Preached on Sunday, August 10, 2025, the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, at Trinity Cathedral, Little Rock.

“The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision” (Genesis 15:1a). 

Wait a minute. Hold the phone. A vision?

Now, we Christians believe in some pretty wild stuff: the creation of all things, seen and unseen; the presence of Christ in the Holy Communion; the efficacy of prayer; the forgiveness of our sins; the resurrection of the dead; even the reality of God Himself. But visions? Yeah, right.

And notice that the book of Genesis just throws that line out there like it’s nothing, no big deal. Scripture loves to do that: upending our understanding of reality in just a few words, and then moving right along like there’s nothing to see here. But surely, Scripture has some explaining to do. Visions? Are you kidding?

Well, let’s ask ourselves the question. What’s so crazy about the idea of God speaking to Abram––or any of us!––in visions? Why might a newcomer to Christianity get hung up on a wild idea like that?

For one, the idea of visions is just odd. Visions are not normal. There’s a way that we might domesticate this odd idea of visions, making it a bit easier to manage: maybe not some crazy vision, but a new way of looking at things, a different perspective, a fresh clarity. But Scripture resists being domesticated here. The Hebrew word is מַחֲזֶה. It’s only used in the Bible a small handful of times, and each time, it carries some heft. It’s not mere daydreaming. It’s not a mental breakthrough. It’s not a lightbulb above our head. It’s a vision: real, ecstatic, shocking, supernatural––out of this world! And that is just downright odd.

We might also get hung up on the idea of visions because the people who claim to have had visions seem odd. You have visions at Woodstock, we tell ourselves, not at Church. Someone’s “vision,” we tell ourselves, probably has more to do with them than it has to do with God.

Psychedelics and psychology aside, there’s a real theological concern here––one that we Episcopalians can seriously appreciate. Can we trust someone else’s vision? On what grounds does someone get to say, “God spoke this word to me in a vision?” Isn’t it likely that a vision says more about the individual than it does about God?

The idea of visions seems odd. The people who say they’ve had visions seem odd. And so, we tell ourselves, unless we can work some sort of metaphorical meaning out of a little verse like this from Genesis, we’re better off leaving the whole idea of visions behind altogether. Right?

Now, these days, when I read the Bible, and I come across a wild idea like “visions from the LORD,” I try to say, “why not?” After all, as we’ve said, we Christians believe in some pretty wild things: the creation of the world; the presence of Christ in Communion; prayer; forgiveness; resurrection; God Himself; and so much more. So, “the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision.” Why not? What might I learn about God if I just go along with the idea for a little while longer?

That’s where Karl Barth landed on the issue––a modern theologian if there ever was one. Now, Barth certainly didn’t think that visions from the LORD were common. And Barth had, we might say, a severe allergy to making a “personal religion” out of our own experiences, the subjectivity of the individual. True knowledge of God is never at human disposal for Barth––and I can sympathize with that. And yet, for Barth (and for me, on my best days), the worst thing we can do—the worst thing we can do!—is put a limit on God. The worst thing we can do is say, “with God only some things are possible.” So, “the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision.” Why not? Let’s go along with it, because, if we don’t, we just might miss out on a vision from the LORD for ourselves.

“The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision.” In just this passing line of Holy Scripture, we learn that God can get through to us no matter what. Nothing can get in God’s way. Come hell or high water, even if it takes a vision, the LORD will get His point across. It might be a voice. It might be a dream. But whatever it is, God has no issue getting through, because sometimes, it takes a vision. Sometimes, it takes something otherworldly. Sometimes, the message we need to hear is so impossible that God has to show up in our lives in a similarly impossible way.

Whether the vision is seeing something, or hearing something, or dreaming something––or something else entirely––there are certain things we can always expect of a vision from the LORD. I have three things in mind.

First, a vision from the LORD comes without any warning. Visions will always be a surprise. There is no way to anticipate a vision from the LORD. And there’s no way to force it to happen. Visions from the LORD just happen. After all, consider Abram. For Abram, God just showed up. The Genesis story is that abrupt: no buildup, no anticipation, no warning. God just starts speaking in a vision to Abram. The word of the LORD just comes to Abram. It just happens.

And so it is for us. Maybe we were just driving down the interstate, but then the LORD said something to us. Maybe we finally had the life we always thought we wanted, but then the LORD showed us something else. Maybe we were at a place in our life when nothing good could happen, but then out of nowhere, the LORD appeared to us in a dream. I don’t know, but I know this for sure: a vision from the LORD comes without any warning.

Second, a vision from the LORD will change the trajectory of your life. After all, consider Abram. Abram and Sarai couldn’t have children. People their age just didn’t have children. It was not a possibility. And that means that they had a specific trajectory in life, one without children, one that ended upon their death, one in which God’s promise to them that they would have descendents would never, ever come about––until God showed up in a vision. The word of the LORD came to them in a vision and the trajectory of their life definitively changed.

And so it is for us. Maybe we, too, thought that we wouldn’t be able to find a family, but then the LORD said otherwise. Maybe we would end up somewhere in life that we literally could not have imagined years ago––all because the LORD came to us in a vision. Maybe there’s something we never wanted to do, but then the LORD gave us a vision, and that something is exactly where we ended up. I don’t know, but I know this for sure: a vision from the LORD will change the trajectory of your life. 

And third––and this is the most important point for those of us still skeptical about all this “vision stuff”––third, God will always give us ways to make sense of a vision. After all, consider Abram. Abram couldn’t believe the vision. He couldn’t understand it. “Look around,” said Abram. “What children have you given me?” So, God brought Abram out to the back porch and said, “look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what it’ll be like. That’ll be your family.”

And so it is for us. Maybe we saw something from God, and then God opened or closed a door that confirmed what we heard from Him. Maybe we heard something from God, and then God says it again in the voice of a friend or family member to confirm the vision. Maybe God came to us in a dream, and then something happens the next day that confirms that the dream really was from God. I don’t know, but I know this for sure: God will always give us ways to make sense of a vision.

In the end, maybe, then, all this “vision stuff” is perfectly normal––maybe not common, but normal. What I mean is that, maybe, coming to us in a vision is exactly how God does business. Maybe this is just how God works in our life: showing up, changing everything, and then making sure that we understand what it all means. Maybe we can rely on this pattern of God’s behavior. After all, consider Abram. “The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. And Abram believed the LORD.” Abram relied on the vision. We Christians have a word for that kind of reliance: faith. The letter to the Hebrews puts it best: “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And so it is for each of us: remaining open and expectant for God to show up and to say and do the impossible. Why not? Amen.