"Doing It Yourself" Genesis 16: 1-6

Working on the sermon from the hospital in Texas!

We find Abram and Sarai trying to help God fulfill God's promise that they would have descendants.  Abram and Sarai doubt that they can have kids at their old age (or at least Sarai's), so Sarai sends Hagar to bear a child for Abram.  At first glance, this reads like Sarai and Abram doubt God's ability to fulfill the promise made, but further reflection leads to the realization that Abram and Sarai had waited ten years for God to fulfill the promise. Ten years!  That seems like quite a bit of patience to me.  And, having Hagar bear Abram's child seems to be a creative way of helping God fulfill the promise.   In today's world of instant gratification and access to all sorts of technology, I'm not sure we would act much differently.

But, it does not work.  Hagar does bear Abram's child, but it creates awkward moments.  And, we later discover that their way of helping God fulfill the promise was unnecessary -- Sarai, in fact,  will bear Isaac to fulfill the promise.

Not sure where to go with this text, although the point that sometimes we want to play God is the reason I picked this text.  Perhaps each of us can think of times when we decide to take things into our own hands, instead of patiently letting God take care of things.  But, it also makes me wonder about waiting for God and not using the gifts and resources God provides us along the way.  Communication (i.e. prayer) seems to be very important in trying to resolve that dilemma.

If we read more of the story, we discover that Sarai cannot handle having Hagar and her son Ishmael around as a reminder of her inability to have a child, so she banishes them.  It suggests to me that one of the problems of playing God is that it we cannot do it very well.

I am also struck by the desire and ability of God to not only fulfill the promise made to Abram and Sarai, but to redeem the brokenness felt by Hagar and Ishmael.  Maybe the point of the story is that God's desire to redeem trumps our inability to play God.

We are also reading as the first Scripture lesson a passage from Hebrews that speaks of Abraham's faithfulness. I found it interesting to think that by the time of the early church, Abraham's mistakes seemingly were forgotten and his faith is a model for the early Christians.  Maybe there is hope for us as well!