SCRIPTURE: Genesis 21:1-21
TEXT: 17a And God heard the voice of the boy; THEME: God hears all of our cries. INTRODUCTION When we feel threatened, our fear dictates our actions. We will even be willing to hurt others, to ensure our protection and security. SCRIPTURE Isaac has reached the age when his chances for survival are assured. He has passed all of the perils of his first year of life. So, Abraham celebrated with a one-year old baby luau. A joyous event until, his wife Sarah observed the older half sibling playing with Isaac. She had a dark revelation. Maybe it was just how this older child was so dominate over his younger sibling. Sired by her husband, Hagar’s son is seen as an immediate threat. Egyptian, foreign and entitled to a double portion of Abraham’s inheritance. These two will always be in competition with each other. There will be a constant pull and fight between them. Sarah is motivated by a fear of scarcity. She tells her husband that she wants the slave woman with her son casted out of their household. Abraham is distressed. How could he do such a thing. This was, after all, his son too. He is a life and deserves a chance to live. Abraham is a troubled soul, wanting to take into consideration his wife’s concerns and fears, but at the same time feeling for the wellbeing of his son and Hagar. God speaks to him, “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 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.” This story is filled with so many regrets, I shouldn’t have received Hagar into my household, I should have trusted God more and not try to accomplish for God what only God could do, I should not have slept with her and fathered a child. Now I have a child through Sarah and things would be been better without them. But they deserve a chance to life on their own. We can’t live with the “should have’s”. We have to live with the “what is” and trust that God will help us through the complicated messes we find ourselves in. God sees a greater picture than of Abraham’s household and legacy. There are plans and promises far greater than establishing a Nation of God, it is for all people, to be a people with faith in God, for all to be in relationship with God. After all, we all share God’s DNA at creation. We are interconnected, made in the image of God. This makes Abraham feel better. The next morning Abraham takes some bread and a skin of water and gives it to Hagar, along with her son and sends them along their way in the wilderness. Abraham is a nice guy and wants to make everybody happy, but he is not a very detailed oriented person. He could have given Hagar a donkey, with more water, and other supplies, in addition some money and a tent. But he trusts that God promise will take care of them. So, he gives them their freedom and not very much more. After the water runs out, Hagar is ready to die in the desert, but can’t bear to watch her child die. So, she moves away from him, about the length of a football field. She lifts up her voice, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” and weeps. God heard the voice of the boy. Why is that we ask? Because, although his name is never mentioned in this passage, Ishmael means, “God heard”. It is like a haunting whisper in the passage. And “Ishmael” God heard, the voice of the boy. And angel of God calls out to Hagar and says, “Ishmael” God heard the voice of the boy.” “I will make a great nation of him,” God opens her eyes and she saw a well of water. God was with the boy and he grew up, lived in the wilderness and his mother found him a wife from Egypt. God’s promise is greater than the covenant that he made with Abraham. The covenant with Abraham is to be a people with land that would be a blessing to all people. It is a means, to include all people into an active, relationship with God. The relationship God has with Ishmael is filled with a promise of God. Outside of the covenant with Abraham but within the promise of God, God hears, God heard, Ishmael. APPLICATION Ishmael’s story tells us about God’s care and providence. God’s care is not limited just to Abraham and his family as God’s mercy extends to Hagar and to her son. God hears their cries of abandonment. God hears the cry of the outcast, at the hands of greed. After all, all Sarah was doing was protecting her own self-interest, at the expense of Hagar and her son. Sarah’s actions cause deadly peril to the Egyptian slave and her son, but God does not seem them as foreign, or diminished but as made in the image of God and saves them. We live in a world where our greed and protection of our own self-interest, creates all kinds of evil; people are outcast instead of included, walls are built up instead of relationships, we violently protect what we have instead of share with those who are in need. We discriminate instead of embrace. We enslave instead of respect. God listens to the cries of those suffering injustices, when we also are willing to hear their cries, we can begin to take action. As followers of God, we enter uncomfortable spaces that disrupt our relationships to power and disrupt relationships, even with those closest to us. It has taken us a long time to apply the Gospel of Jesus and challenge slavery in the United States. And now when we hear the cries against gun drawn police and the negative profiling of people of color, our Gospel of Jesus needs to speak to this. We as Christians bring God’s love and justice into the world. In what ways can we can take action for those who are suffering? We can see and listen. Just by being attentive, as we listen to the cries for help, the sobbing in the shadows and the angry protest in the streets, we can listen to the words being spoken, the raw emotions being expressed and pain that has been inflicted. It is distressing. We may even be deeply disturbed but as we turn to God, our concerns are heard. And as God hears, even with our good intension and halfcocked ideas, God will formulate a plan that will lead us to action. It will confront the norms that we have thought as truth. It may lead to a civil war or freedom marches. It may take years to execute or be an uncontrollable wave that we will surf as best we can. Colin Kaepernick has long been criticized because he saw the racial inequity of force and violence by law enforcement against black lives. He used his fame and position to draw attention to this. The power structures in the NFL weren’t willing to admit their role in contributing to this problem. It is only now, in light of George Floyd’s death and the outrage this as created, that we see this incident as another chapter in a long story of racial injustice and this is enough. We see and listen to what God is saying to us about the cries of our nation is for justice. CONCLUSION When God extends care to an Egyptian slave and her son, God is for all people. God’s promises are for all people. God may have a bias for Abraham and Sarah but it is to be an example to reveal to all and not an exclusivity. God reveals God’s self to us in the stories of the Hebrews, through the journey of their parents Abraham and Sarah, and their descendants. Encounters with God are not limited to Sarah and their kids. God speaks to Hagar who blesses Ishmael. God promises us and is revealed in our stories of faith. God is still listening.
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