First
It used to be a custom, taken from the Church of England, that the first Episcopal parish in an area was named Christ Church. Just so, Christ Church, St. Andrews, Florida; but later, probably in 1926 when St Andrews and Millville were merged into Panama City, the name was changed from Christ Church, St Andrews to St Andrew's Episcopal Church, Panama City.
Similarly but for different reasons, originally chartered as Christ Church, Apalachicola the name was early changed to Trinity Episcopal Church.
Our custom has gone by the way, but it was not unlike naming First Baptist, First Methodist, First Presbyterian. And there came to be something prestigious in being "First Church" or "Christ Church."
It's sad I am that in my Time, the gender, sex, marriage issues have divided Christian denominations, and so fiercely and in concrete certainty. I have my certainties also, trying to keep myself mindful that there are just as many on the other side who are just as certain as I am.
Yet the one thing I am still and always certain of is that in human history, certainty in religion and in religious institutions is evil, the greatest of sins, leading to the most evil human treatment of other humans.
Further, remembering the morning our theology professor came into the classroom when our chatter was about something in the previous evening's news that was going on locally in another denomination that we considered laughably ridiculous: the professor told us, "Don't be so certain, they may be right and we may be wrong."
That was my first year in theological seminary - - fall semester 1980, I was 45 years old when it happened. The memory has tempered my certainties and my faith itself for half my lifeTime now. Maybe a person can go overboard trying to be fair and balanced in judging The Other Side, and if so that's where I've been; often feeling like a fence-sitter.
But faith is not certainty, faith is in an arguable point of view; Hebrews 11:1, Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, confidence in things not seen. Hope, confidence, not knowledge. I once knew a person who said, of the afterlife, "I don't think, I KNOW where I'm going." She is now as dead as any anonymous slave in Abraham's household. What do either of them know? Something or nothing, eternity or oblivion. Ecclesiastes 3: for us humans, there is no certainty. When our bishop was last here he said, "Everybody goes to heaven or nobody goes to heaven."
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Opening, my intent was to read and comment on our lectionary for tomorrow morning. Here's the OT story, about Abraham sending one of his servants to find a wife for Isaac from among Abraham's kinfolks:
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
The servant said to Laban, “I am Abraham’s servant. The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys. And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has given him all that he has. My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’
“I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going! I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also” —let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’
“Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her water jar on her shoulder; and she went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels. Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her arms. Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to obtain the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn either to the right hand or to the left.”
And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.” So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “May you, our sister, become thousands of myriads; may your offspring gain possession of the gates of their foes.” Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb. Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, and said to the servant, “Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself.
And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
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The blogpost has rambled on far enough. The story is well known. All I'll point out about it is that Abraham had male and female slaves.
T90
art: Claude Lorraine "Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah" ca 1648