WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
A Multigenerational Tapestry of Faith Program
WORKSHOP 5: SARAH, HAGAR, AND ABRAHAM
BY REV. THOMAS R. SCHADE GAIL FORSYTH-VAIL
© Copyright 2011 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/30/2014 12:27:40 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. — Chimamanda Adichie, contemporary Nigerian writer
The story of Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham—and of their two sons—presents far more questions than answers. Although it precedes the stories of David, Moses, and Joshua in the text and in a chronological telling, it was actually added after those stories. It was meant to address broad identity questions for the Hebrew people: Who were we before we became slaves in Egypt? Where did we come from in the beginning? Who was the first Hebrew?
This workshop introduces Abraham, then called Abram, and his wife Sarah, then called Sarai, who are promised by God that they will become the ancestors of a great nation. As the tale unfolds, Sarah, who is past child-bearing years, sends her slave Hagar to Abram so that she might conceive what will by custom be Sarah's son. After this son, Ishmael, is born, God's intervention makes it possible for Sarah herself to conceive, and she gives birth to Isaac, whose descendents, we are told, are the Hebrew people. Sarah's jealousy leads her to demand that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael into the desert, where they presumably will die. With God's approval, Abraham does what Sarah demands and expels Hagar and Ishmael. In the desert, an angel of God appears to Hagar when her child is near death and shows her a well, promising that Ishmael, too, will be the ancestor of a great nation.
This workshop invites participants of all ages to explore these key questions: From whose point of view is this story told? Why are the ancestors—and God—depicted in this way? Why would a people not tell a more triumphant and uplifting tale of their founding?
In the ambiguity and complexity is the wonder of this tale. The text invites us to examine a story from multiple perspectives and to pay attention to the moral critique carried in this ancient founding story of the Hebrew people. The story also tells us that God chooses people who are on the social margins to carry his story—nomads Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, who is a slave.
This workshop continues a pattern of activities that frame all workshops in this program. Congregations may establish their own patterns for this series, perhaps arranging for refreshments or a meal to precede or follow each workshop.
Before leading this workshop, review the Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters found in the program Introduction and make any accommodations necessary for your group.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham | 15 |
Activity 2: Retelling the Story | 15 |
Activity 3: Different People, Different Stories | 5 |
Activity 4: Explaining Small Group Options | 5 |
Activity 5: Discussion — Option 1 | 25 |
Activity 6: Responses to God's Actions — Option 2 | 25 |
Activity 7: It Happened in the Desert — Option 3 | 25 |
Faith in Action: National Day of Listening | |
Closing | 15 |
Alternate Activity 1: A Skin of Water | 25 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Consider national, regional, or local founding stories that are familiar to you. Focus on the way you first learned the story, perhaps as a child or as a newcomer or visitor to an area. What happens in the story? What is its tone? Does the story contain elements, themes, or traits that are said to continue in contemporary times?
Many people find the story of Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham difficult or morally ambiguous. You may have heard this story before. Who told or read you the story? Which, if any, lessons were you told the story illustrated?
Reflect on how you might have answered these questions as an eight-year-old child, a fourteen-year-old youth, or a young adult making your way in the world. Envision the way you would like to respond when you are an elder, looking back on your life.
Bring each person in your group into your mind and hold them in appreciative thought and/or prayer.
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As people arrive, introduce yourself and invite them to make a name tag and sign in.
OPENING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Bring participants together and welcome them. Invite a volunteer to light the chalice as you share a favorite children's chalice lighting used by your congregation.
Ask participants: what is the story of how your state (or town) began? Say, "We are each going to name one thing about how our state began. We know that we will not tell the whole story, and we do not need to, so beginning with younger children (helped by a parent if necessary), I invite you each to say one thing about how our state began. Encourage people of all ages to use their "one thing" to add texture to the story or bring in culturally marginalized voices and experiences. When each person has spoken, note that although you have not told a complete story, you have told a part of a story that is familiar to you all. Tell participants that this workshop includes a Bible story told by King David's writers about the first Hebrew people and the beginning of the Hebrew nation.
ACTIVITY 1: SARAH, HAGAR, AND ABRAHAM (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Using the information in Leader Resource 1, Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham Background Information, briefly set the stage for the story. Keep the background information brief, and offer copies of Leader Resource 1 to those who wish to take it home.
Explain that the people in the story live in the desert, where they herd sheep and goats. Invite participants to tell you what desert conditions are like, being sure that they understand that there are plenty of rocks and rough terrain in the desert. Ask, "Where do people find water to drink in a dry wilderness area such as this?" Show Leader Resource 2, Judean Desert Well Photograph.
