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Today we begin what will be a two-‐week journey into the book of Genesis, looking at how God established a chosen, priestly kingdom through the person of Abraham and his wife, Sarah. We are a Christian church in the twenty-‐first century, and we rightfully claim the life and ministry of Jesus Christ as our example for how God moves in the world. But God’s redemptive work began long before the incarnation of Jesus. These stories are our stories -‐ and they are always messy.
We Methodists believe that Scripture is only rightly interpreted in community -‐ when we dwell with the Word in prayer and conversation, bringing our own tradition, experience and reason to bear on a text. So today I invite you into a conversation as we hear the story of Abraham’s first son, Ishmael and his mother, Hagar. This is a challenging story, and we’ll leave many questions unanswered. We aren’t the only community to struggle with these stories. Jewish Rabbis have often used stories called “Midrash” to help fill in the gaps of a scriptural story in ways that align with the religious values of a particular community. First, a bit of context. Abram was a descendant of Noah, and he married Sarai, who was unable to bear children. In Genesis 12, when Abram was 75 years old, God called:
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Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you
will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, those who curse you I will curse; all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you. Gen. 12:1-‐3 CEB
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So Abram left, taking Sarai, his nephew Lot and all of their household and possessions. They depart and journey through the desert -‐ and a lot of stuff happens -‐ they become wealthy so Abram and Lot had to separate because the land couldn’t support all of their livestock, After he is targeted by others, Abram saves Lot, then God came to Abram in a vision:
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Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your protector. Your reward will be very great… Your heir will be your biological child. Look up at the sky and count the stars.
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Remember that Sarai couldn’t bear children. Naturally, she became impatient as they aged. Sarai decided to take her servant Hagar and give her to Abram as a wife, hoping that she would bear children for her and an heir for Abram. Hagar becomes pregnant but no longer respects Sarai, so she is treated harshly and flees into the wilderness. In the desert, Hagar is visited by an angel and told to return and make peace with Sarai -‐ that she will bear a son who will have many descendants. So she returns and bears a son, and Abram names him Ishmael, which means “God hears.”
When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord visited him again, changed his name to Abraham and Sarai’s to Sarah and promised that she would bear him a son, whom Abraham was to name Isaac. God promised to set up a covenant with him. Abraham asked God to accept Ishmael, but God says no:
As for Ishmael, I have heard your request. I will bless him and make him fertile and give him many, many descendants. He will be the ancestor of twelve tribal leaders,
and I will make a great nation of him. But I will set up my covenant with Isaac, who will be born to Sarah this time next year. Gen. 17:20-‐21
So Isaac is born to Sarah as God promised, and father Abraham has two sons. Now, hear our story for today: Gen. 21:8-‐21 CEB
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I did say it was messy! Because God’s promise to us comes through Isaac, we often pass over this part of the story and focus on the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac that we’ll explore next week. But I think we miss important insight into the nature of God, if we treat this episode with Ishmael and Hagar as a diversion.
Isaac’s birth was the fulfillment of a promise, but it presents a problem. Abraham has two sons. Both Ishmael and Isaac are children of promise -‐ God promised to make a
covenant through Sarah’s son, Isaac, but God also promised to make a great nation out of Ishmael. So it’s difficult to understand how God, Abraham and Sarah could act in this way. Abraham had raised Ishmael as his son, teaching him to hunt and take care of the family, and teaching him the ways of God. They were close to one another. Sarah had what she hoped for when she gave Hagar to Abraham as a wife -‐ an heir for Abraham.
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Hagar had been told of God’s promise to make a nation of Ishmael -‐ her future looked bright. But something happened on the day Isaac stopped nursing.
Those first few months of infant life at that time were very perilous. Since Isaac had survived his most vulnerable days, Abraham throws a celebration. Something ignited Sarah’s jealousy and anger and caused her to react harshly towards Hagar and Ishmael. She
demands that Abraham sends them away. Abraham was very upset at the idea of losing his son, but God got involved and told him to listen to Sarah. Although her motives and
methods were harsh, Sarah’s scheme is in line with God’s plan to make a covenant through Isaac, not Ishmael. So Abraham gives them a ration of bread and water and sends them away. The bread and water soon run out as they wander the desert.
Why would a rich man give such a meager ration? Some Jewish Midrash suggests that Abraham had not intended them to go very far away. Did Hagar lose her way in the desert? Did she wander in anger as a means of revenge? There is no clear answer, but it is clear that they did not wander alone. As she left Ishmael to die, God spoke to her through a
messenger:
Hagar! What’s wrong? Don’t be afraid. God has heard the boy’s cries over there. Get up, pick up the boy, and take him by the hand because I will make of him a great nation.
