Second Sunday of Lent---Be Not Afraid!
So, you think you've got troubles. Put yourself in Abraham's sandals. Talk about walking in darkness! This guy's been tested over and over again. God has sent him from his home to Canaan, at the age of 75! Then he was sent to Egypt. From Egypt he and his wife went up to Negeb, then to Bethel. He finally settled at Hebron where he built an altar to the Lord.
It was Abraham who interceded for Sodom, arguing with the Lord about how many good men there would have to be for the Lord to save the city. He haggled with God until He agreed to spare the town if he could find just ten good men there. Of course, we know how that turned out.
At the age of 99, the Lord changed his name from Abram to Abraham and promised him that he would be the father of a host of nations; quite a challenge for a man who was almost 100 years old. In return, he and all his descendants would have to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. Circumcision at the age of 100 with no anesthesia couldn't have been much fun. Not only that, but he changed Abram's wife's name from Sarai to Sarah and promised Abraham that Sarah would bare him a son at the age of 90.
We all know the story of the three visitors who came to Abraham's tent. He fed them home-made bread and meat, curds and milk. The visitors told him that in one year they would return and Sarah would have born Abraham a son who he named Isaac.
After all this travel, after all the years of disappointment at not having a child, after all the trials he'd been put through, Abraham and Sarah finally have a son, a son who God has promised will make it possible for Abraham to be the father of nations. Then we come to today's first reading. God is telling Abraham to slaughter this son as a sacrifice. And what does Abraham do? He takes Isaac by the hand and leads him up the mountain where they gather up the wood to build an altar.
He's actually raising the knife to kill his son before the Lord stops him and says "never mind." Is it any wonder we call Abraham "our father in faith"? Can you even imagine slaughtering one of your children to prove your faith? And this wasn't just any kid, this was the son that Abraham and Sarah had waited for for decades, their only child. This was the son that was supposed to carry on Abraham's line creating many nations.
Abraham had actually argued with God over the fate of Sodom, but when asked to give up his son, not just to give him up, but to actually kill him, he put up no resistance. His faith was so strong that he just did it. It's almost beyond belief. Of course we know that Abraham was rewarded for his faith.
"and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing---
all this because you obeyed my command."
But other than "Here I am", Abraham doesn't speak in this particular story. We have no way to know what he was thinking. We do know that the Lord has made a number of promises to Abraham, and so far, He's been true to His word. Elizabeth DID have a child at the age of 90. Was he thinking that there was no way that God would let him slaughter Isaac? Did he expect the angel's last-minute intercession? Maybe he did.
God DID tell him that Isaac would be the one to carry on the family line. He didn't just have faith in God, he had faith in God's WORD. God had made specific promises to him and he took God at His word.
So, what about us? Once we hit 90, the chances are pretty good that we're not going to become parents.. God isn't going to ask us to kill our own children, in fact He's pretty insistent that we don't kill our own children, though thousands of us do every day. No, this is a new covenant. The thing is, do we believe God's word as thoroughly and completely as Abraham did?
Right now a lot of us are in trouble. People, including some of in this church right now have lost jobs. Some have lost homes. As we can see from the stock market a lot of people are very fearful that they might face economic hard times. Interest rates are low. Prices are low. But there are five houses in my neighborhood that have been for sale for quite a while. Our country and the world, which means hundreds of millions of people, are facing an unsure future.
Maybe you aren't concerned about the economy. You may be optimistic, but maybe you're bearing some other burden. Maybe your health is bad. Maybe you've recently lost a loved one. There's no end to the problems that we can all face. But none of us are facing the kind of challenges that Abraham and Sarah did.
So here we are in the season of Lent, the second Sunday in the B cycle of readings. It's a cycle that's been in place for a long time. We hear these same readings every third year. In 1931, when the world was in the midst of the Great Depression, Abraham's story must have been a comfort to people struggling from even worse economic times than we're in today.
In 1943 Catholics around the world, especially in Europe, must have read and heard today's readings and considered their meaning in light of an impending world war. This cycle of readings came up again in 1955, 1964, and 1967, all years when Americans were sending their sons and daughters off to fight in foreign lands. In 1991, another B year, Americans were fighting and dieing in the Middle East, just as they are today.
Abraham and Sarah's lives of sacrifice and obedience to God, and their eventual triumph, have been inspiring people, and still inspire people in difficult circumstances, even today.
