Posted by Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. He saith not: And to his seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.
Today’s epistle is from St. Paul to the Galatians in which he refers to God’s promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. The promise was not made to seeds, as of many, but of one seed, which is Christ. Hence it is Christ who is the true seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. The Covenant given by the Law through Moses many hundreds of years later could not make this promise of no effect. If the inheritance were of the Law it would be no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise of God was made to Abraham would come. Was the Law then against the promises of God? “God forbid. For if there had been a Law given, which could give life, verily justice should have been by the Law. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise of faith by Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”
But what was the context in which St. Paul wrote these words? St. Paul wrote to the Galatians to combat the first great error or heresy that appeared in the history of the Church. This was the belief that a Gentile (that is a non-Jew) needed to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses (in other words become a Jew) in order to be within the Church, the Israel of God. By contrast, St. Paul teaches that it is not necessary for a Gentile to become a Jew before becoming a Christian. The Church, the true Israel of God and heir of the promises of the Old Testament, was now defined not by race, but by faith. St. Paul’s opponents pointed out that Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, had received the covenant of circumcision, thereby defining for future generations the membership of the covenant people. St. Paul replied that Abraham had been counted righteous before God not because he was circumcised, but because he believed in the promises of God that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Abraham was therefore the father of all that believed, whether they were Jews or Gentiles. We become members of the Church, the Body of Christ, at our baptism and are therefore the heirs of the promises of God to Abraham. It is not circumcision, but baptism that makes us members of the people of God, the Church. “For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:27-29).
But what did the faith of Abraham mean? A later Jewish midrash (commentary on a biblical text) said that Abraham’s faith that led him to leave his country and kindred could be compared to a “man who was travelling from place to place when he saw the palace in flames. He wondered, “Is it possible that the palace lacks an owner?” The owner of the palace looked out and said, “I am the owner of the palace.” So Abraham our father said, “Is it possible that the world lacks a ruler?” The Holy One, blessed be he, looked out and said to him, “I am the ruler, the sovereign of the universe.”
In other words, Abraham sees a palace. He sees that the world has order and that therefore it has a creator. But the palace is in flames, for the world is full of disorder, violence and injustice. Where then is the owner of the palace? If God created man in his own image, why does he allow the human race to destroy the world through lust for power and violence? What is the explanation of this contradiction?
There have classically been two different answers to this question. The first is to deny the reality of God and ultimate goodness. It is to say that because there are so clearly flames of violence and disorder in the world there is no palace, no ultimate goodness. The world is simply an arena of chance and necessity in which the strong triumph over the weak. There is therefore no justice and no judge. This is the materialist view. It explains everything at one level, but it explains nothing at a deeper level. For if there were no ultimate goodness to compare it with, how can we be so sure that so much of what we experience in the world is evil, just as if there were no creatures with eyes we would not know what light was, for darkness is the absence of light, just as evil is the absence of good.
The second view is to deny the reality of evil. It is to say that because the world is clearly a palace with order and beauty there are therefore no real flames and that evil is ultimately an illusion. This is the pantheist view, which says that since the creation is divine nothing is really wrong. It is only our limited human experience that causes us to see some things as evil. But this also seems to deny our moral sense that there is something really wrong about so much that is in the world. There is so much evil and suffering that it hardly makes sense to tell someone who is suffering that it is ultimately unreal, that because there is a palace there are therefore no flames.
By contrast, to the materialist view which denies the reality of God, and the pantheist view, which denies the reality of evil, the faith of Abraham was that both are real. The world is really a palace, but the palace is also in flames. God and ultimate goodness are real, and yet evil and suffering are also real. There is in this life an insoluble tension between what is and what ought to be. Since God is real we have reason to hope for the future, but since evil and suffering are real we cannot be complacent about the present. Hence, Abraham was led to leave his country and his kindred. He could not rest content with his existing life, but he was also not despairing, for he hoped against hope that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In other words, the victory of the strong over the weak, the reality that the palace is in flames, is not inevitable, for in spite of everything there is still hope in the promises of God.
Abraham did indeed become the father of a great nation. Redeemed from slavery in Egypt they were given the Law through Moses in order to fashion their lives in accordance with the purpose for which they were created. But the Law through Moses was not God’s last and final word. It was necessary because of human sin and the need for the people of Israel to have guidance to prevent them from falling into idolatry. But it could not itself give life because of human sin which meant that fallen humanity had failed to live according to God’s Law. Hence, it could not in itself be the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. But there was one man, born of a woman, born under the Law, who came to redeem both those who were under the Law and those without the Law, both Jews and Gentiles. He was the true seed of Abraham, in whose seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. The people of God now consisted, not simply of one nation, but of those who were heirs to the faith of Abraham from every tribe, nation and tongue. God in Christ has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has done what the Law, though it was holy, righteous and good, could not do, namely delivered us from the curse of sin and death. He took the weight of evil upon himself and somehow subsumed it into good. Now that he is risen, ascended and glorified, all who have faith in him and are baptised are heirs of the promises of God to Abraham. We know both the reality of God and of evil and suffering, that there is a palace, but the palace is in flames. But we also know that God in Christ came to redeem us by taking upon himself the weight of human evil and suffering, triumphing over the dark forces that seem to rule this present world.
There is no ground for complacency for we still live in a world filled with violence and suffering. But we also know that nothing can ultimately separate us from the love of God who created us in his own image and has redeemed us from the curse of sin and death. In Christ is to be found the true seed of Abraham and in him all the nations of the earth who repent and believe and are baptised are blessed.