CALLED OUT

A Sermon On:

GENESIS 11.10-26


PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO



They're exciting when you find them for your own home - family trees, a listing of who and where in your ancestry. Parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on. Exciting because it gives you a sense of who you are, where you come from -- your heritage, your history. It is your story.

BUT -

Sort of like home videos, they are a good way to clear people out of your home: "If you'd like to stay, I'll show you..." "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. We've got to go now. It's getting late". That's because those on the outside can't relate. They weren't there. They're not part of what happened. The story is not part of their lives. For them it's a as dry as the Sahara; about as exciting as visiting Hamilton.

Guess what we get to look at this morning?
No, don't worry - not home video of my summer vacation.
We're going to look at a family tree, one found in the bible. But as we read it, please don't click your mind's remote and head off to do some mental channel surfing for the rest of the service.
Stick around. There may be more here than first meets the eye.

GENESIS 11.10-26 p.12


The account of Seth. Exciting, eh? Honestly, I have to admit that these chapters of Genesis are not on my "top 10" of most frequently read scripture passages. I mean, chapter 10 is chewed up with a broad, sweeping history of all Noah's descendants -- the children of his children, and how they spread across and repopulated the world after the devastating flood that God sent. A bit of interesting stuff in Genesis 11 with the story of the Tower of Babel. And then, whump, right back into the family tree stuff.
In fact, it looks like things begin to repeat themselves. Ch.10 ended with Shem's family tree. Now it shows up again in ch.11. And you know what? When I clued in to that, it made me stop and look twice, rather than flip the pages and go to something I felt would be more interesting. Think about it for a moment. Remember that when the Bible was first written, WordPerfect hadn't been perfected, typewriters didn't exist, and Parker pens were unknown.
You handed down wisdom orally, telling your children, who memorized it and told theirs. Or you took wet clay and a stick and carved away. Or you pounded together reeds into a sort of mat-like paper and wrote with charcoal. Authors never wrote down a word more than necessary. Unlike us who fill our blue boxes with scrap paper every week. Now tell me -- if writing was so hard, why would the author of Genesis bother telling us Seth's story? And not just once, but twice!
Why?
Those who take the time to study these things have pointed out the answer. the family trees listed in Genesis 10 help to illustrate the repopulating of the world after the devastation of the Flood. The family tree in Genesis 11 is very narrow and specific. It is focused in on one family unit only. And if you keep on reading into ch.12 you'll see God begin to work with that family.
Genesis 11, the picture of Shem's family tree is a picture of God begin to focus in on one group of people; to concentrate on them and to begin working with them.

See, God has made a promise to one of Shem's ancestors -- his first ancestor, Adam. When Adam and his wife Eve first rebelled against the Lord with the great first sin of humanity, God promised them that not all was lost. He promised that even though a curse had settled on creation, He would find a solution. He would work a plan that would see an end come to the curse -- that would see the laughing, cruel illicit presence of Satan in creation, a presence that came through sin -- that presence removed.

The once beautiful creation has been ruined by sin. There is pain where before there was only pleasure. There is frustration where once there was only success. There is death where once there was only life. There is hatred where once there was only love.
And God has pledged to reverse that. Satan's wicked work will be halted and removed.

God made that promise. And He will use the family of Shem to bring the promise into reality. Generation after generation He shapes history and moves the family along. He begins to set things in place. Carefully. Taking the time that only He in His divine wisdom knows is needed.
God's promise of Salvation is not a promise that He made lightly. And it's not one that can be fulfilled easily. But it was one He was determined to keep. Because of His deep passionate love for Creation, and for humanity -- you and I -- within that creation. And so, however long it would take, He would do what was needed to make it work.

Very much like a fruit farmer growing trees to bear fruit, so God begins to work through Shem's family tree. Growing, guiding, pruning, directing. Waiting as it develops until it reaches the right shape, in the right place, at the right time.
What that is only the Creator of the Cosmos knows.

Oh, when you begin to read the bible's opening chapters, of which Genesis 11 is a part, you don't see that. At least not right away. You see creation's beauty but for a moment before it is terribly damaged in the Fall. Then humanity is given a second chance. But they throw it away and the result is the Flood. Noah and his family come out of the ark, and in short order chaos has settled over the world again, resulting in humanity being scattered at the tower of babel.
If you read these early chapters of the Bible it seems like two steps forward and three back. There is no progress. Darkness is getting thicker. There is no hope. No future for the human race. Only gloom. Death. Until now. With the grooming and growing of Shem's family tree under God's guiding hand the momentum begins to take hold; things are starting to happen - starting to roll. God's plan is going into effect.
And if you keep on reading, you'll see God's work result in the formation of a specific nation - the ancient nation of Israel, part of the particular family tree of Shem which originates here in Genesis 11. And in that family tree we'll see names like Moses, Elijah, David, Isaiah and Daniel. Descendants of Shem. Players in God's great plan of Salvation.

