Well, I have spent some time in the last few days and weeks helping a friend get ready to move, and I am reminded of how much work it is.  The packing, the getting rid of stuff, the getting the house ready to sell, the repairs, and moving your stuff miles to another state and hope it gets there with minimal losses.  Dianna and I have been in the same house 17 years, and the last time we moved we moved from only two miles away and had a lot less stuff.  I cannot begin to fathom what it would take for us to move, but even though we have no plans to move anywhere I have decided to de-clutter my house and keep it in the ready mode. 

            You see, I also know that your house never looks as good as it does when you are selling it, and that seems strange.  I remember when we moved from the other side of Maumelle, the house we had grown tired of looked so good when we cleaned it and moved out that I wanted to keep it.  So I have decided if we keep our house in the kind of shape that we would need to sell it, then we would get the benefit now and enjoy it more instead of just getting it nice for someone else.

            Now the de-cluttering thing has been a project for a while.  It has helped that Emily is married and has moved out, but there is a whole truckload of her stuff that will be with us always, even to the end of the age.  To make matters more crowded, Eric will likely move home again in July or August and he has a whole apartment of stuff that has to go somewhere.

            But despite our adult children’s things, the real problem is that Dianna and I have too much stuff.  I had a short lived rule that I want to get back to, the “one-in-two-out” rule.  That is whenever we buy something we have to get rid of two things.  The other rule we need at our house is the “seven rule” whereby every week we get rid of seven things. Otherwise, de-cluttering is a daunting task at our place.

            But one has the most success de-cluttering when they move, it is then when one is motivated the most to clean out their closets.  My grandmother used to say that three moves equals one fire.  I guess that might be true in terms of getting rid of stuff.   Dianna and I have not moved in a long time, therefore we have lots of stuff. That and the fact that we like everyone else constantly fight the trend to be greedy Americans who believe in conspicuous consumption.  But as I looked at what my friend had to pack, I was terrified and paralysed by the fact that we probably have four times the stuff that she does, and that is a lot of stuff.

            Now moving can be very good and very exciting.  We all have an innate sense of wanderlust, especially when we get to a certain age in life.  Things can be better somewhere else, although on the front end of the deal that is always an unknown.  And bigger houses and better jobs are not always the panacea that they seem.  When one leaves the comfortable and the familiar to the unknown it can be stressful, and it is a risk. However, one has to sometimes risk in order to get to where they want to be in life. And some moves that look good on the front end can turn out to be not so good deals on the back end.  I am also convinced that many people move do so looking for a geographical cure for something in their life, sometimes something that they cannot even articulate. 

Moving can be an arduous enterprise.  It is a lot of work, the kind that most of us are not use to doing.  And on the other end of the move unpacking and getting everything in its place is no picnic either.  Throw in the emotional toll of the move to complete the difficult picture.  Even in the best of the “grass is greener somewhere else” scenarios, there is the grief of letting go, of permanently cutting ties, of saying goodbye.  And even though we moved two miles away last time to a much nicer house, we had begun our family there and we were symbolically leaving some important memories behind.  Oh, I am very glad we did move, but you always have to be willing to shut the door on some important things in order to do so.

And one must factor in the fact that moves are also tough on those left behind. Since I have known this close friend was moving for several months, the experience was sort of analogous (not to be insensitive, but on a much lesser scale) to someone dying in an intensive care unit and not knowing when to pull the plug.  But now that this friend is gone, I can start to throw dirt on the grave and get on to whatever is next.   

            So today we have in our lectionary text from Genesis chapter 12 (yeah, I know, I am stuck in the Old Testament and I can’t get out without help) the introduction and calling of the patriarch of patriarchs, Abram or Abraham to use the retroactive nomenclature. It is a heck of a moving story, the quintessential move for no discernable reason story, the story of the call of Abraham.  And I think of some of the things I have spoken of this morning has to apply to his big move in a far away culture, in a far away world a long time ago.  How much harder would such a drastic move be?  In his day, unknowns were life threatening.  I mean to go to a land that you know not of, was full of perils including maybe not having anything to eat and dealing with hostile peoples.

