Favored Nation

Sermon manuscript for Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists
for 7/1/17

Texts: 2 Samuel 7:8-16. Acts 22:22-29

Thursday morning I was bicycling past the Shilshole marina. I couldn't keep going. The collection of sailboats, masts rising into the blue sky, hulls cutting the still water, compelled me to stop. Beckoned with siren strength. I stopped and framed a few pictures.

The beauty was mesmerizing. I would have stayed longer admiring the loveliness of the boats and water and sky except that there close to the water the day was still too cold for standing around in shorts and a tee shirt. I peddled away with the opening lines of Woody Guthrie's song running in my head. (Edited slightly to include our corner of the continent.)

This land is your land. This land is my land. From California to the New York Island. From the Doug fir forests to the Gulf stream waters. This land was made for you and me.

On a sunny, summer morning is there any place the world quite as lovely as our neighborhood? No wonder we sing songs of celebrating this beautiful land.

And I recalled other sunny days on other American shores. My first congregation, in the town of Babylon on the south shore of Long Island, was just a couple of blocks from the water. I'd walk along Shore Avenue and admire the boats moored there and listen to the slap of halyards on aluminum masts. And wonder how was I so lucky to work in such a charming place.

Once when the kids were little we spent a week in Florida, playing in the sand, going for walks in the balmy evenings. Later we lived in Southern California, not far from the beach. We loved it. Every corner of our country is charming. And vast miles in between. When I drive across the sweeping prairies of eastern Colorado and Nebraska and Kansas, my soul breathes. I relish the immense dome of the sky and the spectacular mountains of clouds that build on summer afternoons into thunderheads that can reach 75,000 feet into the sky.

What a glorious land.

Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain.

This land is our land. This land is a gift to you and me. Our sense of divine favor echoes the words of our Old Testament reading:

"Now go and say to my servant David, 'This is what the LORD of Heaven's Armies has declared: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before your eyes.
Now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth! And I will provide a homeland for my people Israel, planting them in a secure place where they will never be disturbed. Evil nations won't oppress them as they've done in the past, starting from the time I appointed judges to rule my people Israel.
I will give you rest from all your enemies. "'Furthermore, the LORD declares that he will make a house for you--a dynasty of kings! For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong.
He is the one who will build a house--a temple--for my name.
I will secure his royal throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he sins, I will correct and discipline him with the rod, like any father would do. But my favor will not be taken from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from your sight. Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.'"  2 Samuel 7:8-16

To paraphrase the prophet:  David, your throne is a gift from God. This land is God's gift to your people. Your sweet place is a gift. You did not do it"all by yourself."

David was a warrior. He had spent years enduring hardship and danger. He had demonstrated courage and loyalty. If any king ever “earned” his throne, David did. But the prophet reminded: God gave you your throne.

The people of Israel had been a warrior people. They invaded Palestine and endured fierce battles. They slaughtered their enemies. Yes. But they also suffered their own casualties. They might have been tempted to think, this land is our land. We grabbed it for ourselves. Again, the prophet's words call to mind the truth: the land flowing with milk and honey, their land, was a gift. The sweetness of their land was to remind them of the generosity of God.

American Christians have often drawn parallels between America and ancient Israel. Just as the Israelites were a chosen people, blessed by God and given a land, so we imagine ourselves to be a chosen people, blessed by God and given a land.  And truly this is a special place. Let us keep forever alive the conviction that this land is a gift, a precious gift. It calls for gratitude and for stewardship.




Many writers have compared the United States to the Roman Empire. One of the important parallels is highlighted in our New Testament reading.

Paul had quietly worshipping in the temple in Jerusalem when he was recognized by people who hated him. They accused him of desecrating the temple and gathered a mob that began beating him. Roman soldiers were summoned. They took him into protective custody and hauled him back to their post followed by the mob. There Paul asked to speak to the crowd and the officer gave him permission. He spoke in Hebrew and the people listened until he said God had appeared to him in a vision and sent him to the Gentiles.

