Links for today’s readings:
Read: Genesis 16 Listen: (2:18), Read: John 15 Listen: (3:20)
Scripture Focus: Genesis 16:6-7, 13
6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
Reflection: Her Voice from the Margins
By Erin Newton
“As a symbol of the oppressed, Hagar becomes many things to many people” (Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror).
We are accustomed to comparing the two sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. Even in the ordering of the names, we place the younger, chosen son before the eldest. There is an instinctual (or likely a learned) way of viewing Isaac positively and Ishmael negatively. Perhaps the mind wants to conclude: If Ishmael is not chosen by God, he is rejected by me.
Similar thoughts are carried on to their mothers: Sarah and Hagar. Sarah at the beginning is the sole wife to Abraham. It is the promise given to her that the grand ancestry of God’s people would be rooted. But she laughed, she doubted, she schemed.
There are many stories in the Bible that can, if we are still listening, furrow our brows in concern. At first we are reading with a smile watching God choose and bless this family, but then the frailty of humanity sneaks in and begins to warp the goodness. If we are too calloused to see it anymore, we might be tempted to shrug off this really bad idea as something that “works out in the end.”
Works out? For whom?
We have a rare glimpse into the aftermath of Sarah and Abraham’s scheme. We watch Hagar flee into the wilderness for solace. It is there that God comes to meet her. And for the first time, a character in the story calls her by name.
This is why Hagar means so much to so many—God knew her even when people abused her.
Phyllis Trible noted how Hagar represents the marginalized in our day: “She is the faithful maid exploited, the black woman used by the male and abused by the female of the ruling class, the surrogate mother, the resident alien without legal recourse, the other woman, the runaway youth, the religious fleeing from affliction, the pregnant young woman alone, the expelled wife, the divorced mother with child, the shopping bag lady carrying bread and water, the homeless woman, the indigent relying upon handouts from the power structures, the welfare mother, the self-effacing female whose own identity shrinks in service to others” (Texts of Terror).
Hagar reminds us of the importance of letting the marginalized speak. It is Hagar who names God, the One Who Sees. There is no monopoly of knowing God. Let us listen.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Save me, O God, by your Name; in your might, defend my cause.
Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. — Psalm 54.1-2
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Countering Hatred
The gospel solution to hate is to love our enemies, overcoming evil with good.
Read more: Prayer for Outcasts
We pray, today, for those who flee. Aid their flight.
May they avoid danger, escaping the fowler’s snare.
May they find fair winds, lifting their wings and spirits.
