Scripture: Genesis 18:1-15; Matthew 9:35-38 Series: Easter
Preached in Ordinary Time on Genesis 18:1-15 and Matthew 9:35-38, this sermon dismantles the ‘good guy / bad guy’ lens we bring to Scripture, arguing it smuggles in works-righteousness. Using the difference between election (God’s gracious choice for a purpose) and selection (exclusive, attribute-based choosing, illustrated by picking peaches and partners), it shows that grace goes to the undeserving, as with barren Sarah’s laughter and the birth of Isaac. It rejects Calvinist selective predestination in the Wesleyan vein and reframes evangelism as compassion (‘suffering with’) rather than recruitment, calling laborers into Jesus’ plentiful harvest. The children’s message extends the shepherd theme: we are not dismissed but sent to be shepherds to the aimless.
Illustrations: ephraim-good-guy-bad-guy, survivor-reality-tv-rooting, selecting-a-peach, choosing-a-partner, political-election-yard-signs, sheep-without-a-shepherd
June 14, 2026
Ordinary Time
Genesis 18:1-15
“The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My Lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?” The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”” Genesis 18:1-15
“Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”” Matthew 9:35-38
When Ephraim was younger, if we were ever watching a movie or a show, or even reading a book, one of his first questions would be, “Who’s the good guy? Who’s the bad guy?” It was always, “Who’s the good guy?”
Sometimes we’d say, we need to wait and see because we dont know yet. Or, it is complicated: it’s a good guy who’s actually a bad guy, or a bad guy who’s actually a good guy. Someone who looks like a good guy but is really a bad guy. Or someone who looks like a bad guy but is really a good guy.
All of these typologies, putting people into buckets — these are helpful frameworks for children to understand stories, but also for grown-ups. We like to know who we’re rooting for.
TV shows set this up. Reality TV was basically designed on this: give the audience someone to root for and someone to despise. Because if the audience doesn’t have any rooting interest, they aren’t gonna come back to see what happens. It’s this black-and-white view of conflict. Every season of Survivor begins with an exposition where the producers tell you exactly who to root for.
I think this is really important, because it shades how we read the Bible as Christians. So often we read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, by asking who the good guys are and who the bad guys are — when those aren’t categories God uses, or categories found in Scripture itself.
Take the story of Abraham and Sarah and the birth of Isaac. It takes place in Genesis 18, this period after Abraham has had a child with Hagar.
What that story often does is give sympathy — especially today — to Hagar and Ishmael. Which is good and generous. Those poor people, kicked to the curb by Sarah. But Sarah and Abraham are both complex figures who don’t fit neatly into “good guy, bad guy.”
See, the problem with the good-guy, bad-guy narrative structure is that it sneaks in works-righteousness. We think God should bless the people who deserve it, when in reality, the narrative of all of biblical history, all of Christian history, is that grace goes to the undeserved. Or else it wouldn’t be grace.
The story of Abraham and Sarah and the birth of Isaac — and that joy — emerges from its undeservedness. Sarah was barren all her life, into her old age. Into her 70s. It was impossible. God gave her a child but also the strength to have a child. And she just laughed — and laughed. She was hardly able to have a child. She didn’t deserve it — but children aren’t about deserving.
This gets to something I’ve been thinking about a lot theologically recently: the difference between election and selection.
Now, election, for most of us, is a very secular category. It’s the signs you put in your lawn. It’s the arguments you have with your cousins on Facebook. But it’s a much older theological term than a political one. Political elections are fairly recent in the history of the world — that is, for most of us, unless you were of the senatorial class or the upper class. Theologically, election has been part of Christian theology for hundreds and hundreds of years, as well as Jewish thought.
Election means a decision, a choice for a purpose. You elect someone for something. You select someone because of something. We can see the difference between election and selection in many stories throughout Scripture, throughout the Old Testament and the New: God doesn’t look at the attributes of people. Take the story of David and his brothers. God doesn’t look to see who’s going to be the most qualified or the most handsome to be king — he looks at the heart. God looks at the heart. Earlier, with Jacob and Esau, there’s a sense that Esau probably deserved the birthright, deserved these other things — but God does not look at the attributes. And that’s not a way to get around selection, anyway. What God sees is beyond us. That’s where grace comes in.
