Year A
Genesis 21:8-21
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of you have heard me say\u2026 from your mouth to God’s ears<\/em>\u2026 it’s an expression that I learned from my grandmother\u2026 an expression of support when someone voices a hope\u2026 a desire\u2026 a prayer\u2026 that you hope happens too\u2026 from your mouth to God’s ears<\/em>\u2026 now we all know that God doesn’t actually have ears\u2026 but as we affirm almost every Sunday in the Collect for Purity [ BCP p. 355 ]\u2026 to God\u2026 all hearts are open\u2026 all desires known\u2026 and from God no secrets are hid\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n But did your ears catch the inconsistency in the reading from Genesis that we just heard\u2026 did you say to yourself\u2026 wait a minute\u2026 that part doesn\u2019t make sense\u2026 ] the text says that after Hagar placed Ishmael under a bush to die\u2026 and sat as far away from him as you could shoot an arrow\u2026 which would be pretty far\u2026 she lifted up her voice\u2026 and lamented\u2026 do not let me look on the death of the child<\/em>\u2026 and she wept\u2026 and then the text says\u2026 and God heard the voice of the boy\u2026 Hagar spoke\u2026 but God heard the boy\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may remember that the Hebrew word El\u2026 means God\u2026 the word itself comes from a root word\u2026 which means\u2026 strength\u2026 or power\u2026 and it’s probably derived from the Ugaritic word for god\u2026 but in Scripture\u2026 it’s primarily used to refer to the True God of Israel\u2026 and is almost always qualified by another word which gives it additional meaning\u2026 for example\u2026 El Emet<\/em> means\u2026 the God of Truth\u2026 El Rachum<\/em>\u2026 the God of Compassion\u2026 ] but then we come to the name of Hagar\u2019s son\u2026 Ishma El<\/em>\u2026 whose name means\u2026 God will hear\u2026 so if Hagar spoke\u2026 but God heard Ishmael\u2026 then maybe what God heard was the young boy’s heart\u2026 and because of this\u2026 God sent an angel\u2026 and opened Hagar\u2019s eyes to see a nearby well of life giving water\u2026 and they drank\u2026 and in keeping with God’s promise\u2026 God made a nation of Ishmael\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one of the final scenes in the 1977 movie Star Wars IV: A New Hope\u2026 Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader face each other in a light saber duel… Obi-Wan says\u2026 You can’t win Darth<\/em>\u2026 if you strike me down\u2026 I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine<\/em>\u2026 they continue to lunge\u2026 parry\u2026 and riposte\u2026 but when Obi-Wan notices Luke Skywalker across the flight deck\u2026 what happens next reminds me of when Elijah passes his mantle on to Elisha\u2026 Obi-Wan turns off his light saber\u2026 and stops attacking\u2026 but he doesn’t try to escape either\u2026 he embraces a third way\u2026 what we might call the Way of Surrender\u2026 and as Darth Vader takes his final swing\u2026 Obi-Wan’s Jedi robe\u2026 his mantle\u2026 falls to the floor without him in it\u2026 and he becomes one with The Force\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today’s Gospel is a continuation of last week’s Gospel\u2026 Jesus has been getting the disciples ready to head out and follow in his healing footsteps\u2026 he compares disciples to their teacher… and slaves to their master\u2026 but what he’s saying is that while they can be God-like\u2026 but can never be equal to or above God\u2026 and he’s also letting them know that proclaiming the Gospel can be a dangerous thing\u2026 about the resistance and even the violence that some of them might face\u2026 sending them out like sheep into the midst of wolves\u2026 telling them that they will be hated because of his name\u2026 and while they can be imprisoned for speaking God’s Word\u2026 while they can be killed for speaking it\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fr. Richard Rohr writes\u2026 in the human world\u2026 money determines worth\u2026 Jesus reminds them\u2026 that sparrows do not command money\u2026 and therefore are not valuable\u2026 because two sparrows are sold for a penny\u2026 and while it is not said that God stops the fall of sparrows\u2026 they don’t fall to the ground apart from the God\u2026 and their falling does not go unnoticed\u2026 and he reminds them\u2026 that they… who are more valuable than many sparrows\u2026 will not either\u2026 the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich expressed this same idea in a more comforting way\u2026 If there be anywhere on earth where a lover of God is always kept safe from falling\u2026 I know nothing of it\u2026 for it was not shown me\u2026 but this was shown\u2026 that in falling and rising again we are always kept in the same precious love<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words\u2026 God will not fail them\u2026 so while they will contend with forces in the world