            Abraham is the patriarch of three of the world’s great religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Abraham was first called to leave his geographic place and everything that was familiar and go to an unknown place of God’s choosing.  He was to leave his home, his daddy’s place, and to venture out presumably on faith to wherever God led him.  Now Abraham was obviously convinced he had heard the very voice of God and followed this call at the ripe old age of 75 years young.  Again, like Noah last week, we know little of Abraham before his call.  He simply received the call from God; he obeyed, and went where God told him to go.  There was no questioning that we know of, he had frightfully too few details about what the heck God was up to, but he just upped and left.  In return God pledged him a big promise, such as making him the father of a great nation, making him extremely famous, and making him a blessing for untold nations. And not only that, God also promised to “have his back” by blessing those that blessed him and to do in those that would do him in.  And the text simply says in verse four that Abraham did just that– he grabbed his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the stuff and people, yes people, that he had acquired in Haran and packed up the whole mess and left.  Just that simple– just like that. 

            Now there are several stories in Genesis about Abraham where we learn more about him, and some of them are kind of peculiar. Who understands the whole sacrifice of Isaac on Mt. Moriah deal?  That episode raises more questions than it answers, and just the possibility of human sacrifice of one’s offspring is one of the most disturbing things in the Bible, even if God was just joshing about the whole deal.  Or the thing about Sarai laughing about getting pregnant at 99?  That doesn’t sound funny to me, sounds like a nightmare. 

But today, we have the pure and simple call of God to Abraham, and he straightforwardly obeyed.  And because of it he was blessed and promised much more than 15 minutes of fame– it was a deal too sweet to pass up. God called– Abraham left– God blessed– Abraham became famous as promised, and the Middle East if not the world has never been the same since.  And the implication for us is that is the way that God works in our life’s journey as well. 

Our spiritual journey is a common metaphor for our faith experience, and that terminology is based on the ultimate faith journey, the journey of Abraham. The New Testament writer of the Hebrews give us a little more light on Abraham in chapter 11 verse 8-10 in that great roll call of faith:

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 country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

            So the writers of the Hebrews lets us know what we have already suspected that Abraham was a man of great (even though it seems to be blind) faith from the information we are given.  So what made his faith so great?  God told him to move and he did.  Is that it?  Is that all there is too it? Come on, there has to be more to this story?  A simple command to pack up and move and you are the most blessed person in the annals of history.  We typically think that is enough, it is the quintessential lesson on obedience.  And who is to argue with the results?  Abraham’s decision to follow God has altered the course of history and birthed three major world religions. 

            But we want more than what we are given here.  What does this mean for our own spiritual journeys?  I confess that I struggle a bit at this point.  To be obedient to the call of God is about a mystical experience that us mere mortals might encounter. How do we discern God’s call and how do we obey? To hear some talk about following God is just about as vague as these verses, and sometimes as radical undertaking without any ironclad guarantees that they are really hearing God’s voice. I mean many have claimed to be acting by faith and have preached they were following God when clearly the voices they were hearing were anything but divine. 

            The greatest of societal evils from the Crusades of the middle ages to Adolf Hilter to 9/11 had at their basis those who were convinced that they were doing God’s bidding– that they were obeying the call of God.   And heck, no one carries bigger Bibles that the Ku Klux Klan, who are all convinced of the same.  There are all kinds of things done in the name of God with great zeal by people on a proverbial mission.  People who were simply deluded into believing that they were hearing God’s voices and obeying his will. 

            So how do we know God’s will and how are we to be obedient?  I know many people who hear such voices.  People who base major life decisions on the belief that something is God’s will, and I don’t always get it.  Yet, we all talk this way.  God wants me to do this, or is leading me to do that.  And while I don’t want to discount what God does, as God did after all call me, I don’t understand the logic behind this at times. 

            You see, it seems like the will of God is a hard concept for many to understand.  People (myself included) struggle with its concept, especially the specific, itinerary type interpretation of the will of God that is so prevalent today.   The “in the know folks” of our day have God’s will all figured out, or have reductionistically packaged it into their curricula.  Granted, this type of knowledge is “spiritual” knowledge, but some people seem to understand it a little too well.  Like my friend in seminary who ask a woman out on a date.  She said that she would get back to him she had to pray about it.  She called him the next day and said that God said that she could meet him in the cafeteria for dinner.  Now that is understanding the mind of Christ a little too well for me. 

