Abram in the Deadland

The coffee cup existence measures what is important by what holds its attention. Abram encountered many of the same conjectures in his day. People born of the false illusions were called pagans. Now under veiled acceptance, the pagans have all disappeared. But the cosmos resonated with a different drumbeat for Abram. He built altars to the Lord. The smoke rose to the heavens in a potent reminder that God is here despite all the evidence to the contrary. There is evil. Pagans are in the land. Life holds mysteries and dilemmas. But these do not erase God’s presence but serve as the reason for calling upon one’s God.

God sustained and strengthened Abram in the land of the kings. He was not to be wooed by their gifts and pledges. Desperation brings its own alliances. But Abram was to be spared. So in the midst of the kings, another king appears. He is Melchizedec—king of righteousness and king of peace. Here comes very wine and bread to remind of God’s nearness and presence. Here comes Real Communion to deliver grasping for tokens of the little kings. Who can compare to the Almighty? Worship speaks, “Double dare. Bully if you do.”

Worship is more than praising God. It bears His reality upon the days of man. It strives against the besetting circumstances. They no longer confound in the face of Glory. Abram received such a blessing. “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heavens and Earth.” The Lord may be supplanted in the heart of man in philosophy, religion, and science. But He will never be removed as Possessor of the Cosmos.

How did Abram respond? He would tell the king of Sodom that his tokens had no sway. Not a thread or sandal could ever be used to enrich God’s servant. But what is the typical response? Is it to turn to the Possessor of the heavens; to turn from the enshrinement of the “here and now”? Or do many instead reach for threads and sandal over the supposed misfortune of being steadfast? What happens when worship no longer inoculates against the persistent Now - when confessions come from worried hearts and hymns flow from minds fixed on the horizons of tomorrow and not on those grander eternal shores?