A Book of Questions

 

Romans 10:5-15

Proper 14 / Year A

Plenty of people refer to the bible as being an Answer Book, saying, “When you have a problem, just turn to the bible because it has all the answers.”  Have you ever heard anyone refer to the bible as a Question Book?  Doubtful, but it might not be as farfetched as it seems because, according to one source, it contains 2,506 questions. 

Some of those questions are minor, but others are deeply significant and timeless:

·    What does the Lord require of you?

·    From where is my help to come?

·    Who are we humans that God would even consider us?

Sometimes asking the right question is just as (if not more) important than having the correct answer.  And some questions have fixed answers, such as “How many commandments did God give to Moses?”  Others are more of a moving target, like “What should be the most important thing in my life right now?”  This is the kind of question you need to return to over and over.

In this morning’s second reading, we find Paul wrestling with a theological concern debated in the early Church: if and how salvation is extended to Jews and Gentiles.  Our passage falls in the middle of three chapters in Romans where Paul struggles with this question: If the people of Israel are the inheritors of God’s promise to Abraham, why are so many refusing to embrace Jesus as the Messiah and what will become of them?     

Chapters 9-11 contain Paul’s dizzying, complex and, at times, ponderous answer.  He writes:

·    Not all of Abraham’s descendants are the “true children”, so God’s promise never extended to them. 

·    God will have mercy on whom God will have mercy.  It is a gift we do not earn.

·    Some are destined for mercy, others to have their hearts hardened.

·    Why does God work this way?  Don’t ask, a lump of clay should not question the potter about its design.

And yet Paul goes on to offer a possible explanation:

·    “What if” God choses some for destruction so those of us who are chosen for mercy can gain a deeper appreciation of what we have?

If you are beginning to scratch your head, not because you don’t understand, but because you don’t agree, rest assured you are not alone.  He adds:

·    Gentiles receive mercy by having faith in Christ.  Israelites who attempt to earn mercy by adhering to the Law are bound to fail.

·    God extends mercy to Gentiles to make Israel envious so that some might be aroused and saved.

·    You demonstrate your faith by believing in your heart and confessing with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And finally:

·       How can those who have never heard the name of Jesus possibly call upon his name?  Well, this is why we need people who are willing to go out and proclaim the good news.

Reflecting on all of this, one commentator wrote,

I feel like I should post about the Epistles every now and then.  I don’t really like to.  A lot of times they feel like essays about particular theological points… I am not really that interested in, but, you know, they are in the bible, so…

We might add, “And some of the answers don’t sit that well either.”

Here are some of my thoughts.

Of all the questions recorded in the bible, some answers are chiseled in stone, but many are the kind you must return to again and again.  Sometimes, like with what is most important to me right now, circumstances change requiring new reflection.  Other times, new information, new perspective, new insight need to be considered and the answer needs to make sense of what was not available before. 

Paul himself is doing exactly this in today’s reading.  To the question, “Who will be saved?”, the established answer for generations had been the children of Abraham.  But then new data comes into play: Some gentiles are coming to Christ while most Israelites are not.  What we read is Paul’s initial attempt to make sense of this.  The question is, “Should Paul’s answer found in Romans 9-11 be chiseled in stone, or is it something we should revisit from time to time?”

I argue for the later.  There is much in Paul’s thinking on which to build.  God freely extends mercy, we receive it.  It is not something we earn, it is a gift offered to all out of Divine Love.  Some embrace it, others reject it, and, if we are honest, many take it for granted.  Those of us who are able to believe in our hearts and confess with our lips Jesus is Lord have found a pearl of great treasure (to use an image from a parable). 

How blessed are we, due to a variety of factors – some within our control, others beyond it – to have been raised in a setting where we have come to know Jesus as being the perfect image of God; to be able to embrace him as our Lord, our Savior, and our Guide!  Is it a blessing intended to make people of other faith traditions jealous?  No.  Are those who do not confess Jesus as Lord destined for destruction?  Well, God will have mercy on whom God will have mercy, so is it really up to me to say?

