Armadale Uniting Church

Sermon for 12th Sunday 

Abraham & the God of Mercy

Sermon for the 12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Martin Wright

Armadale Uniting Church, 22 June 2008

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

Contrary to a popular misconception, we can’t think of the Old Testament as the book of judgement, and the New Testament as the book of mercy.  The whole story of God and his people, Israel, Jesus Christ and the church, is one of both mercy and judgement.  If we scratch the surface of any part of the bible we’ll find both themes there.  We can’t separate the two; we can’t ever make do with just one or the other.  

If we try to be a people of all mercy and no judgement, our highest priority will be being accepting to everyone, and avoiding conflict at all costs, even if it means never standing up for what we believe in.  This is a mistake some churches make.  On the other hand, if we try to be a people of all judgement and no mercy, our faith will be reduced to a set of rules to live by, and there will be no room for forgiveness or the acceptance of people in spite of their sins.  This is a mistake some other churches make.  In today’s readings, perhaps contrary to our preconceptions, it’s the Old Testament that speaks most loudly of mercy, and the New Testament of judgement. 

The story of Ishmael helps us understand how God deals with those who don’t belong.  Remember that this child was born when Abraham and Sarah got tired of waiting for God to keep his promises, and decided to set about providing a future for themselves.  Unfortunately this created a problem when, in his own time, God did fulfil his promise, and the child Isaac was born to Sarah.  Now there were two sons, two heirs.  Sarah, watching the boys play together, realized that the elder Ishmael was a threat to her own son, and that she had to get rid of him to protect Isaac’s interests.  There’s more than just maternal pride at stake here—the promised future was to be brought about through Isaac.  The presence of the rival Ishmael puts the whole of God’s plan under threat. 

What is God to do?  This messy situation has been brought about by his own people’s unfaithfulness, leaving him with apparently just the two unpalatable options.  He can rob Isaac of some of his inheritance to provide for Ishmael, breaking faith with his promise; or he can let Ishmael and his mother Hagar die in the desert, making the innocent bear the penalty of others’ unfaithfulness. 

These at least are the only possibilities that can occur to Abraham and Sarah.  But instead of choosing either of these evils, God instead chooses to create something new, as yet unimagined.  He will make a new nation of Ishmael—not the nation of the promise, for that is to come through Isaac, but another, as yet unimagined nation.  Perhaps this was not part of the original plan, but faced with our unfaithfulness, God makes new plans.  He provides a future for those who seem to fall outside the promise, even those who seem to threaten it.  And to this day, the Arabic peoples still trace their descent from Abraham through Ishmael, just as we do through Isaac. 

On the other hand, we have read the words of Jesus spoken to his disciples as he sends them out on mission to the house of Israel, including the infamous words “I have come to bring not peace, but a sword”.  Hardly gentle Jesus, meek and mild.  Well we can say one thing up front—this is not a justification for using violence in the name of the Lord, however it may have been misread in the past.  It’s only a couple of chapters ago that Jesus told his disciples, if someone strikes you on one cheek, turn and offer them the other.  So if this is not a call to the arms of war, what is it?

When Jesus speaks about bringing a sword, he is talking about judgement, the division that occurs whenever the gospel is preached and he is named as Lord.  There will always be some who respond and some who do not.  And, as Jesus realizes, the fault-line will sometimes run through the middle of a family.  “I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother”—scandalous words.  Of course we have to bear in mind that they were written in an age of persecution, when sometimes you might just find your real mortal enemies in your family, the ones who denounce you to suffer and die.  But does that mean that in our more tolerant age these words are meaningless? 

Many, perhaps most of you gathered here today, have brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, parents and children, who do not participate in the church, maybe through lack of interest or because it’s too hard, or maybe because of a deliberate choice that they don’t want to subscribe to this creed.  In an ever-increasingly secular age, one of the most painful things for many Christians is to see those whom they love most turning their backs on God’s promises.  I have no panacea to deliver about this—the pain may simply be part of the cost of being disciples.  But there are a few things we can bear in mind. 

Firstly, we don’t know how God works in people’s hearts.  We have no idea how the seed planted by our words or our lives might be nurtured to bear fruit one day.  Secondly, we must never blame ourselves, because we can never respond on behalf of others.  We can’t force our loved ones to come to church.  Our business is to try to live faithfully and to trust that God will make use of that in the way he sees fit.  That is in fact all we can do—except, thirdly, that we must never stop praying and hoping for those we love, that God will find some way to move their hearts for the gospel.  This might feel a very unsatisfactory solution because it is so weak—prayer always is, so often we don’t see its results.  But weakness is part of what being Christian means.  We offer our weakness because God uses what is weak in the world to show his strength. 

There is one more important thing to remember, which we learn from the story of Ishmael.  Even those who seem to fall outside God’s promises do not in fact fall outside his mercy.  Even the enemies of the gospel, those who mock most loudly or hate most fiercely, are provided for by God.  We can make the messiest situation imaginable through our unfaithfulness, but God’s capacity to create new plans is never exhausted, and he will give a future even to those who don’t belong.  We can give up on God, but he will never give up on us.