I’m Abraham! Come in and know me better, man![1]

I’m the father of not one, but three world religions. Can you believe it? Pretty good for a boy from Ur of the Chaldeans.[2] And speaking of being a father, I would like to thank you for reading today, in your scripture; my worst moment of parenting. HA! I don’t want to sound insincere or sarcastic, I truly want to thank you. It’s hard to talk about that moment. It is my biggest regret of my life, but it shows us that sometimes our worst moments are our best teachers. Let me tell you my story in full before we get to that regrettable moment with my boy Isaac.

My father Terah was an idol maker.[3] The religious life was different back then, there were all these gods crawling about. If you picked up a rock, you’d find at least five gods there: the god of the rock, the god of the roly-polies, the god of the dirt, the god of the worms, and whoever picked up the rock’s god of preference. It was dizzying.

There were all these rules and deities, and I could tell that people just made it up. We like to divide things up and separate them. We like to tell stories that mirror our own beliefs and prejudices. When folks told stories of the gods they told them with the same division and prejudice that was within their hearts. Yet when I looked at nature, I didn’t see categories. I saw a unity. I saw how everything works together.

Sure, I can tell there are different types of flora and fauna. Each play a part in a seamless tapestry of life. If each god made a different part, then nature would be more antagonistic than it is. It wouldn’t hold together at all if the gods are as truly petty as they are made out to be. I see the same fingerprint in all things, all stem from the same source.

Trees that talk to one another and share resources through root networks and fungus. How trees convert light into sugar. Sugar into fruit, and we and the animals eat the fruit and cultivate more trees of its kind. Each thing is divine in its own way. Things are inherently rooted in a single divine source, not to a pantheon of gods, and definitely not nothing. It all is rooted in one source.[4]

My dad knew all the religious rules and would make up a lot of his own to increase sales. Terah was very good at his job, but his methods were… suspect. He was not the most scrupulous guy. He would make these clay idols. He started getting into bronze idols with the gem inlays. And he’d just make up new rules or rivalries between the gods to sell his little statues. People would walk into the shop and Terah would make up a new holiday on the spot! “Buy an idol! It’s the Friday after the harvest celebration!” That one really caught on, and you know it today as Black Friday.

People are very superstitious and want to have the favor of the gods, so they believed him. We have our moments or rituals to ground and center us: we knock on wood. Throw salt over our shoulders. Wear a certain pair of socks so that your sports-ball team will win. I get it man! We all want some token that everything will be okay… and listen… Everything will be okay. Everything will be fine in the end, and if it’s not fine, then it’s not the end. Keep going.

I started to get opinionated in my teen years. My dad and I would argue, and he would always say that my theology of this ONE GOD SOURCE OF ALL was bad for business. He couldn’t argue with me on theological levels, but only economic ones. I decided to hit him where it hurt: in the pockets, man!

After a theological argument, my dad walked out and said, “Watch the shop, I need to take a walk to cool down!” Well, I was still heated too from our latest theological debate, which I totally won man! A customer walked into the shop and wished to buy and idol. I ask him, “How old are you?” The man said he was 50.

I says to that man, “You are 50 years old and would worship a day old statue! I refuse to sell!” The man left ashamed.

Idols. I saw right then and there how limited they are. They don’t get us to the fullness of living. It is in opening to God that prevents each human from closing around themselves or their interests, from absolutizing his or her own particularity, but calls a person to turn toward creation and our neighbor. It is when that dynamic openness is limited. A negation of life occurs, and that’s a sin.[5] My Jewish children really picked up on that in their religion. No idols.

I would lead people to this fullness in God! I bet if I traveled around, I would find good people everywhere and the whole world would be my neighbor! First, I had to put my dad out of business and win this theological debate once and for all.

I waited until my dad took a trip to pick up more clay to make the statues, and I was left in charge of the shop. That’s when I got to work. I took a stick and smashed all the idols and placed the stick in the hand of the largest idol. When my dad returned, he asked what happened.

“Well, father,” I said in my best gee-zip voice. “A shopper came in and couldn’t afford to buy and idol but wanted to make an offering to the idols. All the idols argued about which one should eat the offering first and the largest one took the stick and smashed all the idols! It’s the darndest thing!”

My dad said, “They are only statues, and have no way to do this!”

“HA! I got you! You make these with your own hands and make up stories, yet you also worship them! Do you see how limited this thinking is?!”

That was the end of that. My dad was exasperated. He decided right then and there to retire. He lived out his days until he was 205. Toward the end, he started to understand my way of thinking about the divine. God is encountered within, never outside the complexities of our finite existence.[6] It’s all connected and we’re a part of it. Our lives a gift, from the same source of all life. This God of all whom I was getting closer and closer to.

The day of Terah’s funeral, I heard a voice saying, “Go from your country and your kin and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I’ll make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great!” I would leave my land and all I knew to see if this God of mine was just in my head, or if God was truly the source of all there is.

