Union Church

June 15, 2008
Genesis 25: selected verses.

Let’s review the story line of Father Abraham.

Terah, the father of Abraham decides to leave Ur near the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent and go into the land of Canaan, on the western side. With his son Abraham, daughter-in-law Sarah and Lot, Abraham’s nephew, he only travels about half way and settles at Haran in the north.

After many decades Abraham and Sarah hear God calling them to leave Terah’s house and go to the land God will show them.
Through them, God will bless all the families of the earth. So they set out and eventually arrive in Canaan. There, God makes a covenant with them to make them parents of a great nation that will bless all the families on the earth.

But there is a problem. Sarah is barren and they are now well past child bearing age.

Ten years pass by and no luck. Abraham and Sarah remain childless. Sarah decides to offer her Egyptian slave girl, Hagar as surrogate, reasoning quite correctly for the times, that the child will belong to Sarah since she owns the mother.

It is not long before a child is on the way, but now Hagar and Sarah are not getting along.
Sarah abuses Hagar while Hagar acts contemptuously toward her owner. The battle over who is the top woman has begun.

Things get so bad the Hagar runs away and cries in the desert. God as an angel, hears her cry and talks Hagar into returning, promising to raise up a mighty nation through her son, who shall be named Ishmael –– God has heard.

Another ten years go by and Abraham, now 100 years old, entertains angels unaware, who predict in his old age that his wife will conceive and bear a child within a year. Sarah at a youthful 90, scoffs and laughs at the news but conceives and gives birth as the angels foretold. They named the boy Isaac which means laughter.

Let’s fast-forward another three years or so and Isaac is about to be weaned. Abraham is planning to throw a feast in celebration.
Ishmael is now thirteen and the appropriate age to offer sacrifices with his father.
Sarah sees Ishmael playing with Isaac and realizes that the birthright will go to Ishmael once he sacrifices with his father at the upcoming feast.
Only the oldest, the first one to offer sacrifices with his father can inherit she thinks.

The old rivalry fires up again.
Hagar and Ishmael have to go.
Abraham is reluctant to send Ishmael and his mother away since Ishmael is his son and he loves him dearly.
He only agrees to Sarah's demand after God assures him that God will bless and care for Hagar and Ishmael and will raise up a mighty nation through them. In fact, God commands Abraham to do whatever Sarah tells him to do.

It sounds a lot like blended families of today.

Hagar and Ishmael are then cast out into the desert with a day or two's provisions.
There, they wander until all the food and water are spent.
Hagar places her son under a tree and moves away a fair distance so as not to hear his crying.
But God hears his crying and an angel of God comes to Hagar confirming the promise made so long ago. God opens Hagar's eyes and she sees a well of water.

And so Ishmael and Isaac will each survive into adulthood and will each receive the birthright of being a mighty nation.
They each belong to God.
They each are cared for by God.
And God is with each of their traditions.

In our Old Testament lesson today, we read of Ismael and Isaac coming together upon their Father Abraham’s death and burying him.

Contrary to later interpretations these two men, these two half brothers, remain in contact and in relationship with each other.
The passage goes on to express how Ishmael’s birthright has unfolded with 12 sons, 12 princes of 12 tribes.
Just like Isaac’s 12 grandsons, the 12 tribes of Israel.

God is present and blesses the religious traditions that arise from Father Abraham: Judaism, Islam and Christianity all share in the birthright of God’s blessing.
Judaism, Islam and Christianity need to respect one another since we claim the same father.

Father Abraham sought a birthright for both his sons.
It wasn’t an either / or proposition.
To seek the birthright for one was to establish a birthright for the other.

The pattern for fatherhood today remains the same.
The teaching is very simple.

To establish a birthright for one’s children, for one’s family, we must ensure the birthright for other families.

You Want Me To Do What?

Matthew 9:35-10:8

In our gospel lesson today, the disciples are changed into apostles.
To be a disciple is to be a learner and a follower.
To be an apostle is to be empowered and sent out to continue and expand the mission.

Apostle means one who is sent out.
Being an apostle means becoming an ambassador.

In our story the disciples are empowered by Jesus, and sent out to the lost sheep of Israel.
The people are like lost sheep without a shepherd.
The apostles are to show them the way to the fold.

As Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, the time has come for each of us to be apostles.
Many of us have grown up with the discipleship model.
We are used to coming to church.
We are used to getting something out of church to help us through the week.
But we are not used to taking the church out to the world.

However we live in a culture that is spiritually lost.
We are also surrounded by spiritual seekers who have lost their way; who cannot or will not find their way back into a faith community on their own.

We are being called out, we are being sent out as ambassadors of a new Christianity for the 21st century.
We are being sent out as ambassadors for Christ.
God is making an appeal.
God is calling folk into community, through us.

We must remember that it is “how” we go out to the world that matters.
The job of the ambassador is to embody the message as it is intended to be received.
So it is “how” we share the empowerment of the living Christ that will allow others to recognize our invitation to experience God in new ways.

When we go out to the people around us with deep respect, when we go out with compassion,
when we go out with acceptance and with a forgiveness that includes, then folk will follow us back.
People will follow us back and stay.

For they will discover how the faith has changed
and how the fellowship of believers welcomes all of us home.