Showing Mercy

Luke 10: 25-39
September 17, 2017

Today as we continue to examine the theme of hospitality we will look at a very familiar parable of Jesus, the Good Samaritan.  So let’s jump right into this Parable from the Gospel of Luke.

 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”  He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”  And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Our culture, has glossed over this Parable and we have lost the poignancy of its message.  The term “Good Samaritan” has been used over and over again to mean someone who comes to the aid of another, it has really pervaded our psyche and soul.  And, that’s a good thing, really, coming to the aid of someone else is always good. 

It’s the name of a roadside assistance group who rescues stranded motorists.  There even is enacted into law, a statute called the Good Samaritan Act that protects a person from giving emergency, volunteer help and aid to someone in dire need.  It is very unfortunate that we have to protect ourselves from being sued by someone that we have just helped, this statute is the antithesis of this parable.  So in one form or another people know this parable.

But the Samaritan didn’t help because he knew the guy, or that he knew he was protected under the law if something went wrong.  He was a GOOD, ethical man from Samaria who saw that there was another man in need.  He broke through the boundaries and risked his life, his limb, and his social status to help another.  It was not a quid pro quo, this for that, conditional help.  He gave all, expected nothing.  I think that is  the ultimate definition of hospitality, giving all expect nothing.  Let’s look at this text more closely.

A man traveled from Jerusalem to Jericho.  It is a tough journey, rotten terrain.  Bandits could hide out in the crevices and descend upon travelers as they did with this man.  We know nothing about his identity except that his luck had run out and he was robbed, beaten, and stripped, left to die on the side of the road.  But the identity of this guy really doesn’t matter at all or, for our purposes, shouldn’t matter.  Mercy should be extended to all people, it doesn’t matter where they are from or the color of their skin or their ethnicity or religious affiliation.  When someone is in need, you help.  But Jesus is telling this parable to Jews and the expectation for the Jewish hearer is upon the three men who pass by the beaten man. Way back then it just didn’t matter. 

A priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan turns their expectations and world upside down, because a Samaritan was not a Jew.  Jesus wasn’t railing against Jews it’s just that there is a certain orderliness to ALL cultures in defining who they are and there are many assumptions that are made about who’s on the inside and who’s on the outside. 

Jesus crosses the picket line of thinking.  He challenges them to think about “the other” being nice, “the other” giving aid, “the other” the one to reach out to an almost dead man, “the other” offering hospitality.

The first two men flub up completely.  A priest, I’m sorry to say, someone of my own profession, does not bother to help the beaten man.  So wrong, a complete breach of his “charge to the pastor” if he were an ordained clergy person.  The priest passes right on by.  In fact, he moves to the other side of the road so that he doesn’t have to confront the situation.  He doesn’t have to have eye contact with the man.  You know what I mean!  You’re taking a walk, in the next block you see someone coming towards you, the anticipation mounts, should I say hi, acknowledge the person and then at the moment of passing by each other, the walker fixes their gaze to the ground as if you aren’t even there.  Because too look someone in the eye is to, for a brief moment, have a relationship with that person and you really do not know who that other person is.  Or what they will do to you.  But the priest!  It would have been expected of him to help, it would have been expected of him to bury the man had he been dead.

And the Levite – same expectations.  Descended from the tribe of Levi, the Levites assisted in the ancient Temple, sort of assistants to the priests.  He would have known the laws and commandments, he would have known what to do with the man if he were dead.  But nope, the Levite, like the priest, passed by on the other side of the road.  Too preoccupied, in a hurry to get to Jericho, perhaps he was late for an appointment, or maybe he just didn’t want to bothered.  Genuine hospitality was not even a thought in this guy’s brain.

The Samaritan, he was the good guy!  It was the Samaritan who was a good neighbor because he showed mercy.  A Samaritan, an unclean person of mixed marriage, down from the North who interprets Torah differently, a bitter enemy of Jesus. I can imagine that the crowds mouths dropped wide open when Jesus said, “But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.”  He showed mercy.  You know the rest. 

I believe that this is hospitality at its core.  His heart was changed.  To be moved with pity, for your enemy, to stop your route and to help the one you dislike intensely, can only be of God’s doing, not of our own human instinct.  Hospitality happens within the context of relationship; he cared deeply about what would happen to this man and he extended himself without any expectation of reciprocity.

