Mtr Kelli Joyce

Dear friends in Christ,

Today's reading from Genesis tells the story of one of the first key moments in the story of salvation. In the Eucharistic prayer we use at Saint Philip's during Christmas and Easter, there is a line that says "When our disobedience took us far from you, you did not abandon us to the power of death. In your mercy you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find you. Again and again you called us into covenant with you..." God's covenant with Abram, later known to us as Abraham, is God's first step toward restoring humanity to what we were created to be. God promises blessing and love to Abraham and his family, not because Abraham is the most ethical or the most worthy, but because Abraham said yes to God in faith. "[Abraham] believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness."

People usually talk about believing in God or not believing in God, but that's not what the Bible is talking about here, and it's not what Saint Paul is talking about when he quotes this story in his letter to the Romans. The thing God wants from us is not about whether we intellectually accept a certain set of ideas about whether or not God exists. God wants to be in relationship with us, and wants to be believed. Belief in this sense is about trust, not about knowledge. Abraham trusted God to take care of him and his family, even though what God was promising sounded impossible. God wants us to trust, too. To trust enough to follow where the Spirit leads us, even when we don't know how God is going to get us there. God wants to walk with us as we go. God wants us to say "yes."

In peace,
Mtr. Kelli