Genesis 21:8-21 Hagar's...
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Genesis 21:8-21
Hagar's shoulders sagged from the burden.
Lightened fearfully by each day's meal.
The empty water bag was no more good
Than a dry snakeskin.
Each step with the boy spun the world,
And even sitting found nothing stable this side of death.
The child's burned eyes and swollen mouth
All looked the same -- red, wrinkled, bleeding.
Upon her last step before placing Ishmael under the bush
Hagar could have posed for a statue of motherhood.
Hopeless love is still love:
Unable to watch her son die,
Unwilling to leave and let him die alone.
And Ishmael -- no symbol to her -- became the world's great tragedy:
Dying at the hands of a religion's princess
Only because he liked to play
And was born to the wrong woman.
The bending of Hagar's back,
The last moving of Ishmael's head off a sharp rock,
Was humanity's lowest point since Eden,
Which only Yahweh-God himself could redeem.
Genesis 21:8-21
Abraham faced as much perplexity as any man has. First, God made promises that he often delayed fulfilling. It took decades for Abraham and Sarah to have the son that the Lord promised. Then after the son was born, the Lord ordered Abraham to surrender him as a sacrificial victim.
Second, Abraham must have been bewildered by Sarah's behavior. Years before Isaac was born to Sarah, she asked Abraham to sleep with her handmaiden. Sarah thought that was the Lord's plan. But when Hagar became pregnant and taunted Sarah, Sarah blamed Abraham. Later when Hagar's son was a teenager and possibly teased Isaac, Sarah wanted both Hagar and her son out of the picture. Sarah's mind-changes must have bewildered poor Abraham.
Years ago, I wandered around a park in Beverly Hills totally baffled about what I should do. My wife had changed her mind about something we had planned together. It seemed to me that the Lord had opened a door for us only to place a cement wall on the other side. It took a long time to understand what the Lord had in mind. I'm glad he didn't let me completely give up, because Norma was right.
Genesis 21:8-21
Hagar and Ishmael had every reason to fear. They were asked to leave their home and left to wander in the desert. Their water and supplies were all gone. Then God dared to suggest: "Do not be afraid. God has heard ..." (Genesis 21:17).
Is anybody listening? We cry out as did Hagar, feeling very alone and forsaken. God not only listens. He acts. He frees us from fear.
An Arabian story tells that pestilence in the form of the plague met a caravan leaving Baghdad. "Why are you in a hurry to go to Baghdad?"
"I go to take 5,000 lives," the plague replied. On their way back, they met again, and the caravan leader was very angry. The plague asked why?
"You promised to take only 5,000 lives and you took 50,000," responded the caravan leader.
"Oh no," responded the plague. "I took only 5,000, fear killed the rest."
Fear can do all of us in. When Hagar knew God was listening, her fears disappeared. She was set free to be the mother of a great nation.
Romans 6:1b-11
Most people who have ever used an IBM personal computer (or one of its clones) know the meaning of this expression: "Control-Alt-Delete." It describes the sequence of three keys you must enter, if you want to reboot -- or restart -- the computer.
Nowadays, in Windows operating systems, those three keys call up a menu that lets you check the status of the programs you're running. But, back in the old DOS days, hitting those three keys meant you were taking a very drastic step. You would lose everything you were working on in order to start all over again. That's the reason that particular sequence of keys was chosen. Two are on the lower left of the keyboard, and the other on the upper right. You have to use two hands to do it, and you have to be very intentional about it. There's no way you could hit those three keys accidentally.
Sometimes, though, rebooting is the only thing to do. If your computer has developed some kind of glitch and gotten stuck, if the program has frozen up and every other solution has failed to get it going again, then rebooting is your last, best hope.
Romans, chapter 6, talks about God's "control-alt-delete" combination. Like the software operating-system designer, God has provided for us, in our lives, a sort of "reset" button - - an effective way to start all over again, when all else fails.
It's called baptism. For some people, the rebirth comes in literally being baptized, as adults -- as they come to Christ for the very first time. But for those who were baptized as infants, it's the intentional remembrance of baptism that's effective for rebirth. It is the taking up of the promises that were made for us, long ago, by our parents, and renewing them -- making those promises our own.
Romans 6:1b-11
What does Paul mean in our passage from the book of Romans when he says, "All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death"?
All of us have at least a certain amount of fear of death -- or we should have, so we don't jump off high buildings or go skateboarding down the interstate. The good news is: At our baptism we were buried with Christ, drowned in the waters, then raised up out of them, raised from the dead, as he was. So we have already died.
And now, as Paul says in verse 9, we walk in newness of life, and our Lord calls us to move along on our faith journey. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, "When Christ calls [us], he bids [us] come and die." Our Lord calls us to die to our own will and follow him. He calls us to abandon our attachments to this world -- and follow him.