The crowd listened until Paul said that word. Then they all began to shout, "Away with such a fellow! He isn't fit to live!" They yelled, threw off their coats, and tossed handfuls of dust into the air.
The commander brought Paul inside and ordered him lashed with whips to make him confess his crime. He wanted to find out why the crowd had become so furious.
When they tied Paul down to lash him, Paul said to the officer standing there, "Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn't even been tried?"
When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and asked, "What are you doing? This man is a Roman citizen!"
So the commander went over and asked Paul, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes, I certainly am," Paul replied. "I am, too," the commander muttered, "and it cost me plenty!" Paul answered, "But I am a citizen by birth!"
The soldiers who were about to interrogate Paul quickly withdrew when they heard he was a Roman citizen, and the commander was frightened because he had ordered him bound and whipped. Acts 22:22-29

One of the features of Roman empire, was the sturdiness of its laws regarding citizenship. Paul appealed to this law when he was threatened with examination by torture. Ancient Israel also prided itself on its laws. In a truly great nation law is higher authority than any personality. Even the president is subordinate to the law.



In 2000 presidential election, the decision came down to the uncertain numbers in Florida. The numbers were so close that any method of checking and recounting would have a statistical measure of uncertainty greater than the margin of victory. Each side hired lawyers. The case went to the supreme court. Meanwhile the nation waited.

I vividly remember the waiting and my happy pride in what was happening.

The most powerful office in the history of humans was up for grabs. The election results were ambiguous. In many nations this situation would have led to tanks on the streets. People would have died. Cities would have been ravaged. Instead, grown-ups went to work as usual. Kids went to school. Tourists continued to fly into Seatac Airport. Except for a few politicians and lawyers life went on as usual. In a contest for the most powerful position in the history of humanity, we acted as a nation of laws. We allowed our courts to make a decision even if we disagreed with it.

And we avoided the catastrophe of civil war or riots. I was proud to be an American.




Laws don't always work the way they are supposed to. We as a nation sometimes violate our own laws. One egregious example was the imprisonment of our citizens of Japanese descent during WWII.

And sometimes our laws are themselves unjust and wicked. Witness the 246 years of legal slavery here in our fair land.

Because this land is a gift from God, it is our obligation to aim at godliness. It is our calling to aim at higher justice, a better community. Always. In 1988 we took a step in the right direction when Congress voted the Civil Liberties Act which included a formal apology and some compensation to the Japanese Americans who had been imprisoned. Even though most of the president's party opposed the act, he signed it into law. It was a step in the right direction.

In 2008 we took another small step in the right direction. The U. S. House of Represetatives formally apologized for slavery. It was a small step. But it was a step in the right direction. I'm glad we did it.




In 1883, Emma Lazarus authored a poem for a literary and art auction to raise money for the Statue of Liberty. The poem was titled, “The New Colossus.”  In 1903, the poem was engraved on a plaque and  installed inside the pedestal of the statue.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, [a reference to the Colossus of Rhodes]
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
--1883 Emma Lazarus

When I read these words, I'm proud to be an American. What a high ideal. These words could have been written by Isaiah or by Amos. “I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” What a noble ambition. To be a nation that defends the lowly, that cares for the needy, a nation committed to truth and justice, a nation that welcomes the tired and poor from all around the globe. Let us never grow weary in pursuing these noble ambitions.




On Thursday, after I left the marina I headed to Picolinos cafe in Ballard (32nd Ave NW and NW 65th St.) to work on today's sermon. I sat at a table in the North end of the cafe. At the far south end of the room was a map of the world.. Africa and Europe were in the center of the map, China and India off to the right.  It was a relief map. So I noted the Himalayas running across the top of India and the Atlas Mountains in North Africa. None of that held my eye. I noted them mostly so I could tell you I saw them. What held my eyes with irresistible allure was the chain of mountains running up the West coast of South America thru Central America. In Mexico the line of mountains widened out becoming the mountain West in the US. The Rockies, Sierras, Coast ranges, and the Cascades. My eyes landed in Seattle. I couldn't actually see Seattle at the scale of the map and the distance I was from the map. Still my eyes landed at the place Seattle occupies, east of the Olympics, west of the Cascades, northwest of Mt Rainier. Nestled between the salt water of Puget sound and the fresh water of Lake Washington.

Given a vision of the whole world, my eyes wandered home to this place built by volcanoes and accreting terranes and sculpted by Canadian glaciers and the floods caused by pineapple expresses.  And by Scandinavian engineers. My mind came to this fair place, this sweet corner of the world we call home. And I gave thanks. And I pledged myself anew to faithful stewardship of this gift from God. May God grant us gratitude and faithfulness to his glorious ideals worthy of the magnificent gift he has given.






