18 June 2023 - Proper 6, Year A

Theme

This week’s readings remind us that God’s people are a chosen group that God loves and protects. In Romans, Paul declares that Christians have an undeserved privilege of God’s grace and love. In Matthew, Jesus sends the disciples out to minister to the world with God’s own authority. In Exodus, God calls the Israelites God’s own special treasure that God rescued from captivity in Egypt. The Psalmist declares that Israel are the sheep of God’s pasture.

Scripture Readings

  • Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) - Abraham is visited by three men. After welcoming them and serving them food, the visitors tell Abraham that his wife Sarah will soon bear a son. Sarah was listening nearby and laughed at this news because she was past child-bearing age. Yahweh asks Abraham why Sarah laughed. saying that “is anything too hard for the Lord?” but Sarah denied laughing. Chapter 21 tells of the birth of Isaac, Sarah’s firstborn son that was promised to Abraham.
  • Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 - A Psalm of praise and thanksgiving for all that God has done. How can we respond to God’s goodness? By obeying His commands and keeping our promises to the LORD.
  • Romans 5:1-8 - Christ has offered us undeserved privilege because of our faith. Trials develop endurance; endurance develops strength of character; character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. We know that God loves us because of the Holy Spirit filling our hearts with God’s love. God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
  • Matthew 9:35 – 10:8, (9-23) - Jesus travelled through the land, teaching in synagogues, announcing Good News about God’s Kingdom and healing every kind of disease and illness. The people were like a sheep without a shepherd. Jesus told his disciples that the harvest is great but the workers are few. The twelve disciples are named before Jesus sends them to the people of Israel (God’s lost sheep) to announce that the Kingdom of Heaven is near, giving them authority to cast out demons; heal diseases; and give as freely as they have received.
  • Exodus 19:2-8a - The Israelites set up camp at the base of Mount Sinai. Moses meets with God on the mountain, who is instructed to remind the Israelites of how God freed them from captivity in Egypt. If they obey God’s commandments, they will be God’s own special treasure among all the people of the earth. Moses tells the people and they promise to do all that God has commanded them.
  • Psalm 100 - A Psalm of praise, declaring that Israel are the sheep of God’s pasture and God’s faithfulness continues to every generation.

Context

From now until November, the Gospel readings will move chronologically through Matthew, week after week, with only a couple of exceptions.

Among the four Gospels, Matthew distinctively emphasizes Jesus’ Jewish identity — and accordingly, in this week’s reading, Jesus instructs his disciples to minister not to Gentiles, but rather only “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. At the same time, however, over the course of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ teachings undergo a dramatic transformation on this point, eventually instructing his disciples that God’s salvation is for everyone. This week’s reading is a key episode in this larger story of opening up.

Personal Application

The story of God blessing Abraham and Sarah with a child after their ninety+ years of age is an incredible example of how God makes possible what initially seems impossible. And God usually uses the most likely suspects to do so - such as the aging Abraham and Sarah as well as entrusting a small, motley crew of uneducated, unreliable disciples to carry on Jesus’ mission to the world.

Why does God do act in this way? To get our attention I’m sure, but also to train our eyes and hearts and minds to act in times of adversity. If God’s grace works through unlikely and unexpected people, then in difficult situations, even when it feels like all has been tried and the expected champions falter, we can still be hopeful.

What are some of the things in your life that have caused you to doubt your usefulness to God? Perhaps it is your personal struggles and shortcomings? Perhaps it is your current situation that you find yourself? Do today’s stories encourage you to remain hopeful and remember that God uses the most unexpected people in the most challenging spaces to bring the good news of God’s Kingdom to the world around them?

Communal Application

As Matthew tells it, the story of Salvation is a story of wider and wider circles of inclusion: first Jesus’ followers, then “the lost sheep of Israel,” and ultimately everybody else too (all the nations). It’s a story of love transcending the divisions we create along ethnic, religious, racial, or ideological lines, among others.

In the face of today’s many division and antagonism, in our communities and in our hearts, progress can seem elusive, laughable, or impossible. But the good news of the Gospel is that anywhere love or justice seems laughable, the Spirit of God is already at work, calling the church to join her. It may take some time, struggle, and plenty of hope - but in the end, God will transform our private laughter of disbelief into shared laughter of astonishment and joy. As the mysterious visitor puts it to Sarah: “Is anything too hard for God?”

Are we feeling a bit disheartened about the lack of progress in some aspects of the Church throughout the world? Does it feel laughable to think that anything will change for the better? Perhaps we can take hope from this week’s stories, reminding us that God can do the impossible and our job is to keep faith and hope alive, both in our communities and within ourselves.

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