Sermon:  Trusting the One Who Sees

Texts: Genesis 22:1-14

Date: June 29, 2008

Rev. Emily Tanis-Likkel, Eagle Harbor Congregational Church

            It's hard for us to wrap our minds around this story.  It is easy to be distracted by the noise in it, the horrific scene of binding a child for sacrifice.  But horror is not what the story is about.  It is not about whether God would really follow-through with such a command or not.  Instead, the crux of the story is Abraham's trust that God will see – As Dennis Bratcher wrote, “No matter how final an ending may seem, or how absurd the path to which God has called us to travel might be, he still is the God who sees what we cannot see.”  He wrote, “The heart of the story begins unfolding in Abraham’s response to Isaac.  Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

            The original Hebrew of the word translated here as provide has much more complexity than  our translations allow. It is a word about seeing.  Abraham's answer is not only, God will provide the lamb, but God will see the lamb before they see it. God knows our needs before we do.  God guides us to grace, seeing that which is unseen by us.  God helps clear our eyes, so we can go forward in faith.  God will see to it that we have the strength to walk the long walk to which God has called us. 

            Last week we heard the story of Hagar and Ishmael.  They wandered in the wilderness after being exiled from Abraham and Sarah's home.  When their water gave out, Hagar placed her dying son under a bush and waited for death.  God came to calm her fears, and opened her eyes to see the well of water before her.  It is a story about seeing.  It is about discerning.  The story of the  long walk that Abraham and Isaac took up that mountain was also about seeing, about discerning what God has in mind.  Abraham saw the gift, the provision, the life.  He saw the ram that would save his son.  He saw, he had faith in the God who is faithful.  Do you see where the grace is?  It may be a gift of an alternate course, of insight, understanding, or a fresh spiritual path.  Perhaps it is a discernment of what your gifts are, of how you might heal a relationship, or be healed yourself. It may be a glimpse of how God is working through your life.  Maybe you are weary from work, ill health, or feel the weight of the world on your shoulders.  When you trust in God, it is like clearing cloudy eyes – to see hope, to make out the path, and step out in faith – and then today becomes a little less scary, a little more like walking on holy ground.  When we have faith that God will see, then we blink through tears to see a ram in the bushes.

            Last week I talked about how discernment is not so much about trying to discover something that is hidden, but is noticing God at work within and around us, that it is like glimpsing a butterfly as it flies past your line of sight.  You see it, you apprehend it as it flits away, even if you don't fully comprehend all of the comings and goings of the butterfly. [1]  It is a desire to see the desire that God has for our lives.  It is waiting to catch a glimpse the Spirit, to let God speak into our hearts.  This takes us being open to receive whatever God offers.  We discern with our whole selves, our minds and our hearts.  We discern in community.  There is an African proverb that says, “It is because one antelope will blow the dust from the other's eye that the two antelopes walk together.”  Noticing God at work together, we blow the dust from the each other's eyes. 

              Two days ago, driving on Miller Bay Rd in Poulsbo, I escaped a head-on collision with a speeding car by the skin of my teeth.  The car was racing toward me in my lane, so that even though I swerved into the ditch the moment the car was in my line of sight, if I hadn't reacted that quickly, I would not be standing here right now.  To top it off, it was a police car.  After a kind man got my car out of the ditch, I cried all the way to the wedding rehearsal that I was conducting at Kiana Lodge.  Blinking through tears, I knew that it was God who saved my life, and I was reminded immediately, intensely, how precious life is, and my priorities snapped into focus.  Cars stopped to help – they saw.   God saw me, God protected me.  It holds intense meaning for me, and when I told a close friend, it immediately held meaning for her and helped her gain perspective.  It blew some dust from both of  our eyes. 

                God will be faithful as we climb the mountain.  As we keep on going through this life of ours, we don't know what is around the bend – God may not exactly know either.  None of us can say for sure that we will be alive tomorrow.  But until the moment of death, and beyond, we are not walking alone.  Abraham walked with his son Isaac for those three days.  Did they walk in silence?    Did they talk about the meaning of life, or the weather?  We do know that Isaac looked to his Dad for an answer.  Abraham told him that God will see it.  When we cannot see, we trust the one who sees.  We look for answers too, and we search for them in community.  That is a wonderful thing about church – asking questions together, seeking and pondering, being provoked by Scripture and gaining insights.  Often it is insight from another that helps us see something that God wants us to see. 

