Is anything too wonderful for God?

     I must confess this week’s sermon prep could have gone much better.  I generally first read the assigned readings on Monday and then use “free” time to pray about and figure out sermons.  As you all know, sometimes I don’t land on a sermon until Saturday evening, but that’s the general process.  This week was just busy.  There were no crises or major events, just a filled week.  It was so busy, I thought Wednesday was Thursday for a large part of the day and was really, really disappointed when people pointed out to me that tomorrow was Thursday or that I still had Wednesday evening to get through.

     I share that with y’all in part as confession and in part as letting you in on the process.  The process part is probably pretty obvious.  The confession part may be less so.  Because I started late, I was behind the 8-ball on illustrations.  Now, the illustrations came quickly enough that I am certain that’s where we needed to be this week.  Unfortunately, when I went to Adventers about using their story as the perfect illustration for our reading of Genesis this morning, and they declined to allow me to share their stories with you, I was screwed.  I could not think of any generic sermon illustrations.  All the illustrations dancing in my head were focused on Adventers’ stories.

     So, today, we are really going to have to trust the Holy Spirit and the community, the koinonia of the parish.  I will speak in general terms.  If God is working among us, you may remember or hear later the perfect illustrations.  If neither of that happens, then I am truly sorry.  And if you are visiting, we usually do have a better experience, so please try us again next week!

     Our story today takes place in the midst of a great story and in an interesting location, much of which, people do not know or seem too quick to forget.  Abraham and Sarah are near the end of the more than two decade walk with God before they begin to see the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promises to them.  It began, of course, way back in chapter 12 and however many miles to the north in the land of Ur.  They left Ur and followed God to what you and I know will become the Promised Land.  Just to remind us a bit of the Covenant, God has promised Abraham that He will make Abraham a great nation, that his descendants will inhabit the Land before him, and that his seed will be a blessing to the world.

     In the midst of the unfolding of the Covenant, there have been a number of adventures, anyone of which could have seemingly obviated God’s promises to Abraham and Sarah.  Background to all the challenges facing them is their age and the promise of a son.  Abraham and Sarah are rightly celebrated in the Church for their faithfulness, but their story has its ups and downs, much like our own, in their walk with God.

     Our story picks up today after God has instructed Abraham to circumcise himself and all of his male household.  As a reminder to you, circumcision was an outward sign of the spiritual and inward grace that demonstrated both to Abraham and his descendants and to the world around them that they were God’s Covenant people.  Those our Jewish forebears would not speak in the same liturgical language that we use, it was a kind of precursor to baptism.  Whenever men went to the bathroom or engaged in sexual relations with their wives, they would be reminded of the Covenant, right?  No, they were sinners just like us, but that certainly was one of the purposes of the action.

     Put it like this, you ladies who have had husbands, is there anything more important to us menfolk?  Whoa!  Whoa! Whoa!  Why all the laughing and elbows?  This is serious anthropology!  I mean, is there anything you cannot get your husband to do apart from sex, food, and a great bathroom?  Ok, we are chuckling, but it is an ironic humor, right?  It’s very important to us.  Watch a baseball game to see how many times the athletes check in to see if everything is still there!

     All joking aside, though, do you not find it interesting that God chose circumcision as the outward sign?  Every time they went to the bathroom, every time they slept with their wives, heck, every time they itched or rearranged things, they should have been reminded of the Covenant God had made with them.  There are, of course, other reasons—it’s protection against misogyny of blaming Eve, and thereby women, for everything is another—but you get the gist.

     I share that reminder because the guys at the Y were certainly interested in God’s selection.  Why not an earring?  Why not a nose ring?  Wouldn’t a tattoo have worked just as well?  Wouldn’t a good beating serve the same purpose?  But our story today occurs a day or few days after Abraham’s circumcision.  There’s a bit of serious commentary in the story as well as a bit of humor.  Abraham is laying around under the trees because things need to heal.  It’s best to stay out of the sun because things don’t need to sweat.  But can you imagine visually, now, the scene as Abraham, a freshly circumcised man in his nineties, runs to great the three men and to instruct Sarah and the servants?  I have a hard time picturing an old man running, but an old man freshly circumcised?  Forget it!

     Speaking of the trees, let’s spend a moment on them.  If your translation at home tells you it is the oaks at Mamre, you know your translators were influenced by the KJV.  The terebinth was the tree from which one got turpentine.  They are fairly common and grow well in present day Israel.  Someone told me in seminary they were related to cashews, but I don’t know if that is true.

     You should be more interested in where the copse or forest or whatever it is is growing.  Mamre has a fascinating history in the world and the biblical account.  In truth, archaeologists argue over its likely location.  There is a site today that is called Mamre that you can visit, but scholars continue to argue over the accuracy.  Some “ite” religions seem to have thought the copse or the big tree there dated to the creation of the world.  Certainly, it is a location for Abraham’s direct interactions with God.  God spoke to him at Mamre way back in chapter 13 and then again here in our chapter.  It is a location that seems to involve the unfolding of the Covenant and a place where God chooses to educate His faithful servants, Abraham and Sarah.  But in truth, it’s location is lost to us.

