Sermons

June 8, 2008
Abe's Bike Blessing
A Story

Rev. Philip Cable

Based on Genesis 12:1-9

You know the Bible has this way of taking the most complex stories and making them sound real simple like, straightforward and too the point. Then when you run up agin’ that same story in your own life, you scarce can recognize it. But sure enough, there it is starin’ ya right in the face, challengin’ ya to pay attention.

I’ve been thinking about this with the story of my name sake Abram; Abram and Sarai. You know the one: where God told them to leave their homeland Haran and head on over to the land of Canaan. Why that story makes it sound like they got the message … like over the phone line … or a telegram or somethin’, packed up there household right away and off they went. Now I suspect it didn’t quite all go that smoothly, even for a couple as faithful as Sarai and Abram.

See, my name is Abe, and I just happened to marry my high school sweetheart Sarah. And we live in a nice little bungalow in Oshawa, Ontario. We’re raising three great kids in that little house, and we’ve never known any other place. Don’t get me wrong- we’ve traveled a bit, campin', road trips with the kids, but we’ve always felt right at home here in this little city.

We both went right to work fresh from high school … down at the GM truck plant. We work on the assembly line. The shift work is a little tough, but it usually works out that one of us can be around for the kids. There gettin' up there, they’ll be ready to leave home real soon.

Thing is we’re the third generation of my family that’s worked down at that plant. My grandfather, God rest his soul, he was on the construction crew that built the plant back in the mid- 1960’s, finished out his last few years workin' on the line. Dropped dead of a heart attack attachin' bumpers on the B line. My Dad started assembling cabs in 1966, fresh out of high school too. Made good money he did. Retired in ’96, spends his winters down in Florida with a woman he met down their after Mom died in 2000. Nice lady!

Sarah and I, we’re the third generation makin our livin' from that plant, just turnin’ out trucks, week after week year after year. Get’s a bit tedious at times, but it’s been steady, you know.

From the news reports this past week you’d think none of us has been seein' the signs. Yesterday's protest and all, shutting down the plant … well you know that’s just people letting off steam. Most of them’s been connected to that plant in one way or another for three generations too. Its tough, tough to see the newspaper headline’s in big bold print ‘DEATH of an Auto Plant’. Death to the only work you’ve known in your adult life. How you goin' to pay the bills, the kids' tuition, keep a roof over your head. Ya can’t help but worry.

But you know the signs of change they’ve been there looming on the horizon for a few years now, just like a big dark storm cloud. The Japanese they picked up on the signs. They got busy building smaller and more fuel efficient years ago.
Peak oil - that’s been in the papers and documentaries for a while now. At first I thought that bio-fuel and the tar sands, they’d save us. But then I caught a documentary a couple years back one night Sarah was at the plant, the kids were at the movies or somethin'. I learned that for every barrel of oil extracted from the tar sands it takes two full barrels to produce it, or something like that, I get a bit sketchy on the exact details, but the math was pretty clear, this was a costly no gain formula.
Then they pointed out that to produce bio-fuels it requires 4 times more fuel consumed than that produced. For a few years I thought, well that’s just the cost, we’ll just have to dig in and do it.

Then I started hearing the headlines this past winter about food shortages around the world. Too much land been converted to producing crops for bio-fuels to sustain the amount of food production required for the world’s population. That’s when it really hit home for me. I mean it twisted my gut, three generations at that plant and all, but these gas guzzlin engines they just won’t last. With the average price of gas raising from $.70 to $130 over the last 5 years, and people goin hungry; well, like it or not the writin’s on the wall!

Come to think of it, I’ve never ever wanted my kids to even consider working at that plant. I guess deep inside I’ve been being prepared for this for some time.
That’s when I remembered the story from Genesis. Probably there were lots of similar details for a number of generations in Abram and Saria’s life and day. They just happened along at the time for the big shift! It was just time, that’s all.
I bet they didn’t feel one bit blessed at first. Probably more bewildered than anything, like Sarah and I. But the reading is clear God promised them a blessing, and more important that they would become a blessing unto the nations. Now there’s a head trip for ya to ponder, eh; to become a blessing unto the nations. I wonder if Sarah and I are being invited to move into this change to become a blessing unto the nations. Sure would be a nice legacy to pass on to our grandkids … should our bunch ever settle down.

[Chuckles] … Hey, I got an idea. What if we found jobs making bikes, from GM to CCM’s? Now wouldn’t that be a kicker. From making and selling environmental hogs to energy efficient and health promoting bikes. Bikes could change the very landscape of our urban environment if and when enough people catch on. Why I’ve even noticed their makin three wheeled bikes, nice and stable for the older folk to get around on. Who would have ever though that Abe the truck builder would ever consider becoming a bike blesser? Perhaps in God’s time.

Amen