The descendants of Thomas Jefferson gathered awhile back at Monticello. That is, the Caucasian descendants met. They gathered specifically to decide whether or not they would recognize certain other descendants of the President – the children borne by his slave Sally Hemmings. The DNA evidence was in and it was pretty clear on the paternity questions, so the issue before the clan was not whether these Black people were relatives; it was only whether the Caucasian descendants would accept them. They decided not.

On the other hand, there is a less well-known but equally fascinating story about the Black family of another Virginian, Confederate Brigadier General John Robert Jones. He openly claimed, supported and educated the children borne to him by his black concubine, Malinda Rice. Their granddaughter, Carrie Allen McCray, tells the remarkable story of her mother’s relationship with the General in the fascinating book, Freedom’s Child. It’s a story of open acceptance, as a balance to the better-known Jeffersonian tragedy.

Those two stories would be right at home in the Bible. In fact, they bear remarkable similarities to some we find there. Abraham and Sarah come to mind. Here’s a summary of their story. God had promised Abraham that his progeny would become a "great nation" and would become blessings "to all the nations of the earth." But old age was catching up with them, and they were still childless, so they hatched a plot to force God’s hand. Abraham would go to his Black slave girl, Hagar. The result was a son, whom they named Ishmael – which means, "God hears." A few years later, to everyone’s astonishment, when Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 90, she gave birth to their son, Isaac. The years pass, and these two boys grow up side by side, but Sarah is increasingly resentful of Hagar and jealous of Ishmael. So, as we shall see, their little plot concerning Hagar -- which was an expression of their lack of faith -- has consequences of historic proportions and that are still making headlines this very morning.

The crises in the Middle East have been much in the news, on our minds and in our prayers. Among the spin-off concerns emerging from those whirlwinds are questions related to Islam and our connections with and our understandings of it as one of the three inter-related world religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All of that has its roots in this ancient story. Unfortunately, many of us here in the 21^st century are in danger of losing that perspective. Today I would like to resurface some of that background, which I hope will make some contribution to understanding what is going on in the world around us.

Sarai’s emotions finally get the best of her. "Abraham, you get that woman and her son out of my sight. I want them out of this house, NOW!" And Abram reluctantly agrees. Until now he has behaved more like General Jones than like President Jefferson, but he grants Sarai’s demand and sends Hagar and Ishmael away. In today’s reading God also accedes to Sarai’s demand, but connects it with a renewal of God’s promise to Abraham: "And I shall make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your off-spring." The plot thickens.

Hagar was driven away, left to wander in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba, a rugged region covering the territory from the Dead Sea down to the Gulf of Aqabah near Egypt. Disinherited and hopeless, when their water runs out Hagar leaves her son to die under the shade of a small bush, and goes some distance away so she will not have to witness his suffering. But the child himself offers up a wailing prayer for salvation, and God responds with a message to Hagar: "Fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad. Arise, pick the child up and hold him fast, for I will make him a great nation."

Remember: the name Ishmael means "God Hears," a detail that takes on a new ironic significance now from the one it had when Abram and Sarai gave him that name during their time of mistrust in God’s faithful sovereignty.

Mother and Son discover a well of water nearby and are refreshed. They make their way to Egypt where Hagar found her son a wife. There Ishmael prospered and had twelve sons of his own – twelve princes. Actually, Muslims believe that Abraham did not cut himself off from Ishmael entirely, but that he visited them periodically. Abraham is viewed as the first Muslim – that is, true believer in God. Hagar is seen as the pioneer woman who led the way to the establishment of a new civilization and the "mother of all Arabs."

It is from this great nation that the people we call Palestinians and certain Arab tribes claim descent. Today, many of them are Muslims, and some are Christians – like my friend, Ruling Elder Fahed Abu-Akel of Atlanta, a past Moderator of our General Assembly. Fahed was born in the Galilean village of Kuffer-Yassif; driven from his home at the age of four during the 1948 Arab – Israeli war by occupying Israeli troops. As his father led the eight children away from their village, young Fahed looked back and saw his mother waving to them from the roof of their home. Later, they were able to go back, and they found her alive. When they asked why she had not come to the refugee camp with them, she said: "This is our home, our land, our church. If they want to kill me, they will need to kill me in my own home."

They are Arabs: Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and some North African peoples. [An aside: they are not, for the most part, Iraqi or Iranians; those are ancient enemies the Old Testament knows as the Medes and the Persians.] Some of them are Christians. All of them – Christian and Muslim – are people bearing in their bodies the DNA of Ishmael. They are Abraham’s other children, and the tears of Hagar still stream down their cheeks.

When you hear and read the news, remember that these, too, are people of God’s promise and covenant: "I will make him a great nation. … And God was with the lad, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow." Driven away by Sarah, Ishmael was neither rejected by God nor disowned entirely by Abraham. God’s covenant and promise are not one-sided, as American foreign policy has been since 1948. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is also the God of Abraham, Ishmael and the Twelve Princes.

From its beginning some 4000 years ago, this has been a saga of pain, alienation and hostility, as well as a saga of promise, hope and possibility. The ancient story does not come to a happy conclusion. Later in Genesis we learn of the death of Sarah; Hagar simply disappears after Ishmael’s marriage in Egypt. Their is a cautionary tale about anger, jealousy, inhospitality and competition, but it is also a tale about God’s welcome, discovered in the wilderness, and about the blessing that can come about – if we will let it -- in the struggle of courage and faith in search of justice and peace within the human family.

It is a drama that continues to unfold before our very eyes.

[COPYRIGHT 2006, John C. Bush]

NOW TO THE ONE WHO IS ABLE
TO DO FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY
THAN ALL WE MAY ASK OR THINK:
TO GOD BE PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING
THIS DAY AND FOREVER. AMEN.