Children of Abraham

Genesis 12:1-4                                                           

Galatians 3:23-29                                       

“Children of Abraham”

            For the next six weeks, we are going to journey through the Bible, reflecting on a handful of people that have experienced God in a way that has moved them into a new way of living.  As I considered various themes that would be fun for the summer, water being one of them, I thought about during these hot days we are often thirsty.   So, instead of Got Milk?  We are going to look at Got God? 

            Remember the children’s song?  Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had father Abraham.  I am one of them and so are you, so let’s all praise the Lord – right hand…Well, long before father Abraham had many sons, there was just Abraham and his wife Sara.  But before we get to Abraham, we have a genealogy of his ancestors naming at least eight generations of his relatives.  As this genealogy comes to end it lists Abraham and his wife Sara who is barren and they have no children.  Will eight generations of people come to an end with Abraham and Sara? 

            We know the ending to this story, father Abraham had many sons.  Well, not many, he has Isaac, but what appears to be a dead end, what is listed at the end of a long line of ancestors, that Abraham and Sara have no child, is not really the end of the story.  This genealogy is not coming to an end but will continue on, but the only way for it to continue is through the work of God. 

            Apparently, Abraham’s father, Terah, was taking his family from the land of Ur to Canaan but only made it as far as Haran where they chose to settle.  So, as Abraham hears the call of God to leave his father’s house to a new land, he is not leaving the land of his ancestors but the place where his family has recently dwelled.  It makes me wonder, did Abraham’s father share stories about the land of Canaan to his family as they sat around a fire late at night?  Did Abraham have an adventurous streak like his father that pulled him towards traveling to new lands?  Or was it just out of necessity that the family needed to move due to lack of resources? 

            Our scriptures do not share these other possibilities, what has been important to people over the generations is this:  The Lord spoke to Abraham and Abraham listened.  What has been important to the greater family of faith for thousands of years is this:  God made a covenant with Abraham, God shared this Good News:  I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  What is meaningful through this story is that God works through impossibilities to bring about people called and created to be a part of God’s plan of love and compassion for this world.  Abraham is not to be great, just to be great.  He is blessed to be a blessing to others.  Got God?  Get blessedness.  Do you feel blessed?  Abraham did not understand what this meant, but he still listened, he still trusted, he still believed.  He did not feel blessed, he knew Sara could not have children but they still journeyed. 

            During your week, do you stop and think about blessings?  Do you stop and think about who is a blessing to you?  There is so much stress in this world, financial, emotional, physical, and sociological.  There is also spiritual stress.  When life feels unbalanced, when one area of our being is overwhelmed the other parts of our wholeness can also be set off balance.  Reflecting on blessedness, blessings, positive things in our life can be a starting point for re-centering ourselves.  We are children of Abraham, and his story is our story.  We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others even when we see our future as a dead end.  Even when we don’t know how God is going to work through the impossible.  We are still blessed to be a blessing. 

            Abraham could have responded, sorry God, this plan is not for me.  But he didn’t.  Got God?  Abraham took the chance, something within him called him forward.  Was it a feeling in his gut, or something within his heart?  Something strong tugged at him and together with his family, he followed God.  When God is at work in the world, there is change, there is movement, something new and different happens in peoples’ lives.  Is there something tugging at your heart?  Is there something deep within you that is calling you do respond to God in one way or another? 

            Blessed to be a blessing.  Paul is taking this one step further in his letter to the Galatians.  As he unpacks the difference between being a person of faith that lives by the law or a person of faith that lives by belief in God made known in Christ, he goes all the way back to Abraham.  He proclaims that Abraham was blessed by God to be a blessing and the fullness of that Blessing is Jesus Christ.  Abraham lived before the law, there were no rules telling him what it means to be a person of God.  His relationship with God was based on listening, trusting, believing, and living as a blessing.  Paul is encouraging the church in Galatia to examine the rules and laws that seem to be binding them and to live into the promise of faith that is in Christ and also in Abraham.  It is one and the same story, they are children of Abraham, living into the fullness of God.  Got God?  Paul is teaching that the law is not God, the rules or not a life of faith.  Got God?  Then live into faith, live into blessedness, live into love. 

             In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷ As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring,^[k] heirs according to the promise.