It is a little known fact that I owe my marriage to Abraham. More years ago now than I’d like to admit, back in Divinity School, Jenny and I met and started dating, and things were getting serious – serious enough to start talking about religion. I’m Christian and she’s Jewish and that wouldn’t normally be such a big deal, except for the fact that I was going to be a pastor. So, if we were to continue on, we had to figure some things out.
Around that time, I was working on a sermon about Abraham. Jenny’s academic specialty was Hebrew Bible and so I called her up to ask for advice. We talked about the text for a bit, and then we began to talk about us. We talked about the faith of Abraham, and that, despite our different religions, what was most important was that we were both people of faith – we have faith in different things, or faith in some of the same things just in different ways, but faith nonetheless. The rest is history. …I guess that’s how Divinity school students decide to get married – with a little biblical analysis and theological reflection. Very romantic.
God first called Abraham when he was 75 years old to leave his homeland, family, religion, and work, and travel to the promised land and God, in turn, promised him that he and his wife Sarah, who were old and had no children, would become the parents of many nations.
This morning we pick up Abraham’s story 24 tumultuous years later. Continue reading
