St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church - Elizabeth, NJ
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  • Home
  • Welcome
    • History >
      • Historical Sizzle
    • I'm New
    • Let's Get Acquainted
    • Rev. Canon Andy J. Moore
    • Leadership
    • Mission
    • Habits of Grace: Prayer into Action
    • Bishop Curry Who is my Neighbor
    • Bishop Curry
    • Make a Gift
    • Services
    • Sunday Service Aug 30th 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 23rd, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 16th, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 9th, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 2nd, 2020
    • Gallery >
      • Harvest Sunday
      • Sunday School Father's Day 19
      • Men's Club Community Flea Mkt
      • Community Christmas Party
      • Thankgiving Baskets
      • Celebration for High School Gradates
      • Homecoming 2018 >
        • Homecoming
      • Music in the Garden
      • Mother's Day 2018
      • Mother's Day 2018
      • Sunday School Youth Sunday
      • Maundy Thursday
      • Christmas Mass St. Elizabeth's
      • Christmas Eve Mass
      • Christmas Eve Mass
      • Christmas Eve Mass
      • Community Christmas Party
      • Frist Presbyterian
      • Feast of All Saints
      • Sanctuary Sunday 2017
      • International Food Festival
  • Get Involved
    • Sunday School
    • Sunday School Lift Ev'ry Voice
    • Moments in Black History 2019
    • Black History - MLK
    • Sunday School Black History
    • Sunday School Black History ii
    • Youth Ministry
    • ESL Fall 19 Classes
    • ESL Cerificate of Achievement
    • Computer Literacy
    • Episcopal Church Women
    • Mens Club
    • Outreach
  • Hall Rental
  • Calendar
    • News & Events >
      • Free Testing for COVID-19
      • Robin Pierre DCN
      • Pastoral Letter April 24th
      • Holy Week Schedule
      • Church Services Suspended
      • Reading Lent4 - Mar 22nd
      • Lift Ev'ry Voice & Sing Challenge
      • Absalom Jones Service Sunday 2/16
      • Brad Kleiman in Concert
      • Annual General Meeing
      • Christmas Service
      • Cathedral Day 2019
      • Bern Nix Jazz Festival
      • All Saints Sunday, 3rd, November
      • Sight & Sound 2019
      • Int'l Food Festival July 13th
      • UMHA - Workshop Canceled 6/15
      • Prayer Breakfast Mar 16th
      • MLK Day of Service
      • UMHA - Sunday Dec 16th
      • New Year Eve Service
      • Christmas Celebration Fun Night
      • ECW Trip to Lancaster PA
      • Homecoming 2018
      • Music In the Garden
      • Saxophone Recital
      • Elizabeth Homeless Coalition
      • From Your Door to Heaven's Door
      • Urban Garden
      • Black History Events
  • Contact
  • Realm E-Giving Launch
  • Harvest Baskets Giveaways
  • Rector's Harvest Message
  • 25 Years of Priesthood Gala
    • 25th Years of Priesthood Gala
  • 25 Years of Priesthood Gala
  • Sunday May 5th
  • Lent 2019
  • Living Like Job
  • Operation Warm Heart
  • 9th Annual Food Festival
  • it's Friday....but Sunday Comin!!
  • Bishop Curry
  • Poor People's Campaign
  • Zoom Sunday Service Oct 4th
  • Stewardship Sunday 10/18/2020

Father Abraham had many Sons

6/30/2020

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Genesis 22 :12-14 He 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." And 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. So, 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

 As a child we sang lustily in Sunday School:
“Father Abraham had many sons
Many sons had Father Abraham
I am one of them and so are you
So let's just praise the Lord
Right arm!”

If so what went wrong?

One of the interesting developments as part of the fall out effect of the George Floyd revolution is the growing interests in slave stories. These are collections of some of the experiences shared by slaves about life on the plantations that fueled the economy of the U.S.A. There is much that one can glean from such writings that continues to affect race relations even today. Many times, slaves who were the trusted drivers of the plantation owner would desire to offer words of advice to his owner. These owners often lacked the discipline or business acumen and managerial skills needed to transform a floundering economy of scales while many a slave had gained tremendous knowledge and wisdom that will later be translated to successful ventures. The problem was the owner will allow his whiteness to blind him from accepting the wisdom of any one outside his cultural settings. In the end all would suffer as the plantations became overwhelmed by debt and slave families were broken up as commodities for debt servicing.

In many ways today there remains that lingering reluctance of how much can one really share to save our nation. How long must truth be sacrificed for the greater good? For too long we had to bear our wisdom, knowledge, and expressions in silence as leaders of both the nation and church hurtled to their own demise. We would agonize in many ways before we dare raise our voices and even then we had to shout to be heard. It took a dying whispered breath “I cannot breathe” for our white brothers & sisters to stop and listen. How hard must God shout the words “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him!”

This I suspect can be the lens we are invited to view the readings for today. Abraham and his household is gripped by fear. In their cultural settings human sacrifice may possibly be the norm. Abraham is fearful to carry out the act because either way he loses. He is a prisoner of his cultural system. Isaac suspects he is carrying the tools of his own death. The servants who are going along are fearful witnesses. Sarah is at home gripped by fear to the point that one tradition has it that Sarah died while Abraham and Isaac were on the way to Moriah. She was literally scared to death. How could she live without her son? Some even go as far to say that even God was gripped by fear for, he was not sure if Abraham would stop when so ordered. So, the road to Mt. Moriah becomes a journey of fearful silence.

There is so much we can all gain from a close study of these readings for in many ways we are all caught in a trap called fear. Some fear reparation, some fear revenge, all fear to trust. So like the slave and the owner we are hurtling along to our mutual demise. The fear is driven by the inability to see that there is enough resources available for all to live well. Greed and fear are dancing to the music of hate dirges. During this ‘dance macabre’, black lives along with their hopes, dreams and aspirations are being sacrificed. These including Dr. Martin, Trayvon, Michael, Alton, Bothan, Sandra, Atatiana, Freddie,Tamir, Breanna, Philander, George and thousands of others were sacrificed on altars of cultural whiteness.

 Then God breaks into the world of fear and declares “in me and through me there is enough for all.” Look there is a ram in the thicket”

Then Jesus came and revolutionized our understanding of God’s Holy word. Mathew 10:40 -42 "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and 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." Jesus bought us all into a relationship of both equality and equity. In Jesus what we discover is not unity over diversity but a truly diverse and equitable unity. My friends this is a time for Christians to fully activate their faith in God’s love for all.  For, it only through this faith, will our nation be saved. No longer can the Church which has so often supported structures of inequality, collaborated corrosively with power, colluded with colonialism remain passive. For too long those who confessed their belief that all human beings are made in the image of God have so often presented the world with a God whom they have made in their own cultural image. On Mt. Moriah a new promise was given in order to live out the promises of God. This was a chairos moment, in which God transforms fear into loving action through faith.

“Father Abraham had many sons
Many sons had Father Abraham
I am one of them and so are you
So let's just praise the Lord
Right hand!”

Or in modern chant “Black Lives matter!”

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    Rev. Canon, Andy Moore 

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St Elizabeth’s
305 N. Broad Street
Elizabeth, New Jersey 07207

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