12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, (Proper 7), Year A

    Claiming God's Promise in the Midst of Exile

When Hagar cries out to God, God hears and reminds her that the outcast child has not been forgotten. God does not forget us in our exile, but finds us and embraces us where and as we are.

This week's lectionary Bible passages:

Genesis 21:8-21 & Psalm 86:1-10 or Jeremiah 20: 7-13 & Psalm 69:7-10,(11-15), 16-18; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew10:24-39

“Our Genesis passage represents the many people who are cast out and kept out because of race, economic status, sexual orientation, gender, and ability. The Good News is God continues to speak liberation and hope to situations that often appear hopeless."

Vernice Thorn

 “Ishmael’s very presence is threatening to those around him, but Hagar’s love for her son won’t allow her to disown him or cast him aside.  As with the mother of a gay child, Hagar stands up for Ishmael, even though it results in her being cast into the desert along with him.”

Jennifer Pope

“Resurrection means that whatever the cost of following the gospel’s call to love and justice, death and despair are behind us as we remain open to God’s renewing life in us, walking in ‘newness of life’ and affirming our God-given sexual orientation, gender, race, ethnicity and ability.”

Arlie Sims

	Do we sometimes use what privilege we have against others with less power?  How can we always be aware of our own tendency to leave someone out and, instead, trust God to provide what is needed for the good of all?

The passages from the book of psalms echo Hagar’s own cries.  In Psalm 69 the psalmist cries out: “Answer me, O God, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.”  Similarly, the cry in Psalm 86 is a plea for divine care.  The psalmist starts with a cry for survival in verses 1-3 (“I am poor and needy…preserve my life…be gracious to me”), but quickly moves in verse 4 to a cry for joy and wholeness (“gladden the soul of your servant”). Just as Hagar wanted more than water and food so that she and her son could survive, and the psalmist wants not just preservation of life but also joy.   LGBT people do not want the crumbs of tolerance and pity at the table; we cry out for full inclusion in the faith community and celebration as children of God. 

	In what ways have we settled for mere survival — for tolerance and pity — rather than demanding that we be celebrated for who and what we are?  In what ways have we confined others to mere survival as well?

 In Jeremiah 20:7-13, the prophet describes God’s way of causing the truth to well up in us, demanding to be heard even when we prefer to be comfortable and safe in our silence.  The words of the prophet resonate with our experience: “When I say ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (verse 9).  LGBT clergy and teachers, lay leaders and musicians, singles and couples-in-hiding in the church are familiar with the “fire shut up in our bones,” and we have known the weariness that comes with holding it in.  May we speak our truth and claim our part in the promise of God. 

	What truths have we been holding in that need to be proclaimed?  Are there truths in our pews that we have neglected to see?

The call to death and resurrection is familiar to many LGBT people who have finally accepted as dead their experience of silence, invisibility and shame.  We connect with Romans 6:4-5:  “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God, so we too might walk in the newness of life.  For if we have been united with Jesus in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

Resurrection means that whatever the cost of following the gospel call to love and justice, death and despair are behind us as we remain open to God’s renewing life in us, walking in “newness of life” and affirming our God-given sexual orientation, gender, race, ethnicity ability and all the things that make us who we are.

Finally, the troubling words in Matthew 10:24-39 remind us that discipleship, with its life-giving freedom, comes also with cost.  When LGBT believers choose to be full and unapologetic participants in the promise and mission of discipleship, we call out the lies of injustice and oppression by our very presence.  When we come out of the silence and stand with Jesus on the side of full humanity and liberation, we may find that people who claim to be our family begin to act like enemies.  This passage also reminds us that the hairs of our head are numbered and that we are of more worth than the sparrows (verses 29 and 30), a reassurance of God’s care and presence, even as our commitment to the Gospel shakes up the established order and makes us vulnerable.

	How have LGBT people of faith and their allies faced division and rejection when they decide to follow their call to be faithfully out of the closet?  When have LGBT people and our allies — as well as people of color, women and members of other oppressed groups — seen friends, family members or members of our faith communities turn against us when we openly claim God’s promise that we are fully welcome to God’s table and that our gifts for service and leadership are equally valid?