Calls to ”Something More” (Following the Lectionary for August)
Week 1 of BLC’s August church-culture experiment following the ”Revised Common Lectionary” for our inspiration. For this week’s Bible passages, think Luke Skywalker from ”Star Wars”…
SPEAKER NOTES
Lectionary, wk 1 (Calls to “Something More”)
Intro
I’m often struck by how much culture is in churches. A brief story to show you what I mean...
I remember one Sunday here at BLC, several years ago, a friend of one of our regulars visited our church with them, and I was not prepared for how caught off guard I would end up being by this visitor’s past cultural experience of churches.
As I’m talking to people after church, this guy visiting his friend pulls me aside and he is really earnestly, clearly wanting to compliment me and says: “Hey, I just love how you as the pastor are out here with everyone else before and after service; not in the greenroom.”
And I smiled and reflexively said “thank you”… BUT THEN I registered what he had said. It took a minute, like well after the conversation was over and he had left.
I was like: Wait, greenroom?! What?! Like the place at a theater or concert hall where performers chill so they’re not with the rest of the “peons” of the world?! Where all the brown M&Ms are removed from the bowl?!
Is this a thing in some churches?! What?!
You see, I learned, this guy had grown up in a very specific church culture:
- a church-growth-focused, suburban, non-denominational church
- in a town where basically everyone was a Christian
- hundreds (maybe thousands) of people every Sunday,
- meticulously carefully-crafted space and experience, not unlike a Starbucks;
- super high production value;
- super hierarchical and bureaucratic structure of leadership.
His church culture was a context where pastors are revered celebrities, unlike mine, where pastors wonder how to introduce themselves in a way that won’t make people think you’re a religious traffic cop.
For this guy visiting BLC, church greenrooms is all he had ever known, so it made sense for him to want to talk about the absence of that experiencing our church.
I don’t bring this up to paint the kind of church this guy grew up in as bad.
I bring this up just to point out how churches are full of culture. My only picture of church as a kid was Catholic church, where everyone shakes the priest’s hand as you exit mass. To me, it’s not unheard of I’d be out before and after a service talking to people. To me, the idea of a pastor’s greenroom is unheard of!
All churches, just like any group of people doing anything together, are full of culture.
I think it’s great fun to bring all that culture out into the open, and talk about it, and be self-aware about it, and learn from one another — like expanding our palates for different types of food.
BLC is only 12 years old; no one has yet fully “grown up in our church”, so our culture here as a church is a mish-mash of different religious (or non-religious) cultures people have brought to us.
Look around at the people sitting around you — those people likely grew up with different experiences and norms around religion from you. That’s a special thing about our church!
And I hope it is always a part of this church — even when we do get to the point that there are “people who have grown up in this church” (looking at you, kids!) — I hope we remain a place where people can comfortably bring different cultures to us, because we’re a space that is self-aware about culture and talks about that openly as a normal thing!
Context
So I’m talking about culture in churches, because for the next few Sundays here in August, we want to intentionally try something culturally different for our messages — as a little experiment.
Here’s a church culture thing — how many of us know what the Lectionary is? No shame if not — remember, we’re just talking culture!
- The Lectionary is a curated listing of Scripture readings for each Sunday of the year in the Christian Calendar.
- It is used every Sunday in many Christian traditions, Protestant and Catholic, all over the world.
- If a church follows the Lectionary, then over the course of three years they will encounter the entire Bible.
So our church does not follow the Lectionary.
- Hayley and I usually bring this community through the Bible more topically, or drawing inspiration on what to read from things beyond just the historic Christian Calendar.
- However, there are times of the year when we are in sync with the Lectionary (like Advent and Lent, for example).