Ultimately, the concern Paul contemplates is of minor importance to me because, while Jesus talks about the life to come, he is more concerned with living into the kingdom here and now.  I don’t worry about who will be saved because the thrust of the Scripture suggests to me God will take care of it and in the end all will say God’s judgements are just.  I am more interested in questions about sanctification: how am I to live here and now? 

What the most faithful, most grateful, most generous, most grace-filled way for me to live, given I have been given a pearl of great value?  How can my life be a witness to the life God offers to all, not to shame others to repent, but to attract those who are dissatisfied with what they have found so far, those who are searching for a better way?  Read every single page of the bible and you will not find a chiseled answer for “What is the best way for me to live right now?”.  Turn to the Scriptures and ask this question and you will find, as the Catechism says, how God speaks to you through them even today.

 

Mathew 14:13-21

Proper 13 / Year A

There are 5,000 spiritually nourished souls with empty bellies and the disciples are aware of three things:

· They are in a deserted place.

· The hour is late.

· The only resources at their disposal can be carried in a single grocery bag.

Beyond Mission Impossible, this is Situation Hopeless.

“Lord,” they say to Jesus, “this is a deserted place.”  Some bibles opt for the translation a desolate place, which is an evocative word implying more than uninhabited.  It conveys a sense of bleakness, even wretchedness, devoid of warmth, comfort, and joy.  It comes from a Latan root meaning “all alone” as in forsaken or isolated. 

And desolate describes more than a location.  It is descriptive of a condition, a mindset.  Think of the times you have sized up a challenge, taken stock of what you have, and felt overwhelmed.  You know what it is like to feel desolate.  And you know how these moments create, among other things, a feeling of isolation… of being all alone.  So, the first challenge is the location and the mood. 

The second is time.  “Lord,” the disciples note, “the hour is late.”  It is not only late, in their minds it is too late: “Maybe earlier we could have done something about this, but not now.  There was a time when we had more people, more resources, more of everything, but not anymore.  Maybe when we were younger we could have taken this on.  The sun has set on us.  The hour has passed.  Let’s call it a day.  Time to wave the white flag and admit our better days are behind us.  After all, our ‘beloved’ rector is retiring at the end of the month.”  Well, they didn’t say that last part, but its late… really late.

Finally, the disciples say to Jesus, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”  We have nothing but…  They make a perfectly understandable assessment: our meager resources are inconsequential given the enormity of the need.  I give the disciples this much credit – at least they recognize what they have and can name it.  Most often, most of us in a situation like this, dismiss what do we have because, since we see no way it can bring relief to moment, we become blind to its potential, to our potential, to the potential of what God can do in and through us.

Here is one thing the disciples recognize they do have… they have Jesus.  They go to him, explain the situation, present him with a possible solution – send the crowds away to fend for themselves – and then follow his instructions.

And what does Jesus do?  He amasses what is at hand… some bread, some loaves.  We bring with us today canned food, paper towels, school supplies, a few dollars to put in the plate, our singing voices, a warm smile…  If you pause and think about, there is a lot more here than meets the eye, isn’t there.  And then Jesus gives thanks.  He is grateful for what has been offered and trusts somehow, through the grace of God, it will be more than enough.  And with just this, desolation gives way to abundance. 

This seems to be how God works.  Little things go a long way.  Small things can make a huge difference.  Every person here and all of us collectively have more than we need to turn desolation into abundance if we offer it to God, if we open ourselves to what God can do through us.  It really is beyond our imagining.  A little generosity and a lot of thanks and people who are willing to lend their talent came make a huge difference. 

For me, this is one of the most exciting aspects of parish ministry.  It is incredibly rewarding to see a group of people take minimal resources and, rather than complain about what they do not have, do something amazing with what they do have.  This kind of spirit is infectious, and it fuels the mission of God’s people.

Have any of you watched the Netflix mini-series on the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.  It chronicles the horrific terrorist act which took the lives of all 259 people on board as well as 11 residents of Lockerbie, Scotland, where the main wreckage crashed while fiery debris rained down from the sky.  The explosion created a crime scene of over 850 square miles and the devastation was unfathomable.

