Reflections on "Hagar: the Other One" Genesis 16: 1-16; Genesis 21:8-21

I have never preached this text, but I am glad that I finally did.  I found it a fascinating play on the Abraham/Sarah/Isaac story.  Similar promises about future generations; similar saving grace of God at work.  I began with the idea of pursuing the theme of Hagar being cast out by Sarah and then God remembering her, and then added some of the parallel stuff later.  I enjoyed preaching this sermon.

(Genesis 21:8-21) 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. (NRSV)

“Hagar: the Other One” July 10, 2016; FPC, Troy; Genesis 16: 1-16; Genesis 21: 8-21

Introduction: Charlton Heston in his 1995 autobiography, *In the Arena* (Simon & Schuster), tells about the time he first heard that George Stevens wanted him to be in his production of *The Greatest Story Ever Told*. His agent said, "This is a very big picture, Chuck. *The Greatest Story Ever Told*. He wants you to play John the Baptist. It's the lead." Heston replied, "Herman, trust me on this: John the Baptist is NOT the lead in any movie called *The Greatest Story Ever Told*.

Imagine you are the casting director of today's stories.

Sarah gets the female lead. She will be the beautiful one, the woman who will end up with the leading man Abraham.

Hagar would be cast as the almost beautiful one. The one you meet and know she is not the star. The one who can never quite overcome the leading lady.

Minor characters – Hagar.

Her son Ishmael would not be up for Best Supporting Actor, either. Isaac has that role already taken.

In fact, the second story we read about Ishmael is sandwiched between the story of Isaac's birth and the powerful story of Abraham taking Isaac to be sacrificed, only to have his faith rewarded by God providing a ram to sacrifice.

Ishmael? Ishmael simply runs off, with little mention of him again.

Move 1: What can we say about Hagar?

a. I have to believe that Hagar is the trusted slave of Sarai.

1. Admittedly, sh is an Egyptian slave-girl, an outsider to God's people.

2.  But she is so trusted that when God promises Abraham and Sarah that Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the stars and Sarah doubts that God will be true to those words, she turns to Hagar.

“My servant girl will become like your wife and bear a child” who will be the beginning of a long line of descendants (as an aside, whenever you hear someone say, or you say, “God helps those who help themselves,” you might want to remember Sarah.

3. Not just anyone will do for what Sarah has in mind.

4. But Hagar will. agar to make the promise come true

5. In effect, Sarah does not trust God to deliver a baby to her; but she trusts that Hagar will

   b. Hagar is also the one who is sent away, the one who is dismissed.

             1.It sounds good in theory, but in practice it does not work so well. Sarah gets jealous when Hagar does indeed.

             2. How quickly Hagar quickly goes from slave who helps out master to the other one

3. Hagar is not innocent in all of this. The text tells us that when Hagar got pregnant, she looked with contempt at Sarah.

3. In the second story, “Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac” (Genesis 21:9).

Ishmael may be more innocent in his actions than Hagar.

3. In the Hebrew, the words, “with her son Isaac” don’t appear, though the Septuagint adds that phrase. The rabbis, perhaps to soften the blow of Sarah’s and Abraham’s subsequent actions, ascribe sinister motives to Ishmael; he is jealous of his little brother and torments him. The biblical phrase, however, has no such connotation. In fact, the word translated “playing” is a pun on Isaac’s name. Ishmael is simply laughing, enjoying himself at the feast. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2137; Kathryn M. Schifferdecker, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary,St. Paul, Minn.

3. Hagar, and Ishmael are sent away.

c. Hagar is the one who turns to God.

1. In Chapter 16 after the first falling out with Sarah, Hagar is in the wilderness when God finds her.

2. She calls God the "God who sees" because God has seen her, the banished servant of Sarah.

3. In the second story, Hagar desperately turns to God again when she and Ishmael are banished into the wilderness.

Move 2: What can we say about God?

a. God hears their cries.

1. does that sound familiar?

2. straight out of the Exodus story. The story of God leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt begins when God hears the cries of the Israelites.

3. the Psalmists repeat this motif often.

