Go

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, March 5th, 2023:
The Second Sunday of Lent

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Genesis
12.1-4

The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.

I recently discovered the hobby of genealogy and researching family history.

This past week, I unearthed a link that helped me understand where part of my paternal line originates. In the early 1800s, young men, likely poor enough to have nothing to lose, gambled on crossing the Atlantic to fish off the isolated southwest shores of Newfoundland. I can’t confirm what inspired that decision, but the idea of creating a better future resonates with me. Part of the draw of genealogy is seeing in hindsight how the choices of our ancestors impact us today.

Ours is not the first generation to find familial history fascinating or useful. Accounting for said history was a tool used by previous generations to pass down important stories and information about who they were, how they arrived and what they believed. The bible itself contains the entire account of Jesus’ lineage, of which Abraham was a significant part.

In Genesis 12, however, Abraham isn’t asked to look back on his line to inform his next move. In this chapter, Abraham, then Abram, is being asked by God to live very much in the present moment. God has a promise for future generations that depend on his role today. God asks him to leave his country for a place He has yet to show him. From there, God promises a great nation, where generations upon generations are blessed, by God, through Abraham’s life. 

“So Abram went.” God asks him to go – so he does. Maybe he feels uncertain, but the text reads as though the move is logical, secure and calm. Further in Genesis, Abraham shows the same resolve whenever God requests something. Moreover, despite waiting what must seem an abnormally long time for the offspring God promises him, Abraham doesn’t seem to falter in this pattern until the conception of Ishmael.

It’s not an everyday event for God to ask us to move a large geographical distance. Most people may never experience that type of call. But that whispered command “Go” is offered to us at different points in our lives, in different ways. Our best response is dependent on acting in the present moment and trusting God, without thinking too hard about the cost or future outcome. The amazing thing is that God always wills to bless us through our obedience, and further, to bless the next generation, and the next, and the next through whatever we choose today. Even when we struggle with relinquishing our own will to His, He still wants continually to bless through whatever situation now exists (case in point: the blessing of Ishmael in Genesis 21:18).

“Go”-ing could be as simple as inviting that friend to Alpha or reconciling with a family member, changing familial relations for decades to come. It could mean making a doctor’s appointment to check on that unusual finding. It might result in a big mission trip, changing jobs, choosing new schools, or stepping into one’s vocation. It could mean summoning the courage for that first therapy appointment or going to confession for the first time in 30 years. It could be as small as putting down a phone and listening to a child share about their day. It could mean slowing down to rest or getting up 5 minutes earlier to pray.

Godly legacies are born of trust and sensitivity to the soft whispers of the Holy Spirit, telling us to “go.” They are constructed by bigger and smaller decisions made in the present, for a future that God holds in His hands.

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Michelynne Gomez

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