She waited.
And she waited.
After the baby was born, she thought her body would return to normal, but it didn’t. She waited and waited some more.
At the young age of 32, she had ceased to be, as Genesis 18 says about Sarah, “after the manner of women.”
Yes she had two sons but she longed for a larger family, for a daughter, for the fulfillment of a promise she had received,
or thought she had received, about her family.
She and her husband went from doctor to doctor over the next several years.
The doctors finally told her that she would have no more children.
I still remember her weeping on the way home from that specialist.
Sarai long gave up the hope of having a child of her own. Long before, in Genesis 11, she is said to be barren. When Abram was 75 years old, God told him to pack up and move to Canaan. At that time, God promised Abram that he would be the father of a great nation, and yet Sarai remained barren.
As time goes on, God promised Abram that his offspring will be as many as the dust on the earth, as many as the stars in the heavens, and still Sarai remained barren.
So Abram becomes a bit worried. He tells God that he is scared that his servant will inherit his estate and not his own offspring. …and God reassures him and makes a covenant that Abram’s offspring will inherit the lands in which Abram is now a stranger. Abram believed God and his belief was reckoned to him as righteousness. This reassured Abram and yet still Sarai remained barren.
Concerned with producing an heir, Sarai gave her Egyptian slave girl Hagar to Abram as a wife (not an uncommon practice at this time) to help bring about the promise. When Abram was 86 years old, Hagar bore him a son, Ishmael, and still Sarai remained barren.
So when God appears to Abram in today’s Scripture reading, telling him that he will be the father of many nations, Abram probably assumes that God is talking about this promise coming about through Ishmael. However, God made it clear that Hagar and Ishmael would not be the bloodline through which God’s blessing would come. Abram and Sarai had tried to manipulate the system; had not fully relied on God to bring about God’s promise. In fact, when God says that Sarai (now Sarah) will be the mother of these blessed nations, Abram (now Abraham) (who just a few minutes earlier fell on his face before God) burst out laughing at God’s promise… the first of the two parents to laugh at God’s promise… hence Isaac’s name… “he will laugh.” And still Sarah remained barren.
Abraham is known to trust God, to believe God, and for that belief to be reckoned to him as righteousness.
But… well, he is 99 years old when this promise is made about Sarah. He believes God, but… come on… he’s 99 years old!
He believes God but…come on… Sarai is 90 and has been barren all her life!
Insurmountable obstacles, for sure. Impossible odds, no doubt. But Abraham strives to believe, strives to keep the faith, strives to trust God and God’s timing.
How many times in our own lives to we come across insurmountable obstacles?
How many times do we encounter impossible odds?
We are currently in an economic crisis that, depending on the financial expert you listen to, is either the end of the world as we know it or is teetering on collapse.
And still we get up and go to work.
And still we pray for economic security.
The wars in the Middle East seem to go on and on… peace seems to be out of reach within our lifetimes.
Wars in Africa bring about the destruction of entire nations and ethnicities.
Peace seems unlikely in the foreseeable future.
And still we send diplomats.
And still we pray for peace.
More personally, if you or someone you love becomes afflicted with a chronic or terminal illness, the cure may seem out of our grasp. The research always seems to point toward breakthroughs 5 or 10 years down the road.
And still we trust our doctors.
And still we pray for healing.
Between friends, family, or intimate relationships, rifts occur. Couples divorce, parents abandon or stop talking to their children, brothers and sisters become alienated from one another.
There seems to be no common ground to start from.
And still we hope for forgiveness.
And still we pray for reconciliation…
My mother stopped being able to have children immediately after I was born.
Unlike Sarah, she had two sons already. But she had a dream of having a large family with sons and daughters. She knew it was her destiny to raise this family, knew she would have a daughter named Kathryn one day.
The doctors did not have an explanation.
They did not have a name for her condition.
They just told her that she would not be able to bear children.
My brother and I are blessed, however, blessed that my mother trusted God and still believed in her dream to raise a wonderful loving family. She could have forgotten the dream but she chose to accept where she was and to trust that this is what God held as her special trust…
to be the mother of two, and only two, sons… God’s promise in God’s time.
When I read the words about Sarah, “I will bless her,” I hear the promise to my mother… and I remember her faithfulness in response.
When I read the words about Sarah, “I will bless her” I hear the promise to all women in every particular situation with children or with none.
God cherishes women; single, married, partnered, with no children, and with many.
