Description
Hebrews 11 is a great chapter that calls us to remember our context as believers. Not just as a single person, or even a single community, struggling with the challenges of living in the world, but as people who are connected to a significant, vast, rich heritage of people. People who struggled in difficult circumstances and found ways to trust God, even when it was not evident how God could possibly ‘come through’ for them.
One such person was Abram/Abraham and, in today’s reading, we hear in Hebrews 11:8-12 a snapshot of the life of Abraham. As a way of connecting more deeply with Abraham’s life of faith, this resource focuses on Genesis 12:1-4a and Romans 4:1-5, 13-17. We find out a little more about Abraham and his quest – following God – and his questions. And the story of Abraham raises plenty of questions for the Romans – and for us! We may find ourselves in the Place of Wonderings as we follow Abraham’s wanderings.
In Genesis 12, as Abram’s story unfolds, and indeed throughout the rest of the Bible, Abram is held as an example for others, of faith, of what living life in God’s ways looks like. Here at the beginning of his story, we see Abram packing up and leaving his country. He seeks life somewhere else. Abram is not a refugee in the sense that we know of many refugees across the world in our time; he is not forced from his homeland by violence or poverty. He does, though, become a person without land, without national identity, and without citizenship. He loses his stability and security. He becomes vulnerable to the various policies of the kings and rulers of the lands through which he travels.
The life that God calls Abram to can challenge the way we think about our lives today. As people of faith today, what might it mean for our faith/lives to look more like the faith/life of Abraham?
