Matriarch in Danger
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Scriptures: Genesis 12: 10-20
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Summary: In the second sermon of our new series, Big Promises, Small Steps, Bobbi explores the story of Abram and Sarai in Egypt. In desperate times, fear leads Abram to abandon trust and put Sarai at risk. Bobbi looks closely at how physical appearance—especially for women—can be weaponized and reduced, both in scripture and today. She shows how God's promises can’t be fulfilled through manipulation. Instead, justice often begins with truth-telling. Bobbi emphasizes that while suffering isn’t always prevented, God’s steady presence meets us in the fallout and offers grace and redirection when we falter.
Desperate Times: Bobbi explores the story of Sarai and Abram by reflecting on how fear can quickly derail trust. Abram flees famine and jeopardizes Sarai’s safety and rather than holding to God’s promise, he chooses self-preservation, revealing how desperation can lead us to harmful decisions. Bobbi argues that we often lose the plot when we act from fear instead of faith.
The Problem of Beauty: Bobbi highlights how beauty, especially for women, can become a source of vulnerability when it’s distorted, commodified, or reduced. Bobbi challenges us to engage one another beyond our appearances. By taking insight from Abram and Sarai’s story we might recognize the harm caused when we prioritize surface over substance.
When the Truth Comes Out: Bobbi walks us through the moment in Genesis 12 when Pharaoh discovers that Sarai is actually Abram’s wife, not his sister—uncovering Abram’s deceit. Abram had orchestrated the lie to protect himself, trading Sarai’s safety for his own survival and prosperity. While he gains wealth and avoids harm, Pharaoh suffers, and God intervenes with plagues to disrupt the injustice. Bobbi points out that this moment of exposure forces a confrontation between Pharaoh and Abram and Abram’s choices. Bobbi teaches that truth, however painful, is often what calls us back to integrity and makes space for God's justice to begin.
Dodge: Bobbi acknowledges that while God does not always prevent suffering, divine presence is still found in the midst of harm. Despite Abram and Sarai’s story, God makes a way forward. Bobbi reminds us that our small, redirected steps still matter in light of God’s larger promises.
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Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.
Connect: Abram and Sarai’s story in Genesis 12 highlights how even the best among us can compromise on our own values under stress.
There’s no pressure to share, but if you are willing feel free to share about a time when fear or uncertainty caused you to act in a way that felt out of step with your values.Q: What helped you recognize that shift? And, did someone help you return to yourself?
Share: Bobbi reminds us that even when the story goes off course, it’s never beyond God’s reach. Share a bit about trusting that God still shows up next to the small imperfect steps that you take in your life.
Q: Where in your life do you sense that a small step might be enough for you begin moving in a new direction?
Reflect: Reflect on Abram’s tension with the blessing promised to him. Bobbi pointed out that God’s promises are never meant to come at the cost of someone else’s harm. Consider Bobbi’s important words here,
“Even though Abram seems to get away with this distortion of beauty
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We need to remember the blessing. The blessing was never meant to stop at Abram, remember?
‘I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.’
So goes the Abrahamic Covenant.Ellen Davis points out that we never actually get a definition of blessing in the text. We can infer, however, that it has everything to do with a commitment of one’s will to the flourishing of another. In other words, my blessing takes nothing away from your blessing.”
Q: What does it look like to live in a way where our flourishing includes the flourishing of others?
Engage: Engage with the idea that God doesn’t always prevent our suffering, but continues to witness, respond, and remain faithfully present. Bobbi reminds us that this isn’t a tidy resolution to the story. But, it is a powerful invitation to trust in God’s divine accompaniment through our fears.
Consider Bobbi’s words,“God witnesses suffering: anytime you’ve been forced into a situation you did not want, anytime someone used you to get ahead, anytime the land could not sustain the promise of all our flourishing.
God witnesses our suffering but, I’m sorry to say, does not prevent it in the first place.There is a wildness—a brutality—to being alive. There just is.
So what if, in all the ways we are so afraid, that it’s there in our fear and our pain, that God reaches through Pharaohs and plagues to say, ‘Enough.’”Q: Where in your own story do you long to find God as a divine presence that witnesses and responds to your suffering?
Take away: What is your takeaway from the message or today’s conversation?
Prayer from the sermon:
Loving God,
Every one of us can likely remember a moment
Big or small
That we are glad we survived.
Maybe it’s been a depression, conflict, calamity
Maybe it’s been a war, poverty, addiction.In the story of Sarai in Egypt we remember that even as we struggle
You never ever quit us
And as we look to Jesus, who shows us who you are,
We hold so much gratitude
Divine presence with us in spirit.So we pray, Spirit of the living God, present with us now
Enter the places of our longing, our failure, our weakness
And heal us of all that harms us.
Amen. -
CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 98
MUSIC Curated by Kevin & Alyssa B.
CAIN - Jesus Lifted Me
John Mark McMillian - Heart's Delight
Craig Rigney - Come Thou Fount
Brooke Ligertwood - King of Kings
EUCHARIST INVITATION
Written by Scott Wall
As part of our liturgy today we come to the Eucharist table.And as we do, there is so much we receive.
We receive common elements as carriers of grace.
We receive a bountiful welcome for our weary souls.
We receive each other, one and all, as God’s own.
And as we do, this moment can be a kind of reaching out — an acceptance — of the words Christ spoke to his friends the night he was betrayed…
This is my body…for you.
This cup is a new promise…to you.
So as you come, bring open hands and hearts - for these are the gifts of God.
Let us pray.
Risen Christ, host of this expansive table -
Come and comfort the places of our longing.
Come restore the places of our cynicism and despair.
Come assure us of a mercy so much greater than our shame.
Amen.
SERIES BUMPER
Big Promises Small Steps
