Sermon: God at Work in Wondrous Ways
September 15th, 2019 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7
Last week a 74 year-old woman in south India gave birth to twins! She and her husband have been married for 57 years and unable to have children that whole time, but finally, with the miracle of modern medicine, they held two babies in their arms and were overjoyed! The father, Rajarao, who is in his 80s, told reporters, “We are the happiest couple on earth today!” (usatoday.com, 9/9/19) Previously, the Guinness World Record was held by a woman in Barcelona, Spain who gave birth at the age of 66. But we know that Sarah is actually the world record holder! She gave birth to Isaac at the age of 91, with a husband who was 100, and without the help of IVF or a c-section.
Waiting for the Promise
Of course we know that the story for Abraham and Sarah results in celebration. But for most of their lives, rather than being counted among the happiest couples on earth, they were very likely among the unhappiest couples on earth. If you remember, the couple began their life together with Sarah’s father-in-law, Terah, uprooting them from their homeland in Ur and moving the family out as immigrants, perhaps even as refugees. They ended up in Harran, which was a flourishing caravan city at the time – a city of travelers and immigrants. When their story begins in Genesis 12, Sarah is being uprooted again. Just when she had made friends, her husband, Abraham, is told by God to move on, this time to a place that God would show them as they go.
Along with the directive to pack up and get on the road, God also gives Abraham the promise of a wondrously abundant future. Abraham would have an abundance of land to call his own, an abundance of offspring, and an abundance of blessings – so many blessings that “all people on earth would be blessed” through Abraham and his family (Gen.12:3). So they head out only to find anything but the wonderful future they are anticipating. Instead, they find themselves in the midst of a famine in the land they go to. It forces them to keep traveling all the way to Egypt. They encounter danger because Sarah is a beautiful woman and men want her. She gets passed off as a wife for Pharaoh for a while. When they finally get back to the land of Canaan, there are terrorist militias that attack them because small-town kings see their moving into the neighborhood as a threat. And they continue to be unable to have children. As the years roll by, Abraham and Sarah must have asked themselves a million times, “Where is this promise of God?” They wait and wonder.
In Genesis 15, we read that God appears to Abraham again to reaffirm the promise of many blessings, a great reward. And do you know what Abraham says to God? He says, “Forget it; what good are blessings and rewards if I don’t have kids to pass them along to? They’ll just go to the guy who works as my manager.” (Gen.15:2) But God has Abraham look up at the stars on that clear, dark night as God says, “Count the stars. That’s how many descendants you will have. Trust me!”
Another decade goes by, no children. Sarah gets so sick of this empty promise stuff, she decides that her maid, Hagar, should be a surrogate mother with Abraham. That doesn’t work out so well because on top of the discouragement and frustration, she now feels hurt and envy and anger. She allows that to leak all over Hagar and Abraham and their child, Ishmael. They are bickering, being mean to each other, mistreating each other. Hagar tries to run away. It’s a mess!
Another decade goes by, and eventually God talks to Abraham again. Again, God assures him that he will have a huge family, including a son with Sarah. Genesis 17:17 says, “Abraham fell flat on his face, laughing, and said to himself, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m 100 now, and Sarah is 90!” Then he says to God, “You know what? Forget it. I’ve got a boy now. His name is Ishmael. We’ll make do with him. Just bless him, please.” But God insists that His wonderful plan for them have not changed. Sarah will have a baby and God tells Abraham that the baby’s name is going to be “Laughter, Isaac.”
It’s just a short time later when the three strangers travel by Abraham’s campsite, and this time, for the first time, Sarah actually gets to hear the promise for herself rather than just hearing Abraham insist that God is talking to him. Her reaction is like his, a snort of disbelieving laughter. The story tells us that Abraham has been hanging on to a thread of faith, a grain of optimism (Gen.15:6). But Sarah is too much of a realist. She knows her body, and it is too late to have a child now. Besides, they’ve given up even trying, even finding pleasure in one another anymore. The promise was impossible; the problems insurmountable.
Dealing with Doubt, Discouragement, Despair
Are there insurmountable problems you face that have come to your mind as I told the story of Sarah and Abraham? Maybe what seems like an impossible situation that you’ve basically given up on? It’s too late. It’s too far along, too difficult. You’re too old, too hurt, too poor, too powerless, too whatever. Do the Christian platitudes of ‘God is Good all the time’ or ‘count your blessings’ seem insufficient or even absurd? Have the assurances in scripture that God will take care of you, and of those you love, ever seemed empty or touched a nerve so that it’s either laugh or cry? You’ve dealt with doubts and discouragement by lowering your expectations. You protect yourself from despair with laughter. Not joyful laughter, the cynical laughter of one who has given up.
On Tuesday I attended a webinar hosted by the Barna Christian research group and World Vision. Together they have conducted a large study they called Faith for the Future, focusing on the generation of 18 – 35 year olds worldwide. Much of what they found was very sobering. Church drop-out rates for young adults continues to increase, and only 1 out of every 10 young people with a Christian background showed characteristics of what they called a resilient faith.
