Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 29, 2014

Juan de Valdés Leal, “Ecce Homo.”

Last week we heard God order Abraham to send his slave, Hagar, and their son, Ishmael, into the desert where they would surely die. Now the story gets even more shocking, as God commands Abraham to slay his beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice. What in Heaven’s name is going on here? Perhaps the easy answer is to recognize that these are these are ancient legends, difficult for us to understand in our own context. For the ancients, perhaps the outcome of this story showed that our God does not desire human sacrifice. As Christians, we may also see a God who loves us enough to sacrifice God’s own son … but then to say “no” to death.

Psalm: Psalm 13

At first glance, this Psalm might not seem the best choice to read to someone who is grieving or afraid. The Psalmist speaks from the depths of fear and loss, suffering deep pain. Has God’s face turned away, leaving him alone and defenseless? But even in this dark place, hope remains; for God’s love is steadfast and abiding. God has been just and fair, and the Psalmist trusts that God will remain so.

Second Reading: Romans 6:12-23

Paul takes the idea of slavery and turns it inside out to make his point today. Through Christian baptism we have been spared from the slavery of sin, freeing us to joyously embrace a better kind of slavery, the “enslavement” of willing submission to God through Christ. In this way, Paul writes to the people of Rome, we receive the free gift of grace that brings eternal life.

Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42

As we enter into the long Pentecost season this summer and fall, we will follow Jesus’s footsteps as they are described in the Gospel of Matthew. Today we hear Jesus telling his recently commissioned Apostles about the rewards of following his way. Immediately after his troubling warning that those who follow him must leave friends and family behind, Jesus now echoes the Psalmist’s promise that God will be just and fair. Jesus promises that those who practice justice in his name – even in such small ways as offering water to a child – will receive God’s justice.