In times of great crisis and upheaval we lean on the witness to the many ways that God’s grace sustains us through the fire and flood. When we find ourselves with our backs against the wall, from where will our relief come. When our days are the darkest, how do we know that we are not alone. Within in our community of faith, so many of us have known the redeeming grace. So many people with whom I have shared ministry have shared their stories with me. The cumulative effects of these stories bolster my hope, to be sure.

The times in which we find ourselves, facing the COVID 19 pandemic and the reckoning that is coming around the scourge of systemic racism, require us to be considerably more reflective around how God’s grace is at work. The fact that grace covers a multitude of sins doesn’t absolve us of recognizing and accounting for the ways that we contribute to the chaos that swirls around us.

In the Genesis story we reflect upon in this sermon, Abraham and Sarah seem to be given a pass on the ways that they make it necessary for God to step in and care for Hagar and Ishmael. To simply celebrate the providential grace of God without reckoning with our own actions and attitudes, cheapens that grace. If we are to weather this pandemic and create a new world of justice and reconciliation for all we must engage in this challenging work together.