Lectionary 12A
Grace Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
June 21, 2020
Genesis 21:8-21 Psalm 86:1-10 Matt 10:24-39 Romans 6:1b-11
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Greetings to you all as we continue to be in a time of “safer at home” because of the coronavirus that is running amuck amidst us. We come together again around the Word as we worship together, yet at a distance.
Some sermons explain a text and help us see its application to our life today. Others encourage or comfort us and the text is the source of that comfort. Still others may challenge us and cause us to stop and ask ourselves some questions. I think that today’s texts are among these. So rather than trying to expound on what Jesus meant when he said that he came not to bring peace but a sword, to set a man against his father and a woman against her mother, on Father’s Day of all days, we will consider some questions. As you read them, I invite you to “chew on them” in a manner of speaking, let them turn around inside of your spirit. You may want to journal about them or one of them that may particularly strike you. May the Holy Spirit stir you to new understandings.
What does it mean to you today as a disciple to be like Jesus, our Teacher? When you think about Jesus, how would you describe him, this one who never settles for the easy path?
When have you really been fearful? What was at stake? What did you do with your fear?
When were you baptized? What stories have you heard about that day? (Today is my baptismal birthday – I was born on Mother’s Day and baptized on Father’s Day. Today I light a candle in thanks for the promises God made to me that day many years ago.)
What does it mean to you that God values you so much that the hairs on your head are numbered, that even as he values all of his creation down to the small sparrow, so he values us? How does it feel to be so completely known and understood?
When have you felt as alone and despondent as did Hagar in Genesis 16 and Genesis 21? How did the angel of the Lord come to you with consolation?
Are there promises you have discerned from God that have not yet been realized – as was
God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah that their descendants would be more numerous than
the stars in the sky and God’s promise to Hagar (Gen 16:10) that her offspring would be so
great that they could not be numbered. How is the time of waiting? What do you do as you
wait?
We hear of being baptized into Christ. What does this mean to you? How do you experience
this in your day to day life? What images come to your mind as you think about Paul’s words
that we will be united with him in a resurrection like his?
What does it look like or feel like or seem to be “alive to God in Christ Jesus?”
What word of encouragement or comfort do you most need to hear today from Jesus? Who
most needs to hear a word of encouragement or comfort from you – because we are Jesus’
presence in the world today?
As we are in these times of discord and conflict and skepticism and doubt and perhaps even
fear, I encourage you to affirm your baptism – to meditate on the covenantal promises
between you and God in the baptismal waters:
to live among God’s faithful people;
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper;
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed;
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus;
and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.
And may we pray together: Stir up in each of us the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the
Lord, the spirit of joy in God’s presence, both now and forever. Amen.
Thanks be to God!
