Year A
 Genesis 21:8-21
 Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
 Romans 6:1b-11
 Matthew 10:24-39

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

Some of you have heard me say…  from your mouth to God’s ears…  it’s an expression that I learned from my grandmother… an expression of support when someone voices a hope…  a desire…  a prayer…  that you hope happens too…  from your mouth to God’s ears…  now we all know that God doesn’t actually have ears…  but as we affirm almost every Sunday in the Collect for Purity [ BCP p. 355 ]…  to God…  all hearts are open…  all desires known…  and from God no secrets are hid… 

But did your ears catch the inconsistency in the reading from Genesis that we just heard… did you say to yourself… wait a minute… that part doesn’t make sense…  ]  the text says that after Hagar placed Ishmael under a bush to die… and sat as far away from him as you could shoot an arrow…  which would be pretty far…  she lifted up her voice…  and lamented…  do not let me look on the death of the child…  and she wept…  and then the text says…  and God heard the voice of the boy…  Hagar spoke… but God heard the boy…

You may remember that the Hebrew word El… means God… the word itself comes from a root word… which means… strength…  or power… and it’s probably derived from the Ugaritic word for god…  but in Scripture… it’s primarily used to refer to the True God of Israel… and is almost always qualified by another word which gives it additional meaning…  for example…  El Emet means… the God of Truth…  El Rachum… the God of Compassion…  ]  but then we come to the name of Hagar’s son…  Ishma El…  whose name means…  God will hear…  so if Hagar spoke…  but God heard Ishmael…  then maybe what God heard was the young boy’s heart…  and because of this…  God sent an angel… and opened Hagar’s eyes to see a nearby well of life giving water…  and they drank…  and in keeping with God’s promise…  God made a nation of Ishmael…

In one of the final scenes in the 1977 movie Star Wars IV: A New Hope…  Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader face each other in a light saber duel…  Obi-Wan says… You can’t win Darth…  if you strike me down…  I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine…  they continue to lunge…  parry…  and riposte…  but when Obi-Wan notices Luke Skywalker across the flight deck…  what happens next reminds me of when Elijah passes his mantle on to Elisha…  Obi-Wan turns off his light saber…  and stops attacking…  but he doesn’t try to escape either…  he embraces a third way…  what we might call the Way of Surrender…  and as Darth Vader takes his final swing…  Obi-Wan’s Jedi robe…  his mantle… falls to the floor without him in it…  and he becomes one with The Force…

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of last week’s Gospel…  Jesus has been getting the disciples ready to head out and follow in his healing footsteps…  he compares disciples to their teacher…  and slaves to their master…  but what he’s saying is that while they can be God-like…  but can never be equal to or above God…  and he’s also letting them know that proclaiming the Gospel can be a dangerous thing…  about the resistance and even the violence that some of them might face…  sending them out like sheep into the midst of wolves…  telling them that they will be hated because of his name…  and while they can be imprisoned for speaking God’s Word…  while they can be killed for speaking it… 

Fr. Richard Rohr writes…  in the human world…  money determines worth…  Jesus reminds them…  that sparrows do not command money…  and therefore are not valuable…  because two sparrows are sold for a penny…  and while it is not said that God stops the fall of sparrows…  they don’t fall to the ground apart from the God… and their falling does not go unnoticed…  and he reminds them…  that they…  who are more valuable than many sparrows…  will not either…   the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich expressed this same idea in a more comforting way…  If there be anywhere on earth where a lover of God is always kept safe from falling…  I know nothing of it…  for it was not shown me…  but this was shown…  that in falling and rising again we are always kept in the same precious love…

In other words…  God will not fail them…  so while they will contend with forces in the world which will seek to twist Jesus’ Word…  or negate his Word…  or call it a lie…  they are to take heart…  because the world can’t get away with it…  because everything that’s covered up will be uncovered…  and all secrets will be exposed…

And then Jesus makes a startling statement…  Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth…  I have not come to bring peace…  but a sword…  and it’s startling because we know from Philippians 4:7 that we are promised the peace of God which passes understanding…  and which will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus…

So what is this sword that the Prince of Peace is bringing…  it’s one that’s intended to help us cut away those things which stand in opposition to God’s Truth…  so as we grow spiritually…  we have to stop believing the things that God doesn’t believe… we have to replace ignorant thoughts… that is…  thoughts which ignore God’s Truths… with thoughts that will help us embody God’s Truths… and that may mean we come to believe things which at first are inconvenient for us to believe… thoughts which cause us to change…  and it’s because of that sword…  that some churches will stand in opposition to each other…  and that some family members will stand in opposition to each other…  for instance…   between a man and his father…  or two men and their father…  and which sometimes hits really hard and close to home…

Now some of you in leadership may have already received an email about this…  and may know that our Bishop Provisional Prince Singh is divorced…  and divorces can be messy…  Prince has two sons…  and it’s becoming more widely known in our two dioceses…  that his sons have made public allegations against him…  claiming a history of physical…  verbal…  and psychological abuse against them and their mother…  and have made allegations of excessive drinking…  all of this on the heels of Prince’s recent engagement and upcoming marriage to a woman he’s known for more than thirty years…  Bp. Singh wholeheartedly denies these allegations…  and has requested a Title IV investigation…  which is the Episcopal church’s disciplinary investigation…  into himself…  to vindicate himself…  and Presiding Bishop Curry has been in contact with Bp. Singh’s sons and former wife over the past several months…  seeking to effect some level of communication and reconciliation…  and so that process begins…

Take up your cross and follow me…  the cross that Jesus exhorts us to carry…  is not the cross which Jesus himself carried…  the crosses we carry are the burdens of our own experiences…  and as we contend with attacks from light sabers…  or swords…  or the accusations of family members…  which may come our way…  we must carefully discern what is true…  and what is a lie…  in order that the light and the peace and the new life that God offers…  can come to us unimpeded…  Holy God… we know Ishma El… we know that you are a God who hears us… help us to be fervent in our desire to hear you… and to know your Truth…  and to embody it…  to walk the Way of Surrender…  and to become one with your Holy Spirit…  Amen…