The Command to Sacrifice Isaac

Abraham Caressing Isaac

Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1637

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Abraham-Caressing-Isaac--fe93da0c9c3f398da04cbad5c3628b97

Even when things didn't make any sense, Abraham had faith.

Not “I believe because–” but simply “I believe.”

Go to the mountain that I will show you. Take your son. Take firewood. Take a knife.

Not as happy a portent though entirely as strange as when the command was, Go to a land that I will show you and I will make you the ancestor of nations. And all nations will find their blessing in you.

Not as happy but at least as strange. What did Sarah think as she waved goodbye to her husband and son? She had seen him send Hagar and Ishmael away. What was he doing with Isaac? 

We are going to a distant mountain, that God will show me. 

Trust me, I’ll be back? We will be back? He could make no such promise. Just, trust me. I have to go. I have to do this thing, I have to do what God commands. 

And what is required of thee O man? To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God? And how does this fit into that?

Perhaps, we hopefully conjecture, God simply wants to show the progress of mankind from human sacrifice to the sacrifice of other animals. After all, they did it in the Iliad. Why not us? Though come to think of it, those soldiers mostly feasted on what they put to the knife. We can hardly expect Abraham - and Sarah? - to do that. 

No, this is beyond that, beyond human comprehension. It does not make sense, really, not in any human way. The command is absolute: ultimate and strange. 

And Abraham sets out.

He takes the boy, and the wood, and the knife. And he goes to the far mountain.

There he stretches out his hand, takes the knife - and …

And what? An angel, a messenger of God, stays his hand. Wait, look around you. There is an alternative. God provides.

Perhaps the message is this: have faith, God provides. 

God provides. Over and over in this passage that message is repeated. And it fits what has gone before. And what continues. From the moment of departure from the land of his family, Abraham has put his faith in God and God provides. 

Abraham travels a strange way, a long way, a journey down and up again from Mesopotamia through Syria and down through Canaan to Egypt and back at last to the land of promise. Indeed, the place Abraham lands at last is called Beer-sheba, in Hebrew, well of the oath. Promise fulfilled. Oath kept.

So was his faith well-placed? Was it worth it? 

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.”

The story continues in Genesis 22:15-19: The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba, and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.

And they all lived happily ever after. Was it worth it?

Certainly when they got back to camp, Sarah, who now goes unmentioned until she is dead and buried, and mourned by father and son, must have been relieved to see them. What ever had they been up to? Did they tell her? What would Isaac have said to her? 

And what did he think, all along? Kierkegaard says that he lost his faith on the mountain. I don’t read it that way, but he does seem to have played the innocent. And not only here: at the end of his life he will be bamboozled into giving Jacob his blessing.

Okay, Dad, I’m coming. Wow.

No wonder he missed his mother. Even though Abraham gave all he had to Isaac --except for the gifts he gave the sons of his concubines as he sent them away (25:5, 6).

***

Abraham had faith, even when the promise no longer made any sense. 

He was old, and his wife was old. Thinking perhaps that it was the way to keep the promise, he had a son by Hagar. But that’s not it. Sarah bore him a son, in her old age. But that’s not it. That is not enough. He must sacrifice that son, the only son he loved. God commands.

God commands. Abraham obeys. Abraham trusts. He keeps the faith. God provides.

Somehow there will be a way through this. 

No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Maybe that’s it?

Maybe not.

Maybe it is as radical as it claims to be. It is beyond reason that faith begins.

And sometimes, we admit, life does not make sense. Things happen to us, awful things.

But here is something unreasonable that happens, not just to us, but because of us.

Abraham obeys. And he believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3) And he became the ancestor of all who believe – and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them  (Romans 4:11b).

Obedience. 

Beyond obedience with any hope for himself was this sacrifice. For Abraham it was giving up what he held most dear, what he loved more than his own life itself. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Is that what is happening here? Is Abraham becoming the ancestor of nations by giving up his right to be a father on his own terms? 

