| Promises
Promises |
| Then the LORD appeared to him
by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in
the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his
eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by
him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to
meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said,
"My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight,
do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water
be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under
the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you
may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch
as you have come to your servant." |
| They said, "Do as you have
said." |
| So Abraham hurried into the tent
to Sarah and said, "Quickly, make ready three measures
of fine meal; knead it and make cakes." And Abraham
ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it
to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took
butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and
set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree
as they ate. |
| Then they said to him, "Where
is Sarah your wife?" |
| So he said, "Here, in the
tent." |
| And He said, "I will certainly
return to you according to the time of life, and behold,
Sarah your wife shall have a son." |
| Now Abraham and Sarah were old,
well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of
childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself,
saying, "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure,
my lord being old also?" |
| And the LORD said to Abraham,
"Why did Sarah laugh, saying, "Shall I surely
bear a child, since I am old?' Is anything too hard for
the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you,
according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a
son." |
| But Sarah denied it, saying, "I
did not laugh," for she was afraid. |
| And He said, "No, but you
did laugh!" |
|
| Genesis 18:1-15 |
| As they approached the village
to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going
farther. But they urged him strongly, "Stay with
us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over."
So he went in to stay with them. |
| When he was at the table with
them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to
give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they
recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They
asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within
us while he talked with us on the road and opened the
Scriptures to us?" |
| They got up and returned at once
to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with
them, assembled together and saying, "It is true!
The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." Then
the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus
was recognized by them when he broke the bread. |
|
| Luke 24:28-35 |
| I’ve always thought that belief and doubt coexist together
in our lives of faith. We believe in God, yet we have lots of
questions about God. Our faith in God’s love leads us
to wonder why this world is so full of pain. Our scriptures
backed up my thoughts about belief and doubt by providing stories
where the faithful question God’s ability to fulfill promises.
God’s promises often seem a bit naïve or flat-out
impossible to the ears of the receiver. The Bible tells us that
the faithful question, reject, and even offer up alternatives
to God’s promises. Today’s scripture passages made
me wonder if my notion of belief and doubt mixing together is
wrong. Belief and doubt don’t mingle and coexist in any
comfortable fashion! They collide with one another, forcing
us to question and confront, to ask and seek help. Remember
the famous cry from a desperate believer to Jesus, “Lord
I believe, help my unbelief”? Yet Sarah and Abraham believed
and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus believed, even as
they doubted God’s promises to them. |
| We suffer from what I am going to term “promise-perceiving
limitations.” When God promises what we know to be humanly
impossible, we chuckle. When Jesus our living Lord walks next
to us, we are still so fixated on his death we can’t even
recognize him. |
| The sermon title today, “Promises Promises” is
the title of a not-so-stellar rock song from the early 80s.
I chose that title for this sermon because it witnesses to the
source of our promise-perceiving limitations. In the song, the
singer bemoans his lover’s “promises promises”
which are never fulfilled. She continually promises her love
and never follows through. The singer laments his trusting ways!
Now he is so jaded he writes a song about the fact that her
promises are hopeless, empty words. Empty promises. We’ve
all heard them at some point in our lives. We’ve probably
even made a few ourselves. |
| In today’s Old Testament reading, Abraham remained
silent upon hearing God’s promise of a son to Sarah. Maybe
that is because in the preceding chapter he had his own laugh,
falling to the ground, when God made him the same promise. Abraham
and Sarah knew where babies come from. They were barren their
whole wedded life and now both of them were beyond the ability
to have children. They felt there was no chance for the fulfillment
of God’s promise. They laughed. They were silent. They
feared. |
| It is an interesting phenomenon that we, who cannot see past
our own perspective of reality in the easy times, think we can
limit God, in the midst of the hardships of our lives. When
we realize God’s promises are out of our control to make
happen, our easy out is sarcasm or a good laugh. For what other
option could there be if our main understanding of promise stems
from our relationships with one another? We know we only follow
through on simple promises. We aim to do our best to fulfill
our promises, but we falter here and there, relying on forgiveness
when we break our promises. |
| But God makes everlasting covenants. God makes eternal promises.
God’s word is radically different from our own. I’m
talking about the whole truth and nothing but the truth. A covenant
kept forever! We are called to believe God’s promises
in an era where truth is accepted only as I know it or as you
know it personally, not by faith alone. |
| But sneaking into our promise-perceiving limitations creeps
one hard to dodge question, based on faith alone. “Is
anything too wonderful for the Lord?” |
| “No!” We respond. We know this answer only through
faith, and in faith our limitations dissolve through the gift
of grace so we can believe the unbelievable. We know the answer,
and like Sarah, we want to deny like crazy that we ever doubted
God. |
| Then we remember more of the story. We remember through the
scriptures that we are receivers of the promise. God’s
promises are radically different from our own. We are not the
ones God’s promises depend on. Our doubts go along with
our human nature and often lead us closer to God in the end.
Promise fulfillment is God’s nature, God’s work. |
| “Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it
to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him…and
they said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning
within us.’” In remembering we receive and then
we are called on to share the promise. |
| In both scripture passages, after knowing God’s promise
fulfilled, after receiving, Sarah, Abraham, and the disciples
went and shared their stories with others. Abraham and Sarah
proclaimed God’s promise fulfilled in Isaac, whose is
named “Laughter” as God promised. The two disciples
hiked back to Jerusalem to proclaim God’s promise fulfilled
in their risen Lord. Looking back led to proclamation of their
reaffirmed hope in God. Faith and doubt collided and God’s
promises were fulfilled nonetheless. |
| Borrowing a line from Sarah, “Who would have said that
Sarah would nurse children?” Only God, the maker of everlasting
covenants. No one else knew it was possible. |
| To hear God’s promises we have to be willing to share
the story of God at work in the world. Our affirmations of faith
are encouraged by hearing the good news in the scriptures, and
by sharing the unique ways God has upheld our individual lives.
When we look back and then share, what was unknown is made known.
This is what Augustine sought to do in his famous spiritual
memoir Confessions. Augustine felt the pieces of his story of
faith only made sense when held in tension with the larger Christian
narrative of God’s steadfastness in fulfilling promises. |
| You and I hardly know each other. Building up human trust
takes time. Our level of trust with one another is not the most
important part of today. The most important thing for the life
of this church is for all of us to place our trust in God and
what God might bring about through the Holy Spirit. Only God
knows where God will take us together. The future of Central
Presbyterian Church is wide open. Remembering and learning from
our past should remind us that we are not in control of the
future. We are called to claim God’s promises as our hope.
That we are justified by faith through grace alone. That because
God loves the cosmos beyond the limits of our understanding
we are called to love every neighbor, every enemy, and all creation
as well. That the Spirit will continually call us together to
be the one body of our living Lord Jesus, picking us up and
knitting us together when we stumble. Promises! Promises! Through
faith we know God’s promises will be fulfilled! |
| Amen |
| Beth E. Godfrey - June 26, 2005 |
| Central Presbyterian Church, Geneseo, New
York |
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