“Leave your land” Colchester Federated Church, June 7, 2026, Second Sunday after Pentecost/ONA Sunday (Genesis 12:1-9)

This Sunday and next we are going to be spending time with Abram (who in time will be known as Abraham—the father of the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).  Abram is an important religious figure.  Today’s text is known as the Call of Abraham.  We hear God speaking with a clear command: “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation and will bless you.  I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.”[1]  This story shows God’s command for Abram to migrate—to make his way to an unknown place where he is being called to settle.  God assures Abram that all the families of the earth shall be blessed through him in time.

Though the land of Canaan where Abram and Sarai and their family are commanded to go is not empty.  There were people already living there—the Canaanites.  This is reminiscent of this country not being empty when white settlers came to town, right?  As Kathleen DuVal shares in Native Nations, “Native peoples have always organized themselves into sovereign, self-governing polities with their own political structures, laws, economic systems, and foreign policies.”[2]  Even as we engage with Abram coming to this land in the book of Genesis it seems important to name that the Canaanites were already there.  Though the exact boundaries of the land of Canaan are hard to know. 

It’s safe to say that Abram and his family are strangers in a strange land at first.  This story in some ways is just the beginning of struggles that will shape many Biblical narratives to come (and even modern events).  Who does this land belong to after all?  We can read about the promises of God to the ancestors of Israel which have often been theologically interpreted to show that their lives and identity were part of God’s purpose from the beginning.  The land, the population, the blessings, the well-being, and relationships with neighbors can all be interpreted as part of God’s design from a theological perspective.  We can see this from the call of Abraham and the blessings bestowed upon people from God.  We can wonder about the Biblical claim: “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.”[3]  Because this is a story about callings and journeys, fulfillment and losses—people on the move who had to leave what was comfortable and familiar in order to embrace something unknown, something entirely new. 

It is good to hear this story on Welcoming, Open and Affirming Sunday here at Colchester Federated Church because in some ways this is a story about belonging.  Our Welcoming, Open & Affirming Statement that we recited together declares: “We invite all who seek to follow Jesus into the full life of our church, ministry, leadership, worship, sacraments, rites, and fellowship: all persons of every gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; as well as all ages, races, nationalities, mental and physical ability, family structure, and social and economic status.”[4]  It is good to read this statement together on the first Sunday in June as a yearly reminder of this sentiment that shares our intentions as a faith community.  This can also be an invitation to be honest that there are ways that human differences have been used to separate us from one another in harmful ways.  To make some people feel less than or somehow unworthy to be fully part of Christian communities.  We can challenge that mentality and embrace a way of inclusion and welcome, hospitality and Christian love. 

Because we remember that when Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves he did not categorize our neighbors, making distinctions about who was in or who was out.  We all long to belong, we all long to be seen and understood.  Colchester Federated Church is a community of faith that invites members and friends to be fully part of the Body of Christ no matter who you are or where you are on your life’s journey.

When we hear this story from Genesis we could also think about how God calls us to move beyond the familiar.  A friend once gave me a worry stone that states “life is a balance of holding on and letting go.”   Thus it has always been because change is inevitable and sometimes we are called to hold on and sometimes we are called to let go.   The call of Abraham can bring to mind God’s promises shared through the prophet Isaiah: “Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old.  I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”[5] 

God had been with God’s people as they passed through the waters and walked through fires and crossed the desert.  We can see this over and again in our sacred stories.  These stories help us have faith that God is with us in the valleys and on top of the mountains.  God is present to Abram as God commands him to leave his land, his family, and his father’s household for the land that God would show him.  God is with Abram every step of the journey, and that reminder can give us hope.

Change is not easy.  Some of us have an easier time with change than others.  Yet refusing to change does not ultimately go well.  The final example that came to me of leaving one’s land (the familiar) to embrace God’s calls to move onto the new is from the natural world—lobsters.  Maybe I was hungry when sermon writing this week as lobster rolls are one of the best things about living in New England.  The reality is that lobsters must molt in order to grow and increase in size.  What happens during the molting process is that a new soft and flexible shell grows underneath the old hard and inflexible shell (the exoskeleton).  The lobster absorbs water and that water absorption pushes up against the old shell until it finally splits open between the lobster’s body and tail.  The lobster has to wiggle out of that old exoskeleton (and this includes the antenna, legs, and even their eyes)!  Some folks have compared this process to wiggling out of a pair of jeans that feels a little too tight!  You can watch a timelapse of this process, and it’s incredible. 

But then the lobster has to recover after molting—healing needs to happen.  Lobsters are vulnerable and soft, hiding in crevices along the ocean floor as their bodies continue to pump in more water in order to stretch out and fill in their brand-new shell.  And here’s what’s amazing—lobsters molt frequently.  This is not a once in a lobster lifetime event!  Young lobsters molt something like 25 times in their first seven years of life whereas more mature lobsters molt usually once every year or two.  Molting is the most dangerous time in a lobster’s life because their protective armor is not able to defend them against predators—so they hide out and heal and wait.  Lobsters are an amazing example from the natural world of the inevitably of change.  Lobsters can serve as a reminder that change is necessary for growth. 

“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?” 
“Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you.”[6] 
God will be with us, on every step of our journeys.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Genesis 12:1-2, CEB.
[2] Kathleen DuVal, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, pg. xxix.
[3] Genesis 12:7, NRSVUE.
[4] Colchester Federated Church Welcoming, Open & Affirming Statement.
[5] Isaiah 43:18-19, NRSVUE.
[6] Isaiah 43:19, NRSVUE and Genesis 12:1, CEB.

Photo by OceanOtter on Unsplash