                A friend of mine told me recently about a time of prayer that she had with three other women.  These three women were very open about praying deeply from the heart, and invited my friend to sit with them.  As they prayed, one of them shared with her God's message of love for her, something that she had been desperate to hear.  The other two sensed God's desire for her to shed her anxiety.  One of them saw a vision of the anxiety as dust that had collected on her, and she literally blew it away.  The other saw a vision of the anxiety as pieces on her arms that needed to be sloughed off.  This was a transforming experience for my friend, and hearing her story reminded me of how God regards us as precious children, that we are so beloved.  Does this kind of experience seem outside of your box?  Maybe something reserved for certain church traditions or theologies?  I believe we can all be open in community, to perceive that which God wants us to see.  I believe that there are prophets among us, and inside of us.  A  conversation with an intuitive friend at a party or a session with a spiritual director can stir something within us that we may not have tapped into on our own.  When we seek counsel of a wise person among us, or a wise group of people, the dust in our eyes – whatever is obstructing our perception of God, can be blown away. 

                Our insight-sharing in our worship services is one significant way that our church practices discernment in community.  Sometimes someone plans all week to share a story.  Other times something bubbles up in us, and though unplanned, a story or thought comes tumbling out. You may not know why you shared a particular thing, or if you should have, but you just may have been nudged – prompted by the Spirit, because of how it would affect the community.  It just may have a profound impact on another person, or re-focus all of us.

                Last week while visiting family I came upon the book, Footprints: the true story behind the poem that inspired millions.  You've probably seen versions of the poem inscribed in various wall hangings, greeting cards, etc., that describes a dream of a person who looks back over their life and sees two sets of footprints in the sand, and is distressed to find that there is only one set during the most difficult times.  Why would God abandon me?  The poet asks.  God answers, During your trials and testings--When you saw only one set of footprints—it was then that I carried you.  It was then that I carried you.  There is quite a bit of controversy surrounding this poem, with the authorship disputed.  In the book by Margaret Fishback Powers that I read, she told the story of how she wrote the poem originally called, I had a dream, which she then lost, and was later discovered and re-named Footprints under another name.  I was intrigued by her story, and her view that the poem had been taken exploited and was often taken grossly out of context.  She wrote the poem the night her husband proposed.  They had only been together for six weeks, and it was a long distance relationship, so had only been on two dates.  The night they became engaged, as they walked on the beach together, she became very anxious about how they would know if they were doing the right thing, considering her ill health after being struck by lightning.  How would they get through the hard times?  When they walked back across the sand, one set of footprints had been washed away . . . this cut to her heart, as she thought it a sign that their love was too fragile and would wash away.  It was her fiance who said, it is God who will carry us during our most trying times.  Late that night she penned the famous poem.  She also insisted that he ask her father's blessing.  When he did, her father asked him some good questions and gave him a huge hug in affirmation.  When I read this I saw Abraham and Isaac trekking up the mountain, sandals falling on dusty earth, their sets of footprints merging to one; for when they needed God most, they found themselves in God's arms.  I think one reason I like the context for the footprints poem is that Brett and I also had a courtship of about six weeks before becoming engaged.  We too desired the blessing of our parents all the more, considering how quick it seemed.  We arranged a dinner with us and our four parents, although we weren't specific as to why we were getting them together, they already knew, as Margaret's father knew exactly what was going on, and already supported us and affirmed us before we said a word.  They asked us some good questions, and discerned with us.

                After God stopped him from killing his son, “Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” There is a play on words in the Hebrew here.  The nuance is that in the provision on the mountain God sees and is seen.  God saw Abraham and Isaac, saw to it that they were taken care of, and God was seen, was trusted by Abraham and Isaac.  Cultivating a discerning spirit as we walk the road, sandals slapping up dust clouds, we are seen by God, and we see God.  Let us look to one another, to blow the dust out of each other's eyes, that we may help one another see the grace that God sees.

[1] Vennard, Jane E. Embracing the World: Praying for Justice and Peace