing.”  I said I sometimes picture rain falling onto the roof of a house, collecting in the gutter, flowing through the downspout, and gushing out at the bottom.  That’s what I want to be where God’s blessing is concerned.  But I also told them I’m not always very good at that.  Steve Blanchard said, “You might have too many leaves in your gutter.”  We laughed, but he was right.  I’ve got a lot of other things going on in my life; the blessings don’t always flow through me in the way that they should.  And maybe that’s why God picked Abraham.  Maybe his life was wonderfully uncluttered.  He seems to be kind of a simple person, doesn’t he?  A downspout through whom God’s blessings can flow without obstruction. 

Still, when God told him to go from his father’s house he must have had to think about it.  I’ve thought about it, and what I think it came down to for Abraham was a choice between trust and security.  There was the security of living on his father’s farm and never having to worry about where the next meal was coming from, but there was also this invitation from God to step out on faith, to trust him, and in return God said he would bless him, and make his name great, and make of him a great nation. 

Decisions, decisions. 

Have you ever been there?  Have you ever considered a job opportunity in another state?  Has anyone ever asked you to marry them, with all the upheaval that entails?  Have you ever thought about quitting your job and going into business for yourself?  Have you ever had to weigh the risks and rewards? 

I was 23 years old when I got married.  I was working as a graphic designer at a little studio on Newtown Pike, just outside of Lexington, Kentucky.  My boss was a good man, the son of an Episcopal priest, and he was good to me.  He had taken me on even though he wasn’t completely sure he could afford me.  I tried to reassure him that he hadn’t made a mistake by doing the best work I could and sharing all my best ideas.  And I had ideas.  This was back in 1984 and most of the work we did was by hand.  We designed logos and did illustrations and laid out magazine ads.  But one day I stopped in at a new store in Lexington called “Apple,” where they sold personal computers, and they had one with a screen that displayed different fonts, in different sizes.  I had never seen anything like that before.  I came back to the studio and told my boss I had seen the future of graphic design.  He chuckled and went back to work on a beautiful pen and ink drawing that no computer could replicate. 

And neither could I. 

So, I began to think differently about the future.  I began to dream up a five-year plan where I would have my own business and use computers to do graphic design (I know that sounds crazy).  And then one day I was at the courthouse in the little town where I lived, running an errand for my boss, and just out of curiosity I asked the clerk how much a business license cost.  “Ten dollars,” she said.  “Ten dollars!?”  That sounded like a deal.  I just happened to have a ten dollar bill in my wallet and before I really knew what I was doing I had bought a business license for my new graphic design studio.  But this was a small town.  When I came to work the next day my boss said, “Jim, I’m going to have to let you go.”  He said, “I found out you bought a business license at the courthouse while you were running an errand for me.  If you want to start your own business go ahead and do it.  No man can serve two masters.”  And then he handed me a cardboard box with all my personal belongings in it and a check for two weeks’ salary. 

That’s how quickly life can change.  That’s how quickly you can move from the security of a steady job to the insecurity of an unknown future.  I didn’t know what I was going to tell Christy when I got back to our little apartment above the drugstore, when I climbed those stairs with my pitiful cardboard box.  We had been married only a little over a year.  She had a part-time job but I was the breadwinner and here I was, wondering if we would have any bread the next month.  I had a business license and a few skills as a graphic designer, but I didn’t have any clients yet and wasn’t sure how to get them.  Would I be able to provide for my young wife, or not?  It was a very scary feeling. 

I think Abraham must have had some of those same feelings when the Lord called him.  As I said, he had a lot of security where he was.  But now here was the Lord telling him to go away from all of that, from his country, his kindred, his father’s house, to a land that only the Lord knew anything about.  So much uncertainty.  So much insecurity.  And yet so much promise.  So much possibility.  Suppose that, just like me, Abraham had been feeling a little restless.  Suppose that he had been waiting for an opportunity to make a life for himself.  What if that was the reason the Lord came to him in the first place, because he knew that for Abraham the sweetest word he could hear was the word go?

