St. Paul's On-the-Hill Episcopal Church

The Rev. Stephen C. Holton, Rector

6 Pentecost; June 22, 2008

Genesis 21:8-21

Matthew 10:24-39

OTHER PEOPLE, OTHER STORIES, OTHER CRIES

God's Personal Love for Us . . . Each

Welcome to Family Values Sunday . . . Scripture style. Not what we normally hear about.

A week after Fathers' Day, we celebrate the day when the Father of all faith put his son and his first wife out into the desert to die because the boy's presence upset the family atmosphere.

About a month after Mothers' Day, we celebrate the day when the Mother of all faith put out into the desert her foster son, whom she had caused to be born after giving her slave woman to Abraham; now that she herself has been blessed with a child. Forget being thankful that all children come from God – not when it interferes with property rights and inheritance and favoritism.

Happy Mothers' Day. Happy Fathers' Day. The Bible does not, after all, look to be a place where one goes for family values.

And then Jesus weighs in on how divisive he plans to be. If families have hung together in a divisive world, he plans to drive them apart.

So why do we have this story of Ishmael? In this book of the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the Bible – why Ishmael, Abraham's other son? Why this brief parenthesis about this other family, this other nation, when the readers of this book and the followers of this religion are most concerned about their own religion, their own family, their own nation?

Maybe that is why – to break this self-centered concern; to show that while we might be concerned about ourselves, and while we might hope that God is concerned about us too; we need to know that God is concerned about other people too, not just us; other people, other strangers, other enemies.

And so, for almost a chapter, we are told about how God – who still cares and will care for the children of Abraham and Sarah, through Isaac – also cares about the rejected child of Abraham; how he also cares for Ishmael and Hagar, and makes of . . . Ishmael a mighty nation, like he does with Isaac's children. We may not know any more about Ishmael and his children. He may fade from our history and our story. He does not fade from God's story. God remains a part of his story. God gives life and blessing to his story, just as he does with ours.

And then, once we have been shown how much God cares for these other people – even to providing water in the desert as he will to the Children of Israel later in their history when they escape from Egypt – once we have been shown that God cares for these other people too; its back to us.

Its back to our story and God, our major concern after all, but only once we've been shown we're not God's only concern, we're not God's only children, we're not the only ones he turns to in our distress.

God has told Abraham about his plans for Ishmael when Abraham feels distress. God provides water to Hagar and Ishmael when they cry out in distress. God will provide for us too, and has, in our distress. That's our history.

God responds to all who call upon him.

This is something we need to know in our present day. It is a blessing that the people of Israel preserved this story of Ishmael. For it reminds us, when we are at war – as Israel was at war with the Ishmaelites, it reminds us when we see a stranger, it reminds us when we have a neighbor, or an enemy – that God is with them too, especially when they call upon him in their distress, especially when their distress is brought upon them by us.

God has a personal relationship with so many people. And he doesn't particularly care what we think of each other. He loves each of us with his infinite love.

He is capable of that love, an infinite amount of personal love.

And then those of us who remain back home with Abraham, in the family religion with Abraham carry on, just as assured of that ongoing personal love as those who have been cast out, whom we may have cast out; for we are assured, with Abraham, that even if we did so because of events beyond our control or because of our own weakness, God remains strong. God remains loving. God remains caring. God can do so much – and will do so much – that we cannot do.

And then we get to Jesus' time. And then we are the ones who are cast out, out of our beloved religion and institution, out of our beloved family of faith, our beloved spiritual home.

The disciples have clearly come to Jesus, afraid of being called children of Beelzebul, afraid of going to hell, afraid of the label the institution has given them, afraid of being called blasphemers and sinners – as Ishmael and Hagar must have been afraid of Abraham and Sarah.

Jesus says – don't worry. What did you expect?

But don't be afraid of their labels. They're just the official institution. And God does love them. But God loves you too. Choose him. Love him too, not just them. Love God, not the religion.

And God will follow you into the desert, the way he followed Ishmael and Hagar into the desert, the way he followed the Children of Israel into the desert, and into Exile years later.

God is a God of exiles and pilgrims, and of settled folk too. We tear ourselves apart for fear that God loves one more than another and we believe we must grab for his scarce blessings and throw others out.

But God is big enough to bless both, even if we hate one another. God is big enough to bless both, and weeps when one is cast out by another, but still blesses both, loves both, cares for both.

It is well that we remember that.

And when some traveler comes to tell us of his story, it is well that we remember that God has been a part of that story too, a part of that family, that nation.

And when we step forward to tell our story, though we have been a part of this family, this spiritual home for some time, it is well to remember that God has been with us too!

God is the God of all peoples, whatever those peoples have done to each other. When they cry out to him, when they reach their wits end after having been cast out, or after casting another person out as Abraham did; when we reach our wits end, we reach God's beginning, and he can form us and help us and make us a great nation and a great beginning.

Our ending is always God's beginning. Our division is God's diversity. When we reach out in love to those who have long been absent from us, to those from whom we have long been absent, we form a new story.

Then we have one story; with One God – for we believe in One God. Then we will become one, loving people. That will be a story God wants to hear.