Preacher's Post: Pentecost +6 (Proper 7a)

Submitted by Executive Direc... on June 23, 2008 - 12:25am.

The Word: Pentecost

Genesis 21:8-21
Romans 6:1-11
Matthew 10:24-39

Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, the wisdom of serpents , walking in "newness of life."

Quotable Words:

"The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth."~~Peter Abelard

Preached Words:

excerpt from a sermon
by The Rev. Dr. David J. Schlafer

"...God has promised them a life giving story, they have twisted into a dance macabre.

Or, to appropriate the language of St. Paul, a ghastly life in which “death has dominion”.

The two boys [Isaac and Ishmael] play happily, while the three parents [Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, fight for their respective lives in a way that will be the death of them—-and the death of God’s promise for generations.

And all the while, each of them are saying: I have a legitimate interest here!

So God moves in, yet one more time—picking up the shattered story line, and, not fixing it once and for all, but patching it together with bubble gum and bailing wire. (I would have suggested that God do it more elegantly and decisively, but I wasn’t asked.)
• He tells Abraham to give in to Sarah’s irrational demand—but promises to deal with the fall out for Hagar and Ishmael down the track.
• He opens his ears to Ishamel’s cry for water,and opens Hagar’s eyes to the spring that is practically under her nose.

I see the makings of a pattern here—do you see what I see?
• A God who will not swoop in like a deus machina,
smart bomb all the moral misfits, and impose a righteous New World Order
• BUT a God nonetheless relentless in seeking out harassed and helpless folks
who are trapped in a dance macabre of self-protecting, self-destroying behavior, and saying to them quietly, clearly, compassionately, firmly:
We have healing work to do. Let’s get started—NOW..."

» Executive Director - The Rev. Anne S. Howard's blog