This is a tough one to admit, but every once in a while I tune into the soap opera, "Days of our Lives". Each time I am guaranteed more drama in the lives of each character on a day to day basis than any one person should have to survive in a lifetime. Like cats, may characters have at least nine lives. People lose their memory like most of us lose our keys. Scheming, jealous and conniving are adjectives that could be used to describe several characters. And this is all not to mention all the love triangles, connections and mishaps. I'm not sure why I tune in every once in a while aside from the fact that Sami, Bo and Patch add a bit of spice to my otherwise pretty straightforward and predictable life.
     I could say the same thing about the Old Testament story for today. It has spice! Yet, it is a rarely highlighted story. And it's no wonder! The father and mother of our faith, Abraham and Sarah, are not necessarily shown in the best light. In jealousy, Sarah tells Abraham to ban her slave-girl, Hagar, and Hagar's son, Ishmael, to the wilderness. And it's not the first time. There are previous episodes in this storyline.
      Paging back in Genesis just several chapters, God had already come to Abraham and Sarah, promising them land and that a great nation would spring forth from them. But, still, there were no children. It seemed that Sarah was barren, so she decided to help God out a bit. Sarah, a hero of our faith, decided to take matters into her own hands. She gave her slave girl, Hagar, to Abraham as a wife. Well, not long after, Hagar conceived.
     As you can imagine, things in the household got a bit strained. Hagar threw Sarah looks of contempt. And Genesis chapter 16 tells us that Sarah dealt so harshly with Hagar that she ran away. It was God who found Hagar in the wilderness that first time and asked her to go back and submit to Sarah. Hagar and Abraham's son was born and he was named Ishmael. His name means, "God hears."
     Fast forward now 17 years to our reading for today. Isaac, Sarah and Abraham's son, is three years old now and like any good mom, Sarah wants him to have it all. She doesn't want him to have to share any inheritance. So, she demands that Hagar and Ishmael be banned to the wilderness, but Abraham hems and haws. This is his first born son, afterall.
     Again, God intervenes and tells Abraham to do as Sarah says. God tells him it is through Isaac, his son with Sarah, that the covenant will be lived out. Yet, God promises, too, that Ishmael will be taken care of and that God will make a nation of him also. As the story goes on, we see how God does intervene in the wilderness, hearing Hagar's cries when they run out of food and water, and opening her eyes to see a well of water, allowing them to survive.
     This is an incredible and interesting story for so many reasons. As I've said, it reads like any favorite day-time soap opera. This is no boring Bible story! These were the days of their lives.
      But there's more. First, Sarah and Abraham teach us lessons about our own faith. Second, Ishmael is a connecting character for another world religion. And finally, God showcases his true nature. Let's look at each of these in turn.
     There is no doubt that Sarah and Abraham are heroes of our faith. They had many shining moments and stepped forward into the unknown with only their trust in God time and time again. The Jewish and Christian faiths take root in the covenant God made with them. And we take heed still in the promise that God made to them that they would be blessed so they could be a blessing to others.
     All this said, neither of them were perfect. This story from Genesis 21 is not a pretty story. But, it's the truth and I for one celebrate its place in our faith history because it is so real. And because it's real, it helps us connect to our faith's ancestors and to our place in the covenant, too. Afterall, if God uses imperfect Abraham and Sarah, then we can trust that God will use imperfect you and me as well.
     If God can mend the brokenness and heartache inflicted on Hagar and Ishmael, stemming from Sarah taking matters into her own hands, then we can trust that God can mend the people we hurt when we try to control situations and people rather than rest on our faith. This story teaches us that God calls us to trust and have faith. There are consequences when we don't -- for us and others. None of us can ever trust and have faith perfectly. Like Sarah and Abraham, though, God uses us anyway.
     The second reason this story is so interesting is because Ishmael is a connecting point for another world religion -- namely Islam. In our story - the Christian story - Ishmael is pretty much a secondary character. As I said earlier, this is a passage from Genesis rarely heard or highlighted. My guess is that before today, some of you might not have been able to say who Ishmael was at all. However, that is not true for the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. For them, Ishmael is a major player in their faith history. They connect their ancestry back to Abraham through Ishmael.
     "Why do we care?" you might ask. That is their story, not ours. And this is true, but it's still not a point to be glossed over. Not in our society today which is becoming more and more global. Ishmael's connection to Islam is an important piece of this story that we need to know about. Not because it gives us answers about how we are to view Muslims or the religion of Islam, but because it helps us ask more questions.
     I want to end today talking about what this story highlights about the nature of God. It is clear in the Gospels that Jesus is again and again for "the other". He constantly goes outside of cultural boundaries and religious walls to extend grace and love to those in need. This Old Testament story teaches us that God being for "the other" has been the case from the beginning. Don't get me wrong, God is clear that his covenant of land, offspring and blessing will be kept through Abraham and Sarah and Isaac. Yet, Hagar and Ishmael are not beyond God's aid, God's hearing and God's help.
      All of us, at one time or another, find ourselves as "the other" - the one seemingly outside of God's boundaries to find us or hear us. Maybe because of something we've done. Maybe because of something that has been done to us. This, then, finally is a story of God's grace - of God's ability to hear our cries and in the end, show us favor beyond what we could have ever dreamed.
     For this story of faith and faltering, for Ishmael and the questions he stirs in us, for God's grace and His ability to hear us when we cry out, we say thanks be to God. Amen.