Impossibly Possible God; Sermon on Genesis 18/21

Rev. George Miller
Sept 15, 2019
Genesis 18:1-15 and 21:1-7

As many of you know, I was in Arizona this week to be with my Mom.

She had fallen a few weeks ago and wasn’t discovered until 3 days later. Due to long term diabetic conditions, she had to have half her leg amputated.

While in Arizona I had the tasks of talking with doctors, working with the social worker, chaplain and agency officials, coming with up with a plan and locating a place for Mom to receive wound and short-term care.

My brother is there with her until October 19, with the goal of moving her to MO where he and his family live.

In the meantime, my brother is cleaning her condo, preparing for it to be sold.

Mom has a lot of work, exercising, and resting to do in order to walk again and prepare for the next chapter of her life.

Being in Arizona was not easy for me. The emotional and decision-making process was draining. Being in her cluttered and tiny condo was not helpful.

Perhaps most difficult, for me, was how brown Arizona is.

So very, very brown, with its dry earth, yards full of rocks, and bare mountains that rose to the heavens.

I longed for my Cozy Cottage with its green grass, purple flowers and the blue of Lake Jackson.

It was an emotional and spiritual relief to fly back to Florida and to see from the plane’s window the rivers, the canals, the Atlantic, the lawns.

While driving back from the airport I marveled at the thought that 10 years ago I had 1st come to Sebring to interview for the pastoral position here.

Back in 2009 I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. Everything appeared so foreign. The amount of rain. The humidity. The palm trees. The tiny, tiny squirrels. The giant bird that flew in front of the windshield.

The orange groves. How cool they first appeared…but then they went on for miles and miles….and miles.

I felt like I had landed on Mars, and yet now this place is home.

When first coming to Emmanuel, things were different. We had the tiny kitchen, the empty nursery, and the Parish Nurse office that wasn’t being utilized.

Sunday Fellowship only took place twice a month. Our weekly programs consisted of a Bible Study and the TOPS group.

Years later we now have a big, beautiful kitchen. In addition to TOPS and Bible Study we now have Sit and Stitch, The Diamond Café, AARP, and the thriving Shepherd’s Pantry.

Though Harvest Home has taken a break, we have a multitude of food-based events, like the upcoming Oktoberfest.

For 7 years we offered a Vacation Bible School, for 5 years we’ve had trips to Back Bay Mission, and in this month alone we had the Doula Project and Indivisible offering community programs here.

Not to mention we now have the gifts of Carnide and Ari and the addition of violin to our worship.

There has been a lot of thriving and new growth, yet in many ways we are also in a dry place. The beloved members who have died, moved away, or moved on to other places of worship.

Not to mention our financial reserves are now virtually dry.

On Tuesday we’ll meet for our 2020 budget planning, and the truth is that we are down to a bare bones budget and facing the possibility that 2020 may be the last year we can afford a full-time pastor.

So, we, as a church, have many decisions to make. Who God is calling us to be; what we are being challenged to do, and if we are to continue with a full or part time pastor.

Many, many options. Options, just like my Mom has.

But when financial reserves are low, or part of a leg is missing, things can seem just too hard, too difficult, too impossible to do…

…That’s why, thank God, we have the Bible. To teach us, and encourage us, and to remind us again and again that even in the face of impossibly laughable situations, there is truly nothing too difficult for the Lord.

As Genesis chapter 2 reminds us, God is not far away, God is not distant, God is not aloof, but God’s is hands-on, right in the mud and muck with us, willing to get God’s hands dirty, sweaty and grass stained.

So let’s take a look at today’s reading.

We have left the Garden behind. Our call to be connected to God, connected to the earth, and connected to one another continues.

It continues in the story of Abraham and Sarah, who receive a call from God to go, leave behind their past, and trust God’s promise that they will have new land and a family.

What makes this seem so impossible is that Abraham and Sarah are quite along in their age. They’ve been married for decades and have had not any luck in having a child.

In a culture in which leaving a legacy in your offspring is everything, their reality is devastating.

Without a child, it means their particular family tree has been cut off; it’s a stump.

Which means they are as good as dead.

