Introduction for the Month of June

As June arrives there is deep gratitude that summer’s delight can’t be far off – at least here where I write on the eastern coast of Canada. We are done with the cold and wet and look forward to what summer has in store. The transition starts to show itself in the community life of congregations: picnic Sundays, outdoor worship, all a little more relaxed. As people start to head to cottages (cabins or camps or whatever you might call them), go on summer travels or just sit in their gardens with a cup of coffee and a book, we will notice some lower attendance at church. Not new. And in this month when the pace begins to shift perhaps you too might consider some sermon delivery opportunities. Perhaps this is the moment to bring your listeners into conversation with the text in real time. Maybe you engage in a month-long exploration of the power of a journey into the unknown to reveal truth we simply can’t imagine when we stay where we are.

Sunday, June 7, 2026

Second Sunday after Pentecost Year A

Lectionary Readings

First Reading: Genesis 12:1–9 (NRSVUE)

The Call of Abram

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.” ⁴  So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵  Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, ⁶  Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷  Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord , who had appeared to him. ⁸  From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord . ⁹  And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

Commentary Genesis 12:1-9

Set against a time of division and the overreach of Babel’s ‘tower with a top in the heavens’, God calls Abram and a people out of one place, with significant losses noted: “Go from… your country, your kindred, your father’s house.”  And the destination is unknown: “… to the land that I will show you.”

Sarai is named (v.5) but never addressed; she is “taken,” along with “the persons whom they had acquired in Haran.” We wonder what Sarai’s role might be. We wonder if she’ll be given a voice in the story of if we’ll need to read between the lines. Abram, and the entourage set out walking. Don’t rush over this: he response to God’s call is movement, not speech. He builds altars (vv.7–8), markers, placeholders, worship sites in a land not yet his. This is a stirring and vivid call – to Abram, yes, but also to the community. Abram is blessed (v.2) but only in his gathering up and leading of the people. The moment is much larger than he may even know, as in his action to begin the journey: “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (v.3) Today we use words like staying in the moment, presence and being responsive to do what Abram did. With his body and actions, he sets out on a journey to an unknown destination with nothing resembling an itinerary to guide him. It’s a very process theology posture to take.

The call is persuasive, not coercive: Abram could refuse. He doesn’t (“So Abram went…”), which invites us to reflect on the openness of the journey. Of course, the text will offer ongoing narrative about Abram’s journey with the people. It is important to recognize at the start, however, that “the future is open, and God wants us in our journeys of life to use the agency we have to discern and select the next right step available to us in this moment. Pastor and theologian Bruce Epperly hears an open and relational God say …, “Surprise me! Create something that I haven’t fully imagined! Bring forth a new creation, first in your wondrous self-discovery and then in your dynamic agency! Help me fashion a healing and healthy future for yourself and others!” (Bruce Epperly, “Theology, Spirituality, Psychology, and Stature.” https://c4ort.com/essays/theology-spirituality-psychology-and-stature/. Essay taken from the book by Thomas Jay Oord, Annie L. Derolf, Christy Gunter, John Loppnow, Lon Marshall, Love Does Not Control: Therapists, Psychologists, and Counselors Explore Uncontrolling Love (2023).) Elsewhere Epperly explicitly describes this journey of Abram as a “healing of purpose” – the time of wholeness that comes “when you discover your life’s vocation for the season of life in which you find yourself.” (Epperly, Patheos, The Adventurous Lectionary – The Second Sunday after Pentecost – June 11, 2023. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/livingaholyadventure/2023/06/the-adventurous-lectionary-the-second-sunday-after-pentecost-june-11-2023)  The Holy invitation opens each occasion ahead for Abram and the people, to the best possible becoming.

What might the call of Abram look like in your community of faith? Do you hear whispers of a calling? What fears or anxieties hold your people back from saying yes to the lure of God? And how might you invite reflection on these questions without giving your listeners one more shortcoming to feel guilty about?