ST. MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS EPISCOPAL CHURCH
  • ABOUT US
    • WHO WE ARE
    • 2023 Annual Meeting
    • Leadership
    • Newcomers
    • Pastoral Care
    • Faces of Our Community
    • Contact
  • Transition
  • Worship & Prayer
    • Download Service Bulletins
    • Daily Prayer Services - The Daily Office
    • Sermons
    • Art, Music, & Literature
  • FORMATION
    • Adult Formation
    • Retreats
    • Family & Youth
  • Outreach & Social Justice
    • Casa San Miguel Food Pantry
    • The Landing
    • LGBTQ+
    • Immigration Ministry
    • Navajoland Partnership
    • Senior Ministry
    • ALL ANGELS EPISCOPAL DAY SCHOOL
  • Give
    • Annual Pledge
    • Stewardship
    • Gifts & Memorials

Sermon, The Rev. Susan Allison-Hatch, June 2

6/2/2013

0 Comments

 
Strangers:
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Susan Allison-Hatch


Did you hear all the God talk these last couple of weeks?  In the papers, on TV, over the internet?  I bet even talk radio got into the act.  There’s been a lot of grist for the mill these past few weeks.  The Boy Scouts of America welcoming gay scouts.  And right here in Albuquerque a transgendered teen named Damien wanting to graduate from a Catholic high school wearing a black robe like the other boys in his class.  No wonder folks have been talking.

Just yesterday I read an article in USA Today about Christian pastors protesting the decision by the Boy Scouts to admit gay scouts to their ranks.  One Baptist minister said as he announced that his church would no longer be home to a Boy Scout troop, “We are not willing to compromise God’s word.”

A little over a week ago, the Archbishop of Santa Fe, in his graduation address at Albuquerque’s St. Pius High School, suggested that the school was following Christ by taking “a stand for what is right.”  You’ll remember that the stand St. Pius took was to require Damien Garcia to wear the white robe of a girl if he wanted to graduate with his class. 

God’s word.  Christ’s way.  Those are heavy claims.  But I wonder.  I wonder if those claims are warranted.  Those claims that God’s word would exclude a person from a wholesome activity simply because of his sexual orientation  or that following Christ’s way includes denying the personhood of teenage boy fly in the face of Biblical tradition. 

You and I, we walk in the way, we follow the path, of a God who ministers to strangers—those outside the fold--and of Christ who appears in the face of the stranger.  From the book of Genesis to the Letter to the Hebrews, again and again we hear the story of God calling us to welcome, love and not to oppress the strangers in our midst.  Again and again we hear stories of God appearing to us in the form of a stranger.

In Genesis, we hear the story of Abraham, who spotting three strangers approaching his tent, says to his wife Sarah, “Bake some cakes.  Set the table.  We’re having guests.”  It’s only later that Abraham and Sarah learn that those strangers are angelos(messengers) of God. 

Also in Genesis, we hear the story of Sodom and Gomorrah—towns destroyed not because of sexuality but because instead of welcoming strangers they turned against the strangers in their midst. 

In Exodus, in the core of the law passed down from Moses, we hear God saying to the Israelites, “You shall not wrong the stranger...for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  And a bit later, “You shall not oppress the stranger, for you have known the soul of the stranger since you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  “For you have known the soul of the stranger.”

In Leviticus, in the center of what is known as the holiness code, we hear the words “You shall love the stranger as yourself....”  That phrase, “love the stranger”, appears at least 36 times in the Hebrew scriptures. 

Remember the heroic figures in the Old Testament.  Think about the stories on which Jesus was raised.  Think about the outsiders and strangers who served as exemplars of the faith.  Hagar, the slave, met by God, when she runs away to the wilderness. Moses, a murderer on the run, meeting God in a burning bush. Rahab, a well-known prostitute, a model for following the word of God in welcoming the stranger. 

