Introduction

It is common to fear what is different, what is strange, and what is other to us. Stranger: Danger! We are comfortable with the familiar, with things and people who look and act like us. There are so many threats in the world, so many things to avoid or overcome. Fear often drives us to do things that don’t always align with the kingdom of God.

How should we shift our perspective on the world so that we share God’s perspective on the world?

When it comes to the news or books or media you watch, are you encouraged to fear the world or to love the world? Is the message to help others, or to defeat them?

Abraham’s Call

Gen 11:30 NOW SARAI WAS BARREN; SHE HAD NO CHILD.

Barrenness is an effective metaphor for hopelessness. For Abram and Sarai — and for humanity as a whole (Hughes 182) — there is no foreseeable future (Brueggemann 115).

Would you be willing to share or write about a time when you felt hopeless?

Barrenness is not just the place of hopelessness; it is also the ground of good news (Brueggemann 117). The family of God begins its life in a situation of irreparable hopelessness (Brueggemann 115).

If ever, how have you found hope in God in the midst of barrenness and hopelessness?

GEN 12:1 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.

What will it cost Abram to receive God’s blessing?

What old forms of security does God call Abram to leave behind? What a tremendous risk this must have been? To give up every earthly sign of prosperity for a promise of future blessing?

12:2 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.

Notice that God’s promises are an index of what we crave: well-being, security, prosperity, and prominence (Brueggemann 119).

God will not only bless Abram but make him into a blessing (Goldingay 139). God's call is not just for our benefit, but also for us to serve humanity (Moreau et al. 33).

What helps you to bless people beyond your own people group?

12:3 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.”

How do you understand Abraham’s call, that in him all the families of the earth shall be blessed?

12:4 SO ABRAM WENT, AS THE LORD HAD TOLD HIM…

Abraham is the prototype for all disciples who forsake everything for God (Brueggemann 121).

Abraham had the courage to break his national, cultural, and familial ties to follow the God of all families and all cultures and all nations. This is the original revolution (Volf 29).  This is the original shift. Which of these ties do you feel most strongly? What would giving them up look like, and how would it change your values and lifestyle?

Jesus’ Call

As the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, what is Jesus’ perspective on the world?

JOHN 3:16 FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON, SO THAT EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM MAY NOT PERISH BUT MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

But how does Jesus view the world, and how does Jesus exercise power?

What kind of people did Jesus spend time with? What does it say about how he felt about them?

On the Cross, Jesus reveals to us what God looks like. God is generous, self-giving, other-affirming Love that pours himself out for others in vulnerable solidarity with those in need (Newlands and Smith 132). How else does the Cross reveal God’s nature and character to you?

Conclusion

This is a good reminder to shift from being afraid of the world and start being a blessing to the world. What can you do to get over your fear of people who are strange to you? What helps you to build empathy?

Go beyond being people who are saved by grace to be people who are characterized by grace (Walton 8,248). How does this idea speak to you?

The gospel is radical. The God of Abraham and God in Christ calls us to stand for love where there is hatred, to preach compassion where there is injustice, and to insist on dialogue where there is division (Bartholomew I 124). 

Brothers and sisters, if we sow fear and division, we will look no different from much of the world. But if we love one another and others…this is how the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples (Jn 13:35) (Bartholomew I 124).

Works Cited

Bartholomew I, H. A. H. Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch. In the World, yet Not of the World: Social and Global Initiatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. edited by John Chryssavgis, Fordham University Press, 2010.

Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis. Westminster John Knox Press, 2010. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.

Goldingay, John. Genesis for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–16. Westminster John Knox Press; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2010.

Hughes, R. Kent. Genesis: Beginning and Blessing. Crossway, 2004.

Moreau, A. Scott et al. Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey. edited by A. Scott Moreau, Second Edition edition, Baker Academic: A division of Baker Publishing Group, 2015.

Newlands, George and Allen Smith. Hospitable God: The Transformative Dream. Routledge: Taylor & Francis, 2016.

Volf, Miroslav. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Revised edition, Abingdon Press, 2019.

Walton, John H. "Genesis." NIVAC Bundle 1: Pentateuch, Zondervan Academic, 2015, NIV Application Commentary.