God Provides

This sermon can be listened to here, and the whole service watched here

Gate Pa – 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year A – 2020

Harvest Festival

Readings:

Psalm -                        Psalm: 13                               

First Reading-             Genesis 22:1-4

Second Reading -        Rom 6:12-23          

Gospel -                        Matt 10:40-42         

What I want to say:

I want to explore the sin of not relying on God who provides, and the damage we do to our world, our communities and ourselves as a result

What I want to happen:

Where is the invitation for us in this harvest festival?

The Sermon

       1.     Introduction:

There are so many themes weaving their way though our readings

-         Horrific reading from Genesis – binding of Isaac

-         Romans – all about communal sin

-         Matthew and what it means to be an of the apostles

-         In all of this we are celebrating our harvest festival

-         How do we make sense of all this?

        2.     Akedah

Reading from Genesis is simply horrific

Enormous amount of wrestling with it within all three faith traditions

Hard story

Really difficult story

-         What kind of God would demand child sacrifice?

o   Even as a test?

-         What kind of father would agree?

o   Even if knew all work out fine in the end

Plays important role in all three faith traditions

* E.g. Islam

-         See rock in Dome of Rock as rock Ibrahim brought Ishmael to

* Judaism – again saw Mt Moriah as site of temple and holy of holies.

How each tradition reads this also varies

And in some ways reading shaped by how we see Isaac/Ishmael

-         Young boy, and Abraham strong healthy father

o   trusting his father as father seemed trust God

o   Islam emphasise faith and obedience of Ibrahim who is willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael

-         Older teenage boy and Abraham old man?

o   2nd century Christianity

§  Son who knew what was happening and could have walked away

§  Still carried wood on his shoulders

§  Carrying for his own sacrifice - to his own death

§  Acts as precursor to Jesus

Story set in world where child sacrifice was not uncommon

-         Later kings of Israel would be willing to sacrifice one of their sons

-         They could gain favours of gods

-         What every other ruling family in area did to keep power

In this context what Abraham is asked to do is not so outrageous

But still horrific

One ways this understood over years

-         This is story that makes it clear that people of God do not need to do as other peoples do

-         Do no need sacrifice their children

-         Child sacrifice is not to be tolerated

-         Most importantly

o   That God is present

o   That God will provide

o   God will always provide

        3.     Harvest

Really important message for us in our harvest festival

As said before

a. Opportunity to reconnect with our past

            important event life their communities

b. harvest festival provides opportunity to give thanks

            joy gardening

            harvest that our labours have reaped

            simple joy in growing things in own land

            being able eat what we have grown

            today we give thanks for that

c. gives us a chance to think about all those who work the land

            famers, orchardists

            many people work for them

            people work in pack houses and other supporting industries

people work companies support them – research, sales and export, banks

all those work around supermarkets

As we do all that it is important, we remember this message from Akedah

Kathryn M. Schifferdecker says “The story of the akedah makes a claim on us: All that we have, even our own lives and those of the ones most dear to us, belong ultimately to God, who gave them to us in the first place. The story of the akedah assures us that God will provide, that God will be present.”[1]

In all that we celebrate today

We celebrate God’s goodness and generosity towards us.

       4.     Matthew

Invitation in all this to live out our thankfulness for God’s generosity and presence

-         in our individual lives,

-         and in our life as a community.

Today’s gospel reading from Matthew offers slightly different dimension

is end of Jesus instructions to apostles

Apostle not highfalutin title

Simple meant “those who are sent”

This week return to themes Jesus began with

Being sent with nothing meant being dependant on the welcome of others

Invited those who were sent to grow different kinds of relationships that were normal at that time

Relationships that conveyed God’s generosity and presence to all that they met

Theme in all this is welcome

-         Welcoming others

-         Being welcomed

o   And accepting that welcome

Many us experienced welcome in some very different ways over lockdown

-         Speaking to people not spoken to before

-         Offering or accepting welcome in new ways

o   Developing new relationships

-         Others struggled not being able to welcome people

-         Others relied on welcome of others

Underlying this idea of welcome is how we see other people

-         In Jesus instructions is idea that the apostles,

o   and through them we

-         become envoys or representatives of sending God

-         living God’s presence and generosity for all we meet.

-         On this harvest festival Sunday

-         Celebrate God’s goodness, God’s generosity, God’s presence

One commentator wondered

What would happen if we truly believed that we bear the presence of Christ to every person we encounter, in every home, workplace, or neighbourhood we enter?

What would happen if we saw every conversation as an opportunity to speak words of grace,

every interaction as an opportunity to embody Christ's love for the neighbour?[2]

       5.     Big Picture

Finally, on this harvest festival

I wonder what would happen if we took this attitude into our choices about what we buy and where we buy it

Do we live in a way that in our choices we convey God’s presence, God’s generosity to all

-         Do we buy from stores that pay their staff well?

-         Do we buy products that have ethical supply lives?

-         Do we buy products that are grown in ways that are sustainable and not damaging planet?

-         Where is the invitation for us in this harvest festival?

 

 

 

 



[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3279

[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4482

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