Hospitality at this level is not easy and probably difficult for most of us.  Most of us choose the surface level hospitality, “how ya doing?” and then go about our business.  But with genuine hospitality you build relationship by caring what is actually happening to the other person.  I care.  I see you.  I acknowledge the pain you are in, I can see your joy because I’ve been there too.  You find out what peoples needs are and you meet them right there.  There is a certain equality in hospitality in that the one offering hospitality is not different or above the one who is receiving the hospitality.  All are equal brothers and sisters in Christ.

What makes this parable as moving and remarkable is it is is the Samaritan shows compassion and mercy, forgiveness and understanding without asking a person’s ethnicity, or race, or theology beforehand and that is what that great commandment  says to us – love God and love your neighbor as yourself. This is how we are to order our living.  This is hospitality.

Love God; love your neighbor as yourself.  God’s expression of love in your life will enable you to love your neighbor as yourself.  God’s intervention and blessing in YOUR life will help you and equip you to overcome prejudice, and weakness, and fearfulness, to seek justice, to help another person in need and to strive for better living for ALL people.

When you least expect it you will be called to be a Good Samaritan along the road of life and your neighbor will be the unsuspected one.  Accept that moment, approach that person, do not avert your gaze and offer the most loving and sincere hospitality that you can, show genuine mercy.  Love God and know that God will strengthen you and give you the ability to do whatever is needed of you, whatever God has called you to do and to be at that moment in time.

We are blessed to have a God who will do this for us and with God’s help you will love your neighbor as yourself. 

Amen.

Unexpected Events

Luke 19: 1019

September 10, 2017

Me and Barbara

Recently I had some friends drop in unexpectedly.  I had been texting my friend about colors and designs and she was out with her husband and they decided to stop by so we could have a real conversation about that, and then we did a check in about our kids and our own psyche’s and then well, a few hours had passed. 

So all this was just fine with me however it was getting close to the noon hour and as we were talking I began to think in my mind, I have got absolutely nothing in this house to eat.  Nothing to offer, I just had tea or coffee.  I finally admitted this to them and they said, no problem!  Come over to our house, we can make some sandwiches.  At first in my mind I thought, no I can’t do that; impose on them at the last minute like this but just as soon as I was thinking that thought the words, ‘Oh that sounds like fun’ came rolling out of my mouth.

We hopped in our cars, drove to their house which is very close, made sandwiches and watched some TV as we looked at paint swatches.  My friend is an interior designer.  It was a complete and wonderful day of hospitality and love.  It was unhurried and really nothing fancy at all.  We just opened our homes and our hearts to one another.

I wonder if either one of us would have been so casual about it though if it had been Jesus who said, ‘hey, I’m coming over to your house today’.

Let’s now take a look at Luke, the 19^th chapter:

He entered Jericho and was passing through it.  A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.  He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”  So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”  Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Jesus and Zacchaeus Exegesis

In the Gospel of Luke we find this story, which, throughout the years, has become somewhat endearing.  As a child I used to sing a song about [Zacchaeus, a wee little man who climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.  And as the Savior passed that way he looked up in the tree.  And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down! For I’m going to your house today.”  The song is cute and gets a kid going yelling out ‘Zacchaeus, you come down’, as they point their fingers in exclamation at Zacchaeus.]  Except this little song leaves out some critical points of the story.  Points that are the exact message of the Gospel.

Jesus by now, well on his way to Jerusalem for his final entry, happened by Jericho which is about 22 kilometers northeast of Jerusalem on the other side of the Judean hills.  A short ride really.  Jericho was a large city so it was a major center of taxation.  It’s quite a beautiful place which is why Herod had built one of his palaces there.  So there was a lot going on when Jesus arrived and entered Jericho. Street vendors and shop owners, mothers and children, beggars, tax collectors and Pharisees, everyone came to the entrance of the city to greet or if not to greet, to at least get a glimpse of Jesus, this man who by now had quite a reputation in first century Palestine.

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector – (read) he had gobs of money.  He was a man of means thanks to the all of the people that he had collected taxes from throughout the years.  You see tax collectors would purchase the rights to collect taxes then they could turn around and charge and tax the people whatever they wanted and after they paid the Roman Empire what was due they could pocket the rest.  Clever system if you’re the tax collector or the Empire.  No wonder tax collector’s back in Jesus’ day were despised and counted as public sinner number one.

He might have been a big-wig in town however he was short so with all of the people crowding in to see Jesus that day it prevented him from doing so.  So he climbed up into one of the sycamore trees at the entrance of the city.  Jesus takes note.  I guess he didn’t always see people hanging out in the trees.  Intuitively Jesus engages Zacchaeus.  It’s Jesus who initiates the conversation, “I see you Zacchaeus, I know you Zacchaeus, come down, let’s go have a bit to eat at your house, let’s ‘reason together’ like God once said to the prophet Isaiah (Is 1:18) ”.     

