Genesis 12:1-9
June 7
David A. Davis
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It is mid-season when it comes to commencement addresses. On this campus and on every campus, at colleges and high schools everywhere, speaker after speaker after speaker stands before the graduating class and the audience full of friends and loved ones. It is a well-studied or at least a well-worn genre. The commencement address. When I was in high school, the four years included two long labour disputes. Two teachers’ strikes. In my senior year, we did not begin classes until after Thanksgiving. In order to get in the state required number of days, classes were held on some holidays, including New Year’s Day. At graduation in very late June of 1980, I was one of the speakers. I began with a quote from Hall of Fame baseball player Rod Carew that I read in his biography. “I am a better hitter with two strikes”.
This spring commencement addresses include college graduates now looking for jobs, booing commencement speakers singing the praises of AI despite the projections of the impact on the human workforce. Commencement addresses have context. And commencement addresses, in general, are rather formulaic. Congratulations! Remember! A few bits of wisdom for the journey. And now, please go. Go and do. Go and be. Go and live. Go and learn more. Go and make a difference. But, by all means, it is time to go. The genre of the commencement address, when it functions well, when it meets the occasion, it serves to signify that the gathering is not an end but a beginning. Go.
“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go…’” And it is the beginning. God’s call of Abraham. Here in Genesis, after the stories of creation and the Garden of Eden and Cain and Abel and Noah and the ark, after the Tower of Babel. The Lord says to Abram, “Go”. It’s not the very beginning in terms of scripture. But it is the beginning of the promise, the covenant, God’s covenant with God’s people. It is the beginning of the pilgrimage, the journey of faith for the people of God. For Abram and Sarai and their family, the beginning of their lives as immigrants. The beginning of their life of following God and discerning their life in God. It begins when the Lord says, “Go.”
In typical commencement addresses, the graduates as the intended audience, tend to be the subjects of most of the sentences. You go, and you do. You go, and you work. You go, and you come back. You go, and you earn. You go, and you give back to the annual fund. You go and make this blasted world a better place. But notice that God’s speech to Abram differs when it comes to the most used pronouns. Go, and I will show you. Go, and I will bless you. Go, and I will make you a great nation. Go, and I will make your name great. Go and I, God said.
Here in Genesis 12, the promise begins with God’s speech. God’s word. With such an abundance of “I’s”, the notion that it all begins with God is pretty clear. Abram’s response only underscores the intended focus on God. After the Lord’s speech act, Abram is noticeably silent. God said, “Go,” so Abram went. No speech from him. No words. No chat with an angel. No “Here I am Lord”. No song. No canticle. Abram went. Abram goes. He went. He departed. And Abram took. And Abram set forth. And Abram passed through. And Abram built. And Abram moved on. And Abram pitched. And Abram built. And Abram invoked. And Abram journeyed on. The Lord said, “Go,” and Abram went. Abram’s silence is drowned out by his action.
Actually, the first time Abram speaks in this Hebrew bible narrative, the first time he speaks in the bible period, he gets himself in trouble. It’s such a guy thing. As the story is told in the second half of Genesis 12, Abram and his family flee to Egypt because there was a famine in the land. According to scripture, Abram “went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien.” To protect himself from Pharaoh’s hand, he hatches a plan to pass Sarai off as his sister, handing her over to Pharaoh’s house. Abram figures that if they knew she was his wife, they would just kill him and take her away. So the first words Abram speaks are to Sarai: “I know how beautiful you are, can’t you just tell them you are my sister?” And humankind should have learned forever more that when you “go”, it’s not that easy to get out of your own way, the way is never cut and dried, and humans are always going to be human. That even when you go as the Lord has commanded you, your own self-centred sinfulness is never far away. Even for Father Abraham, the first steps of his journey were mixed with obedient sacrifice and self-preserving, misogynistic deceit.
