Title: The Grace Story of Abraham and Sarah

Transcription

1 Message: March 12, 2017 Given by: Rev. Donald W. Hackett Series: Grace (God s Relentless Acts of Compassionate Encounter) Scripture: Genesis 18; Romans 4 Title: The Grace Story of Abraham and Sarah Biblical Texts Genesis 18:1-15 New Revised Standard Version The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He 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. He said, My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let 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. And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes. Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then 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. They said to him, Where is your wife Sarah? And he said, There, in the tent. Then 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. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, and say, Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old? Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied, saying, I did not laugh ; for she was afraid. He said, Oh yes, you did laugh. 1

2 Introduction Did you catch the surprise in this story about Abraham and Sarah? Out of nowhere three visitors come visit them while they are camped out in the middle of nowhere and tell them that they are going to have a baby. This old couple was verifiably beyond the childbearing years. The best math has Sarah at 90 and Abraham at 100 years old at the time of this encounter. This is amazing! It is amazing that they both are alive, much less creating new life between them! What did Sarah do when she heard the news? She laughed! What kind of laugh do you think it was? Sarcastic? Ridiculous? Or perhaps a laugh of wonder. Can this be true! [Video: I think when God surprises us with good news, we laugh. Sarah and Abraham went on to have a baby and they named him, Laughter, or Isaac as we know him. Grace Defined We are in a series on Grace where we are describing grace as God s Relentless Acts of Compassionate Encounter. Many define grace as receiving something we do not deserve. We are broadening our understanding of grace to be even more than that. We believe God keeps showing up in your story and my story with acts of compassionate encounter. This is what Abraham and Sarah experienced. They had a compassionate encounter with God where God blows them away with this gift of a child. This was not the first God encounter for this couple. Abraham and Sarah Story of Grace Let s rewind and look at other times God encountered this couple. In Genesis 11 we discover that Abraham and Sarah were originally from the Babylonian city of Ur. This ancient city was at the source of the Euphrates River where it connected to the Persian Gulf. 1. In one his first encounters, God invites them to go 1000 miles to Canaan to settle a land where they would flourish. They make it over halfway up the Fertile Crescent and then they stop. They settle and found a city in modern Turkey they name Haran. While there Abraham s aging father, Terah, dies. 2. In Genesis 12 we see God relentless compassion as he invites them again to continue the journey and dwell in the land God promised. Abraham and company set out and travel over 400 miles until they arrive in the southern desert part of Canaan in Negeb. 3. Famine hits the land so they travel south to Egypt for supplies. Abraham fearing for his life, lies about Sarah his beautiful wife and calls her his sister instead. Pharaoh, of course, hears 2

3 of the beauty of this woman and after giving Abraham much wealth, takes her into his household. God is not pleased with this turn of events so he curses Pharaoh s household with a great plague. Pharaoh figures out what is going on, rebukes Abraham for lying, returns Sarah and sends them out of the country. God keeps offering this couple his grace...god s relentless acts of compassionate encounter. They entered Egypt desperate and leave very wealthy. Ha! It makes you want to laugh at the wonder of it all. They did not deserve any of this! This is all pure grace. This theme is repeated again and again in the lives of Abraham and Sarah. As they move out and trust God, God provides what they need. When they take things into their own hands, things go bad. Later when Abraham has to fight four eastern kings to rescue his nephew, Lot, God gives his 318 men victory over the thousands. When down the road Abraham and Sarah get impatient waiting for a child and conceive Ishmael through their slave, Hagar, things go sour. Grace moments in our lives So you can see why Sarah and Abraham were so surprised when God comes to them once more and invites them to step back into the life and promise God has for them. They just had to laugh with joy. Friends, the God revealed in Jesus the Christ, is doing the same thing in your life and mine. When we look back in our lives we can see God at work again and again seeking to draw us into his circle of love and care. Think about a time when God helped you. Perhaps as child it was clear that God helped you through a dangerous situation. Maybe you saw God step in to provide just the right people to guide you as a child or teen. Sometimes we see the hand of God leading us to an important friendship or opening the door to a job or career. As we age and our bodies and lives change, we discover God s grace there again supporting us through difficult adjustments and deep losses. If we are looking and open, God s grace, God s relentless acts of compassionate encounter are there for us to embrace and step into. 3