Zacchaeus, happy as the IRS on April 15, scampered down the tree and took Jesus to his comfortable home.  But, adding drama to the story, the crowd was not happy; they began to grumble and nothin’s worse than a grumblin’ crowd on a hot day in Jericho.  A person who steals from you is not beloved and so tax collectors, even though they were rich and powerful, were outcasts.

We don’t know the nature of the exchange between Jesus and Zacchaeus, whether it was hostile and strained or friendly and honest but Zacchaeus repents.  After seeing Jesus, Zacchaeus’ repentant heart pushed him further into action, which is the way it should be. ‘Shuv’, the word for repentance in Hebrew, also means to turn around.  He repents and then makes plans for restitution to the people.  He did the right thing, the ethical thing.  He turned from his old ways and he distributed the money that he had to the people he swindled, over above what his fair wages should have been. Salvation had come to Zacchaeus.

In the Gospel of Luke faith and repentance are ethical issues.  One’s life must reflect in action and words, one’s confession.  Ethics plays a role.  Otherwise, what good is it?  Zacchaeus get’s it.  He’s a little man who puts into action some grand plans for giving back the money that he had taken from people.  For that sunny day in spring when it was getting close to the Passover, Jesus, Zacchaeus’ salvation had come to Jericho and sought out to bring him back.  Zacchaeus was saved and brought into the proverbial fold and enacted the message of the Gospel.

Lens of Hospitality

If we look at this story through the lens of hospitality I think we see some interesting twists.  Let me remind you that we are embarking on thematic preaching this year and September’s theme is hospitality. I hope that you have begun to think more deeply about hospitality, what it means, how it’s exhibited here at OCC, in your life, and in your home.  

Generally when we think of ‘providing hospitality’ we think of preparing our space, you know vacuuming the floors, dusting the furniture and there might be some sort of food preparation involved to feed the guests.  But we see from the story of Zacchaeus that sometimes you just don’t have the time to prepare because the opportunity for hospitality presents itself very unexpectedly, in unusual moments when you might least expect it.   

I think that fundamentally Zacchaeus was a good guy who got stuck in a bad system – he jumps at the chance to entertain Jesus in his home.  He didn’t hesitate one iota.  Who knows what the condition of his household may have been.  He didn’t bicker with Jesus, he just hops out of the tree without hesitation and was open to receive Jesus and whomever else might have been travelling with him just as they were, probably dusty and tired from the journey.

And in that open spirit of hospitality Zacchaeus was changed.  That is the power of deep rooted hospitality it has all the potential to transform your spirit if you are open to it.  We have so much to learn from one another and in learning about one another we learn more and more about the God who lovingly crafted us.  Everyone has a story to tell through honest, open and inviting hospitality it can be told.

The Monastic tradition is infused with hospitality, it is the basis for The Rule of St. Benedict.  Br. David Vryhof of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, MA says this of hospitality, “True Christian hospitality requires a giving of ourselves, an opening up of who we are, a willingness to stretch our sometimes-narrow lives, to step outside of our comfort zones. If we truly try to follow Jesus, our outlook on the world – especially its strangers, its poor, its homeless, its helpless, its needy, even its enemies – will be forever changed.”[i]

So hospitality in the Christian sense is more of a mindset, and a ‘heartset’ than a physical act.  We give of ourselves to make room for others.  It is acceptance and it is love.  I think that’s what Jesus did when he engaged Zacchaeus in the first place.  He took notice of Zacchaeus’ contemptible little self and made him honorable.   He loved him as he was with all of the potential for a changed spirit so sometimes these unexpected events for hospitality can be the key that unlocks grace filled living.

It is my prayer that you will be blessed to receive hospitality and to give hospitality in ways that will make for a transformative life that echoes Jesus’ acceptance and love.

Amen.

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[i] Vryhof, Br. David.  From ‘Brother – Give us a Word’ meditation for September 4, 2017.  Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Cambridge, MA.

Hospitable Terrain

Luke 4: 21-36

September 3, 2017

I am embarking on something new. Something that I hope will be invigorating and exciting to you as it is to me.  For the past five years I have used what is known as the Revised Common Lectionary as the basis for scripture for sermons.  The RCL is a table of scripture readings, issued in a three-year cycle, that are appointed to be read at public worship.  It gives us a nice overview of the Bible and Jesus life and ministry.  While it has served us very well I think it’s time to try something different.  Now, as the listener of sermons you may not have even realized that there was a particular pattern to the scope and content of my yearly preaching, but trust me, there was.

