Blessed To Be A Blessing Series

The Abrahamic Covenant – the mideast

The Abrahamic covenant is a part of the foundation of Judaism, the Muslim faith, and our own faith in Christianity.

Within the Hebrew faith, of which Jesus was a part, the people believed that God had called them and set them aside as a unique people. They see Isaac as the child of the promise, and trace their lineage back to Isaac.

The Muslim faith is also based on the Abrahamic covenant. Abraham had two sons. Ishmael was the elder. Like Abraham, he was circumcised. They believe the story of Abraham going to the mountain to sacrifice his son refers not to Isaac, but rather to Ishmael. And even in our first Testament, Abraham at first thought Ishmael was the son of the promise. They believe they are the unique people of God.

If I had time to include it this summer, I would have loved to have done an entire sermon on the story of Cain and Abel, because it repeats the theme that we find throughout the Old Testament. We see it here in Isaac and Ishmael. In today’s world, Isaac and Ismael continue their conflict, both calling Abraham the father of their nation. Both still seeking to be the favored one. People ask, what is the source of conflict in the Middle east. It begins here. Two brothers. One father.

We, as Christians, of course, trace our roots through Judaism. We believe that Jesus, of the lineage of David was the fulfillment of the promise of God. And we believe that our heritage in Jesus makes US children of Abraham fulfilling the promise of the descendants too many to count. We are now the unique people of God.

At times in our history, we have actually persecuted those of the Jewish faith for not recognizing Jesus as the Son of God. We have fought wars over the territory where Jesus walked. We have viewed both Muslims and Jews as the enemy.

We, as Christians, are the third party to this ongoing dispute. We are the adopted child wanting our place in the family.

Blessed to be a blessing

All three points miss one inherent point in the blessing of God upon Abraham. He was not set aside to make him important, he was set aside to be used. And he was to be used to be a blessing to all people.

We, in our faith, have the same call. God called us to be His people through his son Jesus Christ.

God did not call us because we were special.

God did not call us because we were better than anyone else.

God called us because God is a loving forgiving God. We are called, not out of our goodness, but out of God’s grace toward us. Just as God reckoned Abraham’s belief in the promise as righteousness, God reckons our faith in Jesus as righteousness.

And because we are saved by grace, we are saved to reflect God’s righteousness to the world.

Humankind was created for a purpose. To reflect the glory of God.

The story of Noah is the story of God’s salvation. But God did not just save Noah and his family, he used Noah to save the animals of the world. Noah was blessed to be a blessing.

Now we have Abraham. God has a plan, and Abraham is to be part of it. But the promise is not for Abraham alone.

Like God’s call to Noah to save humankind and the animals on the ark, Abraham’s call is a small part of God’s plan to save the world. Abraham is called, not for his own worth, but so that God can use him as the first step of a long plan to save the world.

Our Part in the blessing.

God called us to be a part of that story as well. We, too, are blessed, but we are blessed not for ourselves, but to be a blessing to the world.

Jesus spoke it when he discussed the greatest commandment. The first, of course, is to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, and minds, and strength. The second is to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We are loved, we are called to love others.

Now, the question of the greatest commandment, according to Luke, was asked by a Lawyer. As you are aware, Lawyers are pretty good at splitting hairs.

JOKE About Lawyers

There is a story about a greedy man who called his closest three friends around him before he died. He shared that he wanted to take his fortune with him, and had hidden it in cash under his bed. His request was that after they lowered his coffin into the ground, they were to pile it on top of him.