Rev. Dr. Rhonda Abbott Blevins, Pastor
Chapel by the Sea, Clearwater Beach, FL
Sometimes the “word of the Lord” is disturbing. Today is one of those days.
In our gospel reading today, Jesus says, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” A sword? Not our sweet, innocent, innocuous, teddy-bear Jesus! My Jesus likes puppy dogs and rainbows and flowers! Not swords!
Then our Old Testament reading makes our dear old Father Abraham out to be a henpecked, deadbeat dad. You remember the background to today’s story, right? God promised Abraham and Sarah that they would finally have a son in their old age. Well, they tried and they tried, (poor old Abraham was popping Viagra like candy) and their pregnancy tests kept coming back negative. So Sarah insists that Abraham try to conceive a son with her slave woman, Hagar. Henpecked Abe consents and WHAM! Hagar became great with child.
Predictably, Sarah became terribly jealous and banished the pregnant Hagar to the desert. Then in the middle of the desert, God appeared. (Isn’t it just like God to show up in your most desperate hour?) In fact, it was Hagar, this Egyptian slave, who was the first person in scripture to ever see God! (Isn’t it just like God to lift up the lowly and humble the proud?) God commanded Hagar to go back to Abraham and Sarah. But God made Hagar a promise, nearly identical to the promise God made to Abraham. God said to Hagar, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they shall be too many to count.”[1] Then God told Hagar to name her son “Ishmael,” which means, “God hears.” So Hagar goes back, and Abraham at the age of 86, had his first-born child, a bouncing baby boy named Ishmael: “God hears.”
The birth of Ishmael didn’t keep Sarah from trying to have a child of her own. For 15 years she kept filling Abraham’s prescription, and finally, when Abraham was 100-years-old, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. However, Isaac’s entrance into the family unleashed Sarah’s jealousy once again, and this time she instructs Abraham to banish both Hagar and the 15-year-old Ishmael into the desert. So he did, leaving them both for dead. In our day and time, Abraham would undoubtedly find himself behind bars for child neglect. Child neglect? Not our sweet, innocent, innocuous, teddy-bear Abraham!
So Hagar and Ishmael wander in the desert, and when they had used up their last drop of water, they both began to cry out loud. And God heard.
Does God still hear? Or has he become hard of hearing in his old age? Does God still hear the cries of his children?
This is the question that 20-year-old Susan asked me when she walked into my office, closing the door behind her. Politely, and with unusual seriousness, she asked if I had a moment to talk, and when I indicated that I did, she began to tell me a story. It went something like this:
Rhonda, there’s a girl, Jessica, who lives on my hall. We’ve become good friends this year, and she comes occasionally to the Bible study I host in my dorm room. Well, we learned that Jessica got pregnant. So we’ve been praying for her, and a couple of us went to talk and pray with her. We learned that she was thinking about having an abortion. So we started praying every night that Jessica wouldn’t have an abortion, knowing that it would not be God’s will for that to happen. I’ve never prayed so hard for anything in my life. But Rhonda, she had the abortion. I don’t understand. I know that we were praying in accordance to God’s will. I know the Bible says that “whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”[2] But God didn’t answer this prayer. Explain that to me.
I have to admit, I don’t remember exactly what I said to this young person who felt betrayed by God. I do remember the empathy I felt for her. I do recall remembering my own crisis of faith as a young adult when I discovered that God couldn’t live up to my expectations. I dare say that most Christians experience this disillusionment at some point in time. We sing a song called “God Answers Prayer,” but maybe we’re like another college student of mine who said to me, “I’ve had more unanswered prayer than answered.”
