Abraham & Sarah

Abraham & Sarah (excerpt at 0:23 min)

I have been thinking about more characters within the biblical tradition who help us to consider how we might live with curiosity and creativity and courage for such a time as this. And what I love about the mythic stories within our sacred texts is that they're always challenging the status quo. So for example, we have the book of Genesis that lays down some of these big stories, and among the characters are an old couple named Abraham and Sarah, who in their 70s are invited to pack up their bags and to go to a land that God is promising them. And God also promises that he will make them the foremother and the forefather of a great nation. Well, like they're in their 70s and I forgot to say no children. So like how's that going to happen? And so Abraham and Sarah move out with their possessions on their back and some of their family accompanying them, and that's how the story goes, until the next promise comes, and that's a promise that Sarah won't bear a child, to which she just laughed.

And so the archetype of Abraham and Sarah—and they're meant to be archetypes, right, they're meant to be models for all of us—reminds me of that saying by the poet Mary Oliver: "Allow some room in your heart for the unimaginable." So here we are, all of us in this new season of our lives, and many of us would say, "How am I going to learn to live in this new season?" particularly those of us who are older or older yet.

Covid Sunday story: For such a time as this, living with curiosity, creativity and courage - full video.