Summer of Genesis
The Revised Common Lectionary provides readings from Genesis this summer. We plan to follow along with insights for those preaching or just curious.
June 11 Genesis 12:1-9
June 18 Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)
June 25 Genesis 21:8-21
July 2 Genesis 22:1-14
July 9 Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
July 16 Genesis 25:19-34
July 23 Genesis 28:10-19a
July 30 Genesis 29:15-28
August 6 Genesis 32:22-31
August 13 Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
August 20 Genesis 45:1-15
Call of Abram – Genesis 12
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. 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. 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.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb. (Genesis 12:1-9)
So that you will be a blessing. That's the part I want to emphasize. God promises to bless Abram not merely for his and his family's benefit and joy. God has bigger plans. Grander plans. God intends to bless others, to bless the world, through this family from Haran. The blessing is not just about Abram. The selection of Abram, the chosenness of Abram, is part of a large mystery.
A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)
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