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A SERMON FROM ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

NEW , CONNECTICUT

Ishmael, , and : yesterday, today and tomorrow

The Reverend Peter F. Walsh The Third Sunday after Pentecost ~ June 22, 2014 Based on Genesis 21:8-21

Put on your homiletic seat belts and please This is beyond disturbing. The latest take out the reading from the Book of escalation holds the potential for an Arab Genesis. world war right in the middle of the . The Bible and the Newspaper Also on the front page is an article entitled The great theologian Karl Barth is often “Pressing Israel, Presbyterians vote to divest.” quoted as saying that we should read the Bible Israeli/Palestinian peace talks have broken in one hand and the newspaper in the other. down yet again. In order to bring pressure on Let’s do that this morning, focusing on the Israel, the Presbyterian Church voted to divest reading from the that dates from companies that supply Israel with back nearly 4,000 years and yesterday’s New equipment used in the occupation of York Times. Palestinian territories.

The Paper Seemingly as an exclamation point to both topics in the summary section on the bottom Let’s start with yesterday’s New York Times. It of the front page two articles in the is clear the children of are not International section are summarized: getting along. It is right there on the front page.  “Palestinian Youth Killed” Israeli troops killed a Palestinian youth and The text under the lead picture reads: wounded several adults while searching for three Relatives on Friday wept over the coffin of an Iraqi teenagers. soldier, a Shiite, killed in Mosul by jihadists with Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.  “Arrests Tied to Lebanese Plot” Lebanese security forces arrested 17 men in Beirut This caption assumes you know that the on suspicion that they were plotting to assassinate members of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are a prominent Lebanese Shite leader. Sunni . On page six, below pictures of patrolling The lead article and another article entitled Israeli troops and a dead Palestinian boy there “Iraq’s Hold on Border Crossings Weakening was an article entitled, “Number of French as at Least 34 Killed in Battle” are missives emigrating to Israel Rises.” It is really an about the sectarian fighting among Muslims in article about the rise of anti-Semitism in Iraq and Syria. Europe. On the previous page there was an article These stories are alive. They are mythic. They entitled, “Missing Israeli Teenagers Revive a form the partial foundation for communities Mother’s Hard-Earned Intimacy with Loss.” of the Middle East. Throughout the millennia, generations have found and continue to find That article reads: their inspiration and mandate from these Ms. Mandell jumped on line in search of information texts. about three yeshiva students who had disappeared the night before while hitchhiking home from Jewish The Passage settlements in the occupied West Bank. But when she typed “Israeli teenagers kidnapped” in Google what The reading from the Book of Genesis this popped up were stories about her own son, Koby, who morning speaks to the complex issues that was 13 when he and a friend were bludgeoned to death Jews and face today. with rocks in a Byzantine cave in 2001, during the second Palestinian intifada. Going into the story it is helpful to know that and Isaac become Patriarchs of There is also an article entitled, “Toughest families, tribes, and nations that did not get issues Still Unresolved in Nuclear Talk.” along in biblical times and often do not get along now. This is a very difficult topic for the people of Israel, many of whom feel like they live on an Isaac becomes one of the Patriarchs of the island surrounded by a sea of hatred. Hebrew people: Abraham, Isaac, and .

Then there was a big article entitled, “UN Ishmael becomes the Patriarch, first of the Reports Sharp Increase in Refugees as Civil Tribes, and then the Arab people. Wars Cripple Nations.” The caption notes that in 2013 there were 51 million people The Backstory to Today’s Story displaced by civil war. I think it is safe to say that more than half of these civil wars are As you probably remember Abraham is called rooted, in part, in religion. by God to go forth. God promises to make him a father of many nations (that is what the It is certainly true that if the so-called name Abraham means) and to give him land, Abrahamic religions—Jews, and hence the later moniker the Promised Land. Muslims—who make up one-half of the world’s population cannot live in peace, the The key problems are that Abraham and his world, cannot live in peace. wife are old and they have no children. And though they are leaving land, they have Abraham and the Book of Genesis no land to go to.