This ‘new thing’ that I’m doing or that I will be engaging is a thematic approach to preaching.  As a guideline I’ll be using a book written by Rev. Susan Cartmell entitled, “Uncommon Preaching”.   [Thank you Cynthia Sheetz for gifting me with this book.]  By using monthly themes we can engage the contemporary questions of our faith, the great themes in the Bible and the imperative of our faith.   The themes for the coming months are hospitality for September, vocation for October, stewardship for November, and hope for December.  There’s more for the entire year but for now that’s enough! It is my hope that dialogue will begin among you around each topic and get you thinking in terms of what does this topic mean for my life and for the life of OCC.

So it’s September and we begin with hospitality.  In many ways when you hear this morning scripture you’ll think that it is the complete antithesis of hospitality and it left me scratching my head too. Just prior to where we pick it up today’s scripture from Luke we note that Jesus reads a little piece from the prophet Isaiah, his inaugural address you might call it. [In fact the theme of the hymn we just sang echo’s Isaiah’s words], “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” But, they didn’t like what they heard, so we read:

Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”

And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. 

What an inhospitable crowd, eh?  You just wonder if this is what Jesus thought would happen. They start off all right when he sits down and tells them that the scripture has been fulfilled in their hearing, they even sit in awe and amazement.  “This is Joseph’s son!”  I think they must have been honored and proud that such a prophet and healer could be a hometown boy.  A pretty remarkable fellow in our midst and he’s one of our own.   Fancy that!

But it sure didn’t take long for the people of Nazareth to get angry with Jesus after he gave this “inaugural” address, which is what we heard in today’s scripture reading.  The pundits weighed in swiftly and forcefully.

The people got angry with Jesus, angry enough that they wanted to throw him off of a cliff on Mount Tabor, a mount that has seen plenty of disaster and death through the years, the lives of Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Josiah and Saul, Jehu and Jezebel, Elijah and Elisha, they all died in that region.  Jesus was raised in the metaphorical ‘cradle’ of Israelite history in Nazareth and around Mount Tabor and the Jezreel Valley.

The interesting twist here is that it’s Jesus who incites them with his own words outguessing what he thinks they were going to think and ask next.  He says, ‘if I did here what I did in others places like Capernaum and up in the Galil, that is preach and heal and perform miracles, you wouldn’t get it, you wouldn’t pay attention.’  That’s what angered the people.  Dismissed, devalued, underestimated, however you want to name it, they were mad.

He was in their midst but they just couldn’t understand the profound nature of his being and of his life.  He knew this and so he put words to their eventual actions and they were madder than wet hens and nothing is worse than an angry group of people.  What I like best about this passage and where the Gospel bell rings true I think for our purposes today is a tiny detail at the end of the passage… ‘but Jesus slipped through the crowd and got away.’ (CEV)

They were so mad, and were arguing and filled with rage to the point where they forgot or ignored Jesus and he quietly took his leave.  He slipped through their hands.  He left without notice.  If you ask me, that’s remarkable.  But then again perhaps maybe it’s not.

David Ewart of Capilano United Church in Vancouver has done a lot of conflict mediation within churches.  He says that he’s not surprised that Jesus could slip right through this angry crowd; this crowd who probably thought of themselves as ‘good synagogue’ people.   Ewart has worked with angry and divisive congregations and he says, “Jesus has slipped right out the back door and down the alley, you never would have believed that they were a community of faith because there was no evidence of Jesus in their midst”. 

In the congregations he worked with the divine presence was no more present than the man in the moon in their negotiations and deliberations about God’s work and God’s church.  They were congregations who had lost their way and forgotten or lost sight of why they exist.  They were congregations who just couldn’t come to consensus on how the cause of Christ should be carried out with the resources at hand.   And so, while they hurled invectives at each other, Jesus left their midst for those proverbial greener pastures.  They did not show hospitality for the sacred one in their midst.

If we think of hospitality in the broadest sense we understand it to be the friendly, generous reception of guests, visitors or strangers.  But that’s only a surface definition of hospitality.  Hospitality can mean a whole lot more and that’s what we will explore this coming month. As a friend of mine so beautifully expressed:

A Hospitality of place

    Is being sure that your space is arranged in a pleasing and inviting way.