which will seek to twist Jesus’ Word\u2026 or negate his Word\u2026 or call it a lie\u2026 they are to take heart\u2026 because the world can’t get away with it\u2026 because everything that’s covered up will be uncovered\u2026 and all secrets will be exposed\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then Jesus makes a startling statement\u2026 Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth\u2026 I have not come to bring peace\u2026 but a sword<\/em>\u2026 and it’s startling because we know from Philippians 4:7 that we are promised the peace of God which passes understanding\u2026 and which will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what is this sword that the Prince of Peace is bringing\u2026 it’s one that’s intended to help us cut away those things which stand in opposition to God\u2019s Truth\u2026 so as we grow spiritually\u2026 we have to stop believing the things that God doesn\u2019t believe\u2026 we have to replace ignorant thoughts\u2026 that is\u2026 thoughts which ignore God\u2019s Truths\u2026 with thoughts that will help us embody God\u2019s Truths\u2026 and that may mean we come to believe things which at first are inconvenient for us to believe\u2026 thoughts which cause us to change\u2026 and it\u2019s because of that sword\u2026 that some churches will stand in opposition to each other\u2026 and that some family members will stand in opposition to each other\u2026 for instance\u2026 between a man and his father\u2026 or two men and their father\u2026 and which sometimes hits really hard and close to home\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now some of you in leadership may have already received an email about this\u2026 and may know that our Bishop Provisional Prince Singh is divorced\u2026 and divorces can be messy\u2026 Prince has two sons\u2026 and it’s becoming more widely known in our two dioceses\u2026 that his sons have made public allegations against him\u2026 claiming a history of physical\u2026 verbal\u2026 and psychological abuse against them and their mother\u2026 and have made allegations of excessive drinking\u2026 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\u2026 Bp. Singh wholeheartedly denies these allegations\u2026 and has requested a Title IV investigation\u2026 which is the Episcopal church’s disciplinary investigation\u2026 into himself\u2026 to vindicate himself\u2026 and Presiding Bishop Curry has been in contact with Bp. Singh\u2019s sons and former wife over the past several months\u2026 seeking to effect some level of communication and reconciliation\u2026 and so that process begins…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take up your cross and follow me<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 the cross that Jesus exhorts us to carry\u2026\u00a0 is not the cross which Jesus himself carried\u2026\u00a0 the crosses we carry are the burdens of our own experiences\u2026\u00a0 and as we contend with attacks from light sabers\u2026\u00a0 or swords\u2026\u00a0 or the accusations of family members\u2026\u00a0 which may come our way\u2026\u00a0 we must carefully discern what is true\u2026\u00a0 and what is a lie\u2026\u00a0 in order that the light and the peace and the new life that God offers\u2026\u00a0 can come to us unimpeded\u2026\u00a0 Holy God\u2026 we know Ishma El\u2026 we know that you are a God who hears us\u2026 help us to be fervent in our desire to hear you\u2026 and to know your Truth\u2026 \u00a0and to embody it\u2026\u00a0 to walk the Way of Surrender\u2026 \u00a0and to become one with your Holy Spirit\u2026\u00a0 Amen\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Some of you have heard me say\u2026 from your mouth to God’s ears\u2026 it’s an expression that I learned from my grandmother\u2026 an expression of support when someone voices a hope\u2026 a desire\u2026 a prayer\u2026 that you hope happens too\u2026 from your mouth to God’s ears\u2026 now we all know that God doesn’t actually have ears\u2026 but as we affirm almost every Sunday in the Collect for Purity [ BCP p. 355 ]\u2026 to God\u2026 all hearts are open\u2026 all desires known\u2026 and from God no secrets are hid\u2026 But did your ears catch the inconsistency in the reading from Genesis that we just heard\u2026 did you say to yourself\u2026 wait a minute\u2026 that part doesn\u2019t make sense\u2026 ] the text says that after Hagar placed Ishmael under a bush to die\u2026 and sat as far away from him as you could shoot an arrow\u2026 which would be pretty far\u2026 she lifted up her voice\u2026 and lamented\u2026 do not let me look on the death of the child\u2026 and she wept\u2026 and then the text says\u2026 and God heard the voice of the boy\u2026 Hagar spoke\u2026 but God heard the boy\u2026 You may remember that the Hebrew word El\u2026 means God\u2026 the word itself comes from a root word\u2026 which means\u2026 strength\u2026 or power\u2026 and it’s probably derived from the Ugaritic word for god\u2026 but in Scripture\u2026 it’s primarily