Now in this story, we see Sarah demanding that her maid-servant and Abraham's first son, Ishmael be banished from their household.  And on the surface this seems like a fairly petty thing to do.  After all, Sarah has given birth, finally, to Isaac, the child of promise, the child named laughter to celebrate the miracle of his birth.  She has the son she has always wanted, why won't she just let well enough alone?

Well on one obvious front, I would expect that Sarah may not have been all that thrilled about the whole business of Abraham having a son with her maid-servant Hagar.  Sarah was unable to have children, and so, when it appeared that Abraham would have no heir, she gave her permission for Abraham to father a child with Hagar.  I doubt that would have been easy, however desperate the situation with no other obvious option available.  In fact, at the time, she was upset and treated Hagar harshly - not surprizing! And to have Hagar and Ishmael around all the time as a reminder of that event would have been difficult.  Besides, now that Abraham and Sarah had their own child, there really was no further Aneed@ for Hagar and Ishmael to be around.  And Sarah had the right to make decisions concerning her slave woman.  So I think we can understand the feelings that might have been present and recognize that in that culture a master or mistress could make decisions about how to deal with their servants. 

But more than those obvious Afeeling@ reasons, I found it interesting that the text tells us that Sarah made this decision right after she saw Ishmael playing with Isaac.  Now I have done some calculating according to the scriptural evidence and I have computed that Ishmael would have been about 15 years old when this celebration took place. He was conceived when Abraham was 75.  Ishmael was almost a man, almost ready for the responsibilities of manhood.  Now, on the surface it would seem perfectly ordinary and natural for Ishmael to play with his baby brother, even if he was his step-brother.  And perhaps there was nothing out of the ordinary.  But we need to try to imagine what Sarah might have been seeing and felling.  Ishmael and Isaac are both sons of Abraham, and Abraham was the recipient of an everlasting covenant with God - a covenant that promised Abraham and his descendants perpetual land and progeny, two of the most important commodities of that time.  So, here's the question - if something should happen to Isaac, if he should have an accident and die for example, who would be the one who would inherit the promise?  It would be Ishmael of course.  And if something did happen to Isaac, what would the chances be of Abraham and Sarah having another child at their advanced age?  While God does work miracles of laughable proportions, I doubt that Sarah had much hope that the impossible would happen again.  A sensible person knows when not to press their luck!  So, I wold suggest that a further dynamic for Sarah, might have been fear for her son or at least the desire to ensure that her son's inheritance would be guaranteed.  Besides, in that culture it would not be totally unusual for one brother to do away with another brother if there was enough reward in terms of inheritance at stake.  And what greater inheritance could there be than the covenant God had made with Abraham?

So Sarah had perhaps a few understandable reasons for feeling a certain antagonism towards Hagar and she felt justified to insist that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away.  However, while her actions were understandable, they also demonstrated a significant lack of faith in God.  In fact, it seems to be something of a common thread through much of Genesis.  God makes a covenant with Abraham, promising to make him a father to many nations.  At the first hint of danger, as soon as the journey hit a bump, Abraham loses faith in God and instead of trusting God to protect him he gets his wife Sarah to pretend to be his sister to save his own skin.  And not once but twice!  Abraham falls flat on his face laughing when God promises him a son through Sarah, who also cracks up at the news.  And Sarah, while God delivered on his promise to give her a son, has trouble believing that she can count on God to see it through.  In the book of Genesis we have both an emerging vision of the nature of God and God's dealings with humanity - a vision that is particularly poignant as we see God experiencing hurt and pain and anger and transforming it in to grace and forgiveness.  And we see a distressing picture of humanity as selfish, rarely learning from their mistakes and demonstrating a pathetically consistent lack of trust in the Almighty, who, astonishingly enough, appears not to be daunted by that mistrust and continues to  bless these Achosen people@ as fallible and foolish as they are.

And we have inherited that capacity for distrust.  And we reveal it in our actions and choices.  When things are going well in our lives, we get nervous.  AGod is good@, we say, with our fingers crossed behind our backs.  I remember a church member actually saying to me once: AOh Pastor Bruce, I believe God is looking after me, knock on wood!@  It seems that many of us have a theology that regularly assumes God's job is to visit disaster upon us - it's just a matter of time.  Enjoy life while God is being benevolent, because you know that as soon as you start to think it will last, God will blind-side you!

And there are folk who, when things are difficult are ready to leap to despair and cry Awoe is me@, assuming that God will be nowhere to be found.  Even though we have had previous experiences of God acting in our lives, sometimes in profoundly miraculous ways, we often make the assumption that God can't or won't do it again.  AOh sure, God got be out of that mess, but there's no way I can expect it here - I've really blown it this time!  God won't show up!@  Isn't it odd that we can conclude, and assume we're following some kind of logic, that just because God was faithful once, we can't count on God again.  In fact, one would think that just the opposite would be true!  If God has helped once, and we're told in scripture that God is faithful, then why would we not expect that God would show up regularly and aid us consistently?

