June 22, 2008
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 7 – Year A)
Genesis 21:8-21; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39
This morning at the 10:30 service we will be baptizing Clare Christine. We will be initiating her not just into our Good Shepherd community but into the big church, the whole community of Christ. Because of her age, she is not going to know what it is she will be responsible for or to whom she will be accountable. Her godparents, her parents, will making promises for her right now. But I wonder, if she had a choice right now, if she had been able to read or understand these lessons which we have just read and heard, would she really want to be one of us? Would anyone, for that matter, if that were their introduction to Christianity?
The passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans is probably the least shocking or disconcerting of the three readings, but it is a little heady. The concept of “dying to sin and rising to new life in Christ” is not so easily grasped. But there is a message there – of hope. Jesus has been raised from the dead so that we may walk in newness of life. Jesus came and lived among us to teach us a new way of living, a new way of behaving, of being in relationship with God and with our neighbors, and to prove his great love for us, he died for us. And there is a lot more to be said and learned about that and not just in due time by Clare but by all of us.
But what of those other readings? What of Abraham and his treatment of Hagar and her son? Abraham who is to be the father of a nation? What kind of man is he who, at the insistence of Sarah, his wife, who incidentally is the one who suggested that Abraham have a child by Hagar in the first place since it seemed that she, Sarah, could have no children and such a suggestion was perfectly acceptable in that society where inheritance was so important. What kind of man is this Abraham who can send away with virtually no provisions his slave woman and her child, his child? At face value is this a story that would inspire anyone to lead a moral, honorable, exemplary life? In defense of him, however, we have to realize that Abraham’s story is really a story of two peoples and how they came to be. It is more of a theological story than a physical or historical one. It is a story written by later generations to explain and interpret how God acted in the lives of his people.
And then there’s the gospel. Unfortunately what jumps out are these words of Jesus himself: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” “I have come to set families at odds with each other.” What can he be thinking of? Didn’t he come to preach peace, love your neighbor, do unto others as you would have them do to you? But as in the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, we have to look beyond the words.
Matthew is telling the story of Jesus to a small community, presumably in Antioch in the first century. Antioch was a large, culturally and ethnically diverse city in Syria with apparently a sizable Jewish population. However, the Christian community, an offshoot of the Jewish community, that Matthew is addressing, according to commentators has recently either broken away from or has been expelled from one of the local synagogues. So Matthew in his gospel is in actual fact attempting to be pastoral in his approach to this new and struggling community. He is training them for discipleship. They want to follow Jesus? He’s going to tell them what is demanded of them, what they may be called to do, and how they need to be prepared to answer that call.
And here is the lesson for not only our new little Christian-to-be, Clare, but for all of us. It’s not easy to be a Christian, even in our world where we are in the majority, where we don’t have to sneak around drawing fish in the sand. But the challenges of every age and place have been, still are, and will continue to be different, very different, but they are always very present.
The first thing Matthew said in today’s passage, although not explicitly, is that Jesus is the teacher, the only teacher, that we need. Jesus has given us the tools for a life centered on and striving for peace and justice for all. And that is what her godparents will shortly be promising on behalf of Clare and what we all reaffirm every time we join in saying the Baptismal Covenant.
And then Jesus tells us to take his message, his teaching, regardless of whether we have heard it in the dark or in a whisper, and go “tell it in the light,” “proclaim it from the housetops.” Do not be afraid, he adds. God looks after the sparrows and even counts the hairs of your head. Do not be afraid for “you are of more value [to God] than many sparrows.” Do that, i.e., “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ” and you can check off another of the Baptismal Covenant promises!
Then comes what I see as the really troubling part of today’s reading. But just stop and think. That Christian community in Antioch in the first century had come into conflict with its, shall we say, home base, the synagogue. What do you think were their alternatives? To forget this new teaching they were convinced was the way to follow, to deny and denigrate this man they had ccome to believe in, and to say to the religious leaders, “Okay, we’ll do it your way?” That approach might have brought “peace” to the community but at what cost and would it really have been authentic “peace?” The greatest example in modern time of such a failed approach would be the Munich Accord in 1938. A year later Europe was plunged into full scale war! Another example, of course, which clearly parallels Jesus’ words about family was what happened in the American Civil War when members of families chose to fight on opposing sides because of their beliefs.
Jesus is only acknowledging what he knows happens, has happened and will probably happen again and again, and in so doing he is calling us to a responsible relationship with one another and with God even though such a relationship may at times demand that we do things, say things that may cause tension, discord, conflict, even open hostility with our families, friends, members of our communities or workplaces. Jesus calls us to stand on principle, his principle, where we put aside our agenda for his, as he says, “. . .lose [your] life for my sake . . “
And it is through the Sacrament of Baptism that we take on that new life that Jesus promises we will find if we but take up his cross and follow him, take up and obey his commandments to love God and one another with a love that has the courage to speak God’s truth. As Paul said, “Die to sin and rise to new life in Christ.”
As she grows and matures, these are the things that Clare will be responsible for, the same things for which we are all responsible and accountable to God: speaking God’s truth, practicing God’s justice, living with integrity, respect, kindness, honesty, all God’s values. It won’t be without pain and struggle, it demands hard work, but endowed with God’s grace and love and forgiven when we go astray, neither Clare nor we need fear, for as elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel Jesus says, “. . . my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt.11:30)
Amen.
Sonia F. G. Stevenson, M. Div.
Church of the Good Shepherd