Sermon Preached By Rev. Patti M. Smith - September 14, 2001

Genesis 21:1-21

Perhaps you are wondering why I chose this text for such an occasion as this. A service of comfort and healing would seem to call for a different scriptural message. What has the account of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar, and Ishmael to do with the terrible tragedies we have witnessed this week? Where is the comfort we need so desperately to find? Where is God’s healing word to be found? When we are ill of body, we go to our physician hoping to find healing and the restoration of wholeness. Before the doctor can prescribe any treatment beyond treating just our symptoms, he or she must determine the root cause of the illness. This will require not only diagnostic tests, but a close look at the development of our illness, and sometimes more importantly, your family history. When we are in need of spiritual healing and wholeness, we come to our church, to seek a word from The Great Healer. We seek to find that word in scriptures. Just as the restoration of our physical health is enhanced by examination of our family history, the restoration of our spirit is enhanced by examination of our spiritual family history. Now we are ready to look again at Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar, and Ishmael.

For many years Sarah was barren. She knew well of God’s promise to Abraham. "I will make of your descendants a great nation." How could that become a reality if Abraham had no sons? So she took matters into her own hands. What she did was an accepted thing in the culture; but still, I would consider it an unusually unselfish act. She gave her servant, Hagar, to Abraham in the hope that he might have a son with her. Her plan worked, except that she too had a son while Ishmael was still a boy. Abraham loved his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. The boys were happy playing together until Sarah began to doubt the wisdom of her plan. Jealousy raised its ugly head, and you know the rest of the story.

Hagar and her son were banished into the cruelty of the unyielding desert. No more food, but more importantly, the water skin was dry! She had no alternative but to abandon her little boy to the scorching heat of the desert. What a terrible experience this had to be for a young child. Expelled by his father, abandoned in the searing heat by his mother. He cried out, but to no avail. He did not belong anywhere! He was doomed to a brief life and a painful death. But God had another plan for Ishmael. He did not die. He learned to live in his desert environment as a nomad, a hunter. Abraham, through his sons, became the father of two, and eventually three, of the world’s great religions. We know that it was through Isaac’s line that the Hebrew faith continued. Some seventeen hundred years later, with the birth of Jesus, came the advent of Christianity. It may be less well known to us that it was Ishmael who was the father of Islam. Out of the pain and anger of banishment from father and brother came the seeds of ancient hatred. These seeds were watered and nourished by ensuing generations. For one of the most visible times, we need only look at the crusades in the middle ages when thousands of worriers made the long trip from Europe to Palestine in the name of cleansing the Holy Land from the enemy. We see the hatred alive and well today in the Gaza Strip. Sarah and Hagar all over again. The terrorism against the United States is that ancient hatred carried to extreme.

Understanding history and how it affects the present is helpful to the processes of our minds. But what is it that helps to heal our hearts and our spirits. How are we to feel and how are we to respond.

We cannot change the reality of the events of September 11. We must continue to sift through the rubble both literally and emotionally. We must live in the reality of the changes in our lives that have already occurred and will continue to occur. The fact is that life as we have known it is changed forever. What then are we to do? I would like to address some possible answers to this question. First there needs to be clarity on the "we" of which I speak. Sometimes the "we" means you and me as individuals gathered together in this place now. Sometimes it means the corporate " we" the United States of America. I will try to let you know which is which!

As in every situation, there are many ways to respond. We can play the victim and walk away. As an individual just choose to take no stand. Turn off the TV and move on to other things. As a nation, this would be such an unlikely choice it is not worthy of pursuing. I have heard of individuals who believe we as a nation have brought this disaster upon ourselves by becoming a godless nation filled with evil and degradation. I heard one woman on a talk show name the removal of prayer from public schools as a specific turning point toward this downfall. There could be some truth here. If we as a nation followed our Christian principals and entered into dialogue as friends respecting one another’s goals, perhaps the hatreds would die of starvation.

A second possibility calls for revenge. It is the "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" response. At the time this principle was put forth in Hebrew history, the revenge taking was more like a life for an eye or a mouth full of teeth for a tooth. Eugene Peterson, in his translation of the New Testament called The Message, quotes Jesus in Matthew 5:38. "Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere?" One thing for sure we know from Jesus’ words and his life, the eye-for-eye principal brings neither comfort nor healing.

The question is, do we, the people of God gathered here, want to support revenge or justice? If we choose revenge the sky is the limit. It allows for open season on the innocent and the guilty. It opens the door to over response or acting excessively.

Yes, terrorism is evil! It must not be allowed to continue! There is no place in a civilized world for such actions. But if we respond with the same kind of hatred, we are reduced to the same level and the circle goes unbroken.

In our pledge of allegiance to the flag we say "One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all." These two great concepts are joined together for a reason. If you want to have liberty, you must also have justice.

You came here tonight because you felt a need for comfort and healing. I want to close my message to you with these words: "One nation, under God with liberty and justice for all."

AMEN