So, is Abraham our ancestor on account of the flesh?
Those who preached in my day, in fact I myself before I knew
Jesus as the Christ, preached that the answer to this question is yes.
Yes, Abraham is righteous because he’s the first man set
apart from the Pagan world, he’s the first circumcised
man of God.
And so too, we faithful people of God are his heirs, his
ancestors, because we too set ourselves apart, we follow all the rules that
make us a distinct people separate from the heathens.
He is righteous
on account of his separateness, and
so too are we. In fact, those Jews in my day who most fully removed ourselves
from the wider world called ourselves the
Righteous Ones.
Yet, now I come to you, preaching a new Gospel, or rather
the Gospel always in existence, but now made
obvious to all.
Our separation
from other people does not make us heirs of Abraham.
Our works, our
following the Law, does not make us heirs of Abraham.
For that matter, Abraham’s
honor and rightness before God, do not have to do with circumcision or
separation or law…
Don’t believe me? Just look at your bible. Abraham lives
before Moses—so those Laws he
receives are not the laws Abraham lives by.
Not only that, God enters into Abraham’s life before Abraham is circumcised.
Abraham’s relationship with God is not predicated on Law,
Separation, or Circumcision.
My contemporaries read scripture wrong on this point—I, a
Righteous Zealot myself—read scripture wrong on this point. In fact, my zeal
was in part founded upon this wrong reading of the Bible.
You see, Abraham was made right before God by his faith…
And when I say faith, let’s be clear, I’m not saying Abraham
was reciting a correct creed, wasn’t
being justified by right answer,
wasn’t writing eloquent works of theology
for the ages.
No, Abraham trusted
God!
Think of the audacity of what he does. He trusts God and
joins on a journey with God!
He immigrates to
a strange new land.
He trusts God so deeply that he packs everything up and
leaves Ur of the Kaldes and goes to a strange land he’s never heard of.
He leaves this Iraqi town just North East of Kuwait—I hear
your country now has some issues with immigrants and refugees. Thank God Abraham’s era was much less
barbaric than your own.
Abraham trust’s God on this journey—a journey with plenty of setbacks and hardships, loss… yet
a journey to that promised place!
And, today, I just want you to know all of you who journey
with God, who trust God, you are also
Abraham’s children!
You who trust the God who calls life out of death—in the
person of his Son Jesus, but also calling all of you—heirs like Isaac,
unexpected, laughable, yet God creates him, creates faith in you!
You who trust the God who calls into existence those things
which did not exist—calling forth creation itself, and even, here today—look
around you—God calls a community together who were not together, creates the
body of Christ here and now!
So, trust that you are children of Abraham, not on account
of any action of your own, not because you’ve separated yourself from other
people, or followed particular laws, or marked your body as belonging to God.
You are children of
Abraham, because you have his faith, because you trust in the God who shows up
and journeys with you your whole life long.
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