July 3, 2011 "How Shall We Respond"

Genesis 24: 34-67
Matthew 11: 16-30
The Scriptures appointed for this day, represent a hard word for a community of successful people, particularly on the weekend of National anniversary. For the hard sayings of Jesus are not “Well done good and faithful servants, you have succeeded! You have taken 5 talents and made 5 more. You have used your wisdom and intellect to amass great power for yourselves. You killed your enemies, now dance upon their graves!” But rather to ask, as we approach the 10th Anniversary of September 11th, what will we celebrate, what are we honoring? Do we witness great accomplishments of human achievement, passing out awards as if someone has to have this so who has not received recognition lately, do we perceive summer as reward of time off for a long year of hard work? Or is it possible for us, in the midst of life, to recognize God's hand at work, not in miraculous, magical, impossible circumstance, but with resilience: Believing and Affirming? Only, only in the midst of these challenges to why did we not witness and believe in miracles; these curses to those who believe that they have succeeded because of good looks or because they showed up, do we receive the familiar and longed for words of comfort “Take my yoke upon you.”

The Bible has a different starting point than we assume in most of life. The Bible defines our lives in Affirmation. Trust is not earned, Trust is automatic, and can be lost. Rather than approaching one another as enemies, as adversaries and competitors, rather than living life in Suspicion, to begin in Affirmation of Life as a Gift and Unmerited Gift from God. Would that we could respond to life as an Affirmation!

We have done an odd thing in our Lives, First, they are not ours but belonging to God. Related to this, Baptism is not an about birth. Graduation is not the endurance of years of schooling. Marriage is not for everyone, and does not automatically come after Graduation and before children. Communion is not a ritual or Sacrament of the Church. All of these are opportunities to name and claim Faith in God. Baptism does not make life guaranteed, inoculated, or easy, if anything the opposite, because claiming this life for God, we must then question: So God where were you, and why, and how is this life holy? Would that we could respond to life as an Affirmation!

The love affair of Isaac and Rebekah is a marvelous story of love and faith, for it is a story of Love at First Sight, and also of the Trust of an Arranged Marriage. Remember that in the Abraham narrative of Genesis, everything is about trusting the Promise. God found a couple already advanced in age and promised to bless their lives, Promising to give to them a Name and a Land and Children whose lives are a blessing from God. Time transpired, and the woman conceived and bore a child, an only child, he grew and matured, and the Promise of a Name and Land and Children as a Blessing, was passed to Isaac. The Mother died, and the question became, where is the woman worthy to continue as the new Sarah, where is the wife of Abraham's Heir, who will be the mother of God's Promise?

There is this unnamed servant who goes at the Command of Abraham, searching to fulfill the Promise. He may have thought the clouds would part and a shaft of sunlight would illumine her, that birds would sing and flowers bloom. But instead, the unnamed servant himself humbly offered a prayer to God. “LORD, May the one of Your choosing be gracious and generous, offering hospitality.” He sits beside a well in the heat of the afternoon and asks for a cup of cold water. She hears and responds in faith. Not only does she get it for him, she provides for his animals as well. What is miraculous in this story, is not trumpet blasts, not magic incantations, but rather very subtly in the text, the Bible describes that an angel has led them. How often we perceive circumstance, we see development of our accomplishments... Faith is naming the presence of God in all things. Would that we could respond to life as an affirmation!

Throughout the Bible there is recognition of covenant, commitment, loyalty and fidelity, honesty and integrity, compassion and love, but this passage also names a frequent Biblical Image of being Led. Just as the Psalms describe “You lead me beside still waters, You lead me in paths of righteousness,” as the Abraham narrative had told of Sarah and Abraham being Led, so also later with Moses and the people being Led through the wilderness for 40 years, here Rebekah is Led to Isaac. Would that we could respond to life as an Affirmation!

The Love Story of Isaac and Rebekah is marvelous because their's is at the same time both the Story of Love at First Sight and an Arranged Marriage. One of the questions we ask of those getting married, is “How did you decide you were ready to be Married?” Not how did you meet. Not why is he perfect. But the realization, that while often others have not been ready, there does come a time in our lives when we want to be married. Years ago, in another congregation, there was couple who had had an arranged marriage. Until their wedding night, they had never seen one another face to face. Their description was that they were ready to be married. They trusted their family to find someone for them. And over a lifetime, you learn to love, to make accommodations and to be husband and wife to one another. Rebekah looked down over the Valley, as Isaac lifted his view, and they saw one another. Would that we could respond to life as an Affirmation!

Throughout the last two decades, those who have led us as a Nation, both Leaders of the Church and Leaders of our Governments, have been accused of abuses. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, neighboring priests and pastors, all have been given great responsibility, and are rightly revered for their accomplishments. But each has also had their dark side. As stories of abuse have come, they often felt like a Neighbor having Cancer. We recognize it as horrible, we bake a cake, or drop off flowers, but we do not allow it to affect us, this is not our problem, once we sent the card, or delivered the flowers it was not ours anymore. Then my father died and a man contacted the family to say our father was his father. His story was that this had happened between my father's marriages, lonely people comforting each other. But, the very idea was offensive, it undermined all we knew all we believed about the one we loved most. What is given to us is the greatest trust, we are to be present in the fullness of life, and in the midst to name miracles, to witness to the presence of God. As we do, we recognize human frailty and vulnerability, power corrupting, rather than affirmations of love.

This Sacrament we have shared is not about everyone closing their eyes as the priest renames what we have known as common bread and juice is now holy and miraculously different. This Sacrament we have shared is that in the hard stuff of life, we name and claim that there is brokenness, and that there is a cup of hope, there is forgiveness, as refreshing as being offered a cup of cold water. We pray God will use us for generosity and graciousness, offering hospitality to those we do not know, that through our lives God's angels may call others to believe and respond.