Abraham
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So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. 2 Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.
3 From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier 4 and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord.
5 Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. 7 And quarreling arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
8 So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”
10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.
14 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring[a] forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”
18 So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.
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Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God -this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d] says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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Quarrels
Sermon first preached at St Andrew’s Church Wakefield on 1 September 2001
Introduction
I have just come back from a trip to Canada – Toronto – The Flight was delayed for a few hours which - allows us to go to Toronto church service.
We left at 10pm to check in at 10.15. All is well & God is good & God is looking after us. We arrive at the airport and find out there is a further delay to 1am - now it’s not not funny. Up to that point, we thought God was looking after us. Now we have a different view of it. We have three tired kids who were up since 7am. They have had no sleep and now it’s going to be 1am. Where was God now?
Coming to the end of the 7 hour flight, we were about to land, we were praying. Suddenly the plane pulls up like a spitfire – the pilot had to abort the landing saying he was ‘unhappy with his entry.’ Now I am wondering what comes next. We pray some more ‘Lord protect us, help us to land’ and wondered was God really looking after us?
We arrive in Manchester – out taxi had not arrived. I wondered if God was looking after us? We find out the taxi had broken down M62 – there is no way of getting home wo Wakefield. Jennie is in tears, Kelvin goes into ‘I’ll sort it mode.’ Asserting my self in the situation. I spots a Barnsley number plate on a Taxi and he takes 4 girls home, but there is no room for dad, I stay behind.
Stuck at Manchester airport still wondering if God was looking after us. So I decide to hitchhike home…Pat, Mark , Mark, Byron & another 5 lifts cross the Pennines to get me home. Each lift and each conversation was a treasure and a priceless opportunity to witness for God and to see God at work in the situation.
Now the question I would like to develop through our readings for today (in particular Genesis 13) is ‘Was God looking after us’ or ‘What was God doing in allowing the trouble and the strife?’ It is a similar question that I wish to ask in the Abraham and Lot story.
By stepping back from our story of last week, where I was asking the same question, we can see God’s vision, we see the encounters with people, which are so vital in the way we share Christ with others, we see the prayer battles. These prayers on the simplest of levels is the ongoing dialogue with God.
God was looking after them
Was God looking after them?
Temptation to take control
He who Promised is Faithful
God was looking after them
So on to the story. Looking at the early part of the Chapt. 13 we could say God was looking after them, blessing them both with plenty of livestock & money (v2 & v5). They could see God at work in blessing them and in leading them into the promise (promised land & family). But what each of them ‘saw’ was vital to the way the story developed. (like KB saw one problem after another in the Airport story – until KB took a step back) so too what each (ABRAHAM & Lot) saw when they weighed up their situation was very different.
As we learn to pray and sing St Patrick’s hymn, Be thou my vision, – we are asking that we will see with the eyes of faith, see what God sees, knowing God is sovereign, and in control and the God is beyond all doubt trustworthy with our lives and our affairs.
1. Because the bottom line is …. God longs for us to know him more and more and will teach us to know him more through our encounters in life and through our prayer, dialogue with him…. Hebrews 11v8 ‘not knowing where he was going but knowing who he followed’..the ‘knowing’ vital.
2. And trustworthy - Because we are all on two kinds of journey. The journey of time (the here and now) and eternity, when we will see Him face to face. So Hebrews 11:10 could say ‘he was looking forward to the city..whose architect and builder is God,’ and 11:13 ‘all these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they saw them and welcomed them from a distance…’ [Polycarp is one of my spiritual heroes, he did not receive the things promised but he was unwavering under Caesar’s threat to deny the Lordship of Christ.]
We are part of another dimension – the spiritual, the heavenly kingdom & unless we see this paradox of time and eternity we will not be seeing God’s vision for us either as Church or as individuals.
Was God looking after them?
So out of God’s blessing comes the arguments and the division and we could be tempted to ask, what is God doing, is God still in control when the blessing was bestowed Abraham and then Abraham and Lot’s family fallout.
Step back and see God in control and working out his promise to Abraham.
Whenever we are faced with situations where we could be tempted to ask if God has gone AWOL, or what is God doing in our lives. There are temptations to look away from God rather than to look to God ……
This story highlights two temptations when faced with problems or a crisis.
The first is the temptation to choose what is attractive or what will give material gain.
Lot was offered to take his pick. (Genesis 13:9) He could choose what land he wanted in the family split. Lot choose not to look with the eyes of faith – he choose what was seen and attractive and what maximised his personal gain. Lot chose for now and found them later to be corrupt and insecure (the story of Sodom). Lot’s vision was not ‘Be Thou my Vision’ but ‘I am my Vision’ and his vision to choose selfishly led him to become more isolated from God and from his family.
So let us recognise that first of the temptations to choose what is attractive or what will give material gain rather than depend on God.
Temptation to take control
The second temptation when we are asking where is God, or is God really looking after us is found in Abraham’s response. My reaction to the Airport disaster was to assert myself on the situation. Because that taxi had stood us up, I would sort it. Abraham no doubt had that opportunity. He was the uncle, Lot the nephew. They were Nomads, and their movements as clans were to find suitable pasture for their animals. There are quarrels over pasture and there is the temptation… the temptation to self-assert. The promised land wasn’t supporting the both of them…. The temptation is there for Abraham to take control, put himself back in the driving seat. I recall as father giving driving lesssons to a daughter, I took charge at the wheel after a frantic twenty minutes as passenger and instructior beside my 17 year old daughter…Get out ‘I’ve had enough...I’m driving home’
Abraham’s response was to rely on God, thus, he gave Lot the choice. It’s a lesson to us in trusting in God, in self-less generosity, a lesson in being practical – the tension was resolved – Lot chose and they were at peace again….. and it’s all based on Abraham’s ‘God vision’ ..his generous response to Lot sprang from his eyes of faith. St Paul summed it up in Romans 12:10 ‘honour one another above yourselves, never be lacking in Zeal but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord…’ That’s God’s vision.
He who Promised is Faithful
And God’s response to Abraham…. by opting for the unseen…the blind faith ..his reward was to continue in the promise…Genesis 13:14 the promise was restated…. ‘to give many descendants ....to give a promised land.’ Notice the believing came 1st and the sight came next and finally the action followed. In verse 14 God instructed Abraham to ‘lift up your eyes and look to the North, South, East and West. All the land you see I will give you’ - that’s God Vision. The believing came first and then God said look and see and after God told him to move on what had been revealed to him.
After looking came the action (v17) ‘Go walk through the length and breadth of the land – for I am giving it to you.’ After the looking came the action.
What a challenge to those of us who love to press on ahead and assert ourselves and those of us who like to look and make our decisions based on what looks best to us..the option of most gain. The challenge is to seek how we can fully rely on God, and depend on God so we can have that God vision.
Romans 12 passage gives very practical instruction in responding to seeing with God vision…..
Romans 12:12 be faithful in prayer
Romans 12:12 be patient in afflictions
Romans 12:13 Practise hospitality
Romans 12:14 Bless those who persecute you (Romans 12:18 ‘so far as it is possible live at peace with everybody, v19 do not take revenge)
Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with each other
Romans 12:16 Be willing to associate with people of a low position.