He gives up. And God gives. 

Not gives back. Don’t throw your car keys in the collection plate, hoping for a Ferrari in return. 

God provides. First, last, always. Can we trust that?

Perhaps only as we become children of Abraham, children of the faith of Abraham. He becomes the father of faith, the first ancestor of all people of many nations who have faith. 

We find righteousness, our right place in the universe, by receiving God’s providence. 

Not by works, lest anyone should boast. But just by trust. By faith. Incomprehensible, and all comprehending. 

***

“So, either there exists a paradox, that the single individual, as the single individual, stands in absolute relation to the absolute, or Abraham is lost.” – Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (1843). Bruce H. Kirmme, trans. New York: Liveright, 2022. 145.

JRL+

28 June 2026

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 8

Track 1
Genesis 22:1-14 Psalm 13 Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 Even when things didn't make any sense, Abraham had faith.

Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael

Rembrandt van Rijn (mentioned on object), 1637

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Abraham-Casting-Out-Hagar-and-Ishmael--b5b3de7539a7183bca26da0836477906

God sees God hears Interesting to have this reading the Sunday after Juneteenth. That federal holiday commemorates the day word finally reached people in southern Texas that they were free, and had been since President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. “Texas was the farthest of the Confederate states, and slaveholders there made no attempt to free the enslaved African Americans they held in bondage. This meant that President Lincoln’s proclamation was unenforceable without military intervention, which eventually came nearly 2.5 years later. Juneteenth celebrates the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved people of African descent located in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from the slavery system in the United States.” Here is what they heard:

