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Sermon: June 30

One of the highlights of my trip to Israel in 1999 was to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It sits upon the Temple Mount and is a sacred site for Muslims, Christians and Jews. For Muslims, it is the site said to be where Mohammed ascended to heaven. For Jews & Christians, the rock is the site where Abraham brought his son Isaac to be sacrificed. It was awesome to experience the site, to see the rock and see a site connected with a specific story in the bible even if it is mere tradition that tells us that.

But that story called the binding of Isaac or Akedah in Hebrew, the near sacrifice of Isaac, is important for us as we understand what it means to live a life by trust and faith. As we have walked with Abraham and Sarah the last few Sundays, we have gotten a sense of his faith, his compassion, his longing for a son, and his relationship with Sarah and God.

Today it is put to a test. The story tells us that God is testing Abraham, nothing tells Abraham that it is a test. God said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." It begins like so many of their conversations…

God said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you."

It would seem like an outrageous request. God wants you to take your son, your only son, the one that God has blessed you with, the one promised to you, and offer him as brunt offering. But some of the words here are familiar… Just like the first time that Abraham hears God’s words (back in chapter 12); God sends him and his family into an unknown land, but Abraham goes because he believes in God and what God promises him and his family. Fearful, fraught with so many things left undone, leaving everything they know behind them, they venture forth. Here Abraham again goes forth trusting in God, taking Isaac, who is old enough to understand…

Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

Isaac is aware of the offering, and he asks Dad where the lamb is. And Abraham tells him that God will provide it. There is trust between them. They walk on together, prepare the wood and fire and then Isaac is bound. The text tells us that Abraham intended to kill Isaac. And then the angel steps in and tells Abraham to not do it.

The angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."

It surely is a test but there is a lot of trust in this story…
1. Abraham trusts that God will provide a lamb for the offering (and not his son)
2. Isaac trusts that Abraham will not kill him and that God will provide
3. God trusts that Abraham will follow God’s directions as he had done before, that his fear of God (this reverence and awe) will lead him.

And in our story today, Abraham responds three times, “here I am.” Ready for God’s word, ready for Isaac, ready again for God’ intervention, Abraham responds in trust and faith: Here I am. I have often seen this near sacrifice of Isaac, with him as a young boy, but the text does not give us his age, and some scholars using dates further on in the chapter suggest that Isaac may have been much older, teenager even an adult. And if this is so, then Isaac allowed himself to be bound, trusting his dad.

And there is something about journey in this narrative about Abraham and trust, and living with that faith. As one author put it, “What is suggested in [God’s] ‘go forth’ [to Abraham] is that two journeys are about to take place, an external journey and an internal journey. All external journeys, as every tourist knows, are infinitely richer if the traveler also fully recognizes the internal journey that is happening simultaneously.” (Jo Milgrom) And that journey of trust and faith is something we all have to learn.

One of my kid’s favorite shows (and mine too) is Disney’s Finding Nemo, about a clown fish named Marlin who has to undergo a long journey to save his son Nemo who was taken by a scuba diver for his tank at his office. But Marlin’s journey is much more than just saving his son, it is a journey that is as much about trust and faith. Something he has so little of at the beginning of the story and slowly through the journey with a little blue fish named Doree, he learns to trust in others and have faith and by the end trusts his son Nemo as they help fish free themselves from a fishermen’s net.

Abraham shows us that trust and faith in God can help us on our journeys…

Sadly, sometimes, we forget that trust and faith.

As I was looking at images for Abraham and Isaac, I found a contemporary sculpture by George Segal who made Isaac a young man in his work from 1978. "There is a strong connection in my mind between the image of Abraham and Isaac and the killings at Kent State" Segal explains. "It's an attempt to introduce difficult moral and ethical questions as to how older people should behave toward their children." Segal sees the May 4 incident as a "genuine tragedy in that both sides were well meaning, each convinced of its own point of view and unable to see the other's." (from http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/4may70/exhibit/memorials/segal.html)

So Abraham called that place "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided."

On our journeys, may we remember Abraham and Isaac, the trust and faith they had in each other and in God. May we trust in God, find faith in the promises made to us by God through his son Jesus and learn to trust in one another. The Journey we make both external and internal, like so many have in ages past, is to learn to trust that God will provide as we have heard in the biblical story, and as we have seen with our lives. Amen.

Traces of the Trade

[Episcopal News Service] Public Broadcasting System's (PBS) Point of View (POV) documentary show begins its 21st season on June 24 with the national broadcast premiere of "Traces of the Trade."

"Traces," one of three documentaries bought by POV at the Sundance Film Festival in January, tells the story of the DeWolf family, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history and also a prominent part of the Episcopal Church in Rhode Island. James DeWolf Perry was the 18th Presiding Bishop.

