June 17, 2017 Genesis
18:1-15
Super market tabloids are really
something aren’t they? From Elvis
being about to fake his own death to surgeons cutting off someone’s head and
then sewing it back on, they are really just unbelievable, and yet we read
on. Then there’s this one, “After
visited by other worldly, ethereal like beings, woman pushing 100 years old
gives birth”. This one was
reported by the Holy Bible, the 18th chapter of Genesis. You have to admit; today’s scripture could
actually make a very nice, very impressive, very enticing tabloid headline for
tomorrow. Surely it would sell
thousands of papers.
Let us now hear the story of Sarah and
Abraham as they hear the news of her pregnancy.
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, “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.” So they said, “Do as you have
said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready
quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 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, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.”
Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah
shall have a son.” 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, “After I have
grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to
Abraham, “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.” But Sarah denied,
saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did
laugh.”
Sarah’s story is a very unbelievable
story like most of the tabloid headlines.
They make you stop and think, could this really be, can this really have
happened? Naaaah! Who are they
trying to kid? And yet, we read
on! What’s different about this
story of Sarah’s impending motherhood is that it is true. Unlike the splashy, exploitive
headlines of the National Inquirer or the Weekly World News, where stories take
advantage of our emotions and nurture our ability to dabble into the extremely
inquisitive and strangely eccentric and definitely weird side of human nature, Sarah’s
predicament, or rather prayers finally answered were divinely orchestrated.
But we know in life that unbelievable
and far-fetched things happen if you are attuned to them, they happen all of
the time. Particularly, and
especially, if you are a believer and a follower of God. I think that we are open to a mirage of
possibilities that might defy human understanding. For as we know, all things are possible with the Creator no
matter how weird and unfathomable it may seem at times. Yet there are still those times that are
WOW moments.
We are beginning for the summer a
sermon ‘series’ in Genesis as we explore the ancestral stories or sagas of
Abraham and his descendents so we begin and the very beginning. Imagine if you were Sarah. Well into the crone years of your life,
your youthful beauty now only a shade of your former self, has experienced the
cessation of her menses, and way beyond the energy level of a young expectant
mother, she finds out that she, and her beloved husband Abraham, are going to
parent a child together.
Unbelievable!
Incredulous! And so
tabloid-esque.
Sarah, an aged woman, advanced greatly
in years, stooped over maybe with osteoporosis is going to give birth. Imagine being Sarah, and at 102 or 103 you
will be taking care of an energetic, determined and strong willed, well meaning
and loveable two year old? Oh those
terrible two’s. Or even more
taxing yet being a 117 year old parent to a 16 year old? Talk about generation gap, this is a
generations gap.
And yet Sarah and Abraham, I’m sure
after getting over the shock of it all, are elated and happy beyond
belief. It is a dream come true
for them. Finally after all these
barren years, after all these years of wishin’ and hopin’ and dreamin’ and
prayin’, they are going to have a baby. And they believe. They trust that everything will be all
right, because they have proof that, with God, everything does turn out
ok. They have proof and a past
with God.
God told Abraham to leave his home in
Ur and begin anew, and Abraham obeyed.
God told Abraham that he would inherit the land of Canaan, and it was
so. God and Abraham are in a covenantal relationship that becomes the hallmark
of their association and life together.
Abraham was not perfect and yet God tells Abraham that he will be the
father of many nations. As many
stars in the sky, that’s how many children that Sarah and Abraham will beget. This is God’s everlasting covenant and
prayer. God enters
into an abiding relationship with Abraham.
Where there is covenant there is
relationship. It cannot be any
other way. When you are in
covenant you are in covenant with someone else. God’s covenant is not necessarily reciprocal like the kind
that we make with one another. I
am your pastor and we covenant to walk together as the God’s faithful people as
Orange Congregational Church. We
covenant with other Churches to do the work together of the United Church of
Christ. The UCC remains committed
to being in relationship with other Church body denominations and to be the
gathered Christian community. And in fact just yesterday the CT Conference, the
MA Conference and the RI conference voted to work towards being in covenant
together as one conference, the Southern New England Conference. These covenants are built upon shared
interest, a deep and abiding love for God, mutual admiration, respect, and
human trust.
A covenant with God is different than
other covenants because it is made by human hearts in harmony with divine
wisdom and love that we call God.
God is the sovereign one and we are not. Now God will never go back or turn away from the promises
that are made no matter how irresponsible we may be. No matter how many times we may forget our end of the
covenant, or somehow blow it to pieces, God doesn’t renege or retract a promise
made. I find that so reassuring that God will always be my partner in life and
walk with me through those narrow and dark passages of life, when I’m at odds
with the world. And for our part,
all God asks for is a little obedience.
Not too difficult, right?
Wrong! Obedience goes against every self-evolved, self-reliant,
self-sufficient, independent muscle in our body. God lays out the command, love me and love your neighbor as
yourself and in return all God asks for is obedience to the command. We often falter. But that’s ok. That’s what redemption is all
about. A covenant made, a covenant
breached by the error of our human ways, a covenant renewed. It is an ongoing, circuitous movement
of relationship. That is God’s love.
Obedience to God is to get out of the
way of ourselves and to trust that God will get you to where you need to
be. Abraham was called out of his
homeland to parts unknown and he obeyed.
It wasn’t easy, he faltered yet he obeyed and God blessed him. God will bless us too just like Sarah
whose prayers were answered, in time, ours will be too.
Sarah and Abraham’s baby is born and
they name him Isaac. It wasn’t
some tabloid headline but a real promise and delivery by God. They trusted and God fulfilled God’s part
of the promise.
In time God made another additional
covenant for us Gentiles, who is Jesus Christ. “Trust me”, God says, “my son is for you. Jesus will show you the way in which
you must go in your life. He can
help you chart out the path that you must take. He can help you with that obedience ‘thing’. He will show you a more perfect love,
forgiveness and redemption. Trust
me”, God says, ‘follow him’. God’s
covenant of love continues for our taking. So, like Sarah, go ahead and laugh if you must but also
believe that God will renew love and remain steadfast in our covenantal
relationship with God almighty.
Amen.
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