Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

HOMILETICAL RESOURCES
God would not have created woman. Adam would have shown that
he did not need others. But God knew Adam's need. After all God had
made him and so knew "it is not good for man to be alone" (Gen.
2:18). Now Adam would recognize the need for relationship through
his desire to be able to somehow speak someone else's name, to
recognize others' existences and natures.
God's role in changing Abram's and Sarai's name expresses God's
special relationship to these people as God's own. No longer will
Abram be Terah's son, nor will Sarai be daughter to her parents.
Abraham and Sarah are God's new creation, named by God and, thus,
become new creatures with a new future planned by their maker.
The story of Abraham and Sarah tells us that the creation story
repeats and repeats. Each new creation receives a greater covenantal
charge and opportunity. Adam and Eve covenanted with God to have
Eden for the observance of one obligation. Noah's generations had all
of the new creation they would share in if they would hew to God's
seven covenantal demands. 1
Abraham and Sarah, chosen to create
anew after the disobedience of the tower of Babel, set the stage for
Sinai. What connection links creation and covenant? The need of both
humankind and God for one another. God, the Almighty, the
complete, the perfect, somehow, someway chooses to need us, to
need another. We, seeking to be whole, need Him/Her, too. Covenant
creates the link and forges the bond between us.
The knowledge that there is the ongoing renewal of creation, that
"God renews eternally and each day the work of the Beginning"
(Prayer Book, morning service), provides us with hope. No matter
what flaws in creation or the covenant which attends it we have
wrought, tomorrow we begin anew. According to the Jewish
tradition, humanity is a partner with God in the ongoing act of
creation just as we are God's partner in covenant. Each day challenges
us to make as much right as we can, "to repair the world in the image
of God's Kingdom" (Prayer Book, 'Afenu/Adoration), as both a
creative and covenantal act. Is there any wonder then that the
changed persons, Abraham and Sarah, the covenant couple, will now
have a child? Is there any other symbol of a new creation as vivid as
birth? And the child's name must signify all the joy linked with new
hopes and new beginnings: Isaac, the one who will laugh.
In the light of these views, Maimonides's rule regarding a penitent
person is psychologically sound. He wrote:
It is part of the way of penitence for the penitent to cry out before
God in tears and supplication, to perform acts of charity according to
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