Romans 6:1b-11
Early one Saturday morning, a man heard thieves breaking into his home. He was upstairs at the time. He quickly called the police. When the police arrived, whoever had broken into the house was gone. The kitchen door did show signs that someone forced their way into the house.
That's not the end of the story. As the man, along with the police officers, checked out the house to see if anything was taken, television or electronic equipment, the police discovered that the man was growing a large amount of marijuana in his basement. They also discovered all sorts of drug paraphernalia around the house.
The man who called the police to report a break-in was, in fact, arrested himself. The story was reported in the newspaper and on a couple of regional television news programs. The whole episode brought chuckles and smiles to many people. "Who could be so foolish?" someone asked. Another person wondered if the person did not think that what he was doing in his home was illegal.
Maybe one of our contemporary problems is that we fail to see the sin in our own lives. We are quick to spot others' misdeeds but do not recognize our own sin. The apostle Paul asked, "How can we who died to sin go on living in it?" We need Jesus.
Romans 6:1b-11
The City of Ottawa, a ship built to commemorate the birthday of Queen Victoria in 1860, lies broken and submerged in a harbor in Wales. The ship served as a cargo ship for fifty years, sailing from England to Australia, Asia, South Africa, the United States, and other countries before it ran aground on a sandbar in the Welsh harbor of Rhyl Foryd in 1906. There she has remained for over a century. During low tide, her skeletal remains become visible, and she has become a popular tourist attraction for visitors to Wales. But now, archaeologists would like to raise the remains of the ship from its watery grave, restore it, and display it in Quebec City where it was made.
In baptism, we are plunged into a watery grave and raised from it with new life. There is no need for restoration; we are re-created in the process of our burial and resurrection with Christ.
Matthew 10:24-39
Sim returned home from his new job. He'd just moved and was getting settled. On the answering machine was his friend, Arnie, from his old neighborhood, "Nothing important. Just called to talk. Phone when you get a minute." Sim phoned. No one home. He phoned every night for a week. Fearing what might have happened, he called another friend who reported that no one was home at Arnie's and no one had seen him for a week.
Sim and his wife drove 200 miles to Arnie's and arrived as Arnie drove into his driveway. Sim said how worried he was after Arnie's phone message and not being able to contact him. Arnie said that his cousin died that afternoon and he had left to be with family.
Even though Arnie was sad, he wasn't in danger. Humans often worry about the wrong things, as Jesus said, "Do not fear those who kill the body but...."
Matthew 10:24-39
Have you been in the presence of influential people or peers and stammer when you know you should be telling them about your beliefs? When it happens to me, I'm ashamed. The Lord has allowed me to serve him for decades. I should be prepared for just about every situation. Still, I find myself faltering and hesitating to own him. I tell myself that I will be bolder next time, but soon I'm stammering again.
Jesus stood before the Father pleading our case, not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. He did this despite our warts, failures, and woeful pride. He did it knowing that all of us will at some point be tongue-tied in our testimony. I pray that I shall never again be ashamed to publicly say I believe in him and love him, regardless of my audience. I pray that you will be bolder, too. "Everyone ... who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven."
Matthew 10:24-39
The sparrow is such a common bird and so numerous that often it is considered a pest. The psalmist speaks of the sparrow finding a nesting place in the temple; Jesus even said, "... not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's will" (Matthew 10:29). Truly his eye is on the sparrow, and we can know he cares for each individual!
The sparrow or a similar small bird could even be used for a poor person's sacrifice as referred to in Leviticus 14:30. The Palestinian sparrow is larger than the English sparrow, so it is understandable that for the very poor it might be caught and eaten. Matthew 10 tells of sparrows being sold possibly for food, or for sacrifice.
It is interesting to note that even early in Bible times, the ruthless killing of birds was forbidden. In the Today's English Version, Deuteronomy 22:6 says, "If you happen to find a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground with the mother bird sitting either on the eggs or with her young, you are not to take the mother bird." This is a very humane and sensible rule and a guide for conserving wildlife.
In God's sight, the lowly sparrow reminds us that God's care is personal and real. The hairs of your head are numbered and not even a sparrow falls without our heavenly Father knowing and caring and reaching out in love.
God of the sparrow and God of the skies, God of the weak and God of the strong, we give you praise and thanks! With amazement we realize that you have remembered the smallest and simplest of your creatures with care and concern. May we be among those who are good stewards of nature and all wildlife, the creatures of your creation. Even more important we pray that our concern will extend to the least or the lost or the lonely in our human family. Remind us that Jesus said, "Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least ... you have done it unto me." Amen.