- And I wonder if you see, like me, the beauty to… - Engaging the same scriptures that millions of others all over the world are engaging - And giving ourselves for a bit to the wisdom of tradition, and not just to what feels most current to Vince or Hayley at this moment. lectionary off
- So, for this month, we’re going to follow the Lectionary, as a little experiment — to see how it goes. - We’d love to hear from you in Discord or an email during and after this experiment — What did you think about following the Lectionary? Was there something you liked about it? Was there something that felt challenging about it? - We’ve picked this month, August 2025, because I was invited to contribute for the month to an online Lectionary Commentary called “Process & Faith” - If you want to check it out, it’s a resource for ministers who preach from the Lectionary regularly, and are hoping to represent the particular perspective on God and life that we teach from here: Open & Relational Theology. - A minority but robust perspective, within Christianity and beyond, - That I think makes the best sense of everyday experience for people, especially when we experience pointless pain, - And it coheres with Science better than more popular views of God and theology. - If you’re ever with us on a Sunday, you’ll get lots of examples of this Open and Relational perspective, but the quick overview is to keep in mind those two words: - Open meaning… - The future is not predetermined by “a distant God outside of time” - The future is open, always in the process of unfolding, and God is alongside us in the flow of time. - Relational meaning… - God can’t just independently control outcomes in life from above or from afar. - Because God is relationally intertwined with the world, - God is close and present to all, always influencing things toward the most goodness, beauty, justice possible, - BUT God is met with varying levels of cooperation and partnership on the part of the world. Our free choices have real purpose and consequences. Complexity and randomness and chance are real things. - As Jesus taught his disciples (and as his unjust death shows), God’s will is not always done on earth as it is in heaven; so we need not lose faith in God in the face of evil or tragedy or pointless pain. Those are all the more reason to look to the Good God’s help and comfort.
So, this month, get ready for some open and relational thoughts on readings from the Bible that millions of people of faith all over the world are also engaging at the same time. process & faith off
These messages will be:
- Longer on readings (with help from some of BLC’s from-afar community as readers).
- But the trade off for being longer on readings is we’ll be shorter on content from me! - Sermons in traditions that preach from the lectionary are usually only like 10-15 minutes… So maybe you wish you went to those churches?… J/k! - Accordingly, for these weeks, I’ll be shorter, drawing from the commentaries I’ve written for the online “Process and Faith” Lectionary.
- Sound good? Let’s give it a try!
Please join me in welcoming our reader(s) for today, joining us via video, Melissa Hubbert…
Readings: August 10, 2025
A reading from Genesis
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."
But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a servant born in my house is to be my heir."
But 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." He 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."
And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
A reading from Psalm 33
18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him, *
on those who wait upon his love,
19 To pluck their lives from death, *
and to feed them in time of famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord; *
he is our help and our shield.
21 Indeed, our heart rejoices in him, *
for in his holy Name we put our trust.
22 Let your loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, *
as we have put our trust in you.
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval…
By faith [Abram] obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke
Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those servants.
"But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."
scripture off
Commentary
When we read Abram's call in Genesis 15, I think we're meant to have feelings like I have watching Star Wars' Luke Skywalker looking out at the planet Tatooine's binary sunset as John Williams' beautiful score surges.
Luke feels the lure of ”a call to something more” as he looks toward the open sky — the beginning of his hero’s journey, that is about something so much bigger than just himself and his desire to fly spaceships. Even though it may start with that, his story becomes about imperial domination and communal resistance.
The look toward the open sky is a classic trope in such mythological and literary and cinematic stories. If Star Wars doesn’t do it for you, I promise something else that does has this trope in it.
I wonder: Is perhaps Abram feeling God speak as he looks toward the open sky of countless stars in Genesis 15 one of humanity's earliest examples of this trope? binary sunset off
So what is the choice before an individual when experiencing “a call to something more”? Genesis 15 suggests it is the choice of belief. (“Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.”)
This is not belief in the modern Western sense of mental agreement with a set of truth claims (like the way we ask, “what are your religious beliefs?”); rather this is belief in the much more elegant and simple ancient Hebrew sense of trust. (We still sometimes use the word “belief” this way when we speak of “believing in someone”.)
And the choice of Abram to believe (or trust) God opens possibilities for God’s goodness, beauty, and justice to be realized in the next moment.
BUT it does not guarantee anything about his story’s end. There must be continued belief (or trust) in the next moment, and the next moment, and the next moment. If we continue reading in Genesis, we learn that the rest of Abram’s story includes hugely significant choices marked by unbelief, with serious harmful consequences impacting others like Hagar and Ishmael.
