I preached this sermon at Uppingham School Chapel on Sunday 5th March 2023.

Reading: Genesis 12:1-4

Good morning Uppingham. My name is Shakeel, or some of you may know me, or know ofme, as MR Nurmahi. 

I must say it feels so good to be among young people, and I am not just referring to you Father James. I spend most of my time with retired people, so it good to be with some young people, students, teenagers. I like to consider myself to still be fairly young, however, Mrs Nurmahi makes sure to break this illusion for me. 

But no, you as students, actual young people, have your whole lives ahead of you. At the moment, school can feel like your whole world (especially at Uppingham), but there is so much ahead of you beyond school, so much excitement and adventure. There are jobs to work, places to visit and live, skills to learn, people to meet, to make friends and start new families. A lifetime full of adventure is waiting to be lived. 

But as students of Uppingham, you already know this. Being at Uppingham is already such a big adventure. Many of you have left homes across the region, the country, and even the world to come here. You are throwing yourselves into the adventure and excitement of life.  

It makes me think of Abram, from our Genesis reading. Though Abram was older, aged 75 years old, he too was at the start of a big journey and adventure. God came to Abram and said to him: “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you.” What a massive thing to leave your home, the country you live in, your family and friends and set off to a new land. I’m preaching to people who know this already. You have left your homes, your families and some even your countries to come to Uppingham. That is a huge thing, and you should be proud of how you have stepped out on this exciting adventure to come here.  

My guess is that before coming to Uppingham you had either visited the school or looked on the school website or at a prospectus. But at the very least, you know you were coming to Uppingham; that was no surprise. But for our friend Abram, God tells him I will take you ‘to the land that I will show you.’ In other words, Abram doesn’t even know where he is going. Now that is scary. The story continues beyond the reading by Abram travelling until he reaches the land of Canaan, where modern day Israel is, and God says to him, this is the place. He doesn’t find out where he is going until he gets there. 

For all the excitement and adventure ahead for you all, the fact is that life can be a bit like this. You don’t know where you are going to end up, where life will take you. You may have a direction to start with, or maybe you are scanning the different roads ahead trying to figure out which way to go. It is exciting, but also a bit terrifying. I imagine Abram felt a mixture of these same emotions. 

But what inspires me most about the story of Abram is that he doesn’t spend loads of time deliberating. After God had spoken to Abram, Abram left on his journey to this new land. No fussing or squabbles, no big plan. He just left. Sure, he had questions, but he didn’t let them stop him from taking the first step on this big adventure. He got on his way, and if you read the story of Abram further, you see how it turns out incredibly for Abram, both for him and his many descendants. 

Abram did not appear to have a plan to where he was going. That doesn’t mean that he was making a rash decision, rather he took up the opportunities and path that lay ahead of him and took the next step. Sometimes that is the only thing to do. And it was by following these steps that it led him to this land to which God was taking him. 

Some of you are in a similar position to Abram. You have a journey ahead and you’re not entirely sure where it will end up. You don’t know what subjects to take for GCSEs or A levels. Or you don’t know what work you are going to do after leaving Uppingham, or where and what you might study. That’s okay. What I say to you is this: follow the steps ahead and enjoy the adventure. Don’t wait for a completely perfect plan ahead or having everything figured out. Otherwise you will be waiting for ever and miss out on all the adventure ahead. 

When I was 15, I didn’t know that I was going end up being a vicar. But I knew I had a passion for learning and teaching about God, Christianity and the Bible. I followed this step and it shaped my A-level choices as I choose humanities instead of my stronger subjects of maths and science. For university, I wanted to study theology at a big, fancy university, but the opportunity came up for me visit a Christian theology college in Bristol and I just knew it was the right place for me to be, and so I took the next step to go to Bristol. It was at Bristol surrounded by lots of encouraging vicars in training that I started to think that maybe some sort of church work was for me, but I didn’t know that it meant being a vicar. I didn’t know what to do after graduating but I had decided to try and find work in Bristol, specifically looking for a non-church job. Yet it was such that the path that opened up for me was a job working at a church in Kettering, so I took this next step and worked there for two years. At this point I was asking the question of whether being a vicar was right for me, and it turned out that it was. I took the next step of going to vicar school in Durham, which is where I met Mrs Nurmahi. I even shut Mrs Nurmahi down when she was first telling me she liked me, but I am so glad that she persisted and told me. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn’t? We followed those steps, got married and came to Rutland. 

I couldn’t have predicted that my life would turn out like this. That I would end up being a vicar and living in Rutland married to Mrs Nurmahi (Mrs Nurmahi also never imagined being married to me). But I am so glad that I followed the steps that I believe God laid out for me, and I am so glad to have gone on this exciting journey to this place today.

I think the story of Abram shows that the best way to do life is to follow the steps ahead and see what life brings. Christians would say that God lays paths ahead of us to follow. You might see it as the natural opportunities that life brings. But whatever you think it is, I encourage you to follow your next steps. It is scary not knowing where life will take you, but it is also exciting to discover where it will take you. Sometimes in life we need to take a leap of faith like Abram did, like I did following my steps to become a vicar, like Mrs Nurmahi did with me. You have already done it coming to Uppingham and you can do it again. You don’t have to have everything figured out in life all at once. I didn’t know I’d end up as a vicar at your age. All you can do is follow the next step. Enjoy the journey and then be amazed by the exciting surprises that life gives you. 

Amen.