Sermon: "On the Go"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

Peculiar Treasures is the interesting title of a good little humorous book about biblical characters. And this is part of what we may read in that book about Abraham: "If a schlemiel is a person who goes through life spilling soup on people and a schlemozzle is the one it keeps getting spilled on, then Abraham was a schlemozzle." The article about Abraham continues by pointing out three examples when - figuratively speaking - he had soup spilled on him. First, his brother-in-law got the good farmland, while Abraham got a dried-up gulch from which to try to earn a living. Secondly, Abraham had been told that he would be the father of a great nation, but his wife could not have children. Then, finally, some years after Isaac was miraculously born, Abraham was instructed to sacrifice his son. The section on Abraham concludes this way: "In spite of everything, however, Abraham never stopped having faith that God was going to keep his promise about making him the father of a great nation"(pp3-4). That, then, is what Peculiar Treasures says about Abraham, who must have been a bit peculiar himself

From that article - and from the Bible - we learn that the really significant characteristic about Abraham was his faith. He kept on believing in God's promise to him, regardless of all the evidence to the contrary. Abraham was persistent about his belief - his faith - even to the point of being unreasonable.

St. Paul makes a comment about this persistent faith of Abraham in our passage from Romans … and, in so doing, he quotes Genesis: "Abraham believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness"(15:6). Now, why is that so important a sentence as to appear in Genesis and then to be quoted by St. Paul? "Abraham believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness."

According to Old Testament understanding, the only way to stand in the Lord's favor was to be righteous … to live a right life according to the law. However, Abraham, along with everyone else, was not perfectly righteous. Thus, it would seem impossible for him to be in favor with the Lord. But, according to Genesis and St. Paul, the Lord counted Abraham's faith as though it were righteousness. "Abraham believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness."

Abraham's faith was so important, therefore, that it received as much credit on his account as if he were perfectly righteous. Thus, we come back to that primary and most important trait of Abraham - his faith in God.

We heard earlier about several things that Abraham's faith led him to do or to believe - for example, that he would become father of a great nation even though he was very old and had no children at the time and, later, that he should sacrifice his only son Isaac even though Isaac seemed to be his only hope of any descendents at all.

However, in Abraham's life, something else came prior to these indications of his faith. The initial call of faith for Abraham was to do something else … to be on the go. Notice that at an early age Abraham had a shorter name - Abram. "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" (Gen 12:1). "Go," the Lord said. And, as the reading indicates, "Abram went, as the Lord had told him" (12:4). Thus, Abraham - or, Abram - became a man on the go, in faithful response to the call of God.

It seems to me that faith in God always calls us to go … to be on the move … to be growing and changing into that which God wants us to be. We never arrive at that place, by the way - at least, not on this side of heaven. But, to the extent that we live by faith, we are moving in that direction. To live by faith means to be on the go.

Yet, our human tendency is quite different. Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way: "People wish to be settled; (but) only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them."

The people of the Bible bear out this point. Moses demanded of Pharoah, "Let my people go." Eventually this unsettled group in Egypt was indeed allowed to go, as their faithful response to God. Then, the opening of the New Testament tells of Mary and Joseph on the go from Nazareth to Bethlehem. In Bethlehem their child was born - in a town, that is, which was not his home. And for much of his life afterwards, Jesus too was on the go. Then, there was St. Paul who moved about constantly in response to God's urgings. Indeed, Paul was a world traveler, a jet-setter ahead of his time. Most of the people of the Bible were on the go quite literally as they lived out their faith.

Of course, this movement - this attribute of being on the go - does not always refer to a change of place … being on the go in a physical sense. But our faith does call us to recognize that we are becoming something - and someone - that we are not yet. I think of that little poster which puts it pretty well: "Have patience. God is not finished with me yet!" A person of faith is constantly engaged in becoming someone - the one that God calls us to be. Our lives are journeys, walks, ventures, pilgrimages with Jesus Christ. That to which we are called in faith implies movement, becoming.

Thus, the changes that life often forces on us are not necessarily bad - at least, not all bad. I would encourage us to look for the good in such change. In those changes there may be urgings from the Spirit of God - urgings to be on the go, to become more of what and who God calls us to become in our faith. While we may be unsettled, perhaps it is precisely there that our hope lies. We may need to be unsettled in order to become something else … and, then, to be settled eventually in God.

We cannot overstate the importance of the self awareness that faith is our companion on the journey of life. Therefore, for those who are baptized and confirmed today, this is another step on life's journey - a journey that is all about faith. That faith is always available to you, wherever you may be. Also, for those dealing with the horror of the crematorium in north Georgia, it is crucial to recognize that our journey may have taken us in a direction we did not want to go - but that, even there, faith is our companion. As Christian people, we rejoice in the good that life brings … and we suffer when hardship and tragedy intervene. However, most of all, we stand firm on a faith that accompanies us all along the way … the faith that will not abandon us.

Frederick Buechner, modern day preacher and novelist, wrote this: "Faith is the direction your feet start to move when you find that you are loved"("Pulpit Resource," v15, 1,p40). Therefore, faith is movement in response to love … love that comes ultimately from God. Faith does not mean that we have arrived but that we are moving - on the go. Faith is not something we achieve … something we reach as a goal. Rather, faith gives us strength to begin our journey, and it is with us all the way.

And so today, thanks be to God for that love which calls us forth on life's journeys, for the faith which encourages us on the way, and for the opportunity to be on the go, toward the one God calls us to be, in faith!

Copyright © 2002 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee