Sunday, June 18, 2023
/The Third Sunday after Pentacost
Genesis 18: 1-15, 21: 1-7; Psalm 116: 1, 10-17; Romans 5: 1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:23
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Nothing is too difficult for God. That’s my sermon. That’s it. Everything I else I intend to say is just icing on the cake to that one irrefutable point: nothing to too difficult for God. Nothing is. There is no problem in your life at this very moment that is too big for God to handle.
Scripture today illustrates this point for us in greater detail in the story of Abraham and Sarah we encounter in the reading from Genesis. In this reading, the Lord appears to Abraham and Sarah in the guise of three visitors, three men. “Who were these visitors?” you may be wondering. Is God one among the three visitors or is God somehow symbolized in all three of them tighter?
Did the visitors represent the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? The Bible does not offer an answer to that question, nor do I. The point is that God, speaking through these visitors tells Abraham and his wife Sarah that when they return in one year’s time, Sarah will give birth to a son.
This message – that Abraham and Sarah would have a son was confirmed by God time and time again (in 15:4, 17:16, and in 18:10). Again, in Scripture this is the third time Abraham and Sarah are told this news. Like with Abraham and Sarah, you can expect God to speak to you about major matters in your life again and again.
Sarah’s response to the visitor’s claim that she would deliver a baby at an older age was what? Laughter. The Hebrew word for laughter is “sahaq.” Sarah laughs at this news that she is to become a mother, because she is well beyond the biological age to deliver a child. And God responds with this question: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” From this story derives the name of Abraham and Sarah’s child Yitzhak (related to sahaq, the word for laughter). In English, Isaac.
We are all living hard, challenging lives. Lives that are fraught with bewilderment and uncertainty. Perhaps like Sarah, we might find ourselves laughing at the idea that God is in control and that nothing is too difficult for God to accomplish. I have, many times. All of us certainly have felt times that seemed too difficult for God, where God would not heal or provide.
If we honestly feel that our problems are too big for God to manage, we are mistaken. More than likely we are trying to resolve the situation ourselves, an effort which most of the time ends in frustration. If we refuse to turn our problems over to God, then – yes – they will be too difficult for God because we have not invited God to be part of the solution.
When we surrender our most vexing and frustrating problems to God, God will oversee them for us. This is what God seems to love to do – to help us. But God can’t and God won’t unless we allow God into our heart. Abraham and Sarah were willing to do just that.
Truly, nothing is too difficult for God IF we surrender. We must open our hearts. If our heart stays hardened by our own choosing that’s on us. God is gracious, but not intrusive. If we want God to be part of the solution, we must first send out the invitation. AMEN.