B Pentecost17 2015
September 20, 2015
Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7
Readers: Narrator, Abraham, Man,
Sarah
Narrator: The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of
Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked
up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent
entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said,
Abraham: My Lord, if I find favor with
you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest
yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread that you may refresh yourselves, and
after that you may pass on— since you have come to your servant.
Narrator: So they said,
Man: Do as you have said.
Narrator: And Abraham hastened into the tent
to Sarah, and said,
Abraham: Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and
make cakes.
Narrator: Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and
gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk
and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them
under the tree while they ate. They said to him,
Man: Where is your wife Sarah?
Narrator: And he said,
Abraham: There, in the tent.
Narrator: Then one said,
Man: I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah
shall have a son.
Narrator: And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham
and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the
manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying,
Sarah: After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have
pleasure?
Narrator: The Lord said to Abraham,
Man: Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now
that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will
return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.
Narrator: But Sarah denied, saying,
Sarah: I did not laugh;
Narrator: for she was afraid. He said,
Man: Oh yes, you did laugh.
Narrator: The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said,
and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a
son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham
gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son
Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a
hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said,
Sarah: God has brought laughter for me;
everyone who hears will laugh with me.
Narrator: And she said,
Sarah: Who would ever have said to
Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old
age.
Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
Last
week we started with God’s story of creation – particularly creating us… for
relationship. We’ve flown right past the
stories of when things went sour: the snake in the garden, Adam and Eve’s sons
Cain and Abel – first generation murders, the wickedness of the whole world
that God “solves” with a flood, except it doesn’t solve anything. Over and over again humanity keeps turning
away from the God who created them. It
is hard for me to stomach how quickly we forget the goodness for which God
created us: the goodness of stewardship of the earth and each other, the
companionship and creative spark… how quickly we turn to use these things
against God’s will for us. Trying to
overpower one another, rather than follow the lead of our empowering God. Trying to claim for ourselves the title of
ruler of our own creations, rather than honor the God who is the maker of
all. It’s really quite amazing how
persistent God is. If we were to read
Chapters 3-18 of Genesis, story by story, we would see how messy it is. And over and over again how quickly humans
turn away from God’s desires and how strongly God desires reconciliation and
right relationship with us – God has all this amazing grace for us over and
over again.
And God’s
efforts for relationship continue here, with the covenant with Abraham and
Sarah. Last March we made that woven
cross now framed and mounted on the wall between here and the nursery, a symbol
of what God is doing among us, weaving us into covenant community. A community of people bound together by God’s
Grace.
The
covenant God makes with Abraham and Sarah, is that they will parent a
multitude. A whole nation of God’s
people will come from these two. A
nation that will count more numerous than the stars and will be graced to grace
the world.
But, as
you have figured out, there is a problem.
Sarah and Abraham think there is a problem anyway. Abraham is 99 and Sarah is 90. God doesn’t see this as a problem. But they do.
Abraham and Sarah are incredibly faithful people. They have listened to God’s command to move
across the country. They have endured
famine. They have challenged God, asked
for proof of God’s promises. They are
deep-in with God. Deep in
relationship. Worshipping God as their
creator, praising God for all good things that come to them, and listening to
God, they have tried to help God, even, accomplish what he has promised. The promise of a baby.
And so
here it is that The Lord shows up. Three
“men,” show up at Abraham and Sarah’s tent.
Abraham and Sarah rush to provide food and
shade for the guests that Abraham has begged to stay. Did he know who they were at that point? It is not clear. But this gift of generosity and hospitality tells
us something about Abraham and Sarah, and the kind of grace they were already
showing the world.
And the
men stay, and they talk, they tell Abraham many things about The Lord’s plans…
but first… it is this promise, once again.
This is the fourth time Abraham has heard this promise. The first time he was 75 years old. It’s 24 years later. Imagine what that promise was like to hear
When they were 75 and 66? Fantastic I’m
sure. (Sarcasm). Impossible! But then
God just keeps promising… and promising… and promising… is it any surprise that
Sarah sees God like a deadbeat parent who never actually shows up for a
playdate? She has let go of the monthly
anticipation, she no longer runs through her mental calendar for every bad
piece of fruit she ate. She hasn’t
imagined the twinge of that butterfly movement in her abdomen for years. Some of us here have felt that specific loss
of a future hope for a baby.
So when Sarah hears it for the 4th time, she
laughs at God’s promise, because what else is there to do? She has let go of God’s promise. But with this laugh, //Sarah falls into
faith. // She falls back into the loving arms of God, back into the
relationship, back into trusting God. Yes,
you heard me right, Sarah falls back into faith. I don’t mean she manages to
come to some personal mental mind-game to convince herself once more that this
baby thing will happen. No, she hears
the promise again and she laughs out of her scorn, her calloused heart, her disbelief. Sarah hears the promise dredging up her
history of failure – she couldn’t produce a child, she resents the child she
allowed Hagar to have in her stead. And
she knows, she can laugh or she can cry.
And God takes her hard, pained, laughter. What she thinks is her failure. And he redeems it.
God says, no, my child, what you think is failure, I see
as the perfect opportunity. Maybe I
could have fulfilled this promised through Hagar and Ishmael, maybe there was
some surrogate or adoptive opportunity.
But in this story, the world needs to know that this whole family of
people I have chosen has come into being through my hand alone. Through my miracle-gift to you.
I will take your supposed failure, your hurting heart, and
your cynical laughter. And I will give
you a new life. A life of hope and
wonder. A life of mystery and
trust. A life of joyful laughter.
She has
given up this promise, it is no longer hers to hold. But God has not given up on her. God sees her and knows the promise he has
made, and God is using her story to stretch our understanding, once again, of
what God’s promises looks like – children born of women who are barren, to men
who are well past virility… and God’s promises look like youngest children
being made king, and in the strangest move of all, God coming to sacrifice his
own life, that we might know God’s total self-giving love.
God’s
promises looks like Grace. Like complete and total grace. You can’t earn it, you don’t deserve it. You
have given up on it. But it comes, it
breaks in to your predictable world with unpredictability… turning our tears to
laughter.
God
laughs with her when that baby comes
into the world. The baby bearing the
mark of this story as his name – Isaac, which means, Laughter.
Isaac,
whose birthstory bears witness to us… that even for us God will turn our
despair into joy. Our pain into
pleasure. Our scars into wisdom. God can
use anything, even the most painful
history we hold, the thing that feels most like death… that is death to us…
that is what God will use to make in us new life. A new life with God. Like Adam and Eve, and
Cain and Abel and Noah and his family, and Sarah and Abraham… all the
characters of God’s Sacred Story that keep falling, just to find out that God is
still with them! Waiting for that last
laugh of exhilarating joy, just you wait and see.
We’ll
keep falling too. But God will be sure,
we’re falling into grace.
Amen.
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