Today begins with a video clip, a song that I found coming to mind when I read today's passages:
If nothing else, the song takes me back to my early twenties (!) when it was on a tape of Hebrew inspired songs I was rather fond of playing.
Today's readings:
Psalm 22:23-31
Genesis 16:7-15
Mark 8:27-30
The Mark is the parallel to the Matthew on which I will be preaching (with two other passages) tomorrow on the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The key in the Markan reading, over against Matthew or Luke is the 'Messianic Secret'... the 'don't tell anyone' of Jesus.
The Psalm I have already commented on, and so it is to 'Part 2' of Hagar's story that I return. Yesterday we had Abram mating with her for the purposes of obtaining a son, and Sarai, whose idea it was, becoming bitter. Abram seems indifferent to Hagar, now pregnant with his child, and Sarai abuses her so badly she flees. The story continues...
The angel of the LORD found [Hagar] by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am 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."
And 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 El-roi"; for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?"
Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
Genesis 16: 7-15 NRSV
This is truly an astonishing story... here we have a pregnant, runaway slave-girl in an encounter with God. She is, in her society, worthless, and yet God makes her a promise every bit as amazing as that made to Abram... her offsrping will be so many they cannot be counted. Considering that women were, as I noted yesterday, understood as mere vessels in which babies grew, this is doubly astounding. This is no easy promise to hear - her son will be estranged from his blood-relatives, tensions in the complex line from Abraham begin here.
And then she gives God a name! Not God saying to her 'I will be called such-and-such' but her saying to God, you will be called 'El-Roi' the God who sees.
All of which makes me stop and think... who is it that we, in our nice upright, spiritual churches drive away with our attitudes or actions? Where are the desert places to which they flee? And given that El-Roi sees all and knows all, what messages does the Messenger from God (the Angel) speak to them? Hagar went back only to experience further rejection when Ishmael was a child (Genesis 21), hers was not an easy or happy life.
The song I linked, has a line "to the outcast on her knees you are the God who really sees" and that was what promoted me to recall it as I read today's passages.
I wonder, with whom in the story we identify most today? Indifferent Abram? Angry Sarai? Rejected Hagar? Unborn Ishamel? Whoever it might be, God sees, and is not indifferent, is angry only at injustice and sin, and will never reject us. Perhaps that's the message we need to hold on to today?
El Roi
All-seeing God
From whom nothing can be hidden
You see me today
Where I am
(literally and metaphorically)
How I am
And you are never indifferent
Why am I here?
Why this place, these emotions, this situation?
Yet still you promise me hope and a future
Not an easy road
Not perpetual sunshine or roses round a cottage door
Rather, your continued watchfulness
Observing my going out and my coming in
My waking and sleeping
Working and playing
Praying and thinking
Now
and
Forever
More
El Roi
Watch over me
Amen