In 1883, Emma Lazarus authored a poem for a literary and art auction to raise money for the Statue of Liberty. The poem was titled, “The New Colossus.”  In 1903, the poem was engraved on a plaque and  installed inside the pedestal of the statue.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, [a reference to the Colossus of Rhodes]
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
--1883 Emma Lazarus

When I sing this land is your land, this land is my land, I'm thinking of our glorious landscapes, yes, and I'm thinking of our ideals. Our ambition to be a truly great nation—a nation that defends the lowly, that cares for the needy, a nation committed to truth and justice, a nation that has welcomed the tired and poor from all around the globe.

We have been favored by God. We are called to extend the favor to others.

Good People, Smart People

Sermon manuscript (preliminary) for Sabbath, June 17, 2017, at Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists

Texts: 1 Kings 4:29-34, Mark 6:34-38

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a Sabbath School class in St. George, Utah. The text under consideration by the class was 2 Peter 1. The discussion moved to verse 5:

Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.

The teacher asked, “What is this knowledge that we are to add to our virtue?” I replied, “The knowledge necessary to respond to human need. If I am going to help my neighbor get his car going, I need to know something about cars. If I am going to repair a child's defective heart valve I must have all the knowledge of a pediatric surgeon. If I'm going to help a friend with her clogged drain, I need a little knowledge of plumbing. As Christians we are called to respond to human need, we are called to help people. It is not enough to want to help people. We need all kinds of secular knowledge to turn our desire to help into useful action.

Someone in the class challenged me. “Do you really think Peter was thinking of the acquisition of secular knowledge when he wrote this passage?”

I had to admit she had a point. In the context of 1 Peter, “knowledge” probably referred to deep, spiritual insight, not to knowledge of cars or cardiac surgery or plumbing. But when we step back and look at the Bible as a whole, secular knowledge is pictured as one of the expected virtues of the people of God.

One of the most dramatic examples of this is the story of Solomon.

God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as vast as the sands of the seashore. 1 Kings 4:29

Solomon was so knowledgeable, people came from all over the world sit at his feet. Distant kings sent ambassadors to spent time in Jerusalem. To this day Solomon is celebrated as a wise man, the Wisest Man who ever lived.

It's important to note that the Wisdom of Solomon was not religious knowledge. People did not come to hear him preach. They came to hear him talk about all kinds of things including biology.

He could speak with authority about all kinds of plants, from the great cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows from cracks in a wall. He could also speak about animals, birds, small creatures, and fish. 1 Kings 4:33

When the knowledge tourists came to Jerusalem, they could not miss the temple and the life-encompassing ritual and the moral ideals that lived at the heart of Israel's culture. Solomon's religion made an impact on his visitors. But it was not Solomon's religion that brought them. It was his secular knowledge which was demonstrably superior.

The story of Solomon is instructive for us. We are most likely to gain a hearing for our faith, when we demonstrate secular competence. Adventists sometimes gain a hearing because our health practices have been shown to actually improve longevity. Think of the contrast between secular regard for Adventist health practices and secular opinion regarding Jehovah's Witnesses' refusal of blood transfusions even when they will save life? Or the Christian Science denial of the reality of disease. Adventist health practices in broad outline have been confirmed by modern science. And people think, if you're right about that, what else might you be right about?

There is a second lesson in Solomon's story. The text states that Solomon could speak “with authority” about all kinds of plants and animals. When it comes to secular knowledge, a person has authority only as far as they turn out to be right. Because we can check on them. Solomon's statements about plants and animals and birds could be investigated. We could go check out the cedars in Lebanon and see if what he said was accurate. We could go watch the birds and see if what he said was correct. He was an authority only if what he said checked out.

This is obviously true today.

If someone says that the glaciers on Mt. Rainier are shrinking, we can climb up there and check it out for ourselves. If someone claims a vegan diet can fuel the life and sport of an ultramarathoner, we can go find ultramarathoners and ask what they eat. If someone says that adding fish to your diet can help an ultramarathon runner improve their speed, we can become an ultramarathoner and add fish to our diet to see if it helps. When the church claims Noah's Flood built the Phanerozoic portion of the geologic column, it diminishes our credibility to speak of God because even the church-employed scientists cannot offer a plausible explanation of how Noah's Flood could have done this. (Phanerozoic refers to the portion of the geological column that has lots of fossils, the Cambrian and later.) 

