Continuing the Journey of Faith

C – 6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 11 February 2007

Jeremiah 17: 5 – 10; Psalm 1

1 Corinthians 15; 12 – 20; GENESIS 12: 1 – 9 [Non-Lectionary]

A Sermon by John C. Bush, Interim Pastor

First Presbyterian Church

Birmingham, Alabama

It’s hard to believe that nineteen months have past since I began work with you in this historic and future-oriented congregation in an adventure called "interim ministry." It also seems strange that there was a time, fairly recently as time goes, when I didn’t know most of you. Today, Sara and I count many of you as friends and as we depart we take with us many friendships made in this church and community.

Our task during this interim time has been to work together to clarify and empower the vision, and the mission and the leadership of this congregation. It has been a spiritual journey, a journey to discern what God might yet have in store for this particular congregation of God’s people gathered here at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Richard Arrington, Jr. Boulevard, in the very heart of a city that is itself on the verge of renewal. None of us knew exactly where this journey was going to take us or how long it would last. And so in that sense, we have been pioneers – going out ahead, preparing the way for others who will follow us. Now we know that one of those who will follow is the Rev. Jon Shannon Webster, your new pastor, who will be standing here where I stand just three Sundays hence – March 4.

We knew back then that I would be here for a limited period of time to help you accomplish some fairly specific tasks that are the unique to interim ministry. I believe those goals have been attained, to one degree or another, and I want to thank you, the congregation, your elders and leaders, and this fantastic staff for your support, encouragement and dedication to accomplishing the work that needed to be done on this continuing journey of faith.

The story of Abraham and Sarah as we encounter it in the Genesis passage today is amazing in its simplicity. The Lord said to Abram, "Go." And Abram went. That’s the story in a nutshell. If this sermon is beginning to sound faintly familiar, it is because it is an adaptation of my first sermon here back in mid-July, 2005. This is a theme I ordinarily return to at the beginning and at the ending of my interim pastoral service, because it is particularly significant for congregations setting out on new adventures in ministry.

For all its simplicity, though, this is one of the pivotal events in human history, a happening of significance for three of the world’s great living religions. Abraham is the shared ancestor of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; the linchpin of a great deal that we see happening today the Middle East. Half the people alive on the earth today claim to be his spiritual descendants, related to this story. And yet, it is told with this remarkable understatement: the Lord said to Abram, "Go." And Abram went.

The fact is, of course, that it didn’t turn out to be nearly as simple as it sounds. Journeys of faith rarely are. We hear the story of God’s promise to Abram from the perspective of those who know how it turns out. Who know how the story ends. We know that this adventure is not going to lead Abram and Sarai to a life of settled ease, but that they are going to be resident aliens in a land that is promised, not to them but to those who will come after them.

Interim pastors can identify with that! My job here has been to help you lay the groundwork for what is yet to be. One of the facts of life for pioneers is that they are building for the future. Others in other times are going to benefit from their work. Most of you who are here as part of this congregation today had nothing to do with building it into what it is today although some of you did. There are a number, of course, whose families have been here for several generations, but most of you have come more recently than that – and some, quite recently. So you are enjoying the fruits of the labor of those pioneers who came before: those who had a vision for the very first permanent church structure in downtown Birmingham back in 1872; to those to whom Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" – and who came to respond with integrity rather than expediency. Those who have stayed here on this corner during the darkest days of downtown when many left, and who have remained here to see the glimmers of new life for the heart of the city.

Your task, along with Shannon Webster when he arrives and your pastoral leaders who continue here, is to keep on building for the future upon the foundation of those who came ahead of us all. And that, too, is a journey of faith because journeys of faith are always headed toward the future; always pointed in the direction of others.

The Scripture says the LORD said to Abram." Just what, exactly, do you suppose old Abram heard? If you had been there with your Camcorder, what sights and sounds do you suppose you would have gotten on tape that day? How could you ever know for sure that it is the Word of the Lord you are hearing? What if things had turned out differently? What if, say, this old man had died of a heart attack while he was packing for that arduous journey to wherever? Or, what if he had fallen among bandits along the way and been murdered for his goods? Well we would never have heard of him. He would have been just another nobody in the anonymous masses of the centuries.

