August 21, 2011
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Good morning!
Well, I know I’m not the only one who has noticed that the television networks have now picked up on, I think, what is a common interest of many, and that is the study of genealogy. PBS ran a program last year, where they took prominent figures from our culture, and with them provided resources to explore their heritages and genealogy. The networks, not wanting to be out done by PBS, of course, NBC jumped on the theme. Some of you may have seen the program “Who do you think you are?” which similarly takes more popular-culture type of individuals and explores with them their genealogy.
I confess I have peeked in on a few of these episodes. What’s interesting about the exploration of genealogy and particularly in these programs is that as people explore their heritage and peek back in generation from generation to generation, they are, of course, chasing the question, and I do think NBC actually got this right, they’re chasing the question, who are they. Some of these stories are quite moving as these people explore and discover. Some of these people are moved to tears as they realize in their past that their ancestors endured much or triumphed over much to make the way for generations to come. Sometimes too they are moved to places of compelling opportunities for reconciliation when suddenly a piece of their current history makes sense to them, perhaps a piece of distortion or disruption when they discover a distant relative in their past was all too human. It’s quite moving actually. These compelling stories are family stories that when told will hold a variety of vocabulary that often speak to a similar theme. That theme is the discovery of grace.
It seems most of these “family stories” are actually an intentional journey to discover and to listen for grace. As a person of faith I believe this listening for grace is a journey into the very essence of who God is and who we are in relationship with God. I believe this journey is a voyage into the very dream of God for God’s people. I recognize on these programs that all of the individuals participating may not clearly not see it the same way I do, but all of these stories lead individuals on a discovery of Godly things, like an awareness of how they got to where they are physically in the world. They come to realize through the lives of their ancestors that there seemed to be a force, a drive, a tenacity in the ups and downs of life. What it seems to do every time for those whose discoveries are being shared is to reveal a context for the discoverer that lifts them out of themselves, their selfishness, their egocentricity, and into an awareness and appreciation that for generations themes of human life, convictions, struggles, triumphs, and sacrifices have made it possible for them to be where they are, and also who they are. This is a discovery of something bigger than them and an awareness that there is a much bigger dream going on in their lives and it leads them to the question, “What dream is being lived in my life”?
This is the question I ask you to go home with today. “What dream is being lived in my life”?
So today, I invite you to join me in an exploration of our genealogy as a people of God. But, we’re going to explore our genealogy a bit as the people of God.
Imagine if you will, you are a child of God. I hope this is not a new concept for you. You are a child of God and a child of Israel and you are living somewhere in occupation in 721 AD. You have been carried off somewhere in the the Assyrian Empire, maybe Nineveh for example. Or imagine it’s 500’s AD, and this time it’s the Babylonians who have invaded your land carried you away for a life of indentured service in Babylon. How are you making sense of this for your life? What is life like for you? How much do you miss your house, your yard, your friends, your family? How will you make it day by day with these strange people of strange customs in a strange land. You believe in God and you wonder “How can God let this be?” You wonder if this will be your life forever. You find it difficult to even think about the future. This is your story, your fear, your challenge. How do you make sense of it? Who am I now? Where did I come from? How did life get me to this place? What stories of my past might I long for to help me make sense of this?
Look on the family tree. There you’ll find Abraham. Abraham wondering around in the wilderness lost. A nomadic people he represented. Wondering and looking for a place where he could pitch tent. A land which would produce fruit. He carried with him a bit of livestock. Imagine Abraham coming into encounter with God in this wondering around, schlepping around. God says to Abraham, “Look at the stars and count them, this is how how populous your people will be.” God says because you are my people, this is the dream I have for you, Abraham. Imagine Abraham looking around at the desolation around him, at the bit of livestock he’s carrying from place to place and at his very elderly wife, Sarah, clearly past the age of bearing children. God looks at Abraham and says, “I have a dream. You’re going to be part of it.” Quite impossible it seems. Imagine then when Sarah does indeed get pregnant. Imagine the amazement, joy, and wonder when Isaac is born. Imagine how incredible the living and the hearing of this story is.
So, you are sitting in exile searching for a story. I remember the story of Abraham. God has a dream for me and it’s in the person of Abraham, and indeed Isaac is born. Imagine again hearing the story of Isaac, who in his age grew blind and deaf, and when his two sons, Jacob and Esau, came to him seeking his blessing. Blind and deaf he reached out in desperation, trying to feel the backs of their hands so that he can identify by the hair on their knuckles who was who. God looks at Isaac who is blind and deaf and says I have a dream for my people and you are going to be part of it.
Imagine that Jacob, the one I preached about a few weeks ago, the shyster, the crook. Jacob who tricked his father out of the blessing so that he could receive the economic position of the family. A far cry it seem from God’s dream for God’s people. But imagine then, this Jacob, who despite himself wonders away and finds himself with his head on a rock, and God descending upon him in a dream to remind him that even through him God has a dream and he will be part of it.
