The Lord shocks Frank & Ralph

By John Pearring

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062621.cfm
Genesis 18:1-15
Matthew 8:5-17

Frank and Ralph, like all celestial beings, knew Abraham well. The celebrity of his overwhelming personality and the epic encounters he had with God sealed his legacy on earth but even more so in heaven. 

Imagine heaven's perspective of this Abraham fellow. By only three years of age, Abraham had twice experienced the presence of God in well-publicized events. At his birth, 2,000 years before Christ, the Lord told the stars to dance and blink for the whole world to see. Every member of the heavenly hosts was recruited for that event. Abraham's family rightly assumed Abram, as he was then named, would be a special agent for God. 

From ages 3-10, Abram lived in a cave protected by the same set of angels, hiding from a justifiably angry king named Nimrod. Abram took umbrage with his local king's sinful behavior when he was just a boy, ranting to everyone that the ruler of his region had offended the Lord, his God. 

The angels spoke openly about Abraham's antics, so often called into duty to protect him from dangers and deceit. Abram was usually correct in his analysis of morals and rituals. Unlike most folks, though, he took his role as God's vocal witness seriously and rarely held back. 

His outbursts started early. 

"You fill the earth with your sins!" the young Abram yelled at Nimrod, alarming everyone in that kingdom. Hundreds of angels got involved in Abram's rescue where only a cave could save the righteous boy.

Abraham's hubris led him through decades of bloody wars, waged mostly out of loyalty with religion thrown in for effect. He recruited family and friends to quell string after string of uprisings and rebellions against God. All with righteous justification, and dozens of cleverly supplied angels, of course. 

The angels assumed God's continual support of Abraham related to his genesis of a new moralistic, strong-willed Hebraic people. In this, they were correct, but at 99 years of age, Abraham still had no male heir. God loved Abraham deeply, but heaven's inhabitants wondered how God would fix this necessary male heir requirement. It was too late, now, certainly. Abraham could be both sweetly sentimental and brutally uncompromising, yet while firmly aligned with God, his hubris raised constant red flags. Frank and Ralph watched all this from afar, suspecting God would be thwarted by this tirelessly uncompromising man.

Each of Abraham's episodes with the Lord ticked off measurable increases of maturity, though. Slowly, Abraham appropriately responded to God in almost everything. At his age, the needed maturation was taking too much time. 

Abraham's love of God, and insistence to copy God's holiness, has reverberated through history. Today, 4,000 years later, we know the tales of Abraham. So, too in heaven. They watched Abraham mimic God's character, learning divine traits on a slow yet critical path undoubtedly very important for humans. 

An angel cannot do such a thing. Since angels are already perfect in their nature, such development as Abraham's, at the complex level of God's love and concern for others, baffled celestial beings. How could such short-lived broken creatures rise to the heights of God's nature? What was God up to?

The angels have always been flummoxed by God's creative genius and cosmic ways. Understanding the development of humans into sons and daughters of God never made practical sense until Abraham came along. 

Even the simplest-minded angels, especially true of Frank and Ralph, recognized Abraham's change for all of humanity. Angels turned the corner on the purpose of humans, indeed creation itself, with this nomadic giant. His next 50 plus years changed humanity as divine cooperators with God for all time. 

The visit by the Lord when Abraham was almost a century in years was the first time that Ralph and Frank were involved with heaven's Abrahamic appearances and revelatory events. The two were seldom recruited by the angelic hosts for anything. If you knew them, you would understand.

When God wanted them for a specific task, however, he called on them directly. God had work to do at Sodom, including Abraham's pleading to rescue Lot, Abraham's nephew. As God had done in the past with Abraham, what should have involved the entire heavenly hosts fell instead to Frank and Ralph. They were to be God's only commandos. The angelic hosts would just watch. 

Why these two incomplete angels reliant upon each other for a semblance of celestial capability? The angelic hosts were constantly surprised at God's choices.

"You two are coming with me," is all the Lord said to Frank and Ralph as the three of them stepped through the hoard of angels (lounging in the garden's waiting area for upcoming assignments) into creation's realm. The Lord gave the same curt command two millennia later when he informed the angels they would accompany him as guardians of the incarnated God, Jesus of Nazareth.

Back two millennium in Abraham's time, however, with Frank and Ralph in tow, this was the first time their special assignments with God would take place in full view of heaven.

The Lord appeared where Abraham and Sarah were living without explaining anything to the two angels. 

Before they arrived on earth, Frank assumed they should make the same physical appearance as the last time they traveled with the Lord during Noah's adventures—draped in white robes, glistening with the clinging sheen of heaven's light. Ralph concurred, and the Lord shrugged in agreement.  

"Where are we headed?" Ralph asked just as they strode with one step from heaven into creation's realm, appearing beside a giant oak tree. They never broke stride, walking as they talked.

"I know that tree," Frank said. They were now in the plains of Mamre. Not 50 yards away, a large tent compound draped over the home of Abraham, 99 years old.

Abraham sat in the porch area of his tent. At midday, the heat inside even a ventilated tent is almost unbearable. A cooking area behind the tent is where Sarah sat, shaded by the tent's shadow. She was organizing grains and dried fruits with two of her scullery servants. Grains at that time were hardy, higher in protein than the 21st Century products, unfamiliar in taste to the present because they were seldom complicated with yeast to puff up the baked goods. Loaves of bread and rolls were often flat. Sarah was known far and wide as a whiz at concocting bakery combinations into full-flavored rolls, her husband's favorites. She magically got them to rise into fluffy feasts the size of a man's hand.

Ralph could see both Abraham at the front of the tent and Sarah at the back section. "What are we doing here?" he asked as they approached the compound of Abraham's clan.

"He's concerned because of your last venture involving Abraham's family," Frank said, looking directly at the Lord when he said it. "You know, the angels were all taken aback by that whole thing."

