September 15, 2019 - God Can Fulfill Impossible Promises - Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7

God Can Fulfill Impossible Promises

Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7

Pentecost + 15 – September 15, 2019

“God Gives a Promised Child”

When I told Andy I was pregnant with Reuben (our youngest), I said that if the baby turned out to be a boy, we should make “Isaac” part of his name – because God sure has a funny sense of humor!
• B/c I was 41 – and we had planned to only have 2 kids, mainly because we started late;
• And here we were, with bonus baby #3 on the way, so unexpected, so unplanned! and I couldn’t help but think of this story of Sarah and Abraham
• Of course, our unintended pregnancy was very different than their story b/c…

Abraham and Sarah were soooo old that it was really impossible that they would have children.
• God has been showing up to Abraham in various ways for many years – in person, in visions, in the form of 3 human beings, strangers, in this story
o Last year heard the call of Abraham back in Genesis 12, and the promise came from God – to bless Abram, so that he would be a blessing – and along with that promise came the promise that God would make of him a great nation
o God promises to give his offspring the land of Canaan, that they will be like the dust of the earth
o Comes again later, and Abram complains about his heir – not his own child – And God promises again that his very own offspring shall be his heir – that his descendants shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky
o And still, Sarah is barren (that’s how she’s first introduced into the story – as a woman who is barren)
o And so Sarai and Abram are about 75 & 85(before the name change God gives them) hatch a plan to give him an heir – through Sarai’s slave Hagar, and so finally Abraham has a son, Ishmael
o But then God appears to Abram again, when he is 99 years old, and makes a covenant with him, that Abram, now to be known as Abraham, shall be the ancestor of many nations – through Sarah – and Abraham laughs, because he’s nearly 100, she is 90 years old
• And that’s where we pick up the story, where these 3 strangers approach, and Abraham rushes to greet them and welcome them and entreats them to stay for a while, to refresh themselves
• And over this lavish meal that Abraham and his household provide (several loaves of bread, from the finest flour; milk and curds/yogurt; fresh veal), the 3 strangers, the LORD, promise again that Sarah shall bear Abraham a son
• And she can’t help but laugh – because she’s far too old, and they’ve heard this story before – 25 years God has been promising they’d have a child together; and it’s clearly impossible! No wonder she laughs;

Sometimes it is hard to hold on to God’s promises because they seem so impossible and improbable
• We can all relate in our own ways to the delays God’s promises sometimes seem to take
• But it got me to thinking particularly of CTV, of our congregation, which is solidly middle-aged at this point – about, what, 56 years old?
• And all of the ideas and hopes and dreams the charter members of this congregation had back in 1963 when CTV formed
• the promises God made to those people – the future that was wide open ahead, so many possibilities and plans for growth and expansion – like a family just starting out
• and then those things don’t come to pass just like you think they will
• and now here we are – older, a little worse for the wear; tired out, like Abraham and Sarah, feeling worn out, used up, wondering what happened to those visions for the future that is our present
• Maybe some of us are wondering if God is done with us, feeling like some of those dreams are dead, wondering if we should just resign ourselves to moving into our senior years, content with what we have, and not aspiring to more
• Because what can God do with us – smaller congregation that we are, filled with mostly middle-aged and older folks
• Hearing this promise of new life in the story of Abraham and Sarah and wondering if we’re just gonna wither and die away as a church or if God still might possibly have some new life to breathe into us still – and laughing at the thought, maybe

But that’s the thing about this story – God hears Sarah laughing at the flap of the tent and says, “Is anything to wonderful for God?”
And the answer of course, echoed in the words of Jesus in our gospel this morning, is “No! Nothing is impossible for God.”
• God is able to fulfill God’s promises, even when they are long delayed, even when it seems impossible, even when the promise involves a baby being born to a 90 year old woman who has long-since entered menopause!
• Though Abraham laughed in chapter 17 when God promised him an heir through Sarah
• And though Sarah laughed too when she heard the strangers promise that she would bear a child to Abraham in her old age
• We see the fulfillment of this promise in Chapter 21, when Sarah conceives and ultimately gives birth to Isaac
o Can you imagine her wonder and amazement as she begins to see that it’s really happening for real this time? No wonder she laughs again – in joy and delight this time – when she gives birth and Isaac is handed into her arms!

