Fourth Sunday after Lent
Bishop Ray Sutton

There were two brothers, well known around a town for their crooked business dealings and underworld connections. They were as mean and cold-hearted as you could imagine. One day one of the brothers died, and the surviving brother wanted to give his dead brother a funeral fit for a king. He called the funeral home and made all the arrangements, then he called the town’s minister and made him an offer, as they say, he couldn’t refuse. He explained, “I will give you all the money you need to put a new roof on your church if, in eulogizing my brother, you call him a saint.”

The minister agreed. The whole town turned out for the funeral, and the minister began: “The man you see in the coffin was a vile, debauched individual. He was a liar, a thief, a deceiver, a manipulator, a reprobate, and a hedonist. He destroyed the fortunes, careers, and lives of countless people in this city, some of whom are here today. This man did every dirty, rotten thing you can think of. But compared to his brother here, he was a saint.”

Although a bit stretched, the minister made his point by way of comparison between two brothers. Today in our Epistle for the day, we learn of two other sons and their mothers. St. Paul writes, “Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman and one by a free woman” (Galatians 4:22). The contrast is equally as striking. These mothers produced two sons within the same family; the boys shared a common father. You may remember that the ancient patriarch, Abraham, and his wife, Sarah, were given a promise. They were to receive a son, who would be the promised seed man, from whom would descend Jesus Christ. But Sarah couldn’t have children, so they thought. She was much too old anyway for bearing a child. They didn’t trust God’s word. They became impatient for God to do His work.

Sarah concocted the unbelievable scheme of asking her husband to have a child through her maid, which was nothing short of asking him to commit adultery. She wanted the proper result but she was willing to obtain it by being disobedient to God. Abraham shamefully complied. The couple had the first son. He was a fine boy, Ishmael. Problem was, he was not God’s promised heir. Eventually, in God’s time the promised son was given to Sarah and Abraham. The unthinkable happened. Sarah had her own son with Abraham, his name, Isaac. The tragedy is in the contrast of the two sons. One was destined to become the father of the nations of the world that have forever haunted the promised son of Abraham and Isaac. The other son, Isaac, would produce the nation Israel and ultimately, Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity.

In reality, two lines of religion emerged from the two sons. They were two versions of belief, one very wrong and the other very right. One has brought war, conflict and slavery to the world. The other has brought peace, love and freedom. Allow me to explain. But let me be perfectly clear. This passage is not about Islam in contrast with Israel or even Israel and Christianity.

St. Paul presents the two mothers as two different, competing covenants. St. Paul writes, “Allegorically speaking: for these women are two  covenants, one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar” (4:24). In other words, Hagar represents not just any one religion, as we might suspect. She explains the contrast in the Bible between one covenant “according the flesh” and another covenant “through the promise,” to use the Apostle’s language. One covenant we could call the covenant of disobedience and the other the covenant of promise. One attempts to obey God without Christ and one with Christ. One leads to bondage and the other to freedom. Yet, the reason for this contrast between slavery and freedom encompasses more than Hagar and Sarah, Israel and Islam, Israel and Christianity, and even the modern Church. It boils down to two covenants that cut through all religions. One is based on human effort without grace and Jesus Christ. The other is founded upon Jesus Christ and His grace that He offers. One is viewed as a series of codes and laws, the other is based on love for God and neighbor through Jesus Christ. One is based on human imagination, the other on revelation, which brings us down to the present situation even in Christianity.

Recently, the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone (South America), Greg Venables, was asked about the conflicts going on within Anglicanism. His description is quite apropos to our Epistle reading for today. He described the contrast of covenant religions as, “about two versions of Christianity which are in a strong state of difference. You’ve got the original biblical Christianity which the church, the Christian church throughout the world has held to over the past two thousand years and then you’ve got this new liberal post-modern Christianity which has evolved especially in the western world over the last 100 years or so. It’s like two ships that have gradually pulled apart and can no longer really sail together and the trouble is it’s pulling the church apart as it does that.”

I believe the Archbishop’s summary of two versions of Christianity touches the essence of St. Paul’s message. We must learn to think Biblically the way Christ and His Apostles have taught the Church through the ages. There are two covenants in this world. One is of the flesh and the other is of the Spirit. To know the difference is to encounter the Son of Promise, Jesus Christ. It’s like a story I heard the other day. A Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade went to study with a talented old teacher. This gentle man put a piece of the precious stone into his hand and told him to hold it tight. Then he began to talk of philosophy, men, women, the sun and almost everything under it. After an hour he took back the stone and sent the boy home. The procedure was repeated for several weeks. The boy became frustrated. When would he be told about the jade? He was too polite, however, to question the wisdom of his venerable teacher. Then one day, when the old man put a stone into his hands, the boy cried out instinctively, 'That's not jade!'" When we receive Christ into our hearts, walk and talk with Him by faith, follow His inspired Word, then we’ll know like that boy who learned the feel of jade. We recognize the true from the false because we’ve been intimately associated with the Truth, Jesus Christ. May God help us to align with the correct mother and her Son. Only there will we find the true Jerusalem. Amen.