An Appalling Story
An Appalling Story
25th June 2023
Genesis 21: 8-21
This is an appalling story.
A mother and child are abandoned.
They are cast out in a context that meant almost certain death.
It begins with jealousy between Sarah and Hagar.
‘Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.’ (v10)
Sarah sees this situation she’s in as a competition.
To a large extent she’s correct.
Sarah’s own future is tied up with her son's;
she is fighting for her life.
Abraham is distressed by all this.
But he does what Sarah wants.
“Abraham rose early in the morning…”
(this is the same phrase as when Abraham follows the instruction to take Isaac up a mountain to sacrifice him)
“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.”
This is a humanitarian outrage.
It’s stories like this that makes it easy to be critical of the Bible.
Why are there stories like this in Bible?
This is a question we’ve been asking as part of our Baptism and Confirmation sessions with the young people.
Sometimes we forget that the Bible is not a book of heroes – role-models for us to copy.
There are stories of ordinary people making mistakes – sometimes on purpose.
They aren’t stories showing us what we should do – the Bible is about how God patiently redeems people and situations with a persevering love.
Therefore, maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised by stories like this one today.
This is consistent with the ugliness of the world we know.
This week we heard in the news a terrible attack on school students in Uganda. An unimaginable scene of mayhem, fire and kidnapping.
Then the next day I woke up to my clock radio telling the news of the attacks of diners in Auckland. I’m lying in bed, still waking up, as the horrific and shocking details are described in the news bulletin.
(I realise shouldn’t listen to the news in bed in the morning. We need to be careful about maintaining places of peace in a world of ugly violations like these)
Also in the news this week: the young people in Oranga Tamariki care who have been abused.
Instead of being protected where they had been taken, these already traumatised young people are traumatised again.
These horrific stories in the news have upset me this week.
But sadly, this is pretty much the case most weeks.
We are consistently confronted with the ugliness in our world.
The God of the Bible patiently redeems with a persevering love.
But God has to bring this work to fruition with extremely flawed material.
Amazingly God chooses to remain committed to us,
to work with creatures like us.
Cast out in the wilderness, with no water left Hagar and her son are in a desperate situation.
In her despair Hagar retreats from the horror of her dying chid.
But… God hears the child.
God considers all lives to be precious.
Forget Abraham’s faults.
Forget Sarah with her cruel jealousy.
Focus instead on God in this story, refusing to accept that the life of one child does not matter.
This is the same God who calls out to little Samuel at night.
This is the same God who rescues tiny Moses from his floating bassinet on the Nile.
This is the same God who calls a young shepherd named David to be the king of Israel.
God hears the child.
Our world is brutal…
neglected children, home invasions, arson, human rights abuses.
Human suffering.
Not so long ago I saw a painted mural on the side of a School in Rotorua –
what I guessed was the motto of the school: “Life is tough …but so are you.”
That’s not God’s answer to our human suffering.
We don’t have to accept the ugliness, the brutality – it is not just.
God hears the child.
Jesus is the supreme revelation of the God who patiently redeems with a persevering love.
This God is one who cares for every single person,
and who will suffer (in person) to save and heal them.
Before he gave his life, Jesus taught about the love of God…
29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10: 29-31)
NB: Jesus doesn’t say that God will always save the sparrow from its fall.
He says that its plight is registered in the heart of God.
God feels every fall.
God knows, God cares, God loves.
In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus,
we see God cares about every human being,
suffers for every human being,
and plans for the ultimate joy of every human being who accepts the love that is offered.
Do you see, in our world that is so often so ugly, this hope for you and me…?
God hears the child (all who cry out)
Let me finish with a suggestion of how we might live into this hope.
I heard it said that we shouldn’t just believe in miracles,
we should “live in a way that might necessitate one.”[1]
I think the people that do this most consistently
are those working against the ugliness of the world.
People such as:
· foster parents
· addiction counsellors
· women’s refuge helpers
· people stocking the shelves at the foodbank.
They are in the places of unmet needs and despair –
but in their proximity to suffering they occasionally glimpse the miraculous:
· extra help coming just at the right time,
· a crisis narrowly averted,
· peace found in the midst of a storm (whether natural or man-made).
Believing in miracles is important.
But belief isn’t something we can just will ourselves into. Is it…?
So what can we do?
We can move closer to Jesus, following Jesus, making our journey in-step with Him.
Or as the really spiritual people say “Fake it till you make it!”
Friends, make space for the miraculous work of God in your life-
· Show up at Church,
· be part of it,
· take Communion,
· help with DCM foodbank collection,
· visit the Dixon Street Café,
· pray for healing,
· rebuke the nonsense and ugliness,
· implicate yourself in the Kingdom,
· put yourself closer to Jesus.
Doing this, perhaps we will see the ugliness of the world
giving way more and more to glimpses of the miraculous.
[1] [Inspired, Fish Stories. Fake it till you make it. (p187) ]