St. Andrew’s Episcopal ChurchThe Road2 Lent March 1, 2015

March 15, 2015

The Son: The Word of God

Collect for Young PersonsBCP p. 829 God our Father, you see your children

growing up in an unsteady and confusing world: Show them that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help them to take failure, not as a measure of their worth, but as a chance for a new start. Give them strength to hold their faith in you, and to keep alive their joy in your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

The Son

For those of you who have read the novel or seen the movie, how would you describe:

the son at the beginning of the story? the son at the end of the story?

The Son

The son is incredibly compassionate in a way that the father is not. There are several examples of this in the novel, including a final conversation the son has with his father about a boy they had recently seen. [Read pp. 280 – 281].

The Son The Son is also uncommonly grateful, and also has

an innate desire to reach out and help others survive, though in one case the father discourages this. [Read pp. 161 -165]

Watch 1:03 – 1:08 The reason for the Father’s hesitancy is that taking

on another person might slow them down, make them more vulnerable to attack, and deplete their food reserves. The irony in the story is that when the father dies, it is the generosity of a new family that brings the son in with them – something the father would never do.

The SonThe Near Sacrifice of IsaacGenesis 22: 1- 19

Have someone at your table read the story from Genesis, and then consider these questions: (10-15 minutes)How would describe the character of Isaac?How do you describe the character of

Abraham?What parallels do you see between the

father and son in Genesis and in The Road?Abraham is asked by God do something

morally depraved – why does God require such a thing?

The Son and Isaac

From both characters we learn about vulnerability:Isaac is vulnerable to God’s willThe Son is vulnerable to the looming death of

his father.It is from this vulnerability, in both stories, that

life comes forth renewed. In the Genesis story we read of the angel promising to Abraham: “…I will bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.”

The Son and Isaac

In The Road we read from p. 55: [The Father] “All things of grace and

beauty such that one holds them to one’s heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. So he whispered to the sleeping boy, ‘I have you.’”

“All things of grace and beauty…have their birth in grief and ashes” (or mud!)

Next Week: March 15, 2015 The Coast: Love’s Embrace