Gen 21:17-‐18
Then God opens her eyes and she sees a well and gives the boy a drink.
It is interesting to note that Ishamel and Isaac are present together at Abraham’s burial. Some scholars thing Abraham may have remarried Hagar after Sarah’s death. Either way, God establishes two separate lines of descendants through Abraham, and God chooses to make a covenant with the descendants of Isaac.
I suspect that, for the most part, our modern ears hear this story and empathize with Abraham, who did not want to send away his son. The idea that God would choose one line over another also seems scandalous in our culture, in which we value fairness and
egalitarianism. But that is a common depiction of how God works in Genesis and the OT. Those who are chosen are called to high standards and often presented with difficult trials.
The dismissal of his son is certainly a difficult trial for Abraham. It must surely have hurt as bad as the familiar “sacrifice of Isaac” story we’ll hear next week. In fact, the two stories share a similar structure. In both stories, Abraham rises early in the morning. He gathers a ration of food and water. And in the midst of the most troubling part of the story, God is present to give sight. God opens Hagar’s eyes to see a well, and Abraham’s eyes are opened to see a ram that can be used as a sacrifice in place of Isaac. I think that means that in the mind of the author, these two stories are divinely important -‐ equal parts in God’s plan for Abraham.
So what does this mean for us in our place in time. First, I think this story confirms that God’s nature is one of goodness and mercy. We know this from our experience of how God is revealed in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, but God’s presence with Hagar and Ishmael confirm that mercy is part of God’s nature and all of God’s activity. God hears the cry of the needy.
Second, this story confirms yet again that God does not perfect people before calling them. God chooses to work through whomever is present at the time and gives them what they need to be of use. I’m thankful for that. That’s the way it is in communities of faith, too. Did anyone watch our General Conference from a few years ago? Imperfect for sure, and yet those who are called to service in the life of our church are helping change lives all over the world every day. On a smaller scale, that happens in our church every day, as we seek to meet the needs of our community as best we can.
It doesn’t happen only in the church. While in between church appointments I spent a few months working in the produce department at my neighborhood Publix. I watched how a person who chooses to live out their faith can have a profound impact on the lives of her or his employees. The manager should have had the title produce manager/pastor, because he was very much a pastoral figure for his employees and coworkers. I also learned firsthand how a tomato can be a means of grace… [story]
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God was with the boy… Gen. 21:20
Third, this story in the context of God’s choice of Isaac shows that being chosen does not entitle a person or community to an exclusive claim on God’s presence and mercy. In the midst of the desert, God was with Ishmael, the one dismissed, and God prospered him.
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John Wesley even commented on this dynamic in his notes on Genesis:
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The casting out of Ishmael was not his ruin. He shall be a nation because he is thy seed. We are not sure that it was his eternal ruin. It is presumption to say that all these who are left out of the external dispensation of God’s covenant are excluded from all his mercies. Those may be
saved who are not thus honored.
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This means we should rejoice that God’s acts of salvation and mercy are not confined to God’s chosen community but take place in even the most godforsaken places in the world -‐ as this story shows us, even among people who seem to be excluded from the people of God.
It doesn’t seem honest to share about this story without acknowledging that Muslims are the spiritual descendants of Ishmael, as we are the spiritual descendants of Isaac, tracing their ancestry to father Abraham through his son. That is about one billion souls, 85% of whom live outside the middle east, all descendants of God’s promise to Ishmael. Combined with various expressions of Christianity, that makes over 3 billion
children of promise. Our human imperfection, too often expressed in fear and hate, is driven by the false notion that God is something we can control. We serve a creative, Creator God who finds ways to do the work of redemption, sometimes in spite of us.
Finally, the selection of Isaac reminds us that how we treat the Ishmaels of the world is deeply important. Abraham and Isaac were chosen so that the world could be blessed through them. Ishmael and Hagar are the poster-‐children for the outcasts and refugees of the world. We who are the spiritual descendants of Isaac are called to be present with those who suffer, to hold them up and to help them become whole.
I’m grateful to have had the chance to be part of the English as a Second Language ministry at Hillcrest UMC, my previous appointment. This ministry started as a way to reach out to immigrant families that settled in South Nashville. At present, it is a cooperative ministry between Hillcrest UMC and Catholic Charities, teaching english and life skills (American life skills) to groups of refugees who have been re-‐settled to Nashville from literally all over the world. [story]
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Ishmaels in our own back yard.
Thanks be to God for mercy that is wide and deep. God sees. God hears. God saves.
