Genesis 12:1-3
1 Now 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. 2 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. 3 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."
About a hundred and eighty years ago,
some folks came drizzling down out of places like South Carolina, heading
westward looking for cheap land and plenty of water. They made their way down
through the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains by way of a few well-worn
trails carved by the native Creek tribes that once inhabited the land. They
eventually found their way into a patch of Northeast Alabama right outside a
town called Drayton in Benton County (you know it better as Jacksonville in
Calhoun County). In that group of pioneers were families with names like
Roberts, Milton, Walden, Johnston, Williams, and Boozer. When they first
arrived in the place we now call Williams, these first settlers had to clear
the land, split logs, build fences, plow the ground, and do all the work that
goes with such labor-intensive chores. They made their own clothes, soap, jams,
and jellies. They raised all kinds of crops and livestock. And whenever one of
their own slipped on over to the other side of eternity, they built coffins
from choice lumber that had been set aside and cotton that had been smoothed by
hand, and in a practice that is still carried on to this day, the men of the
community would dig and prepare the graves.
A few years later, in 1850, those Robertses, Miltons, Waldens, Johnstons,
Boozers, and Willamses, all got together and decided that their little community
needed a place to worship, so they rolled some logs together to make a building
not far from Thomas cemetery and Ohatchee Creek, and once or twice a year the
congregation of Ohatchee Baptist Church would gather together to worship the
Lord with prayers, songs, and a word from Scripture. By 1881 the church had
around 40 members; there were 68 folks who belonged to the church by 1889, and
in the before (1888) they started their first Sunday School. In 1890 the log
building was moved to the plot of land on which we worship today, and in 1892,
a new building was constructed to house the growing congregation. The
congregation outgrew that building in 1924, so there was a new building that
was constructed and stood until 1971. The building in which we worship this
morning replaced it in 1972, and one year later the church that had been known
up to that time as Ohatchee Baptist #2 officially changed its name to the First
Baptist Church of Williams.
Now I know most of you have heard that story a time or two, and can
probably fill in most of the gaps in it. I, however, have only recently read
most our church’s history, and I am indebted to Jean Anderson, Lonette Green,
Rachel Green, Peggy Hamby, Virginia Norton, Faye Ponder, Mildren Williams, and
all the folks who helped that history and records committee back in 2000
compile what became a book titled People
who Shared a Vision: History of the Church at Williams, 1850-200 (there are
copies of these books for sale in the church office by the way).
As I read the great history of this church and the story of those
faithful folks like Zebulon and Emmaline Williams, Samuel and Elizabeth Boozer,
James Milton and Barbara Waldon, Nathan and Nancy Roberts, Thomas and Mildred
Johnston (charter members of our church), I couldn’t help but wonder what they
might think about the church their faithfulness and commitment to God’s kingdom
started nearly 163 years ago. I wonder if they could have ever imagined this
room—packed with the faithful and searching on Sunday mornings. I wonder if
they could have imagined this entire building—complete with running water,
electric lights, paved parking, heating and air conditioning, a full kitchen,
educational space, a gymnasium, a center for community work and disaster
relief, offices, and places designed for children and youth to experience
Christ in fellowship and Bible study. I wonder if they could have imagined this
church’s ministry and kingdom work—thousands of dollars given for global
missions through the Cooperative Program, Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong
offerings, and (now) the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and its global missions
offering; becoming a charter church of the McAfee School of Theology of Mercer
University, helping to train ministers and missionaries for generations to come;
the multiple ways in which this church has transformed and rebuilt this
community in ways none of us in this room could have ever dreamed. When I first
read of those first, faithful members, I couldn’t help but wonder what they
would think about this church that has been built upon the foundation of faith they
first laid in 1850, and I couldn’t help but think how much like Abram those
first folks were.
In the three, short verses we read this morning, we hear God calling
Abram (Abraham) to "Go from [his] country and [his] kindred and [his] father's house
to the land that [God] will show [him].” God, with increasing
specificity,[1]
has called Abram to leave everything he has, everything he knows, everything
safe and comfortable in order to go to some location to be named later. I
imagine it was a terrifying call…at least at first. Perhaps Abram perked up a bit when he heard
God’s following offer in verse 2: “I will make of you a great nation, and I
will bless you, and make your name great...” God promised to make of
Abram a great nation…now that seems like a fair deal for leaving one’s family
behind, right? Leave everything you know behind you in order to go a God-driven
quest towards personal greatness: “sign me up!” But before we hurry on to verse 3 and God’s promise to “bless
those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse” and think
this is only a call issued to Abram for his personal gain and glory, we need to
“read the fine print” at the end of verses
2 and 3: “you will be a blessing…and in
you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Did you catch that? God called Abram away from country, his kindred, and
his father’s house—not so he could lead him to a land of great, personal wealth
and prosperity, but—so that he could be a blessing to all the families of the
earth. In other words, Abram’s call is not just one of personal blessing; it is
a call to be a blessing. One way of
looking at it is this: Abram was called by God to build a foundation of faith
upon which a people shall be built—a people from which the blessing of God would
come.