That’s what my boss said to me, and in that moment it didn’t sound sweet at all.  I had wanted to go into business for myself but not then.  I wasn’t ready then.  I had a whole lot of things to figure out first.  But when I got fired I lost that luxury: the luxury of time.  I had to figure things out and I had to figure them out immediately.  I called a man in our church who ran an advertising agency and he said, “Yeah, I have a few, small freelance jobs I could probably send your way.”  “Thank you,” I said, as if he had just saved my life, because in some ways he had.  I ended up doing a good bit of work for him and making more money than I had before.

But here’s the difference between Abraham and me.  I hadn’t trusted myself enough to step out on faith, at least not at that point.  My boss had to push me out of the nest.  But Abraham trusted God enough to do it on his own, to put his things in a cardboard box and follow God down the driveway not knowing if he would turn right or left when he got to the end of it.  He trusted God, and that’s why we are still telling his story. 

I won’t say that I have seen the future of preaching, but in the last few months I’ve been introduced to something called “ChatGPT.”  Have you heard of it?  It’s a computer program powered by artificial intelligence where you type in your request and it comes up with a response.  It’s so good it’s making English teachers nervous.  They’re afraid their students will ask it to write a 20-page term paper on Romeo and Juliet and they won’t be able to tell the difference between actual and artificial intelligence.  So, when I was working on this sermon I asked ChatGPT to tell me the difference between trust and security, and it did a good job.  But then I refined my request by asking it to compare trust in God with the security of a good job, and here’s the result that came back:

“Trust in God” and the security of a good job are two different concepts that can provide individuals with different forms of reassurance and confidence.

“Trust in God” typically refers to a belief in a higher power that guides and protects individuals through life. For some people, trusting in God can provide a sense of comfort and security, knowing that they are not alone and that there is a greater purpose and plan for their life. This type of trust is often associated with faith and religious beliefs.

The security of a good job, on the other hand, refers to having a steady income and employment that provides financial stability and reduces the risk of economic hardship. A good job can provide individuals with a sense of security and peace of mind, knowing that they have a reliable source of income and the ability to support themselves and their families.

While “trust in God” and the security of a good job are different concepts, they can be interconnected. Some people may find comfort in their faith while facing job insecurity or financial difficulties, while others may attribute their success in their career to their faith and trust in God’s guidance and protection.

Ultimately, both “trust in God” and the security of a good job are important for individuals to feel secure and confident in their lives. The extent to which an individual relies on one or the other may depend on their personal values, beliefs, and experiences.”

Well, there you have it: an explanation of the difference between trust and security written by an artificial intelligence program in the year 2023.  And then you have Abraham, somewhere in the Second Millennium, BC, gathering up all his belongings, his flocks and his herds, his manservants and maidservants, his wife and his nephew, and setting out toward a land that the Lord had promised to show him.  He didn’t have a computer to consult.  He didn’t have a GPS.  He was stepping out on faith, trusting God to guide his steps, to bring him at last to the land that he had promised.  Was he nervous?  Excited?  Probably both, and yet if we could have interviewed him in that moment I think he would have said that he was starting out on the greatest adventure of his life, and that he couldn’t wait to see how things turned out. 

That was true for me.  Getting fired from my job was one of the best things that ever happened to me.  It forced me to stop trusting in myself and start trusting in God.  It freed me up to consider options I might never have considered.  In the fall of that year I headed off to seminary and began a journey in ministry that continues to this day.  It’s been a blessing—a huge blessing.  I only hope that some of the rain that’s fallen on my roof has collected in the gutter, flowed through the downspout, and gushed out the bottom in a way that blesses others because I think that’s why God does it: I think God blesses us so we can bless others.

Just as he blessed Abraham.