A yet the residents of Lockerbie rallied to do what they could.  They stood watch over fallen bodies until authorities arrived on the scene.  They set up and staffed canteens which offered free food around the clock to the enormous number of responders.  They opened their homes to next of kin who traveled from foreign countries to identify their lost loved ones.

I was particularly moved by the example of a small group of Lockerbie church women.  They learned recovered personal artifacts determined to have no forensic value were being set aside in a massive warehouse with no plan for what to do with it.  So, the women took it upon themselves to sort through all that material to see what they could identify and return to grieving families, knowing it would provide a small measure of comfort.  Their human goodness and Scottish grit, like the loaves and fishes, never flagged.  They were able to retrieve, identify, and return whole bags of luggage, unopened Christmas presents, a college student’s hand-written journal, and an untold number of other personal items; including in each shipment a small bouquet of Scottish heather – “something from the ground”, they said.  In the face of such desolation, the residents of Lockerbie found a way to bring abundance by being gracious and compassionate. 

We all pray we never face a situation like that, but we can tap into the same hope as they did, offer what little we have to confront the desolation around us, seek the same divine power, and watch how God uses who we are and what we have to create an abundance of grace and goodness in the midst of hunger and desolation. 

The First "Real" Human Being

 

Genesis 28:10-19

Proper 11 / Year A

One literary scholar describes Jacob as being “the first real human being” in the Book of Genesis.  Those who come before him, she notes, are somewhat one-dimensional characters who, more or less, do or do not do as God asks, with or without protesting.  The stories about Jacob provide us with a rich range of behaviors, impulses, and motivations.  And, more so than say Adam or Noah or even Abraham, we see in Jacob what we find in ourselves – the good, the bad, and the ugly.  And through it all, we see a person called by God, blessed by God, and never forsaken by God. 

In today’s reading, we find Jacob at a turning point in his life.  Another scholar says of this moment he is “a fugitive fleeing for his life; a vagabond somewhere between a conflict-ridden past and an uncertain future.”  You recall how he persuades Esau to swap his birthright for a bowl of soup.  And just before today’s passage, with his mother’s help, he deceives his father, pretends to be Esau, and tricks the old, blind man into blessing him; an action which, while procured by dubious methods, is irrevocable.  The older brother reacts with murderous rage and when Jacob’s mother learns of this, she directs him to flee to her far away homeland and while there to find a suitable wife. 

On the run, Jacob finally possesses his coveted golden ticket.  It is through him God’s promise to Abraham (Jacob’s grandfather) now runs.  He is now the one through whom God will raise up a mighty nation and yet he finds himself homeless, landless, single, and the product of a deeply dysfunctional family.  Conflict-ridden past and uncertain future.

Looking at Jacob’s young adulthood it is easy to see something of ourselves and/or those we know.  One of my favorite verses of Scripture comes from the prophetic writings of Jeremiah:

I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.  Plans for welfare and not calamity, to give you a future and a hope. ^29:11

“The plans I have for you.”  This is what God offers, but in our youth, we are more taken with “the plans I have for me.”  Jacob tests himself to see how much he can get the world to bend to his whims.  He works and schemes and connives to bring to fruition what he dreams for himself.  And you know what.  It works.  He achieves everything he is after – birthright, blessing, inheritor of the great promise.  He makes himself the one, the man.  Up to this point he has gotten everything he was after… “I am achieving the plans I have for me”… so why then is he on the lamb.  Why is he fleeing for his life?  Why this calamity?

There is nothing wrong with having aspirations, but Jacob pursues his with no regard for what God has planned for him or how God will bring it about.  It is the same temptation Jesus faces when Satan bids his worship in exchange for the authority to rule all the kingdoms of the world.  It is what God wants for Jesus, but not at all how God plans for it to come about.

I think back to my college years when I volunteered with a high school outreach ministry called Young Life.  I wanted so badly to be the leader, so I pushed myself forward and gave more of my time and made more sacrifices so when the moment came, I was the obvious choice to put in charge.  Looking back, I can say I wanted to lead so things would go as I thought they should, I wanted to be recognized for my efforts, and I wanted the affirmation which comes with being at the top.  I am grateful that by the grace of God some good came out of that ministry because by the time I graduated, I felt like Jacob with his head on a stone looking up at the stars and wondering how everything I worked so hard for turned out so wrong.

