June 14, 2020 - Second Sunday after Pentecost - Called to Compassion / God Delights in Impossible Blessings

The national reaction to the murder of George Floyd swirls around and through us. Some feel this is a moment of community and will trigger an American age of renewal. I prefer to think this moment more like a tumbler lock where all the pins in the lock may suddenly seem aligned but the lock has not yet been released. There is certainly the possibility of the lock being sprung open leading to freedom. There is also the possibility the pins may slip out of alignment again and the lock remains unopened for a longer period.

I felt some clarity about this after Sunday worship and prayer. Pastor Janelle's sermon Sunday focused primarily on the First Reading - the Genesis story of Sarah laughing at God's promise of the blessing of a son. Her sermon also referenced the Gospel which recounted Jesus sending out the apostles for the first time. The two together felt like they imparted an important understanding.

Sarah overhears at the tent entrance one of three men saying to Abraham that he and she will have a child. She laughs to herself, thinking that she and Abraham are old and asks herself whether she will have that pleasure. We may rightly ask if Sarah's laughter bitter or does a part of it come from delight? Abraham also laughed at the idea of the couple conceiving. God clears up any misunderstanding with him that the mother of this son might be Hagar.

Examining Abraham and Sarah as a couple, we see they led a stormy and difficult life.  They went through many tribulations of relocation together; they left their family, country, and homeland and migrated to a foreign land, all the while deeply believing in the destiny set for them by the Holy One, blessed be He:  “Abraham took his wife Sarai and all the wealth that they had amassed, and they set out for the land of Canaan” (Genesis. 12:5).

On a personal level there were difficulties too.  Pastor Janell emphasized in her sermon that because Sarah was barren she was looked down on by those around her. She is portrayed in Genesis as a strong woman, involved in making extremely significant decisions in the life of the couple, beginning with their life in Haran, When they arrived in Egypt Abraham asked Sarah to pretend to be his sister.

The fact that Sarah was willing to give up being the only woman in her husband’s life underscores her strength and self-confidence as a woman.  Sarah knew that marriage is not complete without a successor generation.   Being unable to provide for this, she took action (actually, an accepted practice in her day), even though it was at the expense of her own status.  Abraham, for his part, left the field in Sarah’s hands.   It was she who chose the suitable woman and who encouraged her husband to enter the specified bond in order to bring offspring.

She lived a life of sacrifice. She spent years accepting a lower status based on her life as she understood and lived it. Imagine hearing that she will have a son. She could have seen her life up to that moment as a dark tragedy. Yet God wants to work in another way. Here is where it feels like God anticipates and ends up playfully provoking laughter from Sarah.

My God was hidden from me in after years of reading Genesis. Something in all of us tends to hear God's voice in the Bible as determined, accusatory and judgemental and who is constantly a stern father. Today, instaed, I hear my God's tone as playful after Sarah's denial of laughing. The whole exchange is like one between two affectionate children overheard on a playground.

"Why did you laugh?"

"No, I didn't laugh."

"Yes, you did laugh!"

God teases out laughter from Sarah. Her son is named Isaac as well, which means he will laugh. God delights in the fact that this delayed, impossible blessing is fulfilled. There is joy in how laughter has finally come this family.

Of course, the story of what is going currently going on  at this moment apperas more complicated. The delayed blessing has not yet come. There are multiple stories being lived out that no one completely owns or understand. Different aspects of what we are experiencing tug at different parts of our hearts now and  any "solutions" remain elusive.

Yet that does not mean there is no hope for change. There is a Joseph Campbell quote “What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, in the fulfillment or the fiasco.” 

We don't know what the future holds for so many of our brothers and sisters who have endured affliction for so long. Our hearts go out to the police as well who feel their work is not currently being appreciated as it should be. Everyone's dangers and helps are and will remain individual. Still, knowing a change is going to come is not a false hope. The pins may slip out of alignment before the lock is opened this time, or maybe not. Yet the release will come.

The reason this moment for change will not be lost is laid bare by Matthew's Gospel text today. What we are seeing in the streets is the same concern describing Jesus' reaction to the crowd when he sees them and sends his apostles out for the first time. He has compassion. The Greek word for compassion used here is splagchnizomai. The first part of the word (splagchna) means “internal organs,” so splagchnizomai literally means to be moved so deeply by something that you feel it in the pit of your stomach.

Once enough people truly hear that call to compassion the inclusive change will come.