But if you’ve noticed, God doesn’t really deal with dead ends; God much prefers to deal with life and new beginnings.

So, into the unbearable heat of the day, God enters into the life of Abraham and Sarah while Abraham seeks refuge under the oaks of Mamre.

They are reminded of the promise God had made many years ago- that Sarah will have a child.

The first time they heard the news it is Abraham who falls on his face laughing at the impossibility of it all.

Now, it is Sarah’s turn.

She’s in the tent preparing a meal for their heavenly guests when she hears the news that within a year she will have a child.

Sarah, considered too old for such a reality, can’t help but to laugh at how foolish it is.

“After I’ve grown old, am I really supposed to experience new joy?”

God hears her chuckle and asks her this life-changing question- “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

If this line sounds familiar, it is, because last week the prophet Jeremiah said the same thing when he purchased that plot of war-torn land.

“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

Other translations switch it up and use the word difficult, hard and impossible.

“Is anything too difficult for the Lord?”

This is perhaps one of the 10 most important statements in the Bible.

How you respond, and what you think is the answer can make all the difference between life…and death.

Sarah laughs.

Thank God. I personally see this as such an honest, human reaction to God’s Good News.

Sarah doesn’t try to hide her feelings. She doesn’t try to stifle her initial reaction. She allows herself to be fully, truly present and in the moment.

Sure, when questioned about it, she tells a little white lie, but at this moment we see Sarah doing exactly what any of us would do if we were beyond the age of parenthood and told our whole world was about to change.

Sarah doesn’t try to act all pious. Sarah doesn’t immediately fall in line or make herself into a martyr.

She is not Pollyanna about this; she is not pie-in-the-sky. She is realistic.

Sarah responds as almost any of us here would have.

“Really?” Really God, you’re going to take what seems like the end and turn it into a new beginning?

You have got to be kidding!!!

And good thing that Sarah responds this way, because her honest reaction allows a deeper, more personal conversation with God.

It allows the heavenly testimony to be made known – Is anything too difficult for the Lord?

That’s the question we should all have on our mind each and every day.

And of course, the Bible goes to great lengths to give us the answer.

God is the perfecter of making the impossible possible.

After all, Genesis 2 shows us how God took mud, breathe and a side order of ribs to make human life possible.

Exodus shows us how God parts the Red Sea.

The prophet Jeremiah reminded us that even in the midst of war that houses and farms can be restored.

On Easter Morning God raised Jesus from the grave and beyond the shame of the cross.

Throughout Paul’s letters we see how God changed the heart of the church’s number 1 persecutor into its number 1 worker.

Any of these situations would have elicited laughs from anyone who cares to think logically and within the confines of what is and is not possible.

But of course, none of these difficult deeds of the Lord would have been truly fruitful if the human participants weren’t willing to play their part.

Adam and Eve had to be willing to care for the earth, working as equals side by side.

The Israelites had to be willing to bravely step through the parted sea to make it to the other side.

Jeremiah had to be willing to put his money where his mouth was, placing down 17 shekels to buy the land.

God may have resurrected Christ, but it took Mary Magdalene to go out into the world and make the Good News known.

Paul’s heart may have been changed, but it took him learning how to publicly embrace and live out the changes within him.

Sarah laughed at the impossible, but in the end she did conceive new life and begin another chapter in her life.

My Mom has the ability to heal, to walk again, and to begin again in Missouri, surrounded by green grass, robins, and family…but first she will have to do the work.

She will have to want it, fight for it, exercise, rest, let go of her past, and to learn how to welcome the help and care of others.

Here at Emmanuel, we can meet our budget and continue our ministry, if that’s what we feel called to do.

But we must also be willing to fight for it, exercise our faith, move into our future, dream of new ways, and welcome the help and care of others.

Is anything too wonderful or too difficult for the Lord?

Scripture tells us that nothing is too difficult, but scripture also makes it clear that we can’t expect God to do it alone.

Like Eve, like Adam, like Jeremiah, like Paul, like Abraham, and like Laughing Sarah, we all have a role we can play.

We all have a part in making the Impossibly Possible a possibility.

For that, we can say “Amen.”