And then Jacob falls asleep and dreams.  He has a profound religious experience, the kind of thing which happens only once or twice in a person’s life.  Now, his family raised him in the faith, telling him all the bible stories they had up to that point and teaching him all the things he should do and not do, but this is the first time Jacob has a personal encounter with God.  This is not like listening to a Sunday morning sermon about God; it is an awe-inspiring experience of Divine Mystery.

God stands beside Jacob and says, “I know the plans you have had for you and I see it has brought you to calamity and stripped you of the future you wanted and the hope you held in yourself.  Now, let me tell you about the plans I have for you.”  And God goes on to lay it all out: Jacob’s offspring will be like the “dust of the earth” (numerous and spread everywhere) and they will be a blessing to every family of every nation.  God promises to keep him wherever he goes, to bring him back to his homeland, and never to leave him.  It is a promise of welfare and not calamity, providing a future and a hope.

Jacob will have a role to play in all of it, but, like I said a few Sundays back, sometimes you need to wait for God to act and then be positioned to respond.  This is how grace works.  This is how grace happens.  The opposite of grace, I think, is effort and Jacob spends most of his early years pushing, pushing, pushing for what he wants. 

He will leave this place and call it Bethel – the house of God – because he found God here (or, maybe it is more accurate to say, God found him here).  He will leave this place and try to figure out what it looks like to live into God’s grace.  He will fail at it a time or two.  He will be tested by it.  He will succeed in some instances.  In short, he will be just like us, a real human being.  And, as with Jacob, God promises to never leave us… to give us a future and a hope.

Ministers & Members

 

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Proper 10 / Year A

Jesus said, “Some seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”  ^{Matthew 13:8} 

Several years ago one of my colleagues was distressed.  The church he served was in a fast-growing region of metropolitan DC and the congregation was undergoing a period of significant growth – so significant, in fact, the leadership determined the parish needed to expand its facilities.  Based on the success of a capital campaign, the church decided to take out a $1.5 million loan, believing the monthly mortgage payments would be manageable given their projected increased membership.

A beautiful new church addition was added and everyone was happy with the results.  The growth, however, did not keep up with expectations.  The financial pressure built month after month and various meetings with the bank to find ways to ease the burden failed to produce a scenario the parish could manage.  At one particular clergy gathering my friend was in shock.  It seems the church had just received a letter from the bank calling in the loan. 

We met a month later and I asked him how he was doing.  He told me the church’s leadership held a parish meeting to alert members to the situation.  My friend then reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, and took out a check someone had given him just that morning.  It was made out to the church in the amount of $120,000.  The donor had assured him he could help in the future and also committed to give $60,000 to fund an outreach effort the parish was seeking to launch.  That generous person told my friend he and his wife had succeeded in life far beyond what either could ever have dreamt.  Being thankful for their blessings, it was important to them to support various projects which made their community a better place for all.

Of all the things I have said in my sermons over the past 19 years, what I am about to say now has to be the most self-evident, least controversial statement I have ever made... we clergy love having a person in the parish who is willing and able to write a check for $120,000!  Yes, as Jesus said, some seeds produce a hundredfold and by one parishioner sharing a part of his abundance, that faith-community was empowered to produce a spiritual bounty not possible without it.

But listen carefully to what I am about to say next.  We clergy also value the harvests that produce sixtyfold and thirtyfold.  I have yet to hear of a thriving faith community where every single member gives over $100,000.  A generous donation or two sure helps, but it doesn’t get the parish hall set up for the Coffee Hour or the altar reset for next Sunday’s service.  It doesn’t produce someone who will ask you how your aging mother is doing nor does it generate a welcoming smile when the Food Pantry doors open.  For these kinds of things to happen, a parish needs a lot of sixty and thirtyfold people.

