Today was Abraham Sunday at church; the first 2 readings are all about God's speaking to Abraham and telling him that He is going to make a covenant between Himself and the Israelites, and that Abraham, aged 99, will father a son by Sarah and that she shall be blessed, and "she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." Is that not beautiful?
Then St Paul a thousand and more years later takes up the tune, adroitly bringing himself (and us) into the covenant: "not only to the adherents of the Law(the Hebrews) but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written,"I have made you the father of many nations.) We Episcopalians never doubted it.
Then St Paul puts in a laugh, for it made me laugh when it was read,"He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old)....." Then read on till the end of the passage which brings the story right down to you and me, reading it in our house in the year 2012. Interesting. A fascinating story. We are Justified. The passage is Romans 4: 13-25.
The Gospel is harder to connect directly with the preceding two readings, for that is where Jesus rebukes Peter and calls him "Satan," and tells all the people how important FAITH is. I guess Abraham's FAITH is what made all these stories important and we have to have faith too but I find I have little and humbly bow my head when confronted with that fact as I am today.YAZ
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