Sunday, June 29th, 2025: "Journey for Justice: Weary and Burdened"

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The First United Presbyterian Church

“Journey for Justice: Weary and Burdened”

Rev. Amy Morgan

June 29, 2025

Genesis 21:8-21

The child [Isaac] grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

They were only playing. Nina and Emir sat on a low wall, playing marbles and laughing. Once, they were carefree. They had gone to school together, played cards in the stairwell of the building they both lived in, and shared jokes about teachers. Now, they wore the labels Serb and Bosniak, and a war between ethnic groups in their community burdened the adults around them, closed the schools, kept their families in hiding. The adults around them looked weary, weighed down with grief, loss, and fear. 

As Nina and Emir played, a drunken gang of militants abducted and interrogated these youthful friends, who were only 12 and 13 years old. They were beaten and accused of spying and fraternizing with the enemy. After their families managed to barter for their release, they were forbidden to see each other. Nina’s family fled the country and emigrated to Canada as refugees.

They were only playing. Isaac, whose name meant laughter, was laughing with Ishmael, his older brother. Once, Ishmael had been the child of Abraham and Sarah’s future, a child born through Sarah’s planning and plotting, using her Egyptian maid as a surrogate mother to relieve her of the burden of barrenness. But now, God had blessed Sarah in her old age with a child from her own body, a child of promise through whom God promised all the world would be blessed. And so the boys now wore the labels of interloper and heir, outsider and true family, the son of an Egyptian slave and God’s chosen one. 

These labels, and all the burdens attached to them, separated the boys and banished Ishmael to the wilderness with his mother. Abraham placed the burden of bread and water literally on Hagar’s shoulder, laying on her back the responsibility for their survival. 

It didn’t take long for that burden to weary her. When they ran out of water and were close to perishing, she distanced herself from the sight of her child’s death, setting down the burden of her responsibility for his life. 

Hagar set down her child, the Hebrew word here meaning more like flinging or throwing him away. And then she lifted up her voice. And God heard her, and Ishmael. God told Hagar to lift up her child again, to pick up that burden. And God directed her to the resources that would enable them to survive and eventually thrive. 

Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpretations of Sarah and Hagar’s story, of the stories of their two sons, have varied a lot over the centuries. Some celebrate Sarah’s wifely virtues and persistence, her joy and laughter at conceiving a child late in life, even her resourcefulness in securing an heir through Hagar. Others recognize the injustice of Sarah’s treatment of Hagar and Ishmael and see in their plight the faces of all those who have been oppressed and displaced. Some focus on Abraham and his distress as he is caught between these two women and his two sons and the will of God. The Apostle Paul makes the two children into allegorical figures. One of the rituals of the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, is running back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwah, commemorating Hagar’s frantic search for water in the wilderness. 

Each of these interpretations is burdened by culture and theology, history and ideology. They carry the weight of ancestry and legitimacy. They carry the weight of conflict and resentment. They carry the weight of loss and fear. 

These varied interpretations reveal that everyone in this story is burdened in different ways, ways that different people can identify with. Sarah is burdened by her barrenness, her powerlessness, her insecurity. Abraham is burdened by helplessness and uncertainty. Hagar is burdened by rejection, despair, and an impossible responsibility.

Isaac and Ishmael – they just wanted to play. But the burdens of the adults around them, the burdens of the labels assigned to them, separated them and put their lives in jeopardy.

And God – God just wants everyone to thrive. 

One of the tragedies of this story is that the characters increase each other’s burdens and suffering instead of banding together to lighten the load for one another. All of these characters are, in some sense, weary from wandering in the wilderness. Instead of helping each other find rest and resources and direction, they exclude each other. God doesn’t take sides in this conflict but cares and provides for all the children of God. 

And this can be troubling for many people. When we welcome refugees to our community, we know we’re welcoming the good people, the ones on the right side, the ones who have been oppressed and forced to flee. We know God is on their side. 