One of the most common questions I am asked about St. Paul’s is “How many members does the church have?”  I am never quite sure how to respond, what metric to use, but I am tempted to say, “How many members do we have?  Too many!”  Startled?  The second most common question I am asked is, “Are you the only minister?”  Easier to answer?  Yes, but I am tempted to respond, “No, we have somewhere between 150 to 200.” 

Do you know the different between a minister and a member?  Surely you know it has nothing to do with professional training or ordination.

Members come to church expecting to get something out of it.  Ministers come expecting to give something.

Members sit back and wonder if anyone will speak to them.  Ministers look around and wonder who they can touch for God that day.

Members point out the things the church is not doing or should be doing better.  Ministers muster resources in themselves and in others to respond to the opportunities God presents.

Members are consumers.  Ministers are producers.

Members, even if they are friendly people, are not the kind of ground you want seed to fall on.  Ministers, working in partnership with God, turn seeds into miracles.

So, based on this, how many members would you say we have at St. Paul’s and how many ministers?

A third question I am often asked is “Does the parish have any outreach ministries?”  Again, this is easy enough to answer by listing all the things we do for others and the ways we make our building available to the community.  A better question, but certainly more difficult to quantify, would be, “How does St. Paul’s nurture and encourage its members (ministers?) to make a difference for God once they leave the building and drive off the parking lot.”  This would be an insightful question because there is a reason why the biblical tithe to support God’s work in and through the church is set at 10%.  That leaves 90% of what God’s seed in you produces to be shared with your family, your friends and neighbors, your community, and the world. 

The parable of the Sower and the Seeds with its four different soil conditions, does not describe four different kinds of people.  It describes each one of us, you and me.  Parts of us are easier for God to cultivate and use than others.  Like that field, some parts of us needed to be hoed and made more receptive.  Some parts need a good weeding (and, at my house at least, this is an on-going effort, not a one and done).  You and I, well, we all have our rocky parts which need to be cleared up and cleared away.  And there is something in each of us that is productive, that is willing and able to bear fruit with what God entrusts to us. 

One of the real joys of preparing to retire is receiving from the diocese a lengthy set of questions which is to serve as an exit interview.  It is only a slightly less detailed than the instructions I had for how to write a dissertation for my doctoral program.  Here is what I am thinking of writing:

St. Paul’s has only a few members and many, many ministers.  Some produce a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty, each according to their ability.

The Yokes of the Soul’s Two Rooms

 

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Proper 9 / Year A

The gospels give us precious little information about Jesus’ formative years.  We have only the story of him as boy talking with Temple scholars.  We can deduce growing up he learned about the Scriptures at the synagogue in Bethlehem because when he becomes a public figure, he is deeply steeped in these holy texts. 

Somewhere along the way, he transforms from dutiful student to crusading reformer, we don’t know how, when, or why.  In short, he begins to perceive how religious devotion has been boiled down to observing a list of regulations, overshadowing its great purpose to foster a life-giving relationship with God and enhance communion with all people.  In the process of formulating his own message, Jesus watches how religious leaders respond to his cousin John’s ministry and he must know his own is going to be met with resistance also.

The resistance manifests itself with religious leaders functioning as gatekeepers, controlling who gets to say what and undermining the achievements of those not part of their guard.  They seek to protect their status by defending their established traditions.  They gain recognition and esteem for their mastery of its nuances and minutia.  And anyone getting noticed who is beyond their circle is treated as a threat, marginalized, and discredited. 

And this morning we read of one of the moments in Jesus’ life when he addresses their gatekeeping in public:

John came neither eating nor drinking, and you say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” 

Can you hear the exasperation in his voice?  In our day, Jesus might say, “There is no winning with you guys.  I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.”

None of us with something important to share you feel called to offer delights in resistance.  And we certainly don’t shoulder outright rejection without paying an internal cost.  Frustration, self-doubt, anger, dejection, these are some of the ways we might react and we can be sure Jesus, because he is human, is racked with similar emotions as he is attacked, criticized, and dismissed.  We certainly would understand if he retreated and withdrew into himself saying, “I don’t need to put up with this stuff.”  Like a turtle pulling into its protective shell, this is an option many of us would consider.

But not Jesus.  What does he do?  He offers a public prayer:

I thank you, Father, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.