Read the story aloud.
ACTIVITY 2: RETELLING THE STORY (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to take on the various roles, asking questions to set the scene before choosing any volunteer actors. Ask:
After the actors are in place, ask: "What happens first? And next?" Guide participants through a re-enactment of the story, asking at appropriate intervals, "What is Sarah thinking and feeling? What about Hagar? And Abraham? How does God sound when he talks to Abraham? To Hagar? Encourage those who are not actors to make suggestions and offer encouragement to those who are acting out the story.
After the re-enactment, invite participants to offer comments, observations, and insights about the story.
ACTIVITY 3: DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFERENT STORIES (5 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
Invite participants to discuss the story:
ACTIVITY 4: EXPLAINING SMALL GROUP OPTIONS (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain options for small processing groups and point out breakout spaces. Explain that participants may choose any of the options that appeal to them. There is not one group for children, another for youth, and another for adults. All groups can have a mix of ages. Invite at least one adult or youth participant to take part in each breakout group, and ask those volunteers to set a tone that welcomes multigenerational participation.
ACTIVITY 5: DISCUSSION — OPTION 1 (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to discuss the questions posted on newsprint. Use some of these questions to provoke, guide or further the discussion, as needed:
ACTIVITY 6: RESPONSES TO GOD'S ACTIONS— OPTION 2 (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite volunteer actors, one at a time, to wear a simple costume and tell the story from Sarah's point of view, from Abraham's point of view, and from Hagar's point of view. After each performance, invite other participants to name all the feelings that Sarah, Hagar, or Abraham expressed or felt, keeping a list on newsprint for each one. After all three performances, invite participants to decide together what each character would say to God if given the chance. After you have decided together and recorded it on newsprint, divide into three groups. Invite each group to use self-adhesive letters to write Sarah, Hagar, or Abraham's responses to God on a sheet of drawing paper. If there is time, the group may decorate the written responses or amplify them with color pencils or markers.
ACTIVITY 7: IT HAPPENED IN THE DESERT – OPTION 3 (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to create a representation of the desert where Hagar twice encounters first God, then an angel of God. Look at Leader Resource 2 and, if possible, other photos of the Judean Desert. Invite participants to consider how to create a desert. Some in the group can start by painting the areas of the plywood where sand will be placed with the diluted glue mixture, and then use the cardstock to help sprinkle sand on the wet glue. Use a cold temperature glue gun and/or craft glue to add stones, rocks, and vegetation to the desert. Decide together where Hagar’s well will be located and build it from stones, placing a tree nearby. While some work on the landscape, invite others to use pipe cleaners to create Hagar, Ishmael, and the angel of God, using bits of fabric to dress them. Add the figures to the completed landscape.
CLOSING (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Create a worship service, weaving together contributions from all of the breakout groups. Do not over-script the worship service, but rather create a worshipful "container" to hold all of the insights, thoughts, feelings, creations, and contributions of participants. At the end of the worship, extinguish the chalice and read the words of Elizabeth Selle Jones, Reading 456 in the hymnbook, or choose a benediction or closing words familiar to participants. Distribute Taking It Home.
FAITH IN ACTION: NATIONAL DAY OF LISTENING
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participate in the National Day of Listening by recording interviews with people of all ages in your congregation and community. Plan and publicize your event and gather recording equipment, using the suggestions found in the National Day of Listening Do-It-Yourself Guide.
Work in multigenerational groups to plan questions, using or adapting the suggested questions in the guide. On the appointed day, interview your subjects in multigenerational pairs. After you have made your recording, burn a disc and presented it to the interviewee to be kept as a family heirloom.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few minutes to talk with your co-facilitator about how the workshop went, using these questions as a guide:
TAKING IT HOME
Stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. — Chimamanda Adichie, contemporary Nigerian writer
The story of Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham is a complex and ambiguous founding story of the Hebrew people. With your family or friends, explore your own family's ancestor stories. What events and people impacted or determined the lives your ancestors led? Imagine yourself in the place of some of your ancestors. What strength—physical, psychological, and spiritual—would you have needed to live their lives? If you could go back in time, what kindnesses would you wish to offer them? What would you tell them about your own life?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: A SKIN OF WATER (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to retell the story from Ishmael's point of view, one piece within the larger narrative. Say, "In the larger group, we have talked about how it felt to be Sarah, or Abraham, or Hagar, Ishmael's mother. Let's think about how it felt to be Ishmael in this story." After participants have shared what they remember, reread the marked portion of the story, pausing as necessary to explain the meaning.