Nina and her family were taken in as refugees in Canada, where Nina lives and works as an advocate for peace. Emir remained in Sarajevo, where he works for an organization focused on reconciliation efforts. People from both of their ethnic groups, Serbs and Bosniaks, along with Croatians involved in the conflict, were convicted of war crimes. But 90% of the war crimes committed were attributed to Serbs. Bosniaks suffered almost 3 times the loss of life as Serbs. Serbs were accused of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and mass rape. All three ethnic groups now have a shared system of governance, but they have been accused of oppressing other ethnic minorities in the country.

Political academics Steven Burg and Paul Shoup assert that, “From the outset, the nature of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was subject to conflicting interpretations. These were rooted not only in objective facts on the ground, but in the political interests of those articulating them.” There is debate as to whether the conflict was a war of aggression from neighboring countries or a civil war between internal ethnic groups. This debate again illustrates that everyone involved carried different burdens, and their motivations, interpretations, and actions were shaped by those burdens. 

When the former Yugoslavia broke up, people could have worked together to lighten each other’s burdens. As the various ethnic groups in the region wandered through the wilderness of political uncertainty, they could have helped each other find resources and direction. Instead, they unleashed violence and suffering. 

We want so badly to know right from wrong, good from bad. We want to claim Sarah is cruel for demanding Abraham expel Hagar and Ishmael, but that is not the claim of scripture. We want to blame Abraham for being too weak to stand up to his wife and save the life of his firstborn son, but God is the one who directs him to listen to her. Maybe we even look down on Hagar for giving up on her son and throwing him away rather than watching him die. But God is compassionate toward her. Who is right here? Who is good here? Who is worthy of care?

In the Women’s Bible Commentary on this passage, Professor of Religion Susan Niditch claims that “God is the god of those deserted in the wilderness, of those on the fringes, who are usually in the Hebrew Scriptures not Ishmaelites but Israelites.” In the Old Testament, we expect the oppressed ones who are saved by God to be God’s chosen people. But this is one of those stories that challenges our assumptions about who God cares for, dissolves the boundaries we place around God’s saving love, and questions our claims about who is right and wrong, oppressed and oppressor, deserving or undeserving of aid. 

That is what this story is meant to do. God unequivocally chooses Isaac as Abraham’s heir, and God unconditionally supports and encourages Ishmael to also become a great nation. This story puts God squarely on the side of both of these children, all of these children, who just want to play, to live, to thrive. 

God doesn’t take sides in this conflict but cares and provides for all the children of God.

God is on the side of the children fleeing for their lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the child soldiers who pursue them. God is on the side of the children listening to bombs fall in Gaza, Israel, and Iran. God is on the side of girls banned from attending school in Afghanistan and boys radicalized toward violence by the Taliban. God is on the side of Ukrainian children kidnapped and re-educated by Russia and Russian children separated from parents who oppose the war. God is on the side of Haitian children who are starving and Haitian children who are stealing food. 

One in every 6 children on the planet is growing up in a conflict zone today. 1 in 6. More than half of all refugees around the world are children. They just want to play. But they are carrying our burdens instead. The burdens of our conceived identities, our greed and fear of scarcity, our insecurities and apathy, our uncertainty, our impossible responsibilities, our rejection and despair. God is on the side of the 1 in 6 children. And God is on the side of the other 5 children, too. 

But like Isaac, God’s action in the lives of those other 5 children is to be a blessing to all the world. Children who are not growing up in conflict zones can grow up to bless and care for the ones who are. But only if we don’t place our burdens on them. Only if they aren’t already weary and heavy laden by the time they reach adulthood. 

Jesus invites us to come to him with all our burdens, to rest. To rest from the constant struggle for resources, security, affection, power. To rest in God’s love and provision and guidance. To rest from competition and to rest in community and compassion for each other. To rest, so that our children can play. 

I’m so grateful that this church, and the wider community around us, has chosen to walk with refugees this month, to walk with the children around the world who just want to play, to walk with those who are carrying heavy burdens. I am grateful that our children can grow up to be a blessing to those children living in conflict zones and those children living as refugees. I am grateful that we can participate in the work of God in caring for all God’s children, all children. 

May each step we take open our eyes to where God is showing up in desperate situations. May we hear the cries of those in despair and speak hope and peace into their lives. May we see and share the resources God is providing for all children to thrive. May we be the ones who let the children play in safety and peace. 

To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.