            We do talk about the will of God a lot, and it means everything from who I should vote for to whom one should date or marry, to as another friend I had use to say, “God wants me to have that parking space.”  The will of God becomes a convoluted system of understanding the minutia and the trivial in our lives for some.  I am amazed at how clearly and how easily some understand the mind of the almighty.  They act like it is a much easier thing to comprehend than say, programming a VCR or figuring out their computer or doing their taxes.  I am here to confess that it just hasn’t been that easy for me.  And God forbid that you should ever miss the perfect will of God in your life, because you will have to settle for God’s second best, at least according to some.

            One author I read this week puts it this way:

The truth is that this belief that God will whisper in your ear all kind of particulars that pertain to you and His will for your life is very appealing to Christians. Even though when you look at the Scriptures, the specialized directions are rare. They are unusual. They are usually unsought. And they are always crystal clear. None of this “I think the Lord is telling me” business. People are still gravitating to the suggestion that we can develop a sixth sense that can tie us into a hotline to God so that we can have certitude about the things of life and the decisions we ought to make. Why is this appealing? Because it’s easy. It’s easy. You know Americans are given to quick fixes and this is the American Christian quick fix. We are also given to individualism and this is the American individualistic view of Christianity–guidance decision making. It fits the American mentality, not the Biblical mentality, not the Christian mentality, the American mentality. And that’s why this point of view is distinctly American. It’s a quick fix. It’s an easy way out. It’s kind of like Cliff Notes, only worse. (“Stand to Reason” Gregory Koukl, 1994)

            I recently attended an event for one who is moving to another state to accept another ministry position, which at least initially will be a much lesser position in many of the tangible ways that one might measure such a thing.  Someone at the event asked her to talk about her move as it seems counterintuitive to the direction most of us aspire to in life and ministry, and she shared something along the lines of the following– “I am moving to be obedient to God for that is the thing that has always been most important in my life and what we have taught our kids.  That we are to discern the will of God and be obedient to God’s will and when you are obedient to the will of God you just have a such a peace and things seem to fall into place because when you are obedient you are in God’s will, even if it means that things are not better for you there is the peace from doing God’s will.” 

            As I listened I had a couple of reactions.  One, the reasoning didn’t make sense to me, it sounded like circular reasoning.  You do God’s will be being obedient which in turn reveals God’s will.  But the second thing that got me was that it was just too vague to be making life changing decisions on.  Is that it?  Is that what you give up a job you love, and nice home and life for?  And at least on the surface simply to do the same kind of thing in just another place geographically.  It is not like she is being called to Outer Mongolia to work with some lost tribe. Thirdly, I don’t buy the peace thing, many have followed God at a high cost and their life was anything but peaceful.  The converse also implies that if your life is not peaceful then you have missed the obedience to God factor in your life, and that simply is not true, I have seen a million contradictory examples to that in 27 years working in an acute care hospital.  This thinking is nothing more that a type of the prosperity gospel.  But her desire to follow God got my attention none-the-less. 

            How do you know God is leading you, I wondered? So the third thing I felt was “am I missing the boat?”  She has found something that I don’t know about.  Am I missing the simple will of God in my own life? Why have I been where I am for so long?

            I have heard no voices saying “move” for a long time, or go do this Stanley for a long time. Surely God has called me to minister, God has called me into the chaplaincy, and God has called me to this church and to Baptist Health.  But the other side is I have been at Baptist 27 years and here as your pastor seven years, both eternities for ministry positions.  My boss at the hospital has indicated that he wants to know what it will take to keep me happy and at Baptist until the day I retire, maybe 15 years from now, so a move is not likely. Is that steadiness and comfort possible for one open to God’s leadership?  Am I not hearing God’s prompting in my own life? It is a good question. 

