For you [O Lord] never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness.
– “Book of Common Prayer,” page 230.This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before.
– Karl Barth, “The Humanity of God.”
Dear People of St. David’s,
The question our collect for this coming Sunday raises for me is, who are those whom God has set upon the sure foundation of his loving-kindness?
Well surely, it’s me! I would suppose it’s also people that look like me and think like me! And of course, it includes those I love and care about! But surely, it couldn’t possibly be those others. Those people who get on my nerves, who believe differently than me, who perhaps look and act differently than me…
I would be lying to you if I said that I had not fallen into this type of “in vs. out” thinking throughout my life. I find it so tempting that I used to keep the Karl Barth quote posted above my seminary desk, a reminder that even those who spouted the most inane theological beliefs were still beloved children of God!
I don’t think I’m alone in this temptation. In fact, I think our Scriptures present this “in vs. out” view of the world as one of the foundational human temptations, especially for religious folk (think of just the two most famous examples: the story of Jonah and the passerby in the parable of the Good Samaritan). Because of course, our Scriptures and stories are not filled with moral heroes and exemplars, but people just like us–broken people deeply in need of God’s grace and redemption.
Our lectionary this week contains, in part, one of my favorite stories: the story of Sarah and Hagar. This is a story that illuminates the all too human temptation to exclude others from God’s love. I encourage you to read this story in its entirety, found in Genesis chapter 16 and Genesis chapter 21. I won’t recount the story in full, just know that it reads like a soap opera! For our purposes, it is a story about an Egyptian slave woman who is part of Abraham’s family and the ways that she is mistreated and excluded. If there was anyone that was told she does not belong within God’s loving-kindness, it was Hagar! Yet, in Genesis chapter 16, she is the first person in Scripture to personally name God. What does she call Him? El Roi–the God Who Sees Me–because as the story unfolds, the reader finds that God is not a God of exclusion, but a God whose love knows no limit. The story reminds us that God cares for all and loves all, but especially the ones that seem least lovable by society and culture’s standards. As another amazing woman in scripture put it: Our God is a God who raises up the lowly.
This brings us back to my starting question, “Who are those whom God has set upon the sure foundation of his loving-kindness?”
The story of Hagar provides us with a surprising answer–we can start by looking to those we would least expect…maybe even those we are sure do not belong within God’s loving-kindness!
For Sarah, that surprising answer was the Egyptian slave woman, Hagar.
For Jonah, that surprising answer was the immoral Ninevites.
For Jesus’ contemporaries, that surprising answer was even those darn Samaritans.
That leaves each of us with new questions of our own, questions that might help us reframe our original question–who do we think is not part of God’s sure foundation of loving-kindness? Where do we place limits upon God’s love? These people and places may be precisely the areas in our life that we bring the story of Hagar and seek to see others with the eyes of God. After all, we follow the God of Hagar, El Roi, a God who sees the unseeable and loves them as beloved children.
Blessings,
Elliot VanHoy
Pastoral Associate
Published on June 18, 2026.
Note: You can listen to the Rev. Rick Morley, Elliot VanHoy, and Natalee Hill on our Cross Connections podcast as they discuss Genesis chapters 1-21, including the story of Hagar. There are two Genesis 1-21: The Beginning episodes. Genesis Part 1 and Genesis Part 1 Bonus.
Image: Painted by F. Baroccio – Engraved by E. Smith, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:17.Hagar_and_Ishmael.png