Sermon: Blessed to be a blessing

By Joanna Lawrence Shenk

Genesis 11 – 25

Here we are on Sunday #2 of our sacred narrative series and I’m already realizing how challenging it really is to attempt to tell the story of the Bible in 9 months! The theme for today is God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. Their stories alone could span a couple months. Before I attempt to do some reflecting along those lines, I want to refresh us on what we heard last Sunday about creation and “the fall.” 

Here is Sheri’s helpful summary:

• We are earth creatures, made from this earth and not separate from it. 
• We have been given a sacred calling to care for and protect creation. 
• We have been made in the image of the Creator, and imbued with the sacred gift of freedom. 
• We have also been given the gift of sacred limits, as well as teachers who can show us what those limits are and how to live within them. 

Between the creation narrative and the characters of Abraham and Sarah being introduced, a lot has happened, and a lot of it is troubling, especially as relates to sacred limits.  

Cain and Abel show us that even from the beginning it’s hard to get along with siblings. In the story of Noah and the flood, God is so fed up with the corruption of humans that God decides to destroy them. And then, kinda humorously, after humans repopulate the earth for a number of generations they decide to build the tower of Babel. Again pushing beyond sacred limits and seeking godlike power. God, having matured a bit, decides to not destory them this time, but instead to make it really hard for them to communicate with each other – we now know why humans speak so many different languages. 

As Mennonite theologian Ted Grimsrud puts it about Genesis 1-11, “It is as if the human race has in short order run its course, then rendered itself powerless to do anything but self-destruct.” Abraham and Sarah’s defining characteristic, when introduced at the end of chapter 11, is that they are barren, which is in keeping with the idea that humanity has run its course. 

However, as we shall see, they are not the end of the story for humanity. The stories about them span from the end of chapter 11 to the beginning of chapter 25. They get a lot of space in the text because they are such interesting people who get into all kinds of strange and compelling situations. 

This includes a fair bit of travel into unfamiliar places. Sarah is passed off as Abraham’s sister not once but twice during their travels, due to Abraham’s cowardice. We have the narrative of Hagar, who is shown God’s provision and care even though she was perceived as an outsider and abused by Sarah. Male circumcision becomes a thing. There’s the troubling story of Sodom and Gomorrah, a place condemned – not for sexual acts – but for its lack of hospitality and violence toward strangers. And throughout these stories God continues to promise Abraham and Sarah the land of Cannan for their descendents, and despite their incredulity that they will have biological offspring. 

Each of these vignettes is a sermon – or a book – unto itself, with many interpretations worth arguing over for a long time. Sarah and Abraham do not come out looking very noble most of the time. And yet the Divine does not toss them aside and look for better candidates to bless. 

What is the wisdom being communicated by the writers of these stories about who they understand God to be and what God’s promises are about? Well, first and very obviously God is not seeking perfect people with whom to partner, and maybe God never expected that in the first place. As we learned last Sunday, freedom was given to humans, which maybe God regretted a lot at times (like with the flood), but then God recommitted to giving humanity a go.   

God’s call in Genesis 2 was to care for and protect creation, and the promise to Abraham and Sarah is an extension of that as they are called to be a blessing to the world – all the families of the earth. Through the narratives of human self-destruction, we see that God actually wants humanity to be drawn back to right relationship. Abraham and Sarah are chosen to be a part of God’s project of healing, as Ted Grimsrud calls it. This community is called into being to know God’s love and share that love with the world. 

We see in the stories about Abraham and Sarah that even they fell short of sharing this inclusive love. They used and abused Hagar – but God saw Hagar and blessed her to be the matriarch of descendants too numerous to count. 

We also see a glaring example of cities of people who are the antithesis of God’s call to care for creation and provide hospitality to strangers. Sodom and Gomorrah, a story twisted and used against LGBTQ people, I believe was the counter-example to what God expected of Abraham and Sarah when God promised them the land of Canaan. In chapter 13 the juxtaposition is pretty direct. (Gen. 13:12…)

Was God promising Abraham a modern nation state? Unequivocally, no. God was saying, I am blessing you so that you can be a blessing to all the earth. I am blessing you so you can welcome the strangers among you and treat them as kin. I am blessing you so that you can care for the land and protect the water and creatures and rocks. I am blessing you – a family who has been traveling for many years – so that you can remember what it’s like to travel, and honor the travelers who come to you. 

Perhaps the Divine was saying, I am even blessing you to continue to be a traveling people – open to my voice – when I may call you to share your blessings beyond the lands that have become familiar. For inspiration along these lines, I commend to you a delightful tale written by Eli Ramer about a conversation between God and Moses at a cafe in heaven. Over tea and tasty baked goods they remember Moses’ time in human form and lament misinterpretations over the centuries regarding God’s call to relationship with land. 

As we are well aware, misinterpretations about the “promised” land theologically undergird the genocide of Indigenous people on this land and the ongoing land theft in service of resource extraction. Settler colonial theologies of modern nation states, like the United States and Israel, say that God gave land to one group and therefore not to the Other. 

What a far cry this theology is from the exhortation to be a blessing to the earth – to all the families of the earth! Cycles of violence set in motion centuries ago by Christian empires toward Muslim, Jewish and Indigenous people the world over, continue to manifest today.

This history was not inevitable. It is a disturbing repeat of the stories at the beginning of Genesis. It represents human disconnection from the way of the Creator and from the limits set forth for the well-being of all living things. 

In the stories of Sarah and Abraham God was calling on them to recognize how they were blessed (not on their own merits) and in return, to be a blessing – to share God’s healing love with all the families of the earth. I imagine this to include more than human families as well.

Just as in our sacred narratives, God’s promise is before us still. Out of the abundance of God’s love for us (not because we are more special than anyone else), we are called to be a blessing to the world. 

This is an ongoing reorientation – to join God’s healing work in the world and divest from cycles of destruction and violence. We cannot do it alone or within a generation. Who are the communities more in tune with the Creator’s way and what teachings do they have for us? 

As we remember that we are earth creatures, may we recognize the many blessings that surround and sustain us in the web of life. From a place of gratitude and humility may we offer what is ours to give for the healing of earth.