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Learning from Sarah & Hagar Genesis 21: 8 – 21 Matthew 10: 24 – 39 The story of Sarah and Hagar and their sons, Isaac and Ishmael is an emotionally charged story of human frailty which still speaks into our lives today. The narrative starts with a celebration and ends with a celebration and sandwiched between these two events is a lethal of cocktail of emotions which include jealously, distress, despair, hope, excitement and of course fear. Of all the emotions in this narrative, I think it is fear that features most prominently. The story highlights how fear can cause us to behave badly and how our fears can bring us to the brink of despair. It makes the point that unless we deal wisely with our fears they have the potential to be very destructive in our lives and on the lives of those we love and clearly, the wise way to do this is to place our trust in God. Trusting in God is the antidote to fear. From the story we learn that no matter how bad things are, God will make good come of any circumstance if we trust in him. I invite you to take a look at the story by opening the bibles in the pews. You will notice that the story starts with a feast held to mark the weaning of Isaac, a child aged between one and three years old. Now you will remember that Isaac had a half brother called Ishmael who was born to Abraham and his wife’s Egyptian slave Hagar 13 years prior to the birth of Isaac. You will also remember that Hagar had acted as a surrogate mother because Sarah had been unable to bear Abraham a child and that it had been Sarah’s idea that Hagar should bear Abraham’s much longed for child. So Ishmael was born . His name means God hears and he was so named because Abraham and Sarah believed he was God’s answer to their prayer for a child. However, God is a God of Surprises and so when Ishmael was 13, Isaac was born much to the astonishment of his mother Sarah. As so often happens, the new addition to the family changed the dynamics in Abraham’s household and there was considerable tension between Sarah and Hagar. Sarah felt threatened by Ishmael and now deeply resented his mother Hagar and her son. Matters come to a head again as so often happens at a family celebration, when Sara lost it and made the deeply shocking demand that Abraham should throw Hagar and Ishmael out of the family home and send them into the desert and to certain death. One might well ask: Why does the great matriarch of the Bible behave so badly and why does the text make no attempt to cover up or explain her outrageous behaviour? One of the most remarkable things about the Bible is that it makes no effort to falsely protect the reputation of its characters. It is such an honest book and thank God for that for it is the honesty of the book which makes it so real and true to life. As such it becomes a rich and valuable resource for you and me as we endeavour to make sense of our reality, our own choices and behaviour and the behaviour of those whom God has placed in our lives. I can relate to Sarah because she is portrayed as a normal fallible human being, not some super hero. She makes it possible for me to believe that if God loves her then he can love me also. Like any other human being, she is capable of great love and sacrifice. Yet she is also capable of disgracing herself and hurting the very people she loves. She is a grateful mother. She is grateful for the much longed for son God has given her. She longs to protect him and give him the best she has to give. And she is protective, possessive and ambitious for the child she loves. Yet one might say that: “Her weaknesses are her strengths overdone.” As Sarah watches her son playing with Ishmael, her love for the boy makes her fall prey to shameful fears. She becomes fearful that Isaac will have to share his inheritance with another woman’s child. After all despite the class differences between them, Ishmael has entitlements as Abraham’s oldest son. This fear is otherwise known as jealousy, the green eyed monster that I’m sure you have experienced at some stage in your life, and I know I have experienced in my own! Her jealousy born of fear causes her to cheat Ishmael of his inheritance by pressurizing Abraham to abandon him and Hagar his mother. Indeed this God fearing woman who had so much for which to be grateful, effectively set out to murder them! Sarah had allowed her dark fears to cause her to spin out of control. As we look around our world and our communities and even our family life today, there remains unfortunately, much evidence that the greed, envy, jealousy and fear that plagued Sarah also haunt us and cause many people in our own communities to be abandoned in the emotional, social and economic wildernesses of life. And what of Hagar? Can there be a more heartbreaking scene as she watches her son die of dehydration. She must have felt desperately fearful. And for some of us, her desperation at the way her life was turning out and the harsh circumstances she was forced to bear, remind us of those dark days in our own lives. We are reminded of our own painful experiences when the world seems to be a very dark place and it feels hard to believe in a loving and caring God. We have all been there at some point in our lives and some of you may well be there right now. Many of us here today can find our own story in Hagar. She is the faithful worker who is exploited. She is the under-class abused by the ruling class. She is the woman with no rights. She is the foreigner, the refugee with no legal recourse. She is the other woman; the expelled husband or wife; the homeless; the unmarried mother; the divorced partner; the one who has been betrayed; the one the family has rejected and the list goes on. She is you or me when we find ourselves in that place where fears overtake us and God seems distant or absent. That dry place where we believe we have run out of water; that wandering place where we believe we are lost and all we can do is weep within from deep down in our souls. And yet, this is not merely a tragic story of fearfulness and despair. This, in a very real sense, is a victorious story of hope. For in that dry, dark, inhospitable place, where water has run out, and all seems lost, Hagar finds God. She learns that God has heard her cry of fear and the cry of her son, Ishmael . Look at the text, there we learn that the angel of God called to Hagar and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid.” We can imagine the angel of God standing there with arms wide open and a reassuring smile, inviting her to turn to God for help and to trust him. As she turns her eyes towards God, the angel offers her a seemingly impossible proposition: The angel tells her to go to Ishmael for this boy is not about to die. God has a plan for him that defies human logic. God has ordained that he will some day be the patriarch of a wonderful nation which tradition has it is the Arabic people. Thus in the midst of their anguish, God offers them the hope of a new and rich life filled with new adventures and opportunities. In her situation I am sure Hagar would have found it hard to believe this promise of a grand and wonderful life for them both, but the promise is invigorating and is followed by concrete evidence that God is not only at hand but in control of the situation. As she looks up from the depths of her despair, she sees the practical solution to her most pressing problem, a lack of water which is causing the dehydration of her son. “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.” In your own dark circumstance may the story of Hagar be a source of great encouragement for you to believe that no matter how desperate you feel at the moment, God has not abandoned you. He is there with you in the desert and he does have a plan for you that will work for good. Though you may find it hard to believe this, try looking for the small things that God is doing in your life at the moment, the solutions to the pressing dryness you may be experiencing and let these reassure you of his presence with you and of his hand on your life. Look up and see the well that is at hand to sustain you for today. It may come in the form a person, a gift, a small blessing. These gifts of grace are the angels God sends to show us in small ways that the big picture is rock solid for each of you. In Matthew 10: 20 - 21 Jesus tells us: “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid, you are worth more to God than many sparrows.” There are many times that we are too much like Sarah: greedy, mean spirited, overly ambitious and unfeeling, and today’s story serves as a teaching and as a warning for us when we are so. But there are times also, when we are crying in the desert and even before we are aware, the angel of the Lord is coming to quench our thirst and relieve our distress. For God who has claimed us, cares more for us than we can even imagine. God is always on the way even if our back is turned in hopeless grief. Let us take our fears to God knowing that in so doing we put our trust in the one for whom nothing is impossible and who will hear our call no matter where we are or who we are. Amen. Hungry Hungry I come to you For I know you satisfy. I am empty but I know Your love does not run dry And so I wait for you So I wait for you . I'm falling on my knees Offering all of me Jesus, you’re all this heart is living for. Broken I run to you For your arms are open wide I am weary but I know Your touch restores my life. |
