The call of Abraham: a journey of faith: 22/07/07 Summer Evensong
Genesis 12 1-3, 10-20, Romans 4 1-5: Usha Hull

The first of the great patriarchs in the Bible was a man we know of as Abram, meaning ‘exalted father’ and later Abraham, meaning ‘father of a multitude’. To the Muslim world he is known as Ibrahim, an important prophet in Islam and father of the prophet Ishmail, who is considered to be father of the Arabs.

Abraham grew up in the city of Ur, an important city of the ancient world. Modern day archeologists have discovered evidence of a flourishing civilisation, located near modern day Baghdad in Iraq. The city of Ur had libraries, temples, schools, a system of law, an active trade with other parts of the world and many valuable treasures, some of which exist still today. It is thought that at one point, at around 2000 BC, Ur was the largest city in the world, with a population of about 65,000. By modern day standards, Ur was also a sinful city, worshipping many gods. Indeed, Sin was the name of the chief idol they worshipped, the moon god.

So it was literally in ‘Sin City’ as it were, that the man Abraham spent his early years. The Bible tells us that God called Abraham away from this past and said to him, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you.’

At the time of God’s call, it seems Abraham was a prosperous man. The Bible mentions slaves, cattle, gold, silver and possessions. With a large household of probably a thousand souls, Abraham is being asked to uproot, to go into the unknown, to live a nomadic life in tents. He is asked to decide between security and insecurity. In return, God will bless Abraham and make him the founder of a great nation. And not only would this nation be blessed, God promises, but other nations too, throughout the entire world.

Subsequently, we know that Israel, the nation that came from Abraham, was to be a people that followed God and was to influence those nations with whom it came into contact. Indeed, from Abraham’s line were to come three of the world’s major religions: Judaism, Islam and of course Christianity.

But initially it all hinged on whether or not Abraham would obey God’s call. Despite the murky beginnings from which he came, there is no account in the Bible of Abraham questioning the call of God at this point, or of confusing God’s voice with that of the idols among whom he had been raised. Let’s remember that Abraham came from a polytheistic background, that is a culture that worshipped many gods. Monotheism, or devotion to a single god, was unknown in his world.

And Abraham’s obedience to the one true God was to change the course of world history. It would set into motion the development of a nation that God would eventually use as His own when He visited the earth Himself. And when our Lord came to earth, God’s promise was fulfiled, so through Abraham the entire world was blessed.

So what then do we make of the events that follow in Genesis 12? We hear that this man obedient to God, this man of faith, this man of courage, on entering the land of Egypt was to lie to Pharaoh and, to save his own skin, pretend that his beautiful wife Sara was his sister. Steamy Hollywood movie stuff, you might say!

And it gets worse. Pharaoh takes Sara as wife into his harem and Abraham actually profits from this, receiving many gifts, sheep, oxen, donkeys, men and women slaves and camels, as if he didn’t have enough already. Pharaoh seems to have been a generous man indeed, and the good guy and the victim in this particular tale. For as the story goes, instead of punishing Abraham for his sins, God visits Pharaoh’s household instead with a terrible plague and Pharaoh, on hearing that Sara is actually Abraham’s wife, kicks them both out of his country. And in a later chapter, Abraham is to repeat the deception of Sara being his sister. He obviously hasn’t learnt any better.

So if we were to judge by the morals we uphold today, Abraham left much to be desired. But then, let’s consider this for a moment: isn’t the Bible full of people who have committed the most heinous sins, but whom God has used nevertheless to bring about great good? Take just a few examples. From the very first mention of humankind, there is deception, disobedience, debauchery and drunkenness, not to mention murder. Adam and Eve lie to God and disobey, Cain kills Abel, Noah gets drunk and is found naked, and these are just the opening chapters of Genesis.  Following on from Abraham, Moses was to murder an Egyptian and David was to take another man’s wife as his lover and have her husband killed, as well as killing thousands of others.

Leaping forward several centuries, in the New Testament Saul, later known as St Paul, went around putting Christians to death, and even Peter, who had been chosen by our Lord as the rock on which he would build his Church was asleep when he was needed and denied the Lord three times at the hour of our Lord’s great need.

Yes, the Bible is a sorry tale of humankind’s greatest failings, as Richard Dawkins has capitalised on in his book ‘The God Delusion’. But what Dr Dawkins doesn’t realise, or won’t admit, is that it is also the greatest record in the world of human heroism, of faith and love and above all, God’s love for us shown time and time again, despite our failings.

The Bible is a record of people called into a long relationship of learning about God and themselves, later known as the Covenant. It is also a record of how God, in his infinite goodness and wisdom, in his boundless capacity to forgive, makes use of our humanity, with all its imperfections, eccentricities and frailty.

Genesis 15 goes on to tell us that for all his imperfections, Abraham was justified by faith. What does this mean? It means that because he had faith, God considered Abraham to be righteous or acceptable to him. Despite having sinned, Abraham had trust, had courage and was obedient and so found favour with God. And in Romans 4 St Paul calls Abraham the ‘father of us all’ and the archetypal Christian because he trusted in God’s promises.

St Paul tells us that God’s laws are important, yes, but that it is impossible to be acceptable to God just by obeying rules and rituals. It is a fundamental Christian belief that we are justified by faith. In other words, we are all sinners, but we are nevertheless acceptable to God, not through our own merits, morality, law keeping, call it what you wish, but because of our faith that God will redeem us.

As Christians we often wonder if we have enough faith or if we have faith strong enough to save us. When we ask ourselves these questions we are missing the point. It is our Lord Jesus Christ who saves us, not our own feelings or actions. We can cling to Heaven by the hems as it were, but we cannot arrive there through our own merits. No matter how strong or weak our faith, in the end, as children of our Heavenly Father, we are all equally dependent on his infinite love and mercy, all equally beholden to our Lord for the loving sacrifice of his life.

And in the end we are each called, as Abraham was, to venture into unknown territory with nothing but trust in the power of God’s great love. We may not classify ourselves as great sinners. Like those Biblical people I spoke of earlier, we may not have deceived, murdered, been guilty of debauchery, drunkenness or adultery. At least I hope not. But no matter how sinful or how good we are, the call of Abraham is a call that applies to each of us. We too are justified by faith.

God wants us to have faith in him rather than in our ability to please him. In all the uncertainties of life, and there are many, he wants us to believe, deep down down in our hearts that he is with us, loving us, wanting our greater good no matter what we have done in the past. He wants us to be constantly seeking to ascertain his will for us. And He wants us to come to him just as we are.

I end with that lovely little poem written by Minnie Louise Haskins in 1908. You will probably have heard the first part, the latter half is not often heard.

“I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'

And he replied, ‘Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand
of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!’

So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night
He led me towards the hills
And the breaking of day in the lone east.

So heart be still!
What need our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?

In all the dizzy strife of things
Both high and low,
God hideth his intention.”

So may we put our hand in the hand of God in love and in trust.

Amen