Friends in Christ, grace to you and peace, from the God who made you, the Christ who loves you, the Holy Spirit who lives in you. Amen.
My son, Luke plays on the 7th grade basketball team in Minnetonka, a commitment that took us to Monticello, MN yesterday morning for the opening game of his state tournament. Based upon our seasonal record of wins and losses, we received the seeding that matched us up with the 7th grade team from Champlin Park.
Let me describe Champlin Park for you. In the three years that we have been at this traveling basketball thing, we have never beaten Champlin Park. They have two boys on their team who are 6’ 6” and 6’ 3”…in 7th grade. Not only are they tall, but they are quite athletic, which leads to many blocked shots and very few opportunities to score. Our team looks like they are dribbling up to the Berlin Wall, as they attempt to put the ball in the hoop. It hearkens my memory to the story of David and Goliath, but I’m not so sure slingshots are allowed in traveling basketball.
At one point in the game, I leaned over to the Dad next to me and said, “I think my sermon tomorrow is going to begin with ‘God may be able to raise Jesus from the dead, but I’m not so sure God can help us beat Champlin Park.’
There are some things that just seem too wonderful for the Lord.
Like Abraham and Sarah, the mother and father of our faith, the ones to hear and trust that God speaks to them, that through all things, all struggles, hardships, blessings and brokenness, the Lord is leading, the Lord is guiding, the Lord is speaking, the Lord is their God…even they laughed at the impossibility of such a thing.
But even in their laughter, there was faith.
When Abraham was 99 years-old, not necessarily in the same definition of age and calendar year that we have today, but nevertheless, old enough to be beyond his years of fathering, the Lord appeared to him and said…STOP! “The Lord appeared to him and said,” is worthy of our attention. Did you hear that, or is that just one of those biblical conventions to you that you gloss over, as if it is either the figment of the author’s imagination, or something that happened back then but doesn’t happen anymore…
“The Lord appeared to Abraham and said…” You see, God was always talking to Abraham, and Abraham’s ear was always attuned to God. Regardless of what the word was, Abraham wanted to hear it. God spoke of covenant, the unending, undying promise of relationship, the vow to be with Abraham no matter what, to bless, to uphold, to see through the wilderness, to challenge, to expect, to work through, God was with Abraham, and frankly dear friends, that is the heart of the matter, so to say that “when Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said”, is no small thing, because God is talking to us and appearing to us, in equal manner as God did to Abraham, so hearken your ears and listen.
The other day, a long-time friend made a spontaneous, unannounced visit to my office, and being the observant character that he is, he came to my door and called me to the mission statement above the entrance to our facility, saying, “I noticed that you exist to serve the next one God sends your way…well, I’m not the next one.” Though feeling a bit pressed for time, I smiled and said, ‘come in and sit down.’
He is currently working on a next calling in life. As someone who was allowed to retire early from law enforcement, he has spent the past 18 months pursuing his theological degree, alongside working with the synod on a specialized call to become a chaplain to the law enforcement community of the State of Minnesota Police Chiefs. His is moving closer and closer to the fulfillment of this call and wanted to talk with me about it.
More than once in the conversation, Dan stopped and said, “I don’t know if this happens to you, but I have these little conversations with God, where God talks to me and tells me what I need to hear.” And before I could even offer my response to that, he would charge into what God was saying to him, and I offered a knowing smile in return and listened to what God had said, and I could see both his animation and imagination as they worked in concert toward the calling he received. And then he would look at me like he was seeking my approval, or at least confirmation of what he believed God was saying to him, and I let my smile and my love be the confirmation to his ears of faith, ‘yes, Dan, God does speak to you, because if the Lord appeared to Abraham, and said, the Lord appears to you and says…so, friends, hearken your ears and listen…
But know this, when the Lord appears to you and speaks, more often than not, the words you hear will test the limits of your imagination and give cause for you to laugh, to doubt, to think it impossible what the Lord is saying, because God has unlimited imagination…when God speaks, the sick are healed, the dead are raised, the barren give birth, and retired police chiefs become chaplains…
Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?
So Abraham is 99 years-old, Sarah is beyond the age of child-bearing, and this God of great imagination, for who all things are possible, appears to them and says, “I will make my covenant with you, I will be your God and you will be my people. And I will make you ‘exceedingly numerous.’ You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of peoples, which is why I am changing your name from Abram(which means exalted father) to Abraham(which means father of many). And hour wife Sarai, I’m changing her name to, her new name will be Sarah(which means princess), because not only will I bring you a son through her, but she will give rise to nations and through her kings of peoples shall come.
And Abraham laughed we are told, and I’m not so sure it wasn’t a laugh of astonished disbelief, like ‘yeh, right God!, or maybe it was a laugh that said, ‘I was just hoping to have a child and I’m not so sure I’m up for all of this father of nations thing,’ so it is no small thing to say, “the Lord appeared to Abraham and said…”
When God speaks, I guarantee that the limits of your imagination for your life will be stretched.
Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?
Where is that Champlin Park team? I’m beginning to feel more hopeful…right?!?
Which brings me to our reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans today…Paul locks in on the faith of Abraham and Sarah, reminding his hearers that it is by faith that God’s covenant was given to Abraham. It was by faith that Abraham and Sarah became the father and mother of the nations. It was by faith that Isaac was conceived in her womb. It was by faith that Abraham hoped against hope that it would be as God has said, even though he laughed, there was faith, because Abraham knows God to be one who does what God wills, without restriction of impossibility and the reason St. Paul can say this, is because St. Paul knows about Jesus, because in Jesus, Paul knows the resurrection, that God raises the dead, and if God raises the dead, then God can make the barren womb fertile.
And this wasn’t given to Abraham and Sarah as a theological treatise on parchment paper and signed by God. This was given to Abraham and Sarah from an inside voice, from a deep spirit of trust, from signs like three visitors under the oak tree, who could’ve been seen as happenstance passersby, but to the eyes and ears of faith, they were angels of God, who may or may not have known, that they were the bearers of a direct word from the mouth of God, but nevertheless Abraham and Sarah heard it, and the world is different today because of it, and others today are still listening, because God has given them the ears of faith, and when they listen, they hear and when they hear, their imaginations run wild, and people are loved who have no business being loved, and people are healed who have no business being healed, and relationships are reconciled that were as good as dead, because when God speaks, the impossible becomes possible and the kingdom of love becomes imaginable, and there is hope against hope, hope against hope, hope against hope.
We are people of hope, but as Paul writes again in Romans, “now hope that is seen, is not hope, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Hope is permanent force in every human being, knit in there by God, to bring into being what has no business being.
That is faith. We do not know what our lives will bring. We don’t know the next year, let alone the next day. And in spite of all the present evidence to the contrary, God will accomplish what God promises, the barren give birth, the dead are raised, the unemployed are given work, the lonely are loved…
And it all begins with a word heard by faith…and the Lord appeared and said…
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