Say that when Hagar and Ishmael were sent into the desert, they were sent with bread and a skin of water. Ask, "What do you suppose a skin of water is?" Explain that people made an animal skin into a bag to carry water, and show the plastic bag you have prepared with water in it. Say that Hagar and Ishmael had a skin of water and some bread when they entered the desert. After some time they had drunk all the water and eaten the bread and were near to dying of thirst when they were shown a well in the desert. Explain that a well in the desert is not like a wishing well. Rather it is a place where water bubbles up in the sand or the dirt. Say, that you are going to create such a well.
Gather participants around the dishpan of sand and add enough water so that the sand is soaked and there is some water on the surface. Invite them to imagine that there is an underground spring soaking the sand. How will they collect water from the sand? Distribute a "skin" (plastic sandwich bag) to each participant and invite each in turn to try and capture water with their hands and put it into the "skin." If they are unable to do it with their hands, offer a spoon and help as necessary. After everyone has put some water into the "skin," ask them again how Ishmael must have felt in the desert with his mother. Work with participants to plan how they will share Ishmael's point of view with the larger group. Invite them to bring their "skins" to the closing worship, cautioning them against drinking the water because several people have had their hands in it.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 5:
STORY: SARAH, HAGAR, AND ABRAHAM
Genesis 15:1-5; Genesis 16: 1-11, 13-16, Genesis 17: 1- 5, 15-16; Genesis 21: 1-3, 6, 8-19 (New Revised Standard Version)
... the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward will be very great." But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless and the heir of my house is [my servant] Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." But the word of the Lord came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your own issue shall be your heir." He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And then he said, "So shall your descendants be."
Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, "You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked down on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!" but Abram said to Arai, "Your slave-girl is in your power; do with her as you please. Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she [Hagar] ran away from her [Sarai].
The angel of the Lord found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai." The angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress and submit to her." The angel of the Lord also said to her, "I will greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude." And the angel of the Lord said to her,
Now you have conceived and shall bear a son;
You shall call him Ishmael [God hears]
for the Lord has given heed to your affliction...
So she named the Lord who spoke to her, "You are Elroi [God of seeing]," for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?" Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi [Well of the Living one who sees me]; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "I am God almighty; walk before me and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous." Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you; you shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham...
God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her."
The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son whom Sarah bore him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me."
The child grew and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day 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 my child." And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; 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.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: SARAH, HAGAR, AND ABRAHAM BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Many of the stories of the Hebrew scriptures were recorded by scribes in the courts of Kings David and Solomon, and their purpose was to unite the various groups who lived in Canaan into a single nation, with a common narrative and set of laws and customs woven from their stories and wisdom. An important piece of that common narrative is an origin story. Where do we come from? Who were our first ancestors?
This workshop introduces Abram, who came from Ur of the Chaldees in ancient Sumer, and his wife Sarai. The text says that in a dream, God tells Abram that he will have as many descendents as there are stars in the sky and that they will be blessed. Nowhere in the story does it say why God chose Abram out of all the people on Earth at that time, or why Abram agreed to enter into a covenant with God.
The text tells us that Abram and Sarai had no children at the time of God's promise, and that Sarai was past the age of child-bearing. As the story unfolds, Sarai sends Hagar, her handmaid or slave, to Abram, that Hagar might bear a child. After Hagar conceives, Sarah becomes jealous and Hagar runs away from harsh treatment. In the desert, God comes to her and tells her to return to her mistress and bear her son, Ishmael, which she does. Later, God renews his covenant with Abram and Sarai, whom he renames Abraham and Sarah, and renews his promise of descendents. Soon after, the previously barren Sarah bears a child, Isaac. She continues to resent Ishmael and Hagar, and demands that Abraham cast mother and child out into the desert. God tells Abraham to do as Sarah tells him, and Abraham casts mother and son out into the desert with only some bread and a skin of water. In the desert, an angel of God appears and saves them from certain death by opening Hagar's eyes to the presence of a well with the water they need to survive. God further promises to make a second great nation of Ishmael's descendents. Jewish oral tradition, as well the Qu-ran, name Ishmael as the ancestor of the Arab peoples.
This is a complex story, and raises more questions than it answers. From whose point of view is this story told? Sarah and Abraham, the patriarch and matriarch of the Hebrew people are not painted in a favorable light. Even God's intervention in the tale is morally ambiguous. Why would a people tell such an ambiguous tale of their founding? Why are the ancestors—and God—depicted in this way?
