Proper 8, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Proper 8, Yr A (2023)                                                               The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Genesis 22:1-14                                                                  St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Matthew 10:40-42

In the name of the one, holy, and living God:

            in whom we live, and move, and have our being.  Amen.

Despite the spoiler alert that begins today’s Old Testament reading…

            “God tested Abraham...”

      and despite the fact that we know how the story ends…Isaac lives,

I suspect that each of us shivers or recoils in horror as we hear:

            “Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son!”

I mean, really?!

I assure you that even if, by some miracle, I made it up the mountain,

I wouldn’t have gotten as far as binding my son

and laying him on top of the wood,

      much less drawing the knife. 

I would not even have been able to ask him to carry his own wood up the mountain.

But, perhaps I’m a wimp,

            or unfaithful,

                        or simply human.

     I’m certainly not Abraham!

Was Abraham actually willing to sacrifice his son?

            or was something else at play here?

God calls to Abraham and tells him to take his only and beloved son, Isaac,

to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. 

So, Abraham does.

He packs the donkey,

gathers some wood, his son, and two young men for the journey

       and heads out.

Three days in he sees the mountain in the distance and says to the two young men:

“Stay here with the donkey;

      the boy and I will go over there;

we will worship, and then we will come back to you.”

Notice the “we” language…

we will come back to you. 

Perhaps he’s trying not to frighten his son.

Isaac recognizes that they have wood and fire but no lamb,

so he asks his father about that.

Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” 

            Isaac’s fear is quelled again.

And then, of course, we see Abraham bind his son,

lay him upon the wood,

and reach for the knife.

We “see” him…

            we aren’t just hearing the words.

This is so horrific, we can’t help but visualize this story!

Perhaps what I’m about to say is me imposing my own reading on this story

because I’m unwilling to believe that Abraham would actually kill his own son    

       because God told him to.

But it seems to me that Abraham believed from the beginning

that God would provide a lamb other than his own son for the offering.

That Abraham tells the two young men

“we will come back to you”

      and tells Isaac that God will provide a lamb for the sacrifice

suggests to me that Abraham truly believed that God would provide

            and not require him to sacrifice his own son after all.

Now…even if that interpretation is true,

it doesn’t make this story any less challenging!

I wonder…

 how easy - or elusive - is our own absolute trust in the promises of God.

Maybe we glimpse such trust for a moment,

but then the next moment we’re scrambling to take charge again,

       trusting in our own reasoning and resources.

Perhaps Abraham gives us a clue as to how to embody such radical trust.

The Rev. Earl Kooperkamp said, “the secret to lasting transformation is pure presence.” (from Stephanie Spellers, Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation, p. 143).

Pure presence.

God said to Abraham, “Abraham!”

            And Abraham said, “Here I am.”

Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!”

            “Here I am, my son.”

The angel of the Lord called, “Abraham, Abraham!”

            “Here I am.”

Here I am…

present to the moment,

present to God,

      present to God in this moment.

Pure presence allows for transformation.

Abraham called that place, “The Lord will provide,”

            because he trusted in God’s goodness and promise of abundant life.

Now with this story of Abraham as a backdrop,

let’s leap over to the Gospel,

      keeping in mind trust God’s goodness and abundant life.

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,

and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

The Gospel mentions the word “welcome” six times in three verses!

Jesus speaks of a welcoming,

ultimately of God,

as we welcome another.

But truly welcoming another involves an absolute trust in God’s promises;

            it is by no means an easy undertaking.

To welcome someone we must create space within ourselves.

We must be open

       and live with a generosity of heart.

Henri Nouwen says about welcome…

“hospitality means primarily the creation of free space

       where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. 

“Hospitality is not to change people,

but to offer them space where change can take place.”

(Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life)

And I’d suggest that change might take place in either person in the encounter. 

We must be willing to be changed as we welcome another!

To welcome someone else,

we must cast off preconceived notions, resentment, bitterness, judgment, hardness of heart, fear, anger, jealousy…all those things that close us off.

In casting off these things, we are then able to practice pure presence.

In practicing pure presence with another human being,

 as in the words “I am here,”

       we are trusting that God will provide;

                        and in our trust,

      our lives will be transformed.

God will provide us the courage to be honest.

            God will provide the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental resources we need.

     God will guide our conversation wherever it needs to go.

In welcoming another,

we offer whatever we have to give at the moment

       and are receptive to what the other has to offer.

What an amazing

and courageous

and vulnerable moment.

Easier said than done.

Self-protection of all forms so easily takes over…

sometimes that is necessary,

      but I wonder if self-protection is better off as the exception rather than the norm.

If we are able to welcome another, as Jesus says,

then we welcome Jesus himself.

       And if we welcome Jesus, then we welcome God.

What would happen if, each time we encountered someone else, we looked for God?

            Welcomed God in our midst?

I believe it is “both/and.” 

            As we open ourselves to the other, we open ourselves to God…

     and as we open ourselves to God, we open ourselves to the other.

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,

and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me….

     and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones…

none of these will lose their reward.”

Even a cup of water,

            something seemingly insignificant…

       yet vital for life.

To offer a cup of water means that we have to set aside our agenda enough to recognize that the person in front of us is thirsty!

And then we have to make the effort to fetch the cup of water.

Abraham trusted that God is in the process of saving – of healing – the world…

            trusting that God will fulfill God’s promises

       and that we are participants in that work of healing and new life.

To be participants we must trust God,

            practice pure presence with God and one another,

     and offer what we have to give in the moment.

There is nothing easy about it.

It takes courage and vulnerability.

But that is why we gather here week after week in community:

            to be fed by the Body and Blood of Christ as food for our journeys…

     that we may become Christ’s Body in and for the world,

                  welcoming all into the household of God!

Amen.