OPENING SENTENCE
I will exalt you, O Lord because you have restored my life.
HYMN
GREETING
Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
COLLECT FOR PURITY
Almighty God
to whom all hearts be open
all desires known
and from whom no secrets are hidden;
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you
and worthily magnify your holy name
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
SUMMARY OF THE LAW
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”
The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
CONFESSION
God is love and we are God’s children.
There is no room for fear in love.
We love because God loved us first.
Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith.
God our Father, we confess to you
and to our fellow members in the Body of Christ
that we have sinned in thought, word and deed,
and in what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry.
Forgive us our sins,
and deliver us from the power of evil,
for the sake of your Son who died for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
ABSOLUTION
May the God of love and power
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by his Spirit
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.
GLORIA
sung by Dougie Byers
COLLECT
O Lord,
let the world be ordered in peace,
according to your will:
that your people may be free
to worship you with joy;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen
FIRST READING
Genesis 21: 8-21 read by Kay Solaja
Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away
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.
SECOND READING
Romans 6:1b-11 read by Simon Lidwell
Dying and Rising with Christ
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were 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 also 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, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we 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.
HYMN
GOSPEL READING
Matthew 10:24-39 read by Rev James Clark Maxwell
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St Matthew chapter 10 beginning at verse 24
Glory to Christ our Saviour.
“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!
Whom to Fear
“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 the one 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.
Not Peace, but a Sword
“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.
Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious gospel
Praise to Christ our Lord
SERMON
“Get this slave woman and her son out of my house.”
These words come from Sarah in an angry outburst. She has had enough. She is at the end of her tether, and she can take no more. For Sarah today of all days was meant to be one of celebration. Isaac has turned three years of age and they were celebrating the end of Isaac’s weaning. Yet instead of a joyous time of celebration, it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar was caught mocking Isaac. Ishmael would have been 17 years of age and his mockery of Isaac was the final straw that broke the camel’s back, and led to Sarah ordering this slave woman, Hagar and her son, Ishmael to leave her home for good.
Feelings are raw on all sides in this dysfunctional household. All his life Ishmael has been told that he was the child of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. However, when Ishmael found out that Sarah was pregnant, he knew that he was no longer the desired heir. Things shifted and changed. Isaac now became the centre of attention. This incited Ishmael’s jealousy and anger against Isaac. Ishmael feels victimised, deceived, supplanted, and robbed of his inheritance. Just as Hagar despised Sarah, so now Ismael despised Isaac.
Whilst we can understand where Ismael is coming from, his behaviour cannot be condoned. What about his mother, Hagar? Earlier on in the book of Genesis we hear Hagar saying: “You are the God who sees me.” This reveals much, about Hagar. I think Hagar saw herself as invisible woman. No one seemed to think of her and her feelings and needs. After all no one asked Hagar whether she wanted to sleep with Abraham. No one asked her whether she wanted the baby. No one asked her whether she was fine with handing that baby over to another woman. It seemed to Hagar that she did not matter. It was only her body, her baby, her life after all- yet she was never consulted!
Hagar felt taken for granted, used and abused. Some people seem to get a raw deal in life. It is not of their own making- it is just the hands they have been dealt in life are not good. Hagar falls into that category. No doubt Hagar had all sorts of emotions running through her -broken dreams, grief, stress, disappointment, feeling emotionally drained as well as feeling broken hearted, forsaken, and isolated. She may well have been living at this moment on the brink of a nervous breakdown- seeing no help in sight; feeling as if life is not worth living. As someone coined the phrase “her bottle was empty!”
Her bottle was empty but you could say that the bottle of Abraham’s household was empty. We have Sarah and Hagar at each other’s throats; we have ill feeling between Ishmael and Isaac and poor Abraham is caught, in the midst of it all. When Sarah says get rid of this slave woman and her son, we are told Abraham is greatly distressed. He is if you like caught between a rock and hard place. What is he meant to do? Abraham brings his dilemma to God. He waits on God to discover his next course of action, and God goes along with Sarah’s suggestion. Strange as it may sound, God had a purpose in the sibling rivalry and Sarah’s reaction. God knew that Ishmael would continue to cause contention in the family and seriously hinder God’s purposes if he were allowed to remain. No good will come from all of them dwelling in the same household. So, Hagar and Ishmael had to go! Abraham’s heart must have been deeply broken the next morning as he carried out God’s instructions. With a touch of tenderness and compassion, Abraham took bread and a skin of water which is about three gallons and gave it to them. The food and drink were suffice for the journey ahead to the next town or city.
There may be some that are thinking that Hagar didn’t deserve to be kicked out of Abraham and Sarah’s house. This seems so cruel. I believe what makes this story seem so bad is that from an earthly point of view Hagar wasn’t the only one at fault.
Let’s think about something. Who first came up with the idea for Hagar to have Abraham’s child? Who came up with this plan? Sarah was the one who thought of this idea first. God, for some reason allowed Abraham and Sarah to be childless for quite some time. So, Sarah probably thought that she would help God out by having a child through Hagar, her maiden. So, we could say that Sarah was the instigator to the beginning of this problem that Hagar was facing. The moral of this scenario is wait and trust in God and do not take things into your own hands and rely on your own resources. When we forge ahead with our ideas and ways of doing things rather than God’s, people get hurt.
