Pentecost 7A PROPER 10 (15) Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Year A July 16, 2023
Genesis 25.19-34
Psalm 119.105-112 Romans
8.1-11 Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23
Our story
continues this week, with what happened in the next episode of Isaac and
Rebekah. Like many of the ladies in this
lineage of faith Rebekah was barren, but Isaac was living proof that barrenness
is no obstacle in the plan of God.
Rather than
skim over this story let’s look deeper. Isaac was no spring chicken, as he was forty
when he married Rebekah. We don’t know
how old he was when he prayed for his wife to have children but he was 60 when the
twin boys were born.
We know that
Rebekah is the chosen woman for Isaac.
The servant prayed that the exact right woman who the Lord chose would
be the one who said to him, “Drink and I’ll water your camels also”. We know that God gave the servant success and
confirmed that Rebekah was his chosen lady for the wife of Isaac. We are also told that Isaac didn’t just take
Rebekah as his wife, but it is recorded that he loved her. How must it have seemed to those living this
reality to find that the perfect, God-given wife for Isaac, was barren. Isaac’s name means laughter. I imagine that he laughed. His mother was barren and way beyond child
bearing age when she gave birth to Isaac.
It was almost like history repeating, except that Isaac learned and
accepted the lessons taught to Abraham.
Isaac knew
well the dedication of his father to God, and it is obvious that he shared in
that dedication and sure faith. Isaac
was directly saved by the grace of God, as the substitute for the
sacrifice of his life, was the lamb of God.
Isaac lived in this reality – the reality of a substituted life – Saved
by the sacred lamb of God. Isaac also
knew the promises of God, that Abraham’s descendants, through himself, would become
a great nation and his people would be a great blessing to the whole world. Therefore, the barrenness of his wife was a
small matter. He knew he was praying according
to God’s will when he prayed for her to bare children and he knew that God
would answer his prayer. There is no hint of doubt or pleading in the story….
Simply that Isaac prayed for his wife to conceive and she did. If only we could have the faith of Isaac! –
no hint of doubt, even though it was 20 years before she bore the children.
In the
struggle for these children, Isaac and Jacob & Esau, to come into being, we
know that they are children approved by God.
Without God they would not exist and I think that God is emphasising
this fact so that they continue, through the generations, to know they can rely
on him, to acknowledge him and his blessing, and bring his message to all
people, that God would send a savour… a sacred lamb of God.
The twins
born were at odds with each other, which is the story of our lives. You know it is easy to love everyone when you
don’t have to have anything to do with them.
The fact of our lives, and every single organisation is that as soon as
we get beyond our politeness, we start to get on each other’s nerves.
We humans,
and the tendency to sin, go hand in hand.
The jealousy that exists in families over one person receiving more than
the other is just one example. Jacob,
the younger twin, was jealous of his brother Esau, who, as the first born, was
entitled to the first blessing. The
tradition was that the firstborn would inherit a double share and also the clan
leadership, making him the also the judge of the clan. For Jacob and Esau there was a little more to
it, as there was this promise from God associated with the blessing. Which son do you think was assumed to receive
the blessing of God to carry on God’s Word?
According to tradition, it should have been Esau, but here in this
reading we have the prophetic word to Rebekah, indicating that it would be the
younger.
God often delights
to choose the least likely and the most rejected. This may have been Jacob, but why would God
choose him? Jacob had a whole lot of
flaws and had a lot to learn about the ways of God. There is a lesson for us in this; God didn’t
choose Jacob because he was good. Jacob
had a life time of conniving and deception, until the point where he wrestled
with God and God changed his name to Israel.
God choose Jacob to be the one through whom would come the promises of
Abraham, before he was born and had done anything good or bad. This is another message of God’s grace and
his message that we cannot earn God’s love – we have his love regardless.
In scripture
we read that Esau despised his birth right.
Although Jacob was not exactly an exemplary man of God, Jacob desired to
receive the promise and blessing of God.
Esau however, was happy to take on wives of the nations around him and had
little regard for the faith of his father. In some ways Jacob represents the Church
of God and Esau represents the other children of God who have not valued the Gospel.
It is
possible that the teachings of Abraham and Isaac, were to Esau, like one that sowed seed among the thorns.
This is the one who hears the word, but
the cares of the world,… other women with other gods,… and the lure of wealth
choke the word, and it yields nothing.
