So many roads. So many voices. And the signs are often hidden, or else too obscure to read right now. Valerie Bridgeman asks, “How do we discern what is right? How do we strengthen our faithfulness when our human nature resists? These texts [which we hear this weekend] push us to consider the way God leads us and refreshes us along the way.” (SOJOURNERS, July 2020:49)
The reading from Genesis, 24:34-67, needs to be put in context. Abraham sent his right-hand guy to an uncle of his, Bethuel of Mesopotamia, to arrange a marriage for his son Isaac from “family”. “How will I know the one to choose?” asked the servant. “You’ll know her when you see her”, was the reply. No pressure. Having prayed his way through the Fertile Crescent, the man arrived at Bethuel’s town–and immediately a sweet girl came to give him a drink from the well, and his camels too! “This must be the one”, said he to himself; and gave her rich jewelry as gifts. Long story short, she–Rebekah–went back with him, married Isaac, and they had many descendants. But the story is mainly about how God helped the fellow who had a difficult task of ascertaining the Right One.
St. Paul writes in Romans 7:15-25 about how we often get in our own way, thus perverting the heavenly signs richly bestowed. “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand…I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind (soul?)…” Paul likes life to be very binary–black & white–and is often puzzled by the human mixture which is probably expectable from most people. Most of us who hear these words have created a “law” or ethic which defines what a good & proper person does, from personal hygiene to filtering profanity out of our conversation. When we slip, does “the Devil make us do it”? How can we tell what’s acceptable with God’s People? Whose advice and example do we follow?
Jesus sarcastically chuckles in Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 at fickle humanity that doesn’t recognize the Holy in their midst. John the Baptizer came as an ascetic recluse, and was accused of “having a demon”; and the Savior came with a healthy appetite for feasting and wedding-receptions, and they called him a “glutton and a drunkard”… you can’t win! But then he goes on to say that those who DO recognize him for what he is will have the right-size task (yoke) and a job (burden) that fits them well.
“Ordinary time is just under half of the Sundays on the calendar. It is the time when Christians recount the stories of their faith, across the biblical canon, in order to strengthen their commitments to discipleship and to study and reflect on what it means to be the people of God, both in one’s own life and in the community’s formation…..These [days] in July capture the day-to-day nature of our faith.” (Bridgeman, ibid.) Our own journeys of discernment are bolstered by the adventures of these heroes.
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
My joy of being met by scriptures assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com
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