In his first inaugeral address in 1932, with the world economy in freefall, President Roosevelt told us that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Roosevelt was no theologan, but isn't that exactly what our faith is all about. "Be not afraid." "If God is for us, who can be against us." So why are we afraid? We're afraid because it's our nature. We fear the unknown. We especially fear the loss of control. The hardest thing for us to do is to surrender ourselves to God; to say to Him, "OK, Lord. I can't handle this alone. Please help me. And then letting Him do it! No matter how bad off we are, most of us still want to think that we can help ourselves, that we're masters and mistresses of our own fate. Especially masters. Men are the worst. That's why we won't stop and ask for directions or read instruction manuals. We want to be macho. We want to be the boss.
But when you really think it through, how stupid are we to think that we control ANYTHING? I can make plans. I can lay it all out. This is what I'm going to do tomorrow, next week, and next year. I can have a five year plan and a ten year plan. And if I listen really carefully, I just may hear God laugh at me. Because in spite of all my planning, all my desire to control my destiny, I can walk out of here after mass and a brick can fall off the side of this building, hit me on the head, and I'll be dead.
If we really have such little control over our future, why is it so hard to turn our destiny over to the one who does control it? That's the message that Abraham and Sarah are giving us today. Let go. Let God! Once we do that, we have nothing to fear. What's the worst thing that can happen to us? Most people would probably say that death is the worst thing. But if we Catholics really believe what we say we believe, then death isn't the worst, it's the best. Why? Jesus gives us a brief glimpse in today's Gospel.
Even though they were in the Lord's presence 24 hours a day, the Apostles still didn't understand what was ahead. Jesus took three of them, Peter, James, and John up the mountain, an important symbol in the scriptures, to give them a glimpse of what lay ahead. They saw Jesus clothes become dazzling white. They saw Him transfigured. They saw Elijah and Moses. They heard the voice of God.
How did they respond? Peter wanted to take charge. He wanted to put up tents. He wanted to show the people. Maybe sell some corn dogs and sno cones. What about some T shirts and caps? It might have become the world's first amusement park. But that wasn't God's plan. The transfiguration took place to show a select few Apostles what lay in store for them, if they turned their wills over to Him.
In the time between the transfiguration and the Resurrection, Peter and the others would face fear many times. They still didn't get it. They still didn't understand that the presence of Jesus means the absence of fear. So I guess we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves if we don't get it either. But it's Lent. It's a time of spiritual reflection. This year especially, it's a time to compare the promise of God's word with the reality of today's world. We face a lot of challenges, but nothing compared to what Abraham and Sarah faced. Or Noah. Or Moses. Or even Christ Himself.
As FDR said, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." And as Jesus said, "Be not afraid."
It was Abraham who interceded for Sodom, arguing with the Lord about how many good men there would have to be for the Lord to save the city. He haggled with God until He agreed to spare the town if he could find just ten good men there. Of course, we know how that turned out.
At the age of 99, the Lord changed his name from Abram to Abraham and promised him that he would be the father of a host of nations; quite a challenge for a man who was almost 100 years old. In return, he and all his descendants would have to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. Circumcision at the age of 100 with no anesthesia couldn't have been much fun. Not only that, but he changed Abram's wife's name from Sarai to Sarah and promised Abraham that Sarah would bare him a son at the age of 90.
We all know the story of the three visitors who came to Abraham's tent. He fed them home-made bread and meat, curds and milk. The visitors told him that in one year they would return and Sarah would have born Abraham a son who he named Isaac.
After all this travel, after all the years of disappointment at not having a child, after all the trials he'd been put through, Abraham and Sarah finally have a son, a son who God has promised will make it possible for Abraham to be the father of nations. Then we come to today's first reading. God is telling Abraham to slaughter this son as a sacrifice. And what does Abraham do? He takes Isaac by the hand and leads him up the mountain where they gather up the wood to build an altar.
He's actually raising the knife to kill his son before the Lord stops him and says "never mind." Is it any wonder we call Abraham "our father in faith"? Can you even imagine slaughtering one of your children to prove your faith? And this wasn't just any kid, this was the son that Abraham and Sarah had waited for for decades, their only child. This was the son that was supposed to carry on Abraham's line creating many nations.
Abraham had actually argued with God over the fate of Sodom, but when asked to give up his son, not just to give him up, but to actually kill him, he put up no resistance. His faith was so strong that he just did it. It's almost beyond belief. Of course we know that Abraham was rewarded for his faith.
"and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing---
all this because you obeyed my command."
But other than "Here I am", Abraham doesn't speak in this particular story. We have no way to know what he was thinking. We do know that the Lord has made a number of promises to Abraham, and so far, He's been true to His word. Elizabeth DID have a child at the age of 90. Was he thinking that there was no way that God would let him slaughter Isaac? Did he expect the angel's last-minute intercession? Maybe he did.
