Hagar: Enslaved Women Past and Present

(process note:  my church, Trinity Lutheran in Pembroke Pines, Florida, is doing an autumn sermon series on interesting women in the Bible.  Here's what I wrote for our weekly newsletter.  For a different take, you can watch the broadcast of the service later today on the Facebook page or on the YouTube channel)

In this week's exploration of interesting women of the Bible, we hear about Hagar, slave woman to Sarah, mother of Abraham's child, Ishmael. This story is not an easy one to read. It shows us how precarious it was to be a woman in ancient times, in ways that aren't that different from today.

It's tempting to read this as a story of how a male-dominated, patriarchal society mistreats women, and that approach would not be wrong. Yet as we read the stories of Sarah and Hagar, it's clear that Sarah is more of a problem than Abraham. It's Sarah's idea to have Hagar have Abraham's child, and then when her plan is successful, it's Sarah who mistreats Hagar so badly that Hagar runs away. Hagar returns, and years later, when Sarah has her own child, again, Sarah develops a plan to get rid of Hagar. Abraham shows remorse, but Sarah never seems to see that she's been wrong.

We could see this as a story of how women don't support each other, of how patriarchy poisons female relationships, and again, we wouldn't be wrong. But it also shows us the dangers of a stratified society. Sarah sees Hagar as disposable. We would do well to think about where we see that dynamic in our current society. We don't have to look very hard to find whole parts of populations that are disposable.

In the time of Sarah and Hagar, as in our own time, the people who live in the margins of society don't have anyone to advocate for them. Hagar is a female slave; only a slave child would have less status, less protection. We may feel that we're better as a society because we have laws against slavery, but many employment practices keep people enslaved in other ways. And of course, there's the very real condition of human trafficking.

We say that we have criminalized slavery, but in many ways, in all of human history, it's never been easier to own a slave, than it is right now. Our time has fairly porous borders, technology that makes it easy to fake paperwork, and people who are willing to sell you any type of person you might want.

It's enough to make us weep--the world that God envisions for us seems so far away.

When we approach this story from a different angle, we can move away from weeping. The stories of Sarah and Hagar show us that God can make something good out of the most abject human misery. We see Hagar in the desert, out of water and seemingly out of luck, when God opens her eyes so that she can see a well of water. They survive, and Hagar gets credit for being the mother of the 3rd great religion that comes from Abraham's descendants; Hagar is the mother of Islam.

We see that God keeps the promise made to Abraham, not just in the son Isaac, but in all of Abraham's descendants. God doesn't get bogged down in the legal details. God doesn't say, "The deal is off because you had sex with a slave woman." Instead, God expands on the vision--nations for both children!

If God can transform the brokenness of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, we should take courage in that. No matter how spectacularly we have failed, God is there, showing us the well of water in the times of our lives that feel most like the barren desert. God is there, promising new life where it seems impossible to find life at all.