• Newsprint, markers, and tape

• Write these questions on newsprint and post:
• Why is this story preserved?
• What were they trying to teach with this story?
• What is it that we can learn?

Invite participants to discuss the questions posted on newsprint. Use some of these questions to provoke, guide or further the discussion, as needed:

• What is God's morality in this story? Why is it inconsistent? What do we learn from God's inconsistency about the people who told the story and about ourselves?
• With whom is God aligned in this story? Who is God looking out for?
• What is God's attitude toward the rich and powerful? What is God's attitude toward those on the margins?
• Why doesn't God tell Sarah and Abraham to accept Ishmael as Abraham's son?
• Does God provide justice to Hagar and Ishmael? What do we make of the salvation scene in the wilderness?
• How does this story offer hope? How is the God in the other desert story, the manna story (Workshop 3) the same or different from this version of God?