Proper 11

Old Testament Texts

The Old Testament texts for this Sunday explore the question of whether anything is too difficult for God. This question is central to the story of Sarah’s miraculous birth in Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7, while Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 is a song of thanksgiving, which celebrates the fact that indeed nothing is beyond God’s reach.

The Lesson: Genesis 18:1-15 (21:1-7)

Is Anything Too Difficult for God?

Setting The Old Testament lesson for this Sunday is a familiar miracle story about the birth of Isaac. Nevertheless, its setting in the larger context of the book of Genesis may help to see more clearly how this is a story about God and Sarah, which focuses on the question of whether God is reliable. The promise of an heir frames the ancestral stories in Genesis. It is introduced in Genesis 12:14 and remains the central organizing theme throughout Genesis. The Old Testament lesson for this Sunday must be read in the light of this larger promise of God, for the advanced age of Abraham and Sarah call into question God’s reliability. Furthermore, as we will see more clearly in the section on Significance, this is not a story about Abraham, rather it is a story about Sarah, which sketches first her private unbelief, its unmasking by God, and finally her affirmation of God’s miracle in the birth of Isaac. The transformations that take place in Sarah provide the setting for her final words in 21:6-7, which provide us with an answer to the question of whether anything is too difficult for God.

Structure Genesis 18:1-15 (and 21:1-7) can be read very easily as a single story, which separates into two main sections, each of which subdivides further into two smaller episodes. The first section is an introduction for the main story of Sarah and God, which takes place in the second section.

Significance Notice how the story is structured to alternate between a narrative that provides a setting for speeches and the actual discourse by different characters. It is the speeches that carry the message of the story, especially the speeches between Sarah and God in the second part. The introduction in 18:1-10a provides a setting for Sarah to take centre stage. In the initial meeting at the door of the tent in 18:13, Abraham is not even named. His function in this story is to recognize the divine status of the three guests and to invite them to dinner, which provides transition to Sarah since she prepares a meal for the three divine guests. The centrality of Sarah to this story is confirmed when the three guests initiate speech at the close of the meal in vv. 9-10a. Abraham is not the object of their interests; rather it is Sarah, and they ask where she is and then state that she will become pregnant and have a child in the Spring. The speech by the three divine guests (who then become God in v. 10a) closes the introduction.

The central section of the story consists of Genesis 18: 10b-15 and 21:1-7. The first of the two episodes begins in v. 10b-11 by locating Sarah and thus providing a setting for her speech. We learn that she was listening, that she is alone, and that she is well past menopause. A complex sequence of speeches follows. First, Sarah demonstrates her unbelief by laughing privately over this seemingly ridiculous promise in v. 12. The motif of laughing remains central to the rest of the story because in Hebrew it is the name of Isaac. Second, God asks Abraham in vv. 13-14 why Sarah is laughing and then poses the central question to the story: Is there anything that is too difficult for God? The Hebrew could just as well read: Is there any miracle that God cannot perform? Third, Sarah, who has been secretly listening, now realizes that her unbelief has been unmasked, so she lies in v. 15, which doesn’t impress God. The story ends in 21:1-7. Verses 1-5 provide a new setting. We learn that a child was indeed born and that he was named Isaac (laughter). The new setting creates the context for one last discourse, which of course must be from Sarah, since this is really her story. Like her first speech in v. 12, she once again appears to be alone, but her discourse is no longer a private rumination. Instead it seems to be directed outward to any one who may care to listen to her, and she has two things to say. First, she states that she is the object of her own joke by punning on the word laughter, for her laughter of disbelief is now laughter of belief as she breast-feeds an infant named Laughter (Isaac). Second, she ends her speech with a rhetorical question, which would appear to require an answer from us, the readers of her story: Who would have thought that God could produce such a miraculous birth?

The Response: Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

Giving God the Thanks

Setting Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 is a thanksgiving song of the individual. Such songs recount a past crisis, but from the experience of having been rescued. The song, therefore, is meant to recount God’s salvation of the one singing, but it is directed to the whole community of faith, which is invited to join in the celebration.

Structure In some versions, Psalm 116:1-9 is a separate psalm from vv. 10-19, although it is not in the Masoretic text. The entire psalm can be outlined in the following manner:

Significance The words of the psalmist, with their movement from past crisis to the present experience of salvation, could very well function as the words of Sarah at the end of her song. Furthermore, the setting of the individual song of thanksgiving, with its focus on the whole community of faith, also provides a parallel to the end of Sarah’s story, where her final speech is really directed to the reader. Both the end of the story in Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7 and Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 provide focus for preaching, because they invite the worshipping congregation to claim the transformation in the character of Sarah from unbelief to belief as affirmation of their own faith in God’s ability to save.

