• Genesis 12: 1-4a

Crisp, direct phrases tell a story with far-reaching meanings: one man’s and one woman’s personal response have consequences for all of human history.  The Lord said to Abram and Sara “Go!”  And on a promise of future blessing for themselves and for all humankind, “so Abram went….”

• Psalm 121

The direct, beautiful simplicity of the language of this psalm and the repetition of the word “trust” as a noun and as a verb declare an uncomplicated “trust” in the Lord.

• Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17

Paul’s convoluted language interprets the story of Abraham and Sarah as an exemplar of unequivocal obedience.

• John 3: 1-17

In this well-worn passage from John’s gospel, the enduring emphasis is on a personal decision in response to a direct declaration.  This time, the one through whom God invites trust is Jesus.

Biblical texts are often injunctions embedded in stories that show the consequences for individuals and groups who responded or failed to respond God’s invitations.  In the exemplary story of Abram and Sara, they responded  to the injunction, “Go,” immediately!  Biblical texts are full of injunctions from God and God’s messengers to start something.  Go!  Go and do!  Multiply!  Feed!  Hear!  See!  Behold!  Remember!  Eat!  Drink!  Preach!  Heal!  Baptize!  Call!  Pray!  Weep!  Laugh!  Proclaim!  Keep silent!  Sing!

Biblical texts are not problems to be solved or principles to be applied.  They are stories of others who encountered these injunctions and they responded or did not respond and the immediate and long-term consequences of their personal decisions.   These stories of others cause us to wonder:  What would we do?  What will we do in our time?  “In other words, we cannot stand back as uninvolved spectators and simply work out the allegorical or ethical implications.  Reading these [biblical] narratives… means learning how to continue the series (or discovering that we do not know how to continue it).  This is something every reader of the Bible grasps immediately and intuitively, but errors tend to creep in when we try to conceptualize our intuitions,” so Gabriel Josipovici observes.  (The Book of God: A Response to the Bible, p. 229)

Abram and Sara’s spontaneous response to God’s invitation to leave everything that was familiar and start a new journey, whose nature and destination had not been revealed, are enduring, inspiring models.  God then tells them that “all the clans of the earth through you will be blessed.”  At this point in the biblical narrative, there is no Law, no Temple, no liturgical cycle, no interpreters, no clergy, just a simple, direct offer of a journey, a partnership, a journey based solely on trust.

Jesus engages a highly trained and  credentialed religious scholar and leader, Nicodeamus, who cannot grasp what God is doing through Jesus.  Jesus speaks with the authority of one “who descended from heaven” and will soon “be lifted up,” as Moses lifted up that earlier sign of God’s redemption in the wilderness, the serpent.  His message and his life and death are God’s latest and most spectacular invitation.  And any who follow him “will not perish but have eternal life.”  

In the biblical stories, we hear about some who responded to God’s invitations to partnership,  some who did not, and some who could no,t as well as the immediate and enduring consequences of their decisions.  The stories of others raise the inevitable question for each of us:  how have we/how are we accepting God’s  enduring invitation for partnership or not?