Saying an Unreserved ‘Yes’ to God
- davidwperk
- Jan 31, 2024
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, January 31, 2024
The week of the fourth Sunday after Epiphany
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:
22:1After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 2He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’
You will find the full text of today’s Old Testament reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 947)
AM Psalm 72; PM Psalm 119:73-96
Gen. 22:1-18; Heb. 11:23-31; John 6:52-59
Today we celebrate the Feast of Samuel Shoemaker. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
Sigmund Mowinckel, an Old Testament scholar, wrote: “We . . . know that we do not find truly secure freedom, true release from all fear and feelings of impotence, from all unrest and a half-clean conscience, until the moment when we let go of ourselves and cast ourselves upon (God) him and say an unreserved 'yes' to God, and declare ourselves willing to do, by (God’s) his help, all (God) he may demand of us even though it be in fear and trembling.” *
What might Abraham have been fearing while journeying with Isaac to the place of sacrifice? He had struggled for more than fifteen years to depend on God’s delayed promise that a son and heir would be born to him and Sarah. Now, Isaac indeed had been born. Yet, Abraham sensed that God wanted him to offer the child as a sacrifice. How could he give up his son? Why would God finally give him a son only to ask for his life in sacrifice?
Child sacrifice was not uncommon in antiquity. This story may well be here to refute child sacrifice as an acceptable practice. Our theological sensibilities prompt the question, “Would God indeed ask Abraham to offer his child?” You well might answer, “Of course not.” Perhaps Abraham was laboring with a concept of God he needed to revise, one that prompted him to assume God was leading him when it really was his understanding of God generating his actions. Have you and I not been in that space?
Yet, letting that historical question distract us could diminish our focus on another dynamic in the story, namely Abraham’s radical ‘yes’ to God. Granted, he may have been acting out of an understanding of God alien to us, but we find no observable reservation in Abraham about doing God’s bidding..
In Mowinckel’s words, Abraham was saying an unreserved ‘yes’ to God. He was letting go of a child whose preciousness to him we can only imagine. Therein lies the tension in this narrative for us. What has become so dear to me that the energy given to holding on to it undermines my relating to God and to others with unreserved freedom and love? To what object, job, longing, dream, person, relationship have my desires become so attached that the thought of letting go fills me with dread?
If you and I can imagine our lives without that attachment, if we can envision the loss or death of the thing or person to which we are clinging, the feelings of anxiety and grief that rush in will put us in touch with the depth of that attachment. Then, we can begin asking God for grace to let go, to release that person or thing or desire to God. And, very likely, as in the case of Abraham, we may not be asked to forfeit it; rather we might find ourselves enabled to stand in a new relationship with it or him or her, not finding security or peace by clinging and depending but finding freedom by holding lightly and letting go.
Roman Catholic theologian and divine, Henri Nouwen said it well. "To be able to enjoy fully the many good things the world has to offer, we must be detached from them. To be detached does not mean to be indifferent or uninterested. It means to be nonpossessive. Life is a gift to be grateful for and not a property to cling to.” # Our unreserved ‘yes’ to God opens the door to freedom, peace, and gratitude.
* Sigmund Mowinckel, The Old Testament as Word of God, trans. Reider B.
Bjornard (Nashville: Abingdon, 1959), pp. 97-98.
# Henri J. M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith (New York: Harper, 1997), February 20.
Collect of the Day, Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 215)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Samuel Shoemaker, priest and evangelist (died 31 Oct 1963 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Samuel Shoemaker
Holy God, we thank you for the vision of Samuel Shoemaker, who labored for the renewal of all people: Grant, we pray, that we may follow his example to help others find salvation through the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ our Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Grace
Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)
A Prayer attributed to St. Francis
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (BCP, 833)
A Collect for Early Evening
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, creator of the changes of day and night, giving rest to the weary, renewing the strength of those who are spent, bestowing upon us occasions of song in the evening. As you have protected us in the day that is past, so be with us in the coming night; keep us from every sin, every evil, and every fear; for you are our light and salvation, and the strength of our life. To you be glory for endless ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)
A Collect for Mission
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)
Daily Office Old Testament Reading, Genesis 22:1-18
22:1After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 2He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ 6Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7Isaac 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?’ 8Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together. 9When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.
11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 12He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ 13And 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. 14So 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.’
15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16and said, ‘By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I 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, 18and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.’
Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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