God will Provide

 

Genesis 22:1-14

Proper 8 / Year A

When I have preached on today’s Old Testament reading in the past I have pondered the challenges it presents.  This morning I want to focus on something in the story we might want to adopt in our own life and practice.  I find it in Abraham’s response to his son’s question as they ascend the mountain: “Father, we have fire and we have wood, but where are we going to get a lamb?”  Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the lamb for a sacrifice.”

God will provide.  This reflects a deep disposition which manifests itself as a calm faith, the ability to be at peace in moments of stress or anxiety.  It is not foolishness, like putting your entire life savings on Red 36 and trusting God will make the ball drop in your slot.  It is not recklessness, because, as Jesus says, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  And it certainly is not a sentiment born of self-reliance: “Where is the lamb?  You know I’ll figure out something.”  Abraham’s posture is one of waiting.  He models patience.  He knows God will do something, will act, will provide, and when this happens, Abraham will ready and he will respond.

We observed our parish’s 375^th anniversary back to 2017.  It was no small effort.  We worked and planned for at least two years and the actual celebration on Pentecost Sunday was the culmination of a several projects and ventures.  I remember saying to Bishop Holly at the time, “We have worked so hard to get to this day and I don’t have a clue what to do next.  I think our parish and I need to sit back and catch our breath over the summer.”  His response: “Well, that is one strategy, I guess.” 

I think he, like most of my colleagues, assumes parish leaders keep the pedal to the metal all the time, without letup or pause.  It is not at all normative to have a priest say, “I don’t know what to do next.”  But by August, just two months after my conversation with the bishop, five families with young children moved into the area and began attending our church.  What had been unclear – what to do next – became very clear – find a Christian Education Director and figure out how to start a couple of new Sunday School classes.

For me, that was an aha moment.  I realized you can spend a lot of time and energy trying to produce a particular outcome or you can wait to see what God is going to do next and then respond.  You can go with your idea, your plan, your scheme or you can take the posture God will provide and live day-to-day with a calm expectancy someday, something will happen because God is going to provide.

Abraham held on to this belief with every step as he and his son climbed higher and higher.  But this wasn’t always his approach.  You recall how God told him to pack up his wife and his belongs and leave his home for a land God would reveal to him once he got there.  Abraham does this and in so doing demonstrates great faith and trust.  At the same time, God tells Abraham one day he will become the father of many nations.  Now this is more problematic to believe because he and his wife are old and childless.  You recall from last week’s reading how the couple takes matters into their own hands when Sarah offers her handmaiden to her husband, carving their own path rather than waiting for God to act.  The result of Abraham’s own efforts is problematic, to say the least.  Yet, experience has a way of giving birth to wisdom and Abraham learns the value of being patient and trusting God to provide.

Now I am not advocating for passivity.  Sometimes you have to grab the reigns and go, trusting God will be with you as you do everything in your power to confront a situation.  Kent and Norma Spain have been great models of this.  I so admire how, when Kent was diagnosed with cancer, they both took it on with every resource and ounce of energy at their disposal.  I have witnessed many of you face your challenges with steel and grit, which are the fruits of faith, and I have marveled at your determination.

When I think of Abraham and the lesson we can draw from him, I am thinking of circumstances different from that, situations where pausing opens the door to God’s activity; something like what Nathaniel Hawthorne hints at through this quote:

“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”

It is possible to go through life scrambling so tenaciously God can barely find a space to step in, to work feverishly to achieve something, never once imagining God may have something else in store.  But if you pause, if you wait, God will find a way and a place to touch you.  God will provide.  And then, like Abraham who named that mountain Yahweh Yireh, which means “The Lord will provide”, you will be able to cite a time and place when and where you waited and God acted.