Loading...Sermon June 25, 2017
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Third Sunday After Pentecost, Track 1 Year A: //lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp7_RCL.html
So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” Genesis 21:10
Please be seated.
In my earlier work life, I switched jobs quite frequently…about every three years. However, when I went to work as the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers in 1998, at the age of 42, I found myself quite happy after three years. At about four years, though, I thought it might be time to move to a different position, but what? I also wondered if this time, I was going to learn how to stay at a position longer. You see, I like the early days when everything is new and there are things to be changed. The ongoing maintenance was not as appealing to me.
My experience was that I’d receive guidance about the direction in which I should move. For instance, one summer I kept hearing about the work of Margaret Wheatley. She is an expert in how organizations can work and function well. Her work at least initially was grounded in the physics of chaos theory – an organization needs a set of agreed-upon bottom lines and then needs to let there be room for lots of innovation and creativity. It may all look at bit chaotic, but chaos always organizes itself.
I kept hearing so much about Margaret Wheatley, that I started looking her up. Then I became very interested in organization development as a possible next step in my career. The profession was in line with social work on an organization scale, instead of individuals or small groups. That aligned with much of my experience in nonprofit organizations. One thing led to another and I eventually started on a path to obtaining a certificate in Organization Development from the NTL Institute and finally a new job in Washington, DC.
The whole process took four years, though. And I became impatient. While I fully believed and knew I was receiving guidance from God in this journey, God’s time was taking too long for me. At times, I started looking for positions before I knew it was really right to do so. I’d feel frustrated that something more wasn’t happening. God kept giving me the next step. God, I also believe, was teaching me how to stay with a position a little longer and learn more about what that was like.
What I ultimately learned that has been such an important lesson, is that God always gave me the next step and that I didn’t always know how things would end up finally, but I could always do the next step to the best of my ability.
In our reading from Genesis today, we hear about the consequences of Sarah’s impatience with God. First of all, Sarah in Chapter 18 laughs when she overhears “strangers” tell Abraham that she, who has not been able to conceive any children, will bear a child.
Prior to this time, Sarah had done what was a common practice at the time for someone who had slaves…she forced her servant Hagar to be a surrogate and bear a child for her. This action totally upset the household. While Sarah did what was common at the time, she found herself feeling jealousy towards Hagar, treating Hagar so badly that Hagar ran away for a time. Eventually, the child Ishmael, was born.
Once God’s promise that Sarah would bear a child proved true and Isaac was born, Sarah was still threatened by Ishmael and ordered that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. In essence, Sarah was condemning them to death. Even though Sarah had had this amazing experience of God’s promise being fulfilled in the birth of Isaac, Sarah continued to take things into her own hands…to try to arrange life to suit her, rather than listening for what God would do.
I think most of us can identify with Sarah. God has given us this amazing gift of free will. Often we confuse free will for thinking that we alone can make our world to suit us.
And our actions taken without God’s guidance, have consequences for those around us. We often fail to take into account those consequences. We often have a misguided notion that our actions affect anyone else. Hagar tells us otherwise.
Imagine a woman in that time cast out into the wilderness with her child with only a skin of water and a few pieces of bread. How would she survive, even if she found another community? How could Sarah, who was also a mother, do that to another mother? How could Sarah do that to another child? How could Sarah not know the consequences, nor consider the consequences? And because she must have known she was sentencing Hagar and Ishmael to certain death, how could she live with herself? How could she believe that the God who blessed her would condone such an action? And how could Abraham participate, even though he felt badly about the whole thing?
Our impatience has consequences. Our illusion of free will, meaning we can ignore the community, has consequences, not only for our lives, but also for the life of the community.
Fortunately, God’s grace abounds. God hears the cries of Ishmael. God hears the cries of the child. God comes to Hagar, a most amazing experience, to tell her she should not be afraid, because God will make of Ishmael a great nation. God is with Hagar and Ishmael. They will survive. Also, in this action, Hagar is now free. She is no longer a slave.
The wonderful outcome should not lull us into thinking we can be impatient and reckless in our actions. We need to do our best to hear God’s guidance…to be patient… and to consider the consequences. Knowing we will never do this perfectly, we can be thankful for God’s grace, which continues to hear the cries of the children who suffer from our recklessness.
Amen
