Genesis
18:1-15;
Our scripture from Genesis has got be
one of my favorites stories in the entire biblical text. Imagine this improbable scenario. Sarah is about to have a baby in the
geriatric ward and Medicare is going to pick up the bill. Of course before Sarah painted the back room
in the tent baby blue there were stressful moments, or to be more exact years.
The faithful parents wondered if God’s
promise would ever come true.
At a time when they should have been
considering retirement, Sarah and Abraham put everything they could squeeze
into a U-Haul and headed west. In a
dream they had been promised not only a large plot of land but a family. So
they wouldn’t be completely alone Abraham took his nephew Lot. That was their first mistake. When it came time to divvy up The Promised
Land, Lot chose Paradise, leaving Abraham with Dry Gultch. The second mistake happened
when Sarah insisted on bring her maid Hager.
Abraham got it in his mind that perhaps God’s intentions for him to have
a son might not have included Sarah. The
maid becomes pregnant and Ishmael was born. Once the child was delivered, Hager insisted
that she become the legitimate wife of Abraham, leaving Sarah both barren and
out of the picture. But Abraham came to
his senses, rose to the occasion and refused to leave Sarah. You can’t make
this stuff up which is exactly what the writer of Genesis did.
In this morning’s text, the couple was getting
ready to celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. The husband and wife sat on the front porch
drinking lemonade, wondering why folks their age need a porch if there are no
greatgrandchildren. Three strangers
appeared at the front gate. Abraham
invited them to join him and his wife on the front porch for refreshments. They accepted the invitation. Sarah excused herself to prepare drink and
cookies for the visitors.
The
four men sat on the porch, and had a get acquainted conversation. They talked a little sports, a little
weather, a little politics and then one of the visitors asked where Sarah
was. Abraham reminded the men that at 90
folks don’t get around quite as fast as they once did but she would be out with
their refreshments soon. The man leaned
over to Abraham and said, “The reason we are here is we thought the two of you
would like to know Sarah is about to
become pregnant.”
Now the reason Sarah was slow with the
lemonade had less to do with her age than her curiosity. Ever since Abraham had pawned her off to that
Egyptian king, she was a little nervous about the decisions her husband made
around strangers. And now that Abraham
had a son, she felt particularly vulnerable.
So when she hears the word that
she is about to be pregnant, Sarah laughed out loud. She laughed for joy at the thought of her
life time dream being fulfilled. She
laughed at the absurdity of a woman in her 90’s getting pregnant. And she laughed out of spite as she thought
of what this would do to her husband’s relationship with Hagger. She laughed long and she laughed so hard that
the strangers on the porch heard her.
When she brought out the refreshments,
Abraham remarked, “So you heard the good news?”
“What news?” Sarah modestly responded.
“Come on, I know you heard it. We heard you laughing.”
Sarah became afraid. Obviously these strangers were messengers
from God. If they heard her laughing
they might assume she was mocking them.
What if they changed their mind? What
if, after all these years she was so close to her dream and she blew it with a
giggle. But the truth is Sarah had every
right to laugh. Suppose you are standing
in the grocery line and you see the headlines, “A 90 year old woman discovers
she is pregnant.” You expect the next line to read, “The father is an alien
from Mars.” Of course we laugh. Some things are just not “conceivable”. But let’s not get so caught up in the
absurdity of the story that we miss the final punch line. The strangers turn to Abraham and ask, “Is
anything too hard for God?”
When
one thinks about the absurd disproportion between God’s divine promise and that
which we humans consider possible, one must either laugh or cry. Is anything too hard for God? Before you answer let me warn you this is a
loaded question. We are the ones who have
determined that everything is measurable, reliable and I might add, in the end
hopeless. If on the other hand if we
state that nothing is impossible for God, this implies we trust God beyond what
our minds might consider logical. To
quote Alexander Pope, “Hope springs eternal.”
I
believe this question to be basic to our understanding of faith in action. Do we actually believe that nothing is
impossible for God? I hear folks say all the time say, “I believe
God wants such and such to happen”. Then
they sit on their hands and watch, never lifting a finger. After a few days of not so intense
observation they remark, “I guess it wasn’t part of God’s plan.”
From
Abraham to Jesus the question that is put before God’s people is, “Do you
believe God is able?” Some folks, like
Sarah and Abraham said yes. And then
they went to work living their faith. In contrast most folks are content to just
pray for a miracle. They claim to believe
God can change the world. But they aren’t
much interested in being God’s agents of change.
Remember
the story that we first learned as children about David slaying Goliath? The people of Israel under the leadership of
Saul faced a major crisis. The champion
of the Philistines challenged Israel to send a soldier brave enough to face
him. This was a common occurrence. Rather than fight a battle and lose
thousands of men, the bragging rights for a piece of land would be resolved
through the mortal conflict between two warriors. Saul puts the word out asking if one man
would step forward. What Saul got was a
boy. Do you think that anyone believed
that David would slay Goliath? The
soldiers of Israel were happy to let the boy be sacrificed. Better him than me. Saul reluctantly sent the boy to avoid a
battle. The only person who had hopes of
a good outcome was the kid holding the rocks.
Of course his faith was not in himself but in God.
All
through the Biblical account we read stories of very ordinary people
accomplishing extraordinary things. When
it comes to faith, when it comes to hoping for the will of God to manifest
itself, someone has to step forward. Someone
has to suffer. Someone has to be barren for 90 years. Someone has to face the
ridicule of friends and neighbors. Someone has to move beyond their comfort
zone or give up something of value. Someone has to be brave enough to say, “God
I know you can work this out if anyone is willing to stand by your side.”
Someone has to sing ‘Amazing Grace.”
This
winter our world was invaded by a disease that has spawned death and
discomfort. This spring it helped expose an ugliness for which there seems to
be no vaccine. Good Christians that we are, we have gotten down on our knees
and prayed for a cure. We have witnessed the chaos in our cities and have
called on God to deliver us from such unrest. Have you ever considered that
this might be our pregnant moment?
Don’t
Laugh!
Soon,
very soon, when a vaccine is discovered, we will be asked to heal not only
America but the rest of the world.
Soon,
very soon, when we discover how broken our future is, we will be asked to save
not just ourselves but the stranger.
Soon,
very soon, we will be asked to birth a new America. That is going to take more
than our prayers.
I
know what you are thinking. I am too old to be thinking about someone else’s
future. I am too old to worry about the unrest in our cities. I am too old to
think about anything other than retirement. Here is a news flash. None of us is
older than Sarah. Sure she laughed. Sure she doubted. But nine months later she
named her son Isaac. I imagine her labor was quite difficult but then I
remember someone saying, suffering produces endurance, and endurance character,
and character…..Hope.
In
our next nine months what will we wish for? In the next nine months, with the
help of God, what will we accomplish? Soon
and very soon we will be asked to put our faith into action.
To
God be the glory. Amen.
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