Hospitality of spirit

    Is hearing another’s story without judgment but genuine interest

Hospitality of mind

    Is being open to new ideas, new ways of doing things or seeing things

Hospitality of time

    Is making room for others, not just you[i]

Hospitality asks more of us, plain and simple.  There are many ways in which hospitality can manifest itself and we must always remember that hospitality is at the heart of Christianity.  Jesus welcomed all by his side, he invited all to be a part of the journey that he was on.  Guests, visitors and strangers were always welcome to break bread with him and to experience God’s magnificent grace.  Jesus welcomed Gentiles to be part of the covenant; we are proof.

In return, how hospitable towards Jesus are we?  Do we welcome Jesus Christ into our midst and our hearts?  Or do we, like the people of Nazareth get so busy doing (not arguing because that’s not who we are), but so busy doing things that we forget to invite Christ among us?  We always need to be aware of his presence at our tables, the tables we have coffee around, the tables we conduct business around, the tables we share potluck dinners around, and certainly the table that we break consecrated bread around. You know if it weren’t for Christ, we wouldn’t exist as a church community. Is there more we can do to welcome Christ?  What more might we do to welcome him?

You know you are witnesses to the Gospel and to the hospitality that God has shown you in each one of you.  You are a testimony that Jesus has not slipped out the back but has been welcomed as the stranger, the downcast, the friend.

Always stay focused on the task and ministry at hand and Christ will be in our midst.  Never forget that OCC exists for God, not for ourselves.  As we minister to one another, we give strength to one another so we can then minister to the wider community.  Let us open our hearts, let us make space in our souls, let us welcome and received that dear Christ who so very much wants to enter in.

Amen.

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[i] Rev. Nancy Strickland via email. August 2017.

Do the Right Thing

Exodus 2:1-10, Romans 12:1-8

Have you ever seen something that needed to be done?  Some sort of action that need to be taken that you know would enable another person’s situation and life to be just a bit better?   But, for some reason, you hesitated because you didn’t know if they really wanted the help, or your didn’t want to offend them, maybe you just didn’t want to stick your neck out or maybe it just wasn’t clear to you if it was the right thing to do.  Probably we all have at some point in time passed up that momentary opportunity.  And, if you’re like me you spend the rest of the day kicking yourself for not taking action.

But sometimes you just have to take action and do the right thing risking vulnerability, without second-guessing yourself or asking permission.  Because it is the right action to take at the time, and you have used your best judgment considering all of the facts and given the circumstances.

I could have very easily entitled this sermon ‘Five Mothers and a Baby’ since there are five prominent women who take the opening two chapters of the Book of Exodus by storm.  Prior in Exodus there are the two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah and then three unnamed women of which we will hear more about in a minute.  All heroin’s in her own right.  All chose and took a course of action that would change the events and the lives of the people around them.  May their vision and hearts be blessed for their trust and courage.

The Book of Exodus opens with a new King arising over Egypt.  He could care less about Joseph, the favored of Jacob’s twelve sons.  In fact Joseph and his whole generation were long gone.  This was bad for the Israelites who, by now, were tipping the population charts in their favor.  And this population explosion did not make for a happy Pharaoh so he made their lives miserable, more miserable than usual. Forced labor, imposing menial and backbreaking tasks, Pharaoh was ruthless.

So he orders the midwives of the Hebrew people, Shiphrah and Puah, to murder all of their male children right after birth.  But they did not.  They loved God, they feared God and they let the little boy babies live. 

Pharaoh yelled at them, “Why did you do this?”.  They pleaded, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women”.  “The Hebrew women give birth too fast before any respecting midwife can get to them.”  Sneaky?  Yes!  The truth?  No!  Did they save lives?  Most definitely!

Shiphrah and Puah stood up to the mighty Pharaoh with their civil disobedience, and then blessed by God they had families of their own and the Hebrew people became even more prolific and strong.  They exercised sober judgment and upheld what was right and good for their people no matter the cost to them.  They didn’t look back; they acted quickly and saved lives.

But as we see Pharaoh continued on his murderous rampage even with what Shiphrah and Puah did and life dragged on for the Hebrew people and the baby boys were still in danger.  Let’s pick up Exodus the 2^nd chapter and back to the Hebrew people.

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.  The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months.  When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.

His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.  The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it.  When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said.

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it.  When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son.  She named him Moses, ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

Here now enters three more women, all unnamed.  There was the mother of Moses who, later in chapter 6 is named as Yocheved.  There was Pharaoh’s daughter who was the Princess and then there was Moses’ sister whom we later know to be Miriam.  But for now, we don’t know anything of these women.  All we know about is their motherly acts toward this little baby boy.  It doesn’t matter whether one was the birth mother and the others adoptive mothers, all, in some way acted as a loving mother to Moses and secured, unknowingly, the future of the Hebrew people, the Israelites.