It would be silly to try to settle these questions by intense Bible study or by studying the writings of our prophet. These questions can be answered by direct study and investigation.

The story of Solomon illustrates the right role of the Bible and religion in our lives.

Solomon became known as the Wisest Man who ever lived because he studied the realm of nature intensely.

And he was also one of the dumbest men who ever lived because he ignored the moral/spiritual guidance available in through religion. (The thousand women he "married" vitiated the moral and spiritual culture of the nation.)

He did not need the words of prophets to instruct him in biology. And biology was completely ineffective in guiding him in the moral and spiritual realm.

It is the same today. The Bible is not a useful guide for doing science. We become knowledgeable in the sciences the same way Solomon did—through vigorous study and investigation.

On the other hand, science is not a useful guide when it comes to moral and spiritual culture. It is possible to a brilliant person AND to be a fool.

The purpose of the Bible is to make us good.

The purpose of study is to make us smart.

Both are important. And neither will adequately substitute for the other.

Some Christians make our faith appear fanciful by attempting to use the Bible as the source for their “science.” Some scientists and engineers make science appear to be inhuman by insisting that virtue, beauty, and goodness are illusory because we cannot learn these things through science.

If we pay attention to the Bible story, we see even the ancient people were well aware of the value of both study and direct investigation and the value of faith and visions. Both are valuable. They are useful for different things.

This same interaction of concrete, hard fact and faith and vision shows up even in the stories of Jesus.

It is common for us to give a lot of prominence to Jesus' statements about faith.

To Jairus after he received news his daughter had died: “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith, and she will be healed.” Luke 8:50

I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. Mark 11:23

These passages and others like them challenge our notions of common sense. But then we encounter other statements by Jesus:

In the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, the disciples come to Jesus and tell him he needs to send the people away. It is late and they need to find something to eat. Jesus tells his disciples. Well, if the people are hungry, just feed them. In the Gospel of Mark, the disciples respond, “Should we g buy a bunch of bread?” Jesus asks, “Well, how much do you have on hand? Go see.” The disciples head off and eventually come back and report all they have is five loaves and two fish.

The point I would draw out of this story is that important information, crucial information, really, must be acquired in the usual way. Go and see. Go count. The numbers are not “revealed.” There is no vision. Go, count. Do your homework.

The story moves forward. Jesus performs a miracle. But the miracle was no substitute for the ordinary work of counting. Further, in preparation for the miracle, Jesus directs his disciples to seat the people in groups of hundreds and fifties. When the dinner is finished the scraps are collected and again counting features in the story. There were twelve baskets of left overs. How do we know? Through a vision? By revelation? No. Because they were counted.

One last story in the gospels that features counting. I've referenced it several times in previous sermons. After the resurrection, several of Jesus disciples head north to Galilee and go fishing. While they are fishing, Jesus appears on shore and miraculously fills their nets. When they haul the fish to shore, they count them, 153 large fish.

They are in the presence of the resurrected Jesus. This is the most astonishing fact in the history of humanity. Jesus is alive. But the disciples are still fishermen. They were not satisfied to say, “We caught a bunch of fish.” No. They caught 153 large fish. They knew the number because they counted.

Even in the presence of Jesus, the ordinary activity of using our brain is still required.

How does this play out in our life?

Here in our congregation we have a lot of engineers. People who build planes and write code and map traffic patterns. We don't want our engineers to substitute faith for knowledge. We want our airplanes to be built using accurate, hard information. We don't want software engineers getting their code sort of correct. We depend on them to do it exactly right.

We want our engineers to be like Solomon—world-renowned for their knowledge and accuracy.

We have doctors in our congregation. We count on their faith to inspire them to do the greatest possible work of healing using all the available tools. But we don't want our doctors to substitute prayer and faith for knowledge and skill.

We have business people and scientists, musicians and counselors. In each of these areas their work depends on the acquisition and smart use of information. No amount of faith will substitute for the disciplines of learning and study.

Bible knowledge is not enough to do the work that God has called us to do.

The Bible inspires us to acquire knowledge and to use that knowledge to make the world a better place. But the Bible itself does not give us the information.