Hagar is hurt and feels alone and abandoned with her son in the wilderness. Their resources are exhausted. What is important to note here is that this ironically enough is all of God’s plan. Hagar was not in the wilderness by accident. She was placed there. In other words, it was arranged for her to be in the wilderness. Hagar may not have understood all that was going all. All she was conscious of was that her world had been turned upside down.
Maybe, we feel a bit like Hagar today or we know of someone like Hagar. Do you feel your life has been turned upside down for no good reason? Do you find yourself spiritually in the wilderness- in a place that is dry and barren? You may not understand what is going on, but do not lose heart for God knows and he has a specific plan for you. It could be that God is testing your faith so that you can deepen your trust in him. #
Certainly, God was testing Hagar. Hagar found herself in the hot, dry, dreary, barren wilderness. She was alone with Ishmael. This was new to her. There was no one to help her; no one to seek advice about what she needed to do. We are told that she “wandered in the wilderness”; this means that she had no real direction. She didn’t know where she was going or what she was going to do. We see that her resources were depleted. We are told that her bread had run out and her bottle was empty. Her resources had run dry. She was hurting because there seemed to be no direction. She was hungry because there seemed to be provision.
Hagar knew that it would be just a matter of time before they would die. The sun was bearing down on them; there is no food in her backpack; now there is no water in the bottle. We are told that “she cast the child under one of the shrubs.” Now, this was not an act of a cold-hearted mother trying to get rid of an extra burden. This statement describes the condition of the wilderness.
We are not told the exact condition that Ishmael was in; but her reaction seems to suggest that the heat was getting to him. He may have collapsed, and so she lovingly placed him under the shade of the shrub to protect from the harsh heat. Ishmael was not in the best condition at that moment because Hagar prayed to God that her son would not die. Hagar was weary. She was now at the end of her rope. Her bread is gone; her bottle is empty. She cannot rely on her own strength and resources.
Your bottle like Hagar’s might be empty but that is not the end of the story. The good news is still to come. God provided Hagar not just with more water but with a well. The particular word “well” refers to a pit or well that has been dug. God dug her a “well”. We are not told when the ‘well’ was dug but God was letting Hagar know that he was going to provide for her every need. God gave her an endless supply of water. God showed Hagar that she couldn’t make it any further unless she had supernatural help.
We are told that Hagar and Ishmael remained in the wilderness. God didn’t change Hagar’s location or situation, but he gave her strength to face each day. Hagar knew that God would provide for her every day that she was in that wilderness. As long as Hagar was in the wilderness, the “well” gave water to her. God kept her bottle full. God was enough for Hagar!
So, this great truth applies to us too, when our bottle is empty and our resources are depleted, God provides. Not only does he provide but he provides abundantly- in ways that are better than we could possibly imagine.
Like Hagar our predicament of being in the wilderness might not change- we might still have the same illness, or the same difficult family relationships, or the same demanding work environment, or the same financial challenges but the difference is that God knows and cares. He not only knows and cares, but he is ready and willing to do something about it. He is ready to provide for us in surprising, essential, and abundant ways. Like Hagar we may be surprised and relieved to find that God is working with us and that He is pouring his blessing on our lives. Amen.
NICENE CREED
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father.
With the Father and the Son,
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Lord you are compassion.
You are aware of the hurts
and suffering that your people face.
We think of those who suffer from rejection
and pray that they might receive all the prayer
and help they need.
We thank you for the work of woman’s aid
and ask your blessing on their ministry.
Lord of all healing
Hear our prayer
Lord of all truth and goodness
we pray for those in positions of authority
in the church all over the world,
and in each gathered community
that in all the challenges and pressures
we may be enabled to hear your calming voice
and deepen our trust in you.
Lord of all healing
Hear our prayer
Lord of great power and majesty
we pray for those with political and military power,
and all whose decisions affect many lives.
Speak truth into motives, honour into actions
and your vision of peace into every situation.
Lord of all healing
Hear our prayer
Lord of all compassion, we pray for families
whose lives have been torn apart
as a result of terrorism.
We pray for those countries in hostility and war,
thinking of Ukraine,
Israel and Palestine
and also of Syria and Sudan,
asking that they might have security and peace.
As people weather storms at home and abroad
lavish your care upon them,
carry them when too weak to walk on their own,
and bring them peace and quell their fears.
Lord of all healing
Hear our prayer
Lord of all healing we pray for those
whose minds and hearts are in turmoil,
whose lives lurch from one crisis to crisis,
for those who find their lives shattered
by illness or injury;
send your light and hope
into their darkness and pain.
Lord of all healing
Hear our prayer
Lord of the resurrection,
we lift to you those
whose earthly life is ebbing away
and ask that they might be welcomed home by you.
Be with all who journey with them,
and reassure them of your abiding love and care.
Lord of all healing
Hear our prayer
Lord of all, we thank you
that in the joys and storms of life,
you are our constant companion,
ready to help and carry us,
wiling to strengthen, guide and lead us.
Enfold us all today in your abiding love.
Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Do not bring us to the time of trial
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.
HYMN
BLESSING
The peace of God,
which passes all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God,
and of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord:
and the blessing of God the Father,
the Son and Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always. Amen
DISMISSAL
Go or stay in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ.
