Sarah, Abraham, Hagar, and Laughing Boy. Genesis 15-21.
Looking at a lot of complicated hurts, plus a happy ending (of sorts).
Abraham and Sarah received three great promises from God: land, their own child and that the whole earth would be blessed through them. All those promises took a long time to work out. Looking at everything that happened before Isaac was born, it is so easy at a distance to think, ‘They had God’s promise, why couldn’t they just trust it.’ But as the years went by, Sarah gave up, went for surrogacy (a legal option then, as now) and that caused more issues.
I came across this very helpful suggestion from Marina Hofman – look at the pain that each person is experiencing https://theotherjournal.com/2015/12/03/retelling-hagars-story-reading-trauma-in-genesis-16/. Sarah is childless, and over the years has come to give up hope. Using her slave Hagar as a surrogate mother works. Except that the successful pregnancy heightens her feelings of worthlessness. Her pain takes over, and she pushes that onto Hagar. Hagar meanwhile has her own hurt – she is an Egyptian slave. She has no control over where she lives, or what her owners are like. She has no choice about her sexual activity. Suddenly, she has power, carrying Abraham’s baby. The victim becomes the victimizer, and when Sarah lashes out at her. Hagar’s unsorted pain leads her to run away and isolate. There an angel of God meets her, calls her by name, and promises that she will have a good birth. Her pain has been heard and recognized.
Finally, Sarah is miraculously pregnant. Her laughter changes from cynical to healthy. Isaac’s name means laughter. Later, she can’t cope with seeing the two brothers happily playing together, so she gets Hagar sent away, but Hagar goes knowing that God sees her, and will also bless her and her son.
Helping others who have had painful experiences.
We all have pain that we carry, including experiences that haven’t been worked through in a healing way. As a congregation, we do vital work supporting each other. These accounts of Sarah and Hagar remind us to listen caringly, and to affirm the worth of people in their pain. As we are able, we provide a place of hearing, safety, understanding and healing.
Blessing – even over our wrong moves.
Abraham and Sarah both had times when their actions put God’s promises at risk. That did not stop God continuing to bless them and work through them, even their mistakes. God just expands to include the wrong moves. That is a great comfort for us. When we do get things wrong that does not change God’s heart about us. He doesn’t suddenly choose to hate us. We are always in God’s love, no matter what we are feeling. The things we have got wrong do not define us, certainly not for ever.