Year A - Proper 7 - June 22, 2014

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III

Trinity Episcopal Church

Towson, MD

Year A - Proper 7 - June 22, 2014

 

Lectionary Readings for Proper 7A (track 1)

 

The reading that we just heard from the Gospel is difficult… We stumble into this just after last Sunday, Trinity Sunday, when I actually tried to stand up here and explain the unexplainable… The difficulty in this passage though is NOT that it’s unexplainable.. I think that it's because the passage is just more difficult just to listen to.

 

I love my parents, so the literal thought that Jesus came to set man against his father and daughter against mother are difficult words to hear. So we need to look beyond the text into the truth of what the text may be telling us.

It is better today to set all the scriptures and the collect we read in context – in a group of explanations. You see – sometimes the readings in the lectionary are all set up for us. So all I’m here to do this morning is help you untie the knots.

Let’s look at the scripture readings today very closely… The first thing that jumps out at me is that I recognize that they all deal with relationship… This is what I think this whole season is about… The season after Pentecost (the long Green season). It's about our growth as Christian people. It's about how we grow in are formed, informed, and transformed in Christ… and about how we live into a relationship with God and each other.

 

I said last week that the way I understand God, especially God as revealed to us in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit... It's that God is God of relationship in relationship. God is in relationship within God’s self; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and God is in relationship with us, God’s people.

 

In our passage from Genesis, there is a troubling juxtaposition between Isaac, who is the son of Abraham and Sarah and Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar (the Egyptian). This is an argument over the validity of the relationship… That is the stumbling block for me... It seems to be the whole issue… Sarah doesn’t think that Ishmael has any right to Abraham’s inheritance because he was born to Hagar, her Egyptian servant. The strange part of this whole scenario, is that it was Sarah’s idea in the first place - for Hagar to be with Abraham... Because Sarah could not have any children of her own, and Abraham did not have any heirs... it was because of this that she arranged for her servant, Hagar, to have a child with Abraham. So Ishmael is a product of Sarah’s own idea…  and she’s not happy… So, she decides to remedy the situation by sending Hagar and the child away, but God has other plans... God tells Abraham not to worry, a great nation will be made of Ishmael too…

 

Then we switch gears from an argument over the validity of relationship, to an explanation of the foundation of relationship. As followers and believers of Jesus Christ we participate in a divine relationship. Paul says to the Romans… we have been buried with Christ in baptism, and because Christ was raised, we too will walk in newness of life. Jesus is the foundation of our relationship with God… A relationship that begins at our baptism, and developing a faith that sets us free and continues to free us from the encumbrances of this world - so that we can be united to God for eternity. We are children of God, by relationship created by God, and adopted and claimed by God in Christ at our Baptism. There is no argument over the validity of our relationship.

 

And then it brings us to the Gospel... The part that’s hard for us to understand… In this passage, Jesus explains relationship to us in ways we are not accustomed to... in ways that are difficult to understand… In the passage Jesus first explains to us, everyone is equal in the eyes of God. And as the great equalizer, Jesus then goes all out to make the point that ONLY God can be the most important thing in our lives. He goes so far as to set that against our conventional understanding of what it means to be in relationship with each other… especially family. Man against Father; Daughter against mother… Even daughter in law against mother in law (see – it’s biblical!) Not even families,which are most people’s most important things in life, can come before God!

 

That’s a tough statement… Putting God first can be really difficult thing. Jesus even acknowledges this… It tells us that it takes commitment and sacrifice… It takes a willingness to bear our own cross…

 

So, relationship is difficult, especially if we try to put things in the proper order… God accepts us as who we are, and we are validly adopted – and we are God’s children… and as God's children, we participate in a relationship with Jesus that is rooted in our baptism, a relationship that guarantees us everlasting life with our God.

 

And the only requirement of this whole thing… The only way to develop and nurture that perpetual love and reverence for God’s Holy Name that we yearn for in todays collect, is to put God first.

 

Put God first in our lives, put God first in our families, and Put God first in our relationships...

 

It's difficult for us, and more often, we cry out to God like the psalmist… and we want God to bend God’s ear to us... we want God to keep a watchful eye over us, and we want God to make us happy with signs of favor. We do all this just like the psalmist…

 

We want God’s favor... We want God to respond to us...

But we don’t respond to God and put God first.

 

Think about what would happen if we put God first... If we even tried to make God the priority in our lives, our world would be much different than it is today…

 

Regardless of who we are – like Abraham. If we put God first, God will use us to do great things... And we will have God’s ear and watchful eye. We will be happy and we will see signs of God’s favor.

 

In Jesus, we are participants in the divine relationship.

If we put God first, we become recipients of God’s promises of salvation and eternity.

If we put God first…  Everything else falls into its proper place.