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Genesis.19-34; Psalm 119.105-112; Romans 8.1-11; Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23
A sermon preached by the Reverend Linda Harrison
This morning we have two striking images of the contrast between barrenness and abundance. First, Isaac and Rebekah are barren. The promise of a great nation is dead; there is crisis because there is no future, no hope, and no Hebrew people. Then, just as suddenly as all hope dies, there is abundance: a promise fulfilled in the numerous descendents who make up the Hebrew people from Jacob who is the son of Rebekah and Isaac. Second, images of seed scattered on barren, rocky soil that wither and die on the one hand, while on the other, seed scattered onto fertile soil that yields an abundant crop! A normal yield would have been about seven-fold; yet Jesus speaks of yields as much as a hundred-fold. Barrenness and abundance.
God's absence versus God's presence. A life lived according to the ways of this world, according to the flesh, or one lived according to God's ways, living in the Spirit.
The so-called gospel of prosperity is very seductive: living a life of abundance as evidence of God's grace. However, I am nearly certain—I would love to say I am positive, but that would be hubris on my part—so, I am nearly certain that the message of the myriad of authors of the Bible is not one of material abundance. I have yet to hear a preacher of the "prosperity gospel" tackle First Timothy 6.9-10: "But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains" (emphasis added). Yes, I am nearly certain that the message is not one of material abundance. It would seem that the epistle teaches that the love of and active pursuit of material abundance can in actuality lead to barrenness.
Striking imagery: life according to God's ways or life shaped by values and standards that are in rebellion to God's ways. Values and standards that define a person's societal worth by the size of a person's house and the neighborhood in which it is situated, a person's job title or type of work, and how many toys a person can buy for the children.
At times, our world is barren, as if there is no future. Like Isaac and Rebekah, barrenness threatens the future of humanity. War, genocide, racial strife and tensions, hunger, human induced environmental catastrophes, homelessness, child abuse all splash across the front pages of our daily newspapers. We wonder, "Where is God in all this?" Where indeed is the abundance that God promised?
Recent news stories about the District's school system and conversations with friends who work in the public school system in Montgomery County have turned my thoughts to the condition of public education in America. Teachers not only fight bureaucracy and inane, arbitrary testing standards, but also their students' resigned attitudes towards violence in their homes, school, and communities. It is a sad state of affairs when middle school teachers are fearful of their students and gang violence in the school. I will not touch the topics of the rise of drug use among elementary-aged students, or the way middle school aged students define and view sexual behavior. Schools, like any other institution, point to the symptoms of our barren society. Institutions sharply focus what is going on in society at large. There is a yearning for more, an imperceptible awareness that something is missing and a desperate grasping to fill the void. Frankly, God is missing. Yet, many people grasp for things and possessions or destructive behavior to fill the void, rather than turn to the Divine.
Now, hear me clearly: I am not advocating a return of public prayer, or any kind of prayer, in schools. Public prayer is often empty and self-righteous, like the prayers contrasted in the parable found in Luke 18.9-14 about the Pharisee and tax collector. There is no doubt that the Divine is missing, but God is not missing from institutions because God is not an institutional deity. Our God is a personal God who wishes to be in relationship. God is missing from individual lives.
God invites us to invite God into our lives. Like Rebekah and Isaac, we do not have the resources or the capability to generate our own future outside of God. When Rebekah and Isaac turned to God, God was there and the promise and hope in the future flourished. Turning to God in times of personal barrenness or crisis does not mean there will be no more crises. Living a life according to the Spirit does not mean hard times, adversity, or misfortune will never show up on your doorstep. Yes, Isaac and Rebekah prayed in the crisis of their barrenness and Rebekah conceived what would become two nations. What this story tells us is that when we invite God into our lives, and specifically into our barrenness or that situation that seems to hold no hope for a future, God can take that situation and make it look very differently for us. Travelling with God does not guarantee an uneventful or smooth journey in this life; it does ensure that when the bumps or the tribulations come, we need view them as the end, as if there were no future available. Why? Because living according to the Sprit means we live in the promises of God's hope—and God's hope means there is always a future!
The story of Isaac and Rebekah is a powerful metaphor for the abundance of God's grace in our lives! The story of Isaac and Rebekah points to the abundance of hope and mercy that God offers daily; it points to the abundance of future.
Our personal relationship with God makes us fertile soil for seeds of God's hope cast within us. Those seeds take root and thrive. Our yield can be a hundred-fold. That is when the matter becomes public, but never institutional. Our communal worship here at Saint Hildegard's fosters that personal relationship with God. We take that home and further deepen our relationship with private moments with God in prayer or meditation. That is when we take our God to the public sphere, sharing God's great love and glorious mercy. That is when we take our sixty-fold or hundred-fold harvest and begin to scatter the seeds of God's grace that thrived, matured, and ripened within us.
I have said it before, many times, and I will continue to say it: Your walk with God is individual, but it is never private. We are Christian in community. Your walk with God, your ability to invite God into the barrenness of your life, heart, or soul enables you to reap a bountiful harvest: the ability to envision a future despite the travesty. With such bounty, such abundance, how could you not scatter the seeds of hope, compassion, and mercy? How could you not want to share God's harvest with the world and encourage the world to do likewise? May it be so.
Amen.
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