New Testament Texts

As we move into ordinary time, we return to Romans and Matthew. The passages in the lessons for this and the following weeks are but selected sequential readings, so that whatever thematic correlations one perceives may be deliberate, accidental, or creatively imagined!

The Epistle: Romans 5:1-8

From Weakness to the Strength of Salvation

Setting Romans 5: 1 – 11 was the epistle reading for the third Sunday in Lent in Year A. The following commentary is in part a repetition of the entry for that Sunday.

The dominant concern of chapters 5-8 is the life of the Christian community, especially in its experience of grace. The foregoing chapters were concerned with the righteousness of God and the sin of humankind, Jews and Gentiles, law and faith; and these themes were developed through a series of exegetical arguments. A turn from theological juxtapositions and exegetical explanations began in 4:23-25, and now in chapter 5 we find Paul meditating overtly on the nature and significance of Christian existence in this world. The previous polemic and dialectic yields to a celebration of grace that is essentially straightforward.

Structure The passage has two complementary parts. Verses 1-5 declare our (let us stand with the Romans and not at a distance) justification and expand upon that theme. Verses 6-8 elucidate the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death for our lives.

Significance One is sorely tempted to do a series of word studies in relation to this passage, since it is loaded with significant theological terminology. Such a tactic may unpack much of the meaning of this text, but it will also render Paul’s thinking fairly static, whereas in fact he is expressing the dynamic quality of Christian life in these verses. Thus we need to create a sense of motion that will impart some of Paul’s own energy to our congregations when reflecting on this passage.

Paul starts with the present, saying that we are justified by faith (literally, Paul speaks spatially, not instrumentally, saying “we are justified out of faith”). Being justified in theological terms is like being justified in typing or printing; it means that everything has been set into a proper line. Christians are neither ragged-right nor ragged-left, we are justified. Actually, we have been justified because God has set us into the right relationship with God’s self through Jesus Christ. Thus, our justification is grace! This good news puts us at peace, because, Paul says, we have (through being justified) access to grace. But this experience of the goodness of God is neither static nor complete! For the apostle immediately talks of our hope. Hope is related to our future, which has been created by the gracious work of God in Jesus Christ. For Paul, this scheme is far from “possibility thinking”; rather, it is “reality living.” So Paul continues his meditation by bringing us all down into the swamps of life-suffering. Yet look how Paul can speak of suffering. He does not deny its reality. He does not glorify it. Instead he puts a good face on it by relating it to endurance and character-building. Oddly, the outcome of our suffering, which produces endurance and builds character, is that we hope.

Paul has taken us for a ride in a logical loop: We rejoice in our hope allowing us to rejoice in our suffering, which yields endurance and increases character and produces hope. Christian existence, created by grace, is set in motion after hope, which is not yet fully realized but which is already present in a preliminary way. Paul says we live as we do because God’s own love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Paul continues by speaking of our past. He says we were weak. By this he means that we were formerly ungodly, we were sinners, our lives were not lived in obedience to God’s will. But perhaps because he has already devoted significant attention to our sinfulness (Romans 1: 18-3:20), Paul does not ponder that matter here. Instead, with the time and space of our ungodly past evoked, Paul drops God’s saving work in Jesus Christ into our midst. Then we move back to the present, and Paul once again declares our current status by saying that now we are justified by the death of Jesus Christ. The apostle is not interested in explaining how Christ’s death justifies us; rather, he wishes to remark on the marvellously unmerited character of God’s love. Though we did not deserve it, nevertheless God’s love is so great that it did for us what we could not do for ourselves-it justified us!

A sermon could well begin with reflection on the marvellous character of God’s unmerited saving love. From there it could move to consider “our reconciliation” (vv. 10-11), which is justification and hope. Perhaps this theme could be developed by reversing Paul’s order. Speaking of our future in Christ can be made “real” by concluding with reflection on present Christian life as those who are justified. Being justified means that our lives have been set in line with the will of God, so that now we are set up by God to live in obedience to God’s will.

The Gospel: Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)

Calling and Training Shepherds

Setting Matthew presents the account of Jesus’ ministry (11-26: 1 a) in five recognizable sections, each ending with a version of the formula, “And when Jesus finished these sayings . . .” The Gospel for this Sunday comes in the second major section, Matthew 8:1-11:1, which tells of the ministry in Galilee. The first part of this section, 8:1-9:34, is a unit of narrative that tells of the activities of Jesus, including several miracle stories. Then 9:35-11:1 changes the focus. This portion of the larger section opens with a notice of Jesus’ compassion and quickly records Jesus’ message to the twelve prior to sending them to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Structure We can distinguish three large sub-sections in the full text for this Sunday. Matthew 9:35-38 reports Jesus’ compassion for the crowds as he went about doing ministry. Then 10: 1-4 tells of Jesus’ authorizing the twelve, and it records their names. Finally 10:5-23 forms a collection of Jesus’ instructions to the disciples as he sent them out in ministry. Any one of these sections could serve as a text for preaching. Indeed, there are a dozen or more potential texts in the materials in 10:5-23. Some focusing may prove necessary, because otherwise one confronts the difficulty of expressing a kaleidoscope of ideas in the limited time set aside for preaching.

