In God’s Time

Imagine with me a birthday cake with 99 candles, all lit at the same time, carried in shaking hands by frail arms and placed in front of Abram by his loving wife, Sarai, who is not a lot younger at 89. Hagar is at the party, and the tension between her and Sarai is palpable. Hagar is Sarai’s. She was one of the servants that they acquired in Egypt. And when it comes to Hagar, once again, Abram and Sarai have known the truth that nothing that they gained in Egypt comes to any good. Ishmael, her son with Abram, was there too, 13 years old and soon to be a man. It wasn’t the life Abram and Sarai had planned, but they trusted God and tried to help make God’s plan work out.

Abram and Sarai, were half-brother and sister, married as soon as they were old enough. They loved each other, but life had gotten complicated, and now their family included two extras. Sure, they hadn’t expected these strained relationships, when they had tried to help God’s plan work out, but here they were, singing “Happy Birthday” together with an Egyptian maidservant and her son with Abram.

So, what brought these two to this point?

Sarai and Abram had followed God’s call and left their home in Ur 25 birthdays ago. God had promised to bless them, to make Abram into a great nation. But, year after year, Sarai remained barren. It’s 5 chapters in Genesis, but it was 25 years of their lives, and they had gone from being old enough that it seemed impossible to so old they couldn’t imagine having a baby.

I love the way John Ortberg points out how absurd it would be to have a “baby being born in a neonatal unit with Medicare picking up the tab….Sarah will be the only one in the grocery store buying Pampers and Depends for the same family; because they are all eating Gerber baby food since there is not a single tooth in the family…when they go out for a walk, everybody uses a walker.”

They weren’t nearly as frail when they first left Ur. At the time, Lot, Abram’s nephew, who came with them, was there to carry on the family name and business, to inherit the blessing if Abram died. But when they left Egypt, they had too many animals to live close to one another. Then it seemed that Abraham’s estate would be inherited by someone who was not even a relative, his head servant, Eliezer. But God’s word came to Abram in a vision and said that Abram would have a son who would be his heir. And God covenanted with Abram that his descendants would be as abundant as the stars in the night sky.

Ten years went by, living in Canaan, the place of living in synch with God, after they left Egypt, and still no heir. Then, Abram and Hagar had a child together, Ishmael. And the pressure was off, now at 86, Abram had a son to be heir. But as soon as Hagar knew she was going to have a baby, she turned on Sarai with patronizing haughtiness.

And now, there are 99 candles and 4 at the party. Again, God comes to Abram and promises that he will become the root of a huge family tree of multiple nations. He will no longer go by the name “Abram.” His new name will mean “Father of a great multitude of nations,” Abraham. Abraham and his descendants will be circumcised to demonstrate their commitment to this covenant with God. And while Abraham, at 99, is absorbing this instruction, God goes on to say that this covenant applies to Sarai as well. Her new name will be Sarah, meaning “princess” and she will be the mother of nations to come. Kings of many peoples will be counted among children. She will be the mother of Abraham’s son.

The translation of the Bible called “The Voice” translation perhaps captures best Abraham’s response to God. “Then Abraham fell on his face and erupted into laughter in a moment of private absurdity, as he thought to himself, “Yeah, right! How can a centenarian father a child? Am I supposed to believe that Sarah, my 90-year-old wife is going to have a baby?” It’s already taken care of, God, I have an heir, Ishmael, let him receive your blessing. “Everything is reasonably ok. Ishmael is a fine boy. He will do….That will be good enough!”(Garland and Garland)

To which God replies, “No. I mean what I am telling you. You and Sarah are going to have a son. Name him after your reaction to my plan, Isaac, [ in Hebrew Isaac means “he laughs”]. You didn’t think the day would ever come, did you? And now I tell you the time has come, and you laugh! Through him and his descendants, my covenant will last forever. I will bless Ishmael too, and make his descendants plentiful. But my special covenant will be established through Isaac. He will be born this time next year.

Abraham is lying, face down in the floor, laughing that hysterical laugh that hardly lets you breathe. And we will get to Sarah’s story next week, but as you know, when she hears the news that she is having a baby, she laughs too.

Presbyterian minister and theologian, Frederick Buechner, was particularly drawn to this story. He referred to it in several of his books. In one of them he writes, “Sarah was never going to see ninety again, and Abraham had already hit one hundred, and when the angel told them that the stork was on its way at last, they both of them almost collapsed. Abraham laughed “till he fell on his face” (Genesis 17:17), and Sarah stood cackling behind the tent door so the angel wouldn’t think she was being rude as the tears streamed down her cheeks…Sarah and her husband had had plenty of hard knocks in their time, and there were plenty more of them still to come, but at that moment when the angel told them they’d better start dipping into their old-age pensions for cash to build a nursery, the reason they laughed was that it suddenly dawned on them that the wildest dreams they’d ever had hadn’t been half wild enough.”

In God’s time, they would be parents, the patriarch and matriarch of God’s people. God would use them at 100 and 90 to begin anew. When God leads us, we aren’t given a project timeline or a punch sheet. We don’t have a map, and we can’t type the destination into our smart phone.

“Ben Patterson tells of a common experience of westerners, particularly missionaries, traveling through jungle sections of the Amazon. They will ask members of a village to give them directions to where they want to go. ‘I have a compass, a map, and some coordinates.’
The villager knows precisely the directions to get them there, but he offers to take them himself.
‘No, that’s okay. I don’t want a guide. I just want directions.’
‘That’s no good. I must take you there.’
‘But I have a map right here. And I have a compass. And the coordinates.’
‘It does not work that way. I can get you there, but I must take you myself. You must follow me.’

We prefer directions…steps….We prefer these things because they leave us in control. If I’m holding the map, I’m still in charge of the trip. I can go where I want to go. If I have a guide, I must trust. I must follow. I must relinquish control.

God isn’t much on maps and compasses and coordinates.” God prefers dreams – wild dreams that can only be reached when God guides us.

Rev. Jean Hansen warns “Who knows where God will lead us? Like Abraham and Sarah we move into the unknown. At such a time it’s easy to become overwhelmed and get stuck in what I call the ‘Yeah, buts…’ For Abraham and Sarah it was ‘Yeah, but, we are too old for babies.’”

What about us, as we follow God, are we careful to avoid getting stuck in the “Yeah, buts…”?

What are the wild dreams we have at Farmington? Every person using their gifts, involved in the mission and ministry of the church, continuing to know each other like a small congregation does even as we grow in number, renovating and expanding our facilities to better serve and worship, … What wild dreams do you have? Are they wild enough? If they don’t make you say ‘Yeah, but…’ they probably aren’t.

What about your life, your career, your family? What are the wild dreams you have in your life? Being debt free, a new adventure in purpose, the healing of a relationship, recovery from illness or loss,… What wild dreams do you have? Are they wild enough? Do they make you laugh? If they don’t, they may not be wild enough.

A frail, loving wife holds the cake, trembling slightly, “Blow out the candles, Abraham, there are so many it looks like the whole cake is on fire.” Sarah notices how their flame reflects in his eyes like the night stars. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that there would be another child at his next birthday party, a son, her son, Abraham’s heir.