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Stephen Ministry

On this Father’s Day, I think it is no coincidence that the lectionary passage for today is about Abram, the father of all times. It is about promises made to Abram and Sarai, later renamed Abraham and Sarah; a couple in their latter years who had more life to live than expected. Perhaps you remember the opening story of Abraham in Genesis. Like all of us, he was called by God in unique ways, with specific gifts, that equipped him for what he was to do and who he was to become.

One day God called Abraham to leave his hometown, the place of Ur where he was born and all his family resided. It was the only place he ever knew, and now in his old age God had called him to give it all up, pack up his family, his animals, his tents, and move to a foreign land. Now Ur was located south of Bagdad in southern Iraq, close to the place where the Euphrates and Tigres Rivers merge.

It was here that the Garden of Eden was thought to have been. It was in this beautiful place that Abraham had his encounter with God. Called out of his world of familiarity, if he agreed, God promised him wealth, power, and many descendants. Abraham was called not just to father his own children, but to father a new nation.

Now we might wonder about Abraham’s response to all this. But the scripture says only, "So Abram went as the Lord had told him." A pretty astounding response when asked to leave everything familiar, to follow a God he was just getting to know, to a place he had never been, wouldn’t you say?

If you haven’t spent much time in Genesis, I encourage you to get a contemporary translation like The Message, and step into the rich stories of families much like ours today. There are stories of weddings, travel and extraordinary births. There are stories of devastating barrenness, adultery and deaths; and tantalizing tidbits of family business gone awry.

The stories of Abraham and Sarah and their descendants, are rich in family lore too. There are times of deceit and revenge; times of suffering and hopelessness. And there were times of blessings and unsurpassable joy; not unlike ours. In it all, God was teaching them and the people, that this God was not like any other. God had a plan in mind, not just for Abraham but for all people. It is a story told both then and now.

So Abraham and Sarah headed out, hand in hand, with all their belongings, and in exchange God promised them, the blessings of land and wealth, of ancestors and offspring, in an uncharted journey of faith.

The years passed and God’s promise of giving them their own child seemed no longer a reality. In those days children were a sign of security for the parents. To be without children was a devastating and hopeless situation, particularly in a desert culture, where death was swift and certain without protection. It seemed to them that God’s promise was broken. How could they possibly have descendants without their own offspring?

Now Sarah, not one to sit around, was scared and took the matter into her own hands. She arranged for her own form of invitro fertilization between her servant, Haggar and Abraham. Because Haggar was her servant, the child, Ishmael, would be Sarah’s property. If God wasn’t going to come through, then something had to be done.

But God does not disregard promises, even though Abraham and Sarah had given up hope. So now, years later, on this particular day, Abraham was about to experience an unexpected visit that would change his life forever. It was around noon, the sun was hot, as it was every day in the desert. Abraham had come back from the fields to enjoy the midday meal in the shade. Sitting alongside his tent, nodding drowsily in the gentle breeze, he was startled to see three strangers coming towards him out of nowhere.

Abraham leapt to his feet and bowed deeply in welcome. Unlike our culture, where we are suspicious with an unfamiliar face at our door, nomads are dependent on each other’s hospitality. In order to survive such harsh conditions, hospitality is an essential survival custom honored by all.

Abraham is no exception. He offers a lavish meal and rest under the Mamre tree that provides the only shade for miles around. A calf, reserved only for guests, is prepared and Sarah makes fresh bread, Soon the visitors have had their fill and they announce the purpose of their visit. They have come bearing a birth announcement. Abraham and Sarah will, at long last, have a child of their own!

It is an extraordinary moment to be sure. Sarah has been barren all these years and now in their nineties, well past childbearing years, they are to become parents? Impossible! And Sarah laughs at the thought of it. But this day Abraham does not laugh. He remembers the promise God gave them, nearly 25 years earlier. They would have offspring and many descendants. As he peers at the visitors he has a strange sense of who they are.

Could it be? After all these years of suffering without children; of people pitying them, of their hopes being dashed, of their safety threatened; could it really be that God’s promise would come to fruition? Could this really happen at this unlikely time in their lives? Abraham wonders and Sarah laughs, but the visitor questions: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

Remember these words for they are words of hope and promise. They are words of security and protection. We must remember and repeat them. What are the words? ("Is anything too hard for the Lord?")for their truth rings true not only in Scripture, but indeed in our lives. The unexpected arrives at our door. The impossible happens to us. The hopeless can change to hopeful. What are those words? (Is anything too hard for the Lord?)Truly, nothing is too hard, too impossible, for God to do; for God alone is God.