See, the thing about selection is that it’s always exclusive. If you select one thing, you’re not selecting the other. You are selecting it for this reason.
Think about selecting peaches. You pick up one. You feel it. A little mushy. You put it back. You pick up another one. A little too hard. Unripened. You put it back. Finally, you find the perfect peach. Just a little give but no bruising. You smell the stem and it smells like a peach. You have selected a peach in part by distinguishing and separating it from the other less optimal peaches.
Or in another more personal example, think of choosing a partner, the attributes you find attractive, the personality, etc.. Part of selecting a partner is deselecting others. It is a zero sum situation.
What is important in all of this is that God does not base God’s love on anything we bring to the table. God doesn’t select some and damn others. That is, God doesn’t choose people for this reason or for that reason.
This was the calvinist ideology John Wesley and the early Methodists argued against again and again. It denies grace by assuming a God who is either arbitrary or wickedly selective. A God who judges us by our attributes, our works, a God who doesn’t judge as the God in the Bible judges.
This is part of seeing past the good-guys-and-bad-guys thing. It’s not that there isn’t wickedness in this world — but that the people in this world aren’t divided between the good and the bad. People aren’t divided between the deserving and the undeserving. And this goes for people we know and people we don’t know. Jesus never says, “Go feed the deserving poor and ignore the undeserving poor.” Jesus never says, “Forgive the deserving person, and ignore the undeserving ones,” We keep sneaking this works righteousness in, over and over again, in our practical theology. Jesus never says, “Now when you sin, make sure you say you’re sorry like you mean it.” That would be a qualifier. And there aren’t a lot of qualifiers that Jesus throws around. Jesus doesn’t say, “Follow me unless you don’t feel like it.” He doesn’t say, “if someone strikes you, turn the other cheek, unless they are mean, then sock ‘em with a left cross.”
So much of it comes down to how we see ourselves. Do we include ourselves in the in-group or the out-group? Whatever the case, Jesus didn’t separate like this. When Jesus went out to the villages, he had compassion on all of them, on sight.
This is the heart of evangelism: this compassion. Not pity. Not good guys and bad guys. Not bringing people onto our team. Not recruitment, not sales. But compassion — suffering with, feeling with. God offers us life when we don’t deserve it. God offers us a future when we don’t deserve it. We’re not selected by God based on our CV, based on how we look in the mirror. We’re all sinners in need of grace.
Jesus says the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. The harvest is plentiful because there are many who need mercy and grace, love and transformation in this world. Many of them need their walls of pride torn down. And the laborers are few — because to labor with Jesus is to have compassion with Jesus. To see as God sees. To have our hearts break as God’s heart breaks.
As we continue in this Ordinary Time, may we not seek to separate ourselves from others, may we not seek to be the good guys or the bad guys — may we humbly receive grace when we don’t deserve it, because we only ever receive grace when we don’t deserve it. May we respond joyfully, like Sarah, to the great gift offered to us. And may we graciously receive the encouragement of Jesus to go forth and offer God’s grace to others, out of compassion — to see the grace given to us as something worth sharing, a light we should not hide.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Children’s message
What does a cow say?
What does a duck say?
What does a sheep say?
The Bible talks about sheep a lot. Sheep were really important. But a sheep without a sheepard is lost. Sheep were trained to live with humans a long time ago so they don’t know how to live alone. they can’t protect themselves. They are aimless
One day, Jesus saw a group of people who were hurting and he said they were like sheep without a shepherd, so Jesus wanted to send people out to help them.
We try to follow that every week at Covenant. I want you to pay attention the very end of the service today. I always say, you don’t leave church, you are sent. One way you are sent is to be shepherds to lost sheep. To help people who are aimless. That includes you kids. You can help others who aimless or hurt or lost by having compassion. On the playground. When you go back to school, you can look to other people with compassion.