I deepened my time in prayer. I had to connect to the source more often. I spent a lot of time talking and listening. I even carved out a routine of 5 times a day to pray. Ishmael’s children still do this, your Muslim brothers and sisters. They take time out of the day, just like I do to pray. I would encourage you to begin and end your day with prayer. You don’t need to say anything, just listen. Or at meals. A simple prayer of thanks for the food and all those unknown neighbors who got it to the table. If all you pray is, “Thank you” it is enough.[7]

I traveled far and wide. Following my God. I had with me my Beloved Sarah. And my nephew Lot was with us for a while. And I learned more and heard more and more from my God. I traveled of the known map! Found new maps! Wandered to the edge of those. Yet as far as one can travel, we still carry with us our childhood and all the people we used to be.

I drew closer and closer to God, and we spoke and debated and argued and God would always remind me of the covenant. I trusted that in God as I was at home, surrounded by God. In moments of awe and wonder. In times of monotony of chopping wood or grinding flour. God was always present, closer than my next breath.

When the command came to sacrifice Isaac, part of me knew it was coming. The gods were always asking for the best of things. The best of the harvest, the unblemished best from the flock, the first-born. Like how the followers of Molech would sacrifice their children.[8]

I knew what was required. Notice how I don’t fight God or ask how to do this sacrifice. It was well known in my day how to do this. My father thanked his gods never demanded this of him, nor did the community ask it, which would have been where the real request would have come from anyway. I thought I had to do this. I was caught.

We made our way up the mountain, Isaac asking “Where’s the sacrifice?” I said, “God will provide.” He was about 12 at the time. We hiked up the mountain and I was lost in thought. I couldn’t see past my own nose. I was so stressed. I couldn’t breathe. I had a panic attack and when I came to myself Isaac was bound and crying and laid on top of the wood. I didn’t remember any of it.

I was crying. My face so wet with tears that it soaked my beard and my shirt. Then I lifted my eyes and saw the ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. How long had that ram been there? Why had I not seen it before now?

I think that ram was always there at the beginning of time. It’s always there in our life. If you ever feel like you must do anything, like your hand is forced… stop and lift up your eyes. Look around. The ram is always there.

“Think of the dying person who finds peace in the faith that their loved ones will carry on his values.  Think of the addict who, after years of struggle, finds the strength to choose life.  Think of the workaholic who realizes that time with family is a truer treasure than overtime pay.  Think of the friendships and marriages that have been reconciled when both parties choose forgiveness over pride and nursing the grudge.  Think of the person with juicy but destructive gossip just on the tip of their tongue, who yet refrains from the momentary pleasure of tearing somebody else down a little bit.

The ram is always there, if we will but lift up our eyes.”[9]

While we had one ritual of how to sacrifice our children, you have a million subtle ways in this day. How often we sacrifice our children on the altars of perfection and expectation. It’s why there are so many LGBTQ+ kids who are homeless. Kicked out of homes when the child didn’t match the expectation. Sacrificed. The overscheduled nature of your children’s lives these days with 8^th graders thinking of getting into college. No childhood to speak of. That’s a way of sacrificing too. Specializing in sports and academics has led your culture to worship an idol of perfection that has resulted soaring anti-anxiety prescriptions and a sense that the future isn’t as bright.[10]

There is always a ram. My deepest regret is not seeing it beforehand. It really drove a wedge between Isaac and me. I tried to make up for it by finding him a good wife with Rebekah. I tried to make up for it by reconciling Isaac and Ishmael, for growing up they were best buds! It was we the parents that had all the tension. Over time, I Isaac forgave me and we patched things up.

There are some people who can walk from your life. You can thrive without them. I’ve met my fair share! But there are others who you are bonded to. There is a love there. You are empty without them. When a fight boils up and regretful words are said, and actions are taken… there’s always a ram. You can always find another way.

God, who is ONE with all and in and through all… That is the Shema[11] from my Jewish children of faith. God who is slow to anger, abounds in steadfast mercy[12] and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved![13] God is always ready to forgive and reconcile. So must we be. That is the Jewish and Christian witness.

Before the hills in order stood, or earth received her fame, from everlasting, God is the same. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Constant love and grace. Thanks for listening to my story and getting to know me better man! May you go from here to see the ram! For our God is always providing a way out of no way.[14]

Works Cited

[1] You’ve heard this before, from The Muppet’s Christmas Carol. The Ghost of Christmas Present uses this line, and it shows to me, this bombastic presence that I think Abraham would be.

[2] Genesis 11:28

[3] What follows is rabbinic teachings from Genesis Rabbah 38.13 which details these stories that are attributed to Hiyya b. Abba. You can find these stories here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_and_the_Idol_Shop

[4] Maya Rivera, The Touch of Transcendence: a postcolonial theology of God (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 2007) page 46.

[5] Rivera, The Touch of Transcendence. Page 46.

[6] Rivera, The Touch of Transcendence. Page 48.

[7] Meister Eckhart, a medieval German theologian and mystic said this.

[8] See “Molech” The Anchor Bible Dictionary, V. 4, K-N (Doubleday, New York, NY: 1992) Page 895.

[9] https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/seeing-the-ram/

[10] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/14/economics-viewpoint-baby-boomers-generation-x-generation-rent-gig-economy

[11] Deuteronomy 6:4–9

[12] Psalm 103:8

[13] Romans 10:13

[14] For more on how God makes ways out of seemingly dead ends, I recommend Monica Coleman, Making A Way Out of No Way: a womanist theology (Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN; 2008)