God fulfills seemingly impossible promises for us too
• Sometimes we aren’t even sure what the specific promise is that God has for us
• But we know that God has promised to walk with us, to lead us into God’s future – guiding us step by step
o When God called Abraham, God just said, “Leave your father’s house and land and kin and go to the land that I will show you” – God didn’t give him a map
• God has not given up on us
• God calls us to have trust, to be faithful, to be obedient
• To be on the lookout for visitors and strangers, like Abraham, to welcome the weary and worn out and hungry
• To provide lavishly out of the amazing abundance that God has given to us (and we do have an amazing abundance – of financial resources and dedication and joy in this place)
• God calls us to be the kind of people Abraham and Sarah were – listening to and following God even when we can’t quite envision the future God is leading us into, laughing together, maybe, at the preposterous future God envisions for us, but daring to hope and believe one more time
• May we seek God’s promises for us and for this congregation, and may everyone laugh in joy with us as we see what God can and will do.
• Amen.

September 8, 2019 - God Gives Humans Each Other - Genesis 2:4b-25

God Gives Humans Each Other

Genesis 2:4b-25

Pentecost + 13 – September 8, 2019

God’s Work, Our Hands Sunday
• Fitting that this reading from Genesis falls on this Sunday
• Start of new NL year – and we will hear all fall stories from the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures before landing back oin Mark as the focus after Christmas
• 2nd version of creation, with he order of things being jumbled up a bit from Chapter 1
o Scholars suspect 2 different stories told to different audiences, at different times of their history as a people, and so focused on different details and descriptions of God’s work as creator
o Chapter 2 less cosmic than chapter 1 and with a God who is more up close and personal
• God apparently wants a garden – the earth and the heavens have been made, but there’s no plant or wildlife yet, not even rain – b/c there was no one to till the ground
• And so God makes a living being from the dust – an “earthling” as it were, and breathes life into its nostrils
• And then the LORD God is able to plant the garden, and puts the earthling there
o And trees grow in abundance, ones that are nice to look at and give good food to eat
o And a river flows to provide water
o And God gives the man a job, to till and keep the garden (as well as the command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil – but that’s a sermon for another day)
 Even in Eden, there is a sense of vocation

And then God realizes that something has been forgotten.
• “It is not good that the man should be alone.”
• So God starts this creative work of forming every animal of the field and every bird of the air and bringing them to Adam (adam/adamah) to see and to give them all names (more vocation) – and whatever the man called them, that was its name
• But among them, the man did not find a helper as his partner

It is not good for us to be alone
• We are created to be in relationship – not just for marriage or romantic partnerships
• Not everyone has that After all
• But this sense that we need one another
• Even with meaningful work, with that sense of vocation, that God has created us with a purpose
o To care and tend to the world that God has made and placed us in; to be caretakers of the whole creation
o To contribute to the well-being of the world in some way
• There is the sense that we need one another
• Human life is not something that we can or ought to try to navigate on our own
• Not just that we need others to help us to complete the work God calls us to, but that we need the support and company and enjoyment of other people in supportive, helping relationships in order to be fully who God created us to be

God creates a partner-helper for the man
• God sees this need
• And when God realizes that none of the animals will be the type of helper the man needs, God creates another human being
o Made out of the earthling’s rib – not directly from the dust of the earth this time
o One who shares DNA and is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”
o Sharing his makeup; like him enough to be a partner and helper in life

God gives us others to walk through life with
• This is the blessing (and sometimes challenge!) of life – that God did not design for us to go through it alone
• And that God gives us other human beings to be companions on this journey
o To be helpers and partners
o To offer support and encouragement
o And to work with us in the things that God has called us to do
• Christians understand that we were not placed on this earth just to do our own thing and meet our own needs
o God created us with purpose, with vocation –
o God created us to do God’s work with our hands and feet and bodies and voices and eyes and ears and all that we are
o To be partners and helpers of one another
o To look beyond ourselves and see a creation that is need of help, in need of hope, in need of healing
o And to offer our lives as part of the solutions
• God’s Work, Our Hands Sunday is one way of living out this idea that we are made to be in relationship, that we are created to tend to the earth that God made and the plants and animals, the air and water and earth
• And to help one another – b/c the journey isn’t always easy
o And some have greater challenges and obstacles than others
• We are designed to work together to bear the load, to offer a helping hand, to do what we can to make this journey more joyful
• To be united as one common humanity, that sees in each other fellow human beings who God created from the dust, knowing that God created us to care for and tend and help on another
• What a joy to be in partnership with God and with each other!
• Amen.

September 1, 2019 - God's Command Blesses Community - Deuteronomy 15:1-2, 7-11

God’s Command Blesses Community

Deuteronomy 15:1-2, 7-11

Pentecost + 12 – September 1, 2019

“Sabbath for Community”

"Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. ² And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed."

·     Can you even imagine?

