Let us hear another portion of scripture appointed as an option for today: A. Reading from the Book of Genesis. The child [Ishmael] grew, and was

Transcription

1 Let us hear another portion of scripture appointed as an option for today: A Reading from the Book of Genesis. The child [Ishmael] grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac. The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, 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 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. So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheeba.

2 When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, Do not let me look on the death of the child. And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt. What a story. I still remember well the words of our guide on my first trip to the Holy Land. He was commenting on the division and enmity that marks his country. He summed it all up saying, It is all the fault of one

3 man Abraham. We speak of three religions Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all children of Abraham. But here is the moment of struggle and division also. I remember well a piece of liturgical drama from over forty years ago. Two women were writhing about, driven by inner pain and struggle Sarah overcome with distrust and jealousy, Hagar in the agony of the outcast who goes on to yet greater agony as a mother preparing for the death of her child. The root of division goes back to Sarah s dilemma. She cannot trust God s grace to be enough for all. She cannot imagine both Isaac and Ishmael inheriting Abraham s blessing. She has not really absorbed her own grace and blessing. So begins the testing. Our Muslim neighbors see this as the test of Abraham s faith just as we focus on the sacrifice of Isaac. Hagar s testing begins as she is thrust into the wilderness. By tradition she came from royal blood to become a slave in Abraham s house. Now the meaning of her name runs true uncertain. She enters the wilderness uncertain of where to go and what to do. Soon the water runs out

4 in the heat of the desert, and she faces the terror of death for her son. Here begins her wrestling with fear and her experience of grace as God intervenes to save her child. Here is the story commemorated when Muslims make their pilgrimage to Mecca. Part of the experience of Hajj is the commemoration of Hagar s courage. Pilgrims run seven times between the hills of this historic event. The frenzy of her desperation lives on in this ritual that makes her story the story of all who cry out for deliverance. Some pilgrims drink from the well named by tradition as the place where water sprang forth; some take water home in memory of Hagar. In art and literature her name has come to represent the plight of one who suffers unjustly, who is outcast and exiled. Her story has spoken to African American and Native American artists who seek to convey the plight of those who suffer abuse. In Israel since the 1970s, naming a girl by the name Hagar can be a conscious statement, a way of crossing the lines of division to express hope for reconciliation.

5 It is all about the testing of faith in God s depth and our trust in the bounty of God s grace. Does God have grace for all? Does God really have grace for us? We want the walk with God to be easy. Nothing prepares us for the moment in the wilderness, the time of wrestling with our fears, the test of our allegiance to God and God s allegiance to us. Jesus lays it out for us clearly. It is the way of the cross. He calls us to take up the cross and follow him. Here is the way to life, true life. There is much disagreement about whose cross it is that we take up. In Matthew, we see the cross. Many translations say his cross. In Luke, we find your cross. For a long time, I have felt that to take up the cross of Jesus, the cross that is all about him, is the tougher challenge. I have considered his cross greater than the crosses of our individual lives, the crosses that we refer to as our cross to bear. But others rightly point to our own individual cross as the deeper challenge. Here is the agony of the individual s deep inner soul work. It is the frenzy of Hagar in the wilderness. It is Jacob wrestling with God by

6 night. It is the dark night of the soul. It is the moment of losing one s life to find it. It is giving up what I think is Me in order to discover what is the real Me. It is not the martyrdom of the body but the more demanding martyrdom of the will, giving up my will for God s will. It is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. No wonder the shapers of our lectionary give us this lesson in the summer as fewer of us are around to hear it. This message might run off the fainthearted. But there is another side to the story. Repeated we also hear that God provides. There is hope for the psalmist up to his neck in the mire. God provides water in the wilderness to save Ishmael and Hagar. As Jesus says, even the hairs of your head are all counted. In the words of our hymn, his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. The grace of God is there for us in the struggle, in the test of faith. The big story is the story of grace, grace unmerited, grace offered to all God s children. The story embedded within that overarching story is the story of how we connect to grace. That is the story of our inner work that

7 directs our outward actions. That hard work done by each of us in our own particular way is our part of the story. God s part of the story matters, and our part matters as well. Only as we wrestle in the wilderness do we connect with God s grace. Otherwise it is bread from heaven without arms open to receive; it is water flowing without mouths open to drink. God s will for us is to become a band of fellow pilgrims who become disciples through the deep work of the soul. Jesus wants disciples who face their fears and dare to follow. God wants a transformed community of people who embrace the common good, give themselves away with joy, and live free of fear. Let us dare to go into the wilderness. Amazing things happen in the wilderness. Let us dare to go there with our fears and anxieties and return in faith and trust. If we go forth with open arms, we will return with arms full of God s grace.