September 13 - "To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before"
Genesis 12:1-9
“Boldly Going Where No One Has Gone Before”
As many of you know, the youth were supposed to go on an exciting trip this summer. People from across Canada, including nine from St. Paul’s, had planned on flying to Calgary for a national United Church gathering for youth, young adults, and their leaders. The theme for this event was “Faith Gone Wild,” in recognition of the wild west of old. It was going to be epic.
Of course, things changed. Tickets were cancelled, plans were altered, and everything went virtual. St. Paul’s still participated but locally. We went camping at Bronte Creek Provincial Park and engaged with others, not only nationally, but internationally, and had a more intimate experience with one another, eating together, sleeping outdoors, and singing and talking around a campfire.
The planners of this national event had no idea whether this would work. Would people want to engage through a screen? Would anyone sign up for this reimagined conference if they couldn’t gather in person? It was a risk to continue. They would be asking a lot of people to put in a lot of work and money if no one came.
The planners were determined to continue and it was an amazing event. God was calling them to step forward into this new world, to boldly do what had not been done before. Because they decided to do this, they engaged with hundreds of people across the country. Youth, young adults, and their leaders found a space this summer to engage with others in the church, to engage with issues that were relevant to them and our current context, and find a space that valued them and their experiences. This was important work, holy work.
Fear holds us back. Anxiety over the unknown shuts off creativity. Comfort keeps us from taking risks. This is especially true during times of difficulty and hardship, trauma and grief. These are times when a bold faith is more difficult to find but more important than ever.
Ron read for us a familiar story, a story many of us may have heard as children. It’s the Hebrew story of Abraham and Sarah and their call from God. I don’t think many of us get the enormity of what Abraham and Sarah did so many thousands of years ago. Our story tells us that God called them both to move away from their families, to a new land where their descendants would outnumber the stars and grains of sand in the desert, but God was also asking them to leave their ancestors, their place of birth, their culture, their language, their customs and traditions - their home. Today, many leave home without a backward glance. We travel across the country and across the world, but, today, we don’t have to leave everything behind. The world is at our fingertips through email, social media, and video calls. People fly all over the world quickly and affordably. Abraham and Sarah were asked to do this trip before motor vehicles, before trains, and before telecommunications. They were making a once-in-a-lifetime trip from which they would probably never return. Today we might compare it to space travel, and the famous Star Trek tagline, “to boldly go where no one has gone before.”
This takes a bold faith. Nowadays we might question the sanity of someone who hears a message from God, especially to do something so profound. Although, in those days, it was more acceptable to hear voices from the spiritual world, I’m sure both Abraham's and Sarah’s choices were questioned and maybe they even questioned each other. It would have taken a lot of courage to take this risk.
And, a strong faith. God was calling them to something new. God was asking them to trust in this new vision. God gave no promises that all would be well. God gave no assurance that they would be successful and achieve great things. They were not promised they would be happy and comfortable and safe. God was asking them to look beyond themselves to a future that they would never see.
We are living during a time of change. We will never go back to the way things were before the pandemic. Sometimes this feels scary. The uncertainty and not knowing what comes next is not a comfortable place to be. Some are in denial. Some are angry. Some are grieving. Some are working at keeping things they way they’ve always been.
Do you hear God calling? Do you hear the whispers of a new vision, of a new journey before us? What? You don’t think God would call you? Those are your insecurities speaking, or maybe your fear and anxiety, because believe me, God is calling. God is calling you and me. In fact, probably shouting. We have learned that logic and reason should lead us. We have shut off our spiritual selves and learned to only listen to the rational self. We have so many distractions, from screens to work to the many activities we join. We have learned that business is a virtue and leisure is a luxury. All of this makes it very difficult to hear: to hear one another, to hear our own bodies, much less our spiritual selves, the divine, Spirit, God, wherever that call might come from for you.
This pandemic isn’t new but it’s new to us and the way we are handling it in our modern age is different from how pandemics have been handled in the past. This pandemic is going to change our world and change the way we live, work, and play in this world. This new vision may not come to fruition until we are gone. This new vision is for our children, our
grandchildren, our great-grandchildren. We are going where no one has gone before. Will we boldly go where no one has gone before?
Jay and Jeff are taking us to some important places on their pilgrimage, to community outreach centres in Oakville. We need to be watching and listening closely because it is the vulnerable people in our community who will tell us where we need to be going. As a faith community who professes to follow a saviour who himself listened to the vulnerable, healed the sick, had meals with the ostracized, who stood up to local authorities, and gave his life for all of this, for us, we need to find that bold faith, within each one of us, as a church, as a people of God.
Listen up! God is calling. God is calling you. God is calling me. We all have a role in creating this brave new world. And we are not alone. Just as God walked with Abraham and Sarah, God walks with us. And we have each other. Thanks be to God. Amen.