God DID tell him that Isaac would be the one to carry on the family line. He didn't just have faith in God, he had faith in God's WORD. God had made specific promises to him and he took God at His word.
So, what about us? Once we hit 90, the chances are pretty good that we're not going to become parents.. God isn't going to ask us to kill our own children, in fact He's pretty insistent that we don't kill our own children, though thousands of us do every day. No, this is a new covenant. The thing is, do we believe God's word as thoroughly and completely as Abraham did?
Right now a lot of us are in trouble. People, including some of in this church right now have lost jobs. Some have lost homes. As we can see from the stock market a lot of people are very fearful that they might face economic hard times. Interest rates are low. Prices are low. But there are five houses in my neighborhood that have been for sale for quite a while. Our country and the world, which means hundreds of millions of people, are facing an unsure future.
Maybe you aren't concerned about the economy. You may be optimistic, but maybe you're bearing some other burden. Maybe your health is bad. Maybe you've recently lost a loved one. There's no end to the problems that we can all face. But none of us are facing the kind of challenges that Abraham and Sarah did.
So here we are in the season of Lent, the second Sunday in the B cycle of readings. It's a cycle that's been in place for a long time. We hear these same readings every third year. In 1931, when the world was in the midst of the Great Depression, Abraham's story must have been a comfort to people struggling from even worse economic times than we're in today.
In 1943 Catholics around the world, especially in Europe, must have read and heard today's readings and considered their meaning in light of an impending world war. This cycle of readings came up again in 1955, 1964, and 1967, all years when Americans were sending their sons and daughters off to fight in foreign lands. In 1991, another B year, Americans were fighting and dieing in the Middle East, just as they are today.
Abraham and Sarah's lives of sacrifice and obedience to God, and their eventual triumph, have been inspiring people, and still inspire people in difficult circumstances, even today.
In his first inaugeral address in 1932, with the world economy in freefall, President Roosevelt told us that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Roosevelt was no theologan, but isn't that exactly what our faith is all about. "Be not afraid." "If God is for us, who can be against us." So why are we afraid? We're afraid because it's our nature. We fear the unknown. We especially fear the loss of control. The hardest thing for us to do is to surrender ourselves to God; to say to Him, "OK, Lord. I can't handle this alone. Please help me. And then letting Him do it! No matter how bad off we are, most of us still want to think that we can help ourselves, that we're masters and mistresses of our own fate. Especially masters. Men are the worst. That's why we won't stop and ask for directions or read instruction manuals. We want to be macho. We want to be the boss.
But when you really think it through, how stupid are we to think that we control ANYTHING? I can make plans. I can lay it all out. This is what I'm going to do tomorrow, next week, and next year. I can have a five year plan and a ten year plan. And if I listen really carefully, I just may hear God laugh at me. Because in spite of all my planning, all my desire to control my destiny, I can walk out of here after mass and a brick can fall off the side of this building, hit me on the head, and I'll be dead.
If we really have such little control over our future, why is it so hard to turn our destiny over to the one who does control it? That's the message that Abraham and Sarah are giving us today. Let go. Let God! Once we do that, we have nothing to fear. What's the worst thing that can happen to us? Most people would probably say that death is the worst thing. But if we Catholics really believe what we say we believe, then death isn't the worst, it's the best. Why? Jesus gives us a brief glimpse in today's Gospel.
Even though they were in the Lord's presence 24 hours a day, the Apostles still didn't understand what was ahead. Jesus took three of them, Peter, James, and John up the mountain, an important symbol in the scriptures, to give them a glimpse of what lay ahead. They saw Jesus clothes become dazzling white. They saw Him transfigured. They saw Elijah and Moses. They heard the voice of God.
How did they respond? Peter wanted to take charge. He wanted to put up tents. He wanted to show the people. Maybe sell some corn dogs and sno cones. What about some T shirts and caps? It might have become the world's first amusement park. But that wasn't God's plan. The transfiguration took place to show a select few Apostles what lay in store for them, if they turned their wills over to Him.
In the time between the transfiguration and the Resurrection, Peter and the others would face fear many times. They still didn't get it. They still didn't understand that the presence of Jesus means the absence of fear. So I guess we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves if we don't get it either. But it's Lent. It's a time of spiritual reflection. This year especially, it's a time to compare the promise of God's word with the reality of today's world. We face a lot of challenges, but nothing compared to what Abraham and Sarah faced. Or Noah. Or Moses. Or even Christ Himself.
As FDR said, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." And as Jesus said, "Be not afraid."
posted by Mike at 11:56 AM
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