June 18, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "Abraham Gets a Son"
Scripture: Genesis 18:1-15 and 21:1-7
(Other lectionary suggestions include Psalm 116, Romans 5:1-8, and Matthew 9:35-10:8.)
Genesis 18:1-15 and 21:1-7
A Son Promised to Abraham and Sarah
1The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2He 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. 3He said, "My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5Let 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." 6And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes." 7Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8Then 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. 9They said to him, "Where is your wife Sarah?" And he said, "There, in the tent." 10Then 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. 11Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?" 13The Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?' 14Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son." 15But Sarah denied, saying, "I did not laugh"; for she was afraid. He said, "Oh yes, you did laugh."
The Birth of Isaac
1The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. 2Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. 4And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6Now Sarah said, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me." 7And she said, "Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
Once again, good morning and Happy Father's Day! The lectionary cooperated and gave us the Genesis passages we just heard, and Abraham gets a son, as well as his wife Sarah. This story used to be one of my favorite Bible stories, and maybe it still is. When Abraham names his son Isaac, that name Isaac means "I laughed" or "he laughed" - and if you recall the Scripture readings we just heard, Sarah did laugh when she was told she'd get pregnant in her old age! I used to think, "How neat!" Abraham and Sarah name their son after what they did - they LAUGHED! But maybe that laugh wasn't a hearty Ho, Ho, Ho, but a more cynical laugh, like "Yeah, right!" The more I look at the Old Testament, the more I see double meanings or double entendres. What was a hearty laugh might also have been a cynical sneer. To put it another way, God's Word is sometimes a two-edged sword. It isn't all sweetness and light. Sometimes there is pain involved.
And speaking of pain, next Sunday's sermon title is "Abraham's Other Son", and it's about Ishmael, the child Abraham fathered through the slave girl Hagar, and at Sarah's urging since she thought she couldn't give Abraham a son. We will see that Sarah gets jealous and tells Abraham to send Ishmael away. That's right: the son born before Isaac is told to get out, and it turns out that it's God's Will to turn him away! Don't miss NEXT Sunday! I haven't written that sermon yet, but I'm sure it will bother you! It bothers me just thinking about it!
But back to today's sermon title, "Abraham Gets a Son". The reason I like this story so much is that NOTHING is impossible for God! So, what if Abraham is a hundred years old and Sarah is 90? Trust in the Lord! They may not have at first, and even LAUGHED at the idea of getting pregnant at such an old age. But as God says in today's reading, "Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?"
In a way, this is a Resurrection story in the Old Testament, 1800 years before Jesus! After the Crucifixion, all hope was lost........until somebody noticed an empty tomb on that first Easter day! The same for Abraham and Sarah: they were TOO OLD; they had NO HOPE.....until God told them that they would have a child. Can you blame them for laughing? Women don't get pregnant after a certain age. Men can't father children after a certain age. But again, "Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?"
Later on in Isaiah's writings, God will say, "My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." I saw a documentary recently on the life of Yogi Berra, the great Yankee catcher, and it's called, "It Ain't Over", which is what Yogi gets credit for saying - actually, I think he said, "It Ain't Over until It's Over". Anyway, it ain't over until GOD says it's over! That's what I think this story of Isaac's birth is saying, and I think that's what the Christian Resurrection story is saying: it ain't over until GOD says it's over!
The reason this story was so meaningful for me is that I began my broadcasting career at a rather late age, and I was told more than once that I was pretty old to be getting into the broadcast business. But I kept remembering this Abraham and Sarah story, their having a child when even THEY thought it couldn't be done. I had some success, and I have to credit this Isaac story for that success. It isn't over until God says it's over. So, trust in the Lord. Is anything too wonderful for him?
The media personality Dennis Prager has written a commentary on Genesis, and he makes the point that Genesis says Sarah could no longer have children, as we heard earlier: "it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women", meaning, of course, that she no longer had her period. Prager says this point is made "in order to emphasize, yet again, that the birth of the Jewish people was through divine intervention." Perhaps the same could be said - "divine intervention" - when Abraham shows hospitality to those three figures early in today's reading. It's important enough for God Himself to show up at Abraham's tent!
Another point Prager makes, and I have said this before, too: "the Torah does not shrink from portraying its heroic figures as flawed. In the Hebrew Bible, only God is perfect." Something else I like that Prager says: "God neither punishes her ((Sarah)) for laughing nor for lying. He merely set her straight, telling her she did in fact laugh. In addition to the wrongness of lying, this verse also suggests Sarah had an inadequate understanding of God - not realizing that while there are many things you can get away with in this world (as is often the case when you lie to another), lying to God is not one of them."
Prager's observations may be interesting, but the real point of the Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac story, in my opinion, is that we should trust God, never lose hope, and realize that it isn't over until God says it's over. Who is running things? Who is in control? God....and is anything too wonderful for him? I don't think so! Amen.
Pastor Skip