4 How we enter God s grace Geoff talked last week about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan. In this passage in Matthew 4, Satan tempted Jesus to use his power for his own purposes, to take control and force God to help him, and to exert his own importance by proclaiming himself ruler of all without God s help. Power, control, and importance. These are important things in our world. We are told that in order to succeed in life we need to take the power, exercise control, and claim our importance. Jesus in this case said No. He turned them all down. Jesus knew that this is not what changes the world. He showed his disciples what changes people. He washed their feet. He healed their diseases. He poured himself out for the sake of others. This is how we enter and enjoy the grace of God. We allow God to guide us. We invite God s love and power to work in us and flow out to others. We are not worried about our importance, we point to God. God is the source of every good and beautiful story. We just accept the invitation to join God in his story. That is where we find our story, our importance. This is what Abraham and Sarah did. They kept giving up control and power and allowed God to work in them. The apostle Paul make this clear in his book to the Romans, chapter 4. In the Message translation, he reasons: So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we re given is a God-story, not an Abrahamstory. What we read in Scripture is, Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own. Roadblock to Grace #1 Where we get tripped up in all this is in two areas. One, we might be tempted to think, I do deserve this! I work hard. I pray. I give. I keep the rules. I am a good person. Whenever we think or say those things, we have missed the point. In reality, we do not deserve anything from God. On our own, we have missed the mark. We do damage to others and ourselves. God does not owe you or me anything. All that we are and have are gifts from God. Gifts are not earned like a pay check. Gifts from God just pour out with no strings attached. That is why Paul makes this point again in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of 4

5 works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. When you and I handover the power, control, and importance in our lives like Abraham and Sarah did, then we are able to enter into the healing work God has for us. Like Abraham and Sarah, we are a SENT people. We may not have to travel hundreds of miles like they did, but we are called to enter into this highest level of discipleship. We are called to make ourselves fully available to God. We take what we have and invite God to work his restoring touch in us and through our lives to others. Roadblock to Grace #2 The other place we get tripped up in all this is when we are tempted to think, I do not deserve this! If we think or say that, we are right. We do not deserve anything from God. God offers it anyway. Remember, it is a gift not a reward or paycheck. You may feel empty. You may feel shame for what you have done or by what was done to you. You may think you are worthless. Jesus comes to us in those times and speaks what is true. Jesus says in Matthew 11: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Jesus says in John 3: This is how much God loved the world: He gave me, his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in me, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. Jesus calls to us in our pits of shame and guilt, and reaches down and pulls us up into the fresh and healing air of God s love and grace. Jesus loves us into significance and worth. It is all gift. Sheer, wonderful gift. Friends, let us enter this grace today in Christ. Building Altars to God What I noticed in the life of Abraham is that every time God spoke to his promises to him, he marked it by building an altar. When he came through Canaan the first time and God spoke to him at the oaks of Moreh near Shechem, he built and altar. As he passed Bethel and then pitched his tent, he called on God and built another altar. Later after they returned from Egypt and moves to Hebron, again he builds an altar. This time it was at the oaks of Mamre. The altars or markers Abraham made were of stone. They were offering thanks and praise to God. 5

6 As Pastor Geoff would say, they were a barbeque with God. Some of the altars or markers you and I can make are the telling and recording of our stories. Keep a journal of how you see God each day. Write a note to a friend or grandchild on how you experienced God this week. At lunch, share a story from life where God is one of the characters. These are all ways we can make an altar and give thanks to God. Prayer: Thank you God for your relentless love that keeps knocking at our door. Help us to trust you, open the door today and let you in. May the forgiving, healing, and laughter begin! In Christ, Amen 6