Sarah did not trust the situation, which is to say she did not trust God and so she wanted Hagar and Ismael to hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more, thank you very much!  Now Abraham is upset. After all, Ishmael is his son.  And while Hagar was not his wife, it is easy to assume that he valued her as the mother of his son.  So he's not a happy camper, but God tells him to cool his jets and not to worry about them, for God will take care of them.

And the reason Abraham can have faith that God will take care of them was because God had already said so.  Back when Hagar conceived Ishmael with Abraham, Sarah was less than delighted and she dealt harshly with Hagar and Hagar ran away.  God came to Hagar in the wilderness through an angel and promised her that her offspring would be greatly multiplied.  But in this story, after she is told to take a hike by Sarah, she too conveniently forgets about God's promise concerning her son.  And in despair, having run out of water and with nothing but sand dunes for scenery, she places Ishmael under a bush and goes off a distance so that she won't have to watch him die.  It is pretty clear that she is not expecting God to intervene.  But of course that is exactly what God does.  God shows up right where Hagar does not expect God to be and through an angel reminds her of the promise made, and miraculously provides water in the wilderness and the two of them are saved.  And on one level we might say, Aof course they were saved - didn't God promise to multiply Hagar's descendants?  Obviously that couldn't have happened if the two of them were to perish in the desert?@   It reminds me of the story of Abraham and Isaac, when Abraham is told to make an altar and sacrifice Isaac upon the altar.  Well, of course God would not make Abraham go through with it, because if he did then the promise would be invalid, wouldn't it?  And so there is an expectation that God will intervene at the last moment, otherwise the promise would be negated.  That's part of what trust is all about - believing in God's promises even when circumstances seem to be pointing in another direction.

And that is the lesson for us as well.  We have been told that God loves us and will take care of us and will even bless us.  That's the promise.  We have been told that through faith in Jesus, we will have life and have it abundantly and it will lead to eternal life.  That's the promise.  And it's a good promise.  In fact, it's a wonderful promise and we are amazed to be recipients of such a promise.  However, we can get ourselves in trouble when we falsely define Aabundant@ life as an Aeasy@ life, a smooth life, a life where all goes well and pain and grief and tragedy are not part of the equation.  We assume that if God loves us God will make sure nothing distressing will enter our experience.  And of course, these are unreasonable expectations.  So when trouble comes, when we are weary and heavy laden with the cares of the world, we're ready to cry Aunfair@ and lose trust in God.  And often, we miss the efforts of God that are happening right under our noses designed to give us strength and hope and encouragement, to help us grow through the experience and come to a deeper appreciation of God's goodness.  What I find amusing, and I laugh at myself because sometimes I do it too, is that when we have painted ourselves into a corner, usually what we do is to try every resource we can think of to fix the situation, except God.  And then, after we have exhausted all our resources, we turn to God in desperation.  And we'll even say, ALord, I've tried everything else, now it's your turn, because I've got nowhere left to turn!@

What is truly amazing is that God doesn't break out laughing!  What is amazing is that God doesn't speak in a very loud voice, for many others to hear, ASo, now you decide to seek my help?  Why didn't you turn to me first?  Why did you convince yourself I wasn't already involved?@  The miracle is that God has mercy on us in our poverty of faith and helps us anyway, even when we just don't deserve it.

In the book of Genesis, I'm amazed that God doesn't smack some of those people upside the head with a two-by-four and ask them why they're such dopes!  AHaven't you been paying attention?  Didn't I promise to take care of you?  How come when the first hint of trouble comes you forget all that I've told you?@  And as you continue through the scripture, you see pretty much the same scenario repeated again and again.  That's the depressing news - we humans are slow learners and we are reluctant to place our trust in God, especially when there are a few bumps in the road. The good news, the great news, the totally unexpected news, is that God love us anyway and remains true to the promises that have been made to us.  The distressing news is that because life is what it is and does what is does, we experience doubt and depression more often than not.  But it's tremendously important for us to realize that this is what the world is like - this is what is normal and inevitable.  Preachers who tell you that life can be an endless series of victories, health and wealth and smooth sailing if you have enough faith are lying - they are false teachers and we know it deep down, because that's not our experience! On the surface it is appealing - life where all troubles are immediately banished!  Sounds good.  But it's not realistic.  It's not what Jesus lived and it's not what Jesus taught.  Jesus told us, Ain this world you will have trouble@ - that's the bad news.  The good News is that Jesus also said, Abut take heart, I have overcome the world.@  Christ does not promise that we will never be weary.  He says that when we are, and we will be, especially if we are truly seeking to serve God and love others, he will give us rest.  The prophet Isaiah said that those who wait upon the Lord, which really means those who trust the Lord and resist the urge to despair and give up hope or blame God for what has happened, they will renew their strength and mount up on wings as eagles. 

If you look at the story here and examine God's actions, God took care of everybody.  Even though they did their best to make a mess of everything, God took care of them and stayed true to the promises made to them.  And that's how God acts in our lives. So, take heart!  Yes we will have trouble, but that's not the end of the story.  God cares for us now and always, because God is trustworthy and true.  Amen