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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Going to

‘Go from…to’ (Genesis 12:1) – there is a critical difference between going from and going to.

Context

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

  • The Lord tells Abram: ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.’ God doesn’t tell him simply to ‘get out’; but Abram is being sent into the unknown. Abram’s move to the land he is to be shown isn’t a simple case of emigration. Instead, it is a major paradigm shift – leaving behind family ties, cultural bonds, Mesopotamian deities and entering a life of radical faith with the one true God. Abram and Sarai aren’t ‘fleeing’ Haran. They are not fed up with life there. God is sending them to a new life.
  • In many ways, the narratives of Abram, Sarai and Nicodemus are stories of maturation – of growing up in faith. All of them are entering a terra incognita – but with no maps or GPS! However, they are not without a compass: God and ‘God with us’, Jesus. Most of us, if we are blessed with overall good health, leave the homes into which we were born. We go to new lives of work, education, military service, relationships, etc. All of these are steps of faith into the unknown.
  • As above, going away from a situation, relationship, job, can simply be ‘fleeing’ (which is sometimes a necessity for one’s safety), but it isn’t the same as going to. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once wrote that the problem with life is that we must live it forwards, but we remember it backwards. But in order to live into what God has made each of us to be requires going forwards. There can be no maps or directions, for every day is a day we have never lived before. And if we are using a ‘map’ then generally that means we are following someone else’s life pattern or aspirations for us. No one else can take the leap of faith for Nicodemus. No one else can take the journey for Abram and Sarai. And no one can do what you and I are meant to do.

 

Questions for discussion

  • Has it occurred to you that every new day is a step into the unknown? We don’t have to change jobs or countries to venture into the unknown – we don’t expect life’s sorrows any more than the blessings we encounter.
  • In John 14, Jesus tells his disciples that he is ‘the way and the truth and the life.’ Jesus is telling them – and us – that he is the way; thus, he is the journey. Jesus leads us to life in God, a life of love and compassion. Neither Jesus, nor belief in him, is a destination, a stopping place. It is a going forward in faith.

Revd Dr Jack Lawson is a free-lance writer and novelist: Doing Time, No Good Deed, Criminal Justice, The Woods and Dirty Business. His forthcoming novel, Joab, (Wipf & Stock) is based on the life of King David.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Did you get a bonus day off this week? Schools around the country were affected by a second day of strikes by teachers. Perhaps you were delighted that you had the day off. Perhaps you were outraged that you were one of the year groups your school brought in to teach, despite the strikes, as you have exams coming up. Either way, it’s worth thinking about the teachers and the choices they have made this week to do something they wouldn’t normally do.

Teachers (and headteachers) have been protesting changes the government have made to schools: reducing the money schools have to pay for things, increasing the focus on tests and exams and so on, for at least the past ten years. Things have not improved. As a result, teachers have taken a difficult decision not to teach. They will have given up the day’s pay and struggled with the choice between making a statement and doing the job they want to do that supports the young people in their classes.

Nicodemus could see that Jesus was different, that he was offering a better way of worshipping that included all the people, not just those who were privileged. However, as a teacher of the law himself, he didn’t feel he could be seen talking to Jesus and goes to him under the cover of darkness.

Sometimes we find ourselves unhappy with the way things are, but we are afraid of taking a step out to try to change things, to do them differently. Equally we can squash others when they take risks and do something they haven’t done before. Jesus calls us to respond to the moving of the Holy Spirit – even when that means taking action other people won’t understand or accept. What are you unhappy with in your everyday world? What is Jesus asking you to do differently?

Steve Taylor is joint-vicar of St James Alperton CE Church near Wembley. He shares the job with his wife, Ali, and shares his house with their two children, two cats and numerous fish.

 

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