The Wilderness - Hagar and the Naming of God

All right, so today we are beginning a new series

here at the beginning of the year. We're calling

it The Wilderness. Here's the beginning of a

calendar year. It's a natural time for people

to be thinking about what's coming up. Maybe

how will this year be different than the last?

It reminds me of a Cannon Crow song. Maybe this

year will be better than the last. Some of us,

we just had the best years of our lives. We got

a promotion. We got a new relationship. Everything

went right. We felt closer to God than we have

ever felt before in others. Maybe not so much.

Some of us feel like we just walked not just

through but deep into the wilderness. Some of

us feel like that's where we live. It's like

we didn't just take a tent. We didn't just go

camping. We took our whole house with us. And

when we feel like we're in a wilderness, what

happens is we might start feeling like God has

lost track of us. We might start feeling like

we're replaceable. We might start feeling invisible,

forgettable, dispensable. But the scriptures

show us over and over again that God meets us

in the wilderness. So for the next six weeks,

we're going to be walking through the wilderness

as people in the Bible experienced it. And I

hope that we will see that God will meet you

no matter where you are in any season of your

life. So let's open up our Bibles to Genesis

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16. There's Bibles on your table. If

you don't have one, you can actually take one

of those home or there's more of those out on

the bookshelf in the lobby. You can't steal them

because they're free. And then if you don't want

a physical Bible, you can also just download

a digital one from any of the digital app stores.

We're going to be in chapter 16 of Genesis, the

very first book of the Bible, easy to find. We're

going to read a long passage, 1 through 13, I

believe. Yep. And we have a tradition of just

giving the scriptures our full attention when

they're read in the context of a sermon. You

can do that any way that you see fit. But one

of the ways that we do that is by standing together

as we are able. If you would like to join me

as I read. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him

no children. She had an Egyptian slave whose

name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, you

see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing

children. Go into my slave, it may be that I

shall obtain children by her. And Abram listens

to the voice of Sarai. So after Abram had lived

ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's

wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave, and

gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. He went

in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw

that she had conceived, she looked with contempt

on her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, May

the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my slave

to your embrace, and when she saw that she had

conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May

the Lord judge between you and me. But Abram

said to Sarai, Your slave is in your power. Do

to her as you please. Then Sarai dealt harshly

with her, and she ran away from her. Verse 7.

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of

water in the wilderness, the spring on the way

to Shur. And he said, Hagar, slave of Sarai,

where have you come from and where are you going?

She said, I'm running away from my mistress Sarai.

The angel of the Lord said to her, return to

your mistress and submit to her. The angel of

the Lord also said to her, I will so greatly

multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted

for multitude. The angel of the Lord said to

her, now you have conceived and shall bear a

son. You shall call him Ishmael, for the Lord

has given heed to your affliction. He shall be

a wild ass of a man with his hand against everyone

and everyone's hand against him. And he shall

live at odds with all his kin. So she named the

Lord who spoke to her. You are Elroi. For she

said, have I really seen God and remained alive

after seeing him? Let us pray. God of every tribe,

every tongue, every color, and every nation,

we thank you for the scriptures that we have

them, that they have persisted through the millennial,

throughout thousands of years, that we can still

consider them and learn from them. And I pray

that whatever you have to teach us today, that

it would stick, that it would become a part of

the framework of our faith as we become more

like your son, Jesus. Amen. Thanks, y 'all. You

can have a seat. All right, so just before this

in chapter 15, where we didn't read, God promised

Abram that he would be the beginning of a great

nation. We don't know how many years that there

are between chapter 15 and 16, but we know that

when Sarai was around 75 years old, that's where

we are in chapter 16. And you can probably imagine

or understand why she started looking for other

ways to accomplish God's promise for Abram. Giving

birth at any age is one of the most difficult

things that the female human body can go through,

let alone in your late 70s. So Sarai provides

her own solution. She says, you can't have a

kid with me, but I want you to have what God

has offered you, and so I want to offer you,

Sarai, my slave, so that you can have... a kid

with her. Now, this wasn't uncommon in ancient

culture. Having children with a concubine or

a second wife to keep a family going was an acceptable

custom. But Abram should have known better. In

chapter 15, God didn't say explicitly, word for

word, that his son would have to be from Sarai.

But the promise is there if you're paying attention.

Chapter 15. The reason that God gives Abram this

promise is that Abram's complaint to God wasn't

just that he had no son or that he had no heir.

It was that everything that he had would be handed

down to one of his servants. So when God says,

I'll give you a son of your own, it is implicit

in that promise that the solution will not come

from one of his servants. Abram's problem. isn't

that Sarai hasn't conceived yet. His problem

is that his patience was too short. His problem

is that his imagination was smaller than his

libido. It should go without saying, but impatience

and libido should not be our markers for truth.

Well, it hasn't happened yet. Well, I really

want it. These are not the filters that we are

meant to comprehend God's truth through. Anytime

we say, this is what God wants, this is what

God said, but we ignore the agency of the people

around us, we should also be careful. I don't

know about you, but At some point, I lost track

of how many times I'd heard people say, the Lord

is saying to you. And often in my life, some

of those were right. But often in my life, many

of them were just something someone was saying.

We should be careful and mindful what air quotes

we put around God's words. But especially, especially

when it removes the agency and free will of somebody

else. Reality is that Hagar was not given a choice.

She was a slave. She was given to Abram by a

pharaoh in Egypt. She had no choice in leaving

her home. She had no choice in being Sarai's

servant. She had no choice whether to have sex

with Abram, whether to have a child with a 90

-year -old man. She was told. She was gifted.

