“A Forgotten Woman”
Genesis 16:1-11, 21:8-20
March 4, 2012/Second Sunday of Lent
The common lectionary, which is the three year cycle
of scripture passages assigned for every Sunday and the different holy days,
walks us through a large majority of the Bible.
It is designed so we hear from the Old and New Testament, stories,
psalms, prophets and epistles. Each year
focuses on one gospel, with a whole lot of the gospel of John thrown into as
well. I use the lectionary for my
preaching, but as good as it is in teaching us a large part of the Bible, there
are still many stories that don’t find their way into any of the Sunday
readings. For one reason or another, they
are left out. The story of Hagar,
Sarai’s Egyptian slave girl, and son, Ishmael, is one of those stories. Hagar’s story can be found in the chapters
before and after this morning’s passage from Genesis, Genesis 16:1-11 and
21:8-20.
Why the story of Hagar? Why should she be our focus for this day
instead of the lectionary passages we’re already given? It’s also important to know that our
denomination has designated this Sunday as the Sunday to Celebrate the Gifts of
Women. While it is true that the gifts
of all people should be celebrated on any given day, the emphasis for this day
is women’s gifts, the gift of Hagar’s story in particular. Both testaments are filled with stories of
women whose voices we don’t hear very often.
Hagar’s is one of them. Hers may not
be a familiar story to some. But her
voice, her story should be lifted up. Too
often she is a forgotten woman. But
today, in our midst, she is forgotten no longer. Today we hear the story of Hagar.
I am Hagar. I am one of the forgotten women. I had no power, no say over what happened to
me. I was a slave in the service of
Sarai. She wasn’t able to have children,
so she gave me to her husband Abram. My
son, Ishmael, was Abram’s son. My son,
Ishmael, was Sarai’s son.
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave girl whose name was
Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, ‘You see that the Lord has prevented me from
bearing children; go in to my slave girl; it may be that I shall obtain
children by her. And Abram listened to
the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had
lived ten years in the land of Caanan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the
Egyptian, her slave girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. He went into Hagar, and she conceived;”
I am Hagar. I am one of the forgotten women. I had no power, no say over what happened to
me. But I could give Abram a child and
Sarai could not. I was a woman in a way
that Sarai could not be. Sarai complained to Abram that I showed her
contempt, and Abram told Sarai that she could deal with me however she wanted
to. Sarai took him at his word. She was harsh, unkind and my life was bitter. I ran away.
“And when Hagar saw that she
conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘May the wrong done
to me be on you. I gave my slave girl to
your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with
contempt. May the Lord judge between you
and me!’ But Abram said to Sarai, ‘Your
slave girl is in your power; do to her as you please.’ Then Sarai dealt harshly
with her, and she ran away from her.”
I am Hagar. I am one of the forgotten women. I had no power, no say over what happened to
me. I ran away from Sarai and I was
never going back to her. I sat next to a
spring there in the wilderness, and that’s where the angel of the Lord found
me. The angel told me to return, to
listen to Sarai and do what she said.
Then the angel of the Lord made a promise to me. The angel of the Lord told me that my
offspring would be too many to count. I
was told the child I was carrying was a son and his name would be Ishmael. It means ‘God hears’ and God did hear me.
“The angel of the Lord found her by
a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, slave girl of Sarai,
where have you come from and where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am running away
from my mistress Sarai.’ The angel of
the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress, and submit to her.’ The angel of the Lord also said to her, ‘I
will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.’ And the angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Now
you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the
Lord has given heed to your affliction.’”
I am Hagar. I am one of the forgotten women. I had no power, no say over what happened to
me. Sarai gave me away, then abused me when I
fulfilled her purposes. And Abram did not stand up for me against her. But the Lord made promises to them too. Sarai became Sarah. Abram became Abraham. And just as the Lord promised, Sarah gave birth
to a son. Isaac. Child of laughter. Sarah gave Abraham laughter in his old
age. When Isaac was weaned, Abraham
called for a great feast to celebrate.
But Sarah saw Ishmael playing with Isaac. Something happened when she saw that, because
Sarah told Abraham to throw us out. He
did.
“The child 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 Beersheba.
I
am Hagar. I am one of the forgotten
women. I had no power, no say over what
happened to me. Abraham gave me some
bread and some water and sent Ishmael and I out into the wilderness. They didn’t last long. When the water was gone, I put Ishmael under
a bush. I couldn’t bear to watch my
child die. I sat away from him and
waited for the end. Ishmael was
crying. I was crying. God heard Ishmael. And the angel of the Lord called down to
me. The angel of the Lord told me that
Ishmael’s voice had been heard, and he told me to go back over to Ishmael, pick
him up, hold on tightly to him. He will
be a great nation. My eyes flew open and
I saw a well of water. I drew from it
and gave Ishmael a long, cold drink. God
was with my child. I was not forgotten.
“When the water in the skin was
gone, Hagar 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 our 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.”
I
am Hagar. I was not forgotten.
Hagar’s story is a remarkable
one. It is both ancient and contemporary. Phyllis Trible writes that “all sorts of
rejected women find their stories in her.
She is the faithful maid exploited, the black woman used by the male and
abused by the female of the ruling class, the surrogate mother, the resident
alien without legal recourse, the other woman, the runaway youth, the religious
fleeing from affliction, the pregnant young woman alone, the expelled wife, the
divorced mother with child, the shopping bag lady carrying bread and water, the
homeless woman, the indigent relying upon handouts from the power structures,
the welfare mother, and the self-effacing female whose own identity shrinks in
service to others.”
In this season of Lent, as we make
more time for personal repentance, I suggest that in light of Hagar’s story we
also strive to be more intentional in our corporate repentance. Wittingly or unwittingly, we buy into and
support structures and systems that are unjust.
We may not be the hands that directly harm and oppress the contemporary
Hagars of the world, but that doesn’t’ necessarily mean our hands are clean
either. We must wrestle with the reality
that our great forefather and foremother were the ruling class that exploited
Hagar.
In spite of her powerlessness, Hagar
was a woman of courage. She too trusted
enough in God’s promises to listen, to believe and do what was asked of
her. Hagar is also our foremother. In her, in Sarah, in Abraham, Judaism,
Christianity and Islam find their origin.
Hagar’s is a voice that must be heard.
Hers is a story that must not be forgotten.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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