(From Samuel Hahn, Learning From the Lizard [Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 2000])
Hagar's shoulders sagged from the burden.
Lightened fearfully by each day's meal.
The empty water bag was no more good
Than a dry snakeskin.
Each step with the boy spun the world,
And even sitting found nothing stable this side of death.
The child's burned eyes and swollen mouth
All looked the same -- red, wrinkled, bleeding.
Upon her last step before placing Ishmael under the bush
Hagar could have posed for a statue of motherhood.
Hopeless love is still love:
Unable to watch her son die,
Unwilling to leave and let him die alone.
And Ishmael -- no symbol to her -- became the world's great tragedy:
Dying at the hands of a religion's princess
Only because he liked to play
And was born to the wrong woman.
The bending of Hagar's back,
The last moving of Ishmael's head off a sharp rock,
Was humanity's lowest point since Eden,
Which only Yahweh-God himself could redeem.
Genesis 21:8-21
Abraham faced as much perplexity as any man has. First, God made promises that he often delayed fulfilling. It took decades for Abraham and Sarah to have the son that the Lord promised. Then after the son was born, the Lord ordered Abraham to surrender him as a sacrificial victim.
Second, Abraham must have been bewildered by Sarah's behavior. Years before Isaac was born to Sarah, she asked Abraham to sleep with her handmaiden. Sarah thought that was the Lord's plan. But when Hagar became pregnant and taunted Sarah, Sarah blamed Abraham. Later when Hagar's son was a teenager and possibly teased Isaac, Sarah wanted both Hagar and her son out of the picture. Sarah's mind-changes must have bewildered poor Abraham.
Years ago, I wandered around a park in Beverly Hills totally baffled about what I should do. My wife had changed her mind about something we had planned together. It seemed to me that the Lord had opened a door for us only to place a cement wall on the other side. It took a long time to understand what the Lord had in mind. I'm glad he didn't let me completely give up, because Norma was right.
Genesis 21:8-21
Hagar and Ishmael had every reason to fear. They were asked to leave their home and left to wander in the desert. Their water and supplies were all gone. Then God dared to suggest: "Do not be afraid. God has heard ..." (Genesis 21:17).
Is anybody listening? We cry out as did Hagar, feeling very alone and forsaken. God not only listens. He acts. He frees us from fear.
An Arabian story tells that pestilence in the form of the plague met a caravan leaving Baghdad. "Why are you in a hurry to go to Baghdad?"
"I go to take 5,000 lives," the plague replied. On their way back, they met again, and the caravan leader was very angry. The plague asked why?
"You promised to take only 5,000 lives and you took 50,000," responded the caravan leader.
"Oh no," responded the plague. "I took only 5,000, fear killed the rest."
Fear can do all of us in. When Hagar knew God was listening, her fears disappeared. She was set free to be the mother of a great nation.
Romans 6:1b-11
Most people who have ever used an IBM personal computer (or one of its clones) know the meaning of this expression: "Control-Alt-Delete." It describes the sequence of three keys you must enter, if you want to reboot -- or restart -- the computer.
Nowadays, in Windows operating systems, those three keys call up a menu that lets you check the status of the programs you're running. But, back in the old DOS days, hitting those three keys meant you were taking a very drastic step. You would lose everything you were working on in order to start all over again. That's the reason that particular sequence of keys was chosen. Two are on the lower left of the keyboard, and the other on the upper right. You have to use two hands to do it, and you have to be very intentional about it. There's no way you could hit those three keys accidentally.
Sometimes, though, rebooting is the only thing to do. If your computer has developed some kind of glitch and gotten stuck, if the program has frozen up and every other solution has failed to get it going again, then rebooting is your last, best hope.
Romans, chapter 6, talks about God's "control-alt-delete" combination. Like the software operating-system designer, God has provided for us, in our lives, a sort of "reset" button - - an effective way to start all over again, when all else fails.
It's called baptism. For some people, the rebirth comes in literally being baptized, as adults -- as they come to Christ for the very first time. But for those who were baptized as infants, it's the intentional remembrance of baptism that's effective for rebirth. It is the taking up of the promises that were made for us, long ago, by our parents, and renewing them -- making those promises our own.
Romans 6:1b-11
What does Paul mean in our passage from the book of Romans when he says, "All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death"?
All of us have at least a certain amount of fear of death -- or we should have, so we don't jump off high buildings or go skateboarding down the interstate. The good news is: At our baptism we were buried with Christ, drowned in the waters, then raised up out of them, raised from the dead, as he was. So we have already died.
And now, as Paul says in verse 9, we walk in newness of life, and our Lord calls us to move along on our faith journey. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, "When Christ calls [us], he bids [us] come and die." Our Lord calls us to die to our own will and follow him. He calls us to abandon our attachments to this world -- and follow him.