used to refer to the True God of Israel\u2026 and is almost always qualified by another word which gives it additional meaning\u2026 for example\u2026 El Emet means\u2026 the God of Truth\u2026 El Rachum\u2026 the God of Compassion\u2026 ] but then we come to the name of Hagar\u2019s son\u2026 Ishma El\u2026 whose name means\u2026 God will hear\u2026 so if Hagar spoke\u2026 but God heard Ishmael\u2026 then maybe what God heard was the young boy’s heart\u2026 and because of this\u2026 God sent an angel\u2026 and opened Hagar\u2019s eyes to see a nearby well of life giving water\u2026 and they drank\u2026 and in keeping with God’s promise\u2026 God made a nation of Ishmael\u2026 In one of the final scenes in the 1977 movie Star Wars IV: A New Hope\u2026 Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader face each other in a light saber duel… Obi-Wan says\u2026 You can’t win Darth\u2026 if you strike me down\u2026 I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine\u2026 they continue to lunge\u2026 parry\u2026 and riposte\u2026 but when Obi-Wan notices Luke Skywalker across the flight deck\u2026 what happens next reminds me of when Elijah passes his mantle on to Elisha\u2026 Obi-Wan turns off his light saber\u2026 and stops attacking\u2026 but he doesn’t try to escape either\u2026 he embraces a third way\u2026 what we might call the Way of Surrender\u2026 and as Darth Vader takes his final swing\u2026 Obi-Wan’s Jedi robe\u2026 his mantle\u2026 falls to the floor without him in it\u2026 and he becomes one with The Force\u2026 Today’s Gospel is a continuation of last week’s Gospel\u2026 Jesus has been getting the disciples ready to head out and follow in his healing footsteps\u2026 he compares disciples to their teacher… and slaves to their master\u2026 but what he’s saying is that while they can be God-like\u2026 but can never be equal to or above God\u2026 and he’s also letting them know that proclaiming the Gospel can be a dangerous thing\u2026 about the resistance and even the violence that some of them might face\u2026 sending them out like sheep into the midst of wolves\u2026 telling them that they will be hated because of his name\u2026 and while they can be imprisoned for speaking God’s Word\u2026 while they can be killed for speaking it\u2026 Fr. Richard Rohr writes\u2026 in the human world\u2026 money determines worth\u2026 Jesus reminds them\u2026 that sparrows do not command money\u2026 and therefore are not valuable\u2026 because two sparrows are sold for a penny\u2026 and while it is not said that God stops the fall of sparrows\u2026 they don’t fall to the ground apart from the God\u2026 and their falling does not go unnoticed\u2026 and he reminds them\u2026 that they… who are more valuable than many sparrows\u2026 will not either\u2026 the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich expressed this same idea in a more comforting way\u2026 If there be anywhere on earth where a lover of God is always kept safe from falling\u2026 I know nothing of it\u2026 for it was not shown me\u2026 but this was shown\u2026 that in falling and rising again we are always kept in the same precious love\u2026 In other words\u2026 God will not fail them\u2026 so while they will contend with forces in the world which will seek to twist Jesus’ Word\u2026 or negate his Word\u2026 or call it a lie\u2026 they are to take heart\u2026 because the world can’t get away with it\u2026 because everything that’s covered up will be uncovered\u2026 and all secrets will be exposed\u2026 And then Jesus makes a startling statement\u2026 Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth\u2026 I have not come to bring peace\u2026 but a sword\u2026 and it’s startling because we know from Philippians 4:7 that we are promised the peace of God which passes understanding\u2026 and which will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus\u2026 So what is this sword that the Prince of Peace is bringing\u2026 it’s one that’s intended to help us cut away those things which stand in opposition to God\u2019s Truth\u2026 so as we grow spiritually\u2026 we have to stop believing the things that God doesn\u2019t believe\u2026 we have to replace ignorant thoughts\u2026 that is\u2026 thoughts which ignore God\u2019s Truths\u2026 with thoughts that will help us embody God\u2019s Truths\u2026 and that may mean we come to believe things which at first are inconvenient for us to believe\u2026 thoughts which cause us to change\u2026 and it\u2019s because of that sword\u2026 that some churches will stand in opposition to each other\u2026 and that some family members will stand in opposition to each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[256,257,258,255],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-god-hears-us","tag-gods-truths","tag-surrender","tag-time-after-pentecost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2105,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions\/2105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}