Date: June 25, 2023
Scripture: Genesis 21:8-21
Scripture Reader: Don Goodick
Sermon Title: “God Who Listens”
Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon
You can also listen on Podcast from iTunes and Spotify. Search for “Podcasting from Rev. Bob Jon.”
In his new book Spare, Prince Harry describes his jealousy toward his brother as a young child. He felt resentful that he usually got two sausages on his plate while his brother had three sausages. He protested, “How come he gets three and I get only two?” And their nanny answered, “William needs filling up more than you. He’s going to be king one day.”[1] Harry also shares how he felt unfair with the room that they shared. He writes, “Willy had the larger half, with a double bed, a good-sized basin, a cupboard with mirrored doors. My half of the room was far smaller, less luxurious. I never asked why. I didn’t care. But I also didn’t need to ask. Two years older than me. Willy was the Heir, whereas I was the Spare.”
Even if we are not a royal family, we can definitely relate to this family feud based on jealousy. Some of our siblings cause us to be jealous of them because they are older, they are smarter, they are more athletic, or they look more like our parents. I am sure that many of us enjoyed and were even surprised to hear the story Jim Ortolf shared with us during Lent about his feud with his twin brother that led to a bloody nose. I know that my brother was always jealous of me when we were growing up because I was the older one. He always inherited my clothing. When he went to school, teachers called him, “You are Bob’s brother.” When I joined the military, my father wrote to me every week but later wrote to my brother once per month.
According to Psychology Today, jealousy is defined as a “complex emotion that encompasses feelings ranging from suspicion to rage to fear to humiliation. It strikes everyone, regardless of who they are, and is most typically aroused when a person perceives a threat to a valued relationship from a third party.”[2] Instead of denying that we are not jealous of others, experts suggest that we be aware of why we feel jealous of others so that we can assess our low self-esteem, feeling possessive of others, or fear of abandonment. For example, when a boyfriend tells his girlfriend not to talk to any other friends, he may be possessive feeling insecure about himself.
In our reading from Genesis, we encounter two women who had their feud – Sarah and Hagar. Remember when Abraham and Sarah entered Egypt, Abraham was afraid of others that they might come and kill him if he told them that Sarah was his wife. So, he told others that she was his sister. Pharaoh looked at her and she was beautiful in appearance. So, he took her to his house, and he gave to Abraham as a reward sheep, oxen, donkeys, slaves, and camels. As a female slave, Hagar had no freedom on her body and her freedom. He was handed over to Abraham, who probably gave her to Sarah as her servant. And later, Sarah gave her to Abraham to bear a child and succeed in their family line.
Here comes the trouble. When Hagar became pregnant, she looked at her mistress Sarah with contempt. And it drove Sarah mad so she pleaded with Abraham to banish her. Abraham tried to claim no responsibility in their feud and said, “Your slave is in your power; do to her as you please.” So, Hagar ran away and came back persuaded by the angel of God. But the trouble did not end there. After Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, God also heard the cry of Sarah and gave her child Isaac, as God promised both Abraham and Sarah. One day, Sarah saw Ishmael playing with her son Isaac. But Sarah felt fearful that Ishmael might take any inheritance away from Isaac. So, she pleaded with Abraham the second time, “Cast out this slave woman with her son.”
These boys were not even quarreling or fighting against each other. Genesis tells us merely that they were playing together. But the feud between their mothers leads to such harsh treatment of Hagar, who had neither freedom nor power, along with her innocent child, Ishmael. Genesis tells us that Abraham was greatly distressed because Ishmael was also his beloved son. As he was disappointed and restless, God assured him that God would also bless Ishmael and make a nation out of him because he is also his child. So, the next morning, Abraham rose early and put bread and a skin of water on Hagar’s shoulder and sent them away into the wilderness.
When I got out of the military in 2001, my father just moved to a new church in a big city in Korea. As I went back to college to resume my studies, my father asked me if I could work for him as an assistant pastor. My job was to work with the youth group of three boys. Two of them were brothers. When they were little, their parents got a divorce, and neither of them wanted to raise their children. So, their grandfather ended up taking them in, but he himself also struggled with an addiction to alcohol. Since they never saw a dentist in their lives, the older brother, who was only 14 years old, had already lost most of his teeth. From time to time, they buzzed the parsonage in the middle of the night and said, “Our grandfather drank again and kicked us out, and we haven’t had any food since this morning.” I cooked some ramen and let them stay overnight at the church. I struggled to understand how these boys were thrown out into the street, dangerous and cold.