But you see, here is the secret. The word Abram heard and thought was from the Lord was tested in history and experience. Looking back at it, Abraham and his biographers – who lived sometime during the reign of King David several centuries later – looking back at it they and we who are Abraham’s spiritual children, can say with some degree of certainty that indeed it was "the LORD who “said to Abram, ‘go.’"

It is as our spiritual experiences that are tested alongside those of others – tested in history – that they are judged finally and validated. That is why we Presbyterians value the historic creeds and confessions of the Church: not in order to force everybody into some preset mold of doctrine, but rather to provide a standard of prior experience against which we can check our inspirations and enthusiasms. The Apostle Paul said on one occasion that we should "test the spirits to see whether they are of God." We value that advice.

And as it was with Abraham, so it is with us: when what we have done and where we have been has been tested and proven to be useful to us, to others and to God’s kingdom – then we can see and know with some certainty that we have been led here by God.

Meanwhile, we are called to live in the faith that God does not leave us alone or abandon us to random fate. That God is not against us but is with us and for us in all the circumstances of our lives. Even when the tasks entrusted into our hands are difficult, and the future is uncertain – maybe especially then – our hope is in God’s providential care and faithfulness.

Our journey of faith is like Abraham’s in yet another way. The word from the Lord was specific to Abram about leaving the familiar territory of his home. The Lord said to Abram "Go". That is one of those peculiar characteristics of this God of ours. Perhaps you have noticed it yourself. This God of ours will intentionally test our boundaries. Push us beyond our comfort zones. As Bruce Feiler writes in his book ABRAHAM, "The lesson of Abraham’s life is that being human is not being safe and comfortable. Being human is being uncertain, being on the way to an unknown place. Being on the way to God."

The initial instruction to Abram was clear: "Go." But the destination was far, far less so: "Go from your country … to the land I will show you." Leave the familiar landscape behind; leave what you can see, and trust me for the rest. You see in God’s world, change is the only permanent factor there is. Even what we call stability is nothing other than a slower form of change. For people of faith, it’s the journey – the process – is the point. There is no "way to faith"; faith is the way. Faith is not something you have; faith is something you do. The destination – the product, the end result – well we’ll find out about those things along the way. And so, for you, for Shannon Webster, for this congregation – and for people of faith everywhere – the journey of faith continues. "Go … to the land I will show you."

Now, friends, that’s a tall order. It’s kind of like learning how to swim. You’ll never get it done by standing there on the edge of the pool. It is only when you get in over your head that you find out what really is possible. Our ministry as people of God, if it is faithful to Christ and God’s Church, always involves taking risks, always involves being pushed beyond our comfort zones. It might be a little like learning how to swim, but it is nothing at all like bungee jumping. We are not in this just for the adrenaline rush. Rather, we are called to take risks for the sake of those to whom we are called to ministry – reaching out in service and compassion, with a sense of justice and a passion for peacemaking and reconciliation.

In the end the journey of faith brings us to the fulfillment of God’s promises. And what are those promises? Are they wealth, success and security? No. Here is what God promises: "I will bless you … and I will bless those who bless you … and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." Blessing others is our business – no limits or pre-qualifications. Grace draws no boundaries. And in the end, that is the only mission First Presbyterian Church has: to be a blessing, and to bless in God’s name, all those whom God calls into its spheres of influence. No limits, no boundaries.

Faith is, indeed, a journey. Life and history have a new direction, a purpose established in God’s concern for the world: preaching the gospel of peace; feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, lifting oppression, turning away from prejudice, accepting those whom the society rejects; sharing the good news of salvation to all God’s people.

Abraham and Sarah, and their journey of faith, become models for us, teaching us the everlasting truth that God is always and everywhere pleased to do God’s own work in this world in and through those who are willing to set out on a journey of faith – with little more to go on than a conviction that this is what God wants of us. And that, in the end, God will turn our effort into something useful to God’s realm.

And that is where we find our confidence to go forward to a place and time and circumstance God will show us along the way. So here you are -- this Congregation, this Staff, these people, this City, this Community setting out together on another phase of your adventure in ministry, on your way to a place God will show you.

"And the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go … to the land I will show you.’ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him."

NOW TO THE GOD OF ALL GRACE WHO CALLS YOU TO SHARE IN GOD’S ETERNAL GLORY IN UNION WITH CHRIST: TO GOD BE PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING THIS DAY AND FOREVER. AMEN.