God had a very large stake in our story from Exodus.  God’s providential handprints are all over this story of mothers – birth mothers, adoptive mothers and siblings who chose to seize the moment, to do the right thing, and act in a ‘Godly’ manner.    They are the ones who will love and nurture Moses, the eventual leader of the Israelites who will bring them out of slavery to the Promised Land. These women were open to promoting goodness and love and they too, like Shiphrah and Puah exercised sober judgment for this future leader.  I don’t think their actions were just willy-nilly.  They were carefully, well thought out actions that allowed for this transformation from possible death to life. 

It was Moses birth mother Yocheved who unselfishly let him float away in that little basket so that he could have a chance at life. This was a decision made with compassionate love and sobering judgment for the good of her child. 

It was his sister Miriam who so lovingly protected him and watched out for him when his own mother couldn’t be there.  She left the familiar, the comforts of her home and family to be with little  Moses – a big decision for someone so young.

It was Pharaoh’s daughter who was able to nurture him and provide for him, and who was kindhearted towards him, who took him in as her own.  Through these women God’s compassionate and maternal nature is shown.  It is through their decisive and mindful actions, their willingness to do the right thing that God could grow and solidify the eventual covenantal relationship between a people and an ethical, monotheistic God.

They sacrificed much and gained so much more that affirms the creative presence of God in this world.  Oh that we all could make decent decisions that uplift God’s truth and love and that God’s presence may be experienced and understood.

But sometimes we just don’t, do we?  For whatever reason we fail to take some action because our minds just have gone a little dull or we’ve become complacent with the world as it is thinking someone else will step up to that proverbial plate.  That’s the way it is sometimes but it doesn’t have to be.  I am reminded of a quote in part by the Jewish scholar Hillel, “If not now, when?”  If you don’t take action now, when will you?

I think the apostle Paul could have had this in mind when he wrote his Epistle to the Romans, after all he was of the school of Hillel in Jerusalem.  Sound judgment and a renewal of the mind is what he urges those early Christ followers in his Epistle which reads:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.  Romans 12: 1-3 

He then punctuates this passage noting that the body of Christ has many members with many gifts all functioning as one.

What Paul is saying is to not do or think what most of the world would do, or think, or say but let God be the one to guide you and change the way you think and act.  Let the precepts of God be your guide when making decisions in how you will conduct your life.  Sober judgment doesn’t mean thinking to the extreme right or left because we know that can build up tight barriers that are impermeable.  Sober judgment is to make judgments that are well thought out and well reasoned even though you have considered all of the facts.  It is to be transformed by the renewal of your mind.  We know ‘a mind is a terrible thing to waste’, as the moniker of the United Negro College Fund reminded us in 1972.  So we are urged to renew our minds in God’s love and God’s law.

For Paul there was a lot gone wrong in his Greco-Roman world, which is why he is always rather outspoken in scripture.  There was a lot that took up space in his mind just as there is much that takes up our minds today.  All you have to do is read the paper or watch the news to know that racism, anti-Semitism, hatred and fear are not things of the past but are forces that threaten us still.  But we can’t give in or give up.  A renewal of the mind as Paul talks about summons us to discern carefully God’s intentions, what is good and acceptable, what is equitable and loving and to act accordingly, doing the right thing.

If we say we are a part of the body of Christ then we have a stake in the welfare of each of our brothers and sisters, then we must do our utmost to carry out God’s commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, which includes slow, deliberate, and sober judgment in all of our actions.

In the book, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, we find the true story of a protestant pastor, Rev Andre Trocme, and his congregation and town of Le Chambon, France.  During World War II when the Germans occupied Southern France, Trocme led this town to peacefully resist the Germans and to give refuge to thousands of Jews who were seeking shelter for their lives and others who resisted the forces of fascism. 

But this type of response wouldn’t have just happened overnight for Le Chambon.  It happened over time because Trocme built an ethic within the congregation – a very firm foundation.  It was an ethic that took to heart the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount – to thirst for justice, to be merciful to all, to be pure in heart, that is to have hearts whose moral intentions are unpolluted from worldly temptations and always focused on God. 

It was their natural response to God’s involvement in this world.  This ethic was not just a sprinkling of benevolent goodness all over town…. it was pervasive, in the ethos of how they ordered their lives. They said: "Things had to be done and we happened to be there to do them. It was the most natural thing in the world to help these people."  In essence, like Shiphrah, like Puah, like Yocheved, like Miriam, like Pharaoh’s daughter they did the right thing.

