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By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters August 14, 2026

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August 16 Worship Service Video

 

Join us for Sunday morning worship at CUC at 10:00 AM with the He/SheBrews Café following in the Van Roon Community Hall

 

 

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Dear Friends

Welcome to worship for Sunday, August 16, 2026.

 

I remember well how I was introduced to the writing of Bruce Feiler. My father picked up a copy of Feiler’s book “Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths” in the early 1990’s. After reading it he put it in my hands and said, “you have to read this”. And so I did, which resulted in a remarkable influence in my approach to the Old Testament that has lasted years.

 

It should be said up front that Bruce Feiler is not a historian nor a biblical scholar. He is a journalist and writer who lives in the United States and was raised in a Jewish family though he is not particularly religious. He writes as a journalist, trusting in what he has seen and the stories that have been told to him. “Abraham” was his attempt to reconcile how it is three religious traditions that often do not relate well to one another, nonetheless all claim a connection to this prominent character whose story is told in Genesis.

 

Christians, Jews, and Muslims all see Abraham as a spiritual ancestor but they approach and understand this central character in some very different ways. One of the clearest examples is that in Islam the story is told that Ishmael is the son bound and nearly offered as a sacrifice as opposed to Isaac as is recounted in the scripture of Christianity and Judaism. Feiler explores not simply what is written in the Bible, Torah, or Koran but how religious people of differing traditions think of this commonality.

 

“Abraham” was such a success that it allowed Bruce Feiler the time (and the money) to pursue his next project which was to retrace the stories of Genesis by travelling to the places where it was possible to go that are mentioned there. The result was another bestseller, “Walking the Bible”. In it Feiler leads the reader through his visits to the places the tradition says the stories of Genesis occurred.

From the Eden/Mesopotamia of Adam and Eve to Mt. Ararat and the Noah story. Across the fertile crescent in the footsteps of Abraham and Sarah and the various places named in Canaan where an essentially nomadic people may have camped. And, of course, to Egypt.

 

I believe that one way to approach the stories of Abraham, Sarah, and their descendants as found in Genesis is to see them serving a single purpose which is to locate the children of Israel in Egypt where the Exodus can occur. It is Exodus that forms this people into a nation and a religion. It is in the Exodus story and under the leadership of Moses that God makes a covenant with Israel on Sinai. In one sense, Exodus is where Judaism is born.

 

But back to Bruce Feiler. “Walking the Bible” became a hit PBS docu-series. We have done a couple of studies at Charleswood using it as a resource. Every time I return to it (or the follow up book “Where God Was Born”) I become more fascinated with the ancient stories that are the foundation of our faith and their connection to culture, geography, archeology, and history. That may be especially true in what Feiler says about the Joseph story, the geographical transition from Canaan to Egypt.

 

When we come to the story of Joseph (with or without his coat of many colours) something in the text changes. The storytelling becomes richer. The action is more intense. Themes and imagery that have not been part of the earlier stories now come to the fore. Dreams, for example, become prominent and their interpretation is a sign of God’s grace. That has not been the case before or after. Bruce Feiler suggests that the narrative itself may be the best evidence of Israel in Egypt. That the story of Joseph and his brothers reads and feels in so many ways like an Egyptian story where dreams and divination were common.

 

It reminds me that we do not need evidence for our faith. We do not require proof that a person or people were where the Bible says they were in order to believe. Testimony is something different. We hear the story and we take it into our heart. And when our heart grants it’s consent, we say ‘we believe’.

 

 

Grace and peace,

Michael

 

 

 

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Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson / About Author
Michael’s involvement in the wider church has included ministry with children and youth, membership on the National Division of World Outreach, supervision of campus ministry, and the Ten Days for Global Justice National Committee. He has been blessed by the opportunity to represent the United Church of Canada in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Africa on different occasions. Michael has taught at the University of Winnipeg – Faculty of Theology and is past President of the Conference of Manitoba and North Western Ontario.
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