General Orders No. 3. The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, “all slaves are free”. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. . . . By order of Major General Granger F.W. Emery Major A.A. Genl. Hagar never had a Juneteenth. She had exile. Twice. Flight, then expulsion. In an earlier chapter of Genesis (16:6ff) we learn that she had fled from the sight, and jealous anger, of Sarah, only to find that she had been found, and seen, by the unseen God. She was not alone. She was not unheard. She was seen. In her prayer she named the God of seeing, or God who sees. Her son was named Ishmael, God hears. And so she went back. "According to ancient surrogate motherhood customs, a wife could give her maid to her husband and claim the child as her own (30.3,9)" Thinking that this is how God would keep his promise, Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham to bear him a child. But after Hagar gives birth to Ismael, Abraham's son, Hagar and Sarah regard each other differently: Hagar disrespects her mistress, while Sarah sees her handmaid as insufficiently submissive. Relations between mistress and servant become fraught. Meanwhile Abraham continues to have faith that his son Ishmael would be the father of princes, but that Sarah would bear the son of the promise. Trouble brews. Two nations are being formed, at least: Arab and Israelite. Both from children of Abraham. Father Abraham, father of many nations. In a wisely-excised scene from the movie "Holiday Inn" Bing Crosby appears as a sort of comical Abraham Lincoln. He is portrayed as the benevolent father of freedom for the formerly oppressed. The connection is made between slavery, freedom, and Lincoln. Children of Abraham, that Abraham. Like Hagar, enslaved. But Hagar was never freed. She went into the wilderness. After she gave birth she raised her child for some years. Peace in the tent of Abraham. Then Ishmael gets a new little brother. He makes Isaac laugh. Sarah sees it and she is not laughing. Hagar is cast out: Abraham has divine assurance she will be okay, but she is cut loose. In the desert once more, she seems despairing, but God, or an angel, rescues her and reassures her. She finds water in the desert. She finds hope, and courage. She lives, and her son will grow up. Hagar finds Ishmael a wife from her own people, from Egypt. And he will have children, as God had promised. *** June 19, 2026: Juneteenth National Independence Day (USA) June 20, 2026: World Refugee Day (UNHCR) ‘Each year, 20 June marks World Refugee Day, the international day to honour people who have been forced to flee. Together, we can champion their right to seek safety, build support for their economic and social inclusion, and advocate for solutions to their plight.’ ‘World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on 20 June and honours the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution.’ Hagar reminds us of people who have been forced to flee. She reminds us, and exemplifies for us, the strength and courage of people who have fled their home country - or in her case, been thrown out of the home they thought they knew. Hagar had been brought up, probably, by Abraham and Sarah from her homeland of Egypt. Whether she was enslaved there already, or not, by the time she comes into the story of Abraham and his family, she is serving Sarah. And in those times, apparently, it was considered legitimate for a woman to give her servant to her husband to serve as a surrogate parent (both egg-mother and birth-mother). Legitimate, but hard to live with. Was it exploitation? Our modern customs may not apply. But Hagar fell into a trap of expectation and subservience. What would become of her and her child - who was also the child of Abraham? They are cast out into the desert, away from the home they knew, in the opposite of hospitality. It is through divine reassurance that she bears up and raises her son. And they became the progenitors of princes. This may be a just-so story, to explain how Jacob’s children came to have Arab cousins. More important to us is that it shows God sees, God hears, even the outcast, even the people on the margins, and through them does extraordinary things. What happens nowadays with surrogate mothers is different. There is, in the United States, a practice of surrogates carrying another woman’s child. This can be a family member. Or it could be a commercial transaction. Sometimes these latter lead to legal disputes or poor treatment of the children and their birth mothers. (As reported in The New Yorker.) Certainly Hagar could speak to the modern women and children who are at the receiving end of the abusive possibilities. But in the Biblical story she is twice told by God of unfailing acceptance and a hopeful future. We would wish the same mercy and protection for all women and children who are exiles or refugees. We would wish them a welcome and support. Lutheran Social Services, through its partnership with Global Relief, is directly involved in this ministry in Arizona. Hagar can speak to all mothers who have faced the challenges of exile and migration, refugees, wanderers, and trafficked human beings. And to mothers and children, and fathers too, all who have had hope dashed or squandered, or raised and fulfilled. Whether their voices are raised in sorrow or praise, like Hagar, they have a place in God’s kingdom. So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” (Genesis 16:13, ESV) Almighty God, you rescued your people from slavery in Egypt, and throughout the ages you have never failed to hear the cries of the captives. We remember before you our siblings in Galveston, Texas who on June 19, 1865 received the glad tidings of their emancipation. . . . Anoint us with your Spirit to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of your favor; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Loving God, open our hearts to be generous, hospitable and welcoming to our neighbours. On this week of World Refugee Day, help our communities, our countries and indeed the world be generous, hospitable and welcoming to the increasing number of refugees and displaced peoples. Help us to be advocates for these our world neighbours, your beloved children in need. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Collect at the Prayers of the People: Holy and righteous God, you created us in your image. Grant us grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression. Help us, like those of generations before us, resist the evil of slavery and human bondage in any form and any manner of oppression. Help us to use our freedoms to bring justice among people and nations everywhere, to the glory of your Holy name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ###

https://www.episcopalct.org/resources-for-juneteenth/

https://www.clwr.org › wp-content › uploads › 2025_wrd_prayer_01.pdf

https://faithinformed.org/resources/juneteenth-liturgy

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/npscelebrates/juneteenth.htm

https://www.britannica.com/topic/General-Order-No-3

https://www.genealogy.gailbrinsonivey.com/cousin-chart-family-relationships-explained/

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-jordan/the-end-of-refugee-resettlement

https://www.unhcr.org/get-involved/take-action/world-refugee-day

https://www.gcsynod.org/news/world-refugee-day-walking-alongside-our-neighbors-in-hope

https://blogs.elca.org/disasterresponse/world-refugee-day-a-call-to-accompaniment-justice-and-hope/

https://blogs.elca.org/elcaracialjustice/juneteenth-know-that-you-are-free/

https://os.dc.gov/am/page/dc-emancipation-day

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/what-is-dc-emancipation-day-history-behind-april-16-observance

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-19-2026

21 June 2026 Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Proper 7 Track 1 Genesis 21:8-21 Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17 Romans 6:1b-11 Matthew 10:24-39

A Son Promised to Abraham and Sarah

This summer the church of St Raphael in the Valley, Benson, Arizona, using the Revised Common Lectionary, is following the semi-continuous track 1 for the first reading, beginning in Genesis... 