     Except . . . Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian has an interesting account.  He shares with readers that some rabbis and priests taught that Mamre was the very location where the Altar was erected in the Holy of Holies in the Temple of God in Jerusalem.  In other words, that tradition argued that the location of the Temple marks a spot on earth that has often served as Holy Ground, a unique spot in all the world where God chooses to speak to His people.  It will make that question that the angels ask all the more important, if it is true.

     Speaking of the angels—so three men show up in the heat of the day.  Alarm bells should be sounding in our brains.  If you have ever visited the Mediterranean lands, how much work goes on during the heat of the day?  We have this new invention called air conditioning.  Can you imagine working without it four thousand years ago?  Can you imagine walking in it?

     So, the three guys show up, Abraham sees and runs to them to invite them to relax.  His offer is one of hospitality.  Now, scholars talk about the inviolate nature of hospitality as if it was etched in stone.  It was not.  People are people and violated it just like they violate every other law, custom, or observance.  I am certain Abraham was really not feeling like battling anybody so near his circumcision.  It’s a safe bet that neither were his men.  In offering the water and food, Abraham is preventing a battle.  If the men accept, they are taking an oath that they will accept what is offered.  They expect no harm to come to themselves, as Abraham has extended the invitation, and they, in turn, will do no harm to those under their host’s protection.

     Now, make no mistake, Abraham’s hospitality is extravagant.  They will be able to wash the dirt of travel off, eat bread, and even eat meat.  We have talked many times how meat was a delicacy in the ANE, so the offer of a fatted calf to two strangers is both a sign of Abraham’s growing opulent wealth and his unrivaled hospitality.  It would be like me inviting a couple of you to dinner and offering you some Dom Perignon as a pre-dinner drink.  Abraham is sparing no expense, to use the modern language.

     It is at this point, of course, that people are shocked by Abraham’s offer of hospitality.  Why offer fresh bread and meat when water and wine will do?  Why go through all the work during the heat of the day when everyone would understand?  The answer, I’m fairly certain, lies in Abraham’s state of mind.  What has just happened?  God has, to use our language, sworn His updated covenant with Abraham.  He has unveiled more than He did six chapters ago, and He has chosen to mark Abraham and His people to signify to them and to others that they belong to Him.  I suppose the only modern equivalent I can think of would be for us to have been present at the Last Supper and in the room behind the lock doors and the Ascension.  Abraham has experienced the grace of God in a profound and life-changing way.  The Creator of all that is, seen and unseen, has promised that through His direct line all the world will be blessed.  You and I live in that period where Jesus says we are blessed because we have not seen.  Abraham has seen and experienced and it affect on him is profound!  Did I mention he was a late nineties year old man freshly circumcised and running to greet the men?  God’s grace is overpowering everything he understands, just as it should be overpowering or transforming everything we think we understand this side of that Empty Tomb!

     Back to the men.  I need to point out to you that nowhere does the story claim that the men in question were clothed like typical angels.  There’s no radiant white suits or wings to cause Abraham to perceive them as angels.  They appear to be travelers.  Abraham’s offer seems to be reflective of his character, simply enlarged or transformed by his experience with the Lord. 

     Our first unusual bit is their inquiry after Sarah?  How do they know she exists?  How do they know her name?  So far as we know, she remains out of the heat in the tent.  Is it possible the men asked after her?  Sure, somebody had to make the dough and bake the bread.  Is it possible she eventually came out and greeted the men?  Sure.  Sarah was not one to shirk from anybody, though her beauty was renowned.  Seemingly out of the blue, though, the one man promises that when he returns next year, she will have born Abraham a son.

     Sarah, of course, laughs.  What should we expect?  She’s in her late 90’s.  Abraham is in his late 90’s.  Things like that simply cannot happen.  A few of the more mature ladies and more mature men, if we ever truly mature, have commented when we speak of this in Bible studies with “thanks be to God!”  We understand her laughter, and all its possible nuances.  On the one hand, it seems unnatural.  On the other hand, parenting is for those with a bit more energy and maybe less experience.  How many of us knew what we were getting into before we had our first kids?  Great.  How many of us were really unsurprised by how easy it was to be a parent?  Where did all the hands go?  Sarah’s laughter even likely includes bitter irony.  She knows the women have talked about her.  No doubt she has walked in on conversations or overheard them.  It was clearly her fault that righteous Abraham had no child.  To make those matters worse, once she gives Hagar to Abraham to father a child on her and he does, it proves the rumors and accusations true!  Given her culture and the time, I would bet another fatted calf she had internalized and now believed the rumors and whispers.  The unnamed man, after a bit of instruction or accusation, asks Sarah and us that question that echoes across time and space and all humanity.  Is anything too wonderous for God? 