Perhaps… but you know, Jacob appeared to be not much better. Jacob was no exemplary man as he was constantly
deceptive and gained what he desired through deception. Why should God pour His blessing on him?
Jesus tells
us that the word that is sown on good soil, is the one who hears the word and
understands it, who indeed bears fruit.
Eventually this became the story for Jacob, but here is another message
for us; The word of God, spoken through Abraham and Isaac, which appeared to
bear little fruit with Jacob, eventually did.
It took years!!! The journey of
faith is definitely a marathon and not a sprint and no word of God goes out in
vain, but accomplishes it’s purpose.
Such a message for us, that we need to be resilient and persevere in
doing God’s will regardless of how we might see no fruit for many years… keep
tilling the soil, and sowing the seed.
Keep the faith!
It could be
said that Esau had his heart set on the flesh.
He didn’t care to submit to God’s law.
And we read in our letter to the Romans that the flesh cannot submit to
God’s law. You know, the last time I
looked, you and I were made of flesh.
When we look at the life of Jacob, it seems that his heart was set on
the flesh also, as actually to some extent we all do. Perhaps the only difference was that Jacob
desired the blessing of God.
You and I
desire God’s ways. We are just as able
to give in to the flesh as Jacob and Esau, but we do desire to be the children
of God. And we do desire to do good.
This letter from
Romans follows on from our last week’s reading also, where we discovered that
we are often at odds within ourselves…. We so badly want to do things God’s
way, but the desires to go our own way sometimes overwhelm…. Sometimes?? Or
often??
This week I
met with a friend who was pretty down hearted.
He had decided that he was going to do things the easy way, and was told
afterwards that what he did was potentially very dangerous. Nothing went wrong, but the anguish he felt
was his disappointment in himself because he knew that, as a child of God, he
should have done things the right way and followed protocol. He felt the condemnation of others as he was
criticised and chastised. In that he
felt that perhaps God condemned him also.
What would you tell a person in this circumstance?
Our letter
to the Romans makes clear the incredibly Good News; There is therefore
now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that is the Gospel! The Good News of Jesus Christ is this!
You might
recall that last week I spoke about how the God’s law is like the law of
Gravity, and we constantly fall as we fail to be perfect. But to be “IN” Christ Jesus – where we
surrender to God and accept Jesus as our sacrificial lamb that saves us, is
like being in an aeroplane… the law of aerodynamics supersedes the law of
gravity. We are completely safe so long
as we stay in the aeroplane and we are unconditionally saved so long as we stay
“IN” Christ Jesus.
What does it
mean to be “In” Christ Jesus? Do you
remember Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21; “I pray that they will all be one,
just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may
they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” By
surrendering to God, by accepting the gift of Jesus and by the Holy Spirit, and
by remaining connected through prayer we remain IN Christ Jesus.
Just in case
you are still not sure, our letter to the Romans explains it when it says, “But
you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells
in you.” And also, “If
Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life
because of righteousness”. We,
like Isaac, also live in the reality of a substituted life – Christ the lamb of
God has died in our place. But now God
also pours out his blessing on us, just as he did to Jacob – not because we are
good or righteous, but because we are “IN” Christ and Christ is righteousness. Spiritually our unrighteousness has been delt
with… in Baptism our unrighteousness died with Christ and we are raised as having
the Spirit of Christ – a righteous Spirit.
We like
Jacob still have a lot to learn about God’s ways, but what a reassurance we
have through the Gospel. Listen to this
next bit of Good News in Romans, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus
from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life
to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”
That Holy
Spirit in us is like the electricity that gives light to our homes… and powers our
modern life. We have the electrical
wiring and the power in us for living the life that God calls us to. And I suspect we have much more ability than
any of us actually can imagine. We are
children of God, chosen and loved.
I don’t know
about you, but when I hear the Good News as explained to the Romans, I want to
respond with a very loud “AMEN” – “Bring it on”. I want to live the life that is “IN” Christ. I want to continue to accept all that God
calls me too. The body of Christ really
does keep us in eternal life. This is
what our eucharist is all about. We
accept the body of Christ, broken for us, because it means our life substituted
for his… and the life we live we now live “IN” Christ and There is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen! The
Gospel is Good News! Let’s truly take hold
of it, rejoice and live it!
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