            I do react strongly against vague and Pollyannaish views of the overly intimate God of some people, but what does the call of God sound like and how do we obey?  It is an important spiritual question. About the best I can explain my calling is in describing my yearnings and in my sense of purpose and fulfillment, and these are very ethereal and not very practical commodities.

            So maybe we would do well to give a second look to Father Abraham for help.  And we amazingly find that he simply obeyed.  He gave up the familiar, he gave up the comfortable, and he totally changed his way of life because God told him to in some otherwise unidentifiable way.   That is the story. Like it or not, that is his journey– and who knows, maybe ours too.

Dan Clendenin explains it this way, that

Abraham defied both the inner propensities of human nature and the outer pressures of cultural conformity that call us in the opposite direction. We like to journey from the unknown to the known. We want to move from what we do not have to what we think we want and need, away from the strange and the unpredictable and toward the safe and the secure. Unsatisfied with mere promises, we demand absolute guarantees. While we demand clarity and act timidly, Abraham acted whole-heartedly without absolute certainty. The story of God’s call upon Abraham’s life is a call that’s repeated to each one of us today. Clendenin says that this Abrahamic call from God subverts conventional wisdom, and so it can feel counter-intuitive. It’s a call to move beyond three deeply human and unusually powerful fears — fear of the unknown that we can’t control (ignorance), fear of others who are different from us (inclusion), and fear of powerlessness in the face of impossibilities (impotence) (JourneywithJesus.net, Dan Clendenin)

Even though my friend could not articulate her new call very eloquently, who could blame her with such a weighty subject, I never-the-less think God is in her move.  And I think God is in it for me as I have already come to grips with some new direction in my own life and ministry, changes that were inspired by her leaving.  And truth be told, Abraham is no different from my friend. When he left Haran for Canaan, Abraham left all that was familiar — all custom and comfort, family and friends, all regularity and rhythm of his life. The only thing he retained of his homeland in Haran was the power of memory. His journey moved from present clarity into a future of genuine and profound ignorance. Abraham journeyed from what he had to what he did not have, from the known to the unknown, from everything that was familiar to all things strange.  Do you think he could articulate what the will of God was all about? Not likely is my guess, or it would have been spelled out for us in this narrative. He simply learned the will of God from doing, a very important point.

I have indeed learned the lessons of obedience, and I learned it from an unlikely person.  We will call him Sam, and Sam was a cocaine addict in one of my groups I lead for them.  Another person in the group asked me to interpret step 3 of the infamous 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous which says, “Made a decision to turn my life over to the will of God as we understood him.”  He went on to say that he had no clue as to how to understand the will of God.  Well, I was stalling, because my Sunday school answers didn’t seem to satisfy him, when another person spoke up in the room.  He said, you don’t have to figure out the will of God.  Just DO steps four through twelve and at some point you will wake up spiritually and know that you have been doing the will of God every step of the journey.  WOW, I thought, what a simple but profound answer!  Just DO what you know that you ought to be doing, and the parts you don’t understand will fall into place. 

This “go before you know” theology sort of sounded like the quintessential leap of faith, you know the one where you don’t know what to expect, you don’t know what the fine print is before you sign on the dotted line, the one where you jump into the dark, but land in the light.

            That, my friends, is a key.  We commit to doing the will of God whatever it is, where ever it takes us, and we often commit blindly.  There is no contract to read, no need to investigate or to call in legal help, and no need to understand every detail.  After all, if you know every detail, what has faith to do with any of it?  We take an unfamiliar road, the road less traveled, and find that we have footprints in the sand besides ours, a companion all along the journey.  You see, when we commit to doing God’s will, and we do those things that we know we ought be about doing, the things that Jesus clearly tells us to do, one day at a time, one step at a time– then it all becomes clear, a light comes on inside, and we find that we are at the beginning as A.A. calls it a “spiritual awakening.”  And when we do what we know we ought be doing, then the light comes on and we take our shoes off for we all of a sudden find ourselves on Holy Ground.  And when this happens, we too have a tremendous Abrahamic like power—we may not parent great nations and birth world religions—but we will have something better: the power to bless. Maybe even beginning with ourselves.  And that is always Good News.  Thanks be to God! Amen.