In the story last week, we heard of Abraham and Sarah leaving their family to follow the promise of God into a new land.  There God would make them a blessing to many nations.

Now we are getting deeper into the cycle of readings about Abraham and his family, which begins in the 12th chapter of Genesis and continues through until the 36th chapter. Last week began that cycle as soon-to-be long-suffering Abram and Sarai left the place their family had begun to settle and ventured south into the promised land. Only to find that it was a temporary respite. 

In today’s first lesson, they share that respite with others. They extend classic Middle-Eastern hospitality to strangers, offering water and rest and food to three travelers. Sarah and Abraham are tent-dwellers, with their herds and flocks and servants around them, and they are resting under the trees and the tent-flap on a hot day. 

[This reminded me of the journey of the Odyssey, where a long-suffering hero travels through many countries before he could reach his own. Like Abraham and Sarah, on the way he encountered divine messengers.]

We can imagine who these three travelers are, who turn up at the Oaks of Mare. What comes of it, along with the hospitality, is a promise. “I’ll come back this way next year and Sarah will have a son.” A pleasant prophecy but unlikely to be fulfilled - unless God is speaking. 

And so there is a promise given. It will be renewed and repeated, to Abraham and then his son and then his grandson. Abraham and Sarah are already traveling, venturing, on the basis of earlier promises. Go to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. But how are you to become - here it is! the Fathers’ Day reference - father of many nations? Abraham and Sarah are old, they have journeyed far already; they are in the midst of – what proves to be – a very long wandering navigation of the Fertile Crescent, from Iraq to Syria through Palestine, down to Egypt and then back north again to Palestine where they settle down at last. 

And yet they are following a promise that will be fulfilled: for a child will be born to them, as subsequent events bear out.

There is a promise - and there is more: for faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love. 

We see faith at work in the relentless courageous obedience and trust of Sarah and Abraham as they venture forth from home ground, seeking beyond the familiar what is only familiar to them as they are God’s people.

We see hope at work. Hope that persists beyond toil and travel and despair, injury, bad weather, woeful barrenness and impossible pregnancy, there will be a child, and children. There will be a place for them at last, in the promised land. War will not prevent them, nor drought, nor incapacity. They will make it there. They will find it home.

We see love at work. Love between husband and wife. Love, compassion, caring for the strangers. Love, in the expectation of a child. Love, in seeing a future with hope. Love, in the strangers’ promise. And love, in its fulfillment.

This is part of the ongoing story of Abraham and Sarah, and their family. Of love, hope, and faith. And through faith, hope, and love, it is our story too.

We seek a future with hope. We come to expect the fulfillment of the promise. The promise that is behind and beyond all these other promises. 

Beyond despair or deprivation or strife, animosity or the cessation of good will, there will be and is, a greater good, a greater peace. And we are called to proclaim it, and to live into it. The peace of God, the love of God, hope in God, faith in God.

You will see from the day’s prayers, and from the gospel, that we can have that expectation, that is more than a dream, a hope and faith and love that will bring God’s love into the world, in the children of Abraham that are all those who share his faith. And that promised land will begin right here, as we, children of the promise, of faith and hope and love, seek and make a new community and a new home with all those who respond to the call.

###

As he sent them out for the first time, Jesus commanded his disciples: “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’” 

That is the message. The one who sent Abraham and Sarah on their journey is the one who is sending the disciples on theirs – a mission that belongs to all his followers, from then on. It is ours as well as theirs. 

