Sunday 6th August: Evensong at All Saints, Datchworth at 6.30pm led by Revd. Coralie McCluskey. This is the third in our series of Summer Evensongs focusing on Women of the Bible and will feature Haggar.

There are many amazing women in the Bible and we’ve already heard about Ruth and Esther. Putting aside the Virgin Mary to whom I am totally committed my favourite must be Hagar.

The story of Hagar is a portrayal of a woman who has little control over her destiny.  Hagar is a foreigner, an Egyptian slave, in the land of Cannan. She lives in the household of two other newcomers to the land, Abram and Sarai. As the years pass and Sarai remains childless she looks to Hagar, her slave girl, as the solution to her infertility. Hagar is powerless to object, "go please to my slave girl", says Sarai to Abram, "it may be that I shall be built up through her". Hagar’s name is not used here, Sarai reminding Abram of the woman’s status and of who she belongs to.

Sarai may be concerned about her ability to fulfil the promises of God but she shows no concern for Hagar. Hagar is not consulted, she has no say in the matter, she is only a slave and slaves are there to do what they are told. Hagar will, Sarai hopes, conceive and give birth to a child, but if she does the child will not count as Hagar’s but will like Hagar become the property of Abram and Sarai.

Things change as Hagar’s pregnancy exalts her above her still barren mistress. Conflict ensues as Sarai probably descends into a deeper sense of her own failure and Hagar soon discovers that her new sense of status, pride and power are a sham – she is still the slave and Sarai the mistress. Sarai’s treatment of Hagar becomes harsher and is condoned by Abram. He says, "your slave girl is in your power do to her as you please". Hagar is forced to flee the only home she knows and as a result become anonymous, a person without a home.  "Even though the culture allowed an arrangement in which there were multiple wives and concubines with different rights and social status, there was no life outside the tribe. Sarah was condemning Hagar and her unborn child to death." ("The Abuse of Power," James Poling)

Up to this point she has not been Hagar to them but a slave girl, she has had no words to say, no initiative to take. She conceives, she realises she is pregnant and she runs away. These are the only things she does. Everything else is done to her.

The scene now changes and Hagar’s part in this story begins gradually to be unveiled. We find Hagar in the wilderness, by a spring of water, on her way to Shur near the Egyptian border. It appears that Hagar is going home. This is the first of two encounters with God or the messenger of God, "Hagar slave girl of Sarai where have you come from and where are you going", Hagar tells God but does not mention the harsh treatment and is subsequently reprimanded, "Return to your mistress and submit to her".

It’s at this point that I, always ready to jump to conclusions, wonder if this is God revealing his true colours in favour of the oppressor against its all too vulnerable Hagars of the world?

Fortunately the story does not end here and the messenger of the Lord says, Genesis16:v10-12. This is the first annunciation scene in the Bible and the first of only three made to a woman, the others being Manoah’s wife and of course Mary.

So Hagar returns to Abram and Sarai, produces a son and Abram names him Ishmael. By this one action Abram strips Hagar of the power God gave her, did not God promise that she would name the child? We hear no more of Haggar until Sarai has produced a son Isaac and now the conflict that initially caused Hagar to run away returns, this time it is Sarah’s jealous resentment of Ishmael and once again Hagar and her child are off into the wilderness, driven away with only the bread and water given her by Abraham. But soon the water runs out and we witness what must be Hagar’s point of deepest suffering.

Hagar tries so hard to keep going, but Ishmael gets weaker and weaker until he cannot walk. Hagar sets him under a bush and walks away. She can't bear to hear him cry. She does not want to watch him die. Hagar is angry at God. And for the second and last time in the story, she speaks. "Why do you let this happen to us"? she yells. "Why God"? "Why do we have to die like this"? And as she sits and watches, Ishmael also cries.

But wait, trust in God. Out in the desert, where Hagar is apparently all alone, someone listens and calls her by name. "Hagar, what's wrong"? God asks. "Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy's voice and I will make a great nation of him". Then God opens Hagar's eyes. She sees a well and gives Ishmael a drink. And the story concludes by saying that as Ishmael grows in years, God remains with him.

God listens. God hears the voices no one else cares about. Hagar was a slave, a foreigner, a woman, a woman without status.
Abraham and Sarah do not refer to her by name. Neither will Sarah call Ishmael by his name. She refers to him as the son of the slave woman. Hagar and Ishmael are not treated as people, as human beings with concerns, needs and fears. Only God recognizes them as people and heeds the sound of their weeping.

Such is the care and compassion of God. Where people are de-humanized, where people are ignored, put-down, defeated, God hears. God listens. God cares.

Perhaps some of us will be able to identify with bits of this story, it is a story that many the world can identify with at the moment.
This is a story for other Hagars - for the mother who worries almost constantly, prays almost all day long, for the fate of her teenage son, that he may not perish as the sons of so many other mothers have in the violence and drugs of their inner city neighbourhood.

This is a story for another Hagar, who returns from the refugee camp to find her house burned, her husband wounded from a land mine, and her daughter raped.

This is a story for another Hagar, who is forbidden from receiving an education and who has no control over her life or her body. Her husband or her father can beat her whenever they so choose.

This evening let us remember that our God is not small, is not limited. There is a place even for those mothers and children who cry in the desert, those who lift up their voices to God in some wilderness of the world, exposed, endangered, at risk. God has a special place for them as well.

It is a story for each one of you too. Whenever you find yourself in a situation where you cry out to God, when you wonder if life is worth living.

• When your job is getting you down and you don't know what else to do, when your relationships are in disarray and it seems as if you're just going round in circles, and you don't know who to turn to, perhaps this story is for you.
• When the doctor discovers a growth and your heart stops for a moment as you try to understand what the doctor is saying.
• When you're handed that slip at work and you're 50 years old and know that your chances of getting a job somewhere else are pretty slim, because you're either too old or too experienced for what they have to offer, perhaps this story is for you.
• When your school exams come back and your marks just aren't good enough, when your boyfriend/girlfriend dumps you and you're feeling all alone, unloved, and broken hearted, perhaps this story is for you.
• When it feels as if you're in the desert, wandering, thirsting, and you want to know if there is someone - some being out there, maybe this story is for you, so that you may know that God hears, God listens, and God cares.