Vineri 
(Abraham is the towering figure in Islamism, Judaism, and Christianity and Paul claims that what made Abraham so remarkable was his faith: “For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)” (Romans 4:16-17).
Asked about what Abraham really believed, however, believers of all three religions would quickly answer that Abraham believed that God would give him a piece of land “flowing with milk and honey” and because he believed in gorging himself with milk and honey, God found his faith so rare and unusual that not only gave him that special place, but promised to fill the whole earth with his descendants so that eventually the whole world would believe in milk and honey. One of my father’s hobbies was keeping bees, so I grew up with bees and honey, and as far as milk is concerned, I would not have anything for breakfast except a big bawl of milk and cereal, therefore I am a big believer in milk and honey myself. If that’s the kind of faith God is looking for, I do not understand why was it so difficult for God to find an Abraham because I find Abrahams everywhere. And why did God want to fill the earth with people sharing such faith because the earth has always been full of such people?
If we read the Bible more carefully, however, the extraordinary faith of Abraham consisted not in the fact that he was interested to receive a piece of land abundant in milk and honey, but in the fact that he was willing to abandon such a piece of land and get out of it. Moreover, when he left, Abraham had absolutely no idea what kind of land he would receive, not even where it was, but we know for sure what kind of land he was asked to get out of: Ur of Chaldea. This city was located at the confluence of the two major rivers in Mesopotamia, Tigris and Euphrates, one of the most fertile places on earth, and it was so advanced that it had city sewer thousands of years before Christ. It was the city that ruled the area and like all ancient cities, had strong walls to provide security so that those behind the walls would enjoy their freedom and their wealth without fear that foreigners would be able to get into their bunker and steal their freedom and their wealth or blessings. Bumper stickers had not been invented but the phrase “God bless Ur of Chaldea” was on everybody’s lips. Why would anyone leave such a place? And in order to live in such a place, why would anyone need any faith?
Actually, the Bible makes clear that Abraham’s extraordinary faith was manifested in the fact that he was willing to leave behind the best place on earth where he could enjoy all the milk and honey he wanted and was willing to live in a place he knew nothing about but which turned out to be one of the most hostile places on earth, not only because of the kind of people who have always lived there, but because of the poor land and inclement weather. If God promised him some “land,” it appears that Abraham never quite found out where it was because he kept moving all his life, and when his wife, Sarah died, he appealed to one of the locals to offer him a place to berry her and when a cave was offered to him as a gift, he insisted to pay for it, making clear that he did not think that he owned anything in the country which God had given him. Referring to the patriarchs, Paul insists that they lived as strangers in the promised land because their faith was in something else: “All of these died in faith without having received the promises. . . . They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). Abraham gave up the land he grew up in to spend his whole life without ever being tied to any land, even the land that God had promised him. Only people with very strong faith can do that and no wonder that God found Abraham quite an extraordinary individual. But why would God appreciate such faith and would he want all humans to have it?
Abraham may not have known much about the country where he was headed, but knew enough about the city which he left behind and where he never wanted to return. He realized that the kind of freedom he could enjoy in that city was what I would call the freedom of the pen or of the bunker. It is the kind of freedom which is understood in terms of abundance and the ability to consume it in an inclosure that provides safety from the outsiders who might want to steal your “blessings.” That is the reason all ancient cities had thick city walls. The Chinese Wall was built for no other purpose. A more modern version is known as the “iron curtain,” the enclosure which was meant to create the most advanced and prosperous society and to keep the foreigners or “the enemies of the people” out. Even Americans, the champions of freedom, no longer think that they can have freedom as long as their borders “are broken” because are not reinforced with strong fences if not with huge concrete walls like in modern Israel. What Abraham must have realized in Ur was what citizens of communist countries discovered, that is, that the iron curtain did not just keep others out, but kept themselves in. It was freedom from outsiders all right, but there wasn’t much room for any other freedom inside either. For those who do not dare to step outside the city, this is the only freedom they believe in and the only freedom they will ever know. Abraham realized that this kind of freedom and life may be ideal for sheep, chicken, and cattle, but human life must be more than that. His faith was not in the city, but in a life which was able to go far beyond what the city pen offered, and he longed for that life. It was in response to that longing that God called Abraham out of the comfort of his enclosure to a kind of life he had never had. In responding to that call, he discovered a life that went not only beyond the life he had had, but that reached beyond himself. Faith enabled him not only to live in an abundant place, but he could live abundantly anywhere he went, and above anything else, connected him with God and eternity, the very source of life.
Aurel Ionica - Majesty.ro
