Abraham and Sarah have this habit. I wonder if we recognize it, in ourselves. This habit of trying to solve their own problems, answer their own prayers, write their own endings. God is never moving fast enough for them. God is not doing what they want God to do when they want God to do it. Abraham and Sarah keep jumping in and fixing it where God hasn’t gotten around to it, yet. The act of waiting is not their strongest suit. They will just take care of it. Do you know this habit?
God promised that Abraham would be the father of many nations, even when he had no children. In the minds of Sarah and Abraham, God was taking God’s sweet time in bringing that to fruition. They decided to jump start the process. Knowing that the intimate relations of a man and woman are the pretext for the birth of a child, they try multiple things. Sarah schemes and conspires that perhaps it is her old age and body that is limiting their child bearing. Sarah compels Abraham to rape Hagar to move the process along. Hagar, slave to her mistress Sarah, mistreated and abused in every way, is forced to bear the child of Abraham. Hagar births Ishmael and cares for him lovingly and as though he was the son of a father of many nations. Covering all the bases, Abraham twice lies about Sarah being his wife. While there is technical truth in the genealogy, the first relationship between Abraham and Sarah is husband and wife. Abraham lies to open the door to letting the pharaoh or the king impregnate his wife, in case he is the limiting factor to the birth of their child. Surely, they have covered all the bases! They were going to take care of fulfilling the promise that God had made.
Abraham and Sarah need to both let go of stage managing God’s path to the covenant and live in the moment of experiencing God with them. God has their back. The center of the passage we heard this morning was the birth of Isaac. The one for whom Sarah laughed and Abraham glowed. Isaac, their link to genealogy, their hope for the future, their reminder that God was always working and keeping promises. Isaac was born.
God has their backs all along. Abraham and Sarah and baby Isaac are living into the promises of God and all is right with the world. Until Sarah comes to realizes that Hagar and Ishmael are still there. The celebration of the weaning of Isaac has come. This little one is no longer an infant, a toddler, or probably even a preschooler – Isaac is a young man. He is ready to learn from his father, but Ishmael is still there! Will Abraham split his attention? Will it be unclear who is the true heir of the covenant? Sarah takes back control of the story.
Here, we find Hagar expelled by Sarah. Hagar is reminder of when Sarah did not trust God’s promises. Hagar is a reminder of Sarah’s brash and abusive ways. Hagar as a person is not considered. She is removed from the family and sent away. The end is not far. She has a minimal amount of bread and water. Hagar and Isaac are in the desert left to starve. Hagar is so bereft, she cannot stand watching her son die. She calls out to God.
God hears Hagar. God did not cause her enslavement or her horrendous treatment by Sarah. God did not orchestrate her expulsion or applaud her limited resources. Rather, in the midst of believing that her life was soon to end and she would watch her son die of starvation and dehydration, God hears her. God leads her and Ishmael to a well in the desert. They are cared for in their most immediate need and throughout their lives.
This is the second time in seven chapters that Hagar experiences a theophany, the manifestation of God.1 God first sees her, then God hears her. Hagar, whose name is a title that means the resident alien, is loved and valuable to God.1 God has got their backs. Notice how God does not pick which ones. God is the God of Abraham and Sarah, fulfilling the promises of covenant. God is the God of Hagar and Ishmael, not forgetting those abused and rejected by others, but rather seeing and hearing them and caring for their needs.
When someone has your back, there is a promise of unconditionality. Without restrictions or strings attached, support is offered. Without knowing the whole story, without needing to weigh the good and the bad, when someone has your back, you are set , especially if it’s God!
Jesus had the back of the disciples. Jesus teaching and preaching, challenging and comforting has the backs of disciples even today. Jesus said, If you want to be my disciples, do what I do. Serve others first and then consider the naysayers. Get the backs of the oppressed and the downtrodden. Work with those who need it most. Follow my life lived as a schematic of how to be a follower.
Working with and for God on Labor Day weekend, leads us to think about work. Labor Day originated in America in the late 1800s are labor movements gained energy. Many of these movements for safe working conditions, eliminating child labor legally, and fairer wages. It was the Catholic Worker, Methodist Federation of Social Action, Social Up-lifters of the Presbyterian Church, and other people of faith led the charge for social gospel as lived out in the labor movement. It was people of faith taking seriously the call to follow Jesus as one who has the backs of the downtrodden and oppressed. God had their backs with the assist from those on the ground.
On this Labor Day weekend, we are reminded that we have work. We have the work of waiting for how God is living out God’s promise of covenant. We have the work of answering the call to labor for Jesus to care for those affected by Hurricane Harvey. We have the work of standing up to white supremacy and racism, political leaders who co-op faith for their purposes, and every time God’s way is pushed aside for the agenda of fear.
