​It’s been a long day for Jesus and the disciples.  Jesus has cured dozens of sick people and fed a crowd of 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish.  As evening falls Jesus makes sure the disciples are securely loaded into a boat while he retreats to be alone in prayer.  It’s a blustery night on the Sea of Galilee.  The wind and the waves are strong and the disciple’s boat is being tossed further and further away from land, into the middle of the lake.

​It’s between 3 and 6 a.m., the 4th watch of the night, when the disciples spot a figure walking to them across the waves.  They cry out in fear and Jesus reassures them.  “Ego eimi,” he tells them, which translates from the Greek as, “I am.”  Jesus reassures the disciples in the words that God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, “I am.”  “Take heart, be not afraid.”  The great “I am” is with you.

​Peter, intrigued by Jesus’ water walking, asks Jesus to enable him to do it too.  “Come,” says Jesus.  So Peter gets out of the boat and walks toward Jesus, skimming the top of the waves.  And then Peter realizes that he’s doing the impossible.  His rational mind tells his physical body that he cannot be walking on top of water.  He notices that the wind is fierce and the waves are high.  He gets scared, he starts to sink, and he implores Jesus’ help.  Jesus reaches out, grasps Peter by the hand, and rescues him.

My wife Mary Jane and I enjoy listening to Rachel Maddow’s daily evening program on the MSNBC channel. To us, she sounds so convincing in all her opinions on the latest controversies that it is hard for us to imagine anyone thinking otherwise. "Isn’t she just laying out the obvious facts?" we think. However, we have friends, including extended family members, who think otherwise because they listen to nothing but commentators on FOX News.  For them, those commentators sound so convincing on all the latest controversies that it is hard for them to imagine anyone thinking otherwise.  “Aren’t they simply laying out the obvious facts?” our friends ask.  Uh, ohh!  How can this be?  Competing obvious facts!  How can we be sure that we are the ones who know the real obvious facts?!  How can an earnest seeker of the truth sort things out when there is no universally agreed upon and trustworthy source of facts or wise interpreters of them?  

​Although the words “fake news” and “fake media” are new to us, cynicism about statements claiming to be true is not new.  When Jesus told Pontius Pilate that he, Jesus, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Pilate responded by sneering, “What is truth?”  He was standing in a long skeptical and cynical tradition that believed that all truth claims are simply power moves.  The tradition is still around and is warning us to beware of anyone claiming to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth!  But, then, how then can we Christians, who believe that indeed Jesus is the embodiment of God’s truth, navigate competing truth claims, especially those dealing with racial injustice?  What light might today’s lessons shine on all of this?

​In today’s reading from Genesis, God tells Abraham to take Isaac, the son he waited his whole life for, bind him, kill him, and burn him as a sacrifice to God.  Abraham has already banished his son Ishmael.  Now he prepares to murder his other son.

​In the 18th chapter of Genesis, Abraham learns that God is going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their great wickedness. Appalled that good people could perish with the wicked, Abraham engages in energetic and prolonged negotiations with God to gain God’s promise not to destroy innocent, righteous people.

​​And yet, when God tells Abraham to kill his beloved son Isaac, his sole remaining heir, Abraham does not say a word.  There is no argument -- not even a conversation -- with God.  Abraham says nothing to his wife Sarah.  During the 3 days’ journey to Moriah, Abraham shares no hint of what is to come with his intended victim Isaac.  Instead, Abraham calmly loads the wood on Isaac’s back with which to immolate his son.  Abraham builds an altar, lays out the wood, binds his son, and raises his knife to butcher him.  At that point we’re told that God decides Abraham has passed the test.  Abraham’s hand is stayed and a ram is sacrificed in place of Isaac.