Christ Cathedral

Old Testament - Genesis 15:1-6
Psalm 33: 12-15, 18-22
New Testament - Hebrews 11:1-16
Gospel - Luke 12:32-40

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised... For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God."

In 1541, the Spanish explorer Francisco Coronado became the first European to set foot in what we now call the state of Kansas. Coronado was an adventurous soul who had set out from Mexico in search of a promised land of sorts, a city of gold that was located somewhere on the yet to be explored continent of North America.

Along the way Coronado encountered a number of disappointments. Somewhere in Arizona, he saw a group of buildings shining in the sunlight, which he thought must surely be the city he was seeking. Coronado took the place with a great display of force and discovered to his shame that the Zuni Indians did not build their cities of gold. Coronado’s response to this disappointment was to invade the city, take its goods, and enslave the inhabitants. He repeated this pattern a few more times among the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico, who like the Zunis did not live in cities of gold.

One Pueblo man, however, told Coronado that there was indeed a city of gold far to the north. This lone Indian led Coronado hundreds of miles to a place somewhere between here and Wichita. When they finally arrived at the location of the famous golden city, Coronado found only the straw huts of the Wichita Indians. His response was to kill his guide and go back to Spain.

The story of a golden city which harbors untold riches does not hold a lot of appeal for us in the modern world. But the notion of a promised land, a place that God will lead his people, is part and parcel of the story of our faith. It’s strange to say, but God has had an intense interest in geography from the very beginning. When you look back on the history of salvation, God’s part of the bargain, so to speak, begins with two big promises to Abraham. The first was the promise of an heir. This is part of the story that we’ve been hearing bits and pieces of for the last several weeks in the Old Testament readings. God’s other promise to Abraham was the assurance that there would be a special land for his descendants, forever.

Abraham’s part of the bargain meant packing up his belongings and leaving Ur of the Chaldeans, and setting out for an unknown land. And as we hear in today’s epistle, "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going." He ended up in a rocky patch of ground on the eastern Mediterranean of dubious agricultural value.

On the surface, God’s decision to give the descendants of Abraham this particular plot of land is a bit puzzling. Abraham’s ancestral home near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was uniquely suited to profitable agriculture. Adequate, predictable rainfall made it possible for crops to be planted, grow, and be harvested with some assurance of success. This success lent a stability to the lives of the people who lived there and they built better tools and houses as time went on. This small area of fertile ground is surrounded by mountains and deserts; it was fairly free from invasions of less prosperous tribes who might have seen invasion as a way to better their own lot.

In exchange for this virtual paradise, God called Abraham to a place that was on the edge. Palestine, then as now, is a narrow strip of land situated on some of the least useful land on the Mediterranean coast. To the north the water was more plentiful. To the south, there was better soil. To the west, there were fish in the ocean. But Palestine has almost no natural harbors.

In addition to the challenges of the natural environment, there were political challenges. The ancient Hurrians to the north and the Egyptians to the south were constantly vying for control of the narrow trade route along the edge of the ocean. In addition to the ongoing struggle between these Bronze Age superpowers for control of trade routes, there were the scattered settlements of people along the coast who were trying to carve out a space for themselves in the southwest corner of Palestine.

So, from a land of peace and of plenty, God called Abraham to a place that was in constant turmoil with only limited resources. The author of Hebrews, looking back on the great history of God’s relationship with Abraham casts his journey in terms of faith. It was "by faith" that Abraham "stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents." If you think about this situation, it must have been trying to Abraham. God called him to leave some of the best land in the world for a rocky hill next to the Dead Sea. Once he got there, there was a famine so bad that he had to go down to Egypt just to survive.

But Abraham came back, his descendants became numerous, and they gained firm control of Palestine. Three thousand years later, the children of Abraham still have control of this little corner of the world. For better or for worse, tiny little Israel has been at the center of world politics off and on since the beginning of recorded history. It’s truly a remarkable thing: a strip of land the size of half a dozen counties in Kansas has been occupied by the same group of people since Homer was writing about the siege of Troy.

As a simple historical fact, the persistence of Israel is amazing, but I think that what is even more telling is that Abraham himself looked to something beyond the land of Israel. "He looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God."

So why was it that Abraham was willing to give up his life of relative ease and prosperity to be a nomad in another less prosperous country? The answer is that Abraham’s faith allowed him to see beyond the purely material considerations of life. Abraham was willing to give up chasing the brass ring because he believed that following God was more important than success. Some deep spiritual instinct in Abraham led him from a place of comfort to a place of faith, out of the midst of flourishing economy to a life of herding goats in the Jordan Valley.

The book of Hebrews lifts up Abraham’s life as a model of faith. Abraham is the great example of what it looks like to follow God. However, God is probably not calling many of us to move to Palestine, and so it may be hard for us to follow Abraham’s lead. Returning to Francisco Coronado, though, may give us some idea of the difference between the greed that looks for a city of gold and the faith that looks for the city of God.

Coronado went looking for a city of gold. His dreams were of power and prestige. He was young, ambitious, and capable, and in the end he had nothing to show for his efforts. He found disappointment at every turn, and left a trail of destruction in his path. At the space of 600 years, Coronado’s search for the city of gold has been judged by history to be not only a material, but also a moral, failure.

Abraham, by contrast, set out to find a new land, not in search of great riches, but in obedience to God. What he found along the way was a deep and abiding relationship with God, a God who always seemed to come through for him. From Ur of the Chaldeans, through Palestine, to Egypt and back again, Abraham saw a lot of things come and go, but God had promised him two things, a land and descendants. Three thousand years later, no one can say that God dropped the ball; Abraham’s children still occupy the Promised Land.

Following God in our own lives is probably not going to be a matter of physical journey as it was with Abraham and Coronado, but whether our journey is physical or spiritual, the motive is what matters. Do the decisions we make have more in common with faith of Abraham or the greed of Coronado?

The great Anglican author and spiritual advisor Evelyn Underhill was known for a keen sense of discernment, and at one point she found herself wondering where God was leading her in her own spiritual journey. She writes, "The whole question of course is not ’What attracts and would help me?’ but ’Where can I serve God best?’-and usually the answer to that is, ’Where he has put me.’"

If Underhill is right, and I think she is, then we all need to consider the possibility that, no matter how hard it may be in any given moment, our promised land is the place where we are, and that whatever it is we are doing is the work that God has given us to do. I pray that as we grow together as a community, as the body of Christ in this place, that someday we will look back, and realize that just as God was faithful to Abraham, he has been faithful to us. For like Abraham, we look forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.