Lectionary Readings for Sunday, June 22, 2008

Proper 7

Genesis 21:8-21 with Ps 86:1-10, 16-17 or
Jeremiah 20:7-13 with Ps 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18
Romans 6:1b-11
Mattthew 10:24-39


It is in the nature of coherence to hold on to something. In your church this Sunday you will organize around an idea, search for its nuances, and affirm its power and identity that draws you together as a congregation. It is in our nature that we hold on to something. We learned this week that even on Mars grains of soil clump together and resist falling through a screen designed to break them apart before they are baked and analyzed.

For better or worse we are creatures with ideological tendencies that clump our thoughts. Our sense of the way things should be is powerful enough to deny all evidence to the contrary.

I remember visiting a school of architecture in the Soviet Union before the curtain that separated it from the rest of the world was drawn aside. The steps that led into the building had been miss-measured, breaking any sense of stride. Evidently the presence of a three inch step among its five inch partners had not been noticed.

Ideology allows us to have the answer before we entertain the question. It organizes our thinking, our responses, and our perception of the world. We fall victim to its power because it is in our very nature to hold on to something as we make sense of the world.

When Scripture asks us to break the mould we can't help but wince a bit. Both this week's Gospel reading and the powerful story of Hagar's banishment cause us to do just that. And both stories cause us to uncover just how deeply we hold on to our vision of the way the world should be.

How could it be, we wonder, that the searing but petty jealousy of one person could lead to the banishment of another? How could it be that a mother and child could be sent into the desert to die? How could the tragedy of Darfur happen? And how could it be that Jesus would combine words of consolation that remind us that we are valued with words that have the potential to divide families?

Once again a flurry of memories flashes though me. I remember the anguish of a father who lost his daughter to a cult because she felt “led” to rearrange family priorities by bringing them to an end. His mission became a search for reconnection with his daughter and an effort to let others know about the power of the cult.

“That's too harsh a reading,” I say to myself. Christianity is not a cult. God does not contradict God, I say to myself. There is a commandment about honoring one's father and mother, another one about love, another about humility.

In those thoughts I realize I am organizing what Jesus' words and Hagar's harrowing experience according to my own sense of coherence. I realize how tempting it is to shut God out. Without a sword to cut through my winces, chances are I might not, or could not, or would not hear what life has to say. There is a reason for Jesus' powerful warning.

When the expected world of Hagar, Abraham and Ishmael came to an end God started a new story authored not in fear but in hope. “Do not be afraid.” Having caught our attention, Jesus ends his remarks with words that are not about loss. “Those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” The progeny of the child Ishmael will become a great nation.

The phone rings.

The caller's voice is wrapped in palpable despair. It is the kind of call pastors, churches and friends receive from those whose worlds have collapsed. “It's getting worse,” she says concerning her condition. “I'm scared.” We know we cannot turn the clock back, that expected healings cannot be found, that comparison is an enemy. What “was” no longer fits with what “is” and the future has yet to speak. Devoting too much attention to what was, and the losses that caused it to fade away can only lock us in the past. We talk a bit about the need to adapt, the need to not lose courage, and the need to trust that life is speaking. We are grateful we can reach out to each other and encourage the embrace of a new day. Circumstance, fierce and unrelenting as it may be, must not define us. We are both aware it is not an easy teaching.

And yet the word of hope has been around since the days of Genesis. Our family arrangements, our health, our very being, and our desire for coherence must not preclude new experiences that bring us to life. God, this week's stories tell us, wants to establish new connections with us.

The opening line of the Leading Causes of Life is just four words long. “Life has a language,” we write. As we set aside fear, and move beyond circumstance, we too may find water in the desert and the sight of a mere sparrow will remind us that we are loved. The texts that center on coherence, call us to connection.

As the psalmist writes:

Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
listen to my cry of supplication.
In the day of my trouble I call on you,
for you will answer me.

I close with the readings, and an apology for my Lectionary absence these past few weeks as circumstance made a difficult appearance in our lives as well. And yet, once again, we live with newfound hope.


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 after 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 Beersheba.

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.

Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God; be gracious to me, O Lord,
for to you do I cry all day long.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
listen to my cry of supplication.
In the day of my trouble I call on you,
for you will answer me.

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like yours.
All the nations you have made shall come
and bow down before you, O Lord,
and shall glorify your name.
For you are great and do wondrous things;
you alone are God.
Turn to me and be gracious to me;
give your strength to your servant;
save the child of your serving-maid.
Show me a sign of your favor,
so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame,
because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.


Matthew 10:24-39

[Jesus said:]

"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 Beelzebub, 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 unperceived by 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."

Larry

I welcome your response to these columns. I may be reached at:
larry@leadingcausesoflife.org
Or
larrypray@gmail.com