He assesses the situation and focuses on what is working.  From deep in his spirit, he draws not malice toward those who obstruct, but gratitude for those who receive.  In so doing, he reminds all of us who set out to follow our calling how detractors always will be close at hand.  And he shows us how to live with this not by becoming bitter, but by recognizing what is being accomplished.  He takes off the yoke of his burdens and replaces it with the yoke of his blessings.  And this shift in focus allows him to spark a movement which draws us here today. 

Raise your hand if you come here this morning with thankfulness permeating your spirit.  Now, keep your hand up if you are not dealing with some kind of challenge in your life… if there is not something troubling you or someone you love.  The truth is, in life we always live with challenges.  They never go away, only give way to a new one.  How is it even possible you can have a smile on your face, given all you to face?

I am reading a book by Frederick Buechner called Telling Secrets.  Reflecting on how he has been affected by his father’s suicide and his daughter’s crisis with anorexia, he describes two rooms in the Tower of London built by William the Conqueror in the 11^th century.  One is a small, stone, Norman chapel where, among other uses, Knights of the Order of Bath kept an all-night vigil before being anointed by the king.  Buechner describes the space this way:

It is very silent, very still… You cannot enter it without being struck by the feeling of purity and peace it gives.  If there is any such thing in this world, it is a holy place.

He goes on to describe another room directly below the chapel – a dungeon.  Measuring four feet by four feet wide and only four feet tall, there is no way to get comfortable in it.  Its heavy oak door, once shut, blocks out all light and ventilation.  It affords its prisoner no room to stand, no light to see, and almost no air to breath. 

Buechner writes his soul has both rooms in it.  We all do.  And he writes how he responded to the deep challenges he faced by retreating in the dungeon.  He was completely devoid of perspective, of joy, of freedom.  Both a writer and a Presbyterian minister, he lost touch with his faith, with his relationship with God, with what it felt like to spend time in the Tower chapel in his soul.  And he writes about the things which opened the dungeon door and allowed him to reemerge.

Reading this, I wondered where these places are inside me.  I didn’t locate them so much as I identified how I am processing life when I am each one.  In the dungeon I am fixated on the darkness around me.  I give crushing weight to my challenges and frustrations and disappointments.  In the chapel I feel lighter.  I find abundant joy in everything, especially simple things.  My soul is buoyant, floating free on the sea of goodness all around me.  I know I am in the chapel when I am overcome with a feeling of thankfulness, an awareness of the privilege it is to live my life in God’s world with all its blessings.

In this morning’s reading, we are given a glimpse of how Jesus lived with these two rooms in his own soul.  We see how he drew on goodness and light rather than allowing himself to be smothered by imprisoning darkness.  And he offers up to us his example:

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

No matter what burdens you bear, may you always know the ease and lightness Jesus offers through his witness and indwelling spirit.

God will Provide

 

Genesis 22:1-14

Proper 8 / Year A

When I have preached on today’s Old Testament reading in the past I have pondered the challenges it presents.  This morning I want to focus on something in the story we might want to adopt in our own life and practice.  I find it in Abraham’s response to his son’s question as they ascend the mountain: “Father, we have fire and we have wood, but where are we going to get a lamb?”  Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the lamb for a sacrifice.”

God will provide.  This reflects a deep disposition which manifests itself as a calm faith, the ability to be at peace in moments of stress or anxiety.  It is not foolishness, like putting your entire life savings on Red 36 and trusting God will make the ball drop in your slot.  It is not recklessness, because, as Jesus says, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  And it certainly is not a sentiment born of self-reliance: “Where is the lamb?  You know I’ll figure out something.”  Abraham’s posture is one of waiting.  He models patience.  He knows God will do something, will act, will provide, and when this happens, Abraham will ready and he will respond.

We observed our parish’s 375^th anniversary back to 2017.  It was no small effort.  We worked and planned for at least two years and the actual celebration on Pentecost Sunday was the culmination of a several projects and ventures.  I remember saying to Bishop Holly at the time, “We have worked so hard to get to this day and I don’t have a clue what to do next.  I think our parish and I need to sit back and catch our breath over the summer.”  His response: “Well, that is one strategy, I guess.” 

