The Vision of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob

A sermon on Vision
Texts: excerpts of the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Intro:
As many of you know, the leadership team and many active members of Berean Baptist Church recently finished the planning stage of a process called Appreciative Inquiry, which is a exercise in discerning our Vision for the next 5 years or so. The process actually produced enough ideas to keep us going for 20 years, but we will revisit out vision at least every five years.

Anyway, this process started with group meetings. All the members of the church were invited to attend small group meetings in which they were asked questions such as: When have you felt most a part of the mission of Berean?, When have you felt that you have grown most spiritually at Berean?, and When have you felt proudest to be a part of Berean? These questions didn’t just lead to simple answers, but to stories. People began sharing stories of their best experiences at BBC and we wrote them down and collected them all. Then the leadership team read through all the stories and highlighted the themes that these stories held in common. Then the leaders summarized all the stories that went with each theme and these all became pieces of the story of Berean. Next we imagined, what will the next generation of BBC tell as their story. 20 years from now, what stories will the members be telling? We wrote what we imagined for each theme and that became our Vision. From that vision we created a list of Goals and tasks.

I want you to notice the fact that stories played an important role in both our discerning of who we are at Berean and who we feel God is calling us to become. Stories are the key.

I recently heard an interesting story on NPR that explained that the human brain is ‘wired’ , created, in such a way as to make sense of our struggles and troubles, and to create goals for ourselves, through story. The brain stores and makes sense of information through stories. The example they gave was the true story of a man who wanted to become a writer and work in Hollywood writing movie scripts. But his father grew very ill and so he needed to let that story go and create a new story, a story where he helped his father. He connected to the story of King Arthur and the movie Camelot. This is how he made sense of his world. The point is that we do, whether we are conscious of it or not, connect to the books, movies, plays. We probably all have had the experience of saying, after finishing a book or movie, ‘that story is my story, that character is me.’ God has created us to make sense of the world we live in, by connecting to stories and telling stories and seeing our lives as a story. Which brings me to a couple of stories from the Bible.

Ge 32:22-30
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
The man asked him, "What is your name?"
"Jacob," he answered.
Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."
But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.
So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

What is Jacob wrestling for? A blessing. Ok, now follow me back to Genesis 12.

Ge 12:1-3
The LORD had said to Abram , "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
"I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."

To really make this point though we have to remember that Abram’s father was Terah and that Abram had a brother named Haran. In chapter 11 we learn that Haran dies and later Terah dies in Haran. Scholars think that this is just a coincidence, that Terah dies in the village or land called Haran, and that he had a son named Haran. I just can’t help believe that it is more than coincidence. To me it seems like a window opening this story up so that it becomes more than just past history. If we read this, imagine ourselves in this story we know exactly where Abram is in Haran. We know what it is to experience loss and to wonder where we are and even who we are. We know the shock to the spirit of the loss of a loved one, a divorce, getting laid off, or fired. We know the pain and the disorientation that these events cause, and so we know where Abram is.

Which makes hearing the voice from the dark night sky promising ‘blessing’ , a promise, a glimmer of hope, the good news that will help us to navigate the strange, painful and confusing times of our lives.

As I thought about these two stories, Abram hearing the promise of a blessing and Jacob wrestling for a blessing, and the many times in between, it occurred to me that this was the Vision, the Story that allowed Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to make sense of their lives. As Abram awaited the birth of a son, he could remind himself that he was a man ‘blessed’ by God. As he wandered and wondered, sometimes fought the aggressive tribes that surrounded him on his sojourn, Abram could remind himself that he was a man blessed by God. Even when his own decisions (like that incident with Hagar) caused he and his family pain and anger, Abram could rely on the story, the Vision, the one blessed by God.

Jacob most surely must have been raised with this story and told that was the grandson of the man blessed by God. Jacob’s story offers hope and warning, as I read it. As the second born son, the promise of a blessing not for the eldest, Esau, but for the youngest, Jacob, is a promise for all those who are considered ‘less than’ unimportant, ill equipped, and expendable, that God blesses whom God chooses, not based on wealth or prosperity or popularity.

It also warns us against hubris. Jacob and his mother both work to manipulate Isaac and trick Esau. That we are a people who carry a Vision, the Vision of God’s Kingdom as proclaimed by Christ, does not mean that we understand the Vision completely. God’s will and way is still a mystery to be explored and not a weapon to be used for our own power or benefit.

Still I don’t think it too much of a stretch to imagine that throughout Jacob’s life, that story, of Abram hearing the voice from the heaven’s offering blessing, was remembered, in times of trial and struggle. And even though it was a struggle, and the story, the vision didn’t protect Jacob from pain and challenge, it did always give him the hope to carry on, and a sense of direction through confusing and painful times.

The other day I listened to an interview with an author on the radio. I was driving so I couldn’t write down his name or his book. What caught my attention was the point he made about the source of his vision as a husband and father. As a writer he looked to the great writers, the important pieces of literature to explain the beauty and the brokenness of our humanity. And he found wisdom there. But he then learned about the lives of these great writers and to his disappointment, so many of them could not live up to the beauty they observed, nor could they avoid the ugliness they described. He went on to observe the same phenomena among those who shape the opinions of so many in our country, tv pundits and radio talk show hosts, who proclaim a vision, but cannot live up to this vision.

I think he touched upon something important. As we approach election time, ‘change’ seems to be the election campaign slogan of choice. Everyone seems to be about change, which is really a one word story, a one word vision that promises a new and successful path ahead, that this or that leader can take us to. It worked for President Obama. My point is not to be cynical about politics, but to point out the deep need among people who are looking for a vision. All of these things point to the need many people feel, for a vision, for a story to make sense of their world and offer a way ahead.

I think it is time for us to boldly proclaim our vision; that we have a vision that will not disappoint as politicians, celebrities, and philosophies all eventually will. We know of a man who could proclaim a vision and live up to it, a man named Jesus who created the Kingdom where-ever he traveled, who died as a result of his vision and who was resurrected so that we might be empowered to pursue his vision.

This is a time for vision. So many churches in our state are struggling financially and find it hard to agree upon mission and ministry and so loose more members than they gain. I consult with them. So many don’t have a Vision. Or their vision is for things to either stay the way they are (if they are reasonably good) or go back to the way they were 40 years ago. But God’s vision for us is the same as it was for Abram, it calls us forward into the future, away from what is, not matter how comfortable that is for us, and toward and what is yet to be, with all of its promise and all of our fear of the unknown.

This is a time for vision Berean, a time for us to leave behind what once was and move boldly on to the future God has created for us and is empowering us to realize.

God bless you all.