To listen to The Reverend William R. Nesbit, Jr. deliver the 9:00 AM sermon from this week click here.
To listen to The Reverend William R. Nesbit, Jr. deliver the 10:30 AM sermon from this week click here.

Saint Charles’ Episcopal Church – Saint Charles, IL
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 8 - RCL Year A
Sunday June 29, 2008 Genesis 22:1-14 – Psalm 13 – Romans 6:12-23 – Matthew 10:40-42
The Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Every time I read the story of God’s testing of Abraham, the command to sacrifice Isaac, I wonder. Even though it turns out well in the end, it doesn't turn out well until the very end. The God of everlasting love, the God of hesed, loving-kindness seems very far away. There seems to be so many other ways that God could have tested Abraham that wouldn't have appeared so cruel. To plead to God for so many decades for a child, and then just as the child is approaching manhood to be asked to sacrifice him to prove to God that you have faith enough, seems more diabolical than almost anything else I can think of. And even if it really did happen, why on earth is this a story that we remember and retell? Why not just let this story slip away into the mists of time? The God of this story is deeply unsettling at best and at worst simply terrifying. There is no way I want to get anywhere near that God...And yet, this is the same God who gave his own Son, his only Son, to die for us, in some ways also an unsettling act, even though it is for us. What are we to make of this God? How do we reconcile these two faces of God? Why keep bringing it up, telling these stories?

And then I remembered a story of our own. A story we have been telling. And I remembered the first time I heard it. The catch in the throat. The instant dry mouth. And I am only Alec’s friend. You probably know the story already. Alec Meade is the son of our Deacon, Liz, and he is currently stationed over in Iraq. One night earlier this year his base suffered a surprise rocket attack and the room where Alec lives, and the bed where Alec sleeps was destroyed. It just so happened that on that night Alec was out on patrol. It was that close. In remembering the flood of relief I had felt I saw with fresh eyes the wisdom of the story of Abraham, and why that story was remembered and retold over and over. And why we need to hear it today. We tell it for all the children that do not survive. The children who die in horrible accidents, in simple mistakes, or in senseless violence. The world is dangerous place and children will die, even with the best of our efforts to prevent it. Sometimes in our language, when we get lazy, we speak of God taking someone when they die. Nothing could be farther from the truth. God never takes anyone, God only receives what is given.

The good news of the story of Abraham and Isaac is that God is so intimately involved in their life together that God can manifest his saving power instantly when needed. As Abraham drew his very hand back to strike, in that instant the Angel appears. We must always remember this. We must never forget that even in our own lives the power of God's saving help is always there. Even when it seems the darkest, we are not alone. I do not know the pain of losing a child and I pray daily that I never will. But I do know that God's love for us is the only way that we can ever get through it. We will never get over it, but God's love will hold us up when we cannot stand, for God stands with us in that pain. God saved Isaac for love of Abraham and God sacrificed his Son Jesus for love of us. Each one of us. And every time one of us dies, adult or child, for we are all God’s children, every time one of us dies God endures the pain and loss of the crucifixion again so that we may have everlasting life. The story of Abraham and Isaac reminds us, that God's love is a terrible and unsettling love.

I shudder at the magnitude of the pain and suffering that has been endured by all those mothers and fathers, both friend and foe alike, as the war continues month after month. But even more I shudder, as our war grinds on, at the terrible grief of God as each casualty is mourned not as a number, but as a son or daughter. How long, O LORD? Will you forget us for ever? How long will you hide your face from us? How long shall we have perplexity in our minds, and grief in our hearts, day after day? Dear God I pray that we may find the tangled way to a just peace, and quickly, but if that is beyond us, Dear God send us an angel. Amen.