Friday 20 June 2014

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 22nd July 2014 Pentecost 2

Readings:  Genesis 21:8-21, Matthew 10:24-39

I remember back to one of the theological papers I took early on – it was part of a residential course held here in Dunedin with Rev Dr Judith McKinlay as the lecturer.  The title of the paper was ‘Reading Women in the Bible’ and it was a huge eye opener to me of the role of women in the biblical times.  Not only were they usually culturally and religiously second class citizens in their time, they were further vilified by selective reporting by biblical writers. Despite that, the exploits and actions of women, particularly in the Hebrew Scriptures, do come through in rather a powerful way.  And today’s reading from Genesis about Hagar is one of those.  To be a woman, one thing, to be a woman and a slave, another, to be a woman and a slave and then to bear your master’s child, yet another.  And then to be sent away with your child when the Master’s wife is suddenly, amazingly, able to bear a child in late age – well what else could be heaped on Hagar.  Well – there was more – wandering in the desert of Beer-sheba, water gone, walking away from her child who she couldn’t bear to see suffer and die. 
And here is the sad thing – their life experience would have not been at all unusual – it would have been a repeated story, an ordinary story of the time of the weak and vulnerable being cast out and left to survive or die.  And throughout time we have countless told and untold stories of those whom society devalues being left to suffer and die.  The story of Hagar and Ishmael goes on, of course -  God hears the cries of despair, water is found and they go on to found the tribe of Ishmaelites and the Arab nation, be ancestors of Muhammad, with Ishmael known as prophet and patriarch of the Islamic faith.
We move on to the Gospel reading. Matthew 10 begins with the summoning of the disciples, the giving to them of authority and detailed instructions on how to carry out their discipleship.  What we heard today are some of those commands.  In the middle we have the reassurance of God’s love and care for us, but the rest of the reading is pretty, well, again ugly and at first glance a contradiction to everything we hold Jesus to be. Whilst we know that suffering and struggle are part of a Christian life, in this passage Jesus almost seems to go too far – he talks of bringing a sword and encouraging division in families – how can that be when we know a God of love and peace?
This is a good example I believe of the biblical words needing more than a cursory glance, requiring some  thoughtful consideration of context and intention.  For it is not a call to leave your family, nor is it permission to violently defend the faith with violence, or to build fences of exclusiveness around our faith community.  Yet it can be easily read as meaning just that. 

Instead, Jesus is, I would suggest, speaking bluntly to the faithful about the reality of living into their Christian faith; that they will be facing a life where their belief, and even just life itself, will inevitably bring them into conflict and discouragement and violence in the world.  The world then and now, Jesus knows, will neither welcome the message of peace and love nor want to change to Jesus way of justice and mercy and compassion - and so life will be tough.  The trials of life and faith will not go away – Jesus instead teaches of how to be strong and faithful to God when those trials hit. 

For trials are a part of life, some of which we recognise as the ordinary realities of life,  but there are plenty of others that are the result of human greed and violence and sectarianism in the world today, a world that is not willing to accept a different way of being.  So much is with us still.
Just in this last week – religious violence.  It was reported in Iraq that there are not only are Christians and other faiths being persecuted by the ISIL/Sunni group but that this one denomination of Islam is enthusiastically executing another group of Muslims as heretics, whether their holy men, soldiers or civilians. By the way do you know that the original Greek meaning of the word ‘heretic’ is ‘choice’ or ‘thing chosen’.  We’ve taken that meaning some distance haven’t we?
And who’s to say it wouldn’t be the same if the situation was reversed. Sunni or Shiite, Protestant or Catholic, religious persecution by religious persecutors is a horror.  Hagar and Ishmael would have wept for the knowledge of this! 
 Political machinations: countries who believe they have the right to impose particular ways on other countries – you could say Iraq is a stunning example of that.  In the process of arguably well-meant but unthinking and moralistic interference, so many killed, so many angry, so many displaced and forgotten, so much pain, so many awful repercussions.
Family conflict.  Jesus recognised throughout his ministry that there were times when family could not be the highest priority – there is no way that we could then and certainly not now say that the family would always be the most supportive, lived out example of Christian living. Where can we find Christ in family violence, abuse, exploitation, bullying, control, devaluing of human worth.  Family, whether nuclear or extended or community, without love and respect and equal value, is not where Christ is.  When we continue to kill our children, abuse our spouses, walk away from our commitments, threaten and hurt those who are vulnerable, we need to reject it, say NO – just like in the book we read before[1].  We are not being encouraged to give up family so that we may take up with Christ but rather, as in all aspects of our lives, to take Christ into our family and live in his way.  And there will be times when that might mean some disunity of the family – we need to accept that but also recognise that in Christ we would desire where possible to find anew the ways to be in and maintain safe and respectful relationship with family. 

So - ‘Do not be afraid’ say Jesus.  These things will happen in your life, and as a Christian you will have even more heaped on you because you cannot walk away from the things in the world that hurt and maim and expoit, that you know are wrong.  Doors will be shut in your face, you will know persecution, family division, as you seek to bring Christ’s way into your own lives and the life of the world. 
The thing is, Jesus tells us, that we need not fear, be afraid, for throughout all and in the midst of all, God is with us.  Our faith invites us to conquer fear, for we are held in the love of God and in our belief of enduring unshakeable relationship with God through Christ.

So are these ugly bible passages, violent, uncompromising, a step too far, as some think? Or do they speak to us of the assurance of the love and faithfulness of Jesus Christ in the face of the reality of a life lived in faith!  Amen.

Margaret Garland



[1] ‘No!’ by David McPhail (New York, NY: Frances Lincoln Children’s Book, 2011)

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