The Lord stood watching Abraham, not glancing to either Frank on his right or Ralph on his left. He nodded, though. "Yes, I know."

Frank knew better to ask any more, but that didn't stop him. "It's just hard to know what you want to do sometimes." He waited for the Lord to say something, but they just walked on.

"I think he's asking if we have to kill somebody," Ralph exclaimed. The bodies left from the conquest of Abraham, with only 318 soldiers at his side, numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Angels did a lot of the dirty work. The carnage was legendary and the impact felt by everyone in heaven.

"Not right now," the Lord said, slowly, pursing his lips. He tried to silence Frank and Ralph with a lifted hand gesture. 

"Hmmm," Frank said.

"That's not a 'No,'" said Ralph.

Finally silenced, they kept walking, and the Lord whispered, "Abraham."

The old man sitting on his porch rug, nibbling on a handful of dried fig pieces, turned his head to the three silky white figures not far from the landmark oak tree. Even though they were still quite far away, Abraham heard his voice being called.

Frank noticed that Abraham recognized them right away as celestial beings. 

"How can he know who we are?" Ralph asked. 

"Really?" Frank responded. "He's seen stuff like this a hundred times!" Quite often, angels appeared to Abraham during his warring efforts, significantly when he rescued Lot from the four kings. Abraham quickly rose and jogged to greet them.

After greeting and leading them back to the shade of the massive oak tree, Abraham orchestrated a feast for them. While the meat was wonderfully spiced, and the drink and bread were of the highest quality, the rolls were magnificent.

"My Lord, have you tried these yet?" Ralph shouted out to God.

The Lord looked at Ralph and shook his head, smiling. He knew that Ralph's expression would become a commonplace phrase among all nations and tribes from that moment on. He'd been waiting for it, and it was lovely.

"My Word," said Frank. "These are amazing."

The Lord lifted his head and laughed out loud. "From the mouths of babes," he said. "Being present for this is delightful. Three common phrases for eternity, and only one of them, my angelic babes, is mine!"

Frank and Ralph, and Abraham looked at each other in wonderment. They had no idea was the Lord was talking about. Out of deference to the Lord, however, they all three laughed. Sarah had joined them earlier at the Lord's request, and she too laughed with them. 

The tension of holy beings in their midst calmed Abraham and Sarah considerably at the Lord's enjoyment. The Lord told Frank and Ralph to enjoy the meal, their first of this kind. His countenance, though, changed after the joy of laughter made its rounds.

The Lord contemplated the impact of Frank and Ralph's upcoming duties with the peoples of Sodom and Gomorra and so many of the intersecting villages. They would do as he asked, partly convinced by the impurities and corruption of the people they would be asked to destroy. The task's violent outcome, though, would be seen by both heaven and earth. 

No one realized then, and few in the 21st Century after Christ do today, about God's advantage of having just two angels to accomplish the work he'd set out to do. They would save Lot and his family and wipe out everyone else. It would be as pivotal as Noah's family rescue, as far as heaven was concerned. Using the lowly angels Frank and Ralph for the cruel work necessary for the future of humanity, and saving Lot's impure life, would have the proper effect on both heaven and earth. Everyone would realize the lengths that God would go to redeem humanity for himself.

"You OK, Lord?" Ralph asked, seeing a sadness come over the Lord's face. Sarah looked at the one Ralph called "Lord," realizing for the first time that this one was more than just an emissary of God. Abraham was further confirmed in who the Lord was. 

"There is something I have to tell you," the Lord said to Abraham.

Lot, an undeserving man, a typical victim and then reluctant cooperator in the devil's temptations, would be saved by the very angels, Frank and Ralph, who would then wipe out every vestige of creation in those towns. He couldn't tell any of them this. They, too, would see the destruction of Sodom along with heaven's observers, right as it happened. God knew Abraham must plea for Lot's life, revealing the love of a listening God.

Rather, he gave Abraham and Sarah the exciting news of the Hebraic legacy that would begin the Chosen People and mark a sacrificial nation tuned to prepare the world for God incarnate, born into human existence. All they heard, of course, was that they would have a child.

Abraham and Sarah both laughed. He was almost 100 years old, and she was 90. The Lord knew their laughter had been sparked from their earlier delight, but his visage was not humorous. 

"Is there anything too marvelous for the Lord to do?" he said instead. 

"Well, birth at their age is amazing," Frank said. "This is the first time you've ever done something like this."

"Clearly," Ralph said. The Lord closed his eyes. 

"Thanks for including us in this great announcement! It's the highlight of our lives," Ralph added, and then he took a massive bite out of his third roll and complimented Sarah for the umpteenth time. 

"Thank you, Lord. Finally, the beginning of that good news you're always talking about."

"I wasn't laughing," Sarah lied. Abraham took her into his arms. She was horrified at the Lord's admonition, and he wanted her to stop before she buried herself into a deeper hole.

The look on the Lord's face bothered Frank deeply. He was worried about this trip. It seemed to be rather a quick visit, and he wondered what else the Lord had planned. Ralph was more confused about the weird interplay between Sarah and Abraham. He was clearly more interested in Sarah's muffins than anything else. That distinct flavor and texture, only later matched by a compound ground grain called "bran," would stay with him forever. "What are these blue berry things called?"

They had no idea what horrible things were coming next. 

Abraham did not know he would soon be asked to sacrifice the son he and Sarah would miraculously birth and love. Everything in Abraham's life would be a window into the future, both fantastic and terrifying. 

Frank and Ralph were just beginning their roles as God's left and right-hand angels. This wasn't an apex, but simply their own pivotal point from broken angels filling in only where they couldn't mess things up too bad into celestial agents and critical participants in the future happenings of heaven and earth.