Genesis 13:1-18; 14:8-13a, 14-23
Psalm 111

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, grace to you and peace from our Creator God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray.  O Gracious Father, when you open your hand you satisfy he desire of every living thing.  Bless the land and waters, and give the world a plentiful harvest; let your Spirit go forth to renew the face of the earthy.  As you show us your love and kindness in the bounty of the land and sea, save us from selfish use of your gifts, so that men and women everywhere may give you thanks; through Jesus our Lord.  Amen

As we begin chapter 13, Abram and his family have just left Egypt, and they begin to retrace their steps – through the Negeb, back toward Bethel, near Ai.  They have returned to the place where Abram had first built an altar – the place where God said Abram’s descendants would be living.

Both Abram’s family and Lot’s family are rich in livestock – flocks and herds – sheep and goats.  And eventually those who are working with the animals start running into each other in the fields.  And in Chapter 13, verse 7, we hear that the field hands are starting to get into fights.

Abram doesn’t want to start a family fight, so he brings Lot over to talk and they separate from one another – so that each is herding in a different area.  In verse 11, Lot chooses to travel east toward the Jordan – the area that we would call the country of Jordan.  Abram went west, to the area that we would call Israel, possible also including the West Bank area.

Abram sets an example that very few people have followed throughout the ages.  He says to his nephew, “Let’s not fight over the land.  There is plenty of room for all of us to live.  God has given us an abundance of food through the fertility of creation.  Let’s just go our separate ways, and continue to be loving family and friends.”  And then he even allows Lot to choose which land he would like to settle.

Abram’s descendants do not work nearly so well with the people who are already living in the land – the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Philistines, among others.  But Abram offers us an example of how we can share the wealth of creation with our brothers and sisters – with all people who live upon the earth.

Perhaps we still have some things to learn from this ancestor whom God chose as the means to bless the world.

We also get some hints that Lot is moving into an area where there are cities, while Abram is living in a less populated and more rugged area.  And in verses 10 & 13, we are told that the people of the cities are wicked – not obedient to God and God’s ways.

In chapter 14, we learn more about the cities and their rulers, and in verse 8 we find out that the various rulers have gone to war.  Sodom & Gomorrah do not fare well.  When the cities fall in verse 11, the other kings carry off the spoils of war – including Lot and his family.

Someone escapes from the city and brings word to Abram that his nephew Lot has been taken, and in verse 14, Abram calls up his own army and sets out to rescue his family.  His victory is a complete rout; Lot & his family are freed; and they all return home.

They are greeted in verse 18 by King Melchizedek of Salem (which may be a reference to Jerusalem) – who is called “a priest of the Most High God.”  He is the first priest of God who is named in the Bible and he seems to appear out of nowhere.  Abram brings a tithe (one tenth of everything that he owns) to this priest as an offering.  It is here that the tradition of giving a tithe to God through the priests or as we would do it – through the church – begins.

Once again, we see that Abram has no hesitation in sharing the bounty that he has received as a gift from God.  He believes that God gave him victory in this war.  He believes that God allowed him to free his nephew from their enemies.  And he does not see this as an opportunity to get rich at the expense of someone else.  He gives an offering – a tithe – to God at the first opportunity.

Perhaps we have neglected the lessons that we can learn from this ancestor of our faith.

Melchizedek is a mystery to us.  We do not know how this Priest-King received the traditions of the Most High God, since he is not related to Abram.  Unlike the priests of Israel – Aaron & his descendants – we don’t have a history of his family.  We don’t have a story of how he was called into service – like we have for Abram or for Moses.  Melchizedek simply appears at this point in Abram’s story and disappears just as quickly.

His name, which means “King of Righteousness,” will become a shorthand way of referring to someone whom God appoints for a particular job at a particular time – someone who is to lead the people of Israel as a heaven-sent king.  In the book of Hebrews, Jesus is referred to as “a priest on the order of Melchizedek.”

Despite God’s special appointment of Melchizedek as priest and king, Abram does not want to be seen or remembered as one who benefited from the power of Melchizedek.  Abram will be known only as one who benefited directly from the power and blessings of God.  And in verses 21-23, we see that Abram does not keep the spoils of his victory.  He will divide it among those who fought to save his nephew or he will return the items to the people who had lost them in the first wars.

How many of us would refuse wealth when it was offered to us – especially if it were offered to us by a “priest of the Most High God” or even someone whom we knew was totally trustworthy, above board and even “righteous”?

We might hesitate, perhaps, if we thought that others might suffer in the process of our gaining wealth.  And yet, if that suffering was already happening, and was not a direct result of our own gain in wealth, we might be able to justify taking the gift … After all, it is not our fault that the others are suffering, and there probably isn’t anything that we can do to change that suffering, so why shouldn’t we accept the gift?

Abram’s answer is that he will depend entirely upon God.  He will not rely upon other powerful people.  He will not rely upon the wealth itself.  He will rely upon the Most High God.

And he will do what he can to help the people who had lost so much in the war.  Some, he took into his own household – probably as slaves or servants – and most likely these people would have been the widows and orphans of the men who had been killed in the earlier wars.  They would not have had homes to return to.  Those men who fought beside him would go back to their homes – freed and with pay for their efforts.

Of course, we have to remember that Abram is not perfect.  God did not choose him because he was somehow more righteous than those around him.  Remember that he sold his wife to pharaoh in order to save his own skin!  But there are lessons for us to learn from his relationship with God.  There are times when he is an example of what it means to trust fully in the Most High.

This is one of those times.  And it happens to be a lesson that we can apply to our world today.

Remember that God has given us an abundance through creation.  There is plenty of land to go around.  There is plenty of food to go around.  We don’t need to fight over it.  We need to learn how to share that abundance with others.

Remember that God is our greatest wealth.  There is plenty of love to go around.  There is plenty of forgiveness to go around.  We don’t need to hoard the wealth of this world for ourselves.  We need to learn how to share that wealth with others – and to share the wealth that we have in our relationship with the Most High God.

As we remember Abram’s generosity in the midst of abundance, we can remember how the Apostle described him – “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

May we also believe and trust in God, so that we too have the righteousness of God reckoned to us.

Amen