The Cornerstone

By Kelly Monroe Kullberg and David Kullberg

Though their antecedents are rarely explored in the evening news, present

tensions in the Middle East are rooted in a family story that is more than

four thousand years old. This drama begins with Abraham, a model of faith

and a father to Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Muslims learn about Abraham

through the Qur’an (Koran) of Islam. Jews and Christians learn about

Abraham through what the Jews call the Torah and Christians call the Old

Testament, beginning in Genesis.1

The first chapters of Genesis shed light on some basic questions — our

origins and purpose, why we fight, why we die, and how we live meaningfully.

We find glory, beauty, love, deception, shame, blame, punishment, sibling

rivalry, murder, expulsion — all in the first four chapters of Genesis. Before

long, God grieved the sin among his people and re-created the world through

a flood, a baptism, if you will. As author Madeleine L’Engle suggested, “The

flood was God’s tears.”2 But God found one righ teous family, Noah’s, through

which he rebirthed a freshly storied world.

From Genesis 10 on, the focus of Scripture is on covenant relationships. In

the context of cultural confusion in ancient Babel, where men were building

a great city for personal glory, the Lord not only separated people through

unique languages, he also planted the seed of a remarkable people who were

asked to reject idolatry and live in love. Like us, these were fallible and three dimensional

people, making Genesis a vivid, candid, R-rated page-turner.

Through it all God was faithful, and over many generations the seed grew

into a life-giving tree. Any person could be grafted into that tree, not by

fortune of lineage or wealth but simply by faith in God and in his promised

Messiah. God begins with a remarkable father and mother, a patriarch and

matriarch. Abram and Sarai (whom God renamed Abraham and Sarah) were

citizens of Ur, a great center of ancient Mesopotamia. And the Lord said to

Abraham, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household

to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation” (Genesis

12:1 – 2).

Muslims honor Abraham as the first monotheist, worshiper of the one

true God they call Allah. Muslims trace their heritage through Abraham and

Hagar, the servant who was Sarah’s childbearing surrogate, and their son,

Ishmael (Abraham’s firstborn child). Muslims prize the promise God made

to Hagar when she was abandoned in the wilderness: “Lift the boy [Ishmael]

up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation” (Genesis

21:18). Indeed, Ishmael was blessed with life and progeny, for he had twelve

sons, and his numbers quickly grew.

Jews and Christians trace their lineage through the son God promised

Sarah and Abraham — Isaac, the miraculously conceived son of the free

woman, through whom God would foreshadow and fulfill his covenant promises.

Isaac’s son Jacob then bore twelve sons, whose descendants became the

twelve tribes of Israel.

The account of Abraham and Sarah continues the theme of God’s covenant

(beginning with Noah) to one particular family. The Lord said to Abraham,

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all

peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

GENESIS 12:3

I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. . . . I will make

you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.

GENESIS 17:1, 6

The branches of this family tree would be known by their fruit. They

would, as a way of life, turn curses into blessings. Joseph, son of Jacob, grandson

of Isaac, converted the curse of exile into blessing: not only did Joseph

save his own brothers who’d sold him into slavery but he saved non-Jews as

well, including all of Egypt, from famine. The children of God would, and

will, become a blessing to the nations. “Thus there were fourteen generations

in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon,

and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah” (Matthew 1:17).

This shared respect for Abraham, with differing ideas of the past, present,

and future, makes the conflicts among Jews/Christians and Muslims — from 1

the medieval crusades to today’s Middle Eastern clashes — surprising on

one hand and understandable on the other. But embedded within the tension

there is also hope — that any cousin who so chooses will be present at the

family reunion.

For reflection and discussion

• How do you see this ancient story unfolding in our time?

• At the age of one hundred years, “Abraham gave the name Isaac to the

son Sarah bore him” (Genesis 21:3). Why do you think Abraham chose a

name that means, in Hebrew, “he laughs”? Sarah also laughed. Why?

The theme of Abrahamic covenant is so essential that the apostle Paul revisited

it two millennia later. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul tells Christfollowers

that they are not children of slavery but of freedom. In Galatians

3:26 – 28 and Galatians 5:1, he writes:

You are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into

Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile,

neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ

Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according

to the promise. . . . It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm,

then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

• What is it to be a child of slavery? What is it to be a child of freedom and

the Spirit? How might people in freedom bless those in slavery?

• What resources have you been given to share as a blessing to another?

Reprinted from “A Faith and Culture Devotional”, copyright 2008, Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington.

The Faith and Culture Devotional contains over 100 daily readings in the subjects of Art, Science, and Life.  It is written, edited by Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington and published by Zondervan, 2008.

It is available for purchase from Zondervan at www.zondervan.com or through The Cornerstone.  The retail price is $16.99, Cornerstone’s regular price is $13.59 and currently there is a BSU student special price of only $10.00.

The Cornerstone is hosting a series of lectures by  Paul Brown, Ph.D.,  on Intelligent Design and Evolutionary Theory.

Dr. Brown is Assoc. Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Studies at Trinity Western University,  in Langley, B.C.

There will be three separate talks on Wednesday nights at 7:00 in the Cornerstone room of The Biblical Studies Center.

• Nov. 17th, 7:00 pm  “An Introduction To Intelligent Design Theory” This talk will be an introduction to construction of Intelligent Design Theory and comparison with other systems of thought such as Darwinism, Neo-Darwinism, Punctuated Equilibrium.

• Dec. 1st, 7:00 pm  “Fingerprints of Design” This talk will focus on whether design is recognizable and what methods are used to measure information and design.

• Dec. 8th, 7:00 pm   “Alternative Scenarios on The Diversity of Life” This talk will address the question of how including the notion of design and information might change our view of life and evolutionary change.

The Lectures will be in the Cornerstone room at The Biblical Studies Center building, 1025 Belmont St.  For more information, please contact Steve Barry at The Cornerstone, 345-1757.