Gen 17:4
As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many
nations.
Gen 6:4
There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when
the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children
to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
For some the battles between Abrahamic faiths are
rather ironic for they say they are of the same God. However, Abraham
was the Father of many nations ie Israel and the Arab nations have a
common ancestor rather than necessarily worshiping the same God of
Abraham or doing what Abraham would have done in their own faith walk.
Our spiritual family lineage is of great blessings
but it does not mean much if our faith tradition doesn't build on the
faith of Abraham. By the time of Jesus, the Jews wanted to stand on the
blessings of Abraham of whose covenant with God was a matter of grace,
but yet they were living their faith based on the Mosaic Covenant which
was essentially blessings by the good religious works and morality.
What did Abraham do? He didn't worship idols
as some faiths that revere Abraham as their spiritual father do, for he
had worshiped God directly and not through the saints, the angels nor
the prophets. These didn't come from Abraham, but from "their own
father" ie from their own religious and moral traditions apart from the
Abrahamic Covenant.
Abraham was certaintly difficult to follow. There
was no man made mediator or brigde between God and man, or
co-redeemer saint as the largest Christian faith now practices. He lived
in a large tent apart from the massive religious institutions and
organizational religious setup we now have. He was married to Sarah
whilst in some Christian faith, the priests are married to the church or
to money.
Was Abraham a saint? we practised a form of idol
worship where Christianity is based on a perceived morality. Abraham was
no saint being in bed with the maid Hagar and bearing a illigitimate
son, Ishmael. Yet, God received him as righteous not by works but by
faith - faith even to sacrifice his "only" son in a test of faith by
God.
The Abrahamic Covenant did not apply to Ishmael,
but to Issac only who was born not out of works but of faith and grace
from God. Hence, the civil religious war for the last four thousand
years to gain recognition for these blessings as a right by eliminating
Israel, the rightful son.
However, Israel had evidently boasted too much!
Jesus was so perturbed by their constant claim of blessings on the
account of their ties with Abraham without having the right faith
beliefs that he declared:-
John 8:39
“Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s
children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is,
you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth
that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing
the works of your own father.”
In John 8:39, Jesus' replies were rather
suggestive, for how would Jesus knew that Abraham didn't kill any
messengers from God! What did Abraham do? who was the "man" who told
Abraham about the truth from God whom Abraham paid homage to rather than
trying to kill the messenger from God?
We are reminded that in Gen 18, the Lord physically
appeared to Abraham by the terebinth tree of Mamre. There were the
appearance of three men and Abraham recognizes that they were of God and
quickly bowed down and offered worship of a young and tender calf.
Gen
18:13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall
I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the
Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time
of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Sarah laughed when the heavenly strangers again
proclaimed that Sarah will have a son. It was a mixture of joy and
unbelief. The son Isaac was born, the son of faith, the son of the
covenant. This was the truth from God spoken by Jesus in John 8:39.
Four thousand years later, God visited again
physically. Jesus came down from heaven. The descendents of Abraham, of
Isaac, now no longer welcomes nor worship Jesus, nor prepare a good meal
for Him. Now, they tried to kill Jesus, they tried to kill God Himself.
Their Father Abraham did no such things.
We believe that Jesus was one of the three who
visited Abraham in Gen 18, for the birth of Isaac ushered in a long line
to King David and then to Joseph and Mary, culminating in the birth of
Jesus Christ Himself.
Mary was the epitomy of Sarah and just as Sarah
bored the son of promise, Mary ultimately fulfilled the Abrahamic
Covenant of grace by bearing Jesus Christ bringing the blessings and
sonship of Abraham to the nations. In Jesus Christ, came the Son of God,
whose death and resurrection would join the gentiles (non-Jews) to the
blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. In Christ Jesus, Abraham truly
became a father of many nations (Gen 17:5) beyond Israel.
The covenant of Abraham initiated by circumcision
symbolising both the spilling of blood to affirm the covenant and the
blessing of God to the seed coming out of the male sexual organ which
has been circumcised. Today we too are circumsized, our hardened hearts
so tuned to our own perceived morality and good works, to be changed to
be a softened heart vary of the Grace of God. We are circumsised by the
blood of the Lamb and by our proclamation of faith.
Is there anything too hard to the Lord (Gen 18:14)?
As Christian Gays, how do we desire that God will use us to bless
ourselves, our family/friends, our community of Christian faith and the
nations? Does the Abrahamic Covenant of God's unmerited blessings and
grace apply to GLBT people for whom so much of our basic rights have
been taken away and who have suffered injustice!
The question will soon no longer be about GLBT
basic rights per say which will come even as great nations such as India
recognises the absurdness of anti-gay laws. There is a change coming
both in heaven and soon on earth despite opposite from the Catholic
Church on earth.
The question soon would be how will our Christian
faith journey as gay people through incredible pain and sufferings bring
a message of hope, faith and grace to the Gospel message of Jesus
Christ?
Lord Jesus, may the blessings of
Abraham, the blessings of your grace and mercy, your blessings of
abundance, your blessings of a great legacy be unto us, be unto our
lives today as GLBT Christians. We remember your promise to Sarah - Is
there anything too hard for the Lord? May we offer our sacrifice and
praise to You O Lord through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour who died
for us as a perfect sacrifice once and for all. As gay people,
everything has been taken away from us. Yet, we believe today for a
legacy because of Jesus Christ.
Let us remember today that the power of the Cross
is so great that even the blessings of Abraham two thousand years
earlier came through Jesus Christ, for Abraham looked forward by faith
to the Cross, whilst we look backwards to the completed works at the
Cross of Calvary.
Let us claim today, the blessings of Abraham and
may the abundance of God flow in your life, and may it overflows to your
community of faith and beyond that they too experience the love of God
in their lives.