So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.
Genesis 12:4
He makes it look so easy. “So Abram went.” Abram/Abraham, this common ancestor the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths all share, represents for all of us the pinnacle of faithfulness. God commands. Abraham does. There are more than a few of you I am sure thinking, if only it were so easy.
The reality of course is that it is not. Not even in the Bible. You see Abraham doesn’t just go when God says go. God didn’t just show up and start ordering Abraham around and he was like, ‘yes God whatever you say God.’ Sometimes in our simplified Christian view we forget that something went before the obedience. The faithfulness. The steadfastness in the face of adversity.
You see God and Abraham had a covenant. We will read it this Sunday. “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.” And God keeps God’s promise. EVEN WHEN ABRAHAM (and all of us) didn’t keep his. That is the way covenants work. We have precious few covenantal relationships in our lives, the bond between parents and children, the covenant between clergy and the Church, and the marriage covenant are a few examples. They aren’t perfect, because we aren’t perfect, but these are relationships where we have a certain set of obligations and commitments to each other that do not depend on the actions of the other side because we trust that the other side is faithful even when we can’t see it.
When I was ordained I submitted to the doctrine and discipline of the Episcopal Church even though I have no idea how those doctrines will change and move over time, because I trust that God is working through the Church even when I don’t see it.
Perhaps then Abraham’s faithfulness - while impressive - is not as shocking. After all he got to have his ancestors be as numerous as the stars in the sky and stretching across every part of the known world. Pretty cool, really.
You know who we should pay attention to? Lot.
“And Lot went with him.”
It is one thing to be faithful because you have an agreement with God. It is quite another thing to be faithful because you trust in someone else’s relationship with God. If Abraham is the first priest/rabbi then Lot is the first congregant. And Lot does suffer, doesn’t he. He trusts! But it is not without loss. And there isn’t nearly as much glory in being Lot, is there.
But I submit that Lot’s life was still better than if he had state behind in Haran. Not because things would get better or worse for him personally socially, or professionally.
But because by following Abraham he gave up everything for the simple joy of getting to know God up close. He didn’t ask what was in it for him, or how long they would be gone, he just went. And his life was profoundly changed.
So to can your life be profoundly changed. So to can you get to know and follow God more closely. Not by doing what I say (heaven forbid!) but by following the life and teaching of our chief priest, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This season of Lent we are invited back into that covenant relationship. We are invited to walk again the path of Christ. To forsake the commonplace and ordinary for the life of a Christian. Which, if you are doing it right, is seldom boring.