·     This is what God commands to the ancient Israelites as they are preparing to enter the promised land and settle into life as a community of God’s chosen people

·     A community in which every 7 years, debts are forgiven!

o  Which is pretty awesome if you are the one who owes a neighbor money

o  Not so exciting perhaps, if you are the one who has lent someone else some $, and they haven’t finished paying you back and now all of a sudden, God expects you to just forgive that debt, as if it never existed?!?

·     And I can only imagine that there were people like me among that group of people – who read, “every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community…” and wonder what that means for people who aren’t members of the community.

o  Like, what are the loopholes here God? Because it’s not exactly fair for me to loan someone else money and for them to not have to pay it back just because 7 years go by

§  (And the next few verses, that we don’t include here, in fact say that foreigners aren’t part of this deal – they still have to pay what they owe…)

Because this is how our minds work, don’t they? Or most of us anyway

·     Good at keeping score, keeping track of who owes me what (money or favors or time or an apology or whatever)

·     And I mean, really God, this isn’t exactly a good model for a thriving economy, is it? It’s not practical or realistic to expect people to just forgive debt owed to them

·     Can you imagine if we actually did this? What kind of shambles and chaos might ensue?

o  How many people would just pay the bare minimum due over the course of the 1^st 6 years, knowing that come year 7, the slate would be wiped clean?

o  No one would ever loan anyone any $ - which the 2^nd part of our reading addresses. God understands how the human heart works – and so God warns against that kind of thinking – “Do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.” (vs. 7-8)

·     What a ridiculous directive this seems to be, this idea of the sabbatical year (it’s a year that is also one in which slaves are to be set free, and the land is to lie fallow), the 7^th year of sabbath rest, not just for individuals, but for the whole community

·     It’s a resetting of the clock, a chance for people to be back on level ground financially, rather than trying to dig out of a hole

And yet, as hard as it is to imagine actually living this out, it’s also inspiring to envision

·     Because God’s command for the people of ancient days to forgive one another the debt that is owed turns out to be a blessing for all

·     It first of all relies on a sense of trust in God – that there is enough for everyone, that there will be enough for everyone, that God will take care of me and mine and so I don’t have to go into battle over every little thing that is owed to me

·     It’s an active faith that empowers us to do this

·     And seeing God’s generosity leads to greater generosity

·     We are stronger together when we seek the community’s good over just our own individual circumstances

o  This is perhaps the “eternal kernel”, as my internship supervisor used to say – not that we are to forgive debts every 7 years (though that might be an interesting experiment) – but that we are to treat each other in ways that lead to greater freedom and liberation, rather than captivity to what we owe

·     I think about the news about debt of all kinds in America, but esp. student loan debt; those #s are pretty staggering –

o  And I think about how owing the kind of $ that many younger (and middle-aged) adults owe (myself included, and we didn’t have that much student loan debt compared to many!) – and how being in that kind of debt hampers and hinders so many other potential choices in life

§  What people may choose to do for a career or where they can afford to live or not live,

§  How it ties their hands so that it is harder to be generous

·     And it sparks my imagination to think about what could possibly happen if debts were forgiven in this biblical way

o  What new things this kind of open-handed generosity might unleash, what paying it forward might result

o  How delightful to live in a society where we helped our neighbors without an eye for when and what we might be repaid in return

§  An open hand, rather than a begrudging spirit!

·     It’s a Wonderful Life

o  The comparison between Mr. Potter and George Bailey

o  Mr. Potter – a warped, frustrated old man who is concerned, not about the needs of the people in his town, but about his own selfish gain, grasping for more and more

o  Vs. George Bailey, who never has an over-abundance of money, but just enough to support himself and his family –

o  But for all of his money and prestige and power, Mr. Potter is never happy, never knows the joys of connection and relationship

o  And though it takes George a dark night of the soul and the help of his guardian angel to see it, George is the one who really had a wonderful life – because he was generous and loving and kind to his friends and neighbors; helping everyone to have enough

§  And in the end, he is blessed in return

§  That glorious scene at the end, in the moment of George’s own desperation when he is about to be arrested because of the missing $8000 dollars Uncle Billy lost at Potter’s bank

·     And friends and neighbors come streaming in and literally pour their money out in front of him to meet his need – not begrudgingly, but with open hands and open hearts because of the relationship and love and care they have for one another – and the joy they have in being able to return George’s generosity of spirit

·     It give a small taste, I think, of what God envisions with the sabbatical year of forgiveness of debts – of a community that realizes what it owes to each other, a community wanting what is best for each other, and realizing that they are stronger together when everyone has enough

·     This is the gift, the blessing of a sabbath for community

·     Imagine what God might do in and through us if we were emboldened to be generous and lavish and prodigal in the ways we treat one another and the world! What amazing things might we see set free among us?

·     Let’s look for ways to live this out as we move into this week.

Amen