Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
The stories this week in Genesis and Matthew go to the heart of our relationships with one another, within our families and as a church family. There is no comfortable place for us where we can retreat as we reflect on what happened in the Genesis story with Sarah, Hagar, Abraham, and their sons Ishmael and Isaac; and then with Jesus, his disciples and their families and the family of God.
Hagar is named in the Hebrew scriptures who is an Egyptian slave given by Sarah to Abraham to bear his child as his concubine. Hagar had a son and he was called Ishmael. However, Sarah subsequently had a child by Abraham. Sarah becomes jealous and unyielding in wanting the evidence of Abraham and Hagar’s relationship removed, as she seeks to protect her own son’s future inheritance. Abraham eventually agrees, accepting the patriarchal pressures, family laws and prioritisation of the legitimate child in the ordering of the law and in his family. He evicts Hagar from the family and sends her into the desert with the child Ishmael, no longer being responsible or accountable for their wellbeing.
Hagar and her son in their grief and terror, find themselves talking with God who speaks directly with them. They learn about God’s plans for them both, and without any other options, Hagar chooses to trust God. Their world has tipped one way because of a weak man and a fearful woman; then God tips them another way as God saves them, protects them and gives them a new future.
In the second story, in Matthew’s Gospel (10:24-39) Jesus talks about the value of each person in God’s sight, knowing everyone is loved, but Jesus points to the choices we have in response to God’s love for us. He reminds us acknowledging God as a disciple carries life changing consequences. Jesus describes the division this choice causes; and it is as if he was carrying a sword, as he brings God’s peace. We recognise the difference between God’s peace and the world’s peace, which is brought by violence, and is never permanent. Jesus’ radical ideas and words are shocking. He says following him will set father and son, daughter and mother, and mother-in-law and daughter-in-law against each other. In other words, our enemies will be in our own homes. Jesus invites us in spite of all this, to trust and love God more than anything else in our lives.
We are reminded we must love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds and with all our strength. And a second commandment is like this: we must love our neighbour as ourselves!
So where does this leave us and our understanding of how we live with our families, friends and neighbours. Many families today find themselves created from different races, nationalities, faiths, abilities and sexualities. We are not a monocultural community. We are diverse, interesting, and challenging. This means our capacity to see only difference is enormous, but when people deliberately seek division, we are called to respond very differently; we are invited to welcome each person with love, and deep listening.
Mary Sumner, the founder of the Mothers’ Union, saw these issues very clearly 150 years ago. Mary was married to a Church of England clergyman. In 1876, when she became a grandmother, Mary’s passionate awareness of the importance of positive support for mothers and their children, the need for good parenting and raising children in a Christian environment, were all brought together as she established the Mothers’ Union. Mary’s vision included women from all social and economic classes with a common purpose of providing support for one another, for women, children and families, helping one another both in the home and in their communities. She established the idea of women as leaders in the home and the community, and for all children, girls and boys to be educated and raised in loving homes. She fought the impact of economic abuse, as she daily encountered the impact of poverty on people’s livelihoods as people were imprisoned for debt and crimes because of poverty, together with the complexity of family dynamics and the capacity of weary poor women to raise healthy children in a faith filled environment when infant mortality was high. Her vision for women, children and families crossed gender, economic, religious and political boundaries.
Mary encountered many of the issues which are raised in the bible readings today: broken relationships, slavery, family violence and abuse, adultery and infidelity, imprisonment, oppression, women’s health and the issues of structural economic poverty dividing families. Into all this she brought faith in God’s love, education in justice, and trust in God’s dream for each of us.
In seven short years, the Mothers’ Union went from being a single parish-based ministry led by the vicar’s wife….to having branches established in eight countries across 28 dioceses with 60,000 members and with Queen Victoria as its patron. Any modern business would be proud of such expansion! The first Australian branch began in 1892 and the first branch in the Diocese of Brisbane was in Milton in 1904. Today, the MU has both women and men members and it is active in 84 countries and has 4 million members. Its priorities continue to support diverse families and their relationships to flourish in a Christian environment, helping with education, relief of poverty, ending gender discrimination, homelessness, helping refugees, women’s health and the prevention of domestic and intimate partner violence and slavery to name some of its justice priorities with its broad vision enabling people to follow God’s Word.
As we think about pressures on women and children, with the MU priorities, together with grooming, consent, slavery, with adultery and family violence, Jesus’ call to us is as fresh today as it was 2,000 years ago. Mary Sumner answered God’s call by establishing the MU; and we must reflect on our answers to God today, and what we are doing to spread the Gospel. God’s radical vision for all creation, can be answered very differently to the way the world encourages us. I often talk about being a ‘disturber of the world’s peace’ for God. It is our discipling work to ‘disturb the peace’. I think Mary disturbed the world’s peace with the MU, just as we need to do today.
My heart goes out to Hagar and Sarah, living within the confines of their society, culture and economy. I think our call from Jesus is to see beyond what the world expects, to break down the barriers and oppression imposed on us, beyond the rules about immigrants, women, those of different sexualities, race or nationality and beyond the expectations of the economy and political rhetoric, leaning into God’s kingdom now! We are called as we are, to be good neighbours as our answer to God’s love for us. Let us bring this to life with everyone we encounter. The Lord be with you.