Broken Relationships
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - Year A
June 22, 2008
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - Year A
June 22, 2008
Let us pray: O God, guide these words or the silences between them, that they may tell of you and that they may invite us to live more fully as your people. Amen.
My heart was heavy when I first looked at the scripture passages early this week. As usual, the context had a lot to do with that. I reflected back on our community life from the past weeks and imagined what the verses from our faith book, the Bible, have to say to us on this day. So, as you heard, the first story I read was the one about Hagar and Ishmael, Sarah and Isaac and poor Abraham stuck between them. My mind bounced back to last week’s worship - “United for Peace” Sunday along with the marking of Father’s Day. I said a quick prayer of thanks that this particular set of readings were not on the list for last week. It wasn’t a particularly happy prayer of thanks, it was one twinged with sadness. It also wasn’t that long ago that we were celebrating Christian Family Sunday - a way of broadening the scope of what is more commonly known as Mother’s Day. I remind you that Mother’s Day was originally started by mothers who were concerned about their male children being called off to fight in wars - as a call for peace. Of course today, unhappily we know that it is not just male children that are being sent off to fight in wars. We also know that civilians of all ages and genders are the most likely candidates in any war. So while some things have changed, seemingly none of the changes are for the better.
Well, as I said, that all served as context for the reading from Genesis today. It tells of Abraham’s solution to the domestic dispute that was brewing. It is a disheartening solution. Surely, Abraham was keenly aware that the desert was a dangerous place. Survival was not guaranteed. In fact, it was probably quite unlikely. Abraham, celebrated, venerated even as the father of many generations, does not hold up particularly well under the scrutiny of present day guidelines of what it takes to be a good father. You may recall that when faced with a similar kind of situation a bit later in his time as a male parent, he was ready although hopefully unwilling, to sacrifice his other son, Isaac as well. In fact, Abraham is a hugely bad example of what it takes to be a good Dad.
The story gave me an opportunity to think about some of the other disturbing passages a group of us read during the past few months in our book and bible study. If there is one unifying theme to the stories depicted in Jonathan Kirsch’s book “The Harlot by the Side of the Road” it is that all kinds of unacceptable behaviour - sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, incest, are justified as long as there is ultimately a show of faith. It seems that to this list of unacceptable behaviour we can add family sacrifice.
Well I believe that the stories of the bible are there not just to be preached about, but also to be preached against. Rather than a manual for successful living and the proper ways to be faithful people - the stories show us a via negativa - what not to do, how not to live faithfully.
Sometimes you can do that by playing one passage against another. Quite often, the gospels are used in that way, because they carry a bit more authority for Christians, seeing that they tell the story of Jesus, the Christ, and seeing that in the gospel record Jesus is often seen to revise the normal course of thinking, adding thoughtful and insightful layers of interpretation and meaning.
Not today! At least not at first. If you were going to look for a passage - a story from Jesus, a soothing and consoling word to help to heal broken relationship among family members, the gospel passage from today would not be one to choose. If anything, Jesus’ words from today’s reading make it worse. If things seem to be good among family members well watch out because true faithfulness can (perhaps even will) cause dissension among family members. They’ll be pitted against each other, because being faithful to God can put a strain on the family ties - being faithful to God upsets the priority system that is often based on family relationships.
It just gets worse. Probably as a result of the news about flooding in the American midwest, lingering anguish about the Chinese earthquake and the continuing saga of misery and recovery for Myanmar (even though the news coverage has lived out its week of importance) after cyclone Nargis, and in juxtaposition with the worship resources that invited us to reflect on the beauty and wonder of creation I reflected not only on broken relationships among family members, but also our broken relationship with the earth.
I’m sorry if this is starting to sound like a lament, but I also needed to add in the celebration of National Aboriginal Day in close proximity to the apology offered by the prime minster a week ago for the years of pain and abuse that were the result of the Residential School system.
The apology and the responses to it, have actually become a ray of hope in what was otherwise a rather depressing week brought on by the passages assigned to this week in the church year.
You see, as a person of faith I have to have hope. I believe it is part of the DNA of faithful people to believe that God can work change among us. I also believe that faith is not just something that we have. It is something that we do. God calls us to live out our faith.
My story this week is one of redemption. All of these negative thoughts about family relationships, along with Jesus’ difficult predictions of more to come, coupled with concerns about the broken relationship with creation that is a constant these days, sprinkled with reaction and concern about the apology for the residential school system, while still there - and always will be there, found some resolution by the week’s end.
Here’s a brief summary of how it happened. A group of friends decided to spend a bit more than a day together - twenty-six hours as it turned out. Originally it was to be on an island in Great Slave Lake, but a small craft warning had us gathering instead at a cabin on an island in Prelude Lake. Among the many other discussion topics, there was some curiosity expressed among members of the group about how this weekend of conversation, food, rain and sun would get woven into a reflection in today’s worship service. I had already chosen “Broken Relationships” as the title for this reflection and I shared that with them. An immediate response from among this group of people was that gatherings like the one we were experiencing could serve to heal broken relationships. One of the people, as we got ready to return to our homes yesterday, asked me if it the time had been a spiritual experience. Of course it was.
Has anything changed? Well, no - the stories of broken relationship are still there. Jesus’ warnings of dissent among family members are still valid. Climate change didn’t suddenly take a “U-turn”. So, in all those ways, nothing changed, but to say that nothing changed would be wrong. I changed, and I expect that everyone in our group changed just a bit too. It wasn’t a transformational change, or even a change I hadn’t contemplated already. But I came out of the weekend a bit more optimistic, a bit more hopeful, because of the time we spent in community, because of the view of creation that I was able to experience, because of the reflection time I was able to experience at 5:00 am yesterday as I looked out on a perfectly calm lake and an already risen sun with its’s surprising warmth. You see it’s like the painting I showed when the young people were up here. Slowing down can change our perspective. Slowing down might actually do the world some good. Slowing down to contemplate our relationship with the Creator might actually help to improve it. Amen.