Genesis 22:1-14/ Psalm 13/ Matthew 10:40-42

To Love and Welcome God

Henry Nouwen’s Choice

Henry Nouwen, who is my favorite Christian writer, was a Catholic priest and a theology professor. However, living a comfortable life as a professor made him feel gradually uncomfortable and dissatisfied as a Christian and priest. He ended up quitting his teaching job and moved to Ontario to live and work in a community for disabled people, L’Arche, where he served for the rest of his life.

For this priest with great spiritual thirst to serve God in meaningful ways, this was a great place for him to experience and share God’s love, and serve. He met and had a special relationship with a severely intellectually disabled young man called Adam, which inspired him to write a book about him. While reading and meditating on his writings, I can imagine him experiencing God through his relationship with the members of the community, seeing the face of God in them. He loved them like God loves all of us.

Welcoming the Messenger

In today’s gospel reading, we heard Jesus mention how showing hospitality to the messengers is the same as showing hospitality to the person who sent them. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me… Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple-truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” It was customary for the Jews to perceive the messenger as the same as the sender. If you respect the person, you respect their messengers.

There is a parable in Matthew chapter 25 that closely relates to today’s gospel text. In the Parable of the Final Judgment. Jesus has the Son of Man, who is the judge for all nations, praises one group of people saying, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you… for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” They say to the judge, “When was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food?” The judge answers, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” And you can guess how the conversation went with the other group of people…

As we can learn from the Gospel of Matthew, our relationship with God and our relationship with each other are closely related. We love our neighbours because we love God and God loved us first. As in all human relationships, our relationship with God requires deep trust.

Abraham’s Trust in God

Look at what Abraham went through in today’s Genesis reading. This is a very disturbing story for our sensibilities today, but let’s just go with it. It took Abraham a lot of faith to trust God’s promise of a son and heir. Now that he has a son, God tells him to sacrifice the boy like a sacrificial lamb. It is very disturbing and uncharacteristic of God to order something like that. Yet, Abraham obeyed. I like to think that he knew God was only testing him. There is a painting portraying this scene in which Abraham’s knife is raised as if to strike the boy but his eyes are not looking at him, as if to say, “Come on, God, you got me this far so I’m waiting for your order to stop. Right about now.” He passed God’s test and God loved and trusted him more for his willingness to obey God no matter what.

There is one thing that we can assume about this story if we say it actually happened in history; just because Abraham obeyed, it doesn’t mean he got there without kicking and screaming, metaphorically or literally. Disregarding the fact that this is a disturbing story for us, we can learn the importance of trust in our relationship with God.

The most fundamental spiritual lesson we learn from the scriptures is in Psalm 13. “Be still my soul, for God is on your side.” Psalm 46 has something similar: “Be still and know that I am God.” This psalm speaks of not being overwhelmed by fear in the midst of storm, mountain trembling, and so on. We will not be shaken when life or mother nature throws scary things at us because we know that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Psalm 13 that we read today feels more relatable to us through. The psalmist doesn’t begin by praising God’s name or being zen like the author of psalm 46. He start by crying out to God. “How long will you hide your face from me?” But then, the crying out and complaining move on to “but my trust is in your mercy.” That is how he can end his song/ prayer with “because you have dealt so lovingly with me, I will praise your name,” even though God had not saved him from his enemies yet.

Trust in God

Establishing a deeply trusting relationship with God is the foundation of our faith. Because we recognize God’s love for us, we can love God back, and in turn, love all God’s people and creation. We can and should treat all God’s creation with respect and love because we have a loving and respectful relationship with God. To love and welcome God, we have to love and welcome all God’s people and creation. Therefore, let us love as God loves us all. Let us see God in each other’s face and in our relationship with each other because we will not look at anyone who is not loved by God. As Jesus was God’s messenger to us humans, let us become messengers of God’s reign of compassionate love and justice in our society. Let us go out and love like Jesus did, like God loved us first.