—Jim Somerville © 2023

First Baptist Richmond, February 26, 2023

The First Sunday in Lent

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Welcome to the First Sunday in Lent, and to the beginning of a sermon series called, “Decisions, Decisions.”[i]  In my notes to the worship planning team I wrote, “Each of the Old Testament lessons [in this season] presents us with a choice, a fork in the road, a need to decide. So much of life is like that, isn’t it? But few decisions are as important as the ones these texts demand. If we can learn to make these, the rest should be easy.” And so, with a little fear and trembling, let us turn from the well-thumbed pages of the New Testament to the first few pages of the Old Testament, where we find an explosion of creative activity. 

For some time now I have believed that Genesis 1 could function as a call to worship for the entire Bible.  It’s very poetic.  It has the kind of rhythm and structure that lends itself to such a thing.  God says, “Let there be light,” and then there is light, and God sees that it is good.  So, maybe you could help me.  I’ll be the leader and do the hard part, but when I give you the signal you say, “And God saw that it was good.”  Got it?  Here we go:

“In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.  Then God said, ‘Let there be light!’ and there was light.”

“And God saw that it was good.” 

But that was only the first day.

Then God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters, and it was so.  God called the dome Sky.” 

“And God saw that it was good.” 

That was the second day.

Then God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.”  And it was so.  God called the land earth and the waters he called seas.  He caused a profusion of vegetation to spring forth from the earth; plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind.

“And God saw that it was good.”

That was the third day.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night!” And so God made the sun and the moon and the stars to keep them company,

“And God saw that it was good.”

That was the fourth day.

Then God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”  And it was so.  And God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply,” and that’s what they did. 

“And God saw that it was good.” 

That was the fifth day.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image,
            in the image of God he created them;
            male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

“And God saw that it was good.”

Only this time the Bible says, “It was very good.”  That was the sixth day, and on the seventh day God rested. 

It makes a pretty good call to worship, doesn’t it?  It’s poetic.  But in chapter 2 the poet steps off the stage and the storyteller takes his place, and his version of creation is a little different.  He says, “In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up, the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man stood up, a living being.  And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” 

I often say that Jesus was working to bring heaven to earth, but he seems to have gotten the idea from his Father, who took that big, empty field described at the beginning of chapter 2 and turned it into the Garden of Eden, into Paradise, into Heaven on Earth.  And he put the man that he had made smack-dab in the middle of it, and gave him the responsibility of tending it and keeping it.  Not a bad job, right?  Keeper of Paradise?  And the Lord said, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

And so, apparently, the man worked in the garden, and ate of its fruit, and in so many ways it was heaven on earth.  But in one way it was not.  The Lord said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”  And so, out of the ground, the Lord formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and he brought them to the man to name them, and whatever the man called them, that was their name.  But there wasn’t found among them a suitable helper for the man, so the Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping the Lord took a rib from his side, and fashioned it into a woman, and brought her to the man.  And when he woke up from his sleep and saw her he was delighted and said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.  I will call her woman, because she was taken out of man.”  It is for this reason, the storyteller explains, that a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves unto his wife and the two become one flesh.  And the man and his wife were naked, and they were not ashamed.

And then the storyteller steps off the stage and the preacher takes his place.  He begins chapter 3 by saying, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made.”  And let me just point out that this serpent is not the Devil.  The text never says that.  It simply says that he is one of the wild animals that the Lord God made.  But it does say that he is crafty.  He is a sneaky snake.  And in this part of the story he slithers along a branch and says to the woman, “Did God say you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?”  She said, “No, we can eat from every tree in the garden.  Well, except one.  We can’t eat from the tree in the middle of the garden.  God told us that if we eat from that tree, or even touch it, we will surely die.”  But the serpent said, “You won’t die!  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

Decisions, decisions.

For years now I have believed that the tree in question was not an apple tree, but a fig tree, because I used to have one in my yard in North Carolina, and when the fruit was ripe I could not resist the temptation.  The figs were soft, and plump, and warm, and sweet.  But there is no fruit so tempting as the idea that you could be like God.  To be fair to the serpent, he didn’t say that the woman would be like God in every way.  He only said she would be like God in her capacity for knowing good and evil, but I’m not sure she even heard that part.  She had been able to resist temptation as long as it was only a fruit tree.  There were plenty of those in the Garden.  But when she heard that its fruit would make her like God she took another look.  She began to see that tree in a whole new way.  