Let’s admit it: we’d all like for God to be our own personal genie in a bottle. We’d just pick up our Bible, give it a little rub, and POOF! George Burns would be standing beside us with his stogie, ready to make our wishes come true. Well that’s fun to imagine, but we all know it’s far from reality . . . or do we? Sarah of Old Testament fame didn’t get it. In fact, most of our favorite biblical characters didn’t get it. Something good happens, “the Lord has blessed me!” Something bad happens, “the Lord has cursed me!” In Sarah’s case, her strongest desire, what she wanted more than anything, was to have a child, yet she remained barren for many, many years. Who did she blame for her barrenness? God! Her own personal genie in a bottle refused to make her dream come true. She says so herself according to scripture: “The Lord has prevented me from bearing children.”[3]
This theology is rampant in our culture, though to me, it is primitive and childlike. It oozes out of statements made in the face of disaster, like blaming God for Hurricane Katrina, suggesting it as God’s wrath for homosexuality. This distorted theology was the backdrop for the student demanding an explanation for her unanswered prayer. With so much evil and suffering in our world, and with humanity’s propensity to blame God for it all . . . again, we’re left with the question, “Does God still hear?”
Does God still hear when the doctor calls it cancer?
Does God still hear the silence in that broken relationship?
Does God still hear the cries of children orphaned by wars, disease, and natural disaster?
Back to our text. Hagar and the teenaged Ishmael are alone in the desert, without water, crying out loud. And in the words of our scripture, “God heard.” And it didn’t stop there. Not only did God hear, but God responded. God gave Hagar and Ishmael exactly what they needed in their moment of desperation. Two simple things.
First, God gave Hagar a promise. God promised to make a great nation from Ishmael’s descendants. Once again, God’s promise to Hagar was nearly identical to the promise God made to Abraham. A great nation! What God gave to the woman in her moment of desperation was HOPE! Hope for a bright future for herself and her only child. God knew that what any person needs in her darkest hour is a ray of hope! With hope, humans can handle life’s gravest challenges. So God gave them HOPE!
The second thing God gave did for Hagar was to open her eyes, that she might see a well full of water right there beside her! God heard their cries, and gave Hagar and Ishmael HOPE for their future and SUSTENANCE for their now. HOPE and SUSTENANCE.
But the question still lingers, “Does God STILL hear?”
The answer is a resounding, “YES!”
Yes God hears!!! Not in a genie-in-the-bottle sort of way. Rather, God grants exactly what we need each for each and every day! You see, all we really need is HOPE FOR TOMORROW and SUSTENANCE FOR TODAY. You and I tend to get wrapped up in all the details, “What shall we eat” or “what shall we wear?”[4] Is God our genie in the bottle ready to grant our every wish? Absolutely not! But what God did for Hagar and Ishmael, what God has done for people throughout the course of history, and what God does for you and I is provide HOPE FOR TOMORROW and SUSTENANCE FOR TODAY.
A couple of years ago I was watching an interview with my favorite NFL player, Peyton Manning. Peyton had been “on” that season, heaping up remarkable statistics. One of the stats that was particularly impressive to the interviewer was how few quarterback sacks he had taken throughout the season. My details might be off, but I think he had the fewest sacks of any quarterback in the league that year. The irony is that Peyton has never been known as a running quarterback or for his fancy footwork. So the interviewer posed the question, “how?” “How do you avoid the sack?” Typical responses might be, “I get rid of the ball quickly,” or “I have a great offensive line protecting me.” But that’s not the answer that Manning gave. Instead he said simply, “I listen to the crowd.” You see, apparently there’s a roar of the crowd that remains pretty consistent until the very second before the 300-pound tackle reaches the quarterback. Then, apparently, there is a collective gasp. It is the gasp that signals Manning to dump the ball now! With everything else going on, watching for receivers, looking for coverage, watching the play unfold, managing the clock . . . one of the most critical tasks for Manning is listening to the crowd.
And with all that God has going on, God listens to his people too. And responds giving HOPE and SUSTENANCE.
I’ve got to tell you how the other story ends. When Abraham finally died, Ishmael, together with his half-brother, Isaac, buried his father.[5] Reconciliation? Forgiveness? Closure. And God made good on his promise. It is common belief among Christians, Jews, and Muslims that Ishmael became the father of Arabic race and then later on, the nation of Islam. Isaac and Ishmael came together to bury their father. Maybe one day we’ll see the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael come together as well. Let there be peace on earth, O Lord. And let it begin right here.
[1] Genesis 16:10
[2] Mark 11:24
[3] Genesis 16:2
[4] Matthew 6:31
[5] Genesis 25:9
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