God continues to grow and prune that family tree. And then, finally, through that community will come the birth of a child, a special child, one whose birth we will celebrate in 6 short weeks.
He is the pinnacle of history. We even measure time according to him. Before Christ - and then the time after.
He is the one around whom the plan of God revolves to rebuild creation.
He is the greatest descendant, the most important one in the family tree of Shem.
Jesus is the one who came to bring fresh hope, forgiveness, release from oppression in this life, eternal hope for thereafter.
Reconciliation to the Lord
Reconciliation to each other. Freedom from Satan's domineering oppression
When you're reading your way through the bible next time, and you come across this family tree of Shem, remember the plan of God. Remember how it was here that it began to take shape and build momentum.
And remember, dear friend, remember that this plan still continues! Only it is no longer a narrowing down, highly specific sort of working. Now the plan of God is working its way out right across the globe. Reaching, drawing, pulling, seeking, calling. The fact that you are here this morning, that you got out of bed, or that Mom hauled you out of bed and brought you along, shows that there is a place for you in that plan.
Think of God's plan as a beam of light that was first focused, concentrated and aimed very directly at the bull's eye of history. That bull's eye is the Cross, where the great sacrifice was made for the sins of the world. And from there, the light went through a great lens that scattered it far and wide, the way a Fresnel lens scatters the beam from a lighthouse far across a stormy bay.

That light is here this morning.
Whether by hook or by crook, you've been brought to a place and time where you meet this light, the One who the Bible calls, "The Light of the World."

And many of you have. You've said, "I need Jesus. I need to have the saving you're talking about. I need to be free from the dark influence of Satan. I don't want to face eternity apart from my Heavenly Father. I give my life to Christ.& quot;
That means that you've been drawn in the plan.
You can look at this chapter of Genesis and say, "There's where the momentum began to build towards my salvation. That's where God really got things rolling towards giving me new life, free life, rich life, eternal life. That's the beginning of the story of God finding and drawing me to Himself."Way back there.
The Lord of all time is not just some Lord of the Moment, who works in a scattered sort of way: a little here, a little there; a touch here, a miracle there; a soul saved now, something else later.
God's all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful ways reach across the millennia and draw all things together. Moment by moment. Month by month. Generation after generation. And it's reaching out, drawing us in.

We'll see that in a very direct way again next Sunday when we together AGAIN do something that could, just like reading about the family tree, be seen as something dry, or dull or repetitive. But something that, when you look carefully, is powerful and rich. I'm talking about Holy Communion.
Holy Communion - what we in the church call a "sacrament" - a sacred event, holy event. Something that reaches across, that spans the ages and draws all who will come together.
Holy Communion - a very simple meal of bread and a cup. A meal instituted by the descendant of Shem, Jesus, to remember the sacrifice of His body and blood -- the sacrifice at the centre of History.

All who reach out their hand and take part will be saying, "I am part of the Plan of God. His divine, gracious richness has found me and drawn me in. I surrender to His will -- the will of the centuries, His will and desire for my life."

That will happen next week. And I'd like to challenge all of us here today to plan for that moment next week. Oh, I know -- it'd be really easy to simply leave here, drop the matter, and come back next week saying, "Oh yes. Communion. Might as well do it."
But if you do, the meaning will be so much less. And it's not the way the Lord would have us approach this time.
Rather consider your life. Consider the plan for New Life that God started really rolling with the family tree of Shem. The New Life that is available like a light shining around the world -- New Life in Jesus. He's calling you to take your place in that plan. He's calling you to call others to see His divine plan and love for them, that they may come, too. So that they can look at Shem's family and say, "That's the very beginning of MY spiritual family."

And consider - As God worked through the descendants of Shem, a story that fills the whole Old Testament, there were so many times when people wandered away from His divine plan. They thought they could live life more enjoyably on their own, more satisfied on their own, more fulfilled. And discovered again and again that they couldn't.
How is it with you?
Can you sense a distance between you and God that ought not be there?
Has real passion and love for Jesus grown cold?
Has His divine will become sort of a lukewarm consideration that you'll do if it works -- otherwise not, sort of deal?
Consider this carefully as you move towards Communion.
And as you look around this room at other people that are also part of His plan, that plan which the family of Shem began to roll out -- how's your relationship with them? Can you look at them and say, "They're my spiritual family. It's good to be with them." Or is there a major barrier between you and one of them that needs to be removed? Then use this week to straighten that out.

And then come next Sunday morning. Come eagerly.
And join in celebrating the Great Plan of God, the Plan made real in Jesus, the Plan with room for you and I. The Salvation Plan.