Genesis 15:1-6 (NRSV)
Read Genesis 15:1-6 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 15After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."
Verse 2But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Verse 3And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." Verse 4But the word of the Lord came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." Verse 5He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." Verse 6And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Devotion
I served a Lutheran congregation in Manhattan. It was a confusing time to be church. Was our mission among rich, poor, gay, straight, African, Latino, homeless, migrants cleaning tables or migrants moving to luxury condos? It was hard to see the stars of ministry past paying bills. However, thankfully we never pick mission. It picks us.
The city put 70 persons with AIDS in the hotel next to the church but provided no services. In response, we made it a priority to minister to these persons alone in the world. The effort lived for a year and a half until, thankfully, a large agency came to provide therapeutic health care.
It was one ministry in a complicated arena of mission that allowed us to “look toward heaven and count the stars” (v. 5). It was as though God asked us to go out and look. We hope the stars of the kingdom were polished by our efforts.
Prayer
Thank you, God, for leading us into the wilderness, challenging us to look outside ourselves and see opportunities for your presence to be made real. May we polish those stars as we strive to practice Christianity. Amen.