Was it an acceptable custom? Yes. But we should

not forget that acceptable customs have their

victims. So she runs. Says that the angel of

the Lord found her near the spring on the way

to Shur. Something that... I learned in studying

about this passage in years past was that the

spring on the road to Shur was the same road

that would lead you back to Egypt. Presumably,

she's pregnant and she's just trying to get home.

She has a master that doesn't care about her.

If you read it again, it says that he took her

as a wife. But then when animosity and conflict

came up, he said, she's your slave. She's someone

that was used for her womb. She's someone that

got used for her body. She's just trying to get

home. And so... That's why it's difficult to

hear the angel say, go back. It can feel unfair.

It can feel unjust to send Hagar back to Sarai

and Abram. Abram, who doesn't care about her,

to Sarai, who is harsh to her. But the practical

reality is also that her chances of surviving

this journey back to Egypt were slim. Not only

because it was a long road back to Egypt, but

because a woman, a pregnant woman, traveling

by herself with no food and water 4 ,000 years

ago didn't have the best odds of making it anywhere

safely. The angel tells her to go back, not because

it would be easy, not because any of it was okay,

but to save her life. To save the life. of her

son. Let me say, if you are in a physically abusive

situation, God is not asking you to stay. There

might be other situations where the timing is

different, but please don't hear this story about

Hagar and think God is asking you to stay and

to go back to someone that is physically hurting

you. Don't even get in the car and go back. God

does not want you to be in a place that you are

being physically hurt. Now, as far as we know,

Hagar was not being physically abused. That doesn't

make any of the verbal abuse or harsh treatment

okay. What I am saying, what I think the scriptures

are telling us, is that when this angel tells

her to go back, that he's not sending her back

to a place that she will die. God is never asking

us to stay in a place. where our partner will

physically hurt us. Now, for Hagar, the angel

knew that going back would be difficult. And

so what we see is that the angel also gives her

a promise of future. He actually says, the future

of your family... will be the same as the future

of Abram's. Not only will she not die, but the

angel says, I will so greatly multiply your offspring

that they cannot be counted for multitude. Where

have we heard something like that before? It's

the same thing, not word for word, but it's the

same thing that God said to Abram. And with this

bittersweet promise in hand, With this baby Ishmael

in her womb, Hagar says, You are El -Roi. Have

I really seen God and remained alive after seeing

him? This encounter is what's called a theophany.

That's your theological word for the day. If

you leave now, I feel I have done my job. Theophany.

Theological word. It is when God appears on earth

in a physical form. One of the factors for deciding

if it is in a theophany or not is whether that

person or angel accepts worship that belongs

to God or allows themselves to be called or treated

like God is only to be treated. Hagar says, have

I really seen God and remained alive? And the

angel does not correct her. But not just that.

It's in what she says, what she calls him. She

says, you are El Roy. Those words mean you are

the God who sees me. She doesn't just feel like

she has seen God. She feels like she has been

seen by God. And something that's very fascinating.

is that Hagar is actually the first recorded

person in all the scriptures to give God a name.

Think about that. Abram is Father Abraham, beginning

of a people. Adam and Eve, first people described

in the scriptures. All of the people that came

after. Noah. Anyone from the first 15 chapters

of the Bible. No one else. is recorded as looking

at God, talking to God, and giving God a name

that then God accepts. But a female, Egyptian,

runaway slave used for her body. Guys, I don't

know how to make it any more important. The least.

The absolute least person gets to name God. She

saw and she felt seen. Maybe some of us have

never felt either. But I don't think... That

if that's how you feel, that God has lost track

of you. I don't think that it means that God

has forgotten your future. I think that if God

sees an Egyptian slave, then he sees you. If

he sees someone that was treated harshly and

misused and cast out by Father Abraham, then

he sees you. And I wonder if maybe today each

of us should also consider giving God a name.

Naming. who you are and who God is to you in

this moment in your life. You can call just God,

God. You can say just Jesus, Jesus. You can say

Abba, Father. You can say Elohim, Emmanuel, Jehovah,

Jireh, my provider. You can say Yahweh. You could

say El Roy. Or you can take a moment and think,

where am I with you right now? How would I name

you? Are you the God who feels what I feel? Are

you the God who sees my pain? Are you the God

who holds me close? You are the God who saw me

in my mother's womb. He surely saw Ishmael. So

he has seen you. And I think... That there is

as much of a promise for every single person

in this room, every single person in our neighborhood,

every single person in our city, as there was

for Hagar and for Ishmael. There is a promise

for you. In the same way that the promise of

a future for Hagar and Ishmael could not be stopped

by Abram and Sarai and their impatience and their

frustration and their humanity. The future and

promise that God has for you cannot be stopped

by anyone that you think is controlling your

life either. The promise of God is not determined

by anyone that you know. The promise of God is

not determined or controlled by your ex. God's

promise or the future that he has for you is

not determined by your boss, your career, your

vocation, where you live. The promise and future

that God has for you is immutable because it

is God's. Before it ever enters our womb, before

it is ever in our hand, it is in his mouth. And

if it is from God, no plan of God can be thwarted.

So I don't know what kind of wilderness you have

been in or you feel that you are in. Truth is,

this last year, not on my top 10, everybody.

But I know that God has not lost track of me.

And so I believe that God has not lost track

of you. Let us pray. All -seeing, all -knowing,

ever -present God, you are where we are. There

is nowhere we go that you cannot see us, find

us, be present to us, convince us. I pray that

those that have not seen might see. That those

that have never felt seen might feel seen. And

that those that have felt both will take the

hand of someone in the wilderness and walk with

them. And show them the way. I name you love

because you are the God that is love. Amen.