Last Sunday we started journeying with Abram.

Remember how God called him to leave and to go?

To leave his country, his people and his family. And to trust God with his ultimate destination.

To step out…

…from the familiar and head into the unfamiliar.

…from the known to the unknown.

…from his comfort zone to new ways of being.

Literally, it’s a call to come out from.

That’s what the Hebrew means.

To come out from his people, his life, everything that had shaped him up until that point.

And to come to God.

To come out and to come to.

Last night we started a study in 1 Peter.

Peter tells us who he is writing to. To God’s elect, exiles, scattered throughout the provinces of…

God’s people.

Exiles.

Living somewhere you don’t belong.

A foreigner. An alien.

Called out from the world.

Called to God and His Kingdom.

Yes, we live in the world. But we don’t belong to the world.

Yes, the world is our temporary home. But God’s Kingdom is our eternal home. 

A little later in his letter Peter says of us that we are…

God’s special possession…called out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

Hear that?

Called out of.

Called into.

Out of darkness.

Into the light.

Out of the world.

Into God’s Kingdom. 

I guess that’s why in Romans 12:1 Paul says In view of God’s mercy, do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed, by the renewing of your mind.

We can’t conform, because we don’t belong….we have been called out.

We must be transformed, because we have a new home…we have been called into.

 

God’s people.

The church.

Ekklesia.

Literally…the called out ones.

We are the church.

We are the called out ones. 

Anyway, in light of this….read….no, pray….this prayer from Walter Brueggemann.

 

We are counted your people.

                We are grateful to be called by you, and

                                glad for our special way of faith in the world.

You have marked us and named us, and signed us,

                and we are different,

                                    different memories,

                                    different hopes,

                                   different fears,

                                   different commands,

                                   different ways of being.

That difference we find glorious, but at times a burden too severe.

                We yearn to be like the others,

                                like the others in power,

                                                          in money,

                                                         in freedom,

                                                        in certitude,

                                                       in security,

                                like the others,

                                     uncalled, unburdened, unembarrassed.

We come to you in that deep trial of difference and likeness.

                Engage us in our difference,

                give us courage for our different vocations,

                                and energy for our different hope.

In the name of your crucified, Easter One, so unlike all the others.

Amen.