I think he, like most of my colleagues, assumes parish leaders keep the pedal to the metal all the time, without letup or pause.  It is not at all normative to have a priest say, “I don’t know what to do next.”  But by August, just two months after my conversation with the bishop, five families with young children moved into the area and began attending our church.  What had been unclear – what to do next – became very clear – find a Christian Education Director and figure out how to start a couple of new Sunday School classes.

For me, that was an aha moment.  I realized you can spend a lot of time and energy trying to produce a particular outcome or you can wait to see what God is going to do next and then respond.  You can go with your idea, your plan, your scheme or you can take the posture God will provide and live day-to-day with a calm expectancy someday, something will happen because God is going to provide.

Abraham held on to this belief with every step as he and his son climbed higher and higher.  But this wasn’t always his approach.  You recall how God told him to pack up his wife and his belongs and leave his home for a land God would reveal to him once he got there.  Abraham does this and in so doing demonstrates great faith and trust.  At the same time, God tells Abraham one day he will become the father of many nations.  Now this is more problematic to believe because he and his wife are old and childless.  You recall from last week’s reading how the couple takes matters into their own hands when Sarah offers her handmaiden to her husband, carving their own path rather than waiting for God to act.  The result of Abraham’s own efforts is problematic, to say the least.  Yet, experience has a way of giving birth to wisdom and Abraham learns the value of being patient and trusting God to provide.

Now I am not advocating for passivity.  Sometimes you have to grab the reigns and go, trusting God will be with you as you do everything in your power to confront a situation.  Kent and Norma Spain have been great models of this.  I so admire how, when Kent was diagnosed with cancer, they both took it on with every resource and ounce of energy at their disposal.  I have witnessed many of you face your challenges with steel and grit, which are the fruits of faith, and I have marveled at your determination.

When I think of Abraham and the lesson we can draw from him, I am thinking of circumstances different from that, situations where pausing opens the door to God’s activity; something like what Nathaniel Hawthorne hints at through this quote:

“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”

It is possible to go through life scrambling so tenaciously God can barely find a space to step in, to work feverishly to achieve something, never once imagining God may have something else in store.  But if you pause, if you wait, God will find a way and a place to touch you.  God will provide.  And then, like Abraham who named that mountain Yahweh Yireh, which means “The Lord will provide”, you will be able to cite a time and place when and where you waited and God acted.

An Alternative Narrative

 

Genesis 21:8-21

Proper 7 / Year A

Five people are walking down the street when a loud, cracking bang occurs.  In the milliseconds after it is heard, each processes the sound and their brain begins to respond.  One ran track in college and her brain, harkening back to the sound of a starting pistol, readies her body for motion.  Another is an auto mechanic and his default reaction is to hear it as the sound of a car backfiring.  A third spent time on a tour of duty in a war zone.  He hears it as gun fire and his first urge is to duck and seek cover.  The fourth gives it no thought at all because he works in a warehouse where loud sounds are commonplace and he is conditioned to tune them out.  The fifth is taken back to fond memories of duck hunting with her grandfather.  Five people, five different initial reactions.  Past experiences influence how we process data in the present.

Imagine a group of us attends a wedding where the Flower Girl keeps twirling around.  One of us might think she is cute and steals the show.  Another might bemoan how today’s parents are failures at raising children.  A third may harken back to a memory of when she was a Flower Girl.  Still another may be so taken in by the flowers she never even notices the girl!  Do you see what I am getting at?  It is possible – in fact, likely – for a group of people to experience the same event in profoundly different ways. 

Reality has both an objective component – what happens – and a subjective component – how individually we interpret what happens and determine what it means to us.  The loud sound is caused by an objective event, but each person’s initial reaction is subjective and rooted in previous experience.  The Flower Girl also is an objective event, but each person’s reaction to it says more about that person than actual the event.  Aldous Huxley said, “Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you.”  Anais Nin contends, “We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.”

