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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Old Testament reading regarding Abraham and Sarah and the promise of Isaac. You may be seated.
It has been a very sobering week, has it not? Watching the funeral services of the Dallas police officers, beholding a truck used to destroy and take the lives of all those people in Nice, France. And then to see a coup d’état in a country that’s one of our NATO allies, Turkey. It makes very applicable the words that the Lord spoke to Abraham and Sarah. Very applicable indeed when he said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
When you’re facing such things as the family members… A Lutheran Christian sermon. Abraham and Sarah waited 15 years from the time that the promise was given for them to have Isaac and for God to deliver that promise a year after this statement to Abraham and Sarah. Fifteen years. And during those 15 years, did Abraham and Sarah sit back and patiently wait and keep recounting the promises of God? Is anything too hard for the Lord? No. No. No, they were overwhelmed, just like you and me.
God never stopped his promise of fulfilling that in their life, but they did stop trusting in God. You remember, confronted by Pharaoh and confronted by Abimelech the Philistine, Abraham feared God’s promise being fulfilled. He feared God. Because he thought in his head, “If I don’t lie, then I’ll ensure that I won’t die. And then God’s promise will be fulfilled that someday we’ll give birth.” So he didn’t trust him and said, “She’s my sister,” rather than saying, “She’s my wife.” He lied out of fear and not trusting and not waiting.
Like Martha, he thought the thing that he should do was this. And you and I love decisive people because things get done. We really do not uphold and lift up people who wait because we call them lazy. Well, Sarah’s no different. Sarah got tired of waiting two years after the promise was given and said, “Abraham, take my maidservant Hagar, go into her and have a child by her, and that will be the fulfillment of this promise. I’m going to take this and do something with it rather than sit here and wait.”
That didn’t turn out too well either, did it? Division in the family. God still used that mistake, did he not? And gave the gospel to Hagar and gave the gospel to Ishmael and those people. Though the majority of those people have turned their back on that to this day. But God still used their mistake. Because God is faithful in spite of our faithlessness. And God never breaks nor ever changes his promise.
Is anything… What things are on your mind? What things are you anxious about, concerned about, your heart are filled with and your mind is filled with, and you scurry about and try to posture and fix and act and do in order to be proactive rather than reactive? And what’s God’s promise? Have you stopped and listened to what God’s promise is? Is anything too hard for the Lord?
To whom belongs your cause that causes you sleepless nights and an upset stomach and bowels that are irritable? To whom does that cause belong, yours or God’s? I’ll say it another way. To whom do you belong? To yourself or to God? You were bought at a price, a very magnificent and awe-filled price. In fact, like Abraham and Sarah and the gift of the child of promise Isaac, you are children of promise. You are claimed as God’s remnant. You are set aside and brought together as his people.
But you and I do not allow such trial and tribulation to drive us to prayer. You and I allow such trial and tribulation to act and do, like Abraham and Sarah did, like Martha did. Because that’s what a decisive human being does—act and do, and not wait and pray.
How did that work out for Abraham? Oh yeah. Yeah. Isaac lies to the same culture of the Philistines about his wife Rebecca, fearful of his own death, and lies about her being his sister. Worked out pretty well, didn’t it? Sarah, oh yeah, she drove away Hagar and Ishmael, and she had to live with that for the rest of her life. Yeah, that didn’t work out too well either, did it?
And Martha, oh yeah, though she was the one that was busy at hand, and though she did talk to Christ, she too would have to die for her faith, just like Mary did, and Lazarus. He had to die twice for his faith, didn’t he? You see, no matter how much we do to try to fix what God has given us to endure, God wishes us always to remain quiet and listen at his feet like Mary. He wishes us to stand there and wait like Abraham. Let them eat and let the promises flow from the lips of the Lord.
And what was the promise from the lips of the Lord to Abraham and to Sarah who hid in the tent? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Don’t answer that so quickly, brothers and sisters, because when you and I answer that so quickly, we forget how many things we fret about and are anxious about and worry about and are overwhelmed about.
Remember too, among what kind of people do you and I live in this world? We live among very ungrateful and very evil people. And with what kind of a person do we sleep at night? A very ungrateful and very evil person, ourselves. Let not the fears and uncertainty of them and this world and let not the fears and uncertainties that gurgle up within us infect us like a virus. Sit still. Patiently listen. Hear his faithfulness.
Remember when you were brought upon your mother or father’s lap and they hushed you with their kind words? They wanted you to stay still and be comforted, and be brought to the centralness of his or her love for you. Stay on his lap here. There is no reason why you should ever absent yourself from his lap here. And yet, sometimes that happens, doesn’t it? We have to remain in his lap.
He reveals to you the same promises he revealed to Abraham and Sarah. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Or better yet, for your Lord? And sitting on his lap, we have no other answer. But you’re right, there isn’t.
So whether it is Nice, France, or Turkey, or Dallas, or your house, or your own flesh, in which there is worry, there is worry. Concern, anxiety, hopelessness. Hear what Jesus said to Mary. She has chosen the good portion and the promise. It will not be taken from her. Sit still. It will not be taken from you. Sit still.
How unsearchable are his judgments and inscrutable his ways to those who are his children of promise. That’s you, no matter how difficult. Is there anything too hard for your Lord?
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