Abraham and Sarah were told that they would be a blessing to many nations. Those nations are us. And the message that in those nations would be established the kingdom of peace. The reign of God is what encompasses and embraces all who seek the peace of God.

Jesus sends out those first disciples on an early mission. They go before him into the villages of Israel, with a message and a ministry. We too proclaim the kingdom in both deed and word. This congregation, I am told, has many ministries to those around us, strangers and residents, as they are in need.

This congregation has a ministry to those around us as we welcome them into our celebrations. In these ministries we proclaim the good news, we live the good news, we celebrate the good news. The ministries make manifest the reign of God. We show that the kingdom of heaven has come near. 

Those early disciples, messengers of the reign of God, were so urgent on their mission that they traveled light. Lucky for them that ancient Mideastern tradition of hospitality had not worn off. 

As they entered villages where they might find a welcome, and be able to rest and even, we can imagine, receive water and food. They might find a welcome for their message. Not everywhere, nor with everyone. Where they did not, they could move on. 

Where they did receive a welcome, there was much to talk about with those who received the message: How do we live out the good news? How do we live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven? What does the reign of God look like? How does it begin to show? How do we live into it?

We receive, and we give. May God’s love go with you today and always. May you carry with you Jesus’ message of peace, and the promise of Abraham and Sarah. May faith, hope, and love abide with you, and go with you.

For the kingdom of heaven is near. Right on top of you. Proclaim it with joy.

JRL+

June 14th 2026 : 3rd Sunday after Pentecost. San Rafael, Benson.

The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Sunday Closest to June 15

Proper 6, Year A, RCL, Track 1  

Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)

Psalm 116:1, 10-17

Romans 5:1-8

Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23)  

 

The Collect (Episcopal)

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Prayer of the Day (Lutheran)

God of compassion, you have opened the way for us and brought us to yourself. Pour your love into our hearts, that, overflowing with joy, we may freely share the blessings of your realm and faithfully proclaim the good news of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

***

From the Lectionary Page (https://www.lectionarypage.net/):

"What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?

During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson. The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands. The first track of Old Testament readings (“Track 1”) follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. In Year A we begin with Genesis, in Year B we hear some of the great monarchy narratives, and in Year C we read from the later prophets.

Trinity

In the name of God, source of all being, eternal word, and holy spirit.

TRINITY SUNDAY 2026

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

• Genesis 1:1-2:4a
• 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
• Matthew 28:16-20
• Psalm 8

https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/ATrinity_RCL.html 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBRpeq9dVe4

https://i2-prod.irishmirror.ie/incoming/article15009149.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/0_Shamrock.jpg

In the name of God, source of all being, eternal word, and holy spirit. Amen.

The word of the day today is three…… in one.

In its earliest form there are two more verses to Holy, Holy, Holy:

In Thy name bap­tized are we,

With Thy bless­ing are dis­missed;

And Thrice-Ho­ly chant to Thee

In the ho­ly Eu­cha­rist;

Life is one dox­ol­ogy,

To the bless­èd Tri­ni­ty.

To the Fa­ther; and the Son,

Who for us did deign to die;

And to God the Ho­ly One,

Who the Church doth sanc­ti­fy;

Sing we with glad ju­bi­lee,

Hallelujah! Lord, to Thee.

http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/h/h/o/hhholord.htm cf. The Hymnal 1940 Companion, p. 178.

We baptize and are baptized in one name, whoever we are, among Christians. We are baptized in the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are sent out, in the Great Commission, that Matthew relates at the end of his Gospel, to all nations, and to baptize in the one name, that is the Trinity, God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

And we are blessed at our going forth from this assembly, in the words at the end of today’s Epistle reading, in that name. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

One name. Wait a minute. Isn’t that three names? If we wanted one name for God would we not, like the earliest Hebrews, like Moses, ask for one? Whom shall I say you are? And get that great non-answer, I am who I am. Which leaves it a mystery. (Ex. 3:13–15)

You can’t blame us for trying. Source of all being, eternal Word, and holy Spirit, comes close. Creator, word, and sanctifier, meh. Those are attributes or functions. And clearly the Trinity is personal. God the Father is a person, God the Son is a person, God the holy Spirit, mysteriously, is a Person. And yet, God the Holy Trinity is one God. 

