December 30th, 2024 - "Epiphany Scripture Surprises: A Visit From God" - Rev. Dr. T. Ray Wheeler

Matt Nelson: Welcome to the sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

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Rev. Dr. T. Ray Wheeler: So this morning we are kicking off a new sermon series

called Epiphany Scripture Surprise.

Epiphany is the sort of surprise time of the year.

And so Pastor Michelle designed this series, and I'm lucky I get to kick

off the very first one, but it's the scriptures in the Bible that have

surprised us and have changed our thinking about a relationship with God.

And one of the things I realized when I came to a church that went through

a liturgy and followed the lectionary was that I, growing up in a church

that did not, it was a wonderful church and a loving church and I learned a

lot, but I realized I don't know about a third of the Bible really well.

I can probably, it'd be the King James Version, but I can quote

a lot of the Bible really well.

But there are lots of stories, as Pastor Michelle said,

there's a lot of strange things.

Nobody, it turns out, preached on the strange things.

So now that I learned, oh, there's some really odd stories in the Bible,

and how do we make sense of those?

So that's what this series is about.

So my surprise story comes from Genesis chapter 18, verse 1 through 15.

Genesis 18:1–15

Listen for the word of God contained in this holy scripture.

The Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre.

While he sat at the entrance of his tent in the day's heat, he looked up and

suddenly saw three men standing near him.

As soon as he saw them, he ran from his tent entrance to

greet them and bowed deeply.

He said, sirs, if you'd be so kind, don't just pass by your servant,

let a little water be brought so that you may wash your feet and

refresh yourselves under the tree.

Let me offer you a little bread so that you'll feel stronger.

And after that, you may leave your servant and go on your way since

you have visited your servant.

And they responded, fine, do just as you've said.

So Abraham hurried to Sarah at the tent and said, Hurry, knead three seeds of the

finest flour and make some baked goods.

Abraham ran to the cattle, took a healthy young calf, and gave it to his

young servant who prepared it quickly.

Then Abraham took butter, milk, and the calf that had been prepared, put

the food in front of them, and stood under the tree near them as they ate.

They said to Sam, Where is your wife Sarah?

And he said, Right here in the tent.

Then one of the men said, I will definitely return to you about

this time next year, then your wife Sarah will have a son.

Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.

Now Abraham and Sarah were both very old.

Sarah was no longer menstruating.

So Sarah laughed to herself thinking, I am no longer able to

have children and my husband is old.

The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, me give birth at my age?

Is anything too difficult for the Lord?

When I return to you about this time next year, Sarah will have a son.

Sarah lied and said, I didn't laugh because she was frightened.

But he said, no, you laughed.

This is the word of God for us, the people of God.

I'd love it if you'd have just a moment of prayer with me this morning.

Holy God, we are thankful for the gift of surprising scripture.

Open our minds and hearts to receive the message you have for us today.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Many Christmases ago now, I intercepted a letter to Santa

from my oldest child, Nathan.

I did check with him that I could tell this story.

So Nathan was about, oh, probably kindergarten, first grade, very young.

And in his Christmas list to Santa, he said he had listed a

pair of socks and a lump of coal.

I didn't say anything to him because I'm not supposed to see that letter, right?

But I did hear him tell his mother, I asked Santa for socks and a lump of

coal, so if I get socks and a lump of coal this year, I'll know Santa's real.

Unfailing logic.

So on Christmas morning, young Nathan ran to his stocking, and

sure enough, he found a pair of plain black socks and a Kingsford

charcoal briquette in his stocking.

Santa came through for Nathan.

All was well for another year.

I don't remember exactly when I first read this Bible story.

I believe I was still in my, is this story true or not struggles.

I think I was in my teens.

I used to have this habit of just opening the Bible at random and reading.

That's a little bit of how I found out, oh, there's some stuff

in here that I don't know about.

I do remember clearly thinking how strange this story was.

Abraham's sitting in the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, and

he sees three beings in the woods.

So my question is, three what?

Three men?

Is this God in three men?

Is this angels?

What are these beings?

And the opening sentence of the story uses the Hebrew term Yahweh, the one God.

So the opening sentence is, Yahweh visited Abraham.

But then the second sentence of the story uses the Hebrew word for humankind.

Abraham looked up and saw three men.

And to complicate this story further, when Abraham goes out and greets the men

and bows low, he uses the Hebrew word for a human king or head of a household.

Of course, this was what I was initially interested in.

This is what captured my imagination as I read the first story.

What is this?

