Abraham and Sarah: The PROMISE!

Text: Genesis 12:1-4a
Theme: “Abraham and Sarah: The PROMISE”
2nd Sunday in Lent
March 20 2011
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau


In the Name of Jesus


1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.2 “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.[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”[b]
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him.


Somewhere along the lines of four thousand years ago, there lived a man named Abram. His wife was named Sarai. They made their residence, along with their extended family, in a city called Ur. That town was in what we today would call southern Iraq. The Bible mentions the town of Ur – calling it “Ur of the Chaldees” – four times. Other than the name, we know very little about Ur.

In the decade of the 1920s, a British excavator and archaeologist by the name of C. Leonard Woolley spent a great deal of time at the ancient site of Ur. The work of Woolley and his team gives us all a glimpse of the milieu, if you will, from which this ancient man and woman – Abram and Sarai -- came from.

Although Ur was small, it was a bristling commercial center along the Euphrates River. The culture was religious. It was named for the moon-goddess, Urim. It was also materialistic – as excavations of the ancient ziggurat and royal cemetery revealed. The population was educated. There were codes of law, and it was governed by various dynasties down through the years.

Ironically, within the last two weeks, nineteen members of a branch of the United States Military (called The 13th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion) visited the ruins of this ancient city. This story did not make, as they say, the “national news.” It was tucked away on the internet.

The soldiers were taken through the ruins of ancient Ur by the caretaker, a man by the name of Diaf. They learned about Sir Woolley’s discoveries. They saw the artifacts, the jewelry, and the cuneiform writing from four thousand years ago. They viewed extensive sewer system that the citizens of Ur had built. One soldier, Specialist Paul Aguilera, had this to say at the end of the visit: “It taught me that, while we may think we are a lot more intelligent than people were back then, that is just not the case.”

Today, I offer you a second message in a series called “A Very Personal Lent.” I hope this short trip to Ur reveals that Abram and Sarai, despite the thousands of years of advancement since, were not much different from us. They knew culture; they knew fashion; they knew how to think and write; they knew how to dream it, envision it, and build it, and they knew a thing or two about religion.

Did they worship, at first, the moon-goddess Urim? If so, a night like last night would have been one to take note of. As Wendy Hundley of the Dallas Morning News reported it, “The weather cooperated with clear skies on Saturday night to give North Texans a good view of the super “perigee” moon. The full moon appeared 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than normal as its lunar orbit brought it close to the Earth.”

Eventually, Abram and Sarai left Ur. The Bible is silent as to why. But they move north by northwest and settled at a town called Haran. Haran also had a temple to the moon-goddess, Urim, so that may have been a reason for settling there. It was also along a trade route, so business considerations may have come into play.
Abram and Sarai prospered in Haran. They enjoyed wealth and gained many possessions. Servants were on hand to cater to both their needs and wants. The world was their oyster. They were in Haran, the Bible seems to imply, for quite some time.

During that period of time in Haran, something happened with massive significance for future generations – leading all the way to our own. Abram did not witness a “perigree” moon. There were no incantations from a priest or priestess of Urim, the moon-goddess. Instead, it was the voice of Yahweh, the God of heaven and earth. As it turns out, they were about to start traveling again. Only this time, it wasn’t the family itinerary. It was God’s. Yahweh said to Abram: “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Abram was seventy five years old, well past the current retirement age, when this shocking change of plans came.

I wonder if any of you have ever felt what Abram and Sarai must have felt. Let’s say that you have a sense of settled peace with your life so far. You’ve enjoyed North Texas for quite some time. Your roots are down. Your family is around you. You serve the broader community you live in. You enjoy your life, and you support and love those who enjoy life with you. Yes, there are the usual concerns and worries which are always part of the mix. But you’re not going anywhere. You have a history in your current location. Your loved ones are there; your friends are close by. There is a familiarity in your surroundings that you’ve grown accustomed to.

If you were Abram, what would you do if you were told to change all that? I know what I would have said: “Leave? Say it isn’t so! You’ve got to be kidding! That’s the craziest, most cockamamie idea I’ve ever heard. Skip it. Forget it. Not me. Not going. I won’t apply for any passport, and I won’t call the movers. It’s just not going to happen. Let’s get that on the table and get it straight right now!”
Yet, even before Abram or anyone of us could interrupt by putting our thoughts into words, Yahweh goes on: “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.”

I talked to a gentleman the other day who knows a thing or two about global positioning satellites. They can locate and survey spots anywhere in the world through the coordinates that are sent. The margin for error is only eleven feet. Yesterday, the United States, in cooperation with the United Nations and other countries, launched over one hundred tomahawk cruise missiles toward select targets in Libya. No doubt, those high-tech weapons hit the marks assigned – probably with only an eleven foot margin of error.

On that day in Haran, the word of Yahweh was not filled with divine explosives; it was filled with promises – gracious, loving, and powerful promises all. That word was not meant to control, manipulate, or destroy. It was meant to bless and lead and enliven. And that word locked on to the coordinates of Abram’s heart, and hit its mark perfectly! In today’s New Testament Reading from the book of Romans, the apostle Paul reiterated what the Scriptures teach about Abram: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

My hope is that the gracious Word of Yahweh has locked onto the coordinates of your heart today. Join me in celebrating that you and I are recipients, heirs, and living proof of these promises of God. Abram and Sara’s story is our story; we’re part of it; we’re in on it; we are members of the family. We are not nomads wandering aimlessly adrift. Instead, we have the promises – the itinerary! – of the one true God.

A final thing needs to be said about the promises of Yahweh. As I said earlier, they are not manipulative or controlling. They come in the way of a gift – with all the surprise a gift entails. Therefore, they are rejectable. In other words, it is entirely possible to say: “God, no thanks. I’ve had it. I have my own game plan. I’m going to follow my own path and intinerary. You I will do without.”

The astonishing thing is that the entire history of God’s people – from Abram and Sarai and on down to you and me right now – has been like that. The promises of Yahweh are set aside for something else: for what’s fashionable, for what’s fun, for what’s happening now. The word of Yahweh is shoved away to make room for better ideas: our own, supposedly enlightened, ones.

But the good news I share today is that while our keeping covenant with God is spotty and only too often misses the mark, God’s keeping covenant with us is as good, if not better, than ever! God didn’t send a missile. He sent a Son!
As Nicodemus the Pharisee heard in today’s Gospel reading: “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

When you have those moments alone; when you really start to chew on what’s happening in the world what with wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, economic uncertainties, and the ascendancy of fresh fear, then I can’t think of a better time to recall the promises made to Abram and Sarai and the promises kept in Jesus Christ.

God knows the coordinates of your heart, and His love is locked onto them!

Amen.