February 25, 2018
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 and Mark 8:31-38
By Jennifer Garrison Brownell
In spite of the corruption, the grandstanding, the politicking, I love the winter Olympics. To me, it shows humanity in all its most glorious and humble.
For example. 17 year old Red Gerard, woke up late, couldn’t find his jacket, but won gold anyway. And when he heard he’s won, he swore out loud on television
Or, 43 year old German Madrazo who picked up skiing in 2017. He came in last – 117th’ – but jubilantly waving the Mexican flag to a wildly cheering crowd and was hoisted in the air by friends/rivals from Colombia, Tonga, Morocco and Portugal (who came in 116th, 115th, 114th…) as he finishes.
Humanity’s best and worst, seen in the Olympics and seen in Peter.
Like today – Peter rebuked, REBUKED Jesus. Did you hear that? Peter, Jesus’ most trusted, most outspoken and at times bumbling disciples — first gets an A on the test. A few verses back jesus asked, “who do you say I am” and Peter replied “you are the Messiah, the Christ.” Then, in this verse, Jesus plainly tells all his friends what that is going to mean – suffering, sacrifice, even death. Peter’s reaction is strong and immediate. From acknowledging Jesus as anointed one, savior, to expressing sharp, stern disapproval in about three breaths.
This is just how we are isn’t it? Saying an enthusiastic yes to the divine. one minute and a just as enthusiastic NO the next.
Humanity’s best and worst is seen in Peter. And is seen in Abraham.
Abraham is a liar and a cheat, who according to womanist theologian Wil Gafney, sold Sarah to a foreign king for sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels in Genesis 12:15. He alternately laughs at God’s promises and argues with God, but Abraham still is called the father of three religions – Judaism, Islam and Christianity – we all claim him as our ancestor.
What’s his story, anyway? Abraham and Sarah (or Abram and Sarai as they were known then) could not have children. So Sarah suggested that Abraham take a second wife – a not uncommon practice at the time – in this case her servant Hagar. In the due course of time, Hagar conceived and bore a son named Ishmael. Our faith family tree — like our biological family tree, perhaps – is a bit complicated.
God says that he will bless, make a special covenant with, have a special relationship with Isaac, Abraham’s son to come. Abraham for whatever reason, perhaps because he would rather bet on a sure thing than on a child who is not yet conceived, or maybe because of the real affection he has for his first son Ishmael responds to God “I wish you would regard, would bless, would see my son Ishmael.”
Listen to the verses that follow today’s reading. Here’s (17-19), first in the NIV translation
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.[d] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him
And then in the NRSV translation.
17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” 19 God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac.[e] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
I want to say that again, just to make sure you got it. In the NRSV translation, God says NO. In the NIV translation, God says YES.
And right there is the problem, isn’t it? All of us, Jews, Muslims, Christians, all of the Abrahams children can get lost in translation. What IS God saying to us anyway? Does God say yes? Or does God say no? And the answer is…it depends. No wonder we have such a hard time agreeing on what it means to be the children of Abraham. NO wonder we people of faith often demonstrate humanity at its best and at its worst.
When I was a kid, my grandma June – a teacher and missionary and natural organizer of persons – liked to gather us grandkids together into a little choir when we met up at her place by the lake in the summer. One of the songs she sang us was one about rocking in the bosom of Abraham:
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Oh, rock my soul
So high, you can’t get over it
So low, you can’t get under it
So wide, you can’t get ’round it
You must go through that door.
As a child, I pictured a huge wall in which there was a tiny door. The tiny door, in my mind at least, was God’s way. It was small and narrow – the one opening on all that long, high, low wall that stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction. And it was that way, that door, we should try to first find, and then to pass through if we wanted to be in the presence of God.
But now that I’m older, I understand that God makes not one door, but many. Because the song, after all, doesn’t say, you must go through that ONE door. What if you don’t have to hunt around for that one tiny door, but there are many places to enter in the barrier that separates us from God?
That seems much more like the God I know – the one
-who listens to Abrahams arguments and is persuaded by Abraham to change his mind (I have heard your concerns about Ishmael)
-who says yes, sometimes and no sometimes and sometimes – even a – little bit of both.
-the God who sees the worst and the best of our humanity and blesses it all.
One of the first signs of the rise of authoritarianism and nationalism we saw around the world was an increase of violence against Jewish people in Europe and in our own country. After one such attack,
More than 1,000 people formed a “ring of peace” outside Oslo Norway’s main synagogue at the initiative of a group of young Muslims.
“We want to demonstrate that Jews and Muslims do not hate each other,” co-organizer Zeeshan Abdullah told the crowd, standing in a half-circle before the white synagogue. “We do not want individuals to define what Islam is for the rest of us.”
Norway’s Chief Rabbi Michael Melchior sang the traditional Jewish end of Sabbath song outside the synagogue before the large crowd holding hands.
Co-organizer Hassan Raja said it was the first time he heard the song. (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/1000-join-muslim-ring-peace-oslo-synagogue-29128386)
We are all Abraham’s children, but we don’t know each other’s songs.
Around that time, my friend Rabbi Deb Kolodny asked if I wanted to get together with her and a Sufi teacher and learn each other’s songs, and study each other’s scriptures.
So for a bit more than a year, we did that. We got together a couple times a month, read each others scriptures and sang each other songs. We called ourselves the Bosom of Abraham. We did not always get it right, it certainly was not always easy, but it was our blessing to walk together as Abrahams daughters, to confront the worst and the best of our common humanity, and to remember that God blesses all of it.
As humans, we mess up just as often as we get it right. We get a gold medal and then we curse right out loud – and the children are listening! We finally get a chance to meet God face-to-face and then all we do is argue. We forget, all the time, that we are all children of Sarah and Abraham – our blessed and broken parents.
But we do get it right sometimes. And that’s worth singing about.
Amen.