Lent 2
Lovers of the adventures of Bilbo and Frodo will be familiar with the poem: The Road Goes Ever On
The third version is spoken by Bilbo in Rivendell after the hobbits have returned from their journey. Bilbo is now an old, sleepy hobbit, who murmurs the verse and then falls asleep.
The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.[5]
Today we read of a journey that began in the earliest days of Hebrew history:
The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.
‘I will bless those who bless you:
I will curse those who slight you.
All the tribes of the earth
shall bless themselves by you.’
So Abram went as the Lord told him.
So God called this obscure guy unknown to history, his father the equivalent of a parish priest somewhere in a land between the rivers. He set off and kept going round in circles or perhaps crescents as he became a wealthy shepherd in the Fertile Crescent where the modern state of Iraq, Syria and Jordan rub shoulders. He met kings, bandits, angels, God and a fellow called Melchisedek. That’s the story, not very exciting it’s not the stuff of the Adventure comics that I used to spend three old pennies on. Or is it?
Frodo says of his uncle’s song:
“Bilbo used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary.”
Abraham’s story doesn’t end with Abraham. There is a son and a grandson and then a squad of grandsons. The trickle becomes a river. The river becomes an ocean the ocean spreads over the earth. All the time the people are united by God’s call to Abraham and the Law given through Moses.
But what is the purpose of this call, why are this people chosen?
Abraham obeyed God’s call but he thought in terms of a very small world of Palestine and the Near East.
Paul and James recognise in Abraham the call of all Jews and Christians. Jesus goes further and portrays him in eternity receiving the souls of all righteous men and women. The parable of Dives and Lazarus portrays him as the lover of the poor and despised.
On Ash Wednesday we heard God call through the mouth of Joel his prophet:
Come back to me with all you’re your heart, Fasting weeping, mourning. Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn
Here we arrive at some understanding of why God should choose this obscure man and what meaning it may have for us.
The road does go on forever but it is longer than the Hobbits could ever have imagine. It goes back to the beginning, it travels beyond the farthest star and it explores the atom and the quark. Everything is beautiful Creation was made for love and humanity was supposed to be its Guardian. We are part of that beautiful creation and somehow we are part of that fault line. St Augustine says ‘you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.’
God’s response is ‘Come back to me’ that is where the road leads – from Abraham to Israel the sacrificial nation to the crucified redeemer.
Today’s Gospel shows Jesus in that thin place where earth encounters heaven. He is speaking about the exodus, his exodus that he is soon to make. His vocation is to lead Humanity back to the Father. His message is that Love changes everything. The Father loves us and as he called Abraham he calls you and me to lead the world back along the road to his perfect love. Father of all, we give you thanks and praise, that when we were still far off you met us in your Son and brought us home. Dying and living, he declared your love, gave us grace, and opened the gate of glory. May we who share Christ’s body live his risen life; we who drink his cup bring life to others; we whom the Spirit lights give light to the world. Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us, so we and all your children shall be free, and the whole earth live to praise your name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.