Whose Side Is God On?
Genesis 21:8-21
by Jim Westmoreland
When I began thinking of this question, "Whose Side is God On?" I immediately remembered a routine by a comedy team, named the Smothers Brothers. Everyone has a website these days, and, when I went to "smothersbrothers.com" I was reminded that their TV show aired from 1967-69. Their routine that prompted all this important research was called, "Mom always liked you best." The routine took the form of an argument between the two brothers. When Tommie was losing or not faring well in some other discussion with his brother, Dickie, in exasperation he would make excuse for his plight by saying, "Well, Mom always liked you best?"
You may wonder what does this have to do with our subject this morning. You see, "Mom always liked you best" is an answer to the question, "Whose side is Mom on?" As a child, we may not have thought much about whose side God was on, but we new early it was important to know whose side mom was on!
We learned early as children about competing and being on different sides. I know it starts early, but I can't remember when I learned about sides. I know we would choose sides to do everything, from playing chase in the yard on summer nights, to having juniper berry fights and dirt clod fights in the nearby field. We chose up sides at school for spelling bees, math baseball, as well as kickball at recess and lunch break. Today, we have sides for academic teams and band competitions, not to mention the different school athletic teams.
We quickly learned that choosing sides and who you had on your team was important. As we study history, we frequently are looking to see who is on what side. Our text today gives us a situation that creates some problems for us. Remember the old westerns when you could always tell what side the good guys were on because they always wore white hats. We've learned that life isn't always that simple. Some may read this text and immediately think they know what side God is on, but I'm not so sure.
I want us to look at this story like an investigative reporter. We've been sent to the desert to interview a mother and her son who, for some reason, are there alone, abandoned without any shelter and only a limited supply of water. Who would do such a thing and why? We find out that the boy is about 17 years old, and his name is Yishmael (lea\M>Viy). His mother's name is (Hawgawr-r"g"h) Hagar. The mother was very loving and protective of her son, who didn't have a lot to say, but Hagar began to tell quite a story.
They were okay now, because they had discovered a well with plenty of fresh water, but just a few days ago, they thought that they would die of thirst. They had been part of the clan of a wealthy Bedouin who was now going by the name of Abraham. Hagar, who was from Egypt had been bought to be the maidservant for Sarah, Abraham's wife. Back then, women and slaves were not considered as people, but as property.
We wonder, well, what happened? Why were you left in the desert to die? Hagar said simply that Sarah had turned against her and her son and wanted her cast out, and Sarah said so in no uncertain terms to Abraham. We ask Hagar why did she think Sarah turned on her, and that's when she began to tell us quite a story.
When she was first bought for Sarah, Sarah was getting older and had no children. Both Sarah and Abraham, who went by Abram then, worshiped only one god. It seemed strange because there were no images or anything of their god. They had left the prosperous Ur of the Chaldees to begin the life of Bedouins because God told them to leave and he would lead them. Their God also told them that he would bless them and their descendants would multiply and become a great nation, and that's when He changed Abram's name to Abraham. Hagar said they had a problem though. Sarah couldn't get pregnant.
After many years, Sarah told Abraham to go to her maid, Hagar, to have a child. He did, and Hagar conceived and had a son. Abraham was 86 years old when this son, named Yishmael, was born. Sarah believed that God would bless Abraham through this son. Hagar raised the boy and Abraham took a real interest in him. He seemed to care for both Hagar and Yishmael.
Then, one day, out of nowhere three men show up at Abraham's tent as messengers from God and tell him that Sarah will yet conceive and bear a son. Well, that was pretty incredible, and Hagar said we all laughed about 90 year-old Sarah being pregnant. It turns out that she did conceive and, a year later, gave birth to a son that they named Isaac. She was really proud of that miracle baby. Abraham was too, and he continued to care for Yishmael.
Hagar said that Sarah got more and more jealous about any interest that Abraham took in Yishmael, and, by the time she weaned Isaac at about 3 years old, she was treating Hagar and Yishmael very cruelly. It eventually came to a head and she demanded that they be thrown out of the clan, right out in the desert. Abraham didn't want to do it, but God said to do what Sarah wanted to do, but God assured Abraham that He would protect them and that He would still bless Yishmael and a great nation would come through his line. So, Abraham had them put out in the desert.
We listen to this strange story from Genesis 21. We hear about two sons, each with the promise of many descendants becoming a great nation, and we wonder, Whose side is God on? History does not let this question go away, and it is repeated many times through the centuries.
Whose side is God on? We want to know. We want to know whose side God is on today. Or maybe we don't ask the question, we just sort of tell Him which side He is supposed to be on the way we see things! In our humbler, simpler moments we confess that God is the creator and father of us all. How will he love one and not love others? For parents, especially those who are fathers here today, our children are different and not the same as the others. Can we love one and not the others? No, we love each one.
In Luke 15 Jesus begins a story with "A certain father had two sons . . . " One son demanded his inheritance and left home and wasted it. The other stayed home and worked hard trying to do everything right. Years later, the rebel came home in humility and repentance and the "do everything right brother" reacted in self-righteous indignation when the father received the rebel son with open arms and celebration. Whose side was the Father on? Both! He love both of them!
We live in a society that has become increasingly less civil. Twenty-five years ago, the term "road rage" didn't mean anything, but today, we know that there are people on the highways and freeways that will shoot us or run us off the road if we offend them! Too many disagreements end at the emergency room or the funeral home.
The desire to talk through differences or the willingness to accept that we have differences is under attack. I read an editorial last week about the growing tendency to demonize our opponents. It said that we used to debate issues and still respect and, even be friends, with those who held differing opinions. Today, we depersonalize others, call them derogatory names and, too many are insisting that God is on their side. There seems to be no room for compromise or humility anymore.
Is God on our side? We face the temptation in our state, national and international relations to act as if might makes everything right. It seems that both extremes in many debates today are just not willing to listen to the other side. The lack of respect that is becoming too common grows out of arrogance and self-righteousness.
I do not think that we need to all think the same thing. Out of this story of Abraham's two sons, we can be reminded that God loved and blessed them both just as the father in the story of the two sons loved both of them.
In our church, we need not have uniformity of thought to have unity in Christ. Differences in our gifts, abilities and opinions give us strength, creativity and energy. As a church we have needs and opportunities in which to respond that will determine how we will be the church. To be vibrant with the energy of our ideas and individuality, we need the strength of our differences and our uniqueness, all blessed by our heavenly father who loves each one of us.
When we worry if we are doing everything right and whose side God is on, we are worrying about the wrong things. We become like the "stay-at-home brother" who is afraid of making a mistake or of forgiving his brother's mistake. He has made a life of trying to get the Father on his side, and he has missed receiving the Father's love.
God loved both Isaac and Yishmael. Worrying about whether God is on our side leads to self-righteous, self-justifying and rationalizing behavior. Rather than ask, "Whose side is God on?" we should ask, "Whose side are we on?"
Through Jesus Christ we come to know what God is like. God is Love, and He calls us to love one another and to care for those in need, for the weak and those without power and influence in our city, state and country and throughout the world. The question we need to leave with this morning is How are we living our lives to be on God's side? Amen.
Century Christian Church, June 19, 2005 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
