Hagar Leaves the House of Abraham, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens’ highly charged compositions reference scholarly aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. Rubens specialized in making altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. Rubens was a prolific artist. The catalogue of his works lists 1,403 pieces.
Reubens’ painting Hagar Leaves the House of Abraham depicts the emotional intensity in Genesis 16. Abram and Sarai could not have children of their own. Sarai suggested that he should sleep with Hagar, their Egyptian maid. Thus, Hagar became pregnant. Now Sarah saw contempt in Hagar’s eyes. So, she made Hagar leave the house.
Rubens shows an aggrieved but also proud Hagar. To the left is angry Sarai, with one hand on her hip and her other hands raised to strike Hagar Abram hides in the doorway and passively watches. In a letter Rubens called this panel “una galatanteria”, a gallant work on a subject worldly nor spiritual.
Call to Worship – Psalm 13
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
Invocation
Holy God, make Your presence known to us today. We come to You as we are, called to be saints, holy ones, but so often less than our calling. Help us this hour to let go of those sins to which we cling. Help us to know that our self-worth does not depend so much on our ability to hold on to our lives, as on Your power to release ourselves into Your hands.
Holy God, make Your presence known to us today. We come to You with our vision so often clouded by our sin. Clear away the mist, through Jesus, that we can catch a glimpse of Your presence. Help us to behold You as You are, not as we would like You to be. In Christ, through whom we become holy, on the wings of the Spirit, we pray to You, our Father. Amen.
Amazing Grace
Amazing grace (how sweet the sound) that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!
The Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.
Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come:
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.
Words: John Newton
Music: Virginia Harmony (NEW BRITAIN)
Children’s Sermon
Prayer and Intercession
I bless you, O most holy God, for the unfathomable love whereby You have ordained that spirit with spirit can meet and that I, a weak and erring mortal, should have this ready access to the heart of Him who moves the stars.
With bitterness and true compunction of heart I acknowledge before You the gross and selfish thoughts that I so often allow to enter my mind and to influence my deeds.
I confess, O God—
- that often I let my mind wander down unclean and forbidden ways:
- that often I deceive myself as to where my plain duty lies:
- that often, by concealing my real motives, I pretend to be better than I am:
- that often my honesty is only a matter of policy:
- that often my affection for my friends is only a refined form of caring for myself:
- that often my sparing of my enemy is due to nothing more than cowardice:
- that often I do good deeds only that they may be seen of men, and shun evil only because I fear they may be found out.
O holy One, let the fire of Your love enter my heart, and burn up all this coil of meanness and hypocrisy, and make my heart as the heart of a little child.
Give me grace, O God, to pray now with pure and sincere desire for all those with whom I have had to do this day. Let me remember now my friends with love and my enemies with forgiveness, entrusting them all, as I now, entrust my own soul and body, to Your protecting care; through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Evening Prayer, May 17th, A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie
Please take a few moments to pray for:
- The Paradee Family
- Reilly Keith Bachelder, Lissy & Bryce
- Howard Deuso
- Kevin Fleming
- Donna Waguespack, our missionary in Mexico
- Healthcare workers
- Other personal concerns
Scripture Reading – Genesis 16
Hagar and Ishmael
16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Sermon
Baby Mamas, Sugar Daddies, and Sister-Wives by Rev. Jason R. McConnell
Our Father, We Have Wandered
Our Father, we have wandered and hidden from your face;
In foolishness have squandered your legacy of grace.
But now, in exile dwelling, we rise with fear and shame,
As, distant but compelling, we hear you call our name.
And now at length discerning the evil that we do,
Behold us, Lord, returning with hope and trust to you.
In haste you come to meet us and home rejoicing bring,
In gladness there to greet us with calf and robe and ring.
O Lord of all the living, both banished and restored,
Compassionate, forgiving and ever-caring Lord,
Grant now that our transgressing, our faithlessness may cease.
Stretch out your hand in blessing, in pardon, and in peace.
Words: Kevin Nichols
Music: Hans Leo Hassler; arr. J.S. Bach