We are Children of Abraham

Homily Lent 2 Yr. B Genesis

One man stands out among all the characters in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Yet Abram, renamed Abraham by God, is not a king like David, not adopted royalty, like Moses, not a prophet, like Elijah.

Abraham was instead a nomadic herder, or possibly a caravan merchant, born in Haran, on what is called the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia.

Yet in our great Biblical narrative Abraham stands out as the inheritor of the covenant that God made with Noah, as well as God’s blessing and promise that he will be the father of nations.

All this must have seemed so unlikely to Abram. He and his wife Sarah were well past child bearing age. And indeed when Abraham had a son Ishmael with Hagar, the Egyptian, God still promises Sarah, Abram’s barren wife, a child.

She laughs. But the last laugh is on her when she is with child, and Isaac is born. Hagar and Ishmael are expelled from the household, but go on to found descendants of Abram who would be Arabs.

Now Abraham is regarded as father of three great religious traditions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

All this from a nomadic patriarch who trusts God, and takes a leap of faith to follow God, and accept his blessing and the promise of a land for his people.

Perhaps the reason this reading is part of our Lenten series from Genesis is that we, like Abraham, are being prepared for a leap of faith, each Lenten season as we follow Jesus to the cross.

Our story of salvation starts with Abraham, after humanity has failed to live up to God's intention for us---first in the Garden of Eden, and then in the disobedience which led to the great flood.

God makes a covenant with Abraham, and demands obedience in the covenantal act of circumcision.

Paul says Abraham's faith is what made the covenantal relationship with God different. Abraham responded to God's call in faith.

Abram was a descendant of Noah's son, Shem. In Genesis 12 God summons Abram to leave his home in Haran, promising that he will be blessed as part of a great nation, and that his name will be great. "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you," God says.

So God is calling on Abram to trust him. God will reveal where he is to live. God will be the source of his blessing and his success.

Abram's salvation will be in following God. This may sound simple. But it required great trust.

The society Abram lived in thousands of years ago was often dangerous and violent.

People lived in a time of peril, of doubt, of loss. It wasn't easy to have faith. It wasn't particularly comforting.

Unlike Moses Abram had no burning bushes. No ten commendaments from the top of the mountain.

God demanded obedience from Abram. He had to leave behind his family, his homeland and all that was familiar.

All this for the vague promise of journeying to the "Land I will show you."

One thing we can see from the account in Genesis is that Abraham doesn't evolve any kind of theology, or set of beliefs about God.

His faith is rooted in journeying with God, in obedience rather than settling down.

Sometimes it was hard to see the promise realized. His wife Sarah was barren for many years. The Canaanites inhabited the promised land and it wasn't fertile yet.

So faith wasn't easy. That's why God repeated the promise, the blessing and the covenant, as in today's reading.

Another thing worth thinking about. Abraham was not particularly a man of virtue. As well as fathering Ishmael with Hagar, Sarah's servant, he flees to Egypt to avoid famine and pretends Sarah is his sister. Saran is taken into Pharoah's household and Abraham is given sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels and slaves.

Pharoah finds out Sarah's true identity, but Abraham still leaves a rich man.

What does Abraham's story, Abraham's covenant with God mean to us as Christians thousands of years later.

Perhaps one of the things is should mean, but doesn't, is that we as Christians recognize we share a common heritage with Jews and Muslims. We are all children of Abraham.

Yet in our world today Christianity, Islam and Judaism often live in tension. There is a lack of understanding of our common story, our common holy places and our common beliefs.

Somehow we have drawn further apart, rather than closer together as believers in the one God. We all claim Abraham, but have allowed ourselves to divide into many factions--even within our own faith traditions.

God offers us a vision of harmony, of a blessing which is available to all Abraham's children.

In Lent maybe we can start to let go of our prejudices, and our egos, and seek to discern what God is calling us to do to claim God's blessing, to honour the covenant which Noah and Abraham made with him.