![\"Elroi\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/351\/2017\/06\/Elroi-234x300.jpg\")
<\/a>the cultures of the Greeks and Romans, patriarchy reigned\u2014women and children were at best servants and at worse dispensable. The Jews and eventually the Christians valued the vulnerable in ways that were unique to their time and in some ways unique even in our world today.<\/p>\nAnd so into the midst of this very tough ancient world, we get the early stories of an obscure tribe called the Hebrews, who come from out of nowhere, from the East, and begin to tell a different story, a story about a God who calls a man, Abram, to take he and his wife, Sarai, to a new place, a promised land, a land of plenty, at least that is what is said. And then they tell the stories of their origins, of their God. This God, sometimes called Elohim, sometimes called Yahweh, speaks to his people, calling them to a covenant. But this covenant is not typical of those early human communities. Yes, of course, there is slavery and there is patriarchy, but right from the beginning, a new story is being told. A story that says, \u201cOh yes, you will have slaves, and there will be concubines, but you will treat them differently.\u201d Or at least, this God, Yahweh, will ask you to treat them with respect, and their progeny won\u2019t be slaves to make you rich, instead they will be blessed too.<\/p>\n
The Hebrews will be a chosen people, but this God will also bless others, and create a legacy for them as well. \u00a0The Ishmaelite\u2019s, they too will be a great nation.\u00a0 Yahweh, it appears, is not the normal tribal God, but a God who thinks more broadly\u2013this God loves not just the ones who tell his story but also the ones who may not know him at all, but will know him and want to know him. The Jews, of course, but after them, those of us who are called followers of Jesus, and then, not long after that the followers of those within the great Islamic tradition who worship what they call Allah, which in Arabic is not a name, but simply a generic term for \u201cthe God\u201d \u2013 and indeed, Muslims name Jesus as one their great prophets.<\/p>\n
So, yes, I claim the Christian name because this God cares it seems to me about the whole world, not just our tribe\u2014not just our empire, like the Greeks and Romans, but this God also cares about the least, the lost, the last, the orphan, the widow, the stranger, the one who is ignored. And here we go back again to Hagar, the symbol of the slave, the cast off one, the one who is alone in the desert who is not calling to anyone anymore because she has lost all hope. But Yahweh sees, this God says, \u201cI have heard your son\u2019s cry and I will save him and save you and I will not abandon you.\u201d Yes, this God, the one who sees this lonely, anxious Egyptian woman, this is why I still claim that I am a Christian.<\/p>\n
This tradition of caring for the least and last and lost is in the Jewish religion first, and it comes into the Christian faith in Jesus who is not only the Lord of the Christian tribe, or anyone single interest group, or any one country, but this is a Shepherd who loves all, and particularly loves those who are the outsiders, the ones who are not chosen, the ones with mental illness in our cities; the ones with opioid addictions in our small towns; the ones who are marching in the Pride Parade today in Seattle; the Muslims in our country who live in great fear that they may be deported; the ones who are here from Mexico, trying desperately to work and keep their families alive; our African American brothers and sisters, who are terrified of being of pulled over by the police.\u00a0 Our God cares about these ones, these ones are our Hagar\u2019s, the ones who nobody in power cares about, the ones who are thrown away, the kids in our schools who aren\u2019t the elite, these ones our God cares about, these ones who have few opportunities, these ones who are the invisible, these ones our God loves and sees.<\/p>\n
So yes, why am I still a Christian? It\u2019s because of the Hagar story, that is why I remain in the faith, challenged by it, called not just to my tribe of over-educated, privileged professors, but to everyone\u2013the ones who have no education, the ones who are dispensable, the ones who are invisible.<\/p>\n
But it goes deeper than this \u2026 it always does. I am a Christian because of Hagar for very personal reasons. I\u2019ve known what it\u2019s like to be lost in a desert, where you don\u2019t feel any hope. I know that desert. And you all know that desert as well; it\u2019s the place where things don\u2019t seem to taste the way they used to; it\u2019s the place of loneliness, where there is no one to give you a hug, no one saying, I love you; the place where no one is looking to come over; the place where you don\u2019t want to get out of bed, or you can\u2019t because no one is there to help. You all know what I\u2019m talking about, we are all a person like Hagar at some time or some point in our lives, because we are human and humans are incredibly vulnerable. And that is our destiny, at one time in our lives, we will face that feeling of hopelessness, when there is no place to turn, and we will wonder: \u201cWhere is my God?\u201d Or maybe we will say, \u201cThere is no God.\u201d<\/p>\n
But here is the thing, that is where Hagar was, crying, lost, yearning for death, helpless and hopeless, and yes, into this place comes our God, who Hagar calls El-roi<\/em>, (maybe this God has a little southern accent), saying, \u201cHey, I know you, I see you, and I love you \u2026.\u201d<\/p>\nI\u2019ve been in that place too. You all know my story, the loss of Annette more than three years ago. My world fell a part, for more than two years, I stopped reading. I couldn\u2019t concentrate, I was lost, I was in that desert.<\/p>\n
But one day, on a Saturday night, in the middle of Winslow, I thought, where does a lonely guy go on a Saturday night, when all his friends are married and with their families \u2026 where does one go? \u00a0I ended up at Marche<\/em>, eating by myself at the bar. A young guy starts out serving me and then an attractive woman takes over, and I thought hm \u2026 \u201cI think she is flirting with me.\u201d And then I asked her, \u201cHey, when do you get off tonight?\u201d And she said, \u201cIn an hour\u2026\u201d and well, after that night, I asked her out every night for more than a year \u2026. And now I do the same thing each night, I ask her, \u201cWill you walk with me and talk with me and be my love.\u201d And she says, \u201cYes, yes, and yes!\u201d<\/p>\nBrooke saw me, she sees me now. For me, it\u2019s a love story. It is the same with Hagar and her God\u2014God says, \u201cI see you, I see you, I see you.\u201d It\u2019s a love story.<\/p>\n
And for each of you. We all just want to be seen. Jesus says, \u201cAsk and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, yes, ask my friends, but maybe like Hagar, you can\u2019t ask, but you know you are in need. God is there, that is the ultimate promise, the One who sees you, sees me; loves you, loves me; forgives you, forgives me; glories in you, glories in me; the One who has not given up on you, has not given up on me; that God, that is the God who refuses to give up on any one, and that God has not given up on any of us.<\/p>\n
This God who sees each one of you in all your humanness, in all your vulnerability that God loves you and will be with you every step of the way.<\/p>\n
So that is why I still believe. Amen.<\/p>\n
Footnote: Brooke Wellman wrote an exegetical essay on Hagar that was amazing and helpful to me. So, much of my insight from these texts comes from her. She wrote it for her Hebrew Scriptures course at the Seattle School for Theology and Psychology. She received an \u201cA\u201d, of course!<\/p>\n
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Texts for this Sermon: Genesis 16:1-16; Genesis 21:1-21. On occasion I get asked: \u201cWhy are you a Christian?\u201d And to be truthful, it would probably benefit me at the University if I weren\u2019t identified as a Christian. Indeed, I\u2019ve had students tell me that they\u2019ve been attacked for their faith in classroom settings. Christianity for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1503,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>the cultures of the Greeks and Romans, patriarchy reigned\u2014women and children were at best servants and at worse dispensable. The Jews and eventually the Christians valued the vulnerable in ways that were unique to their time and in some ways unique even in our world today.<\/p>\n