The Sojourn and the Surprise: Abraham Goes Down to Egypt

REFLECTION QUOTES

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

~J.R.R. Tolkien in Lord of the Rings

“Why is the world silent while Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East and Africa? …Historians may look back at this period and wonder if people had lost their bearings. Few reporters have traveled to Iraq to bear witness to the Nazi-like wave of terror that is rolling across that country. The United Nations has been mostly mum. World leaders seem to be consumed with other matters…. Why doesn’t the slaughter of Christians seem to activate their social antennas?”

~Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress,
nearly a year ago (4-19-2014) in the New York Times Op-Ed

“China Aid…says that last year more than 7,400 Christians suffered persecution in China….”

“‘By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon,’ said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University…. ‘It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change.… Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this. It’s ironic – they didn’t. They actually failed completely.’”

~“The Economist” 4-19-2014

“Some Chinese also discern in Christianity the roots…behind the development of social justice, civil society and rule of law, all things they hope to see in China…. One civil-rights activist says that, of the 50 most-senior civil-rights lawyers in China probably half are Christians.”

~“The Economist” 11-1-2014

“What makes authentic disciples is not visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter and verse, or spectacular success in the ministry, but a capacity for faithfulness. Buffeted by the fickle winds of failure, battered by their own unruly emotions, and bruised by rejection and ridicule, authentic disciples may have stumbled and frequently fallen, endured lapses and relapses…and wandered into a far county. Yet, they kept coming back to Jesus.”

~Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

SERMON PASSAGE

Genesis 12:10-13:2

10 Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.” 14 It came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.

17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her and go.” 20 Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.

Chapter 13

1So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him. 2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.