Uniting the Family of Abraham

By Joyce Ramay

For All Faiths Unitarian Congregation

Today I am going to talk to you about Abraham.  

In Genesis 12:3 – God told Abraham “In you all the families of earth shall be blessed. You shall be the father of a multitude of nations.”  We are told that we are all children of Abraham. While we may live in many nations, we can live our diverse, blessed lives on this earth.

The story of Abraham is a story of spiritual progress and pilgrimage. Today I will address some of the themes of his story.

Migration & Pilgrimage

Abraham left Ur and the Sumerian worship of idols. By use of his intellect, he realized that the sun, moon and stars are not gods – for they all set. He broke idols, and demonstrated that if the idols of wood and stone cannot even protect themselves, how can they protect the people who worship them?

What does this breaking of idols really mean? Spiritually advanced people know that idolatry is not just the worship of manmade statues, but also the idolatry of power, wealth, fame, ego, nationalism and selfishness.

The Bible is filled with stories of migration, including that of Abraham. His was a migration not only of the body, but also of the soul. Migration involves a spiritual quest, a search for a higher and better way of living and being. And it demonstrates a unique kind of confidence, faith and trust that the forces of the universe will come together to aid us. Fearful people remain behind.

This week, we in America celebrated the migration of the European Pilgrims to the New World, their quest for religious freedom, and their being saved by the hospitable Indians who did not turn away strangers.

Abraham called to the whole world to make a pilgrimage to the shrine that he and his son, Ishmael, built in Mecca. There is a tradition that when they were digging the foundations, they found the original altar that Adam and Eve had built after they left the Garden of Eden. Abraham was calling people back to their source, back to their roots, and to their family reunion.

This week in Arabia, millions of Muslims from all over the world gathered together at Mecca for the Haj – their pilgrimage. People of all colors from many nations go forth to Arabia. When they perform Haj, they are dressed alike. There is no separation by status, race or sex.

This Haj pilgrimage is a symbolic reversal of the great separation of people portrayed in the Bible in the story of the Tower of Babel, or Babylon. It is a time for rejection of the Babylonians’ pride and their imperialistic hubris. It is a time of unity and yielding of our egos to something higher than ourselves.

When Malcolm X went to Haj, he realized that the racism preached by his leader, Elijah Muhammad, was not legitimate in Islam. He experienced an epiphany of unity and equality of all. And like so many others before him who came to that realization, he was assassinated by those who sought to sustain their pride and power by separating us into enemy groups.

Another Theme of Abraham’s story is that of Sacrifice

We have all heard the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. At the last minute, God tells him, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, now I know that you are in awe of God.” When I was a child, I did not particularly appreciate that story. What kind of father would kill his child, and what kind of God would ask him to do so.

Now I believe that the story is really about ending human sacrifice, which was prevalent in those days. Abraham started out to do what was a common practice, but at the last minute he had the inspired realization that he should stop. I was always glad that God provided a ram to be sacrificed instead.

This week, at the end of the Haj, Muslims celebrated Eid ul Azhar, which is their holiest day. It is in commemoration of Abraham’s obedience and trust in God, and the sacrifice of the ram. Muslims reenact the ritual sacrifice of animals, and distribute the meat to their families and those who are in need. Westerners sometimes object to this sacrifice, but Muslims point out that their Eid is like Good Friday and Easter, when Christians celebrate the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus.

Another Theme of Abraham’s family story is Sibling Rivalry

Abraham and his brother, Lot, were rivals for land, but they resolved the matter peacefully. Abraham told Lot, “Let there be not strife between you and me.” He gave Lot first choice of the best land near the Jordan and he took land in Canaan. In this is a good lesson for Israel and Palestine today. It is better to share than to take everything for yourself.

There was a lot of tension and division between Abraham’s sons, Isaac and Ishmael, and their mothers, but in the end the families united again. Both were told that they would father many nations. Both could flourish. Isaac and Ishmael came together to bury Abraham when he died. And traditions tell us that Isaac, who was blind, went to live with his favorite son Esau, who was living with the family of Ishmael. After Jacob had cheated Esau of his birthright, he had fled in fear to Haran, where he worked seven years to wed Leah, and another seven years to wed Rachel. Eventually Jacob left Haran and returned to the welcoming and forgiving embrace of Esau.

Jacob had 12 sons, 10 by Leah and 2 by Rachel. We all know the story of how the older brothers were jealous and sold Joseph to some travelers who took him to Egypt. Eventually, when Joseph’s brothers came in desperation to Egypt, he forgave them.

These are timeless stories of abandonment, strife, betrayal, rivalry and ultimate reconciliation.

So how do we apply the lessons from Sacred Scriptures?

Jewish, Christian and Muslim spiritual leaders are using these shared stories from the Bible, the Quran and their traditions to lay the foundations for peace and reconciliation. There are people hard at work building paths of peace on the bedrock of their shared values and similar scriptures that favor forgiveness and reconciliation. Such methods are often more effective than the kind of hardnosed bargaining that goes on between national power brokers, for they speak to the hearts and souls of people, not just to their selfish greed and pride.

In Pakistan, my late husband Haneef and I attended sessions on Interfaith Dialogue held at the Dominican Center in Lahore. Haneef spoke there on how we are all the children of Abraham, people of the book, all believers in the same divine source and unity, and all brothers and sisters with a shared heritage.

