6-22-14: Kicked Out Of The Family
http://soundcloud.com/ncclaguna/6-22-14-kicked-out-of-the-familyScripture Reading: Genesis 21:8-21
Sunday’s readings are not easy to hear. Jealous that Hagar’s son will one day inherit with her son Isaac, Sarah asks Abraham to cast mother and son out into the desert. Despite his distress, Abraham does so, and the text even says God told Abraham to do as Sarah asks! As Ishmael lies dying of thirst, God seems unmoved by Hagar’s tears, and only steps in to save mother and child upon hearing the boy’s cries. Either God is ethically challenged, God’s purposes are beyond our simple delineations of right and wrong, or scripture writers did their best to understand God’s ways and had a very bad day. Yet, scripture does show that God hears our prayers and listens to the cries of our supplications. God’s ways are not our ways, but there is help in the Lord and in no other. See you Sunday. Yours on the journey, Pastor B.J.