Hermily for 6.26.25
Pity the poor mid-week preacher!
This was a toughie to preach on. The story of Sarai and Hagar is not pretty. In doing my research for it, I found a quote (which I cannot now find) from a Jewish writer (If I remember right, she was talking about the story in the context of #metoo, which was totally interesting, and it turns out there are a bunch of great articles out there treating this topic) which said (essentially) that there are three things we can do with scripture. 1) we can skip it. 2) we can rewrite it to make it more palatable to us. or 3) we can look deeper. I introduced my hermily this week explaining the three things, and saying that we’d give #3 a go. I came nowhere near treating the whole thing well, but here’s what I came up with.
If you’ve ever met a two-year old, you’ll know that one of the things they’re famous for is wanting to do everything for themselves. “I do it!” is the demand you’ve heard, every time you tried to pour them a quick glass of juice. As the adult, the choice is whether to maintain control and pour it yourself—and thus denying them a chance to learn, or to let them try, and deal with those consequences. Today’s story in Genesis is kind of a case like that.
Abram and Sarai need descendants—that’s just the reality of their situation. Having descendants is the most important thing, in the story we hear today, and it drives our characters to try to wrestle control over their fates away from God.
Abram and Sarai think they need to figure out the solution to their problem- Abram’s been asking God for an heir, and he’s actually been told, by God, that he would have descendants- but God didn’t explain how or when, and so Sarai and Abram think it’s their problem to solve.
They think they’re the ones to write the story. They think they have to take control of their fates from God’s hands and do it themselves.
And I want to emphasize here, that God has not only told Abram that he will have an heir, but God has made a covenant with Abram. God’s promised that what he says will happen for Abram, eventually. But for some reason, he and his wife can’t just trust and wait.
Hagar, too, tries to take her story into her own hands, and understandably. She’s been used by Abram and Sarai, and abused, and now is in a more vulnerable position than she has been so far. She decides to take her fate into her own hands.
Now, I get this, on a human level. God does not move quickly enough for us, and even when we get promises, often what we really want is answers. Like that two year old, our other cry to God is often “why??” Even when we get promises, often what we really want is control over our own fates. In our story, Abram takes this little bit of information that God gives him—that he will have descendants-- and instead of trusting and cooperating, decides to force the issue. It could have been different for everyone, if they’d just trusted and cooperated with God’s promise in the first place.
Our Gospel today tells us that there is another alternative: Jesus says “the one who does the will of my Father [will enter heaven].” We’re not meant to force God’s hand, but we’re also not meant to just plant our feet and demand to know why- we’re meant, to use Jesus’ example, to build the house, but the key is cooperate with God’s will for us. Even when God doesn’t explain why, or when God doesn’t move quickly enough, we have to still rely on God’s promises.
And to do that, we have to listen. Jesus says “listen to these words of mine and act on them.” He says to us that he and the Father know the plan, have a will for our stories, and if we are able to resist wrestling control away from them, if we are able to quiet the demanding question of “why” in ourselves, we’ll see the positive results of God’s will for us. Eventually.
God didn’t break their covenant with Abram and didn’t break their promise to Hagar. What God promised to Abram and Sarai did happen, when they were 100 and 90, says the book. And their and Hagar’s sons did become the leaders of great nations. But as you know there is contention and division to this very day. Maybe, if everyone had really trusted in God’s promises in the begin with, it wouldn’t have to be this way.
There’s so much to think about in today’s readings; let’s take a moment now to consider our own stories, to look back to see if we’ve tried to wrestle control away from God, if we’ve stopped moving until our demand for explanations have been met--- but also if we’ve cooperated with God’s will. And are we listening now? Are we cooperating now? Let’s take a moment to have a conversation with God.