I mentioned the Sabbath School class in Utah where we talked about knowledge and its role in the Christian life. Curiously, the teacher was a geologist, someone who has devoted his life to the study of rocks, in particular the sandstone and other sedimentary rocks in Utah. He has also devoted himself to the local Adventist Church, having served as one of the indispensable leaders for thirty years. He seems to me to be an ideal embodiment of a believer who is serious about the pursuit of knowledge. He knows that Noah's Flood did not create the Navajo Sandstone. And he believes that God is active and present with us. His life is a nearly perfect example of someone devoted to learning and to faith.

We are at the end of a school year. Some among us have graduated. Finished school. Congratulations. Now take all that knowledge you have acquired and spread hope and help and healing in the world. Make things better.

For those among us who are scientists, we honor your work of chasing knowledge. You honor our faith most by continuing to push the edges of knowledge. When people around you suggest that we can't really know anything, don't listen. Keep pursuing knowledge. If the people in the church suggest that your work as a scientist is unimportant or untrustworthy, push back. Tell them the story of Solomon.

I am concerned that many Christians are creating the impression that people must choose between knowledge and faith, between being smart or believing in God. I appeal especially to our young people to resist this erroneous thinking. Let's create an entire society of people who are so successful in our science that the whole world honors it. And let's create a society that is so effective in supporting and fostering holiness and goodness that the world gathers to learn our secret.

Notables in the Kingdom of Heaven

Sermon manuscript (revised) for Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists for Sabbath, June 10, 2017. Texts: Genesis 12:1-9. Revelation 7:1-9

A week ago Friday, I was hiking the Observation Point trail in Zion National Park with several other people. We stopped at about the half way point to admire the scenery and try to wrap our minds around the history on display. The cliffs surrounding us were two thousand feet from valley floor to the top of the walls. Two thousand feet of rock. Petrified dunes. The largest accumulation of sand anywhere in the world, any time in history. Piled in this place by wind.

I traced the sweep of the cross beds, noted the patterns of vertical fracturing caused by tectonic movement. And over and over came back to simple awe in the presence of such scale and beauty. It was a good day.

In the Book of Revelation, there are similar moments. Times when the entire body of God's people are enraptured at the glory of the edifice God has built.

I saw a vast multitude beyond counting, people from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. They stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes with palms in their hands. They shouted in exuberant ecstasy, “God saves. Jesus saves. God reigns. Hallelujah! The angels and the four curious creatures joined in, falling prostrate they were so overcome with admiration and awe. “Amen,” they exclaimed. “Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, might. All comes from God. All flows to God. Hallelujah! Paraphrase from Revelation 7

When God has finished building his dream, when the world is arranged according to the desire of God a mere glance at the glory of the edifice will evoke ecstatic wonder.

This moment will not arrive without complications and difficulties. This is highlighted in this same passage in Revelation. The first three chapters of Revelation speak of the church.  Chapters four and five are visions of heaven. Then chapter six again focuses our attention on earth. And it is a dark vision. Goodness and good people vanish. At the end of chapter six, the all humanity appears to have been seduced into the worship of power. Might and dominance have become the supreme virtues.

Against this dismal background, the prophet is given a vision of the heavenly perspective. An angel announces that far from being obliterated, the people of God have thrived. God sees 144,000 faithful ones. Which to us sees like a small number, but to John would have been a large number. But the news gets even better. This 144,000 is very specific. It is comprised of 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Hundreds of years earlier, the Jewish nation split in two in a civil war. After awhile the northern kingdom, Samaria, was captured by the Assyrians and disappeared from history. Samaria was comprised of ten of the tribes. For hundreds of years they had been extinct. But here, the angel announces they have been resurrected. They are fully present, part of the final, glorious edifice of God.

The prophet hardly has time to absorb this good news when the angel invites him to turn and see this crowd of 144,000, this gathering of 12,000 from each of Israel's tribes. When John looks he sees that the 144,000 is actually an immense crowd, so vast his eyes cannot find the outer edges. There are simply too many to count. There are millions, bizillions, gadzillions.

Wow. Hallelujah. Look what God has done! This is the destination of the Bible story. This is where God is taking his children.

