Peter S. Schay – Deacon
August 12, 2007
Genesis 15:1-6, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
"The Faith of Abraham"

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable to you, O LORD, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Our opening hymn was based upon a Hebrew hymn, the Yigdal, written six hundred years ago. Although the language of this translation is archaic – "for aye the same" – the faith that it confesses is contemporary. Indeed, the phrase from the second stanza, "He speaketh still," is echoed in the United Church of Christ’s slogan, "God is still speaking," – like it says on my hat.

Before we consider the God of Abraham, however, or the faith of Abraham, let’s quickly review the life of Abraham, as told in 15 chapters of the book of Genesis. He was born approximately 4000 years ago, with the given name Abram, in Ur of the Chaldeans, near the present day city of Nasiriya in Iraq. Abram, along his wife Sarai and nephew Lot, moved first with his father Terah to Haran, in what is now Turkey, near the border with Syria.

It was there that God first spoke to Abram, saying "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Thus began a series of adventures – some of which seem to be very odd to us from a modern perspective – not at all what we would expect of a man of great faith. Abram, with Sarai and Lot, migrated to Canaan (now Israel and the West Bank), but then continued to Egypt. In Egypt, afraid that Pharaoh would kill him to take his wife, Abram said that Sarai was his sister, so that he would be allowed to live. When Pharaoh learned the truth, after having taken Sarai as a wife, he ordered them all out of Egypt.

Returning to Canaan, Abram and Lot each had too much livestock for both to graze in the same area, so Abram graciously offered Lot his choice of the well-watered Jordan valley or the drier hills, letting Lot take the valley. Four kings from the east then invaded the valley, taking Lot captive. Abram organized 318 men of his clan to retake the valley and rescue Lot.

This incident is followed by today’s scripture lesson, to which we will return after finishing our quick biography.

At this point Sarai, having borne no children for Abram, offered him her slave-girl Hagar, so that he could have a child with her. While this would certainly be considered adultery by modern standards, it was an acceptable practice at the time. Hagar bore Abram his first son, Ishmael.

God then made a formal covenant with Abram, changing his name to Abraham and his wife’s name to Sarah, promising that Sarah would bear a son, and promising the land of Canaan as a perpetual holding for his descendants.

This is followed by the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, an interesting story, but not our concern this morning. Abraham and Sarah also played the same "she is my sister" game with King Abimelech of Gerar (near Gaza) as they did in Egypt.

Then, with Abraham 100 years old, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, as God had promised. She then insisted that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away, which he did. Tradition holds that Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael.

This is followed by one of the most moving stories in the Bible, the testing of Abraham. God told Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac – the child of the promise – as a burnt offering. Only when Abraham was about to kill Isaac did God tell him to stop, and provided a ram for the offering.

In due time, Abraham arranged to have a wife, Rebekah, brought from Haran for Isaac. Finally, Abraham died at the age of 175.

Now, in that context, let’s consider the lesson that Carolyn read from the book of Genesis. It had been 10 years since God had promised to make of Abram a great nation, he was 85 years old, and he had no children. Who could blame him for starting to doubt the promise? Like any of us waiting for a promised hope to come to fruition, Abram was running out of patience. He was afraid.

When God said, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great," it is not surprising that Abram replied, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me…" Although he had his doubts, Abram was open and honest with God. It was an established practice for a childless master to adopt a slave to inherit his property. If God didn’t have a solution for Abram’s problem, then Abram had another solution, "…a slave born in my house is to be my heir." God did not just ignore Abram’s suggestion, however, he flatly overruled it: "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir."

"He brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ " While we know, scientifically, that there are billions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, those of us who have become accustomed to living with smog and light pollution can find it hard to imagine what the night sky must have looked like to Abram in the ancient Middle East. "So shall your descendants be." The experience must have been truly awe-inspiring.

Which brings us to the central verse of today’s lesson: "And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness" – the first verse in the Bible to contain the word "believed."

It is tempting to make this verse theologically complicated – that God saw that Abram believed, thought "he has faith, so I’m going to justify him," and then, as an act of grace, made Abram righteous. The Hebrew verb hashab, translated here as "reckoned," can also be translated "conceive," "devise," "think" or "intend." It carries with it a nuance of purposefulness. Thus when Genesis 15:6 says that "the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness," one can view this as a two-way movement – Abram believed and trusted God’s promise, and God intended to consider that a righteous act.

Alternatively, one can think of this verse as something much more direct – Abram believed the LORD, and in the very act of doing so put himself in the "right relationship with God," which the LORD recognized as being righteousness. God’s intent for us is that we should believe.

