Blessings, given and received.

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One of our favorite cartoons is “One Big Happy.”  Ruthie, the young daughter, is always getting things mixed up.  One day she goes up to the “library lady” and says something to the effect of, “Library Lady, my grandma reads to me from that book where there are naked people who eat an apple, and this king kills his neighbor and marries his wife.”  And the library lady says, “Oh, you mean the Bible.” And Ruthie replies, “Yeah, that’s it.  It’s like a great big soap opera.”

She’s right.  The Bible, especially the Old Testament, reads like one big soap opera.  I read this story, and I think, “Oh what tangled webs we weave…”  Last week in our reading from Genesis had Sarah and Abraham being told that they would have a son and that from him would come a great nation.  Well, before that (back in chapter 16) we find that Sarah was frustrated because she had not had a son, so she tells Abraham to go in a sleep with her maid, so that he will have a son. Now I get the idea that Abraham was a little hen-pecked, because he seemed to do just anything that Sarah tells him, so he went in and slept with Hagar.  (Sam says it's a matter of "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.")

The problem is that once the maid, Hagar, had conceived and was pregnant with Abraham’s child, she started to “look with contempt on her mistress.”  This naturally makes Sarah mad and she complains to Abraham and he tells her, “she’s your servant, do what you want to her.”  So she begins to treat Hagar harshly and Hagar runs away.  It’s impossible to run away from God, so God finds her and tells her to go back.  When she goes back, she bears a son who is called ‘Ishmael.’  This all happened when Abraham was 86 years old.

And you remember last week when Abraham and Sarah are promised a son, it said that Abraham was 99 years old.  So in today’s lesson, four years have passed and Sarah bears a son and he is about 3 years old.  They name him ‘Isaac’ which means ‘he laughs.’  Sarah sees Hagar’s son Ishmael playing with her son Isaac and she gets jealous.  No other word for it, she’s jealous and greedy.  

Ishmael is older (14 years) and she’s afraid that Ishmael will inherit all or at least the first son’s portion of Abraham’s accumulated wealth.  So she goes to Abraham and complains again and asks him to cast out Hagar and her son, Ishmael.  This was against the “code of behavior” for desert people.  You don’t cast people out from the camp, because it is tantamount to a death sentence, but like I said, Abraham is henpecked.  

Abraham gives Hagar bread and a waterskin and casts them out.  Then they run out of water and Hagar leaves the boy and goes and sits at a distance because she can’t bear to see him die.  Our scripture says just when Hagar thinks that they are going to die, God hears the boy cry and is moved by compassion for him.  Just when things seem hopeless - totally devoid of any salvation - God opens Hagar’s eyes so that she sees a well. 

There is a song - it goes something like this:

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.

Open the eyes of my heart, 

I want to see you, I want to see you.     (Repeat)

  

To see you high and lifted up,

Shining with the light of your glory,

Pour out your power and love,

As we sing holy, holy, holy.

Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy.

Holy, holy, holy. I want to see you.

And suddenly hopelessness gives way to hope….   Hagar fills the waterskin and gives Ishmael a drink, and she knows that everything will be alright.    God makes a promise.  He tells Hagar, “Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”  (Ishmael is 17 years old at this time.)

All through this passage, we get over and over that God is going to make a great nation from both of Abraham’s sons.  So even though Sarah had Ishmael cast out so that he would not receive any of the inheritance that she felt rightfully belonged to her son Isaac -  God blessed him anyway.  

Sarah is something like those people who want to put God in a box, all neatly wrapped up with a bow on top, that they can take out and brush off to show to visitors when they come by.  Sarah was under the impression that God takes sides and that in order to secure God’s blessing, she had to get rid of Hagar.  She was not willing to share her blessing or her son’s blessing with another. 

But we see over and over, that when we strive to force God into a corner – to do our bidding – he refuses to stay there.  God will always find a way to bless those he wants to bless - those who are abused - those who are mistreated - those who are forgotten or alone.  Just as Sarah tried to get rid of Ishmael, just as the religious authorities of the first century tried to get rid of Jesus, God finds a way to accomplish his purpose in spite of humanity.  

So the next time you find yourself at odds with that person who irritates the heck out of you, just remember that God wants to bless that person, too.  Scripture tells us that God blesses us so that we might be a blessing to others.  And when we bless others, that just might make the difference in their life that will change their whole perspective and therefore the direction that they are headed.  So I ask you, how can you live that out in your own life in the midst of this congregation and of this community?

Finding Our Own Path

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A number of years ago a science fiction movie came out called "2001," based on a novel of the same name by Arthur Clarke.  In this movie there is a computer whose name is Hal.  Hal talks and reasons and eventually decided to take over from his human operator.  Even before that book, Robert Heinlein wrote a novel called “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”  In this novel a super computer was put together to connect all the colonies of the moon.

Parts and links had been added until the computer finally grew intricate enough to become self aware – and it developed a sense of humor.  As a joke it printed a check to pay a worker his normal salary plus 10 million dollars.  This meant the technician (Manny) had to come fix the computer.  Fixing the computer in this case meant sitting down and talking to it - reasoning with it.  Max, the computer, was trying to learn what made a joke funny and the difference between when a joke was funny always and when it would only be funny once.

