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Dear St. Christopher’s Family,
My favorite story from Godly Play is ‘The Great Family.’ It is the story from Genesis we will hear on Sunday that speaks to us about Abraham’s faith in God’s promise. Now this is a crucial point for us as inheritors of Abraham’s faith, and especially as Protestants, since it was this story that gave rise to Paul’s insistence (in Romans and Galatians) that Christ’s saving work applied to all who had gone before and operated because of faith.
But too often we confuse faith with a set of principles. Once we’ve gotten all the details nailed down and checked off, we can safely put our faith away until we need it again. But for Abraham and all the Great Family, their faith is something living that needs to be watered and tended. As God walks with Abraham out into the desert and shows him all the sands; and as God walks with Abraham out into the desert and shows him the stars of the sky; and as God promises to make Abraham the father of a great nation that numbers more than those sands and those starts, how does Abraham respond? We tell the kids: “Abraham came so close to God, and God came so close to Abraham, that Abraham knew what God wanted him to do.”
Our faith is always trying to find our way to become closer to God. God will not send us a postcard with instructions; God will not flash signs in the heavens to direct us. Instead God relies on our approach, in faith and prayer, that we can know just by being close to God what we ought to do.
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