Sermon Archive
Readings for 22 June 2008
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 7, Year A
Genesis 21:8-21
The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac." The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring." So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child." And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him." Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Romans 6:1b-11
Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 10:24-39
Jesus said to the twelve disciples,
"A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
"So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
"Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
"For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one's foes will be members of one's own household.
"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
All of today;s lessons tell us that our "faith" -
that is our living trust in God -
is deeply intertwined with our everyday lives and the personal decisions, which move them.
The story of Sarah and Hagar, and their two children
is the "myth" - that is received "the received personal history" -
lying in the dark depths of the eternal crisis in Palestine.
The Hebrews trace their peoples' history and culture from Abraham via Isaac, and Jacob who was re-named Israel - a faith now called Judaism;
while the Arabians trace their people's history and culture from Abraham via Ishmael - Hagar's child, and live according to the faith of Islam.
The perfectly normal and natural friction between the two women,
one of whom, Sari seemed unable to conceive a child,
has managed - up to this morning in the 21st century - to produce endless hatred, war and destruction in the l physical and which God promised to Abraham, to Moses and to all their descendants.
I somehow doubt that Abraham - beset on each side by his wife
or his concubine - eventually deciding for the wife,
not his children, realized that easing his wife's hurt
by throwing Hagar out, was going to resound over 4000 years later
into a world where people walk on the moon,
and talk to each other via satellite.
Do you expect that YOUR decisions will ripple as far down history as that?
Have you ever opened your mouth and heard your parents come out of it?
Would you consider that the kindly and helpful people who attend this parish,
Are still being influenced by Mr. Craft - the faithful and generous - over
half a century later?
I'll bet you know that both things have happened and are happening,
How FAR our actions and words reach - and how LONG they live!
Jesus seems to expect that may happen.
He tells us that he comes to set one person against another in the same family.
Now I don't read that as Jesus' planning to have us fight over
what to believe or how to act.
I certainly don't believe that God expects us to split up our families
by their belief/or non-belief in a particular faith, or idea about God.
I do read that as a warning that sometimes what God thinks we should do
simply will, simply does, regularly. all though our lives,
require us to set aside even the MOST important
people, ideas and things in our lives ' like our parents and children,
while we are doing, or giving, or being something or someone
that God needs us to do, to give or to be.
We may give up most all of our possessions, to keep others alive '
think of Milton Craft and the wealth and possessions he gave away.
We may give up our lives, or the career we want,
to care for our children, or our elderly parents.
We may give up being warm part of next winter
so that people who were Tsunami-ed, cyclone-d
and flooded out have any food or tents or medical care at all.
What matters is not a set of "rules" about how to do this.
What matters is keeping our decision maker focused on Jesus,
And on asking how God wants us to behave in this situation.
Jesus is very, very clear. God, and our relationship to God,
must matter to us more than any other thing, person, or idea in the world.
He warns, "Do not fear those who can deprive the body of life,
but cannot destroy the soul.
Rather, fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell."
It's not that the "soul" is a literal "thing" which can be destroyed -
"They can't hurt your soul" translates, " they cannot destroy the relationship,
(however flimsy from your side) - which you have with God."
Jesus reminds us that God cares about the littlest detail of our lives -
the hairs on our head, the sparrow the cat caught,
the secret whispered in the dark.
God loves all creation and us incomprehensibly much, so greatly
that God came and lived with and died for us.
Jesus isn't worried that God will "get" us if we decide wrongly.
Jesus knows that as long as we keep asking what God would have us do,
we'll keep moving back onto the right path,
even when we wander off.
If we keep our internal compass pointed at God,
if we realize that we are connected to God,
then nothing can destroy us.
Nothing can destroy us, because nothing can cause God to turn away from us.
As long as we let ourselves stay connected to God - we' re ultimately safe.
God will always stay connected to us.
Jesus says that we are to "taking up our crosses and follow him. "
read, take up our crosses and do the things Jesus did.
Notice the "voice"- (active not passive) in which Matthew phrases Jesus' command.
"you must take up your cross and follow me -
In Jesus' mind, a cross is something WE DECIDE to pick up and carry.
Carrying a cross is a CHOICE - not forced enslavement.
Our crosses are absolutely NOT all the ill luck, mistreatment,
and stupidities of life
under which we should gracefully struggle along.
Resignation to a rotten situation is NOT holiness,
It is NOT a "Jesus virtue."
Jesus was NOT "into" martyrdom."
Jesus WAS "into" intelligently and realistically discerning God's will
into discerning the possible consequences of following - or not following - that will,
and then deciding, in faith, whether this was truly God's path
and whether or not he would follow it.
Jesus also trusted God to give him the strength to follow faithfully.
Accepting bad luck, evil and disease is not necessarily evidence of faith
It might conceivably be that, of course,
but it also might be evidence of stupidity, laziness or lousy theology.
Christian people, are not called to revel in being hurt, nor in suffering
nor in being oppressed, mistreated, defeated or endangered.
The Gospel is full of calls to radical action
against injustice, oppression, cruelty, disease and disaster.
Jesus never says that these things are "good for us,' nor suggests
that there is any particular virtue in tolerating or accepting them.
Christian faith may, indeed often does,
demand that we sacrifice ourselves - or what we think at the time
is good or best for us or our families,
But, Jesus expect us to sacrifice ourselves to God's will for us,
not to disease, disaster, bad luck or pure evil.
When Jesus says," For those who want to save their lives will lose them,
and those who lose their lives for my sake will find them."
He is talking about we who put self-preservation and possessions above
our clear understanding of the will of God.
God, we are reminded, brings life out of death
but only when we place both our life and our death into God's hands
and trust that God's will for us always brings us joy, life and peace -
no matter what we fear we may loose.
As in every other part of the Gospels,
the message is "fear only fear itself."
(Do I hear Winston Churchill quoting Jesus?"
Over and over gain we hear the angel's greeting, "Fear Not"
"Do not be afraid, Jesus says, you matter more than many sparrows."
Fear wants us to rely on our own strength, wisdom, our own possessions and ourselves.
Fear wants us to "save our own lives.
But attempting to save our won lives cuts us off from life and from trust in God.
That means we have LOST our life.
But if we "lose" our lives, strength, wisdom or possessions
by trusting God,
we will have kept our souls - our relationship to God,
And we will find that relationship IS our life, our strength and our wisdom.
Never, ever, suppose that the countless decisions you/we make
and actions you/we take do not matter.
All of them, taken together, point us toward, or away from our trust in God.
Our relationship of trust
- or lack of trust - may resound through days -
or years, or even centuries, into places we cannot even imagine.
Be faithful then, in your personal lives, and in our parish and community life.
For our God is faithful, who has promised that we are God's people.
Do what is right in God's sight,
And know that having take up your crosses and followed Jesus,
You will have gained your, and the world's life.
In nomine . . .
For past week's readings and sermons, please visit the archive of sermons.