Journeying on by Stages
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
May 13, 2006—Baccalaureate Service, Class of 2006
Genesis 12:1-9; Psalm 121; Matthew 5:3-16
Genesis 12:1-9
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan,
Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.Matthew 5:3-16
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
I. BEGINNING
Some of you may recognize the Old Testament Lesson for this afternoon. For it was the scripture lesson for the very first sermon I preached to you your freshman year, in August 2002.
Nearly four years ago I stood in this pulpit and preached a sermon on that text in which I asked, “Is there anything better than packing all your possessions into a car and moving them hundreds of miles down the interstate into a concrete room you share with a complete stranger?”
It was a question pretty much directly addressed to the freshmen in the congregation that day and explored the parallels between Abram’s journey as he set out from his country, his kindred, and his father’s house to a land God would show him to the journey you were about to set out on.
II. THE TEXT
Indeed, there are certainly connections. The Biblical text describes the call of Abram in a three-fold way: leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s house. It is an increasing escalation in terms of specificity. It is hard to leave one’s homeland—whether it’s leaving behind sweet tea, pierogies, Motown music, Mystic pizza, the Outer Banks, things that are ‘wicked hahd coah’ like the Sawx, decent Buffalo wings, Philly cheese steaks, a decent slice of thin crust pizza, a decent slice of deep-dish pizza, football at The Ohio State, or the verdant lush plains of Ashtabula—it’s not an easy thing to leave one’s home country.
Harder still to leave one’s kindred. One’s extended family, who look like you, think like you, drop their r’s or flatten their a’s like you. Who understand you without much effort. It’s a hard thing to leave family and friends who ‘get’ you.
Hardest still to leave one’s parents’ house. Now, in the Biblical example we are likely talking about a ‘household’ in which the father is patriarch, rather than a family dwelling—but the parallel holds. Hardest of all is to leave the confines of one’s parents’ home: that place of safety and comfort that is home. That place where we knew our parents would look out for us and take care of us.
And as we discussed all those years ago, it required no less faith to set out on the journeys you had just begun than it had for Abram, when he was called to leave everything he knew and set out for the Promised Land.
In many ways, setting out to college is leaving everything you knew.
III. THE JOURNEY THUS FAR
In some cases, you leave everything you thought you knew. And before you long you discover that you didn’t know as much as you thought you did. Most of the time this involved things about yourself.
Because you set out on a journey to discover who you were. For eighteen years, your parents, your teachers, your friends, your pastors, everyone, told you who you were. And here you were in college deciding whether any of that was true. You were leaving behind all the preconceptions that you and others had about yourself to discover who you really were.
You set out on a journey of faith. What did it mean to call yourself a Christian? What did it mean to claim that name for yourself? How did you understand that name? What did it mean for you and for your life? Open questions, longing to be answered along the road. Part of the journey of faith you were embarking upon.
All in all, the call of Abram is a good text to start out your college career with.
IV. JOURNEYING ON BY STAGES
And a good one to end it with as well. For there is one element about the text that I find the most interesting. We are told at the end of this passage that “Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.” The Hebrew says “Abram pulled up [tent], going and pulling up [tent] toward the Negev”. It describes a process of pitching a tent, pulling up tent, moving on and repeating this over and over again, dwelling for a time in one place and then moving on.
Exactly what you’re all about to do.
The journey of discovery does not end here. That diploma they give you is not a certificate of wisdom. That journey continues. It is a journey we are on our whole lives long. We may for a time pitch our tent in one place or another. We may for a time pitch our tent in one career or another. Or in one phase of life. The journey does not end with the end of your college careers, in many ways it is only just beginning.
It is the same with your journeys of faith. I have had the privilege of walking side by side with you on four years of the journey, but that journey is not complete. You did not learn everything you need to know from me. You couldn’t have, since I am still learning myself. We all are. (One of the Big Secrets that you’re about to learn is that everyone you always thought had all the answers is actually just faking it—they’re learning as they go along, too.)
And now comes this next stage. You pull up your tent, and head out for whatever lies beyond: work, grad school, med school, law school (God help you), travel, or ‘to be determined.’ And when that stage has reached its conclusion, you’ll pull up tent, and head out again.
V. END
You are ready.
You have learned much. Grown much. Experienced much. Shared much. One of the great joys of being a campus minister is that I get to witness this process in you, and watch you change from the unsure (or in some cases too sure) freshmen, to become young men and women of consequence. You are truly the salt of the earth and the light of the world, as Jesus said. You will go from this place to give flavor to the lives of others whose lives lack it, and shine light into the lives of those who live in darkness.
During your time on this campus, and for some of you, during your time as a part of our community here at Kay, you have exhibited what are considered to be the fruits of faith: mercy, justice, compassion, love for one another and of the stranger, a commitment to righteousness and an abiding hope. Let us not underestimate the power that those gifts can have in the world at large. The people you have become and the gifts that you share are no small matter—those gifts can and will make a difference. And it’s why you must go from this place, to journey to the next stage, to share what you have gained from this one.
There is one last point about Abram’s story that I want to lift up for you. God says to Abram, “Go from your country, your kindred, and your father’s house to a land that I will show you.”
God does not tell us where to go, God shows us. That is, God goes with us, stage by stage, and shows us. You do not head out of here alone. You go with the experiences you’ve had, with the knowledge you’ve learned, the wisdom you’ve gained, the blessings and prayers of the community you leave, and you go with the God who called you on this journey.
The Gospel of John says “the word became flesh and dwelled among us.” The literal rendering of the Greek is “the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us”. A comforting thought, that as you move along the journey of life, journeying on by stages, pulling up, moving, and pitching your tents, there is One who has already pitched his tent among us. One who loves you so much, who gives everything for you, and who walks alongside you along the way. As with Abram, you are not alone on the journey to which you have been called.
So, having gone from your country, your kindred, and your father’s house, go now from this place to a land God will show you.
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Copyright © 2006. Mark A. Schaefer
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