A Tale of Two Women
(Rutgers, March 8, 1998; 2nd Sunday in Lent, Year C;
Celebrating the Gifts of Women;
Holy Communion)
Genesis 15:1-2a, 5-12, 17-18; 6:1-6 (OT, p. 13);
Genesis 16:7-16; 17:15-22 (OT, pp. 13-14)
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us... ' ,
With these words, Charles Dickens opened
his novel A Tale of Two Cities.
The words portray the period around the year 1775 A.D.,
but they might just as well portray the age around 1775 B.C.,
the general era in which the Book of Genesis sets
its story of Sarah and Hagar,
which we may call "A Tale of Two Women."
That era of Sarah & Hagar might be described as "the best of times,"
for, according to Genesis, God had just chosen
not to abandon the sinful world to floods + chaos but to redeem it.
Yet, in another sense "it was the worst of times,"
for humankind remained in full-scale rebellion against its Creator.
"It was the spring of hope,"
for God had chosen a couple named Abraham and Sarah
to be the agents for God's salvation of the world,
to be those through whom all the families on earth
would be blessed;
and God had promised to the couple that they would have
offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven
and a new land in which to flourish
and to become models of justice and righteousness.
So it was the spring of hope, but, "it was [also] the winter of despair, , ,
for after the long, God-appointed journey of Abraham and Sarah
from Mesopotamia to Canaan, to the land of God's promise,
they remained for years both without any offspring at all
and also without any permanent place of settlement.
"It was the season of Light,"
for, according to Genesis, God's words were once again being heard
within the hearts of humankind.
Yet, "It was [also] the season of Darkness," for the practice of
slavery and polygamy and patriarchy and class discrimination
had not been rejected by Abraham and Sarah,
and these practices would become central to our story.
"It was the age of wisdom,"
and Sarah was able to devise a shrewd plan
for providing an offspring to fulfill God's promise.
But, "it was [also] the age of foolishness,"
for Sarah's plan foolishly involved giving her own slave-woman,
Hagar the Egyptian, to Abraham as a second wife,
and then when Hagar became pregnant,
and foolishly gave Sarah a contemptuous look,
Sarah was foolishly filled with jealousy and rage
and drove Hagar out into the wilderness.
It was the epoch of belief," for, according to Genesis,
Abraham had trusted in God's promise of land and offspring,
and his belief had been reckoned to him as righteousness.
And it was also the epoch of belief
because Hagar trusted in the angel of God
who appeared to her in the wilderness,
who told her to return to Sarah,
who promised both that she would safely bear a son
to be named Ishmael
and also that her descendants would become
too numerous to count.
So it was the epoch of belief, yet "it was [also] the epoch of incredulity, ,
for some thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael to Hagar,
when God announced to 99-year-old Abraham
that 90-year-old Sarah would soon bear him a son,
Abraham burst out laughing in disbelief; and later ,
when Sarah herself learned of the promise,
she, too, laughed incredulously .
So, as Dickens would describe it, “We had everything before US,”
for what with the safe birth of both Ishmael, son of Hagar,
and Isaac, son of Sarah,
God IS promises of offspring both to Abraham and to Hagar
had come to pass,
and salvation history had been set in motion.
Yet, "W e had nothing before us,” for as the story
comes to an end the prospect looms of an eternal enmity
between the offspring of these two women and their sons,
of an eternal enmity
between the descendants of Hagar and of Ishmael-
whom we call Arabs-
and the descendants of Sarah and of Isaac-
whom we call Jews.
"A Tale of Two Women"-
a story of wisdom and folly,
of belief and incredulity,
of Light and Darkness,
of hope and despair",
truly a story of the best of times
and yet the worst of times.
NOW, our “Tale of Two Women”
is in truth really "A Tale of Two Ordinary Human Beings."
It reminds us that none of us women and none of us men is perfect;
it reminds us that God's gifts are given to those
who, like Sarah and Hagar and Abraham, have tragic flaws,
that God’s gifts are given to the likes of you and me.
So a first bit of good news in this biblical story is that
God is able to work with and through even those who are
anxious, fretful, foolish, despairing, haughty, self-protective,
vindictive, vengeful.
God is able to work with and through people like Sarah and Hagar,
people like you and me.
And a second bit of good news is that
God's gifts and promises are given
not only to the likes of Sarah-
that is, to those who are free, prosperous, strong,
autonomous, of favored ethnicity, apparently "chosen”-
but also to the likes of Hagar-
that is, to those who are enslaved, impoverished, vulnerable,
without rights, of despised ethnicity, not apparently "chosen."
For, through an angel, God appears to Hagar in the wilderness,
converses with her, and makes promises to her,
promises that approximate those given to Abraham and Sarah.
And we learn from our story that those, like Sarah,
who are in any way favored by society
have no monopoly on God's gifts and have no right to think
that God's works and ways are channeled only
through people of privilege.
Today is Gifts of w omen Sunday,
our day to acknowledge and confess
that in the past the Presbyterian Church
has attributed to men a monopoly on God's gifts of ministry
and has denied that such gifts are given to women;
and this is also our day to acknowledge and confess
that still today the time of full justice and equality for women
has not yet arrived, either in the church or in society.
Indeed, the story of women in today's church might be described as
"A Tale of Two Realities,”
the reality that the equality of women
is being theologically recognized,
and the reality that the inequality of women
is being institutionally perpetuated.
So one might well describe our age of Two Realities as
either the best of times, or the worst of times,
the age of wisdom, or the age of foolishness,
the epoch of belief, or the epoch of incredulity,
the season of Light, or the season of Darkness,
the spring of hope, or the winter of despair,
a time when we have everything before us,
or a time when we have nothing before us.
Is it true then,
plus ca change, plus c 'est la meme chose-
the more things change, the more they stay the same?
I trust not.
I trust that God will call and use
some new Sarahs and Hagars and Abrahams, however flawed,
to usher in an age of real change,
an age in which the gifts of all are justly valued.
Let us pray:
O God, as we approach the table of Christ, we pray that You will
fill us with Your power and equip us to help usher in a true “best of
times” Amen.
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