Some biblical scholars comment that it was an act of faith by Abraham that he could send Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness because he believed in the promise of God that God would make a great nation out of this boy. But I still have a hard time imagining that Abraham banished Hagar and his own son into the wilderness in Beer-sheba, which is the Negev desert today. We may feel hot today as it reaches 86 high today. But in the region of the Negev desert, it reaches 115 high in June. In such a hostile environment, Hagar and Ishmael were plunged to stand on the line between life and death. After the water in the skin was gone, Hagar laid her son under one of the bushes. And she prayed, “Do not let me look on the death of my child.”
Hagar’s cries represent all the cries of mothers and fathers who are forced to watch their innocent children die, victimized by the violence, greed, fear, and vulnerability of adults in the world. Hagar’s cries represent the tears and cries of mothers and fathers who hold their children during the war and bombing. Hagar’s cries represent the tears and cries of mothers and fathers who flee their beloved homes and take on a perilous journey to migrate and find a new home so that their children would not need to suffer hunger and violence and have a better life than theirs.
Hagar’s cries represent the cries of Dr. Izzelddin Abuelaish, who was forced to leave his home and grew up in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He was the first Palestinian doctor to be appointed at an Israeli hospital. Although he was a medical doctor and had a permit to work in Israel, he describes all the harassment he had to go through every day as he traveled between Gaza and Israel. He was a Palestinian doctor who worked at OBGYN, treating both Arab and Jewish patients and conducting research on fertility. He believed that his work could heal the broken relationship between Jewish and Palestinian groups, showing what Palestinians could achieve if they are given the opportunity.
During Gaza War in 2008-2009, Dr. Izzeldin often appeared on. Israel’s Channel 10 station, to speak about the effects of the war. It was January 16, 2009. He was getting ready to do an interview with the news station and an Israeli tank fired two shells at his home, killing three of his daughters and a niece. After the bombing, Abuelaish called the station and screamed, “My God, my god, can’t anyone help us, please? I want to save them. I want to save them, but they are dead.”
As her son is lying under the bush, Hagar sat down opposite him and said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” She lifted up her voice and wept. And the Bible tells us that God heard the voice of the boy and listened to the prayer of Hagar. God is God who listens to our cries and tears. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, God said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters, and I know their suffering” (Exodus 3:7). God is God who listens to cries of those who are in anguish and affliction, as the Psalmist sings, “But truly God has listened; God ahs heard the words of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19).
God opened the eyes of Hagar, and she saw a well of water. She went to the well and filled the skin with water, and gave it to her son. In the Christian tradition, we do not hear further about the story of Hagar and Ishmael. But Genesis tells us, “God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.” The redemptive hands of God extend not just to those who are considered insiders, those who are chosen, but also outsiders, those who are unfamiliar to us, and those who are outcasts and rejected. In our world where we witness the rise of Christian nationalism, which disparages other religions as inferior, the story of Hagar teaches us to appreciate the depth of God’s redemptive love for all God’s people regardless of their ethnicities, cultures, and religions.
As we gather as a community of believers, as Aldersgate UMC this morning, God knows some of you come to this place with tears and cries. Please know that God listens to your prayers. God may not answer when we expect God to answer, or our predetermined answer. But God knows your heart and listens to your cries. At the same time, our belief in God who listens to our cries teaches us ethically to listen and pay attention to the mothers and fathers in our community and our world today who are holding their children and cry out, “Do not let me look on the death of my child.” Even when we pretend not to listen to their tears, sighs, and cries, God is God who listens to them and calls us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.
Amen.
[1] Tom Sykes, “Prince Harry’s Jealousy of William Started With Sausages: Insider” https://news.yahoo.com/prince-harry-jealousy-william-started-152816570.html (Accessed on June 23, 2023)
RAIN OF GRACE 