The Second Sunday of Lent, 1 March 2026
Readings: Genesis 12.1-4a; Romans 4.1-5, 13-17; John 3.1-17.
Theme: Abraham, The Father of All?
Identity is a powerful driver of human thought and action. One only needs to realize how resilient the very nineteenth century idea of nationalism has been in our own time to understand its power to embrace a diversity of people and their ideas. Nationalism is a strong social force; and of course it comes in many varieties, so one should be cautious in attributing simple good and bad categories to it. It can be both, respectively, in different contexts and situations.
In religious terms, nationalism has often been a dividing issue. Religions have frequently been used to galvanize sentiments of belonging in a nation to knit together its various elements. When these elements become racially or ethnically located then forms of racism and prejudice can easily arise. A certain level of homogeneity and lack of critical thinking is required to keep the whole pretence of sameness on track. It can only take one voice to raise a ´prohibited´ question to bring the whole edifice tumbling down.
One can understand the so-called Protestant Reformation as just such a moment. A time when the voice of dissent was raised and what had been, in the western world at least, a homogenous religious community of belonging, was split apart into various forms of tribal belonging. Protestants over here, Roman Catholic over there, and the Orthodox on a very different plateau in the East altogether. And so, it has been ever since.
Yet, paradoxically, Christianity was born in a movement away from just such a sense of tribal belonging. The key figure in this shift was Saint Paul. He was the one who transformed the understanding of the Jewish faith from its ethnic roots and struggles with the question of just how such a particular revelation in Jesus could be of universal significance. Central to this shift is his understanding of the status of Abraham. Paul is the one who asks a fundamental question: is Abraham just the father of the Jewish nation?
That is a question which runs through Paul’s new interpretation of the Old Testament, and indeed his whole journey into faith in Jesus, following his encounter with him on the road to Damascus. When Paul comes to understand that Jesus is the Messiah, his whole understanding of the law and its works, righteousness, faith, and the gift of God´s grace is transformed.
This transformation is part of Paul´s coming to understand who is to be included in the community of the disciples of Jesus and what they need to do to be included in it. In the past, the works of the law were required, such as circumcision for males, to fully belong to the community. Fulfilling the works of the law gave one access to the community. When you followed the prescriptions of the law you were granted access to the community.
However, when Paul comes to realize that all who have faith in the crucified and risen Messiah belong to this community of the elect, the works of the law no longer function as identity markers granting entrance into the club. Now belonging is given through the gift of faith in Jesus, a gift which is freely given by the grace of God and not as wages for fulfilling the works of the Jewish law.
This faith in God, this trust in the one who saves, is prefigured in Abram; the one who will later be called, Abraham, because he is to be the father of all nations and not just of the Jewish people. That which confers belonging on this community of nations is God´s blessing of Abram. It is a gift, not one earned by any works of the law, but freely given by God.
When this faith in God is received, then we, like Nicodemus, will be born again (John 19.39). No longer is our faith born of the works of the law, in Paul´s terms, the belonging that comes from familial ties through the flesh, but rather we are born again into the community of faith in Jesus; we are born again of the Spirit.
So, in faith, Abraham is the father of us all. He is the one who prefigures the faith in God which confers belonging on the new community. It is a community of all nations regardless of ethnic origin because it is a community created by the Spirit of God. This is the universal community of the born again that God has chosen to come into being and to be announced, through the Jewish tradition of Abraham and his descendants, to all the nations.
This new form of identity formation will arise because of Paul´s transformation of the understanding of faith. Faith will no longer be defined by the works of the law but by the loyalty and the trust that one has in Jesus to save. The community of this faith will be constituted by those who trust in Jesus and are not concerned about ethnic belonging, tribal allegiances, or any other of the identity markers which societies garner to hold their citizens together in one community. From now on, all those who trust in the Lord and follow his ways will be acceptable to God.
Such a universalism will have profound implications for the future development of Christianity because it will confer upon it a particular form of missionary zeal. All, literally, all people are invited into its fold because God shows no favourites and all who follow his will are acceptable to him. This is the legacy of the courageous faith of Abram who will, because of this, become Abraham: the father of all nations.