A MESSAGE FROM REV. KAREN KINNEY: JOURNEY TO AN UNKNOWN LAND
Grace and peace to you,
This Sunday, we begin a sermon series that we are calling The Wilderness: A Journey Towards Hope.
Why focus on wilderness as a way toward hope? 
As Pastor Lindsey wrote last week: The vision for this series is to help us embrace the ways in which seasons of disorientation and change can still inspire us and deepen our faith as Easter people. In many ways, we carry the tension of being Good Friday people (a wilderness experience) and Easter people (a hope-filled new life experience). What can we learn from our Biblical stories of people who have journeyed in the wilderness towards hope?
What can we learn from Abram’s story in Genesis? On Sunday, we will explore the story of his call by God to leave Haran, his home, and all that is familiar and comfortable to journey to an unknown land that God will show to him.
God makes three promises to Abram: there will be land (a place) for you, there will be descendants (people and community), and blessings (to you and you to others). Abram has done nothing to earn these promises or the invitation by God to journey into a wilderness time. This is unearned grace; the kind of grace God extends to all, including us today.
So Abram answers the call but you will note he is not alone – he takes his wife, his nephew Lot, all his possessions including things and people, and off they go to the land God has promised. Now I encourage you to read all of Abram’s story (Genesis chapters 12-25) to see the very real human experiences that he and his family will have.
What are we to make of God’s promises to Abram and how might they be relevant to us? God promises Abram a place to come to. God promises people and a community so that he will not be alone – his descendants will be many. And finally, God promises that Abram will be blessed and be a blessing and that all the families on Earth will be blessed through him! On this last one, through Abram, all the families on Earth will come to know the love of God, the deep blessing God gives to each of us!
Those are big promises! Promises made – were they kept? Indeed they were – maybe not in the way Abram or we expect reading the stories. What are we promised in a wilderness time? Where is the hope in the promises? What can we learn about our being a blessing to our community in the place God prepares for us from Abram and the promises made to him?
Come and see, come and explore this Sunday.
Blessings,
Pastor Karen