Let us turn now to the scripture lesson from the epistle to the Hebrews.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." In the simpler language of the Today’s English Version Bible, this verse is translated, "To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see." This definition of faith can be applied to faith in anything, but in the context of the epistle to the Hebrews, it applies specifically to faith in the atoning work of Jesus, the "things hoped for" and "not seen" being eternal life in the "city of God."

"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible." Of course, when this was written, the author of Hebrews had in mind the creation story of Genesis 1. As a twenty-first century, non-Fundamentalist Christian, I believe that God created the universe in the Big Bang. For all the theories being debated among physicists about what the universe was like in the first nanosecond after the Big Bang, however, it is scientifically unknowable what existed two nanoseconds earlier. It is still by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, and that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old – and Sarah herself was barren – because he considered him faithful who had promised.

Reflecting back upon Abraham’s life, as I outlined it earlier, it seems that the author of Hebrews might have gotten a little carried away in his rhetoric about Abraham’s faith. Yes, Abraham had faith, but as we saw in our lesson from Genesis, he also had doubt. Presented with the doctrine of justification by faith, and knowing my own doubts, I sometimes wonder whether I have enough faith to be reckoned as righteous. I suspect that I am not alone.

When Jesus says, in Matthew 17:21, "For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you," it is easy to misunderstand, and think, "I cannot move mountains, so my faith must be even smaller than a mustard seed." That is getting the point of Jesus’ metaphor totally backward. Christian faith is not about moving mountains; it is about being in the right relationship with God.

The Australian Reverend Bryan Findlayson put it like this:

Faith is not some mysterious religious quality which only a few possess. … Faith is a willing, but struggling trust, in the revealed intentions of God; it is a reliance on God and on his truths, on his promises. Such faith may be as small as a mustard seed, hesitant, uneasy, filled with doubts, and yet determined to hold onto God’s promises through all the doubts and fears that assail us. Faith is a confidence, a conviction, in the revealed will of God. Such faith makes a person acceptable to God. … I have to admit that my faith remains small, but you see, moving mountains does not depend on the size of my faith, but on the size of my God.

In both our reading from Hebrews this morning, and in the omitted verses 4-7, there is a repeated pattern of "By faith…" someone did something. Faith empowers action. As Christians, part of what Jesus calls us to do, by faith, is to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love our enemies and pray for them. With that in mind, let’s turn our attention to another scripture reading:

Who therefore shrinks from the religion of Abraham, except he be foolish-minded? Indeed, we chose him in the present world, and in the world to come he shall be among the righteous. When his Lord said to him, "Surrender," he said, "I have surrendered myself to the Lord of all being." And Abraham charged his sons with this and Jacob likewise, "My sons, God has chosen for you the religion; see that you die not save in surrender." Why, were you witnesses when death came to Jacob? When he said to his sons, "What will you serve after me?" They said, "We will serve your God and the God of your fathers Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, one God; to Him we surrender." That is a nation that has passed away; there awaits them what they have earned, and there awaits you what you have earned; you shall not be questioned concerning the things they did.

… Say, "Nay, rather the creed of Abraham, a man of pure faith; he was no idolater." Say you, "We believe in God, and in that which has been sent down on us and sent down on Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, and the Tribes, and that which was given to Moses and Jesus and the Prophets; of their Lord; we make no division between any of them, and to Him we surrender."

If this reading seems unfamiliar, it is because it is from the Qur’an, book 2, verses 130-136.

In the weeks after 9-11, many Americans, particularly from the Christian right, said some appallingly ignorant things along the lines of, "our God is bigger than their God."

As Christians, we believe that there is only one true God, and that is the God of Abraham. What is different between Judaism, Christianity and Islam is not the God which we worship, but our imperfect human understandings of the nature of God, and of God’s expectations of us.

These differences are, of course, critically important and deeply held beliefs of each of the respective religions. And, within each, there are those who want to impose their beliefs upon others, and extremists who will take to violence to do so.

For those of us who hope for peace, it is essential that we come to understand and respect each other’s faith – in both the commonalities and the differences. Toward that end, I think we all should make an effort to learn more about the faith of Islam, not just its geopolitics. I will close with these words from Yale Divinity School professor Lamin Sanneh:

The bridge for interfaith understanding and peace grows from the principle of respect for the other. This respect offers an approach other than that of simplistic condemnation or approbation. It does not deny truth claims. On the contrary, affirmation of the other is based on truth claims: love of God and of neighbor, for example, is not just a polite suggestion, but the exacting absolute injunction of God who created us "in the image and resemblance of God."

Amen.