Think about the folks Jesus praised.  Think about the ones Jesus healed.  Think about the people who helped Jesus grow into the fullness of his ministry.  Remember the Samaritan who crossed the road to help a stranger in distress.  Samaritans were anathema to Jews.  Yet it was the Samaritan who crossed the road.  It was the Samaritan who showed mercy.  It was the Samaritan whom Jesus praised.  And remember the ten lepers whom Jesus healed?  Only one turned back and said thanks.  The Samaritan.  The stranger. 

Today we hear the story of the Gentile slave (read stranger) of the Roman centurion (another stranger).  Jesus heals the slave and praises the centurion.  Remember the Syro-Phonecian woman (another stranger).  When she asks Jesus to heal her daughter, Jesus insults her.  But when she persists and challenges Jesus’ understanding of his own ministry, he heals her daughter and praises her.

There’s more to this Biblical tradition of welcoming the stranger.  In the Gospel of Matthew, at the end of his active ministry, Jesus tells the parable of the Sheep and the Goats.  It’s a parable of judgment.  It suggests that we all will be judged on how we treat the sick, the dying, the thirsty, the hungry, the poor, the prisoner, and the stranger whom we meet along the way.  To those who will sit at His right hand Jesus says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me....”  Then the righteous will say, “Lord when....”  And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” 

Yet in the midst of all that judgment there’s a curious twist.  It’s easy to miss that twist as we focus on feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger and caring for the sick.  You see, it is in the face of the stranger that we meet God.  God is revealed to us in and through and by the stranger in our midst. 

There is a thread running through the scriptures.  It’s the thread of God being revealed in encounters at the margins.  Think of it—it’s in our encounters with strangers that we meet the face of God—God revealed in a Boy Scout troop that welcomes gays; God revealed in the face of teenaged boy determined to graduate in a black gown just like the other boys in his class; God revealed in the individuals and situations that push at the boundaries of our understanding; God who troubles the calm waters of our lives; God in the face of the stranger standing before us.  Will we welcom
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011

    Categories

    All
    Advent Season Year A
    Advent Season Year B
    Advent Season Year C
    Baptism Of Our Lord
    Baptism Of Our Lord
    Blessing Ceremony
    Brian Taylor
    Children Of Live At Five
    Christmas Season Year A
    Christmas Season Year C
    Easter Season Year A
    Easter Season Year B
    Easter Season Year C
    Easter Sunday
    Feast Of All Saints
    Feast Of Christ The King
    Feast Of Epiphany
    Feast Of Epiphany
    Feast Of Pentecost
    Feast Of The Virgin Of Guadalupe
    Jan Bales
    Jp Arrossa
    Jp Arrossa
    Judith Jenkins
    Kristin Schultz
    Larry Gallegos
    Lenten Season Year A
    Lenten Season Year B
    Lenten Season Year C
    Live At Five
    Michaelmas
    Palm Sunday
    Pat Green
    Randy Lutz
    Rob Clarke
    Season After Epiphany Year A
    Season After Epiphany Year B
    Season After Epiphany Year C
    Season After Pentecost Year A
    Season After Pentecost Year B
    Season After Pentecost Year C
    Susan Allison Hatch
    Susan Allison Hatch
    Transfiguration Sunday
    Trinity Sunday

    RSS Feed

Questions about the life and ministry of St. Michael's?
Contact Us!
Click here for information on
​legacy giving.
Picture

505.345.8147                601 Montaño Road NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107                  office@all-angels.com

  • ABOUT US
    • WHO WE ARE
    • 2023 Annual Meeting
    • Leadership
    • Newcomers
    • Pastoral Care
    • Faces of Our Community
    • Contact
  • Transition
  • Worship & Prayer
    • Download Service Bulletins
    • Daily Prayer Services - The Daily Office
    • Sermons
    • Art, Music, & Literature
  • FORMATION
    • Adult Formation
    • Retreats
    • Family & Youth
  • Outreach & Social Justice
    • Casa San Miguel Food Pantry
    • The Landing
    • LGBTQ+
    • Immigration Ministry
    • Navajoland Partnership
    • Senior Ministry
    • ALL ANGELS EPISCOPAL DAY SCHOOL
  • Give
    • Annual Pledge
    • Stewardship
    • Gifts & Memorials