12.5.23 - Genesis 16:11-12
We often act on incomplete information, causing harm or violence to others. How do you seek out additional perspectives and begin healing where you may have caused harm?
And the angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the Lord has given heed to your affliction. He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall live at odds with all his kin.’”
Our culture can have some deep main-character syndrome in which we see the world as though we (individually or collectively) are the protagonist.
The things that happen are done to us or at us. In Christianity, we read the Bible through the lens of the storyline of Christianity, looking for the bloodline of Jesus.
As a reminder of the passage’s context, Sarai cannot have children and has her slave Hagar sleep with Abraham. Hagar gives birth to Ishmael, and Sarai (whose name is changed to Sarah) eventually gives birth to Isaac. Sarah is jealous and eventually casts out Hagar and Ishmael. Isaac will go on to be a main character in the Biblical stories.
Hagar reminds us of the other storylines, ones in which we are not the protagonist, the storylines where we have harmed people. Sarah is cruel to Hagar. The Bible is full of the narrative of “chosen ones,” but what is it like to be the un-chosen in our stories?
Ishmael will become foundational in Islamic traditions. Ismayil is a protagonist.
What do you do with the parts of your story where you and your ancestors were wrong, were harmful?
-- Theo Isoz