It’s the same for us.  None of us wants to be “the Lord God Almighty”; that’s too much responsibility.  But we do want to be the god of our own lives.  We don’t want anyone else telling us what to do.  Some theologians call this event in the Garden “Original Sin.”  I don’t know how original it is.  I often tell people that if it hadn’t been Eve it would have been me.  It’s not especially original but it is perennial; it comes around again and again; this temptation to be the god of our own lives, to call the shots and suffer the consequences, whatever they may be.  But often those consequences are disastrous.  How many stories do we have to hear, how many movies do we have to see, about someone who tried to do it their way and ended up in a body cast, or worse?  We human beings are not good at this.  We don’t make wise choices.  Often we don’t even seem to have our own best interests at heart. 

So, turn with me to the pages of the New Testament for a different and better model.  Turn with me to Matthew 4:1-11 where Jesus is, in fact, being tempted by the Devil.  He has been fasting in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights.  He is famished.  And that’s when the Tempter comes to him and says, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”  Which sounds like a really good idea.  If you were famished, and you had the power to turn hot, smooth, desert stones into warm, crusty, loaves of bread, wouldn’t you do it?  But here’s the difference between Jesus and most of us: Jesus doesn’t even pause to consider that option.  Believing that God and God alone has his best interests at heart Jesus simply obeys the word of the Lord.  Quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy he says to the Devil, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 

Meanwhile, back in the Garden, what some theologians refer to as “the Fall” began to take place almost in slow motion.  Listen to the verbs: convinced by the serpent that she would not die the woman looked at the tree; she saw that it was a delight to the eyes, and that it was to be desired to make one wise; she took of its fruit and ate, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.  And what the serpent had said turned out to be entirely true: in the moment they ate of the fruit they knew the difference between good and evil, because up until that moment they had never done an evil thing, but afterward they had.  Their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked, and for the first time in their lives they were ashamed. 

Do you know how it is when you are tempted to do something, and you struggle against it for a while but finally give in to the temptation and do it?  Whatever it is, when it’s over, aren’t you ashamed of yourself?  Aren’t you filled with remorse?  Can’t you see that it was so not worth it?  I think that’s how this man and this woman must have felt, still wiping the juice of forbidden fruit from their chins, when they saw themselves as they really were.  It wasn’t their nakedness that was the problem, it was them.  They wanted to cover themselves up.  But no matter how many fig leaves they used they couldn’t get away from God.  When he came to the Garden in the cool of the evening they hid in the shadows, hoping he wouldn’t find them. 

Things were so different than they had been in those earlier, innocent days, when God would come to the Garden, and call their names, and they would come running, delighted to hear his voice, eager to see him.  Again, those of you who have had some experience with sin know what I’m talking about.  When you do that thing your mother told you not to do it affects your relationship with her.  Only the day before she had been your best friend, and you had been making cookies together in the kitchen.  Now you hide in your room, wretched, hoping she won’t knock on the door.  Is there any way out of that mess?  Well, yes, and that is to not get into it in the first place. 

Think about it like this: there is a time when are able to make a decision, when you still have the power to do so.  But there is a time when you lose that power, when the temptation becomes so strong that giving in feels almost inevitable.  “Might as well get it over with,” you think.  But the way to resist temptation is to not walk down that street in the first place.  I don’t know what it is you might be trying to resist, but if you’ve had any experience with it you know: giving in doesn’t make you feel better, it makes you feel worse.  So, while you can still make a decision, make it.  When you’re still feeling strong enough to walk away, do it.  Save yourself from the shame of giving in, so that when God calls your name in the Garden,

You can run out to meet him.

—Jim Somerville © 2023

[i] Suggested by my friend Amy K. Butler, former Senior Minister of the Riverside Church in New York City and still a member of the annual sermon planning retreat we call “Preacher Camp.”