This generation has been called the Connected Generation, because of the way technology allows them to be constantly connected to information and social networks. Yet one of the most startling finds was that the majority admitted to having a deep sense of disconnection and loneliness. One analyst (Jo Saxton, barna.com) stated that “loneliness is reshaping a generation.” They found that 4 in 10 young people report significant anxiety and feelings of uncertainty about the future. This is a generation that struggling to get going, uncertain about their job and financial futures, and almost paralyzed by the multitude of choices they face. On top of this, 82% feel that the whole world is facing a crisis of leadership. Globally, they see the failure of leadership in scandals and corruption, in the inability to address poverty and hunger, in the persistence of racism, growing violence, and natural disasters. This generation is more skeptical, less optimistic; as if there’s a fearful, nervous laughter. They wonder, have God’s promises failed? Can we take them seriously in this day in age?
Building Resilient Disciples
The good news is that as historians look back over thousands of years, when the world faced times of crisis and things seemed bleak, eventually the crisis times of exile or the fall of nations, led to renewals of faith or renewals in the church. So Barna and World Vision, dug in deeper on their Faith for the Future project. They looked more closely at the small group of young Christians they called resilient disciples. What enabled them to hold on to faith? What helped them trust in God’s promises? To be confident that God was indeed faithfully at work in their lives and in the world?
The researchers found that one important characteristic of a resilient disciple was having meaningful relationships that gave a strong sense of belonging, and a strong networks of trusted friends, family and mentors. This is where the older generations have a critical part to play. We need to be teaching the skills necessary for community – that building relationships takes time and effort. The older generations must invest the time and effort to nurture relationships. It takes intentional hospitality, opening our homes, our hearts, our lives to others – not just to the young generation but to all people, modeling community. This is what the church is designed to be doing, and to do well! This is exactly what it means to teach, encourage and practice discipleship.
I don’t know if you noticed Abraham’s extraordinary welcome and generosity to the 3 strangers in our story today. The writer tells us that Abraham ran from his tent to greet these passersby. Running was not considered very dignified, but Abraham was not willing miss his chance to be hospitable. When the strangers agree to stop and rest and eat, Abraham rushes to get Sarah going on making bread. Three seahs of the best flour – that is 36 pounds! That’s a lot of bread! He runs to the cattle pen and picks out the prize-winning calf that was being saved for a special feast. Abraham is rushing, but this isn’t fast food. I imagine it took hours to bake and butcher and roast. But Abraham unleashes all his resources to welcome and care for these strangers.
One of the speakers in the Faith for the Future webinar suggested that the older generations right now need to unleash all their wisdom and experience and faith on behalf of the younger generation. We need to be willing to run, even to risk looking ridiculous or silly to connect to those who are lonely. We need to believe in this next generation, communicating to them that who they are is important, essential to us and to God. By the way, in the study only one third of the young adults said they had someone who believed in them. That breaks my heart! The younger generation needs people of deep faith, people who believe in them and believe in God’s promises despite the discouraging, seemingly insurmountable problems. The next generation of Christian disciples needs us to be people who bring a confident, non-anxious presence into the room and into their lives. They need a people of peace, who follow the Prince of Peace.
In a time of violence and political and religious unrest, an angel appeared to a young woman and told her she would become pregnant with God’s child. It sounded both improbable and impossible. Young Mary was greatly troubled, but the angel reassured her, “Don’t be afraid. Don’t be anxious. The child to be born will be called the Son of God, and you will name him Jesus, One who Saves. For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:30,37)
Thirty-some years later, Jesus was healing, and helping, and revealing to the people around him that he was indeed sent from God to rescue the lost and restore a wholeness in life. On day his followers faced what seemed like an impossible situation, the disciples looked at each other, and I imagine at least one of them threw up his hands with a snort of despairing laughter and asked Jesus, “Then who in the world can be saved?” Jesus responded to the doubts and discouragement by saying, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.” (Mk.10:27) And, “everything is possible for the one who believes.” (Mk.9:23)
Trust and Laughter
God’s gift of Jesus changes the cynical laughter of despair to the joyful laughter of faith. Who could have imagined that God would come to live on earth? Who would have thought that death could be defeated? Who could have thought that we can have hope for this life and hope for eternal life? That God would take ordinary people and make disciples?
Abraham and Sarah struggled to trust and wait on God’s promises. At times they were even content to settle for less than God’s wondrous plan for them. How about us? Are we content to settle for less than God’s wondrous plans for us as individuals and for us as a church? Or are we willing to wait on God? Are you ready to trust God completely? And in the meantime to do the work of building relationships and community, of making disciples, in confident hope? Are we ready to practice joyful generosity and hopeful obedience? God asked Sarah, “Is anything too difficult or too wonderful for the Lord?” Let me put that question to you now: Is anything too difficult or too wonderful for God?”
God is at work in wondrous ways! God will be faithful to complete His work! Let us wait and watch and work with eager anticipation and with persistent prayer. Our closing hymn is a prayer to God.
Closing Song: “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior”
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