Family Matters

6-25-17 (Proper 7/Ordinary 12A, Semi-Continuous)

Genesis 21:8-21; Matthew 10:24-39

Family Matters

  Take a second and try to think really hard with me - when is the last time you watched a television show that featured a functional family?  Personally, I had a hard time coming up with examples that really stood out.  The days seem to be long gone when we’d tune in to find out what kind of trouble The Beaver would get himself and Wally into, or when we’d sit with Jan and commiserate over the fear of how her classmates would think of her now that she has to wear glasses.  Since the dawning in popularity of shows like “All in the Family,” we’re far more likely to see families on TV demonstrating dysfunction than anything else. The Simpsons is coming up on its 29th year and looks to be going strong into its 30th, and one of its longest running “gags” (pun slightly intended) is that Homer is frequently trying to strangle Bart:

  The strange thing about these kind of family sit-com shows is that, no matter how much they may get on one another’s nerves, no matter how abrasive they might be to one another, when push comes to shove, at the end of the day they are more often than not still a family that ultimately loves one another.  As often as Homer gives in to the feelings that many of us begrudgingly admit we sometimes have as parents, he just as often comes rushing to Bart’s aid when it matters most.  As often as Archie Bunker called Edith a “dingbat” and called Michael Stivic “The Meathead,” he nevertheless cared so deeply for his family that there was never really any questioning of what kind of man he truly was.  We see this all too often even in the more visceral dramas out there where dysfunction is much more gritty, much more real - there’s no arguing at all that Walter White was a monster of a person in Breaking Bad… and yet, despite how depraved he becomes as the show goes on, the single thing that moved him down the dark path he traveled in the first place was his desire to make sure that his family was provided for above all else.

  And so, perhaps it’s that lack of pathos in the texts today that shocked me as much as it did - the story that leads up to Hagar’s situation is culturally shocking today, as it is: Sarah wants children so that Abraham can have an heir, and yet despite God’s promises to Abraham that he will be a father of a multitude, they’re not getting any younger and God seems to be taking God’s time with making good on that promise.  So Sarah instructs Abraham to go and have a child with their servant, Hagar.  We come into the story many years later, and now Abraham and Sarah have had their own son, Isaac, as well - and Sarah is worried about her little boy.  She sees Ishmael playing with Isaac - however you want to translate “playing,” whether you take the approach of some scholars who interpret this as roughhousing, bullying, or laughing, or the approach of other scholars, who suggest something a little less childlike and a little more violent - she sees Ishmael playing with Isaac and it gets her thinking.  Ishmael is also Abraham’s son, which potentially makes him a threat to Isaac - especially considering that Ishmael was born first.  Whether rightly or not, Sarah fears for her biological son - Ishmael is a perceived threat, and if Hagar were to get it into her mind that Ishmael should be the rightful heir, something could easily happen to Isaac.  And so Sarah demands that Abraham send the servant and their child away into the desert wilderness.  Hagar is given a loaf of bread and a skin of water, and then sent off to find her own way.

It’s a harsh situation, to say the least - the kind of dysfunction and drama that’s much more Breaking Bad than Brady Bunch - and then even as we turn to the Gospel to find something more positive, more hopeful for us… we’re encountered with even more dysfunction as Jesus proclaims that he is not there to bring peace but a sword, that he has come to set man against father, daughter against mother - that he has come to make foes into members of the household.  These are passages that would be much easier to pass over, to let someone else deal with, to just remind ourselves that “that was then, this is now” and that Matthew’s Gospel was written to a much different community.  After all, this doesn’t sound like the kind of God we preach on any other Sunday, does it?

The thing is - as dysfunctional as this kind of relationship - even this relationship with God - may come across, it’s only truly problematic when we realize that this kind of relationship is directly against what God designs and desires for each of us.  Everything that happens to Hagar and Ishmael as they are cast out into the wilderness comes about as a direct consequence of Sarah and Abraham being unable to put their complete and utter trust in the reality that God keeps God’s promises.  Ishmael is born because Sarah is more concerned with ensuring that Abraham has offspring than with trusting in God’s timing and promises.  He is cast out of Abraham’s household out of Sarah’s continued mistrust of God’s promises that Isaac will be the first of a great nation of people to come from Abraham’s lineage.  Because Sarah sees Ishmael as a threat, not to mention a reminder of her lack of trust in God… Ishmael is forced out.  And it’s this kind of division that think Jesus also speaks of when he says he does not come to bring peace but a sword.  The Gospel is something that, when taken seriously, calls us to radical lives lead in absolute dedication to Christ above all other things - when we say “Jesus is Lord,” it means we hold our allegiance to Christ over and above any and all other allegiances, whether to country, family, or creed.  That naturally means that we will encounter division and resistance in our journey as we find ourselves in opposition to people who are unwilling and/or unable to make that same leap of faith, to put that same level of trust in their Creator.  And what Jesus tells us is that, even as painful as it will be to place our ultimate trust in Him, we nevertheless put our trust in a God who knows the sacrifices we are being asked to make, and who ultimately values and cares for us even in our greatest time of need.

As Hagar sets Ishmael under a bush so that she does not have to watch her child die of thirst and hunger, God reminds her that even though the rest of the world does not seem to place any value upon her and her child, God nevertheless still does value them - and that because Ishmael is still a child of Abraham, he will be made into a nation of his own.  And as Hagar finds a spring of water suddenly in the midst of the desert, God continues to fulfill God’s promises to Abraham, even without Abraham even knowing it.  As God calls on us to put our faith and trust in God, God never promises us that this journey of faith will be an easy one - there will undoubtedly be times we feel that we find ourselves in desert wilderness, where we find ourselves dealing with hunger and thirst, even fearing for our lives and wondering what our fate could be.  And yet in the midst of all of this, God nevertheless promises us that God is still there with us, still caring for us and knowing us.  As the old hymn goes, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.”

God watches us and knows our every situation - God knows our struggles, and even more, knows every single hair on our heads.  And if God knows us that deeply, how can we do anything but trust in God that God knows what God is doing, and in the face of the story of God’s people and of how God has always kept God’s promises… how can we do anything but trust God with everything that we are, even as hard as it is for us to admit that this is exactly what we need to be doing?  The message of the Gospel divides us, to be sure - it can drive a wedge between families as people find themselves unwilling to make that leap of faith together - and yet at the same time, that same message that can act to divide people also unites us as we find support together as members of one body, one faith, one life and baptism in Christ.  May we ever find strength, not just in one another, but above all else in Christ - the one true God who has made us, known us, and loves us unconditionally.  To God be the Glory.  Amen.