Romans 6:1b-11
Wonder
I have to hope that no one wonders
If too much sin of theirs can sunder
Them from the possibilities of grace
When feeling like a real basket case!
For grace is nothing theoretical,
Nor would it ever tilt heretical
To say that all who want to know it
Can have the life Christ spent to show it.
His resurrection's no reward
For upright living you might hoard;
Dear wonder man and woman, it cuts through
For you. Right now. Out of the blue.
Scott L. Barton
What then are we to
say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no
means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?Do you not know that all
of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death?Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too
might walk in newness of life.For if we have been united with him in a death
like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like
his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of
sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For
whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we
believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised
from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over
him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he
lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
+ + +
Rembrandt: Abraham Casting out Hagar and Ishmael (1637),
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Genesis 21:8-21 and Matthew 10:24-39
Expressions of Faith
The fat was in the fire
When Isaac and Ishmael played,
The pot just boiled over
With Sarah, for Isaac afraid;
The mother lost it then -
The father saw no way to win;
He couldn't stand the heat,
So Abraham had to give in;
I wonder if he knew
He'd cast his burden on the Lord
When casting Hagar out
To sink or swim of her accord?
The death sentence he gave,
He pushed to the back of his mind;
This tale thus goes to show
The love of this Yahweh is blind;
For all concerned were saved,
And saw the Lord does not slumber;
Or put another way -
The hairs of your head are all numbered.
Scott L. Barton
(The first line, from Frederick Buechner's writing about
Hagar in Peculiar Treasures and Beyond Words, inspired the poem.)
The child grew, and
was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was
weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to
Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this
slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit
along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account
of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy
and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells
you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the
son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your
offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a
skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the
child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the
wilderness of Beer-sheba.
When the water in the
skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and
sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she
said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite
him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and
the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles
you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he
is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a
great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She
went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
God was with the boy,
and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.
He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the
land of Egypt.
+ + +
“A disciple is not
above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple
to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the
master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his
household!
“So have no fear of
them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret
that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light;
and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who
kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both
soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of
them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your
head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many
sparrows.
“Everyone therefore
who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in
heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father
in heaven.
“Do not think that I
have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a
sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
and a daughter against
her mother,
and a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be
members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and
follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and
those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
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