Abraham looks up and sees these three beings, and it's easy to think, ah, three.

What would that symbolize?

Hmm.

Maybe a Holy Trinity?

And then I'm thinking, why would this mean anything to Abraham approximately

2, 000 years before Christ is born?

A Holy Trinity doesn't mean anything to him.

And then I think, is this an Easter egg for Christians after Christ?

The Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann suggests the ambiguity

of the visitors is the point.

It heightens the excitement of the tale.

These visitors might be God, they might be angels, they might be wise humans.

That point, that's irrelevant.

The point of the story is revelation.

The first part of the story is a rush of activities around Abraham.

He sets a feast for the visitors.

Abraham's exceedingly deferential to the visitors, and he stands

like an unctuous and overzealous waiter while these beings eat.

This part of the tale wants us to focus on the fact that something

important is going to be revealed here.

And the second half of the tale The pace slows down and allows

for dramatic pronouncement.

And the focus is on the visitors.

After asking where Sarah is, Abraham's wife, shouldn't God know that?

We get this revelation.

One of the visitors says to Abraham, I will definitely return to you

in about a year's time, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son.

And Sarah, who is an old woman, married to an old man, cannot

help herself, and she laughs.

Before we are too hard on Sarah, we have to remember that in the chapter just

previous in the 17th chapter, God appears to Abraham, tells him the same thing,

and he falls on his face and laughs.

He says, can a child be born to a hundred year old man

married to a 90 year old woman?

It's a sensible question.

Surprise.

This story really turns out to be about doubt.

The 16th century reformer John Calvin calls Abraham and Sarah's faith defective.

Not surprisingly, I think Calvin is being too judgy right here.

To be fair, God did come to dinner and tell them what was going to

happen, but still all signs pointed to a continuation of barrenness.

Something that Abraham and Sarah had accepted, they'd grown

accustomed to this barrenness.

This would unseat their whole world.

So what does this story of doubt tell us today?

I think the message of this story is, faith is hard.

I think that's the message of the whole Abrahamic tale.

Again, Brueggemann puts it this way: faith is not easy.

It calls for persistence, which is against common sense.

It calls for believing in a gift from God, which none of the

present data can substantiate.

The 20th century theologian Paul Tillich defined faith as ultimate concern.

And for Abraham and Sarah, having a child is the ultimate concern

and a seeming impossibility.

The important question comes after God calls Sarah out for laughing.

He said, you did laugh, but is there anything too hard for the Lord?

Most of the translations I looked at said, is there anything

too wondrous for the Lord?

We might say that God's specialty is arriving miraculously after the

all hope is lost part of the story.

If you think about it, faith really can't be faith unless it seems

like the situation is hopeless.

Easy miracles aren't very inspiring.

This question is at the very heart, not only of this

passage, but of all scripture.

Is God, God?

Or are there things too big for God?

Now, we shouldn't take the wrong message here.

This idea is not to be viewed as our wish list.

We would like this.

We would like that.

God can do all things, but God will only do the things that serve God's purpose.

And we see this dramatically in the Gospel of Mark with Christ

himself in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In the gospel of Mark, Christ prays, Father, all things are possible to thee.

If it be thy will, let this cut pass from me.

So God could, but didn't remove the pain and the shame of the cross from Christ.

We also must know that God will answer on God's own time, not on our time.

We can ask Sarah and Abraham about God's time when God first

appeared to Abraham and pronounced that he was going to have a son.

Abraham was 75 years old, a young, sprightly, 75 year old.

When this story happens, Abraham is 100.

What's required for us is to have faith in the face of a hopeless situation.

So what is your hopeless situation this morning?

What is your ultimate concern?

What faith comes down to is believing against all good common

sense and all relevant data that God can, and that is not easy.

Again, Bruegelman says our story does not present a casual triumphalism that

simply believes everything is possible because of the character of God.

Everything is possible.

For those who stay in the dark night of barrenness with God, for

Abraham and Sarah, there is no simple or painless route to an heir.

We can think ahead in Genesis to chapter 22, when Abraham is called on by God

to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, his only heir, and we see the truth of this.

So where does this leave us this morning?

Having faith is hard.

And even the superheroes of the Bible had doubts.

God will answer our prayers on God's own time and in God's own way.

And even when God answers our prayers, things may still be hard.

And yet, God wants us to pray and offer our ultimate concerns and our

impossible situations to God, and have faith that God can do all things.

This is the world.

Christians are called to in this world, the lost cause on God's time will win.

And maybe, just maybe, God will show up at our tent for tea and revelation.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

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