Thoughts going in, Sunday June 22 Penetcost +2

Last Sunday, Trinity Sunday, our Bishop was our guest preacher, so I had no 'thoughts going in' for that Sunday. Next Sunday, the 29th, I will be on vacation and so will have no thoughts going in for that day either.  For this Sunday…

Genesis 21:8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac." 11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your servant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the servant into a nation also, because he is your offspring." 14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba. 15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, "I cannot watch the boy die." And as she sat there, she began to sob. 17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation." 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

            This Sunday we re-enter the ‘ordinary’ time of the church, the green season, as we pick up on the Sundays after Pentecost. ‘Ordinary’ is a rather unfortunate term to be used for this time of year. In our daily language, the implication of the word is ‘ho-hum,’ nothing special. That’s far from the intended use of the word, however. A more helpful understanding would simply be to look at it as ‘ordered’ time. It’s a time of the year when, liturgically speaking, there are no major themes or festivals under consideration. It is, rather, a time for ordered/orderly study of the word. Hence, the readings tend to proceed IN ORDER. An enhancement of this idea comes to us with those readings known as “semi-continuous” on the lectionary. This is where the option exists to take an extended look at particular passages in the Old Testament. This year the semi-continuous readings begin in Genesis with the story of the sending away of Hagar.

            There is so much in terms of background info needed in order to make sense of the story—and even then I use the term ‘make sense’ loosely. It *does make sense, but only within the ancient culture from which it hails. First of all, we need to remember that the tension in the story—Abraham has essentially a ‘main’ wife (Sarah) and a ‘secondary’ wife (Hagar)—was entirely created by themselves. In Genesis 16 Sarah suggests to Abraham that God’s promise to give him an heir was to him alone and not to her per se, and hence, he should take Hagar as a secondary wife/concubine and have a child with her. Abraham agreed. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But then when Sarah finally also gave birth to the real child of promise (Isaac), there’s now trouble. The lesson here is that when we try to wrestle the steering wheel from God and drive in our own lives (instead of having that OH SO DIFFICULT THING known as patience), sometimes we just end up complicating things. By the time Genesis 21 occurs, things are complicated!

            MUCH has been made of what exactly vs 9 means: But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking. The Hebrew word that is translated as ‘mocking’ in the TNIV is subject to debate. The word “Isaac” means laughter. Isaac is so named because when Sarah first heard she would conceive, she laughed. Later she laughs for joy when the child is born. The point is that in vs 9 the word that is used in the Hebrew is a form of the word laughter. So what exactly is Ishmael (whose name, incidentally means “God hears”) doing? Some think Ishmael is mocking his younger brother, or at least mocking the situation. Another, of several interpretations, is that he is being presumptuous. Legally, he is on equal footing with Isaac—even greater, since he is the elder child—but Sarah sees this as a presumption because *her child is the child of promise.

            Regardless, the thrust of the story is about the plight of Hagar and Ishmael. Specifically, even though the name or word Ishmael doesn’t occur in this reading (he’s always referred to as the boy or the lad), vs 17 is the key point: God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.

            Several applications of this passage come to mind. The first is that Hagar and Ishmael are having a real ‘wilderness experience,’ but God hears their cry. Most of us may think that’s a nice start, but hearing isn’t so great if that’s all God does. Thankfully, that’s not all God does. God also comforts. He tells Hagar do not be afraid. Again, this sounds great, but isn’t so easy especially when there are many frightening things around us. I think the most interesting part of the passage is vs 19: Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. Where did the well come from? Was it a miracle? Had the well not been there before, but then in a flash God created it out of nothing? I suppose that’s one option. But another equally valid option is that the well was there all along, but Hagar couldn’t see it because she was consumed by worry, fear and doubt.

            As I meditate on this passage, two big things come to my mind: (1) may we, when we find ourselves in the wilderness, always remember to pray that God would OPEN OUR EYES, so that we too can see the help that is already there; or at the very least, so that we too would not be so consumed by worry and fear that we were blinded to help that was already there. And then (2) there is the constant call to be on the lookout for people in the wilderness. Hagar and Ishmael were alone. It literally HAD to be God who helped them because there was no one else. This is, however, the exception—not the rule. Usually people are not suffering alone…they’re, rather, suffering in a sea of others—and yet abandoned. Just as the old saying goes, “you are the ONLY Christ some people will ever encounter,” you are also the only ‘well in the desert’ some people will ever encounter.

Cheers,

TM