Several times Haneef and I attended the National Prayer Breakfast with 3,500 people from around the world, hosted by Presidents Clinton and Bush, and all the congressmen, in Washington DC. When we first attended, the entire focus was on Jesus. But then Haneef met with Doug Coe, their founding organizer, and told him he felt that they needed to be more inclusive of the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus, who all shared traditions comparable to the message of Jesus.

So Doug Coe invited Haneef to speak to all the attendees the next year. Haneef said that we should think of the round earth as the round table of Abraham. We all sit at the same round table. There is no head of the table. And everyone at the table should share the food and blessings of the earth. Afterwards there was a standing ovation, and people came from all over the huge room to thank him for his words – including President Ramos of the Philippines and the Ambassador from India (at a time of great tension between Pakistan and India.) At the speaker’s table, I sat beside a tiny old lady from Tibet who had been the tutor of the Dalai Lama. She said that Haneef spoke with the same love that the Dalai Lama did.

We also attended various meetings of the International Center for Religious Diplomacy, which concentrates on Track II efforts to build peace by calling upon people everywhere to heed their own scriptural calls for love, peace, and reconciliation. They have been active in promoting peace between Christians and Muslims in Kosovo, and in the Sudan. They have also been working to bring greater understanding between Indians and Pakistanis over Kashmir. At one of their retreats we attended in Maryland, Muslims and Hindus from opposite sides in Kashmir came together and embraced each other in tears after discovering their commonalities.

            I once was invited to chair a session of the Asia-Africa Philosophical Association in Lahore. People who attended were Muslim, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist. After they presented their papers, I would briefly summarize each speaker’s key points, make a few comments, and open the floor for discussion. After one presentation about basic philosophical contradictions necessitated by their different worldviews and faiths, I suggested that a lot depends upon how we use words and metaphors for our religious faiths. The Christian Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit was like the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, yet both Hindus and Christians also believed in the greater unity of One God, one Brahman, the unified divinity. Hindus worshipped gods and goddesses as various aspects of the divine, while Muslims worshipped God by using the 99 names of Allah – again metaphors for the multifaceted aspects of divinity. So there are many aspects and many names, but one Unity. Likewise Buddhists recognize many bodhisattvas of the enlightened one, Hindus recognize divine avatars like Krishna, Christians revere Jesus as the living incarnation of the divine, and Muslims honor the divinely inspired Muhammad. It was my All Faiths message of diversity within unity.

The organizer of the international gathering said that my comments had led to their liveliest discussion in several years. Some people told me later that my comments had led to a kind of personal breakthrough for them. I believe this demonstrates that people everywhere are eager to discover a way toward unity. I was particularly pleased when Prof. Singh from the Gandhi Institute of India, who had been an intimate follower of Mahatma Gandhi, said that Gandhi would have been happy to hear what I had to say in Pakistan. You may know that Gandhi had been inspired not only by his own sacred scriptures of India, but also by the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus.

Why do old stories matter?

History is the story of the human family. We learn that all families experience times of harmony, joy, and love, but they also experience strife, rivalry, and competition. At times, Cain kills Abel. But more often, families fight and then reconcile. If that were not so, history would have ended at the beginning because we all would have killed each other.

Is the story of Abraham true? Did Abraham really live? Did Isaac live and give birth to the Jews? Did Ishmael give birth to the Arabs? Must they remain enemies? Did the Jews kill Jesus, and alienate Christians from Jews forever? What are the truths?

I recall one time when Dr. Mark Ehman was telling a mythical story from India. Someone asked Haneef if he believed that the story was true. Haneef said, “All stories are true.” When asked what he meant, he continued, “All stories speak to the truths of the human condition.” It is in that spirit that we should appreciate great scriptures, poetry and literature.

In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul tells us that Christians (even gentiles) are in Abraham’s family. “Be assured that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, “All the nations shall be blessed in you.” 

So Paul tells us that if you belong to Jesus, then you also are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. The family of Abraham includes Christians, as well as the Jews who are the children of Isaac, and the Arabs who are the children of Ishmael. You are part of Abraham’s family if you give up the idols of this world, embrace the Unitarianism of Abraham, and adopt his trust and friendship with the one unifying principle of the universe.

            Our stories tell us that we have choices in life. We can choose to include others. We can choose to reconcile when there has been conflict. We can choose to lead a life of peace, love and forgiveness. Or we can choose the path of hatred, division, revenge, and conflict.

Abraham’s tent was open on all sides. He welcomed strangers. He sought peace. His sons Isaac and Ishmael came together in peace, even though Ishmael and his mother had been abandoned to die in the desert, and had been sent into exile. Abraham’s grandsons Esau and Jacob came together in peace, even though Jacob had cheated Esau out of his birthright. And his great-grandson Joseph came together in peace with his brothers who had sold him into slavery.

This is the lesson of the family of Abraham. We will not always agree. We may have struggles and strife. But we can and should forgive, come together, and embrace each other. Abraham was told, “All the nations shall be blessed in you.” It is up to all of us to make that prophecy a reality.

So at this time of Thanksgiving, Haj and Eid ul Azhar, I will end with this message from the Quran. (Sura 42:13):

“Sacred Unity has opened to you a way of natural religion. It was given to Noah to follow. It is the same faith that we have revealed to you, and which we showed to Abraham, to Moses, to Jesus, to the end that true religion might continue in the earth. Don't divide yourself into sects: the true religion unites all.”

Salaam, Shalom, Peace to all!

2009 11-29