A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, June 22, 2008
Genesis 21:8-21
Long, long ago, in the earliest times – long before people knew how to read and write, they told stories: stories of faith and hope, stories of war and peace, stories about friends and enemies. We’re told that Abram and his wife Sarai went from the faraway country named Haran to the land of Canaan. One day the Lord God appeared to them and said “follow me to a land that I will show you!” That’s all God said.
They followed. The Lord led them to Shechem (modern day Nablus) and there Abram built an altar. The Lord led them to Bethel, a little north of Jerusalem and Abram built an altar there, too. Then the Lord said: “I’ll give this land to your descendents.” Sounded like a good plan. Abram and Sarai waited and waited.
Because of a famine in the Land, Abram and Sarai and their people went to Egypt for food. A little later, when there was food back in Canaan, Pharoah sent them home. Sarai brought a servant with her – an Egyptian woman named Hagar.
God had promised to give the land to Abram’s children but they had no children. Abram and Sarai kept waiting for God to give them a son. Finally Sarai said “if I can’t have a child, and God wants you to become a father, perhaps Hagar, my servant, can bear a son.” And she did. And she named him Ishmael [which means “God hears.”]
When Abram was 99, and Sarai 90, God came to them and told him to change his name to Abraham, and that Sarai would now be called Sarah. They did as they were told. A little later three strangers – angels really – came to Abraham and Sarah and told them she really was going to bear a child. When Sarah heard the news she laughed… and she bore a son named Isaac which means “he laughed”!
This is a thin and quick summary of Genesis, starting in chapter 12, leading into today’s lesson. When Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, turned three and was weaned, Abraham threw a party. The whole clan gathered to celebrate. When Sarah saw her son Isaac playing with Hagar’s son Ishmael – she exploded and demanded that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away forever. Abraham didn’t know what to do. He had two sons, their two mothers, two promises – no easy way out. But recalling God’s promise of a great nation descended from him and Sarah, Abraham gave Hagar and Ishmael a supply of water and a little food and sent them out into the wilderness.
The wilderness – the place that every one of us has wandered at some point; any place, really, where we lose our bearings and fear overtakes hope. The wilderness is the spiritual place where we come to believe that we can’t survive unless we treat everyone else like the enemy.
When the food and water ran out, Hagar put her son in the shade of the scrub-brush and walked away in tears so she wouldn’t have to watch him die. Then an angel appeared to Hagar and said “God has heard the cries of your son Ishmael, and will make from him a great nation.” And when she looked up she saw a well running over with fresh water.
And the next verse says “God was with the boy…” and he grew up living in the wilderness. And a great nation descended from him.
It’s an amazing story – well worth careful reading. It’s a story of God’s blessings in our lives. God blessed Sarah with the birth of a long-desired child. God blessed Hagar by hearing her son’s cries and saving them from a lonely death in the desert. From each came a great nation.
You probably know that the Jews are the descendents of Isaac, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. And Ishmael? Well, his descendents are the Arabs, neighbors of the Israelites, and from them came a great prophet named Muhammad in the 7th century, and from him have come the Muslims. That, as they say, is the rest of the story!
I have to wonder something: I wonder if this story led to the ancient antagonism between Jews and Arabs, or if the antagonism led to the telling of this story. It’s most interesting that Jews and Christians don’t pay much attention to the story, while Muslims teach it as a central part.
Sarah reminds me that God gives us many blessings. She so wanted a child and God heard her prayers and God blessed her. But sadly her own blessing made her jealous of others’ blessings. She was sure that if Hagar’s child inherited anything that her child would be the poorer.
Maybe we struggle with that same feeling – that we lose something we deserve when we share the blessing with others – that there’s less for us when God gives some to others. Clearly that’s not the way God saw it. God blessed Sarah and her son and Hagar and her son. There were blessings enough for all. We’re the ones who are afraid that there isn’t enough to go around.
It’s called scarcity thinking – the idea that there’s never enough to go around and that the world must follow a win-lose strategy. You fight to the finish and then the winner may choose to reward a few loyalists.
•It’s true in our US two-party political process as candidates of the same party try to put each other down without doing too much damage… all for the privilege of fighting with the winner from the other party.
• It’s true in our foreign policy as we watch the steady retreat of former allies who thought we would collaborate as we built a brighter future for all people.
Like Sarah of old, we can slip into that attitude of caution and fear. We can try to hoard the blessing, believing that God really intended it all for us in the first place.
When we’re so blessed, do we imagine all this is ours to save; to hoard and pass to our own children? Or will we hear God’s reminder of the greater good, calling us to be a blessing to others?
Today’s story from scripture teaches us that God showers down blessings in different lives, in different ways, but every one of us is an inheritor of the Promise.
We can so easily take for granted the blessings of freedom and plenty while many of our neighbors live in fear. The feelings of anxiety are deepening all around the world.
God is at work in our lives, in the love and comfort of our homes, and in the streets of Jerusalem and Nablus; God is powerfully present in the joy of the mother who takes her child to the beach then out for ice cream; and in the heart ache of the mother who has neither food nor water for her child.
God is at work in the lives of those generous folks in our congregation who donate used children’s clothing to the Children’s Closet; in the volunteers who clean and sort and fold the clothes and staff the program; and God is at work in the parents who come here to take the free clothing to provide for their children.
God is at work in the loving kindness of so many who contribute to our church, so we can steadfastly make real the claim that no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey you’re welcome here. Here we come as people of faith to baptize an infant, receive new members, lift to God the life and spirit of a loved one who has died.
I often imagine Jesus is there in the Wayside Soup Kitchen – both in the hearts of the diners and the servers.
As you and I wonder how we’ll deal with heating oil at twice last year’s price, don’t give in to the wilderness feelings. Remember that our church’s heating bill will double, and so will the heating bills of our neighbors who come to us through Community Crisis Ministries. What would it say about us if we pulled back in fear?
Then why do some have so much more while others don’t have enough even to survive? I can’t answer that.
The only question we really need to answer is whether we’ll use all these blessings so we can be a blessing to others. God helps us make ways in the wilderness, and challenges us to live justly with all people, letting go of the fear and embracing this creation with joy.