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8th Sunay after PentecostGenesis 18:1-15 & Luke 10: 38-42July 18, 2010 |
8Pentecost2010 Genesis 18:1-15 & Luke 10: 38-42 July 18, 2010
Wisdom won out at our Friday Fun Night. Some wrapped S’mores in foil and cooked them, not on Tom’s forehead as he suggested they might – he was hot enough, but over an outside grill as we watched Up inside in our air-conditioned Parish Hall. There’s talk of still hosting a Movie Night in our courtyard, when it’s cool. A favorite part of the evening, along with supporting the Torres Shelter and our Joseph Pantry and just being together, was listening to the children giggle as they sat in beanbag chairs in front of the screen. Nothing’s quite like children giggling.
The movie Up reminds me of today’s story of Abraham and Sarah. If we look at either with rational minds they make us laugh. We laugh when the old men in Up bend over and their bones ache or they try to swing a sword and their backs give out. Abraham and Sarah are old too in Genesis 18 when strangers show up to announce a birth coming to them – and through them! Yah, right! And some think only Sarah laughs, but Abraham laughs first in chapter 17. Sarah laughs in chapter 18. And God gets the last laugh when the birth actually comes.
Up is about the courage to move through discouragements to the newness that is possible. Some things are not possible. It was not possible for the wife, Ellie, to live past her illness. Her body gave out before she got to fulfill her dream of seeing the great waterfall, but her dream lived on to create a life of its own. Likewise, the little boy’s father doesn’t show up in the end like he had hoped, but Carl, a new father-figure, arrives in time to stand in with Russell and the ice cream cone tradition and counting the red and blue cars continues in a fresh new way.
What I find most “up” about the movie Up, isn’t that balloons carry a house through impossible adventures. What I find most “up” is the flexibility of the characters – the flexibility, determination and fortitude to grieve through the endings and disappointments with openness – openness to being convinced over and over that roadblocks can become U-turns rather than dead-ends. The many losses in the movie are felt, but not in such a way that closes off a new future.
As fanciful as the movie is, it’s realistic about unfulfilled dreams, discouragement and even evil being a part of life. It’s also realistic about the future – it may not look like what we imagine or hope for. The future God promises us may not look like what we imagine or hope for either, but God still holds the future even in a world where millions of gallons of oil spill for over 80 days, into otherwise beautiful waters and cause many people to fear and despair. Bad things happen in the world and in our lives, but our loving Creator God is still the God of the future.
Abraham and Sarah had long lived with barrenness. They had no children and from their ancient Middle East standpoint that meant they had no future. The future was only in the hands of their own flesh and blood being carried on. That was how they understood the future in those days. And there was great shame in not being able to provide for your future with a son.
The story in Genesis is a story of God breaking into that hopelessness and making good on the promise of a future. The story uses 3000 year old images, but the message is as relevant as if it were about the Gulf’s oil spill. God’s future is not prevented by human error or disbelief or lack of imagination. Dead-ends can have a U-turn quality to them if we see appropriate grief as preparing us for new life.
As we look closely at the first part of Genesis 18 we see Abraham is the key actor. “The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.” And listen to all these active verbs:
“Abraham looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My Lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by. “Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring bread that you may refresh yourselves, and after you may pass on – since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened to the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.”
Of course he just sat there! He must have been exhausted after all that running around. The story wants us to catch that something profoundly important is about to happen. Abraham sets the stage and then the strangers act. “They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.”
There is is! The announcement of a lifetime! “Sarah shall have a son.” Abraham is dumb founded and doesn’t say another word the rest of the scene. Sarah laughs and talks to herself about the ridiculous suggestion. But the stranger – now identified as the Lord – asks: “Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too wonderful for God?” Then for the first time in this chapter, Sarah speaks out loud, “I did not laugh.” But the Lord argued, “Oh yes, you did laugh.” And we would have too.
The promises of God are no less announced for us, yet how easy it is to doubt them. If someone would have told Carl ahead of time in the movie that his house would be carried by balloons to a far off waterfall and he would become a loving father-figure for a lonely boy and would be befriended by a dog and save an endangered bird from extinction – he would have fallen into a belly laugh.
What appeared to Sarah and Abraham as a laughing matter turns out to point to the Gospel truth about how God works in our world and in our lives. As a birth announcement, Genesis parallels Luke’s announcement of Jesus. Mary was no more likely to have a baby than Sarah was – but God, the maker of heaven and earth, is the very God who turns barrenness into unimagined fruitfulness. That is the message of the Bible, Old Testament and New.
We gather in worship to give thanks to God who announces over and over again that the future is open. “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” “And now to him who by the power at work among us is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think.” Light shatters darkness; life transcends death; dead-ends become U-turns as we take time to grieve the old and find courage to welcome the new.
Nothing shows this more clearly than the birth announcement of Jesus the Christ. The people had to let go of their former expectations of how God would bring about God’s future in order to recognize that God was doing just that. Like the first century people, and like Sarah and Abraham, we too can find ourselves laughing in disbelief at the promise of our faith. Christ in us? Intimately, daily, freeing us to be Christ’s body in the world? The call to Christians each new day is to not be lost in worry but to be beside ourselves in wonder at the promises of God.
The story of Abraham and Sarah comes home to us because like them, it’s easy to doubt that a birth announcement – even the birth of Christ – can really give us a future and a hope. And that’s why it’s a gift that today’s Gospel from Luke 10 joins this Genesis story. Mary and Martha point us to the one thing needful – attentiveness to the living presence of Christ. The Gospel urges us to follow Mary in sitting at the feet of this announcement – Christ wants to be born anew in our lives – not just in December, but daily.
And we can laugh if we like at this promise, but in Christ our future is wrapped eternally in grace. One thing needful sets the pace.
Amen
+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, CA