So, you might feel like Abraham and Sarah, where the waiting on God is too much and you would rather stage mange your own life (thank you very much!) or you may feel like Hagar, life is happening to you and around you. Wherever you find yourself this morning, oppressed or oppressive, eager to wait on God or wanting to orchestrate each step, God has not left you. God’s promises still hold. God still has your back!
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
1https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/people/main-articles/hagar
Old Testament Lessons: Genesis 20: 10-12, 17 and 21: 1-20 (The Voice, paraphrased)
Abimelech (to Abraham): What have you done to us? What were you thinking? What have I ever done to deserve your bringing such great shame and guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done to another human being.
Abraham: I did it for my own protection. I did it because I thought this was not a God-fearing place, and I was afraid you would surely kill me to possess my wife. Besides, it isn’t entirely a lie. She really is my sister. She’s the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. But, of course, she did become my wife.
Abraham prayed to God on Abimelech’s behalf, and God healed Abimelech. He also healed the infertility that plagued Abimelech’s wife and female slaves enabling them to again bear children.
The Eternal One kept His promise, and Sarah conceived and gave birth to Abraham’s son (in their advanced age) exactly as the Eternal had indicated. Abraham named his child, who was born to Sarah, Isaac; and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, just as God had told him to do.
Abraham was already one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.
Sarah: God had graced me with the gift of laughter! To be sure, everyone who hears my story will laugh with me. Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would one day nurse children? Yet I have given birth to his son at this late stage in life!
Time went on, and Isaac grew and was weaned from his mother. Abraham prepared a special feast in Isaac’s honor, to celebrate the day he was weaned. But a damper was put on the day when Sarah saw the son of Hagar (the Egyptian girl) bore for Abraham laughing and teasing her son. She became jealous and demanded of Abraham:
Sarah: Throw this slave woman and her son out right now! The son of this slave is not going to share inheritance along with my son, Isaac, if I have anything to do with it!
Sarah’s demand was extremely distressing to Abraham, since Ishmael was also his son. But God assured Abraham.
Eternal One: Don’t worry about the young man and your servant. Go along with whatever Sarah says, for through Isaac your covenant children will be named. As for the son of the slave woman, I will take care of him. I will raise up a nation through him as well because he is also your son.
So Abraham got up early in the morning, took bread and a container of water, and gave them to Hagar. He placed them on her shoulder, gave her the child-his firstborn-and sent her away. She left and wandered in the wilderness near Beersheba. When the water in the container was all gone, in desperation she left the child under the shade of one of the bushes. Then she walked off and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away.
Hagar: I can’t bear to watch my child die. (Though Ishmael is about 16 years old at this time, she still considers him her child.)
As she sat there, she cried loudly. God heard the voice of young Ishmael, and a messenger of God called out to Hagar from heaven.
Messenger: Why are you so upset, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. God has heard the voice of young Ishmael. Come now, lift him up, and take him by the hand. I have plans to make a great nation from his descendants!
Then God opened Hagar’s eyes. She looked up from her grief and saw a well of water not far away. She went over to it, filled the container she carried with water, and gave the young man a drink. God watched over him for the rest of his life. Ishmael grew up, lived in the wilderness, and became an expert archer.
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 16: 24-28
Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, September 3rd-Saturday, September 9th
Sunday: “God replied to Abimelech still in his dream, “Yes, I know you did this with integrity in your heart. It was I who prevented you from crossing the line.” Genesis 20:6. Your integrity is seen by God and supported by God. Where do you need God to help you stick to your principles?
Monday: “God graced me with the gift of laughter! To be sure, everyone who hears my story will augh with me!” Genesis 21:6. Join others in their moments of holy laughter! Open yourself up to sharing your story as well and letting others see God in your life!
Tuesday: “God watched over him for the rest of his life” Genesis 21: 20a. God’s commitment to watching over Ishmael did not even; not does God’s commitment to watch over you. Thanks be to God!
Wednesday: “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Matthew 16: 24. Where has your pride gotten in the way of the work to which Jesus has called you?
Thursday: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25. Work for Jesus often takes us into places and conversations that we did not expect. Pray for God to open your heart to your expectations be open to where God is leading.
Friday: “For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?” Matthew 16:26. Consider how you might focus on working for the kingdom, instead of working for your own reputation.
Saturday: “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.” Matthew 16: 27. We often imagined repaid to be negative. Where is your life being lived in such a way that God’s delight would be the response to what you have done?