You see, I’m still convinced that Jesus is telling jokes – you know, two cowboys walked into a bar,.. Two people died and went to heaven…  Two men went into the temple to pray…. And every time, he attacks the current value system with his punch line.  What makes a joke funny?  It’s turning the table upside down.  It's the unexpected that makes a joke funny.  I also am convinced that we don't really know what's going on until we understand something about the culture during the time of Jesus.  So, with that in mind – let’s look at this joke – sorry - parable.

Two men went to the temple to pray – a Pharisee and a tax collector.  Unfortunately, we have been preconditioned to see the Pharisee as the evil person and the tax collector as the good person.  But that is not the way a Jew in Jesus' time would have understood this.

We have to understand – both men are Jews – only Jews were allowed inside the temple.  The Pharisee and the tax collector are about as far apart on the social ladder as you can get in the Jewish world.

The Pharisee is the leader who is looked up to – the perfect example of what it means to revere and follow their God whom they call Adonai.  They are the teachers of religion and the law.  They spend their whole life studying the scriptures and discussing the things of God.  They pray, they tithe, they fast – and they did this so as to cover the sins of the ordinary people - so that the Jewish people (as a whole) would be found acceptable before their God.  The Pharisees, along with the priests and Sadducees were the ones who stood in the gap to mediate between God and man – they were the heroes of the faith.

The tax collector on the other hand is seen as a traitor – the lowest of the low.  The tax collector had to be rich enough to buy his position.  They have consorted with the occupying forces and have gone over to the enemy.  They collect the taxes from their own people for the Romans, and most of them collected more than is owed to the governors.  If they could collect more, they got to keep the difference.  Some of them got even richer that way, and they were all despised by their fellow Jews.

So the listening crowd would be thinking “yea Pharisees!” - “boo tax collectors!”  And the Pharisee stands up and prays a typical formula prayer.  “God, I thank you that I am not like other people; thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”  Yep, he’s saying, “Hey God, look at me - I’m better than all these low-lifes."

Then he recites a list of all the things that he does – he fasts twice a week – that’s more often than is required by the law or tradition.  He gives a tithe of all his income, not just the required portions. In other words, he goes the extra mile – he does more than he is required to do.  This is no more than is expected by the people hearing the story, but he is also boastful, prideful and to make sure God understands, he compares himself to someone he considers less worthy.

Then we see the tax collector – he doesn’t even approach God closely…  He stands apart – far off – and he doesn’t really know how to pray.  He doesn’t dare to lift his eyes to heaven, but beats his breast as he prays.  This prayer is a simple plea for God to have mercy on him – and Jesus says, “and he went home justified rather than the other.”  This was a man who knew his sin, and who was humble before God.

How much of this is human nature – this need to compare ourselves to others?  People do it all the time.  It seems to bear out of our need to have something visible to measure ourselves against – so that we can know how well we are doing.  This is something that we learn early because it’s fostered by our school system.

There is a particular mark that is considered good enough – and if you don’t attain that mark, then you have to repeat that grade until you do.

The minute we attach grades to our learning process and reward those who make better grades, we foster a competitive nature in children.  When we evaluate schools and grade the school according to how well their students do on standardized tests, then we foster competition between institutions – just as if it were a football game.

I have a friend, call her June, who has come to me for counsel from time to time. She was estranged from her spouse and they were rather at odds with each other about any number of things.  She did not respect him because his behavior did not inspire respect.  She would say things like, ‘well, at least I don’t do so-in-so like Jim does.’ and various other statements along the same vein.  My question to her was why are you comparing yourself to someone you don’t respect?

That’s exactly what the Pharisee was doing.  Do people do that (compare themselves to others) because they are insecure and it is the only way they can feel good about themselves?  Most often it doesn’t work – it gives a false sense or illusion about who and what we are.  It is born out of pride – and from any angle – positive or negative - pride is destructive.

One preacher said don’t go out of here glad you aren’t like the Pharisee, because if you do, you’ve just become the Pharisee.  And don’t go out glad you are like the tax collector – same problem, you’ve just compared yourself to someone else – and that is borne out of pride - a desire to be better than someone else.

Each and every one of us has a path to follow – one designed by God.  And each path is as individual as we are – no two are alike.  Our path is tailored for us by God.  We can choose to walk in our own path, or we can try other paths - but other paths will never fit as well.

When I started my journey with the Lord, I had no idea where he would take me.  But I walked out in faith and I told God that I would step through any door he opened.  The flip side of that is – if the door doesn’t open, I can’t force it, and I can't regret it; it is not intended for me.  I am simply called to move on to find the door God does want me to take.  No comparisons – just walking out in faith, to do the job He wants me to do and to be the person He wants me to be.

I would encourage each of you to take a look at the path that God has placed before you and without regret or gloating to fulfill that responsibility.  And without comparing yourself to others, past, present or future, just step out in faith, to be the best person you can be.  That is all God asks of any of us.  Where is God leading you today?

Pray with me:  Lord, increase my faith.  Open my eyes to see the road before me and to walk the path you have chosen for me.  Keep me mindful that I am unique in your eyes and you have created me for your delight.  Remind me that I never have to live up to someone else's idea of who I should be, and I do not have to comparing myself to anyone else.  You alone, Lord, know what it is that you have planned - help me to walk into that your plan for my life.

Amen.