Promises are serious business. They are about relationship. They are about integrity. They are about trust. Without them, relationships are shaky. When trust is broken the relationship is at serious risk. Even the smallest promises made to another, are critically important to keep, not for what was promised as much as for the relationship, that is precious. It is the model God gives us to stay connected with others. If a promise cannot be kept, it must be explained and made right with the one to whom it was promised.

Here in these stories of Abraham and Sarah, God is teaching the people the importance of promise. The Biblical word here is covenant. God makes a covenant with Abraham and keeps it and God makes a covenant with us, for the purpose of being in relationship with us. God is teaching us the importance of how to make covenants and keep them. It is our pathway to long lasting and meaningful relationships.

As parents we make promises to our children in word and deed. We show up when we say we will, or make other arrangements. We provide protection and safety for them each day in ways they can trust. We do what we say we are going to do, because without trust or security in our developing years a child can grow up psychologically damaged. Consider the marriage where one doesn’t value trust or integrity. Closeness is damaged and eventually destroyed. Think about the employee who cheats on his timecard. He is an object of doubt and suspicion by his supervisor. Remember the friend who has lied to you. The relationship is broken. It seems hopeless. But then we remember the words Is anything to hard for the Lord?

Do you remember, as children, when we were promising something important? We would say "Cross my heart and hope to die". It was a faith promise made by crossing our hearts as a promise of sincerity, even being willing to die before breaking trust. As children we didn’t know the intent, but we were learning about promise making.

Promises are important. It is not the promise itself as much as whom we are becoming each time we are faithful. It is becoming worthy of relationship. Words don’t mean much if behavior doesn’t match our words.

During any election year, the newspaper headlines concerning our nation’s political and corporate leadership, are full of carefully prepared statements and lots of promises. But those words are meaningless if we cannot trust the one who says them. If they deceived us in the past, or we perceive they are not trustworthy, we will be reluctant to trust them now. More than occasionally, we read of hard-working people hoping trusting the words of Wall Street analysts as they make investments, only to discover later that these same analysts were endorsing corporations they knew to soon be crumbling into bankruptcy. Trust is broken.

The story of Abraham is proof that we can trust God. In fact, God is in the business of making promises and keeping them. God promised if Abraham would follow God to a foreign land, he would be blessed more than he had ever known. And he was. He was promised a son and Ishamel was born. In addition, he and Sarah were promised their own son, and Isaac was born. They were promised offspring and many descendants, wealth and happiness and that too became a reality.

There is a familiar story about MLK during the civil rights movement where God’s promise to be with us sustained him. As a young pastor, only one year into his ministry he was asked to be a community leader in this effort.

Shortly after he agreed, ML King started receiving phone calls threatening his life and the lives of his wife and first child. The threats escalated and one night an unidentified caller ordered him to leave town in three days or risk having his home firebombed. Unable to sleep, King went into the kitchen hoping to find some relief in a warm cup of coffee. He sat at his kitchen table wrestling with the meaning of his present crisis and came face-to-face with the fact that he could lose his newborn daughter or wife at any moment.

Looking deep within himself, King bowed his head and prayed, "Lord I’m down here trying to do what’s right. I think I’m right. I think the cause we represent is right. But I’m weak now. I’m faltering and I’m losing my courage." At that moment King heard a voice saying, "Stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth and ‘Lo, I will be with you always, even till the end of the world."’ It was the promise. From then on, King was sustained by God’s promise to be with him. He did what he had to do and trusted God through it all. And again, we remember those words for us: Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

These are words of hope for us too. They are promises revisited, not because God forgot, but because we did.

On this Father’s Day, regardless of our own father, we all have Abraham as our forefather. Abraham, set the example for fatherhood. Believe in God and bring up your children to follow God with you. Keep your promises to them and to others. Uphold what is right and God will go before you preparing the way.

If we hang onto God, God will hang onto us. Abraham dared to trust God to lead the way. He dared to be faithful, fair, and kind, when others were not. He dared to stand for integrity and honesty, when other ways were easier. He dared to believe even when things appeared impossible. He learned to trust God without all the answers in advance, and so can we.

Amen