Genesis 22:1-14
Proper 8 (13) – Year A
Peace and Welcoming are only proved in their doing. It is one thing to pronounce peace and another to live it. It is one thing to announce a welcome and another to demonstrate it. Both Peace and Welcome are demanding masters. They are such large visions with so much detail within. It is best to be a bit humble while visiting these holy ones in their everyday places.
Welcoming is bedrock evangelism. A first rule of thumb of expressing our discipleship is to love one another and, presuming we are expanding our “one another”, its logical extension is that of hospitality.
So we need to welcome the unexpected goat or exile. It saves us from inbred craziness (slaughter of our own) and denial of our common family (if they have been away).
In so doing we will find G*D’s absent face wasn’t so absent after all and we are part of the generations who experience steadfast love in the midst of every wavering.
Thanks be that we are not bound by our sins of self-assurance and closed doors. Our escape from such is a participation in welcoming.
- - - - - - -
In so doing we will find G*D’s absent face wasn’t so absent after all and we are part of the generations who experience steadfast love in the midst of every wavering.
sit in a new-to-you house
experience its idiosyncrasies
wonder where its secrets lie
where children were hurt
what kept blessings from flowing
who was exiled here
or escaped exile
if walls talked
what shame and glory
would come forth
were its doors ever opened wide
or barricaded even more tightly
how will we interact
enough of sitting
though not enough
a start is a cup of cold water
taken through the house
sprinkled here
there and everywhere
that more cups
will be ready
before family stumbles
ere strangers cry out
beckon them in
before they know
their need
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
Let’s see.
Pro-video - to see for.
In the midst of testing that we pray we will not face, comes a provision unexpected – a means of resolution not self-evident in the terms of the test.
Whether we speak of Abraham in Moriah or Jesus in Gethsemane or you where you are – we keep circling back to “G*D will see for us what we cannot see for ourselves, G*D will provide.”
Perhaps it is sufficient for us to simply be clear about the test that is being put before us and to move forward through it.
All along Abraham has heard the promise of generations to come and risking the laughter of Isaac sorely tests that promise. All along Jesus has heard the promise of the freedom of G*D and risking the finality of death sorely tests that promise. All along you have heard the promise of _____ and now _____ is sorely testing that promise.
We find ourselves unable to be free of the testing and unprepared in our own resources to provide for ourselves in the midst of the test.
Where is the expansive love of G*D to be found in a church unable to deal such a basic part of life as sexuality (it seems we have chosen to be blind)? Where is the expansive love of G*D to be found in a world unable to deal with such a basic part of life as sharing and nurturing economic resources (it seems we have chosen to be deaf). Where is the expansive love of G*D to be found in a nation unable to deal with the patriotism of a loyal opposition (it seems we have chosen to be stupid). Where is the expansive love of G*D to be found in a Bible unable to deal with the messiness of providence in the face of rules to kill (it seems we have chosen to be anesthetized).
I don't know where expansive love will show up or when or through whom or anything else. I simply know there is no other way to go in the midst of the ambiguity and contradiction of life, between the testing and the providing, than to stand and say, “It will be seen to.”
Let’s see.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/june2002.html
Peace and Welcoming are only proved in their doing. It is one thing to pronounce peace and another to live it. It is one thing to announce a welcome and another to demonstrate it. Both Peace and Welcome are demanding masters. They are such large visions with so much detail within. It is best to be a bit humble while visiting these holy ones in their everyday places.
How does one bring about reconciliation and welcoming in the midst of a view of life based on sacrifice and “redemptive violence”? Obviously it takes a new word from the outside that sometimes needs to be repeated and repeated before it begins to be seen as a crack through which new life can come.
An anthem that comes to mind here is “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen. [Song and Lyrics.]
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/june2005.html
Welcoming is bedrock evangelism. A first rule of thumb of expressing our discipleship is to love one another and, presuming we are expanding our “one another”, its logical extension is that of hospitality.
So we need to welcome the unexpected goat or exile. It saves us from inbred craziness (slaughter of our own) and denial of our common family (if they have been away).
In so doing we will find G*D’s absent face wasn’t so absent after all and we are part of the generations who experience steadfast love in the midst of every wavering.
Thanks be that we are not limited to the sin of self-assurance and closed doors. Our escape from such sin is a participation in welcoming.
- - - - - - -
sit in a new house
experience its idiosyncrasies
wonder where its secrets lie
where children were hurt
what kept blessings from flowing
who was exiled here
or escaped exile
if walls talked
what shame and glory
would come forth
were its doors ever opened wide
or barricaded even more tightly
how will we interactenough of sitting
though not enough
a start is a cup of cold water
taken through the house
sprinkled here
there and everywhere
that more cups
will be ready
when family and strangers
call
and beckon them in
before they know
their need
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
For PETAites, the sacrifice of a ram is not any more desirable than the sacrifice of a human. When a creator demands the sacrifice of a portion of the creation, there are questions to be raised about what is going on. Who has lost faith with whom?
When is a test regarding human relationships ethical. This is not to say it doesn’t regularly go on, but when pausing to think about it how much pain are we willing to expose another to while we are at a distance? Is a false shock to an actor any more or less questionable than a real shock to an innocent? What does it do to both? Well, true, that can’t be measured because we are able to shift what an event means to us. We may even be able to shift our perceptions pharmaceutically with some new PTS medications.
Is this about compartmentalism? Abraham puts G*D in one box that trumps all others? Might it be about breaking compartmentalism? Abraham is willing to concede his initial plan and substitute? Is this the great learning of Abraham as after this we hear of Sarah’s death, Isaac’s marriage, and Abraham’s death?
The Abraham story eventually boils down to learning to not be rigid, even rigid in waiting. It begins with leaving a physical home and ends with leaving a spiritual home that a next generation might have its journey. What remains is the Well of Lahai-roi (25:11). Let us all gather around such a well as we are brought together, separate, rejoin, and are sustained into a next stage of life, a next generation.