POV is set to air at 10 p.m. EDT. Local times (via ZIP code or state) may be searched here.

The film's release comes during the year that marks the bicentennial anniversary of the United States' abolition of the slave trade.

In the film, Katrina Browne, a DeWolf descendant and the documentary's producer and director, narrates while cameras follow her and nine other family members as they retrace the route of the "Triangle Trade" in slaves, rum, sugar and other goods between Rhode Island, Ghana, and Cuba. Browne and the others address issues of atonement and reconciliation during their journey.

"In 'Traces of the Trade,' we wanted to ask this question: What is our responsibility?" said Browne. "I'm less concerned with understanding the extreme inhumanity of my ancestors than with understanding the mundane, ordinary complicity of the majority of New Englanders who participated in a slave-based economy. That had more parallels to me and my family today: well-intentioned white folks who are still part of systems that do harm. It's important to roll up our sleeves to deal with what we all inherited from our country's history."

Several screenings of the rough cut of "Traces of the Trade" at the Episcopal Church's 75th General Convention in June 2006 were influential in creating the atmosphere in which the convention passed a number of resolutions about the church and racism. These included A123, in which the Episcopal Church apologized for "its complicity in and the injury done by the institution of slavery and its aftermath" and called on dioceses to document and study that complicity and its implications.

The film ends with footage from the 75th General Convention about the anti-racism resolutions and Browne's testimony to the committees that considered the resolutions. Browne has said she is excited about the POV purchase of "Traces" in part because "the work of the Episcopal Church is now going to be taken to the nation."

More information about POV's premiere of "Traces" is available here.

God and the problem of Suffering

An interesting book review and article on God and the problem of suffering.

I disagree with lots of what was said, and want to argue with it, but that will wait...

Read the article yourself:

Holiday in Hellmouth
God may be dead, but the question of why he permits suffering lives on.
by James Wood

Nietzsche said that if a human being put his ear to the heart chamber of the world and heard the roar of existence, the “innumerable shouts of pleasure and woe,” he would surely break into pieces. But a newspaper, pumping its inky current of despair, might serve as well...

Read it all here.

Failing Christianity

Failing Christianity by Barbara Brown Taylor (in the Christian Century Magazine)

I teach a variety of courses at Piedmont College, but "Introduction to World Religions" is my favorite. I have taught it more than 20 times now, to more than 500 students. One of them tells me how different the news from Iraq sounds now that she knows the difference between Shi'as and Sunnis. Another brings me pictures of a new Hindu temple going up in his old neighborhood, which he is able to interpret for his alarmed parents. Students who complete the class say they feel more at home in the world. They are less easily frightened by religious difference. They are more informed neighbors, better equipped to wage peace instead of war.

The only place the course backfires is in the unit on Christianity. Students who have spent every Sunday of their lives in church may be able to name the books of the Bible in order, but they rarely have any idea how those books were assembled. They know they belong to Victory Baptist Church, but they do not know that this makes them Protestants, or that the Christian tree has two other major branches more ancient than their own. Very few have heard of the Nicene Creed. Most are surprised to learn that baptism is supposed to be a one-time thing.

Read it all here. (limited time)

A voice from Scotland...

So what's happening in the Anglican Communion?

I found this address by the Rt Rev Brian Smith, Bishop of Edinburgh, on APPROACHING LAMBETH very informative.

This address was given to members of the Diocese of Edinburgh on 17 June 2008. Drawing upon earlier addresses and Bible studies given in the diocese, it argues that the church should allow the category of ‘the tragic’ to shape its perspective on the world, and should place more emphasis on what is highlighted as ‘ethical transcendence’ in its understanding of God. Doing this creates the possibility of articulating a circumscribed and limited pluralism, totally different from simple relativism. The paper concludes by suggesting that much in current approaches to Anglican difficulties rests upon a too limited approach to the doctrine of the Trinity. The heart of the paper is a plea that Anglicanism recaptures elements in the traditions which lie at the heart of its life, brings them to the fore and addresses our current disputes in their light.

Read it all. You can download it directly as a pdf or Word file.

Join in the Lambeth Bible Study

The faithful around the Communion have a unique opportunity for Bible Study with their Bishops during the Lambeth Conference as the series 'Signs on the Way' makes its debut on the Lambeth Conference website. This special series - focusing on St John's Gospel - complements the Bible studies in which the bishops and their spouses will take part during the Lambeth Conference 2008.

We hope that people throughout the Anglican Communion will use this series as a way of being present in spirit at the Lambeth Conference,supporting their bishops before, during and after this important gathering.

The studies are structured so that they can be used either by groups or by individuals. They can form the basis of personal devotions, a church study group or perhaps a diocesan meeting.

We have made the study guides as accessible as possible, using a series of questions in each case as the basis of the study.

Read more about it here.

Download a copy of the Bible Study (pdf) here.