In the ambiguity is the wonder of this tale. This text invites us to examine a story from multiple perspectives and to pay attention to the moral critique in this ancient founding story of the Hebrew people. It provides a case study of what contemporary Nigerian writer Chimamanda Achidie, calls "the danger of a single story" and compels us to view the narrative from many points of view in order to empower and to humanize its central characters.
The story also tells us that God chooses people on the social margins to carry his blessing. Abraham and Sarah are nomads. Hagar, whose social position is even more marginal, is visited by God not once, but twice, and is chosen as the mother of a second great nation. As biblical scholar Anthony Ceresko notes:
[The book of Genesis] is not the record of individuals who took part in the great power struggles of the day and who were integral members of the dominant social, economic, and political structure. Instead, it records the memories and recollections of various groups who for the most part stood outside of these structures, on the margins. These groups, which eventually came together to create Israel in the hill country of thirteenth-century B.C.E. Canaan. Attempted by combining their individual stories to reinforce and cement their newly-won unity as a people. This single multi-colored tapestry, their "history," is an attempt to represent and express their common, unifying purpose to create a life together and to take control of their own destiny and future. (Ceresko, Anthony R., Introduction to the Old Testament: A Liberation Perspective, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997, p. 38 -39.)
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: JUDEAN DESERT WELL PHOTOGRAPH
This photograph is used with permission of BibleWalks.com - Holy Land sites review.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: CREATING THE CLOSING WORSHIP
In this program, the closing worship circle offers a time for the group to come back together to enrich one another's understanding of the story and of their own life experience. This is not a show-and-tell experience, but rather a participatory, co-created worship experience. You will need to do just enough planning to provide a container for participants to share with one another and grow in spirit. You cannot script a co-created worship service, but you can guide it so that all participants feel heard and valued, and all hear and value the voices and experiences of others, regardless of age or life stage. With practice, you and the participants will become adept at co-creating worship to end each workshop.
Here are suggested elements for the closing worship for Workshop 5, Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham. Add, subtract, and adapt to fit your situation:
Opening words
There is a love holding me.
There is a love holding you.
There is a love holding all.
I rest in this love. — Rebecca Parker
Chalice lighting
Use chalice lighting words familiar to your congregation or use Reading 453 from Singing the Living Tradition.
Retelling the story
Invite participants to tell the story from the beginning, with each person who wishes adding a sentence. Stop at the point where Hagar is sent into the desert for the first time.
It Happened in the Desert
Invite those who have created the desert model (Activity 7) to tell the story from that point, explaining their model as they share. Place the model on or near the worship table.
Telling Ishmael's Story
If you had a group using Alternate Activity 1, A Skin of Water, invite them to share their thoughts on Ishmael's experiences and explain how to find water in the desert. Invite them to show their "skins" of water and place them near or on the worship table.
Responses to God's Actions
Invite members of the Responses to God's Actions group (Activity 7) to share their creations and explain what Hagar, Sarah, and Abraham might have each wanted to say to God. Place the creations on the worship table or tape them to the edge of the table.
What does this story tell us about ourselves?
Invite the discussion group to share some of their comments and insights.
Meditation/prayer
Begin a meditation or prayer as you normally would in your congregation. Then say, "This story is several different stories, because each person in it had a different experience." Invite participants to remember times when they have had a different "story" about something than other people, perhaps thinking that something was unfair or not right even when others did not agree. Say "We remember how we felt when ..." Invite participants to promise that they will try their hardest to remember that sometimes other people may have different experiences than we do. End your meditation or prayer by saying, "Help us to/may we remember to listen to other people's stories and to honor other people's experiences. We can practice listening to other people's stories with our family, friends, and this congregation. God/Spirit of Life/Spirit of Justice and Love will be with us when we do that." End the meditation or prayer as you normally would in your congregation.
Music
Choose some music about multiple stories. Sing Hymn 346, "Come, Sing a Song with Me," Hymn 159, "This is My Song," Hymn 131, "Love Will Guide Us," Hymn 381, "From all that Dwell Below the Skies," or another familiar hymn or song about welcoming many perspectives and stories.
Closing words
Use words familiar to your congregation.
FIND OUT MORE
For wonderful pictures of the Judean Desert and of wells in the desert (including one that can be viewed with 3-D glasses) visit Bible Walks (at www.biblewalks.com/sites/DesertWater.html).
View a nineteen-minute video of award-winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie's lecture "The Danger of A Single Story." (at www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html)