Having renewed minds was the moral meaning and existence of Trocme’s parish, and ultimately this towns life.  Trocme laid a very firm and functional foundation – and their actions were part and parcel of this foundation based on the teachings of Jesus.  They heard and they acted the message of the gospel.   Their minds were transformed and renewed.

Let us today pray for peace and transformation in our hearts and minds so that we might show some degree of understanding and love.  And let us pray for peace and transformation in the hearts of others also so that shalom, wholeness and healing may begin.  So that when the time comes, we may do the right thing.

Amen.

The Risk Takers

July 9, 2017                                                                                                Genesis 24:selected verses

People will do anything (almost) to find a spouse.  Someone with whom you can grow old with, enjoy life with, kick back and feel the ocean breezes with.  Perhaps you used a matchmaker like Tzeitel from the movie, “Fiddler on the Roof” or used Match.com or Plenty of Fish, or Speed dating, or even the old fashioned ‘blind date’ to find your lover and friend.  Maybe your marriage was an arranged marriage, which still happens in some cultures.

When I speak with couples who are about to married it’s always interesting and intriguing to me to hear how they met because people meet in all ways.  Some meet by happenstance and some work very hard to capture the heart of someone else.  There are many stories that are each so wonderfully captured and remembered by the couple. 

Today’s scripture is just that.  It’s the story of how Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah, and Rebekah came to be husband and wife.  Each generation has to discover God’s faithfulness and promise anew and now it is Isaac’s turn.  The metaphorical torch has been passed.

We are following the Ancestral Stories of Abraham and Sarah in the Book of Genesis that will continue throughout the summer.  Last week we heard about the binding of Isaac and previous to that Abraham banishing Hagar and their Ishmael from the tent and then we heard about Sarah and her unlikely pregnancy at a very advanced age.  She laughs at the idea, but God delivers her a beautiful son Isaac, who is Abraham’s heir to the covenant.  So really we are due some happy stories

Now Isaac is all grown up, about forty years old scholars estimate and it is time for him to be a marryin’!  The $64,000 question is, ‘where do I get a wife’?  And that is what the entirety of Chapter 24 is about in the Book of Genesis.   FYI, Chapter 24 is the longest chapter in the Book of Genesis, and that’s for free!!  So now let me recap the beginning.

Abraham was old and richly blessed - read - rich.  He commands his servant to get a wife for Isaac, his 40 year old bachelor son, NOT from the land of Canaan, a foreign land but a wife from their homeland, the home of his ‘peeps’ in the 21st century vernacular.  There was some negotiating between Abraham and the servant takes off confident that if he could not deliver a wife under Abraham’s condition he wouldn’t be held responsible. Fair enough!  That was a tall order that Abraham give so this was a good deal.  It was also promised that an angel would accompany him.   And so the servant set out with camels, riches, lots of gifts and some heavenly guidance.

He arrives at the city of Nahor and cleverly goes to the well in the middle of the city to water his camels because that is where the women went to gather water.   Reading from the Contemporary English Version we continue with the story and I will intersperse some comments in between this lengthy passage.

The servant explained:

I am Abraham’s servant. The Lord has been good to my master and has made him very rich. He has given him many sheep, goats, cattle, camels, and donkeys, as well as a lot of silver and gold, and many slaves. Sarah, my master’s wife, didn’t have any children until she was very old. Then she had a son, and my master has given him everything. I solemnly promised my master that I would do what he said. And he told me, “Don’t choose a wife for my son from the women in this land of Canaan. Instead, go back to the land where I was born and find a wife for my son from among my relatives.” 

Interestingly enough this story is told from the servants perspective...and we’ll see that he is a man of faith and a loyal man to his master Abraham.  And yet in our scripture the servant had a penchant for repeating himself….

When I came to the well today, I silently prayed, “You, Lord, are the God my master Abraham worships, so please lead me to a wife for his son while I am here at the well. When a young woman comes out to get water, I’ll ask her to give me a drink. If she gives me a drink and offers to get some water for my camels, I’ll know she is the one you have chosen.”

Even before I had finished praying, Rebekah came by with a water jar on her shoulder. When she had filled the jar, I asked her for a drink. She quickly lowered the jar from her shoulder and said, “Have a drink. Then I’ll get water for your camels.” So I drank, and after that she got some water for my camels. I asked her who her father was, and she answered, “My father is Bethuel (Be - tu - el') the son of Nahor and Milcah.” Right away I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms. Then I bowed my head and gave thanks to the God my master Abraham worships. The Lord had led me straight to my master’s relatives, and I had found a wife for his son.

