Proper 7, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Proper 7, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Genesis 21:8-21 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Romans 7:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
There is enough blessing to go around.
There is enough blessing to go around…
like, really…there is!
I am starting this morning’s homily with my bottom line
because I wonder what it would be like if this were how we started every day:
if we entered every interaction with the knowledge that there is enough blessing to go around?
Let’s take a look at today’s story from Genesis.
There might have been much less anguish for everyone had blessing been acknowledged.
God had come to Abram and Sarai and promised them blessing…
that the families of the earth would be blessed through them.
Yet, in their impatience Sarah suggested that Abraham have a child with his slave woman.
And lo and behold, Hagar bore Abraham a son.
Then Sarah gets pregnant (as God had promised), and she bears Abraham a son, Isaac.
In today’s story Isaac is old enough to be weaned,
and Abraham throws a great feast to celebrate.
At the party Sarah sees that Isaac is playing with Hagar and Abraham’s son,
so she calls Abraham over and says,
“Cast out this slave soman with her son;
for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.”
I guess she forgot that the existence of this boy was her idea in the first place.
It seems that perhaps jealousy or a sense of pride or arrogance has overtaken Sarah.
Sarah cannot extend her own sense of blessing to Hagar,
and that is tragic.
Abraham is distressed at the thought of banishing Hagar and Ishmael, his own son.
So, Hagar,
having been sent into the wilderness with nothing but bread and a skin of water,
which have run their course,
is rightfully distraught at the apparent imminence of her own child’s death.
She places him under a bush
so that he has some protection from scorching heat and wild animals,
and then she walks far enough so as not to be able to see him there and weeps.
Both child and mother are weeping,
and God hears their voices.
God brings Hagar comfort in her despair,
and through this comfort,
she is able to see a well of water that she had missed in her pain.
Each person in this story suffers deeply
because no one can see there is enough blessing for everyone!
Now, I recognize that I am preaching to myself this morning,
yet I wonder if the world is not in the pickle it’s in
because we cannot seem to live out of the reality that there is enough blessing for all.
As I sat reflecting on this lack of the sense of blessing,
I looked out my window to see the garden we’ve been working on.
My eyes fell upon a dwarf bee balm that has bloomed in the recent rain.
I chose the bee balm because it’s a great pollinator
AND because the red color would look lovely next to the purple and pink flowers nearby.
However, the bee balm turns out to have hot pink blooms.
And I’m sitting there irritated because they aren’t red!
What?!
I am blessed to have our house and garden and bee balm (the blessings of which I’m missing)
because I wish the blooms were red!
It’s a small example of missing the blessing
but shows how easy it is to go astray.
I then began to wonder about missing other blessings…
like holding a grudge because someone didn’t apologize to me about something years ago
and missing years of a friendship.
We’ve all heard those stories!
The generations of two families who have not spoken to each other because of some feud
that the youngest generation can’t even recall.
They just know they can’t talk to that neighbor or that side of the family!
There is enough blessing to go around;
We need not horde life…there is enough.
Could God have not blessed Abraham and Sarah and Isaac
as well as Abraham and Hagar and Ishmael if Hagar and her son had stayed?
I bet so!
Yet, because of jealousy and wanting the blessing to be “contained,”
Sarah caused a great deal of pain and anguish,
including for herself.
Sin…that which brings about brokenness between self and God,
self and neighbor,
and self and self…
took precedence in Sarah’s actions over God’s blessing.
God did indeed bless everyone in this story
because God is God,
and God will continue to bless despite our missteps.
In Paul’s letter to the Church at Rome, he asks the question:
“Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?”
In other words, do we just give in to sin because God is so gracious?
Well, he says, by no means!
In our baptism we are buried with Christ in his death
so that we, too, might walk in newness of life.
So that we, too, might walk in blessing and abundance of life.
In reality, we walk in both realms:
the realm of sin and death
AND the realm of Grace and blessing.
The question that arises from these texts is:
Where do we begin?
These texts suggest that having been united with Christ in our baptism,
we begin by living as if we stand fully in the realm of Grace and blessing –
not because this is our hope
but because this is our reality!
There is enough blessing for everyone!
Some years ago I had a friend who used to walk for miles every day.
As she walked, she’d pick up coins she found lying on the ground,
and when she got home, she’d put them in a jar.
I was talking with her one day about a woman at my church who was trying to live on her disability income but was coming up short.
So, my friend rolled $80 worth of nickels and sent me the money to help this woman.
Now, my friend was not wealthy and could have used this money,
yet she realized that there is enough blessing to go around!
There are many such stories in this congregation of the sharing of blessing…
Sally shares her chickens’ eggs.
Andrew shares the gift of his knowledge of physical movement
to help others have better balance and move with more ease and less pain.
Numerous people share their time and cars to give rides to others to get to the doctor or church.
People share their money and talents to help our church engage in ministry.
People care for their grandchildren
or share flowers or fruits from their gardens.
Villary shares her wood and nails and paint and skills to make repairs around our buildings.
I really could go on with this list for a very long time.
We are people who live with many blessings.
When we listen to the news and hear narratives of jealousy and greed and hatred,
those narratives can draw us in,
and we can forget there is enough blessing for everyone.
The Good News is that God offers redemption, abundant life, and blessing to all.
We are invited to live out of our abundance,
shining Christ’s Light in a world that all too often seems full of darkness.
So, where do we begin?
We begin with the sure and certain knowledge that there is enough blessing for all!
Amen.