The Book of Genesis is underrated for the Off they go and the drama unfolds. It is all role it plays in the world today. Genesis too much to summarize, but the key part of contains the oldest stories of Abraham, the the backstory for today is that Sarah is too old man who Jews, Christians, and Muslims claim, to have children. Eventually she offers her to varying degrees, as the Patriarch of their slave Hagar to sleep with Abraham to have a familial traditions. child and an heir. In time a son is born to Abraham and the slave Hagar and his name is The stories of Abraham and his family are Ishmael. incredibly rich, nuanced dramas of individual and family conflict that God uses for divine To make a long story short, years later, at purpose concerning the unfolding of history God’s command, Sarah becomes pregnant and nations. and gives birth to a son named Isaac. The scene people, a patriarch with 12 tribes and the Father of a great nation. Abraham throws a party on the day Isaac is weaned. Sarah sees Ishmael playing with Isaac. Back to the story. Ishmael is now an older boy. The next day Abraham loads Hagar and Sarah is jealous, and out of this jealousy many Ishmael with water and sends them into the bad things happen. She tells Abraham to cast wilderness of Beer-sheba, which today is the out the woman and her child. Remember that Negev desert in southern Israel. it was Sarah who had offered Hagar to Abraham. She does not want Ishmael to The pathos of the story is clear. Hagar cannot inherit anything. stand to see her child die. But neither can God. An comes to Hagar and says, The cultural rules are clear in the story: “What troubles you? Do not be afraid.” Does  The oldest son inherits twice as much as this not sound like the angel of the any other child and is the heir to being the resurrection talking to Mary? head of the family.  This is likely to be the case even if the God says again, “I will make a great nation of oldest son is not a child of a wife. him.” Then God opens Hagar’s eyes and she sees a well of water. We are told in a final Sarah is jealous and competitive and the summary: “God was with the boy, and he solution is to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. grew up; he lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in Does this not sound like a wholesome family the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a drama? I often chuckle to myself when people wife for him from the land of .” say the Bible is full of family values. The truth is the Bible is full of dysfunctional families. A tiny footnote here is that the Arab peoples love that Ishmael was an expert with the bow. Abraham is distressed. Though the text does These are Bedouin people. They are tribal not psychologize, it is clear he loves Ishmael. people. Being good with a bow means that you can provide for your family. God intervenes. God tells Abraham, do not be distressed. Do what Sarah asks of you. “It Abraham, Ishmael, and the Koran is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.” So God choses Isaac to receive the This story gets reinterpreted in the Koran. In original blessing given to Abraham. He is the the Koran, instead of sending Ishmael into root of the nations to come and he inherits the Negev desert to die, Abraham takes him the land. to and makes sure he is settled there before returning home. Then look what happens. Many of you know that Mecca is in current Ishmael day Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Mohammad and the holiest site in . The God makes Ishmael like Abraham in that he rest of the story goes like this: Hagar goes to says, “I will make a nation of him also, the desert and after searching, an angel because he is your offspring.” appears and leads her to water, and the whole story shifts away from the Negev area to the Again, Ishmael becomes the Father of the Arab world. And in the story, Ishmael grows Bedouin people who become the Arab up to be a good Arab. Just like in the , we see that Jesus grows up to be a good Jew. Biblical conclusions the other out of existence is ungodly and wrong. Back to the Bible. So what are we to conclude Jesus from the story? Finally, what about Jesus? What are we to do This is a story that begins with Sarah’s with the mess that the world is in now? jealousy and ends with divine grace. God brings good out of bad, function out of Jesus was the Prince of Peace, a Jew who dysfunction, balance out of imbalance. crossed all boundaries to embrace the Neither Ishmael nor Isaac is a pure victor or a Godliness of all. He ate with sinners and the pure loser. impure. He left the and went into Gentile territory. He had women followers. Isaac gets the better part of the deal. This is And besides his highest teaching of the not surprising given that this is the Hebrew Beatitudes, his most famous teaching is the scripture. Isaac gets the land of Canaan and parable of the Good Samaritan—Samaritans his father’s promise which results in his being the apostate enemies of the pious becoming a Patriarch of the people of Israel. Hebrews.

Ishmael is expelled from that land but he is We have softened this story about being good not expelled from the love and paternity of to our neighbor, but when Jesus told this Abraham or favor from God. He becomes, story, it was very edgy. In today’s terms it like Abraham, the Father of a nation. He might be something like the parable of the moves from Canaan to Egypt. Good Jihadist. It is important for us to understand that Jesus is poking at his people. So what does it mean today? What is the relevance of the newspaper and why do we We are to imitate Jesus. So therefore, even in study this passage about Ishmael and Isaac? the midst of evil in the world—and there is And why do the people of the Middle East evil abounding through the world and brutal know this story far better than we know this and terrible things are happening—we need to stand up to the evil, but we also must not stay story? encamped in our own borders and boundaries. Ishmael and Isaac are half-brothers of the same father. In the sometime rivalry between We must imitate Jesus and have the courage Jews and Arabs, it is often forgotten that at to cross over and speak as people on the some deep level they are brothers of the same other side at all times. We must imitate God in the story of Ishmael and Isaac. What did father. God is the God of both. God cares for God try to do? He tried to bring a balanced Isaac, and God cares for Ishmael. solution to potentially warring brothers.

The scripture does not support hyper- If we do not seek to bring peace, what are the nationalism and exclusivism. It does not alternatives? support extremism that excludes other religions. We have traditional enemies each We trust that our prayer and our desire to be disciples of Jesus will lead us into some very receiving a blessing from God. difficult places, because that is exactly where Jesus went. He always went to the difficult I believe we can conclude that any scenario places. Amen. among Abraham’s children that seeks to crush