As part of our worship service this morning, the kids, youth, and adults who were part of VBS shared with the congregation. I mention that because the theme was "living water." When I read the Scripture lesson, I realized that I could have really tied the sermon to the VBS theme if I had preached on the section of the passage where a well appears before Hagar's eyes after her encounter with God. But, I was stuck with the sermon below.
I actually preached these texts almost a year ago at church I served in OH. It was part of another preaching series, which meant that the sermon changed quite a bit as I emphasized different aspects of the story. It ended up being a sermon I liked preaching. Of course, I generally like sermons that are based on narrative stories. In some ways, the biblical story has such great narrative, the main task of preaching is to point to a few things and then get out of the way.
(Genesis 21:8-21) The child (Isaac) 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)
“Don’t Forget Hagar” July 2, 2017; Genesis 16: 1-16; Genesis 21: 8-21; SAPC, Denton
Introduction: We continue with stories of how Sarah and Abraham attempt to live out their faithfulness.
that sounds rather noble, doesn’t it?
In fact, the stories today read more like as soap or some reality TV series titled something like “Abraham and his women.”
Move 1: Good works in the midst of, sometimes in spite of, the people who whom God is dealing
a. Sarah and Hagar
1. Good relationship
2. Hagar appears to be the trusted slave of Sarai.
3. so trusted that when Sarah thinks that God need help living out the promise for Abraham to have a descendant, she decides Hagar should be the one to give birth to Abraham’s child.
4. If this were a reality TV series, they would show on prime time TV the conversation between Abraham and Sarah and then Sarah and Hagar.
5. Sarah puts a lot of trust in Hagar.
b. But then the relationship goes bad.
1. Sarah gets jealous when Hagar does indeed give birth to Ishmael.
2. Hagar is not innocent in all of this. The text tells us that when Hagar got pregnant, she looked with contempt at Sarah.
3. then we have the second story that takes places at Isaac’s circumcision. We are told that, “Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac” (Genesis 21:9).
4. 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.
5. Imagine the conversations that took place:
“She looked at me when Ishmael was born.”
“Can you believe she has me bear Abraham’s son and then treats me like this.”
“did you see how her son played with Isaac?”
“She’s crazy.”
6. We recognize the shortcomings of all the people involved in these stories because we see ourselves.
7. On our less than stellar days of being faithful, we are Abraham, or Sarah, or Hagar.
d. Yet in the midst of these crazy humans, glimpses of faithfulness emerge and God acts to save Hagar, Ishmael and keep the promise to Abraham and Sarah.
1. In Chapter 16 after the first falling out with Sarah, Hagar is in the wilderness when God finds her.
2. In fact, Hagar is the first person in the OT stories to be encountered by an angel of God, and she is the first person to give God a name (New Interpreter’s Bible: Genesis, 454).
3. She calls God the "God who sees" because God has seen her, the banished servant of Sarah.
4. In the second story, Hagar desperately turns to God again when she and Ishmael are banished into the wilderness. Again, God meets her and cares for her.
5. the promise to Sarah and Abraham will still be fulfilled, despite their meddling in the process.
the stories of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar, and Ishmael reveal the fallible humans who struggle to be faithful and the God who remains faithful.
Move 2: faith as short term gratification or long-term relationship
a. Last week, we focused on Abraham’s unwillingness to trust God when things became difficult.
b. This week, we still see the challenge of trusting God, but now we add the element of time.
1. In Sarah and Abraham we are reminded how difficult it it is to wait for God to act.
2. Walter Brueggemann: Hagar and Ishmael “are visible evidence that in the short run, initiative can be taken from God and things can be better” (Genesis, 152).
1. In the short run, Abraham and Sarah’s solution works. With the birth of Ishmael, Abraham does have a descendant.
2. But before Sarah and Abraham can take too much credit for helping God out (beware of saying, “God helps those who help themselves”), we are reminded that they have actually subverted God’s plan.
3. and created more problems.
4. Their impatience with God does not allow them to wait for God to act as God has promised.
c. On this 4th of July week-end, I am reminded our forefathers who crafted the Constitution that still guides our nation today.
1. The binding together of the 13 colonies meant that each colony and to agree to be part of something bigger, something beyond its own self-interest.
2. In the short-run, many of the colonies would have been better off seeking only what was best for them in the moment. But, they had to wisdom to recognize that in if they were interested in the long-run, they had to give up some of the short-term gratification and agree to work tougher for the long-term benefits.
c. Are you playing a short-game or long-game in your relationship with God?
1. Prayer life.
2. Short-term quick prayer in crisis. Crisis over. Boom. done, until the next time.
3. Or, is our prayer life a way to develop a long-term relationship with God?
4. Prayers building on each other; over the course of time, seeing how God has been at work; listening to where God is leading you beyond just the next moment.
5. God invites us into a long-term relationship.
6. but that also means waiting on God and allowing God to work on us in the long-term.
Move 3: Can’t finish my sermon without noting that 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. God hears Hagar’s cry.
6. God hearing the cries of the people is a hallmark of God in the story of Israel.
7. Exodus story begins with God hearing the cry of the Israelites slaves in Egypt.
8. The Psalmists repeat this motif often.
9. But before all that, God has heard the cry of Hagar?
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. Ishmael, Abraham’s son who is not part of the covenant God made with Abraham and Sarah, but still the son whom God saves.
conclusion: The Israelites gave God a name: they called God the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,”
But God is also the God of Hagar and Sarah.
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