When I was sitting there on the trail, next to the two thousand-foot tall cliffs, one of the realities I tried to wrap my mind around was the fact that they were comprised of sand, very fine sand. Each grain had been transported by the wind from somewhere else. Much of this sand originated in the Appalachian Mountains. It was carried by rivers across the continent and dumped in a river delta in Wyoming. From there wind moved it south. Grain by grain. Then gathered it here in Zion where today it is carved into breathtaking cliffs.

How can I hold together in my head the twin truths that these are tiny specks of sand and grand, magnificent cliffs.

We face the same challenge in human history. The grand edifice of the kingdom of God pictured in Revelation is built of individuals. Human beings like you and me. In Revelation we see them in aggregate. There are no human heroes in the visions of Revelation. There are crowds, vast companies that no one can number. But every person in the crowd has a story. Every person arrived before the throne after a unique journey.

This truth is highlighted in our Old Testament reading.

The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country and relatives and your father's house. Head out for a land I will show your. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless people who bless you and curse anyone who curses you. In you all families of the earth will be blessed.”
So Abram left, in obedience to the divine word. His nephew, Lot, went him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Abram took his wife Sarah, and Lot, his brother's son, and all the wealth they had accumulated and all the people who had joined their household while they were in Haran. The company set off for land of Canaan and eventually arrived there.
Abram passed through the land to the place called Sichem on the plain of Moreh. Canaanites lived in the land, then. The LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “Unto your descendants I will give this land.” And Abram built an altar to the God who had appeared to him. From there Abram headed to a mountain east of the town of Bethel and pitched his tent there. (This place was between Bethel on the west and Hai on the east.) Here again, Abram built an altar to the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD. From this place Abram moved on, always heading south. Genesis 12:1-9

Notice the details in this story. The details that have nothing to do with “theology.” His campsites. His neighbors. His nephew. This story is told the way a mother recounts stories of her children. Details are remembered just for the pleasure of remembering the full story. Or like the telling of stories that happen around the campfire when our tour group gathers again. We will remember Tom's sharing of Knock, knock jokes with Oliver and Violet. We will remember the quinoa-stuffed avocado Robert served along with gaspacho soup and quesadillas. These things have nothing to do with geology, but they were part of the trip.

When we say the Bible is the word of God, we are affirming that all this attention to the mundane details of a person's life expresses God's intense personal interest in individuals.

In the Bible story, Abraham is the hero. If we made a movie of the story, there would be only one star, Abraham. But to make the movie we would require hundreds of supporting actors and extras. These others, Sarah and Lot and Bethuel and Hagar and Ishmael and Isaac and Eliezer and Ephron and the nameless “souls they acquired in Haran” and Abraham's 318 commandos would be absolutely essential to the story, to the literary and human edifice.

We rightly celebrate Abraham and allow his virtues to inspire us and his failings to serve as cautionary tales. But we if we shift our focus slightly to the left or right other people in the story would take center stage and Abraham himself would become a supporting actor.

One of my favorite pictures from my vacation features Oliver and Violet Morrow. In the photo you can't see their faces. They are squatting on a sandy stream bed. Violet is watching sand pour through the fingers of her left hand. Oliver is probing the sand with his right forefinger. Surrounding them, seen in the photo only as ankles and legs sprouting up out of sandals and tennis shoes, are adults listening to a lecture about how wind moves sand and creates something called lag deposits.

Watching the sand drift down from Violet's hand, I realized how small the grains of sand were. The sand was so fine that even in a very slight breeze, the Navajo Sand, the sand that comprises the glorious, magnificent walls of Zion—was being blown sideways and the cone of sand that built beneath Violet's hands showed a striking concentration of darker, heavier grains. The Navajo Sand is so fine, it is scarcely larger than dust. Thinking of the grand cliffs of Zion, I was offered two perspectives on those grains of sand. I could dismiss each one because it is nearly nothing compared to the glory and grandeur of the cliffs. Or I could see in each tiny grain, the grand edifice it helped to build.

So with people.

In the grand edifice God is building through history, we might consider our part to be insignificant. We might imagine that it is the work of the great heroes that really matters. In fact, God cannot build his temple without us. And no matter how great or notable any particular individual is, the work of God is so large that every individual, seen from the requisite distance becomes a tiny fragment, a fragment whose greatest glory is its participation in the unspeakably grand edifice of God.

So let us be faithful.
Let us be humble.
Let us be bold, in our participation in the mission of God.