In today’s reading from Genesis 17, God finalizes his covenant with Abraham (originally named “Abram”). I say “finalize,” because this relationship began in Genesis 12 when God chose Abraham and told him to “go to the land that I show you…. So Abram went.” This sort of divine command and response in obedience marks covenant relationship as taught in the Jewish scriptures. In this initial call, Abram is promised blessing, descendants, and land. He goes forth in hopeful obedience. Abraham and his household become the paradigm immigrant family. I can hardly imagine feeling a call from God to leave all that you know and love with just your immediate family and to go to a new land with promises of a better life; yet so many of God’s faithful in our world go forth with the same hope today despite all the odds.

The covenantal promise is articulated further in Genesis 15 when God promises the aged Abraham a son through his wife Sarah. Both struggled with such a hope and intervene in their own ways. God must then compensate and teach them further about the freedom that comes (paradoxically) with faithful obedience. This brings us back to Genesis 17 and God the Almighty’s climactic move of sealing this covenant with Abraham and his descendants through the ritual of circumcision. This rite will mark males as being in special covenant relationship with God—eventually God’s chosen people (see Exodus 19–20). Abraham submits himself to God, questioning the possibility of his long-hoped-for promise at this late stage. Can we blame him?

God then lays out the consequences of Abraham’s journey of ups and downs in faith: two great nations, one through Ishmael and the other Isaac. These siblings and their descendants may always be in rivalry. The descendants of Ishmael are the Arab peoples and the descendants of Isaac are the Jewish people, but they are all God’s children. They must be valued and respected as such. Gentiles like me are not yet in the mix. Through this final movement in God’s covenantal outreach to Abraham, Abraham becomes the model of faith and father of Judaism (and Christianity and Islam, for that matter).

These biblical texts present intense historical theology, but they are also prophetic and revelatory. God’s offer/challenge of covenant relationship may be easy and comforting and it may be confronting and life-changing. It may also challenge both our self-understanding as well as how we view the “other” in this world. Aren’t the faithful attempting to live in the Kingdom of God in this world always destined to be immigrants? But our journeys can always be hope-filled and give new directions for life in union with God.

The notion of covenant remains fundamental to Christian faith. Indeed, Christians, like our Jewish brothers and sisters, believe that God interacts with humankind and all God’s creation through covenant relationship. Christians believe that God has fulfilled the older covenants found in the Jewish scriptures and has, therefore, put in place a new covenant whereby relationship with God is available to all humankind through the faithful obedience of Jesus, who is Christ and Son of God. This is the good news!

We all participate in this good news. That said, we might also ask ourselves, how does God’s covenant with me play out? I know I do. Abraham heard God tell him to go, and he went. Jesus, likewise, understood his own mission to teach and offer himself as a sacrifice that completed and put in place a new covenant. How is God calling us? How might we step forward in covenantal obedience to live out our singular vocations in relationship to God through Jesus Christ?