This is the family of God

June 22, 2014 Genesis 21:8-21 2nd Sunday After Pentecost Year A This is the Family of God Humor: What God Can’t Do A Sunday school teacher was examining her pupils after a series of lessons on God's omnipotence. She asked: "Is there anything God can't do?" There was silence. Finally, one lad held up his hand. The teacher, disappointed that the lesson's point had been missed, asked: "Well, just what is it that God can't do?" "Well," replied the boy: "He can't please everybody." Gary W. Houston, Cowherding Christians, CSS Publishing Company God can do anything. For the summer we read the stories of Genesis. Stories of families of faith. but they are also stories of jealousy, dishonesty,anger, disharmony. We hear these stories, because they are a testimony to how God can take even that negativity and make it a good thing. We can all name the members of our family, but we have to remember that God is a part of that family also. God is a part of what is going on. Thinking that she would never have a child of her own, Sarah allowed her servant to have a son with her husband. But we have to remember that nothing is ever set in stone when god is present. So she does have a son at ninety years old. She takes good care of the baby, and when he is about three years old, she has a special celebration after he has been weaned. She looks and sees that her son is playing with his older brother and it hits her. This is not going to work. As long as Abraham’s older son is a part of the family, her son will never get his just inheritance. She gave permission for the situation that bought this boy into her family, and now it was time to take action to get him out of her family. he and his mother have to go. Sarah speaks it, and Abraham agrees with her. But not only does Abraham agree with her, but so does God. God says that it is okay to just through these two people out into the desert. Sometimes in my life, I have had to ask God, if he knew something was going to happen. And why would he allow it to happen. Remember, in the story of Job. God gave the devil permission to bring bad luck to Job. Now stick with me, because I am going somewhere with this. Why would God allow bad things to happen to his beloved people? If we listen to the story – we will see it clearly. Sarah tells Abraham to send Ishmael and Hagar into the desert to fend for themselves. Now Sarah is having a big feast for her family and friends, but she sends Hagar off into the desert with just some bread and water. Have you ever felt that you were sent out into the desert of life to survive on your own? To come up with your answers? To an unknown future? It wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t look over and see the people who banished you to the desert, in the midst of a feast- enjoying themselves, they have provided for themselves very well – but not for you. What Sarah, and a lot of people like Sarah could not see if the midst of her jealousy and hatred is that the desert is the place where God lives and God speaks. The story says that Ishmael cried and God heard his cry. Sometimes we have to separate ourselves from the problem in order to start to see God’s solution. It takes going out into the desert and thinking that we are all alone to realize that we are not alone. Being sent into the desert is the beginning of a new blessing for us. Abraham was not willing to provide an inheritance for is first born son, but God was. God said that is was okay for him to be banished from Abraham’s family, because he would be a great nation in his own right. His life would be okay. What Sarah did not realize, was just because God made a promise to her, that did not stop God from making a promise to others. Why is it that we tend to think that our blessings, precludes the blessings of others. When that is what God does – he blesses us all, in different ways. But sometimes we have to go out into the desert all alone, for us to truly hear what God has in store for us. The lesson in this story is that God’s grace abounds for all of his children. But sometimes he has to send us away into the desert for us to see our blessing. It is the times in our lives when we think God is not with us, that we see that God is not only with us, God is using that situation to make a difference in or lives. The second lesson is that God’s provisions are always enough. The bread and water given to Hagar and Ishmael sustained them in the desert, until they were able to get more. But God does not want any of us to just survive, God intends us to live. God’s provisions lead us to more. We may not ever be rich, but we will be satisfied. The third lesson of this story is that we have every reason to rejoice in God’s grace, but it is never a reason to brag. We can always be grateful for what God has done. But when you have been banished to the desert, and you have struggled, and prayed, and depended on god to bring you through. You are not sitting on your laurels. It was not an easy ride. And you know that God’s grace in the future, does not guarantee that things will be easy ahead. There is nothing to brag about. I really love this story. It reminds me that God’s grace is in the midst of someone else’s jealousy and resentment. Banishment and tough times don’t take away God’s blessing for you. Ishmael means God hears. Remember, God’s name is el - el ishma –God hears. God hears our cries, God hears our needs, God hears our situation, God hears what we need to move forward. This is a story about life, about families, about the good and the bad that happens in our families. That happens in life. The biblical writers wanted to make sure this story was included to remind us that God’s mercy is present in unexpected places. God Is Like a Father For many of us the injustice of this world, combined with the love of the Father, is the best assurance we have of a world beyond this one. Someday, somehow, somewhere accounts must be settled. In Marjorie Rawling's beautiful novel, The Yearling, set in ruralFlorida, there is a scene in which friends and family gather around the grave of a little handicapped boy named Fodderwing. There was no minister present so one of the men of the community offered up this simple but moving prayer: "Almighty God, it ain't right for us to say what is right. But if we had been making this boy we would never have made him with his back bent and his legs crooked. We would have made him straight and tall like his brothers. But somehow you made it up to him. You gave him a way with critters. It comforts us to know that he is in a place where his being bent doesn't matter no more. We would like to think that you have taken that bent back and those crooked legs and straightened them. And Almighty God, if it ain't asking too much, we pray that you will give him some critters to play with maybe a few redbirds and a squirrel or two. Thy will be done. Amen." I don't know what heaven will be like. But I know what God is like. He is like a Father who notices a little sparrow fall from the sky and cares for us much, much more than he cares for sparrows. That means even though we still must face obstacles and crises, we do not face them alone, and someday, somehow all that which is hurtful will be turned into that which is helpful, and we shall live with joy in the Father's house forever. King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Amen. Extra illustration…… Your Hair The average woman with a thick head of hair will lose up to 100 hairs a day. Such losses are increased somewhat if the hair is long and becomes entangled in the brush or comb. The average man, shaving every day, removes a beard about one sixty-fourth (1/64) of an inch in length. This means that between the ages of 20 and 65, he removes 23 feet of beard! And to think God keeps track of all that hair! bibleline.org, "Hair," Children's Bible Ministry. Children’s sermon… Display a Hebrew Bible, Christian Bible, and Qur’an. Point out differences and similarities. They are written in different languages. The Hebrew Bible and Qur'an read from back to front while the Christian Bible reads from front to back. Hebrew and Arabic read from right to left. English (if that is the language in which you read the Bible) reads from left to right. Many stories, e.g. stories about Abraham, and Moses, appear in all three. Stories of Jesus appear in both the Christian Bible and the Qur'an. The writers of the stories understand and tell them differently, but all worship one God and consider themselves children of Abraham.