1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
Abraham's examples of faith in action demonstrated a radical break from the status quo, a departure from the familiar. Starting with Genesis 12 and continuing through his entire story, Abraham is consistently shown as being challenged by God to walk into the unfamiliar and the unknown.
Faith doesn't necessarily require a tenacious clinging to one's past. Faith in action includes an exploration, even a wrestling with the real and the true and the transcendent. Faith needn't exist in a single moment or decision or change if mind. A life of active faith may continue to grow and explore and develop and change, even to the degree of leaving behind prior assumptions, belief's and practices when one discovers they are on the wrong path.
Faith in action does not need to include a strident clinging to the old and traditional. On the contrary, Abraham was asked by God to leave his old traditions behind. Faith in action is an exploration. It is a journey of discovery. It is a cooperation with the God who wants to be revealed in and through humanity, and will willingly wait lifetimes to do so.
Faith needn't fear change. Faith needn't fear a challenge. We place our faith in what is true, therefore it is not our faith, but the truth that is tested. If a challenge to that which we place our faith in reveals that we are wrong, faith is glad to change paths and be guided closer to the truth in belief and action.
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Genesis does not reveal a story of Abraham developing a set of theological beliefs over his lifetime. Genesis says that Abraham believed God. He put his trust fully in God's word and God's direction. Over his entire life, God participates with Abraham in significant revelatory events. Abraham
Is tested. Abraham is judged. Abraham is blessed. Abraham intercedes. Through it all, God is pleased to be revealed more fully in Abraham's life with each step.
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