She said, "I will."

“And they called to Rebekah and said to her, ‘Will you go with this man?’ She said, ‘I will.’”

A week after I graduated from college, I walked down an Air India jet way to begin a year’s stay in India. I had won a Fulbright fellowship to teach English in India, and, despite the reservations of my parents and the surprise of my friends, I had accepted it. I had travelled in Europe the previous spring and summer, and three of my college classmates had spent their junior year in India. However, aside from the research for one of my spring quarter classes, I knew little about the country. I can still remember the sheer terror I felt as I embraced my parents by the entrance to the jet way. I knew that it would be at least a year before I would see them again. I screwed up my courage, turned my back on them, and walked through the jet way door. Even then, perhaps I had an inkling that going to India was part of God’s larger plan for me. I certainly could not then foresee the teaching and scholarship that would come out of that first year in India. Perhaps in some indirect way, the risk I took that day also even made it possible for me to be preaching to you today!

Did Rebekah face that same mix of terror and courage when she agreed to go with Abraham’s servant and become Isaac’s wife? This may be a new Bible story for some of you. As I explained last week, the Revised Common Lectionary of the mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches carries us through three liturgical years. We’re now in Year A, i.e., the first year of the three. This year we read major portions of the Gospel of Matthew, in Year B we read Mark, and in Year C we read Luke, with John interspersed among them in all three years. During the season following Pentecost, that is the summer and the fall, the RCL gives us the choice of semi-continuous readings from the Hebrew Bible or lections that complement the gospel reading. For this three-year cycle I have opted for the semi-continuous reading of the Hebrew Bible. This means that during the summer most of our lessons will be from Genesis, with readings from Exodus later in the summer and fall. Easter was late this year. Consequently, we missed the earliest readings from Genesis. In one, three mysterious strangers announced to Abraham and Sarah that they would become first-time parents in their old age. In another, God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky. Two weeks ago, we heard of the banishment of Hagar and her son Ishmael, and God’s promise to make a great nation of them as well. And last week, we heard the terrifying story of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac. We come now to the next step in God’s fulfillment of God’s promise: the search for a suitable wife for Isaac and the marriage of the next generation.

Of course, this would be an arranged marriage. When we think about marriage, we think about passionate, romantic love and personal fulfillment. However, in the ancient world marriage was more about joining families and ensuring the survival of clans and tribes. Moreover, ancient Israel was a patriarchal society, with the economic, social, and political leadership in the hands of the most senior men. Our Bible stories reflect the dominance of men and mostly overlook women. Just think of the Old Testament names that come most readily to mind: Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and Jonah. Although we do hear the stories of Esther and Ruth, women were not important characters for the editors of the Hebrew Bible. Even so, women were central to God’s achievement of God’s purposes: they had to agree to what God asked of them! Just as much later, Mary had to accept Gabriel’s announcement to her that she would give birth to a savior, so Rebekah had to agree to marriage with a member of Abraham’s family for God’s plan to succeed. Without Rebekah’s “yes” there would have been no next generation! Of course, the Bible doesn’t record her feelings, but don’t you think that she too might have been terrified to leave her family, her community, literally everything she knew, to go off and marry a strange man? Yet, she had the courage to say “yes.” As she left with the blessing of her family, she willingly opened herself to the new life God was laying before her and let God’s plan to go forward.

We too are like Rebekah. God also calls us to play our part in God’s plan. We too may feel like insignificant players, but we are all part of God’s great design, God’s inexorable will to bring in God’s reign. And God can and does make great things happen through us. But God never coerces us. Nor does God threaten us or lay a guilt trip on us. Rather God invites us. If we say “yes,” if we allow ourselves to be led by God, God can work through us. And, let’s admit it, following God can be downright scary: sometimes we don’t want to leave everything that we are familiar with to go off in a new direction. Think about those times when you prayed you were doing the right thing, when you screwed up your courage and ventured down that jet way. When you started a new job or program of study? When you traveled abroad for the first time? When you asked for baptism? When you got married? When you adopted a child? When you came to an Episcopal church for the first time? When we say yes to God’s new direction in our lives, God can continue to work out God’s plan through us. And we can be assured, as Jesus assures us in the Gospel lesson, that God will indeed lead us when we put God’s yoke on, when we team up with Jesus.

What is true for us as individuals is also true for us as a parish. We may be a small parish, but here in Gallia County, we too must have the courage to play our part in God’s plan. That is what being a church means!

So let me tell you about another parish, not so different from us, who took the risk of following God’s leading. Some years ago I visited the parish of St. John on Bethnal Green, in the Diocese of London in England. St John’s had been built in the early 19th century in the East End of London, as the Church of England was expanding into working class neighborhoods. It had been built by a famous architect, John Soane. Even though its façade desperately needed repair when I saw the church, one could still see its original beauty. However, what was important about St. John’s was not its physical space but what was happening inside and outside the church. The neighborhood around the church had greatly changed over the years and now was home to an assortment of Bangladeshis, other South Asians, and Somalis, most of them Muslims, a few Jews left over from earlier generations, and a goodly number of drug dealers and what the Brits euphemistically call “working girls,” i.e., prostitutes. Instead of throwing up their hands and despairing of having anyone to whom to minister, the people of St. John’s courageously decided to follow what they had discerned to be God’s leading. While continuing to be a vital center of worship, the parish began ministries to the drug addicts and prostitutes and to the poor, regardless of their faith community.

On the day we were there, a clothing giveaway, with hot tea and sandwiches, was taking place on the front porch. Through St John’s outreach to the community, many had given up their addictions and their work as prostitutes, and some had begun ministries of their own through the parish. God’s reign was definitely being realized in Bethnal Green! More important, St. Johns partners with other East End parishes and even other faith communities to run food banks, night shelters, soup kitchens, debt counselling centers, outreach work with disaffected youth, groups for mothers and children, youth clubs, after school clubs, and day-care for the elderly. They host Alcoholics Anonymous, mental health groups, ESL instruction, and activities that enable ethnic communities to maintain their language and traditions. With the support of the local community, St. John’s even raised the funds to repair the façade of the church building. Not content simply to dodge the scaffolding for several months, the parish also received grants to have artists decorate the scaffolding. The design: a colorful rendering of the visit of the three men to Abraham announcing Sarah’s pregnancy!

Am I suggesting that we should begin ministries to drug addicts and prostitutes? I’m sure they could be worthwhile endeavors, but they may not be for us. We have our ministry of Loaves and Fishes. We are experimenting with Church in the Park. A parish on Long Island continues to send us children’s clothing. We helped meet the need for warm clothing this past winter by giving away hats, scarves, and gloves. Could we add some form of clothing give-away to our monthly diaper distribution or to our winter give-away? We regularly take leftover food to Serenity House. Could God be calling us to a more intentional relationship with them? At the very least, God is asking us to pray for ourselves and for our parish. God willing, as we discern the next steps in our ministry, we will have the courage to embrace our part in God’s plan. We will let ourselves be led by Christ, even if we feel as if we are going to “another country” to be married to a stranger.

“And they called to Rebekah and said to her, ‘Will you go with this man?’ She said, I will.”