Keep all of this in mind as I invite you to ponder the first reading we heard this morning: the story of Hagar and Ishmael.  I trust you know at least some of the backstory: how God promises Abraham he will be the father of a great nation, but he and Sarah are childless; how Sarah offers her handmaiden to be a surrogate, but then becomes jealous once Hagar conceives; how she demands Abraham banish the expectant mother to the wilderness; how God appears to Hagar there and directs her to return; how, after Hagar gives birth to Ishmael, Sarah conceives and gives birth to Isaac; and then, as we heard, the handmaiden and her son are sent away.

We might want to ask ourselves how these different people “experience” the objective events of the story.  Abraham.  Sarah.  Hagar.  Ishmael.  Isaac.  Whatever the objective reality is, it means something different for each person because each person is different and comes to it from a uniquely personal perspective and, to be sure, the objective events affect each of them differently.

Because we read this story from the bible’s Book of Genesis, we tend to see it through the eyes of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac.  And because we are rooted in the Judeo/Christian tradition and trace our story through this lineage, we tend to see it in a particular way; a way which tends to diminish aspects of the story which do not concern our story. 

For us, this is what is called the Dominant Narrative.  It is the prism through which we look at these objective events.  In short, the Dominate Narrative holds Isaac is good, Ishmael is bad, Isaac is legitimate, Ishmael is illegitimate, Isaac is blessed, Ishmael is cursed.  In our narrative, Ishmael has to be sent away in order for God’s promises to come to fruition through Isaac.  Is there another way to look at all of this?

English fox hunts date back to the 15^th century.  The nobility mounted up on their horses and raced through the countryside in pursuit of their quarry.  At the end, it was “jolly good fun”, “sport.”  This was their Dominate Narrative.  There are at least two Alternative Narratives.  One is told by the fox [Spoiler Alert: its story doesn’t end well] and the other is told by local peasants whose fields and crops get trampled under hoof.  These unfortunates experience this objective event from the perspective of the food lost and how it will impact their bellies.

You may be aware that Islam traces its lineage back to Abraham through Ishmael.  Their’s is also an Alternative Narrative and, because it does not place the Judeo/Christian heritage at the pinnacle, we tend to be dismissive of it.  But what would we learn if we tried to understand how Ishmael and his descendants experience these objective events? 

Why do this?  Because every person’s perspective matters.  Why?  Because every person matters.  How do I know this?  Because, according to our Dominate Narrative found in Genesis, God hears Hagar crying and asks what is wrong, because God has compassion on the boy and his mother, because God promises to bless the child and his descendants just as God promised to bless Isaac and his, because God is with the boy as he grows up, and because God’s promise to him comes to pass.  Clearly God cares about Ishmael.  Why?  Because God cares about every person.  In this story God is revealed as being sympathetic to each person’s experience and values each unique perspective.

I try to keep this mind as I engage with people in a wide variety of situations.  For example, I don’t approach a Vestry meeting attempting to win people over to my point of view.  I seek to listen to each person.  I want to understand each perspective and ponder the clues each holds for charting a path forward we can walk together.

And I think about it as we observe our nation’s 250^th Anniversary.  For much of my life, our nation has been trying to listen to those with Alternative Narratives asking for a voice: the Native American story, the African/American story, the Immigrant story, the Women’s story, to name a few.  Each is asking us to see our country through their eyes, from their perspective.  This can be threatening because some perceive it as an attempt to invalidate their own experience.  I don’t see it like this.  We are only being asked to appreciate why one person hears a starter’s gun while another person hears a backfire.  Alternative Narratives also can be threatening because they may infer moral judgements on the Dominate Narrative.  And this does happen.  Why should the fun of the hunt supersede food security for the poor?

The story of Hagar and Ishmael invites us to see the world as other people see it; to understand how other people experience objective reality in a way which may be very different from ours.  Why do this?  Think about what we hear in today’s gospel reading.  There was a time when the Christian life and witness was an Alternative Narrative and our ancestors in the faith were subject to marginalization, arrest, imprisonment, beatings, and martyrdom all because they wanted to tell their story.  Thanks be to God they persevered and thanks be to God some people were open enough to consider a perspective different from their own, otherwise we would not be here this morning.