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Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67, Romans 7:15-25, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
Ah, the complexities of courtship before newspaper personal ads, City Weekly, Facebook, MySpace, and email. Isaac needs a wife. The man is 40 years old and is still single. (Now in all honesty, if as a child I had been lied to by my father, tied up, put on an altar and almost offered as a sacrifice, I would have some issues around trust and relationship as well!) Nonetheless, Abraham dispatches a trusted servant to a tribe of relatives to find a fitting wife for his rather isolated son. And so we meet Rebekah as she comes to draw water. She gives water to the servant and even waters his camels. This is a most gracious woman. After appropriate hospitality and negotiations, Rebekah and her servants leave home to meet Isaac. This is yes an act of faith on her part, but deep down I think Rebekah sees some possibilities here for her as well.
I see Rebekah as a very young and beautiful Joan Collins type woman. She knows what she wants and will do whatever necessary to get it. She is the one who in a few years will mastermind the deception of her own husband to give his blessing to Jacob instead of his rightful heir and older twin brother Esau. She lies and cheats and betrays familial bonds to get what she wants. And yet, we count her as one of the great matriarchs of ancient Israel, along with Sarah Abraham’s wife.
We see through out Scripture and through out our own lives how God uses men and women, sometimes of questionable qualities, to further the work of God in the world. St. Paul wrestles with this problem in his own life. He becomes unusually introspective as he looks at the forces he feels driving in his life: a force for good and a force for evil, a pattern for righteousness and a pattern leading to sin.
St. Paul articulates what I feel many of us feel from time to time: I know I want to do what is right, I like doing what is right and good…and yet…sometimes I know I end doing the wrong thing. Like St. Paul I hope that we also see where our hope is in such a predicament: Jesus Christ.
St. Paul writes how through Christ our disparate passions can be
reconciled, redirected and we can be made whole. This is one of the
reasons Sunday by Sunday we do the General Confession, to lay before
God those things we have done, and by what we have left undone
that have turned our attention and our actions from God and from doing
what is right.
Jesus of all recognizes the mixed bag that we are as humans. We have this wonderful vignette in Matthew today showing his frustration and his hope for humankind. We are like children at play, we do not know what we want but we clamor for more and when we get it, it is not what we wanted at all.
Not even Jesus can get it right for a lot of folks. John the Baptist
came as a ascetic and prophet with words of warning and the people called
him possessed. Jesus comes as one who enjoys the company of others,
relishes table fellowship and has friendships with a wide circle of
individuals, and he is called a glutton and a drunkard.
Harsh
words for the Son of God!
Yet Jesus does not condemn, he invites. He invites you and me to join him. Come on your own terms and see what he has to offer. Bring your burdens, your troubles, your doubts, your sins and your misgivings to him. Bring all that you are. We will find rest for our souls and solace for our bodies as we take on his name at his invitation.
God can and does use the most broken of men and women to do the work of the reign of God in the world. Even a broken cup will hold its share of water to be given to another. As we read these stories in Scripture of God using such a collection of men and women for his purposes, what does that say about how God can use you for a divine purpose, something above and beyond yourself.
I believe that is true about individuals and I believe that is true about groups. I believe in our challenges as a church, God continues to use the Episcopal Church as a beacon of hope and light to the world for so many people. We say, You are welcome here, come as you are. Are we perfect? No. But we are called to follow Christ and to strive for that perfection that is God, the perfection of perfect love.
I believe that this is also true of our nation. We just celebrated the Fourth of July, our national birthday party. It is a time of patriotic speeches and flowery words about this nation. The idea of this nation being the city on the hill as a beacon to the world as seen by our forbearers has been tarnished by assorted scandals, misdirected policies, and improper use of our might and power. As a nation we have to account for things done and things left undone just as we do as individuals. That does not stop us as a people, however, from moving forward and doing those right things we are called to do as citizens of this nation and citizens of this world.
May God bless us as we take his yoke upon us, that we may serve the world in his name to work for justice and peace for all people and respect the dignity of every human being.