Since this was a midweek service the message is shorter than usual, and there is not a full set of lectionary texts. There is just one text, and it carries a lot. I am grateful and humbled that THIS is the text that Vicar Megan read and then thought of me.
The message was delivered on Wednesday, March 20, in the 7:00 pm service.
The text is:
Genesis 21:8-21
And God said… Abraham! Sarah! I chose you!!
Sarah laughed.
Abraham went to Hagar.
A son was born, but not the son God had promised.
Because apparently they somehow thought that God would make a promise but then not provide the means to make it happen.
But God said “No, no, Abraham and Sarah… I am giving you a gift… you do not get to control the how and when of that gift.”
Then the promised son came along, and Abraham’s two sons were playing, and Sarah said well HE can’t play with MY kid!
She just couldn’t shake the idea of controlling God’s blessing. It never occurred to her that the child she advocated for might also be incorporated into God’s plan. She’s not laughing now… she has rejected one of God’s own because God had worked God’s plan anyway.
In fact, God said, “I choose Hagar’s son, too!” God was not going to leave his children Hagar and her son to the confusion of Sarah and Abraham.
So Hagar went into the wilderness with her baby and her bread and her flask of water. When the water ran out, she abandoned her baby under a bush and went away so she would not hear him cry.
But tears break God’s heart so God told Hagar what nobody else had told her before: “I choose your son, too! He will become a great nation!”
And Hagar opened up her eyes and found water.
Now let’s forward a few millennia. What do we find?
God says “I have made all things possible!” but we laugh and say “Oh… yeah… we got it… we are pretty sure we know exactly what God wants!”
Sometimes forgetting that God says GOD will make all things possible.
For example, in what probably started as faithfulness, the church at large has too often tried to say “pastors should be young white men, preferably with young wives and babies!”
Privilege and preference takes the form of rejection rather than incorporation…. not realizing that those same young men are not harmed when others are incorporated.
But God says, no, that’s not what I meant. God says “pink, olive, black and brown people, gay people, gender fluid people, middle-aged people, men and women of all ages and origins… even young white men with young wives and babies… come to me! I CHOOSE YOU. Go to my people and love them! ”
God keeps calling and calling and calling.
Because the God who made Hagar’s son a great nation can do wonders with an older, brown-skinned gender-fluid person. Even if they are vegan Republicans.
God can even do wonders with you. And me. No one is exempt.
Because despite the array of confused ideas of the church on earth, those whom God calls keep finding their ways into ministry.
If you are frustrated tonight because God has called and you don’t see a path to live out that call,
FEAR NOT. You are not alone.
If you are frustrated tonight because things that are dear to you keep being challenged,
FEAR NOT. You are not alone.
Hagar’s son became a great nation by God’s will.
Sarah’s son became part of a great nation by God’s will.
Ruth the Moabite became a critical link in the lineage of Jesus by God’s will.
Levi the tax collector became Matthew the disciple by God’s will.
Elizabeth Alvina Platz became the first woman ordained as a Lutheran
pastor in America by God’s will.
I have been called to something still unfolding by God’s will.
YOU are being called. By God’s will.
A God who came to earth as a fully human person,
who lived a life in complete unity with God,
was killed unjustly,
and then DID NOT STAY DEAD,
can easily open up unimaginable new opportunities.
Jesus did not destroy the law, Jesus fulfilled the law.
Jesus did not remove sin, Jesus conquered sin.
Through the saving work of Jesus, God just keeps swallowing up sin with grace
God does not reject. God just opens things up wider – opens US up wider. God opens up new spaces for more people, turns the roadblocks put up by human beings into gateways to more blessing, more love, more grace.
God just keeps loving us all,
drawing us all into God’s presence.
incorporating those who have been rejected in new ways
while continuing to love those at the center in new ways.
Rejection? No. Only incorporation, as God incorporates all of creation into God’s own self.
Amen
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