How do you take vacation trips? Do you make reservations? Pack accordingly (probably more than you’ll need, but you never know)? Work out the mileage ahead of time for each day? Make sure you have enough cash in case they don’t take credit cards some place? Do you use roads that are well-known? Do you leave your agenda with someone back home? Make sure your pets are well taken care of?

Or do you just throw some things in a back pack and head out?

What if it was not just a vacation trip, a tour that would bring you back home? What if you were going to stay, to live forever… wherever?

Seemingly out of nowhere, the Lord tells Abram to leave — well, everything — and go where God will show him, eventually. “I’ll tell you when we get there!” ( Hebrews 11:1, 8-11 )

Note that Abram and his wife are old, ancient enough to want to settle down. But Abram goes.

Later, the Lord tells these old folks that they are going to have a baby! ( Genesis 18:1-15 ) Yes, joyful news for a childless couple, but is there anything more disruptive than a baby? Imagine trying to explain the birth on a Medicaid form? Seems like a joke, doesn’t it? (During the sermon, you'll hear how the ‘joke’ gets played out.)

What does this say about God? The Lord chose the least fertile couple in the county to be the ancestors of a new nation? That God is so… disruptive? Do you picture God this way or as a more calming presence, something more… boring?

What does this whole episode — see how Abram and Sarai try to work out things on their own — say about people? What does it say about you?

I’ll see you Sunday at 9 am in the Sanctuary. I would love to get your comments or questions. Just click here.

(The contemporary service — Cross Connect — is having a similar series based on the novel-like continuous narrative of the biblical accounts presented in the book The Story. If your class or small group is studying this, you will need to pick up your copy. Traditional services will share similar themes each week, but will be focused on one scripture/story at a time.)