4. But before all that, God has heard the cry of Hagar?

5. Immediately after the second story we read this morning, Abraham takes Isaac up a mountain to sacrifice him as a sign of Abraham's faithfulness to God. At the last moment, God provides a sacrifice from the bushes to replace Isaac.

5. Notice that God provides a well for Hagar and a promise that Ishmael's descendants will be a nation before God provides for Abraham to save Isaac..

6. God hears Hagar's cries and provides in the immediate moment and gives hope for the future.

c. God hears your cries.

1. our faith journeys have stories of when we know God has heard our cries.

2. I have heard you stories and know that time and again you have cried out to God and God has answered.

3. Sometimes we have to trust in the moment when we cry out, trust without proof in that exact moment.  Some of us have cried out, and we still wait for God to answer our cries.

4. Hagar had to take God at God's word. The promise that a nation will descend from Ishmael will not be borne out until well into the future.

5. That makes faith hard, I suppose, but our faith is in the God who has heard and continues to hear the cries of God's people.

500. how do we hear the cries of others?

1. do you hear the cries of people in our world?

2.  The cries of sons and daughters whose police officer parents were targeted by a sniper?

3. Or the cries of family members whose loved ones were killed in a terrorist bombing?

2. Or the cries of sons and daughters whose parent were killed after being pulled over by police.
3. people who cry out for peace in our war-torn world.

3.  people who cry out for justice.

4.  Hungry people who cry out for food.

       5. As the people of God, the one who hears their cries, how well are we listening and responding?

Move 3: One more thing we can we say about God.

    a. God does not do disposable.

          1. Sarah easily discards Hagar.

2. Abraham a bit more reluctantly, but he still disposes of Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness.

           3. But not God.

           4. God will not dispose of nor forget Hagar, the Egyptian outsider slave, or her son Ishmael.

5. Lillian Daniel, the UCC minister, speaker and writer tells the story of the congregation she served in a wealthy suburb of Chicago. How the congregation met resistance for doing a shelter ministry in their downtown church. The criticism? homeless people are sitting on their benches and going into the Starbucks nearby.

In response, Daniels writes, “in the world, there may be assigned seating, but in the kingdom of heaven there is not.” [Lillian Daniel, when “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is not Enough (95)]

6. In Hagar's case, we might even add not only is there not assigned seating, but God goes out to find those who are not at the table.

7. sounds like a parable Jesus will tell or a comment on who is invited to our Lord's Table, doesn’t it?

8. Or consider this story about baptism: Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Durham, authorized the first baptism of an African-American child.

The pastor had made it clear he was going to do it. The deacons met and voted to support the pastor. One of the deacons came home and told his wife about the meeting. “How did you vote?” she asked.

“As we were talking,” he said, “I thought, ‘How could I vote to not baptize a child?’” (story told by Milton Brasher-Cunningham, on his blog, Don't Eat alone, on May 19, 2008, can we talk?; http://donteatalone.com/can-we-talk/)

A child of God, claimed by God in baptism, regardless of race.

b. God does not see you as disposable.

1. You have value because God has chosen to be in relationship with you.

2. It is not conditional.

3. It does not matter whether you are a young child who barely knows about God; or a teenager who is struggling to figure out who you are; or a young adult whose not sure about who God is; or an adult whose life is so busy he forgets about God; or an older adult who wonders if her life has any value at that point in life.

4. the one who called you into being will not forget about you; God claims you and invites you into a future full of God's promises.

              5. You have value in God's eyes.

c. How do we give value to others?

1. Ishmael – forefather to Mohammed, the one to whom the Muslims turn.

2. that ought to give us pause when whenever we lump people into categories to determine who is in and who is out.

3. the biblical text begins to refer to God as the “God of Abraham and Isaac,” but we also remember that this God is the “God of Hagar and Ishmael” as well.

Conclusion: Hagar and Ishmael are minor characters, otherwise they would not be part of my sermon series on minor characters! We also know the stories of Abraham and Sarah – in fact, we know a lot about them, how they were faithful and how they were less than faithful.

And God claimed all of them; God claims all of us. Amen.