Father Abraham

I just read an article written by a clergywoman in which she tells about her mother, who died quickly, and her mother-in-law who is dying slowly. The part of the article I liked best was her description of the "middle part of life". She describes the Christian story as having a "great ending", though it has a terrible middle story of suffering. She also says "some people's middle story is longer than others, and most of us have a terrible middle story somewhere in our life saga." I heartily agree with that statement.

And that brings me to Abraham and Sarah. I am preaching on them in June and have started doing some research. The truth is, there is a lot to the "middle story" of Abraham that I would like to avoid in my sermon. In order to avoid the terrible parts of the Abraham story, then I need to have another perspective, and the lens through which I want to tell the story is one of history. What was the world like in the time of Abraham, and why does he stand out? That led me to research the differences between monotheism and polytheism. It is generally believed that monotheism came first, and polytheism, or the worship of many gods, was a the result of people falling away from the worship of the one true god. They wanted a god they could control, unlike Yahweh, whom they could not. By the time of Noah, polytheism dominated.

Interesting, Moses was raised by the Pharoah, who was polytheistic. He only became monotheistic when he discovered that he was a Hebrew. Researching the life and times of Abraham has led me to some really fascinating places, and theories, and discoveries!

Perhaps the part of the Abraham story I will tell is about how his faith in God grew over time; perhaps the point of the story is that even someone with a 'terrible middle story' can come around, in the end, to be a person of integrity, faithfulness, and one whom God can use for infinite purposes.

God can and has. God does and will.