They say that jealousy is a green-eyed
monster . . . ask Hagar and she would probably affirm that statement. Hagar had a pretty good thing going on as the
maidservant to Sarah, the wife of Abraham . . . life was good and the people
she was working for were good people, except for the fact that Sarah could not
bear children. This had been an
unspeakable sadness in the relationship between Sarah and Abraham, but Abraham
did not care because he loved Sarah. But
it was a real bur in Sarah’s saddle that she could not produce an heir for her
husband. Unbeknownst to Hagar this would
be where she begins her adventure with the green-eyed monster.
To remedy the problem Sarah convinced
Abraham that he and Hagar should work on having a child . . . which apparently
they both whole-heartedly agreed to. The
result? Hagar got pregnant . . . a child
and heir would be born. Everyone seemed
happy . . . at least for a while. But
one does not have such an intimate affair without developing some feelings and
soon Abraham was treating Hagar as more than a maidservant . . . Hagar was
moving up in the world. Sarah noticed
and it did not make her happy . . . she was getting jealous. In her jealousy she has Abraham throw Hagar
out . . . Abraham, being the good and dutiful husband realizes that if “Mama
ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy”. So,
Hagar got the boot and was out on the street.
Of course when things seem their worse
there always seems to be a second chance in these stories. An angel convinces Hagar to suck up to Sarah
and patch things up . . . all the while the angel is also telling her that God
had plans for this child, that the child would be named Ishmael and a that he
would be the first of a multitude of descendants. So, Hagar went back to Sarah, apologized,
kept her distance, and got her old job back.
Ishmael was born a few months later.
One would think that life was pretty good after all of that . . . that
everyone was happy.
But the green-eyed monster never
really goes away completely . . . it usually crawls off in hibernation until it
is awaken once again. Which
happens. Sarah, the one who could not
give birth to children, becomes pregnant and eventually gives birth to a son
name Isaac. This is the child which is
destined by God to be the father of a great nation. Everyone, especially Sarah, is quite happy .
. . life is great. Life is great until
one day she discovers Ishmael playing with Isaac.
That is when everything hits the fan .
. . the slumbering green-eyed monster is awakened . . . and, life gets really
difficult for Hagar and Ishmael. Sarah
begins to think that Ishmael is going to mess up everything . . . that Isaac is
going to have to split his inheritance with Ishmael. Again, she nags Abraham to get rid of them
both . . . to kick them out . . . to banish them. And, again, to keep the peace, Abraham kicks
them out and sends them on their way.
Kicked out of house, home, and
community Hagar wanders the desert with her son. Things begin to get bleak as they run out of
food and water. It is not looking good
for Hagar and Ishmael . . . the end is near.
Sensing that she could not bear to watch her son die, she places Ishmael
under a bush and goes off to cry. While
crying she encounters the Lord . . . and, God personally takes care of the
business at hand. God promises, again,
that Ishmael would be the foundation for a great nation . . . God assures Hagar
that the boy is not going to die . . . and, reiterates that God personally will
see to it all. Then God opened her eyes
and she saw a well.
As the story goes, God fulfilled all
the spoken promises. Ishmael does not
die. He does become the foundation of a
great nation . . . and, all is good.
Everything works out for Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac . . . we are here
today in part because of it.
Now, this story is not so much about
jealousy—that green-eyed monster—that can wreak havoc on the lives of people,
though it could be. Sarah seems to be a
textbook example of jealousy at its best or worse. No, this is not a story about jealousy . . .
it is a story about how God opens our eyes to God’s presence in our lives.
I doubt if any of us would want to be
in Hagar’s shoes. She gets a pretty bum
deal in the whole thing. Yet, as we
heard the story, we also heard how God had stated from the very beginning that
God would take care of everything . . . that God would be with them all. Also listening to the story one would think
that no one seemed to get that. Instead
it seemed that everyone belly-ached and moaned and groaned about how difficult
life was and how much it sucked. That
all seemed lost . . . especially for Hagar and Ishmael.
I have always liked that statement
about the darkest hour is always before the dawn. It seems like everything bad happens in the dark. Hagar would say her life looked pretty
dark. Yet, the sun rose and the dawn
broke, shedding light into the reality of God’s presence. The writer of the scripture reading stated
that God opened her eyes so that she could see.
True it was to see a well, but it went deeper than that. Her eyes were opened to see that God was with
them . . . always with them . . . and, that God would never abandon them. It took the darkness of the situation for
Hagar to see the light of the Lord.
So it is for us as the children of God
. . . we need to have our eyes opened.
Lots of us just seem to cruise through life when things are going well .
. . life is good; but, boy, when we hit a few bumps in the road and things get tough
. . . we wonder. We wonder if we will
survive. It gets pretty depressing and
dark in our lives . . . we worry . . . we get anxious . . . we complain . . .
we whine. The darkness overwhelms us and
we cannot bear to witness our lives dying.
Yet it is the darkness and difficulty
of the situations that opens us to the presence of God in our lives . . . that
makes us turn to the one thing we believe we can trust. It is the light of God that breaks through
the darkness to remind us. It is the
light of God that allows us to see. God
is with us . . . God is with us every step of the way through life and
beyond. God will never abandon us. Sometimes God uses the difficulties of life
to open our eyes so that we might see.
May we all open our eyes and see this truth. Amen.
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