Park United Methodist Church

Genesis 12:1-9

Romans 4:13-25

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Reflection

Today we get more stories from Genesis.  You know the song Father Abraham?  Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham… It always bugged me that it never talked about the daughter.  Anyhow, this is the story.  Just before this chapter, Abraham’s people tried building the tower of Babel, and then his father, he and Sari had headed to Canaan but settled in Haran (meaning crossroads or highway).

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It is here that Abram hears the call to go.  He is 75.  Hear this, he is old.  Not only that, but he is told he will be the father of many descendants.  In Romans, we are reminded that he considered himself older than dust and Sarai’s womb to be dust, and yet he believes the promise and goes.  Picks up everything and leaves to go where God is sending him.  

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This does not mean he doesn’t make mistakes along the journey, mind you.  He tries to hedge his bets with Hagar when it is taking too long for Sarai to have a child.  As he travels, he worries about his safety, so he pretends Sarai is his sister, and then when she is taken into a foreign king's harem (at nearly 80!) God steps in to make him tell the truth.  He still has faith that God will fulfill the promise, even if he doesn’t know how, where, or when.  It takes 25 years for Isaac to be born and for them to settle in the right place.  

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That is the thing when God calls us into something new.  We don’t always get the GPS directions, a roadmap and the step-by-step instructions.  Yet God is in it.  God does not leave us or abandon us.  Faith is the requirement, and God does the work. 

 

Right now, we are stepping up and out into one of those seasons.  I asked our council, our jump start, and the congregation at various points in the last two years what we feel God is calling us to.  Building ministries that feed people and help families kept coming back to us.  As we prayed for specifics, building a kitchen to deepen our food ministries was an answer that came back. God lined up the grant opportunities.  We wrote grants despite never having done that before and got them.  Now we continue to step out and into what God is doing.

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What is it - well, we think we know it is a teaching kitchen to begin with, with space for families to gather and put together freezer meals and cook as a community,  but what else - no idea.  We do know that now we need help!  We need folks with accounting experience to help with bookkeeping for the grants and reporting back.  We need folks willing to do demolition and construction.  We need contractors and folks with all sorts of skills and expertise.  So please pray.  If you have skills or know others, please see Margaret, who is gathering our resources.  God is calling us into this new thing!  If Abram can do it at 75, feeling dried out, we can do this!  There are folks in this community who need a place to gather around food and table.  We are being called into that space.  What can we do together?