Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 22, 2014
Christ enthroned as an earthly monarch, from the Book of Kells, Ireland, around 800 CE.
Even the greatest Bible heroes are hardly plaster saints. From Adam and Eve’s taste for forbidden fruit down through Joseph, Jacob, Moses and King David to doubting Thomas and denying Peter, the great figures in Scripture are just about all flawed and broken; yet God loves them just the same, as God loves us. Today we hear a particularly troubling story about Abraham. Yes, even the patriarch of the Judeo-Christian family was capable of such disturbing behavior as sending his slave, Hagar, and their son, Ishmael, into the desert to die. But God intervened, and promised them a future as bountiful as that of Abraham and Sarah’s own son, Isaac.
Psalm: Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
As our Genesis reading reminds us that God loves us even when we aren’t very nice, the Psalmist sings out the prayerful assurance that God loves us even when we aren’t very happy. Poor and needy, fearing death, the Psalmist cries out, trusting in a good and forgiving God to answer our prayers and make our hearts glad.
Second Reading: Romans 6:1b-11
If this short reading from Paul’s letter to the early church in Rome seems like heavy going, that may be because Paul so intensely wants us to hear his message: In baptism, everything changes, and that’s important! Baptism unites us with Christ so that we share in his death and resurrection. In baptism we symbolically “die” to our old life enslaved by sin. In baptism we are born to a new life, freed from sin through God’s abounding grace, dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus.
Gospel: Matthew 10:24-39
It’s not easy to follow Jesus. The Prince of Peace is bringing a sword? We have to leave our families behind? Well, context is important here. Remember that Matthew is writing in a time of Roman persecution, the destruction of the Temple, and angry rivalry as Jewish Christians and rabbinic Jews wrangled over Jesus’ status as Messiah. In those days, it could be not merely hard but dangerous to follow Jesus. But even in our times, Jesus calls us to give, not to take. That’s a challenge with great rewards.