SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2023 | AFTER PENTECOST - PROPER 5 (A)

Texts

Revised Common Lectionary 6-11-2023: Proper 5

OLD TESTAMENT

Genesis 12:1–9

12 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

PSALM

NEW TESTAMENT

Romans 4:13–25

13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

GOSPEL

Matthew 9:9–13, 18–26

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the report of this spread throughout that district.

Revised Common Lectionary (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2009).

Genesis -

Calling of Abram - a blessing promised; he was quite old (75); build an altar to God for A FUTURE giving of land to his offsprings, another one where he pitched his tent. - gratefulness for the future, as well as present.

Romans - Law brings wrath, Abraham lifted as one that has faith against all odds

Matthew - Jesus welcomed sinners and outcasts. Jesus compares himself to a physician - it is the sick that need me, not well. And lifts up mercy ( can also mean pity, compassion...) over sacrifice (word connected with slaughter…).

2 miracles - unifying - it is following a faith of the one that asked - one man and one woman…however, benefactors are women - often overlooked and underserved.

Good morning,

I imagine that some of you may feel more rested than others as our worship time changes, so feel free to stretch. I would also normally say to take a deep breathe in, but at the moment, perhaps that is NOT the best of ideas. You know that something is terribly wrong, when you look out of the window and it’s orange. I hope you were all able to protect your airways from the worst of it. We are living in some very complex time.

But so did our ancestors, in their ways. Even though today we have the Hosea reading, if you recall the the story of Abram and at the first glance, it is fairly nonchalant about Abram answering God’s call to move out of Haran to Canaan.

So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.

I think you might guess where I am going - it is not as easy trek as it seems. It’s no I’m going to pop in to New York City for a Broadway show or not even like going to Maine for some lobster roll. More like taking a boat to Europe!

Abram was originally from Ur, Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq or perhaps from the kingdom of Urartu, today’s Armenia and then he migrated to Harran, today’s Turkey, where our story picks up. So either he migrated more than 700 miles or more than 400 miles. That is quite a bit, a lot of days of walking. And then when he migrated with his whole family entourage to Shechem in today’s West Bank, we are talking another more than 600 miles. No cars, no buses, trains, or airplanes - just walking at a steady pace day in, day out. And when he responded to God’s call to go to Shechem, he was allegedly 75 years old! I cannot imagine walking all that even at 36, going on 37! So imagine a 75 year old guy with an extended family, a patriarch, deciding to follow some vision of God that nobody else heard about before to move to another part of the world further away from all that he knew. That is, where Paul’s praise of Abram’s decision to follow this vision comes in - not because Abram/Abraham was some perfect and sinless man (he most definitely was not), but because he was willing to take the risk.

And Jesus really points to that as well - calling out the hypocrisy of outward holiness and holiness theatre, where legalism and holiness isolationism is more important than loving your neighbor. Instead, Jesus interacts, dines, and cares for sinners and those considered outcasts, such as tax collectors, chronically ill of different kinds, or the poor. Those are the one he came down to earth for, first and foremost, not those that are full of themselves, considering themselves “righteous” and not willing to hear otherwise. And more than that, he reminds those righteous folks that God Godself desires mercy, pity, and compassion instead of sacrifice, which often means the slaughter of animals.

It all points to the fact that God works differently than the world - in the world, it is often about doing what is desired by others, appearing as someone likeable, having the right connections, being born into the right family, going to the right school… The so called American dream sure often has many conditions, especially for those that do not have the unearned privilege of the quote and quote right racial and ethnic background, gender, generational wealth, .... I am sure we could continue for a while. Just gaining the awareness of our biases is a 4 2.5 hours sessions I am co-teaching as a part of the Kaleidoscope institute, most recently for two congregations in Long Island! God flips this script - being in the right relationship with me is not about whose descendant you are, what jobs you do, what ethnicity you are, how good you are at keeping my or anyone else’s laws and ordinances, or membership to one sect or another. No, there is absolutely nothing you can do to earn my love and mercy. It is a GIFT.

Whoops…so now what? I think we ought to be like Abraham, who built an altar at a place that God promised to his descendants. Not him or his present family, but his descendants. How often are we thankful for the things that will be bestowed upon the future generations? My guess – not very often, but it belongs to thinking about God’s grace in bigger and more expansive ways! Just like the religious leaders of Jesus times failed to see God’s grace and love including those they deem undesirable, so we too could far too easily fall into a narrow-minded view of who is included in God’s grace and who is out. It is not God who limits the reach of God’s grace, but rather our imagination and prejudice. I firmly believe that a lot of today’s Christian formation should primarily attend to just how much God loves all of us and the whole creation, not just some formulaic theses about the creation of the universe or how is Jesus at the same time God and a human. Those can serve a role in our pointing to God’s love and grace, but should never overshadow it.

Beloveds, this world will always need more love and grace. The ultimate source is God, for whom we can and should become the conduits, nay perhaps brisk fiber optics, so that it can reach the world abundantly and expediently. For far too long the church was like an AOL internet and so it was with the grace – slow, limited, expensive, and requiring membership. Not the kind of grace I believe Jesus was spreading. No, it’s more like free fast community wifi. Sure, the church may be like the community center where people may connect and focus, but the reach is far beyond any building.

God sent Jesus for all of us, for we are ALL sinners in need of the heavenly physician, whose remedy is love and grace. Let us never lose sight of that and whenever we may be tempted to exclude anyone from God’s grace, let us remember that we too are unworthy of it, but God doesn’t care and loves us anyway. Amen