One being. Three persons. No wonder we say it’s a mystery. And throw up our hands, in praise….. or in prayer. In the hymn Saint Patrick’s Breastplate, we bind ourselves, as if putting on the armor of God, in the singular name of the Trinity. 

I bind unto my­self to­day

The strong name of the Tri­ni­ty,

By in­vo­ca­tion of the same

The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind un­to my­self to­day

The pow­er of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, His might to stay,

His ear to heark­en to my need.

The wis­dom of my God to teach,

His hand to guide, His shield to ward;

The Word of God to give me speech,

His heav­en­ly host to be my guard.

I bind un­to my­self the name,

The strong name of the Tri­ni­ty,

By in­vo­ca­tion of the same,

By whom all na­ture hath cre­ation,

Eternal Fa­ther, Spir­it, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my sal­va­tion,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/t/p/a/stpatric.htm

The hymn does not provide a formula, but a promise, and a prayer. A way forward, into and through the mystery, into an intimate and personal relationship.

And that is really what Trinity Sunday is about: relationship. God to Godself, yes, and God to us. It is as if the three persons of the Trinity were dancers. This is the dance, the holy dance, the interplay of the persons of the Trinity, that God beckons us to join. 

We join in the Eucharist, we join in prayer, we join in Baptism and all the sacramental rites; we join at our death. And again at the new birth into eternal life, that is the resurrection. The dance, a circle perfected, in the Trinity.

We join in every day of our lives, and the lives of the ones we love. And those we see no longer. And those we have never, or have yet, to meet. 

God the Father, Source of All Being, in your generosity you make room for all that is to come to be. In your enfolding embrace we live our lives. 

Merciful Father, be kind to us in our folly and grant us the wisdom of the spirit and the love and grace of the son as you bear us into being within the womb of creation.

Jesus, Eternal Word, you call us, bringing us together, whether or not we were there with you by the lakeside in Galilee, or in Jerusalem and Judea, or not. You walked down the hill from Nazareth to the lake and there by its shore you began to gather us, your people, your chosen followers. You lead us, still, by the power and through the inspiration of the holy spirit, holy spirit that you bequeathed upon your followers.

Holy Spirit, you are the God we know. Jesus left you as his legacy to us. Holy Spirit, you are the God we encounter. Jesus left you as his gift to us. The Father made us. But you are the God we see. How do we see you? We see you in the manifestations of your works. You fill us with grace and insight. You give us courage and wisdom. Indeed, you are called ‘the spirit of wisdom’. 

God, three yet one, we pray to you, we proclaim you, we baptize in your threefold name, always calling us through the threeness into the One. 

For in three persons you are one God. We experience you in creation, salvation,  and the ongoing transformation of our lives in communion with you. Be with us as we go forth to proclaim the good news of your love, your redemption, you care for all your creation. And celebrate with us in joy. 

In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sources & Resources - Year A

 Sources and Resources 

... include:

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha

New Revised Standard Version

General editor: Michael Coogan, Edited by Marc Brettler, Carol Newsom, and Pheme Perkins

The SBL Study Bible. New Revised Standard Version—Updated Edition. A revised edition of The HarperCollins Study Bible, which replaced the Harper Study Bible.

The CEB Study Bible · Common English Bible.  https://www.commonenglishbible.com/explore/passage-lookup

David Adam,
Clouds and Glory: Prayers for the Church Year: Year A (London: SPCK, 1998)
Traces of Glory: Prayers for the Church Year: Year B (London: SPCK, 1999)
Glimpses of Glory: Prayers for the Church Year: Year C (SPCK, 2000)

John Barton, ed. Oxford Bible Commentary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

John Fisher. "Have you seen Jesus my Lord?" (song, 1970).

Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, eds. The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. New York: Macmillan,1993.

Christopher Irvine, The Pilgrims' Manual. Glasgow: Wild Goose, 1997.

Herbert O'Driscoll, The Word Today: Reflections on the Readings of the Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, Volumes 1, 2, 3. Toronto: Anglican Book Centre, 1998.

Nicholas Thomas (Tom) Wright, Matthew for Everyone, ed. 2. London: SPCK, 2004.

Barbara E. Reid, New Collegeville Bible Commentary: The Gospel According to Matthew. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2005.

Fred B. Craddock, John H. Hayes, Carl R. Holladay, Gene M. Tucker,
Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year A (Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1992)

Mary Hinkle Shore, Herman C. Waetjen, Richard Eslinger, Melinda A. Quivik,
New Proclamation: Year A, 2007-2008: Advent through Holy Week (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007)

New Proclamation: Year A, 2010-2011: Advent through Holy Week (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010)

David Bartlett, and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volumes 1,2,3,4. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster Knox Press.

The Lectionary Page http://www.io.com/~kellywp/index.html

The (Online) Book of Common Prayer http://www.bcponline.org/

Oremus Bible Browser http://bible.oremus.org/

The Hymnal 1940 Companion.Third Revised Edition. New York: Church Pension Fund. 1949, 1951.

AEaster7

People of Coolidge, why do you stare up into the sky? He will return, in the same way as he left. And he won’t be mistaken for a bird, or a plane, or a superman here to save us one by one by silly means. 

As he ascended, Jesus gave his disciples, and that means us, a job to do: a commission, to take his message to all people, at home right here, and beyond our comfort zone or even our knowledge. 

We know this town, its people; we know ourselves. And yet we do not know what is coming. Not really. Though we may fear or gleefully await a change, or strive to keep the faith with what we know and love. 

But there is more to the story than that: we have something to share, a story to tell, to every new person that walks through that door, and a new story to tell to every one we may see week after week. It is the good news of the story of the glory of God. It is from the beginning the story of God’s love for us, his people, and his people includes everybody. 

Today we welcome a new person into our company. Last month she was only ten days old and here she is to be baptized.

In the story of the Church it is an unusual day to be baptized, or for anything to happen. Last week, or last Thursday, we began to accept that Jesus, who arose on Easter, is no longer with us. 

We do not see God in Christ face to face. We must seek him in each other – and in the stranger we meet on the road, or in the hospital, or at the diner. He may help us, we may help him. But the image of God is in each one of us. 

Next Sunday, the feast day of Pentecost, the Church celebrates a new beginning. You will notice that in our first lesson today things have already begun. Returning from saying good-bye to Jesus outside town, the disciples, including women, and the eleven apostles, begin to gather for prayer. They meet in an upper room, perhaps the very one they met on the night he was betrayed, Jesus’ passion beginning.

They gather in prayer. They will go on gathering in prayer and telling the story of Jesus, and of the life that ends not in despair but hope.

At Pentecost the promised Spirit will arrive in dramatic fashion. If you are down at San Xavier del Bac Mission Church, sometime. look for the painting on the wall of the disciples, each with a tongue of flame above his head. This shows us visually what happened internally. 

They began to understand that the Spirit was within, and working in them, to bring that commission into action that Jesus had left them with. Left us with. To take the message home and to the whole world.

This morning we receive a new member into our midst, a new Christian, a new person, a new human being. One of God’s own delight. Evelyn. Our duty to her as to all new Christians is to remind them of their baptism. What it means. 

And it means, among other things, that you are God’s delight. You are loved by God. And we try to show that in how we welcome you into our company. We are the company of God’s delight: the creatures he has made and in whom is his joy. 

We show God’s delight in us, God’s love for us, in part in how we are together as one; one people, called together in faith by our own baptisms. We too, Evelyn, have had water splashed on our heads, oil spread on our foreheads, and our names proclaimed as God’s own. 

