Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Sarah
It is very important for you to teach God’s Bible stories to your children, your grandchildren, or the other children in your life, even if they are the next-door neighbor’s kids. Illustrated Bible storybooks are a good tool for such teaching, but sometimes the storybooks leave out important details and episodes in the lives of God’s saints. In a similar way, daily devotionals such as Portals of Prayer may be quick and convenient, but daily devotions often jump around, choosing Bible passages from here and there in God’s Bible. Like Bible storybooks, daily devotionals sometimes lack the context and continuity you gain from reading directly from God’s Bible. Both for your own sake and for the sake of your loved ones, it is good to God’s Bible directly. You should read even those passages that do not contain a lot of excitement and drama, and you should discuss those passages with the children in your life or with the other adults in your life. When you such reading, both you and your loved ones will see that you are never alone in your experiences. Today’s Old Testament is a wonderful example of why it is so important for you and for your children to have a good knowledge of Bible stories. Sarah laughed when she heard her visitors say to Abraham her husband, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” · If your main knowledge of Sarah comes only today, the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost; if you never get to know this woman’s full history concerning God’s promises, then you might get the wrong impression of Sarah’s laughter. You might think Sarah is a shallow, insincere woman who refuses God’s promises, rather than someone who has been desperately clinging to God’s Words for decades, yet without seeing any promises fulfilled. · On the other hand, when you give your children a regular diet of God’s Bible, you and your children will be able to look more sympathetically at Sarah and her laughter. It is not like this woman has never before heard such Words and promises from God as she has heard today. o Sarah is nearly ninety years old in today’s Old Testament. For twenty-five years she has been patiently following her husband around the land of Canaan, traveling from place to place and never finally purchasing that white house with the picket fence she had always dreamed about. For twenty-five years Sarah has been far from her childhood home, far from those who knew her as a child, far from those who could now comfort her in her childlessness. Sarah has wandered all over creation, so it seemed, and she has done so on account of a few Words spoken to her husband decades ago, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). o Traveling on a promise was not easy for this woman who today hides in her tent, listening to her husband’s conversation. Abraham has not exactly been easy on his wife. His spinelessness placed Sarah’s honor and reputation at risk while in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20). Then Sarah’s heart must have stayed in her throat when Abraham later found courage and went to war, not against one, but against four kings (Genesis 14:1-16). There was family strife and further separation from those whom she loved (Genesis 13:1-12). There was a presumptuous handmaiden whom Sarah had grown to despise on account of Abraham’s attentions to her. Perhaps worst of all, through it all, there was always that promise… o That dogged, vexing, sometimes revolting and sometimes infuriating promise to Abraham that Sarah’s entire married life had been build upon: “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). This carrot-on-a-stick promise claimed that Sarah was to have a child, but for a lifetime of marriage there was only the promise but never the child. Now there are strangers standing on the other side of this tent wall, speaking more promises to her promise-driven husband, and Sarah cannot help but wonder if it is now too late. “I will surely return to you about this time next year,” they say. “Sarah your wife shall have a son,” they say. Sarah cannot hide the experienced smile and the self-protecting laughter of having heard promises before: “After I am worn out, and [Abraham] my lord is old, shall I have pleasure [in a newborn son]?” When you know Sarah and what brought her to today’s Old Testament, Sarah stops looking like someone who takes God’s promises lightly. The full story of the Old Testament allows you to see her for who she is: a woman nearly at the end of her rope. Knowing her whole story, Sarah’s faith and longsuffering example can be a help to you in your life, or in the life of someone you love. · Do you suppose that Sarah never prayed during her twenty-five years of childlessness? Sarah likely begged God to grant her prayers, just as you have begged God to answer your prayers. For a lifetime, Sarah only heard silence in return—and maybe you have heard the same sort of silent responses to your prayers. Take comfort from Sarah. Learn from her that you are not the only one who must wait upon the mercies of God. · Do you think that Sarah found it easy to go to worship while she was feeling angry toward Abraham, worried about her nephew Lot, or resentful toward her handmaid? Perhaps you also have begun to wonder about whether your Sunday worship really has any point for your life—especially when you feel you cannot even pay attention because you are preoccupied by your struggles with your family. Learn from Sarah. Force yourself to stay near to God’s Word and promises, even when these promises sound so hard to believe that you might feel the urge to laugh at them. · And what of Abraham? Was Sarah supposed to thank him every time he pulled up the tent pegs and traipsed off again? Was Sarah supposed to feel appreciative for her fears and her sleepless nights while he went running off to war? Abraham might have regarded his work as an act of love for neighbor; for Sarah it was the lonely and overwhelming burden of holding down the fort while he was gone. Endure with Sarah, dear saints. She knows your feelings of being overburdened and overwhelmed. As God sustained her in many troubles, He shall likewise sustain you. · Through it all, here is the real benefit for you, that is, the real comfort and encouragement and example for your faith: “And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.” These were no ordinary guests who had come to Abraham and his wife “as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.” These guests were the very presence of God there at Abraham’s door. (This is made plain by Abraham’s bowing low to the ground before them, and by his addressing all three as if they were one, saying to them, “my Lord.”) “Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him” because God was speaking. She has heard the Word before and its full joys eluded her, and yet Sarah never abandons her high and holy calling of hearing the Word again. “Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him” because listening to God’s Word is what God’s gift of faith does, especially when your faith has been pushed to its breaking point. But this Old Testament does more than give you the good example of Sarah’s patience for your own life. This Old Testament also shows you the comforting picture of God’s patience toward you, because God never tires of speaking His promises to you. Time and again, God had said to Abraham and Sarah, “I will make you a great nation” (Genesis 12:2-3) and “I will give this land to your offspring” (Genesis 13:14-15) and “Sarah your wife shall bear you a son” (Genesis 17:19). Because of these many promises, God would have been within His rights to become angry at Sarah when she laughed in today’s Old Testament. “How dare you laugh at My Word and promises! Am I not God? Have I not sworn previously to you that you shall have a child? Even if you were to die and be placed into a tomb, would I not be able to raise you up and bless you with many children?” But God does not grow angry, and this is a great blessing both for Sarah and for you. Patiently God speaks His promises and patiently He repeats them, especially when faith grows weary and when doubt rises up in the heart. · What did Sarah need most while she was clinging to the fraying edges of her faith? She needed God’s Word in her ears, which is powerful to hold Sarah secure against any doubt. What did God patiently and lovingly give to Sarah in her need? God gave His repeated Word and promise: “Sarah your wife shall have a son.” · What do you need most when you are clinging to what feels like fragments of faith? You need God’s Word in your years, which is powerful to overcome your doubts, powerful to strengthen your weakening arms, powerful to sustain you in every struggle of your life. Think of Sarah when you hear God speak and repeat His promises to you. For example, think of yourself as standing with Sarah when God says to you in worship, “All your sins are forgiven. You shall not struggle forever and you shall not always feel this way. You will be with me forever in heaven, and I will raise you up on the Last Day.” You have heard these Words before; you shall hear them again. Sometimes it may seem to you that the fulfillment of God’s promises shall never come. It took a long time for Sarah, too. God’s Word sustained her until the promise was fulfilled. So also shall God’s Word likewise faithfully sustain you, even when you feel so drained that you cannot help but laugh. The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at: Rev. Fr. Eric J. Stefanski <MoM [at] lists (dot) cat41 <dot> org>