God called Abram to leave all that he knew behind. God called Abram to be
faithful in his leaving to go to a land God would show him, and in that
faithfulness Abram and his wife Sarai—despite being advanced in years—would
have a son, Isaac. Isaac would have sons of his own, one named Jacob (or
Israel), and Israel would have twelve sons who would themselves be the fathers
of twelve tribes. These twelve tribes would form one nation—Israel. This nation
(despite Abram’s initial faithfulness) would turn away from God several times
in its history. It would eventually divide and be conquered by foreign powers,
seeing its share of difficulties. Through it all, however, God’s covenant
Abram—to make him a blessing—was still there, still moving and growing, culminating
in a descendant of Abram named Mary and her divinely begotten Son, Jesus.
God called those first, faithful families, who had left all they knew
behind, to start a church in the community they came to settle, and in that faithfulness
generations have come and gone, growing and shaping this church. There have
been difficulties, and there will be more. There have been times when people
have joined our fellowship and times when people have left our fellowship, and
there will be times when others join and when others leave. However, if we hold
true to our faith in Christ—the same faith those first believers had all those
years ago—we will continue to build upon that faithful foundation fixed in our
past.
Today, we begin thinking about how we can build on that foundation. We
reflect on the story of Abram and how God used Abram’s faithfulness to bless
the families of the earth, and we reflect on the stories of those whose
faithfulness has brought this community and this church to where it is today.
So how do we continue to bless the families of the earth as our ancient
ancestor of faith was called to do? How do we build upon the foundation of
faith fixed by those who came before us in this church? Well, I have a few
thoughts…
We can bless the families of the earth as the people of God by increasing
our time spent in prayer for those who have been called to the mission field
and those people to whom they minister. We can begin now prayerfully
considering how we might support the team from our very own congregation going
to be blessed and be a blessing to those in Haiti this summer. We can bless
those in our neighborhoods and places of work by sharing the love of Christ
with them as we listen to their fears and care for their needs. We can, as a
church, make a commitment to take care of our financial debts in a timely
manner in order to focus more of our resources on blessing those in our
community and to the end of the earth. We can continue to build on that
foundation fixed in the past as we welcome newcomers into our community, as we
build relationships with people who have shared the same street address but not
the same pew. We can continue to build on that foundation as we continue to
grow and shape our community through the many local ministries we do through
our church.
We can be a blessing to the families of the earth and build on that
foundation of faithfulness as we give of ourselves to the work God calls us to
do as the First Baptist Church of Williams, and that takes faith: selfless
faith, the kind of faith that risks leaving what we find safe and comfortable
behind us as we progress forward seeking the will of God. It takes the kind of
faith that stretches us mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically, and
financially. It takes the kind of faith that causes us to give to the
ministries and missions of this church—not out of our abundance, but—out of
sacrifice. It takes the kind of faith that says when I can’t give from my
wallet, I’ll give from my time, from my hands and my feet—my actions.
Today, we begin prayerfully considering how we might follow in the
faithful footsteps of those who have gone on before us, from Abram to those
first believers in Williams to those who worship in this room with us today. We
begin praying about how God will use each of us individually and collectively
to bless the nations. In the coming weeks, as we continue to reflect on our
past, as we worship and celebrate in the present, and as we look forward to the
future of God’s kingdom work here at Williams, one thing we can pray about as
we consider how we will build on the foundation laid for us is our giving. Over
the last few weeks, the stewardship and pledge committee has been meeting and
praying about how we will move forward with canceling our debt and planning our
future financial needs, and in these next few weeks as you pray about the work
we are called to do, you will receive a pledge card. Don’t fill it out right
away. Instead, pray over it; consider how God is calling you in the work of
this church and the building up of the kingdom. Pray about how God is calling
you to give with faithfulness, but by all means, first consider how God has
blessed you and how God is calling you to bless others.
Above all else, though, I want you to hear this: God called Abram—God called
those first believers here in Williams—not to build buildings, not to build
neighborhoods, not to build nations, not even to build a denomination nor a
religion. God called Abram, those first followers at Williams, and everyone in
between and after to be in a loving, eternal relationship with God. So, if
you’re in this room and maybe turned off by the idea that a church needs your
money (because, frankly, we do), hear this: God is not after your money, and
God is not particularly in the business of giving you money. God is after your
heart. Like Abram and all those after him, God is after you and me because God
love us. So this morning, during our time of commitment, I’m going to ask you
to pray: pray for God’s direction as to how God can and will use you to build
upon the foundation left for us; pray for the Holy Spirit to speak to your
soul, guiding you towards a deeper relationship with God in Christ. Pray, and
move as the Spirit of God calls you to move.
Let us pray…
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