Together as one family, one people, with one God father of all. Christ prayed for us, that we might be one. 

You are one of us. You are one of us, now, and forever.

A visible sign of that unity will be our prayer together, in the Eucharist and in the Lord’s Prayer, as we all together say those words that our Savior taught us.

Simple words; but they cover everything. 

They begin with praise for God and prayer that the will of God will happen – among us, and in part through us. As we pray, we are called to help bring into visible being that kingdom of God, reign of God, that we pray will become realized here. And we pray for our daily needs. And we pray for forgiveness, as we surely know we need it. But forgiveness as we forgive others and ourselves. And again we pray, acknowledging that that kingdom is already here; already real. Glory. 

Watermelon seeds - and grandmothers. 

When I was young Grandma Maxine came to visit.

She taught us two things on that visit. One was how to spit watermelon seeds. We were eating watermelon, the four boys, out on the back lawn, and she asked, do you know how to spit watermelon seeds? No. Well, let me teach you. She lined us up at the edge of the lawn. Just past it was a place my father had put down rich soil for a new garden. We ate - and got the seeds into our mouths - and we spat.

The seeds launched out into th new soil beyond the lawn's edge - and disappeared. But six weeks later - watermelon. First the vines, then the melons.

The other thing she taught me was the Lord's Prayer. It took a little longer for that to bear fruit.

And now, using the exact same words my grandmother taught me, the traditional words, let us pray.  

As our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold to say,

Our Father, who art in heaven,     hallowed be thy Name,     thy kingdom come,     thy will be done,         on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses,     as we forgive those         who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation,     but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom,     and the power, and the glory,     for ever and ever. Amen.

***

• Acts 1:6-14
• 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
• John 17:1-11
• Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36

https://sermonoats.blogspot.com/2012/04/seeds.html

For St Michael's Episcopal Church, Coolidge, Ariz. May 17th 2026. JRL+

© 2026 John Leech

AEaster3 a friend and not a stranger

 Walking through San Francisco from my office in the Financial District up into Chinatown and North Beach was a favorite lunch break for me. One day returning from Caffe Trieste or Molinari’s Deli, as I waited at the stop light at Columbus and Broadway, I heard someone quietly walk up next to me. 

First I saw the tennis shoes. A little oversized. Then, looking up, I found myself looking into twinkling blue eyes of– what at first appeared to be a middle-aged woman– but it was a man! 

Not a man in drag, like my old neighbors on Lily Street, but a man impeccably made to look like a woman. A man in drag I could’ve understood, but this was something else. It freaked me out.

Years later I found out: an actor, during a break from filming, had left the film set, and gone on his own lunchtime walk, still in full makeup and costume. He was playing a middle-aged woman. 

Mrs. Doubtfire.

And so he had a little fun seeing people’s reactions, like mine, to see if the illusion would hold up. 

[Apparently Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon did the same thing, when they tried out their wigs and dresses (and heels) for “Some Like it Hot”.]

So I did not recognize him. 

Have you had that experience? Of not recognizing someone, of not seeing?

I feel a little sympathy for Cleopas and the other disciple. Who would be the last person they would expect to see, on the road to Emmaus? – besides Robin Williams. 

The master. 

The one crucified just three days ago. Sure there were rumors, crazy stories. But now?

It was all too real. You could excuse them for freaking out. But they did not. At first they did not see Jesus, they saw a stranger. Then a companion on the way. And by time they invited him to dinner, he had walked them through what had happened, what had to happen, according to all the Scriptures.

Only these truths were not so strange, and he was no stranger. He was their teacher.

***

• Acts 2:14a,36-41
• 1 Peter 1:17-23
• Luke 24:13-35
• Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17

***

Kitchen Scene with Supper at Emmaus, Rijck, 1605 http://edgeofenclosure.org/emmausrijck.html