Sunday, June 18, 2017

"Is Anything Too Wonderful for God?" A sermon on Genesis 18 and 21 from Littlefield Presbyterian Church.

Andrei Rublev, ""The Hospitality of Abraham" / "The Trinity"

"Is Anything Too Wonderful for God?"

Genesis 18:1-15 and 21:1-7; Matthew 9:35-10:23



Easter was late this year.  So--because of how the lectionary works-- we entered the story of Abraham and Sarah in the middle today, and we missed hearing the beginning. We don’t have enough time to catch you up on all the details now. If you haven’t read the story of Abraham in the book of Genesis for a while, I invite you to spend a few minutes and read through it, beginning in chapter 12.   I don’t think you’d be bored.  I really think the story of the Patriarchs in Genesis would make quite a TV mini-series.

         Had Easter been earlier this year, we would have heard the story of the call of Abraham in Genesis 12, how God calls Abram and Sarai to leave homeland and kin and go to a land they have never seen.  God makes a three-fold promise to them.  Abram will have many descendants and will be a “great nation.”   Several times in the chapters leading up to today’s lesson, God promises that Abram and his descendants will inherit the land of Canaan, and that they will be a blessing to the whole world.



         Now, there’s a major problem with this scenario: Abram and Sarai have no children. We don’t know a lot about the couple before this, but we do know that his wife Sarai has been barren, and that she’s getting up in years. It’s hard to have many descendants and be a “great nation” if you don’t have even one child.

         So, by the time we get to Genesis 18, Abraham and Sarah have decided to solve the problem on their own. They have “given” Hagar,” Sarah’s handmaid, to Abraham as a concubine. She has borne a son to Abraham, and they have named him Ishmael. So, problem solved.

         Or maybe not. God was more specific in making promises in Genesis 17. “As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations, kings of peoples shall come from her.

         Well, that’s an amazing promise. Especially when you consider that by this time, Sarah is 90 years old. Talk about having a new chapter in your golden years!

         Apparently, Abraham thought this promise was too wonderful, too amazing, even for God. When we heard it, Abraham fell on his face laughing and reminded God that they’ve already worked out things on their own: “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!”



         God has a different vision of how things are supposed to be and tells Abraham, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac,” which means, “he laughs.” God promises that Ishmael will become the father of a great nation, too. But God’s covenant will be with Isaac.

         Which brings us to Genesis 18.  Abraham is sitting at the entrance of his tent near the oaks-- more accurately “terebinths” of Mamre, resting in the heat of the day. He sees three men standing near him and runs out as fast as his 99-year-old legs allow to meet them, and bowed down. He says, “My lord, allow me to have a little water brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on.”

        

         Abraham hurries into the tent to Sarah, and asks her to whip up a good meal, and he runs out to the herd to pick out a good calf for a servant to prepare. He serves the guests curds and milk and meat, and then he stands under the tree while they eat.

        

         The guests ask Abraham, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he says, “There, in the tent.” Then one of the guests said, “I will surely return to you I due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.”

         Sarah is listening, and now, it’s her turn to laugh.  Abraham and Sarah are both old. We hear that “it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.” So, Sarah laughed to herself.

         The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?  Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?”

         Sarah’s afraid, and she says, “I didn’t laugh.”

         The LORD says, “O yes, you did laugh.” I imagine a twinkle in the LORD’S eye.



         There’s a lot to chew on in this passage. If we were in a Bible study, we could look more closely at how Abraham is visited by the one LORD, as three separate people, and how the text alternates between referring to them in the singular and plural.

         As I meditated on this text during the week, I also spent some time learning about the Christian icons that have been inspired by it, commonly known as “The Hospitality of Abraham.”

         Those of us who don’t come from an Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, or Anglican tradition probably haven’t been very familiar with icons as a form of devotional religious art that is meant to invite us deeper into the truth and to help us pray.  

         Probably the best known religious icon in the world is an icon painted by Russian monk and iconographer Andrei Rublev in the fifteenth century known as “The Hospitality of Abraham” and also known as “The Trinity.”

         The more you gaze at this icon and meditate on it, the more you see.  In the icon, we see three angels, but also the Trinity. In her little book, The Circle of Love: Praying with Rublev’s Icon of the Trinity, Ann Persson points us to some of details.[1]

         Rublev has intentionally given the three “angels” similar faces, figures, and hairstyles, and differentiates them only by their clothing, to show that each of the three has equal importance. The faces are youthful, yet there is a quiet maturity. They are neither male nor female. Their haloes show their holiness. Other details in the colors in their clothing and in the background point to who they are. Each one holds a staff, which shows that each has authority. They are similar, yet different. They are in eternal communion.

         As Ann Persson points out, very often in other, earlier icons the three figures sit in a line, facing the viewer. Rublev was the first iconographer to use a circle in his design--the symbol of perfection, unity and eternity.

         Some of those who study and meditate on this icon point to what appears to be a little rectangular hole painted on the front of the table. According to Fr. Richard Rohr, some art historians say that the remaining glue on the original icon indicates that there may have once been a mirror glued to the front of the table, though that would have been highly unusual.[2]

         In any case, Rublev designed this icon with a space in the circle, as if you or I could step into the space that is offered and enter the circle of love.  He showed that there’s a place at the table for us.

         I love the way Fr. Rohr puts it: “At the heart of Christian revelation, God is not seen as a distant, static monarch but…a divine circle dance, as the early Fathers of the church dared to call it (in Greek perichoresis…. God is the Holy One presenced in the dynamic and loving action of Three.  But even this Three-Fullness does not like to eat alone. This invitation to share at the divine table is probably the first biblical hint of what we would eventually call ‘salvation.’”[3]

         “Jesus comes forth from this Eternal Fullness, allowing us to see ourselves mirrored, as a part of this table fellowship--as a participant at this banquet and as a partner in God’s eternal dance of love and communion.”

        

         So, how are we called to live, as partners in God’s dance of love? How do we proclaim the good news of God’s love in our time?



         In today’s gospel lesson, we heard how Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

         Then Jesus summoned his twelves disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness….to go out, proclaiming the good news. The kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.  And travel light.

        

         To a lot of us, this may sound overwhelming…impossible. But we worship a God who became incarnate to reveal the image of the invisible God, which is the logical conclusion of God’s love affair with creation.

         What might our dance with God look like, as we live more fully into God’s kingdom? 

         I love the way Shirley Erena Murray words it in a song we’ll sing later:[4]

         For everyone born, a place at the table,

         For everyone born, clean water and bread,

         A shelter, a space, a safe place for growing,

         For everyone born, a star overhead.

           

         Can we trust God to keep God’s promises? Can we trust God, through the Spirit, to guide and empower us? Can we trust God, in Christ, to be with us always?

         Is anything too wonderful for God? 

         Can we imagine dancing with God, working in partnership with God, and being a blessing to others?

         And God will delight when we are creators of justice,

         And joy… compassion and peace.

         Yes, God will delight when we are creators of justice…

         Justice and joy!



         May it be so!

 Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
June 18, 2017


 










[1] Ann Persson, The Circle of Love: Praying with Rublev’s Icon of the Trinity (The Bible Reading Fellowship, 2010), Kindle version, location 530-545.
[2] Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance (Whittaker House, 2016), page 31.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Shirley Erena Murray, “For Everyone Born”, in Glory to God hymnal (2013).

No comments:

Post a Comment