Pitt Street
21 June 2020
‘God was with the boy, and he grew up’
Genesis 21: 20
I wonder if there are others who note some words at the beginning of television programmes that begin around 8.30 in the evening. Those words: “The following programme recommends parental guidance for younger viewers”. Sometimes there are additional words like: ‘violence and sexual references may disturb’. This morning, I possibly need to preface my words with such a warning: not with ‘violence and sexual references may disturb’ or that ‘younger readers may need guidance’, but with a warning that for some Christians revealing what is written in this section of the book of Genesis may disturb. Some long-held certainties may be questioned: indeed, they may be considered not relevant in our world.
Let me briefly recap on the story we read last week. The aged patriarch Abraham hears that his almost as old wife Sarah is going to have a child. There is laughter as they process this incredulous revelation. Laughter there may be, but this is what happens, and a child named Isaac – meaning ‘he laughs’ – is born; and from that point on every time they name their son they’re reminded of their doubt and lies before God, and God’s goodness to them.
But wait. This morning there’s more to the story. Given the events of the last couple of weeks concerning the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign, demonstrated worldwide and here in Aotearoa, an understanding of what we read today speaks to us as Christian people living in New Zealand as we do in the 21st century.
Allow me to give a little background. The story reveals that way back in time Polygamy was common. Men of status and wealth could have more than one wife. God had promised prominent man Abram that he would be the ‘father of many nations.' Inherent in that promise was a problem, his wife Sari was unable to have children; so, to allow God’s covenant with her husband to be fulfilled, she arranges for a child to be born – the mother Hagar, an Egyptian slave-girl, and the child Ishmael.
In these ancient times, status for women came through marriage, and even higher status came through childbearing. So, while Hagar started out with lower status than her mistress, the roles between she and Hagar flipped when Hagar became pregnant. Instant conflict - - role reversal. Hagar starts looking down on Sarah, and Sarah in return becomes abusive to Hagar. Hagar runs away. God finds Hagar, and tells her to go back home, and basically … suck it up. In our world telling a bullied person to ‘suck it up’ is problematical. An exploration of mental health dynamics speaks against this. We note in our story, that God offers Hagar a sweetener: Ishmael’s offspring will also be so numerous that no one could count them.
We know this rest of the story. Ryan read that to us.
This morning I’ve discovered two things. The first is trivial, but full of tantalising detail. In verse 9 we read that Sarah was disturbed when she saw Isaac playing with Ishmael. The word ‘playing’ is translated literally as ‘laughing’. So, there are subtle messages being given to those in the know here. Ishmael is laughing with, or is it laughing at, he who laughs? Does this rub Sarah and Abraham’s noses in it even more? Perhaps, God does have a sense of humour and adventure!
The second is, and I’ve found before when considering this in some ‘Christian’ circles, a story that has God promising great things to Abraham (he will be the father to many nations), and that his firstborn son Ishmael will have a great nation as his descendants is a challenging notion. It escapes some with a fundamentalist Christian belief that Abraham loves both Isaac and Ishmael; that God was with the boy Ishmael as he grew up, and that God will treat them equally. This challenges any Christian’s, and much of Western World’s, Islamophobia: said to be ‘prescribed’ by the bible. God was with Ishmael.
One commentator I read writes that every time he reads this story, he has more questions. How can I not be angry with Abraham for listening to Sarah? How can I not be angry with God for letting Abraham push Hager and his firstborn out of his life? How could God approve of what I perceive to be injustice, and selfishness, and manipulation on Sarah’s part to have such an impact on the innocent? These are real questions.
This commentator writes ‘Through the story of Ishmael, we know that no matter how we are treated by others, no matter how uncertain our future may look, no matter how hopeless things may seem … God hears.’ I can warm to that.
This same commentator then suggests (at least as I read his argument) that responses to injustice and prejudice are to be left to God to sort out. As I view my world, I cannot accept that these responses should be ‘left to God’. When we believe that injustice and prejudice in any form is wrong, then surely, we must challenge this. A good example we have to thinking in this activist way is John Wesley. John Wesley spoke out against the evils of the slave trade in his day and publicly backed the reforms championed by William Wilberforce. John Wesley was not prepared to leave it to God: in his mind that was a cop out.
Now comes my third discovery for today. A prominent early Methodist, one of the original Oxford University Methodists, was George Whitefield. He was a slave owner and defended slavery by quoting scripture. This has led to one American Methodist writer asking these questions. Is there something wrong with our doctrine and our theology? What is intrinsic to our way of doing religion that is inherently suspect? Here in Aotearoa today, we must ask what is our experience of racism? Do we see signs of systemic racism our Church? Do we challenge it? Hard questions that must be considered.
To return to the images in today’s scripture. Every day, God points us to the well in the desert. We can see that well if we look with our heart. And, as we see this, we may respond as many generations of Methodists have done with these words that are before us today – we have a part to play in God’s world: Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
That is our charge too. So be it, today and always. Amen