Imagine then as we land in today’s scriptures with Jacob’s family, the twelve boys, Joseph, the boy who had dreams himself, we remember how that story goes --Jacob’s offspring, Joseph, and his brothers being jealous of his dreams and his fancy clothing. I’m the youngest of four boys, you know this never happens--they were jealous. And so one day, they take the advantage. They’re wondering away, and they take their brother Joseph and they throw him into a pit and they leave him for dead. And they go home, and they tell their father with tears in their eyes that God’s dream is dead. But God looks at Joseph in that pit and says I have a dream for my people and you are going to be part of it. And Joseph gets himself some help out of that pit and finds himself in Egypt and makes his way because of his gift from God to the favor of Pharaoh and becomes a person of prominence. How ironic in God’s world that his brothers come looking one day for a free meal because they’re starving. Once they figure it all out, they are expecting for Joseph to punish them but instead they get God’s grace. God looks at all of them and says I have a dream for my people and you’re going to be part of it. Imagine then as life will have it that a new pharaoh is in town and Joseph is out of favor. But, having served there with his people so well, his offspring themselves, God’s plan and God’s vision and God’s dream of multiplication occurs and the Pharaoh is threatened because these Hebrew people are a threat. Probably more so God’s dream in them is the threat. And there is this baby born and his name is Moses and despite the plea and the orders from Pharaoh for all of the first born male to be killed, it’s Pharaoh’s own daughter who looks in the river that day and sees this baby floating, and with compassion in her heart she plucks it from that water. God looks at Pharaoh’s daughter and says I have a dream for my people and you will be part of it. Pharaoh’s daughter becomes part of God’s salvation. Literally saving that baby from the water. And it will be that baby who will be salvation for the people of Israel.
So imagine again, we are in exile. Life is blows hard and you’re looking at your Assyrian captors or your Babylonian captors and you’re wondering where is God’s dream for me? Look at the family tree and recognize that God is tenacious in his dream for his people. That dream is a dream for freedom. And for generation God’s people would look at God alone in the midst of the powers of the world that would seek to oppress it. And that reliance on God’s dream of freedom would literally become the hope for generations. Hope for generations because God looks at God’s people and says I have a dream. It is a dream of freedom for all of my creation and you will be part of it. God has a dream for you and for me because we too are children of God and in all our family tree is Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and his brothers, and Moses, and the prophets and Jesus Christ his son. And all the faithful servants who throughout time and from place to place regardless of how hard the winds of life would blow, asked the question—what is God’s dream for me?
Isn’t it interesting how the eyes of faith can change the whole picture? Putting on the eyes of faith when you are wondering around a desolate country and doubting God’s promise. Whether you’re Isaac who has grown and blind and deaf. Or, whether you’re Jacob who lays your head hard on a pillow at night only for God to descend upon him with his angels. Whether you run far far away from all of whom you love and all that is promised, or whether you’re like Joseph who’s thrown into a pit, or whether you’re like Pharaoh’s daughter and sit in a place of honor. The eyes of faith lead us to God’s dream of freedom for God’s people and this gives birth to hope and possibility for our lives.
A story, if you will. A true story about a man who shared his life of challenge and faith and doubt, of serendipity and of a discovery of who he was and what God’s dream was for his life. When serving on the staff of the Diocese of Virginia I visited a small mountain parish. And going there to meet with a group of people, we began as we always did with studying the scripture. And, at this time of Bible study, the scripture and the discipline asked, how it is that we discover God in our lives. And this very humble gentleman, probably in his late fifties or early sixties, he said I have a story if you’re willing to listen to it. And we said of course. He said that when he was an infant, toward the end of World War II, he was one of seven. In growing up in rural and poor Oklahoma, his mother could not afford to keep all seven children at home. So the seven children were dispersed among family members throughout the country and he went off to Virginia to live with a distant relative. Shortly after he was dispersed, his father was killed in action. And so the story goes that his mother did the best she could. She saw the children when she could. When he was a young man, in the earliest parts of the Vietnam War was called to serve. When he was getting ready to ship out, his mother contacted him and said I want to give you something from your father. It was his military chest. She dug it out of the attic and she sent it to her son with a note that said I never opened it when it was returned to me so you’ll have to clean it out and put your own things in there. He said he let the chest sit there for a few days and when it became time that he was going to ship out he opened up the chest and began to clean it out. In it he found his father’s Bible. He said I pulled out the Bible and I began to leaf through it and out of the Bible fell an envelope. I opened the envelope and it was a letter written to me from my father. And in the letter he said my father told me that he doubted he would see me again because the place in which he served was very violent. But he wanted me to know how much he loved me and he wanted me to know that he read his Bible every night and that he was certain that God had great plans for his life. This humble gentleman looked across the room at all of us who were now dumbfounded and he said that’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m part of this community of faith. That’s how I discovered God’s dream for me because my father shared with me his faith. God has a dream for God’s people. God has a dream for you and I and we will be part of it.
Amen.