     When we hear this question in English, we probably immediately go to big events like parting Red Sea’s and resurrecting the dead.  Often, when we think of God and wonder, we associate what we think are the great or magnificent displays of His power.  The Hebrew word used by the angel, though, palar’ , captures both the ostentatious or grand displays of power and intimate, more personal demonstrations of His power.  As post-Resurrection members of Abraham’s family, we might say the Hebrew word encompasses both the transcendence and the immanence of God’s redeeming power.

     It is here, of course, that your stories of the last two or three weeks really jumped out at me and made me think of them as perfect illustrations.  We have had what recipients have described as miraculous healings.  One is/was pretty cool.  Both the person and I are, let’s say suspicious, that maybe the pain prayed about will return, that it’s not a real miracle.  But, now that we are a couple weeks into that experience, even if it returned today, the Adventer is thanking God for the respite, promising if it is His will that he or she bear that cross to His glory, he or she can do that.  Another so-called minor healing has also occurred.  The person describes it as minor and, I think, medicine would, too.  But the impact is the same.  Nagging pain is gone, and the individual knows God’s tender loving care more intimately than before.

     We have had cool provision stories and cool reconciliation stories in our midst this month, stories that, as pastor, I wish I had been allowed to share because they remind us that nothing, absolutely nothing is beyond God’s care or power.  He has tasked us with sharing with the generations that come after with the works that He has done.  Yes, the Resurrection is a great story to share with others, but our personal stories of His redeeming grace in our lives are powerful and personal, too!

     So, I am stuck in that terrible predicament of using the Gospel found in Genesis.  What ever will we do?  Is anything too wondrous for God?  Is anything too great or too small for God?  Our story of redemption in the lives of Abraham and Sarah testify to a resounding “NO!”  Is the cosmic, grand, transcendent sense of His redeeming grace, the birth of Isaac is the first step in the next generation that will eventually lead to Abraham’s ultimate seed, Jesus of Nazareth!  Through Abraham’s faithful obedience and the Son’s Incarnation, God will rescue all who call upon Him from sin and death.  That’s a great big solution to a great big problem.  But such is God’s love and attentiveness and power that even by comparison “little things” can be healed or redeemed, too.

     As a couple, Abraham and Sarah have made a real mess of some things because of their efforts to take God’s promises into their own hands rather than trusting in His attentiveness to the details of our lives.  First they adopt an heir and then they have Abraham father a son on a slave.  Though their solutions to the problem of an heir made sense intellectually and culturally, they were still left with bitterness.  Abraham wanted a child of his own flesh; Sarah wanted a child of her own flesh.  These other solutions were just the best they could do in their current condition.  God, of course, had no limits.  They needed time to begin to understand who He was, what He could do, and why He was trustworthy.  When the time finally came, when they knew Him and who He is and was, He acted.  And against all the science and culture of that day and age and our own, He gave them their own son, a source of laughter to them both!

     Still, He was not finished.  I spoke briefly of the blame and shame experienced by Sarah.  It was the woman’s job to bear children.  Any questions folks might have had about Abraham were alleviated by the birth of Ishmael.  All the blame, all the reasons for God not giving them a child had to do with her.  We know, because of our perspective as readers of the story, and a bit better understanding of the questions and problems of fertility, that it was not at all her fault.  Yet, despite all our knowledge and despite our perspective, we can certainly empathize with her feelings of shame and guilt.  Do not raise your hands, but how many of us present wondered at one point that a lost pregnancy, a miscarriage, was our own fault?  How many women were convinced they did something to terminate the pregnancy or, worse, cause God to terminate the pregnancy?  How many fathers dealt with similar grief?  If only I had not made her so mad.  If only I had better provided for her?

     The gift of Isaac, while wonderful for you and me because it led eventually to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His redeeming work, was grace beyond grace for both Sarah and Abraham.  As they shared their story of these encounters with God, what do you people think people thought of them.  Worse, as they took measures into their own hands and created difficulties for themselves and God, what must they have thought?  I deserve this.  This is my punishment for passing my wife off as my sister.  Maybe folks are right and we are crazy?  You and I rightly give thanks for the birth of Isaac because his birth was that early step in the journey that led to our salvation, but for Sarah and Abraham that child was the source of joy and laughter and fulfilment and ultimate instruction that God cares about everything in our lives.  Period.  He is the loving Father who loves our drawings on the refrigerator and the run on stories of our imaginations.  And He is the loving Father who knows the right medicine, the right-sized bandage, and even the strength of the hug we need when we are wounded.  Most amazingly and what ought to transform our perspective of this world, of others, and especially of ourselves as it did Abraham and Sarah so long ago, is that loving attentiveness He has for us, each and every one of lowly us, that He would pay any attention to us, let alone work to redeem us, that we might become heralds of His grace, trumpeters of that incredible joy welling up within us, that others might turn to Him and join this crazy family!

In Christ’s Peace,

Brian†