Faith of our Fathers

July 6, 2014

Genesis 24: 34-67

Pentecost 4A

On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail in regards to the proceedings that took place on July 2nd. It was on the 2nd of July, 1776, that the Second Continental Congress voted on a resolution that legally separated the thirteen American colonies from British control. In the letter to his wife, John Adams wrote: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” Mr. Adams was two days off in his guess at when the birthday of the United States would be celebrated…however, for the most part, the majority of what else he wrote to Abigail has happened and continues to occur when we celebrate our nation’s birthday. 

President Adams was a person of faith living in a time of significant transition as the 13 colonies were moving from being subject to British authority to their own autonomy as a country.  What is interesting about this letter to Abigail is that while he was realistic about what declaring independence would mean in the future, he had faith that ultimately the ends would justify the means and that God would grant his blessing upon this new nation.  He continues “You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”

Last week we heard about the story of the binding of Isaac.  How Abraham and Sarah had become so enamored with the child that they had waited so long for, that they placed him above God, the one who had provided for their every need.  So God put Abraham to the test, and without questioning, Abraham proved his faith and his trust in God.

That faith and trust carry over to today’s lesson.  We pick up in the middle of the story in which Abraham sends his servant to Abraham’s brother’s house in Haran to find a wife for Isaac. 

Sarah has died and Isaac was nearing 40, which was well passed the typical age in which folks got married at the time.  Abraham did not want Isaac to take a wife from the women of Canaan, the land in which they lived, and he did not want Isaac returning to Abraham’s hometown for fear that he would find a wife there and settle down in Haran, failing to return to the land which he was set to inherit through the promise that God had made to Abraham.

So Abraham sends his servant to Haran, making him promise to bring back a wife for Isaac from Abraham’s brother’s house.  When the servant reaches the city of Abraham’s brother, Nahor, he stops at the well to pray.  His prayer is that God will grant his success in finding a wife for Isaac and asks that the woman that God had set apart for Isaac would come to the well and offer not only to water not only him, but his camels as well.  Before even completing this prayer, we meet Rebekah, who has come to the well to fetch water.  She offers to water Abraham’s servant, as well as his camels. 

Upon completing this task, Abraham’s servant places gold bracelets on her arms and a ring in her nose, which was a way of claiming her for Isaac while also serving to show Rebekah and her family that Abraham would be more than able to pay a bride price for Rebekah.  Rebekah then runs home to tell her family about what had just happened, decked out in the gold that Abraham’s servant had given her.

Our reading picks up here, with the Abraham’s servant’s testimony of God’s enduring loyalty to Abraham by leading the servant to Rebekah, Isaac’s future wife.  His testimony wins the consent of Rebekah’s family and Rebekah agrees to return with the servant to Abraham’s house to become Isaac’s wife.  Rebekah’s agreement to this arrangement is without question, which we will discover later is not surprising considering her decisive nature.  So Abraham’s servant returns to Canaan with Rebekah and her entourage, and she is delivered to Isaac to takes her as his wife and loves her, finding comfort in his love for her in the midst of his sorrow over his mother’s death. 

Faith and trust is an important thread in this story, as it is in many of the stories of Genesis.  Abraham had faith that God would provide a wife for Isaac from the house of his brother.  Abraham’s servant had faith that God would make him successful in his quest to find such a wife, which he saw as a sign of God’s faithfulness to Abraham and wasn’t afraid to tell others about it. Rebekah’s family had faith, upon hearing the testimony of Abraham’s servant, that Rebekah was being called to become a matriarch of many nations and that God would bless her in her travels and into the future.  

And, finally, there is the faith of Rebekah, a faith that cannot be overlooked, because it is faith with which Rebekah makes the decision to leave her father’s house and travel to a land she has never seen before to marry a man she has never met before all based upon the testimony of a stranger she met at a well.  It is her faith which allows Isaac to be comforted after the death of his mother and it is her faith that helps shape the future for her son Jacob, who will later become Israel.  

It was a faith that, similar to Abraham, allowed Rebekah to lean in on the promises that God would provide.  She depended on God above all else, even when it meant that sometimes it meant taking action to help ensure that God’s promises would be fulfilled. 

As we come to the end of a weekend of celebrating out nations independence from British rule, as we walk through a time in which the words independence and freedom are being bandied about in dangerous ways, as we look out upon a nation that is increasingly divided, we are called to look to Rebekah as an example of faith and of dependence on a God who provides and a God who saves.  To lean in on the promises that whether we see it or not, and regardless of the folks who claim that God has folded to the laws of man and agreed to be kicked out of our schools and places of government, that God is still here, still providing, still blessing.  We are called to walk by faith, to believe in the promises of things that we have yet to see, trusting that just as God has made good on his promises in the past, God will continue to make good on his promises to us now and in the future.  

John Adams was right when he wrote Abigail 238 years ago.  He got the date wrong, but he was right about the celebrations, right about the cost of independence, and right about God’s being present in and faithful to this nation, just as God is in every other nation on earth.  And for this we give thanks.