Tedd Pullano
Genesis 12:1-9

You Can't Stay Here

His name was Vincenzo. He was 16 years old when he came here from Calabria, Italy. Just a boy. Around the year 1901, he left all he knew to come to this land called America. He had heard stories about it, knew the promises, but was ultimately unsure of what he was going to. As he considered leaving the security of his country, his home, his family, and his friends, Vincenzo had fears as well as hopes. As he boarded the boat from Calabria, he was concerned about the trip. There was much to fear -- having to leave everything and everyone he knew behind. Leaving behind all he was comfortable with. Leaving behind any and all control he had. Going forth hope filled, yet full of the fear of the unknown. Would he even stay alive through the trip in order to see America? And if he did, how would he survive in that foreign land, not speaking the language, not having a job or a place to live, and not knowing anyone there? How difficult would this change be? And yet, in spite of all the fears and obstacles, he felt so moved and called to go to that new land that in the midst of the fear and the terror, he knew that he had to go.

My grandfather was not so different from another ancestor, this one all of us share -- Abraham. Abraham, has been called by many the father of our faith. In many respects we are all his children -- children of the faith. And I dare say that to him we owe a great debt of gratitude. It is out of God's call to him and his faithful response to that call -- which we read this morning -- that we as people of faith find ourselves. Please remember that the faith we celebrate and live comes through Abraham's life and his family. Through the passage we read this morning, we understand that Abraham was called by God to become the people of God.

And importantly, as we consider this passage, it is important to remember that the beginning of the people of Israel, of essentially our faith community, begins in a state of death and barrenness. Let us remember that Abraham and his wife Sarah were unable to have children. Out of all the great things Abraham did over the course of his life, all the life and generations he gave rise to, the faith of community of the Hebrews and now us: it all started from a place of barrenness. The faith life which we have now in God started from a place of hopelessness and barrenness. The promise of children to fill the earth came from a place of no hope. But this life and hope came from God, and that is ultimately all that mattered.

And not only did all this life come from barrenness, but it came out of this wild command/demand/promise of God. God asked Abraham to leave all he knew, all he was used to, all his comfort and security, behind. Certainly he was given a great promise, a great hope for the future, but it would mean taking a risk. The risk was this: in order for him to be the blessing to the people of the earth that God needed him to be, he could not stay where he was. He needed to leave some things behind and embrace other newer things. I appreciate the way Walter Brueggeman, the bible scholar today, puts it: "The speech of God to this barren family is, a call to abandonment, renunciation and relinquishment. It is a dangerous departure from the presumed world of norms and security. The command is ... to Abraham and Sarah to "go with closed eyes... until having renounced your country, you will have given yourself wholly to God". Such renunciation is exceedingly difficult to speak of in our culture which focuses on self-indulgence... But notice, the summons is not law or discipline, but promise. The narrative knows that such departure from securities is the only way out of barrenness. God calls the fixed ones into a pilgrimage. It is a challenge to the dominant ideas of our times which yearn for settlement, security, and placement. And, the life of this family is matched by the way of God himself. Thus, God is understood not as a God who settles and dwells, but as a God who moves about. The whole of the Abrahamic narrative is premised on this seeming contradiction: to stay in safety is to remain barren; to leave in risk is to have hope."

And so God asks Abraham to take this risky journey - and to do so on faith: trusting in the God who was sending him. He promises Abraham a wonderful future when he leaves his security behind. And certainly it must not have been an easy decision for Abraham. As we all know, to leave behind even a little of what we hold onto can be difficult. Even to go away for a short trip can be trying, leaving behind the comforts of home and family. So, to imagine leaving so much behind and knowing you would most likely not return to that place can simply boggle the mind. What do you take with you; what do you leave behind? A tough question. And yet, Abraham, like my grandfather, took this journey on faith and made the move. He knew that to stay put meant to stay in barrenness and death; but to venture forth, to risk, meant an opportunity for life and hope. As the author of Hebrews 11 wrote: By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign land." And through that faithfulness to God, Abraham was greatly rewarded. He and Sarah and all his family survived because they had faith that God was leading them in the right direction. They left their place of comfort, saying yes to some significant changes. Now, we must remember that they were not always perfect -- in fact they made some bad decisions along the way, like Sarah laughing at God when she was told she would become pregnant. But, in all of their trials and tribulations, the witness to us through the Scriptures is that they remained in touch with God and tried to follow his call. They may not have known where they were going, but they went anyway, trusting God to see them through and walk with them. And God was faithful to them as well, helping them grow, change, adapt and flourish.

Abraham, being called and commanded, took a great risk leaving his security for the unknown. My grandfather, feeling moved and emboldened, took a risk leaving his security for the unknown. And though they both had to work through some difficulties, they both succeeded tremendously. Having been here almost one full year, I believe this community here, New Life Presbyterian Church, is like both Abraham and my grandfather, in this way: I believe that we too are being called to move from where we are and go forth into a land that is yet unknown. I feel that God is calling us to explore, transform, change and grow. Through much prayer and time spent with God, through conversations with the leadership here, with members of this faith community and with members of our neighborhood, I am feeling that NLPC is being called to go forth from where we are to a future of promise and hope. I believe that like Abraham, for us to stay where we are, to keep doing things the way we have always done them and not change would mean a certain level of barrenness and death. Over the past few years, we have experienced a decline in membership and we are facing a budget deficit. To keep doing what we have always done without making some changes will ensure that we die a slow and probably painful death. I do not believe anyone here wants to see that. And yet, in order to survive and thrive and grow spiritually as well as in our ministry, we will have to consider making changes. Some of those may be easy; some may not be so easy. Some may cause tears of joy; some may cause tears of pain. Some decisions may mean embracing the past, some may mean leaving it gracefully behind.

God is calling us and pulling us into the future. We need to listen to that call, trust him and go with him, just as Abraham did. We need to be prayerful and faithful about what God is calling us to do. As we move forward, the Finance/Stewardship Committee is considering a few exciting ideas and options, some of which may seem scary; the Session is doing so as well; the board of Deacons is considering a new way to organize itself; as a worshipping community we continue to explore changes in order to meet the balances we need to have in our worship life; we are working on a partnership with Third Presbyterian to do more ministries together; embracing the past, we are working on a couple on programs with the Corner Place that we believe will have significant impact on the community. These are exciting times to be a part of this faith community. And I realize that along with excitement come challenges. We need to meet these challenges as one united group, perhaps not always agreeing on each decision, but always seeking to know God's plan for us, always seeking to be faithful to the overall mission and ministry of this congregation, as given to us by God. And we need to keep lines of communication open.

Abraham survived and flourished because he trusted in God as best he could while adapting and changing, while holding onto the right parts of the past to carry into the future. Let us work together in the coming months and years to do the same, so that we too can flourish and be a blessing to all the nations.