Romans 6:1b-11
Early one Saturday morning, a man heard thieves breaking into his home. He was upstairs at the time. He quickly called the police. When the police arrived, whoever had broken into the house was gone. The kitchen door did show signs that someone forced their way into the house.
That's not the end of the story. As the man, along with the police officers, checked out the house to see if anything was taken, television or electronic equipment, the police discovered that the man was growing a large amount of marijuana in his basement. They also discovered all sorts of drug paraphernalia around the house.
The man who called the police to report a break-in was, in fact, arrested himself. The story was reported in the newspaper and on a couple of regional television news programs. The whole episode brought chuckles and smiles to many people. "Who could be so foolish?" someone asked. Another person wondered if the person did not think that what he was doing in his home was illegal.
Maybe one of our contemporary problems is that we fail to see the sin in our own lives. We are quick to spot others' misdeeds but do not recognize our own sin. The apostle Paul asked, "How can we who died to sin go on living in it?" We need Jesus.
Romans 6:1b-11
The City of Ottawa, a ship built to commemorate the birthday of Queen Victoria in 1860, lies broken and submerged in a harbor in Wales. The ship served as a cargo ship for fifty years, sailing from England to Australia, Asia, South Africa, the United States, and other countries before it ran aground on a sandbar in the Welsh harbor of Rhyl Foryd in 1906. There she has remained for over a century. During low tide, her skeletal remains become visible, and she has become a popular tourist attraction for visitors to Wales. But now, archaeologists would like to raise the remains of the ship from its watery grave, restore it, and display it in Quebec City where it was made.
In baptism, we are plunged into a watery grave and raised from it with new life. There is no need for restoration; we are re-created in the process of our burial and resurrection with Christ.
Matthew 10:24-39
Sim returned home from his new job. He'd just moved and was getting settled. On the answering machine was his friend, Arnie, from his old neighborhood, "Nothing important. Just called to talk. Phone when you get a minute." Sim phoned. No one home. He phoned every night for a week. Fearing what might have happened, he called another friend who reported that no one was home at Arnie's and no one had seen him for a week.
Sim and his wife drove 200 miles to Arnie's and arrived as Arnie drove into his driveway. Sim said how worried he was after Arnie's phone message and not being able to contact him. Arnie said that his cousin died that afternoon and he had left to be with family.
Even though Arnie was sad, he wasn't in danger. Humans often worry about the wrong things, as Jesus said, "Do not fear those who kill the body but...."
Matthew 10:24-39
Have you been in the presence of influential people or peers and stammer when you know you should be telling them about your beliefs? When it happens to me, I'm ashamed. The Lord has allowed me to serve him for decades. I should be prepared for just about every situation. Still, I find myself faltering and hesitating to own him. I tell myself that I will be bolder next time, but soon I'm stammering again.
Jesus stood before the Father pleading our case, not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. He did this despite our warts, failures, and woeful pride. He did it knowing that all of us will at some point be tongue-tied in our testimony. I pray that I shall never again be ashamed to publicly say I believe in him and love him, regardless of my audience. I pray that you will be bolder, too. "Everyone ... who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven."
Matthew 10:24-39
The sparrow is such a common bird and so numerous that often it is considered a pest. The psalmist speaks of the sparrow finding a nesting place in the temple; Jesus even said, "... not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's will" (Matthew 10:29). Truly his eye is on the sparrow, and we can know he cares for each individual!
The sparrow or a similar small bird could even be used for a poor person's sacrifice as referred to in Leviticus 14:30. The Palestinian sparrow is larger than the English sparrow, so it is understandable that for the very poor it might be caught and eaten. Matthew 10 tells of sparrows being sold possibly for food, or for sacrifice.
It is interesting to note that even early in Bible times, the ruthless killing of birds was forbidden. In the Today's English Version, Deuteronomy 22:6 says, "If you happen to find a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground with the mother bird sitting either on the eggs or with her young, you are not to take the mother bird." This is a very humane and sensible rule and a guide for conserving wildlife.
In God's sight, the lowly sparrow reminds us that God's care is personal and real. The hairs of your head are numbered and not even a sparrow falls without our heavenly Father knowing and caring and reaching out in love.
God of the sparrow and God of the skies, God of the weak and God of the strong, we give you praise and thanks! With amazement we realize that you have remembered the smallest and simplest of your creatures with care and concern. May we be among those who are good stewards of nature and all wildlife, the creatures of your creation. Even more important we pray that our concern will extend to the least or the lost or the lonely in our human family. Remind us that Jesus said, "Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least ... you have done it unto me." Amen.
(From Samuel Hahn, Learning From the Lizard [Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 2000])
