SCRIPTURE: Genesis 21:8-21
TEXT: 13As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” THEME: There are more stories about God. INTRODUCTION Today is the first Sunday that I am going to preach here then make my way to Iao UCC to preach. Christophe will meet me there and play the piano for Iao. Don’t worry I am not trying to take over their church or create a merge with our churches. Our three churches, Kaahumanu, Wailuku, and Iao are unique and minister to different segments of the Wailuku Parish. Merging our congregations would homogenize and pasteurize our ministries. But I do believe that there are somethings we could do in collaboration, with each other, that would support each other’s ministries and create new opportunities to do different things. I also need to say that the observations from today’s passage maybe different from what we may have heard, but that is part of a theological journey God has had me on. That is not to say that what we have believed is wrong, but for us to be open to understand this passage in another way. That is the nature of scripture, each time we read it we can discover something new. You don’t have to agree with me, just be open to a different observation. During this season of ordinary time or Pentecost, I decided to preach a series from the lectionary passages that have to do with food, guests, and tables. I lumped all of the gospel reading from Matthew first, and did the same with the passages from Genesis. So far, if there is any theme that seems to be emerging, it is that the community of God is for all people, all cultures, rich and poor, and even creeds. That’s just a simplistic way of saying, tax collectors and sinners are welcomed to sit and eat at Christ’s table. SCRIPTURE Genesis has us getting back to our roots. From the very beginning what God creates is “Good” not perfect. Perfection is unchangeable, divine, worthy of worship (that’s not us), but ‘good’ is changeable and has the potential for amazing improvement or terrible decline. We are certainly not worthy of worship. So then, we can understand the story of Adam and Eve not as the introduction of sin, but as a coming-of-age story of accountability. They are old enough to know better and are held to standard of being responsible for their actions, good or bad. The sin here is not disobedience, but not taking responsibility for what they have done and then blaming others instead of fessing up, and asking for forgiveness. Sin, contrary to popular belief, does not disqualify us from the love of God. God does not stop loving us until a worthy sacrifice pays the price of our disobedience. We are human, not perfect and expected to do good sometimes and bad at others. God would continue love us irregardless of our imperfections, just as we do with our children. If we, as humans can still love those who hurt us, shouldn’t God be able to do the same? This is exactly the story we have today with Abraham and Sarah. A beautiful segue to today’s passage. Abraham and Sarah finally had their baby, and Abraham throws a baby Luau. As the festivities play out, Sarah sees Ishmael (about 14 years old) playing with his younger sibling Isaac (about 2) and has a chilling realization, “Isaac’s inheritance, promised by God would somehow have to be shared with his half-brother Ishmael.” This is the same fear that Supremacists have about having to share the resources, land, opportunity, richness of our America with others. And so they keep systems of slavery in play and enforce immigration laws that make it restrictive for immigrants to become citizens of the Land of the Free, even though they are the descendants of former immigrants. This is what I love about the Bible. The Bible is not a record of our successes and victories, but a collection of our stories with God good and bad. In this passage we have to admit that Abraham was a slave owner and his wife a racist. Perfection is not a prerequisite for being the people in relationship with God, being able to grow, change, and be transformed by love is. God can forgive us so we can do better. Abraham loves Ishmael. He is part of his family, even if, as a result of his not fully trusting God. He is willing to live out the responsibility of his decision, until this ugly side of Sarah is revealed. Distressed, God comes to Abraham’s aide and tells him to do as Sarah asks, because it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for him. As for Ishmael, God will make a nation of him too, because he is also Abraham’s offspring. If we stop here, one of the things we should get from this story is that there are stories about God from the descendants of Ishmael and his family, as well as from Isaac and his descendants. Stories of God’s works, guidance, protection, provision, healing, care and character from two streams. Then Genesis gives us the first story of God working at the beginning of the Ishmaelites. Abraham prepares a box lunch for Hagar and Ishmael; one bread and a bottle of water and sets them free into the wilderness. When the help from Abraham’s household is gone, Hagar is prepared for Ishmael and her to die. There are crying prayers of desperation that God hears. Their lively hood no longer dependent upon Abraham, but on God. God sends an angel. Whenever an angel says, “Do not be afraid” be prepared for something new and good to happen. A well is revealed as the outcasts are lifted up. There are God stories beginning in the lives and family of Ishmael and Hagar. APPLICATION We have a theological lens, that has been developed through our study of our stories of God in the Bible. We have our own stories, and case studies that challenge our concepts and theories about God. When we also have stories of others, that are undeniable activities of the Holy Spirit we have to reconcile a God who works in multiple cultures, people families nations and territories. What can we learn about God when we listen to other stories? A friend of mine has been involved in AA for several years. Southern Baptist in background, he knows the identity of the Higher Power like how the Apostle Paul talked to the Athenians about the UNKNOWN GOD (Acts 17). The people in this group do not say Jesus Christ or God but over the course of these meetings, their lives are transformed by the Higher Power. The Dali Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have struck up a friendship. When Krista Tippet asked him about it on her pot cast On Being, he said, “Yes. Do you really think that God would say, "Dalai Lama, you really are a great guy, man. What a shame you're not a Christian.”?” “I think God is just thrilled because no faith, not even the Christian faith, can ever encompass God or even be able to communicate who God is. Only God can do that.” This leads me to what I heard our new General Secretary and President of the United Church of Christ say about the future of our church. She talked about intra church, where it is not enough for us to learn to be a broader community from other denominations, but that if we listen carefully enough, we can learn from other faiths, traditions, cultures, and beliefs. This is like learning more about the wisdom of God from the Dali Lama, or the Compassion of God from the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, or the interconnectedness of God from the professor of anthropology at Princeton University, Agustin Fuentes. Be respectful of others. Have a holy curiosity. Ask questions, listen, and prayerfully run what you have heard through our theological grids, pray about it, see how it matches up with the stories in the Bible and what more we may have to consider. CONCLUSION We are far from perfect, There is so much more for us to learn, We do not own the market on God, only one piece. God has chosen to have stories in other people, faiths, cultures, and territories. If we listen to their stories, there is a good chance that our piece of the story may be illuminated by pieces of their story and we’ll have a better story about God.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Pastor robbSermons Archives
May 2024
|