(PAUSE)
Sometimes, we wish one single choice could have the power to predestine the rest of our lives — if I choose the right person to be in a relationship with I’ll feel complete, or if I make the right career choice or shrewd financial decision I’ll feel set for the rest of my life.
But life is not really like this. So the best stories (like Abram’s story) never hinge on such determinism. The best stories explore the ongoing interplay between destiny and openness as stories unfold — between ongoing calling and ongoing choice.
I recently read to my 8 year old the passage in the Harry Potter series where Professor Dumbledore explains to young Harry that “it is our choices, not our abilities, that define us.” Several books later in the series, this is hearkened back to again when Dumbledore helps an older Harry, weighed down by what seems a pre-determined destiny, to see that his choices will ALWAYS be just as important as any sense of destiny.
It’s one of my favorite passages in the series. Harry thinks to himself that his ongoing choices are…
“the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents — that there was all the difference in the world.”
Our ongoing choices are what shape how our stories unfold above all. visual off
We must resist alluring but ultimately merciless and untrue claims about how this or that single choice predestine the rest of our lives.
The good life, the life that is about “something more”, is found in continually, consistently, courageously choosing to respond to each new moment.
Many of us will know the dark side of the wish for one choice to have the power to predestine the rest of our lives: sometimes, one mistake or regret or shame can feel like it will condemn us forever. If we're familiar with this inner torment, the declaration that life is NOT so cruelly deterministic — that life is ongoing choice, that no single event is so powerful that it gets to determine all of our story — can feel like water on dry land.
(Popular religion can unfortunately pitch deterministic messages as much as anything, claiming they are hopeful when actually they are tormenting.)
(PAUSE)
But a careful read of this week’s Genesis passage represents for us the future as it truly is: always open and shape-able by our ongoing choices, with the God of Love as the one calling us to that “something more”!
Here is where we can consider Hebrews 11’s interpretation of the Abram story, which we also read — a famous Bible passage that defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”.
Assurance and conviction here don’t mean fortune telling, as though God reveals to Abram exactly what is going to happen. They mean God and Abram relationally building trust and resolve, as Abram’s story unfolds — Hebrews 11’s celebration of faith is about Abram’s belief (or trust) in the God of Love in the midst of an open future, not a settled future. (In the midst of “not knowing where he was going”.)
(PAUSE)
Importantly though, in all of this talk of an open future in which our choices are full of purpose and the God of Love is calling us to “something more”, we must consider also Jesus’ images in today’s Gospel passage, Luke 12 —
- (a) needing to be dressed and ready with lamps lit, and
- (b) being ready so as not to let your house be broken into.
These images, I think, represent the risks of our open future. While the open sky and the vastness of the stars can evoke hope, wonder, imagination… they can also evoke fear, paralysis, overwhelm. That’s real! visual off
God’s continual calls to “something more” are not invitations to strolls in the park.
For us today, they are invitations to the hard work…
- Of stepping into uncertainty in a complex world that has no guarantees if you’re not rich,
- Of self-giving love and holding the sorrows of friends or families or neighbors (instead of avoiding sadness because it’s uncomfortable),
- Of intentionally resisting the dominant ways of the world that exploit the poor, exhaust the working masses, and blame-shift to excuse scapegoating and genocide and the pillaging of our planet.
Responding to God’s continual calls means choosing to face uncertainty, hardship, danger, because there's life and beauty and connection on the other end of doing so. No wonder Jesus precedes these images with supportive, encouraging words: “Do not be afraid, little flock”.
(PAUSE)
The selection we read from Psalm 33 speaks similarly:
- We may feel a weight beholding an open, sometimes promising but sometimes scary future.
- At the same time, though, “the Lord is beholding us”. We do not carry the weight alone.
“Our soul waits for the Lord, he is our help and our shield. Indeed, our heart rejoices in him, for in his holy Name (in his reputation) we put our trust (or belief). Let your loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, as we have put our trust (or belief) in you.”