A Child Promised to Abraham and Sarah Genesis 18: 1-15; 21: 1-7 – 2024/6/2

June 2, 2024

Anything but Ordinary
“A Child Promised to Abraham and Sarah”
Genesis 18: 1-15; 21: 1-7

Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl

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

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 be fruitful?” 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, “Yes, you did laugh.”

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

 

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A Child Promised to Abraham and Sarah Genesis 18: 1-15; 21: 1-7

Well, that’s one way to get things started. Imagine being 90 years old  or being 100 years old and you are told that you are going to have a baby. My guess is we would have laughed at that news as well. So we can’t fault Sarah too much for laughing when she heard the news. And really that’s not what the author wants us to focus on. What the author wants us to see, to experience, to embrace is that our God is anything but ordinary, surprising us in life-giving, life changing ways.

You see,  that’s the beauty of this wonderfully weird text. It’s not that Sarah didn’t believe. It’s not that Sarah laughed. This text is a reminder to us as people of faith that there’s our time and then there’s God’s time. And when it is God’s time, things just seem to fall into place. Notice that even after Sarah and Abraham are told about this child, we don’t hear about his birth until 3 chapters later.  And side note…Sarah wasn’t the only one who laughed at this news. Abraham did as well..Genesis 17: … “God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  I will bless her and also give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

Um….Abraham, you asked the question and God responded. Yeah…a child can be born to a man who is a hundred years old. Sarah who is ninety can bear a child. Abraham is even told what to name the child back in Chapter 17.  Abraham was given a promise by God that he would be the father to a great nation, that his descendants would number more than the stars, and when that doesn’t happen, Abraham and Sarah take matters into their own hands and try to put things into place. However these things divert God’s plan. So again, God shows up. In Chapter 17, verse 17…God tells Abraham that the blessing will come through Sarah, It will not be Abrahm’s other son, Ishmael. God tells Abrahm that Sarah will have a son and his name will be Isaac.  It’s only later in chapter 21, that we learn that Isaac’s name means “laughter” not because it is funny ha,ha but it’s funny in the I can’t believe it, it doesn’t seem possible, you can’ make this stuff up type of laughter. But that’s who our God is…anything but Ordinary… our God who is loving and steadfast, our God who is faithful from generation to generation, our God who reminds us time and time again that nothing is impossible for our God.

Yet, even knowing all this, I feel it is only fair to add another side note to this text. As we may remember, infertility was and is a serious topic in our sacred story. Sarah and Abraham were not the only couple nor the only person to experience infertility within the Biblical story. The very fact that Abraham and Sarah had been promised a child together but were never able to conceive until they were much older in life put the whole covenantal promise in danger, a very risky place to be not only for Abrahm and Sarah, but I would argue for our God as well. Our Biblical text recognizes this. Our Biblical text understands the significance of this. That’s why our Biblical text doesn’t try to ignore the pain and suffering of this couple. It doesn’t try to ignore the hurt infertility caused for other people in the Bible text as well. Nor does it try to ignore what we feel as modern day humanity as well when people so want a child but are not able to conceive.

This truth stands alongside the other truth from this passage as well… That’s why for me as I read this text as a both/and text. Because for me, for us as people of faith, this text serves as a reminder that yes, nothing is impossible with our God. We know this. We have experienced this in our own lives. I can’t tell you how many times there have been instances in my life where I stand amazed and know that only God could have brought about these life changing, life transforming, life giving circumstances.

And…And this text also serves as a reminder that God sees us. That God is with us in our pain. That God is with us in our suffering. We know this. We have experienced this in our own lives. I can’t tell you how many times there have been instances in my life when I know the only way I made it through the heartache and the heartbreak is because of God’s strength and love. 

For me as I read this text it serves as a reminder for us as people of faith that the covenantal promise that God gave to Abraham and Sarah, that God gives us to us as God’s Beloved Children is that yes our God is anything but ordinary. And because of that, we know that God is always here. God is with us, that as God’s people, we have been given a promise that this world will not have the last word, that love will overcome, that a way will be made out of no way. We may not know when. We may not know how but we know God is with us, our God sees us, in joy and sorrow, in celebration and despair. We have been given a promise by our God because that is just who our God is…anything but ordinary.

Amen.

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