( Genesis 16, 7-16 ) - [ Deutsch | Afrikaans ]
Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray:
The watchword for the year 2023 comes from the book of Genesis, chapter 16, verse 13: “You are the God who sees me.”
Those of us who have been in Kwazulu-Natal will know the Zulu form of greeting. Zulus greet one another with the word Sawubona. This literally means “I see you.” This is more than politeness. Sawubona carries the importance of recognising the worth and dignity of each person.
We all have a deep need to be seen – to be recognized and acknowledged by others. When people fail to “see” us our sense of identity is diminished. The most meaningful thing we could ever say to someone is: “I see you.”
In a short article on the need to be seen by Joshua Hook, the writer shares an observation he made while at a sporting event. He writes:
“One thing I noticed during the game was how excited everyone was if they saw themselves on the big screen. They could have been bored and half asleep one second before, but once they saw themselves on the screen, everyone would jump up, wave their hands wildly, and act crazy.
Why is it so fun to be on the big screen?
Each of us has a need to be seen.
We want the chance to express our humanity and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are important enough to be recognized and acknowledged by others.”
We all have the need to be seen. That is probably why the watchword for this year speaks to so many people. And yet we also know that there are very many people who are not seen.
Our watchword tells the story of one such person. I read from the book of Genesis, chapter 16, the verses 7 to 16:
7 Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
8 And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
9 The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”
10 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”
11 And the Angel of the Lord said to her:
“Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has heard your affliction.
12 He shall be a wild man;
His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?”
14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
I think that many of us know the story of Abram. He and his wife Sarai form part of many Sunday school lessons and sermon passages. Abram and Sarai are “seen” in many religions. They form part of the foundation of the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
We meet Abram and Sarai in the 12th chapter of the book of Genesis. Here God “sees” Abraham. He tells him to leave his family and country and go to a place that God will show him. God promises that He will give Abraham many things, one of the most important is that he will become a great nation that will be blessed by God and be a blessing for many others.
Abram obeys God and leaves his country together with his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot as well as all his servants and possessions. He trusts God and obeys him. Later God again promises him that he will have a son who will follow him.
A wonderful promise. And yet there is a problem. Sarai is old and has not fallen pregnant and without that happening a great nation is not possible. Sarai offers a solution. If she cannot fall pregnant then Abram should have a child with Hagar, her servant. In this manner the promise of God could be helped along somewhat.
The name Hagar means “flight” or “foreigner.” For many people, her name represents the plight of foreigners, slaves, and sexually abused women. She is the slave of Sarai, the wife of Abraham. She is simply “given” to Abram. Nobody askes this “foreigner re flighty one” what she wants. She is nothing more than an object to be used to fulfil the purposes of others. Abraham and Sarai need a child and Hagar is the object they use to achieve this. The Bible states it clearly. Sarai “gives” Hagar to Abraham to be used for the purposes that they have planned. (Genesis 16,3)
Hagar becomes pregnant and receives a form of dignity for a short time. She is now the woman who is used to fulfil the promise of God.
The pregnancy however creates conflict between the Saria and Hagar. Sarai goes to Abram to complain and the response he gives once again makes clear how he sees Hagar: “Your slave is in your hands,’ Abram said. ‘Do with her whatever you think best.” (Gen 16,6)
Sarai does what she “thinks best” and Hagar flees into the desert – the foreigner, fleeing once more, unseen, and unimportant to the world.
God is a God who sees, and He sees Hagar.
In the desert God sends his messenger – his angel to Hagar. He addresses her by her name and restores her dignity to her. The woman who had been dominated and commanded over all her life gets asked by the angel, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” (Genesis 16.8)
Hagar becomes the first woman in the Bible whom God addresses personally through his messenger and the first woman to receive a comprehensive promise of blessing: “The angel continued, ‘I will give you and your family many children. There will be more of them than anyone can count.’ 11 The angel of the LORD also said to her, ‘You are now pregnant and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael because the LORD has heard about your suffering.” Genesis 16, 10+11)
The story of Hagar does not have a fairy-tale ending. She goes back to Sarai and is later sent away again. And yet Hagar, the forsaken or “foreign” one meets God and realizes that he not only sees her but remains in control of her life and situation. This causes her to confess her faith and give God a name and a description: “She gave a name to the LORD who spoke to her. She called him ‘You are the God who sees me.’ That is because she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16,13)
Hagar realises that God sees her and hears her and listens to her cries for help. So that she should never forget this, she gives her son the name Ishmael, which means: God hears.
God is a God who sees me and you!
Many years later the son of God, Jesus walks on this earth. He lives among us a sees each one of us. In the gospel of John, He meets a Samaritan woman, who was rejected as unclean and unworthy by the Jews at a well and says to her: “14 Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4,`14)
The son of God becomes one of us and sees us as we truly are. He dies on the cross so that all may know that God sees and loves them.
You are the God who sees me!
I close with a poem by Londeka Zondi, who was 19 years old when he wrote it. I will read it in the English language it was written in.
They say I’m poor,
They say I’m nothing.
They say I’m poor and they say I’m nothing because I’ve got nothing to offer to any living soul.
I’ve got no money, no food, no child, no wife nor husband and no home to go home to that is because I’ve got no money.
But I say I’m blessed.
I’m blessed because God told me so.
He loves me the same way he loves every life on earth. I’m blessed because I’m still alive.
I breathe the same air that rich men breathe,
I walk on the same ground that rich men walk . . . therefore I am no different.
I am rich with life.
I am rich with love.
I’m rich with hope that one day they will see the beauty that God treasured in me because I am something indeed.
Let us pray:
The grace of God, which is more than all understanding, bless and preserve your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.