Significance In the broadest sense, this lesson is about compassion, commission, and conditions for mission. A sermon that would be more topical than expository (though related to the “sense” of the text) could work with these themes.

Matthew 9:35 essentially repeats Matthew 4:23, so that we gain no new information from this report of Jesus’ activity. However, in the observations in vv. 36-38, we learn about the character of the ministry. First, the ministry was motivated by compassion. The crowds were genuinely needy, and Jesus cared for them. Second, Jesus had a sense of eschatological urgency in doing his work, and he communicates the pressure of the moment to his disciples. The time for extending the grace of God in work and deed to those in need is now, not “one of these days.”

The authority that the disciples had for their work was given to them by Jesus. This authorization was not, however, like being tagged in a game of chase. It was not that once Jesus was “It” and now the disciples are. The Twelve were not left to run frantically by themselves. We cannot read this commissioning story in isolation from the Gospel in which it occurs. A glance at the ending of the Gospel, which gives us the final commissioning story (last week’s lesson), tells us that authority, in fact, resides with Christ. The risen Jesus empowers disciples for ministry and remains with them as the source of their direction and strength. In this manner, the disciples become Christ to others, and that is what it means to be faithful followers.

The collection of instructions in vv. 5-23 preserves a combination of time-bound traditions and “timeless truth,” having mixed value for proclamation. For example, the historically specific recollection of the originally limited scope of Christ’s mission in vv. 5-6 is more a matter for Bible study and the reconstruction of early Christian history than for preaching; but the pointed instructions in vv. 9- 10 continue to remind us both that ministers are worthy of their pay and that, ultimately, the one who calls and commissions makes provisions for those who faithfully execute their callings. Similarly, the passage, which is cast as prophecy in vv. 16-20, contains information about the difficult conditions in which the earliest disciples laboured, and it gives a strong word of encouragement for disciples who are facing difficulties in any era. These lines promise both stubborn human resistance and sufficient divine support for Christ’s ministers.

For preaching, it may be necessary to focus deliberately on some sections of the text and to ignore judiciously other material. In turn, it may be helpful to create an abstract statement of the contents of the passage(s) which, without historical particularity, will govern the content and shape of the sermon.

Proper 11: The Celebration

Today’s Gospel raises for us the interesting question of ministry and identity. The other Gospels list the apostles at the time of their calling (Mark 3; Luke 6), but Matthew makes the list at the point of their commissioning to proclaim the coming kingdom. They are identified with the work that Jesus gives them to do, rather than with some privileged relationship that they have with him on a private, personal basis. This identification can help make some sense of the old custom of naming a child formally at baptism, because baptism marks the beginning of a Christian’s ministry. It is easier to understand why the pope takes a new name at his election, for that name will forever be identified with the form and content of his papal ministry, for better, for worse. The expanded form of the Old Testament lesson has to do with naming and its significance. Isaac means “laughter,” and so he will be always a reminder to his mother of her laughing disbelief and God’s faithfulness. What kind of ministry do our names express individually? What kind of ministry does our church’s name express in our community?

God’s faithfulness, which is testified to in the Genesis lesson, is seen to be constant in Matthew, as the apostles are sent to “the lost sheep of the house of the Israel” and not to the Gentiles or the Samaritans. Preachers may need to help congregations understand this seeming exclusivity by distinguishing between the initial ministry to Israel prior to the Resurrection and the new ministry to all the world made possible by the Paschal victory. The agenda for ministry in today’s Gospel has therefore become the Church’s agenda in the world.

The epistle speaks of the length to which God’s faithfulness will go: the God who gives a son to Sarah gives his own Son so that the world’s weeping may be turned into laughter. This is the faithfulness of love, which is true passion that is willing to suffer and die for the beloved. This is not a sentimental, romantic love mistakenly thought to be everyone’s right from God, a condition of the created order; it is a costly love that goes forth to give in the face of rejection, a love unmerited, undeserved by the beloved. And being so loved by such a faithful God, dying with Christ in baptism, we rise from the waters with laughter on our lips as we go to carry that message to the world.