This is clear in how God made this covenant not only with Abraham but also with Sarah. In this time in the ancient near east, it was very unusual for a deity to covenant with a woman, let alone one without children. The culture in that time and place believed that it was a curse for a woman to not bear children… and it was never the man who was blamed for this lack of offspring.
But God chose to bless Sarah and in changing her name, exalted her. She became the first in a heroic line of women who, at first, felt shame for being barren but then became instrumental in the creation of the nation of Israel. God’s promise in God’s time.
When I hear the words to Abraham “to be God to you and to your offspring after you,” I hear the promise to all humanity… that although trials may come, and although we may try to take control of the situations - apart from God’s plan, God will be with us… and God will remain faithful to us.
God cherishes men; single, married, partnered, with no children, and with many.
Even though Abraham sought to intervene in God’s plan by taking Hagar as a second wife (along with many indiscretions that go beyond the scope of this message), God made a covenant and remained faithful to it. The call to “walk before me and be blameless” was not a condition, for clearly Abraham was not blameless… he was faithful though, and heroic in his faithfulness to God’s promises in God’s time.
What does this say to us today?
What comfort can we take from this story?
I believe the message is this;
that though the economic horizon might look dark and ominous,
though wars throughout the world never seem to cease,
though we never seem to conquer disease
and new strange plagues seem to emerge through the years,
and though we continue to contend with friends, family members, and neighbors,
God has given us a promise.
That promise is that through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ and through the movement of the Holy Spirit,
God will be with us through the trials of this life,
will empower us to love God and one another,
and that when we move from this earthly existence,
we will be united with God in an eternity of perfect joy and peace.
And God remains faithful to that promise.
But just as Abraham and Sarah had a role to play in being faithful to God, so too do we have a role to play in being faithful in seeking out God’s plan,
in believing in the promise that God has made and in the timing that God has chosen.
Oswald Chambers once said,
“We mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It's one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us.”
It was heroic for Abraham to wait 99 years for the promise he was given to come to fruition in the birth of Isaac.
It was heroic for Sarah to live with the cultural shame of the time of not having children, but to remain faithful to God and then to accept God’s plan when at the age of 90, she became pregnant and bore a son.
And heroic are the efforts of people throughout history and throughout our world who seek God’s promise and God’s time in the face of insurmountable obstacles.
The continual prayers of a parent whose child is suffering in a hospital bed with an unknown illness… that’s heroic.
The mission trips to war torn countries by Doctors without Borders who are diligent in offering their special gifts to treat the war wounded and the marginalized masses… that’s heroic.
The daily prayerful vigil of a wife waiting for her husband to rouse from the coma he fell into months before… that is heroic.
The consistent prayers, love, and support from a grandmother for her troubled grandchild… that’s heroic.
The continuous efforts of organizations seeking peaceful settlements to our world’s wars… that’s heroic.
And moving forward in life, despite news of dashed hopes and dreams for your future and your family’s future… that is heroic.
How does this happen?
What is it about these people that makes them the heroes and heroines that they are?
Where is there source of steadfast strength?
Where did Abraham get his faithfulness?
Are these people just cut from a different cloth?
I would say no.
These people simply accept the gift of faith and allow God to empower them to be faithful and trusting that God will achieve in God’s own time the promise that God has given us; the promise of life… and life to the full.
Make no mistake, the promise and blessing of Christ is not only for the life to come,
it is in this life, this day, this age.
Abraham and Sarah responded to this promise and their lives were blessed.
The promise is not for money or power or long life.
The promise is that no matter what we experience,
God is with us to weep with us when we weep
and to laugh with us when we laugh
and to rejoice with us when we rejoice.
Remember how the scripture today describes the conversation between Abraham and God…
it is personal, it is intimate, it is parental.
The promise is of an inheritance
not from a distant impersonal deity but from a parent to a child.
God’s promise is not monetary,
it is relational, it is personal, it is faithful.
Years later, my mother got a good word from a doctor. I was a teenager at the time. She came home and told us, “Well, it seems that if I want to, I can begin a treatment that will allow me to have children again.” “Wow Mom, what do you think? Are you considering it?” “Oh no, I think God knew what he was doing… two is enough.” And as I walked away, I heard her say quietly with a chuckle, “Two is definitely enough.”
God’s promise, God’s quantity, and God’s timing are perfectly chosen for our lives and what we can bear. Thanks be to God.
Amen
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