So Rebekah then runs to her mother’s household and her brother and father appear.   The text repeats the entire story of what just happened thus far.  This is often the case when a story from the oral tradition finally gets recorded on papyrus.  It was repetitive so that the listener could remember the details and so we can really understand what is going on.  And then the servant asks of her father and brother:

Now please tell me if you are willing to do the right thing for my master. Will you treat him fairly, or do I have to look for another young woman?

They called her and asked, “Are you willing to leave with this man right now?”

“Yes,” she answered.

So they agreed to let Rebekah and an old family servant woman leave immediately with Abraham’s servant and his men.

They gave Rebekah their blessing and said, “We pray that God will give you many children and grandchildren and that he will help them defeat their enemies.” Afterwards, Rebekah and the young women who were to travel with her prepared to leave. Then they got on camels and left with Abraham’s servant and his men.

At that time Isaac was living in the southern part of Canaan near a place called Be - er'   la - chai'  ro - ee', or “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” One evening he was walking out in the fields, when suddenly he saw a group of people approaching on camels. So he started toward them. Rebekah saw him coming; she got down from her camel, and asked, “Who is that man?”

“He is my master Isaac,” the servant answered. Then Rebekah covered her face with her veil.  The servant told Isaac everything that had happened.

Isaac took Rebekah into the tent where his mother had lived before she died, and Rebekah became his wife. He loved her and was comforted over the loss of his mother.

Ahh, what a beautiful story.  If we were to stop here that would be enough!  Isaac finds a wife, his servant has done an exemplary job of being faithful and obedient to his master’s word, and God’s covenant, and we could intuit that there would be enough progeny as there are stars in the magnificent sky. Because God keeps the promises that God makes.  This is the story of faith, obedience, and love.

But beyond that when we dig deeper, this is a story of taking risks and leaving home, leaving that place which brings you comfort and a safe harbor..  Isaac’s servant travels a distance to find the perfect bride.  He leaves home in order to fulfill his obligations to Isaac.  Rebekah offers extraordinary hospitality to a stranger, she leaves her comfort zone and risks talking to a stranger.  They both take big risks and they both leave home or their comfort zones which is what I think our learning is for today.

Leaving home can be interpreted in different ways if literally taken.  A five year old leaves home and trot’s off to kindergarten.  A preteen goes on an overnight somewhere else for the very first time.  A high school graduate leaves home to seek his or her fortune at college and gets her own apartment.  All of these seem like natural and positive leave takings.

But I think it is so much more because what is home?  It is a place where we are comfortable.  A place that you don’t have to think to much about, a place where you can ‘scratch where it itches’ sort of place, a place where routine becomes carved in stone sometimes and we really don’t have to change. Or perhaps it is a place that we hide from the outside world or our own feelings.  Now it gets trickier doesn’t it?  Because this scripture asks for complete and utter honesty to consider departing from that confining place that are so comfortable in to a place where we might experience complete freedom.  

The servant had to leave home in order to fulfill Abraham’s request of him.  And he did.  Rebekah had to leave home in order to become Isaac’s wife.  And she did.  Both left home, their ‘happy places’ and what they knew, for what was yet to be.  And God blessed them both, indeed God was with them both as they set their course for the future.  It took guts.  It took chutzpah!

But they had to take the first step.  Indeed Rebekah took a big step. She risked leaving her family and her surroundings because she had faith and because she believed that her life would be better and would fulfill the great good of God’s purposes. 

Sometimes risks need to be taken.  And I don’t mean ‘Evil Kneval’ risks or risks that could bring harm or injury to yourself or another.  I mean risks that could show you a whole new horizon for your life.  It’s easy to become complacent with your life and not push beyond the quotidian moments and happenings.  But there could be so much more out there for you.

I believe that God wants us to fulfill our highest potential; that is to dream big and go after it.  To have the courage and faith to chase after something that is just out of reach because you just never know how it may change your life and maybe even change the world and those you love. 

Believe with your heart that God will be with you during these times of transition and change.  And then go forward step by step if you have to, with God’s guidance and God’s presence.  There is not one place that you can go that God has not already been.  If you believe that God is everywhere then God has been to where you are headed, you need not fear.

Isaac and Rebekah marry and are blessed with many children, two of which we will hear about next week, all because she risked her present for her future.

Amen.