When Abram went, he brought it all with him, including the depth of his humanity. Yes, the scripture tells of him bringing family and possessions. That includes the jarring verse that tells that he also brought “the persons whom they had acquired in Haran”. A more recent contemporary translation tries to soften that a bit. It reads “those who became members of their household in Haran.” The choice of words doesn’t change the likely ancient history that enslaved people were part of what Abram brought along on the journey to Canaan. A journey to a land already occupied by the Canaanites, of course. The indigenous people of the land of Canaan. Yes, when God told Abram to “go” and Abram “went”, when Abram passed through the land of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh, he brought it all with him. When Abram built an altar to the Lord, he had it all with him. When he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, he had it all with him. When Abram journeyed by stages toward the Negeb, he brought absolutely everything of what it meant to be human; the songs of praise and the fleshiness of life, a worshipping heart yet one dripping with sinfulness, a daring obedience and everything that defines what John Calvin called our total depravity. Yes, Abram brought it all.
But…Abram went. The Lord said to Abram, “God and Abram’s response was wordless. Abram went. Abram goes. He went. He departed. And Abram took. And Abram set forth. And Abram passed through. And Abram built. And Abram moved on. And Abram pitched. And Abram built. And Abram invoked. And Abram journeyed on. The Lord said, “Go,” and Abram went. It’s hard for a preacher to admit, one who makes a living with words, but according to scripture, Abram never said a word. Going means going. Going means living. Going means action. Going implies sacrifice. Responding to the very promise of God with the fullness of life. Responding to the very promise of God has to be more than just words. This going thing….when it comes to God and God’s promise in and to and through our lives, it has to have some “oomph” to it!
A memorial service was held yesterday for Barb Flythe, a long-time member of the Witherspoon Street Church. The reception afterwards was held here in the sanctuary. The service felt like a gathering of three congregations: Witherspoon Street, Westminster in Trenton, and Nassau. It was as if Barb Flythe were a member of all three. There were times not all that long ago when Barb was the sole link between the three churches. She was one of the founding members of the “Bending the Moral Arc” group of members of Witherspoon Street and Nassau, having difficult and vulnerable congregations about racial reconciliation. She was a force behind the documentary made a few years ago about the fraught history and hopeful future of the relationship between our two congregations. And, of course, behind it all was Barb Flythe’s faith-filled commitment to justice and equity for all proclaimed by the Hebrew prophets and the kind of world painted by the gospel teaching of Jesus. Barb Flythe was a “goer”. Her journey of faith had some…oomph.
Last Sunday morning, before worship back in the narthex, both Allen Olsen and Scot Harmon were coming into the sanctuary. I asked them how “Loaves and Fishes” had gone on Friday night and Saturday. Twice a year, members and friends of Nassau prepare a hot meal to be served at St Mary’s Cathedral in Trenton. The report was over the top. Lots of veteran volunteers. A really good batch of new folks. Lots of folks served and were then given lunches and leftovers to go. One of them even said, “We almost had too many volunteers!” When have you ever heard that said about the congregation’s turnout? Nassau Church, that is some…oomph.
If you have a chance, you should check out the Great Wall, the bulletin board outside the Assembly Room directly behind me. It is a snapshot of life at Nassau Church in May, June, July, and August, both here and out in the world. The two “Loaves and Fishes”, a visit to the Faminary and a joint choir concert, both celebrating God’s gift of creation. A winter coat drive for international students at Princeton Seminary. A trip with Appalachia Service Project. School supplies together with Westminster Church. In large letters, it says “START WHERE YOU ARE”. And every opportunity has a QR code. The Great Wall could also say, “GO NASSAU GO, GO NASSAU GO”.
Over the last several weeks, we have had several visits from candidates running for various offices in last Tuesday’s election. As I spoke to them afterwards, I apologised for not introducing them in worship. That, while some traditions might do that in election season, Presbyterians do not. All of them were very gracious and were able to mingle on the front plaza or in coffee hour between services. Every one of them thanks me for all that this congregation does in the wider community. What you do in this community and beyond. Speaking Nassau theologically, that’s going with some… oomph. Thanks be to God.
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I give you rest.” You will remember from last week, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus also says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The Lord Jesus “come and go”. It is Christ, our Savior, who invites us to come to this table, the feast he has prepared. And he invites us here to be nourished by his grace and to bask in his real presence, so that, in order that, we might… go.