The Abrahamic faiths – a covenant broken but not inevitably

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Today’s first reading from Genesis 17:3-9 reminds us that we belong to what are called the Abrahamic faiths. These are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We share a number of characteristics. We believe in one God. We recognise Abraham as a foundational prophet or patriarch. We share stories or sacred texts about key firgures like Adam, Noah and Moses. We all stress such things as the importance of prayer and charity and proper moral behaviour. Coming back to today’s reading, we all place significance upon the covenant made between God and Abraham. It is a covenant whereby God says, “I will be your God and I bequeath you the lands that you call home.” But God also demands that we live up to this covenant. In today’s gospel from John 8:51-59, Jesus asserts his own identity when he says, “Before Abraham ever was, I Am.” This is not to deny the place of Abraham as a key figure in the ancestry of Jesus. We believe that God willed that the Word “was made flesh and dwelt amongst us”. Jesus’ human origins reached back to Abraham; his divinity reached back to eternity in God. Still, our faith in Jesus Christ does not take away our connections with the peoples of the other two Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Islam, connections which reach back to the covenant made between the one God of all creation and Abraham. This is why it is so sad to see how we are fighting each other at this time in the Middle East. It is not just sad. It is a violation of all that we hold to be holy because what God desires above all is that we constantly strive for peace. Violent conflict has long been woven into our stories and histories. But conflict and war should never be inevitable. The covenant made with Abraham is one that calls upon us to constantly recall that sacred bond whereby we belong to one family called to care for this one planet. Let us pray for peace in the Middle East and indeed for peace in many other parts of our world.