A
God Pick
A sermon based on Genesis 12:1-9, Romans 4:13-25
by Rev. Cindy Weber
Do you remember how it felt when you were in elementary
school, and you were waiting to be chosen for something?
Maybe the teacher was choosing someone to clean out the erasers that
afternoon, and as you sat there in your seat, you lifted your chin and threw
back your shoulders and tried to look as dependable as possible. Choose me,
choose me, choose me, you chanted in your head.
Maybe it was recess time, and the team captains were choosing up teams for
the Red Rover game, and as you stood there in line, you tried your hardest to
look like you wouldn’t let go of the hands of the people on either side of you
no matter who came hurtling at you.
Maybe it was the dreaded square dance day, and as you stood there against the
wall with all the other girls as the boys were given the signal to choose a
partner, you wiped your sweaty palms on the sides of your hot pink shorts and
tried to look cute.
Or maybe it wasn’t elementary school at all, maybe it was high school, and as
the results were posted for the cast of the school play, you stood there in the
hall trying to look as nonchalant as possible, while your heart pounded in your
chest like crazy.
Do you remember how it felt? I remember. The waiting, the hoping, the angst,
the little lessons that we learned everyday even back then about how life isn’t
always fair; the daily reminders, even back then, that we live in a world where
people are chosen according to certain characteristics over which they have
little or no control.
Chosen for the school play because they’re pretty or handsome.
Chosen for a sports team because they run really fast.
Chosen to be a square dance partner because of their hot pink shorts.
Chosen to clean out the erasers because they look dependable, which to my
elementary school teachers usually entailed being white and middle or upper
income.
Chosen according to what they look like, or where they live, or what they
own. Chosen according to gender, or race, or sexual orientation. Chosen
according to talent, or charm, or intelligence.
As I read this morning’s scripture passage, I wonder why God chose Abram.
“And I will make of you a great nation,” God said, “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 by you all the families
of the earth shall be blessed.” Wow. That’s what I’d call being chosen. Forget
the piddly stuff that I’ve been talking about, cleaning out the erasers and Red
Rover and the school play. That’s nothing compared to this: “By you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed.” Wow!
And I wonder, “Why Abram? Why did God choose Abram?”
It couldn’t have been because of his courage--it’s just a few verses later
that we see him chickening out and telling the Pharoah, who is interested in his
beautiful wife, Sarai, that she is his sister, not his wife, so that he doesn’t
get harmed.
It couldn’t have been his smarts--in the next chapter, we see him telling
Lot, his nephew, to take whatever land he wants, and that he, Abram, will take
the leftovers. Lot, of course, takes the best land, and Abram gets the rugged
hill country, not a good business decision.
It couldn’t have been because of his compassion--a few chapters on down the
road, and we see him sending his concubine, Hagar, and her son, Ishmael, who
happens to be his firstborn son, into the desert with a little bit of bread and
a skin of water.
It couldn’t have been because he was so young and full of vigor--the Bible
tells us that he was 75 years old at the time, and while many of us still hope
to be spry and active at 75, few of us can imagine taking off across the desert
to start a new life at that age. Even fewer of us can imagine conceiving a child
at that age.
Why was it, then? Why did God choose Abram?
Awhile back I was sitting at a meeting with a group of clergy who are working
to pass a civil rights law for people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgendered, and we were talking about a friend of ours who couldn’t be
ordained because she’s a lesbian. We were pretty down and despondent about this,
and then Dr. George Edwards, who used to be a New Testament professor at the
Presbyterian Seminary, began to quote Greek. What he quoted was a verse from the
Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, and while I can’t quote the
Greek, I can quote the English, which says that “God has chosen the things that
are not to put to naught,” or “to bring to nothing, the things that are”
(1 Cor. 1:28).
It was George’s way of reminding us that when we are thinking that things
aren’t working out the way that we want them to, that God is doing this whole
other thing, making something out of nothing, choosing those things that no one
else will chose, choosing those people that no one else will choose to turn
things upside down and inside out. Choosing the foolish things of the world to
shame the wise, and the weak things of the world to shame the mighty, choosing
the base things of the world and the things which are despised and the things
that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are. It was a good word for us
to hear that day.
The Apostle Paul says just about the same thing when he’s talking about
Abram, known as Abraham by then, in Romans, chapter 4, verse 17. In talking
about Abraham, he refers to the God “who gives life to the dead, and calls into
existence the things that do not exist.”
Why did God choose Abram? Maybe because God knew that God could do something
brand new with him, something totally original, something that had never been
done before. Maybe because that’s how God works, bringing into existence those
things that do not exist, choosing the things that are not to bring to nothing
the things that are. Maybe because God can do more with an old man or woman with
wrinkles and arthritis who depends on God to get up out of bed every day – and
I’m thinking of Miss Anna, who would make it down one step at a time, and after
each step would stop and say, “Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus,” Miss Anna,
who knew she needed God’s help just to get out of the house – than with a young
person with all the energy in the world who thinks that he or she can do it on
his or her own steam.
Madeleine L’Engle says that “God doesn’t pick the logical people to do the
work which needs to be done, and that’s one of the most important things to know
about God.”
I read an article once that I haven’t been able to find again, but have never
forgotten. It was written by a chaplain at a mental hospital. She tells about
how one day when she is giving communion to her severely disturbed patients –
and I don’t remember what they are doing exactly, but they aren’t behaving like
you’d think people ought to during communion – she begins to think, “What in the
world am I doing here?” And then she hears this voice in her head: “You did not
choose me. I chose you. You did not choose me. I chose you.”
God has chosen you, too. You, and me, and all of the Central State Mental
Hospital residents who are worshipping with our brother Chaplain David Dillard
this morning. Chosen you, and me, and the whole wide world, too. Chosen us, not
because of our beauty, or our money, or our smarts, or our spiritual depth, or
our commitment, even, not because of who we are at all, but because of who God
is. God is love. God is creative. God is life-giving. God is bringing something
out of nothing, bringing life out of death, blessing the world through weakness
and frailty and tired old flesh and bones.
Abram responded to God’s choice, to God’s call with faith. We are invited to
do the same. For Abram, that meant packing up and heading for some unknown
destination. And while I don’t know what it might mean for you, I read a good
definition of faith the other day that might help...“Faith is not synonymous
with certainty...but rather the decision to keep your eyes open” (Doris Bett,
quoted by Kathleen Norris).
God has chosen us to be God’s own, chosen us, with Abram and Sarai, to bring
blessing to this world. May we respond in faith, may we keep our eyes open for
God’s creative possibilities. Amen.
