So have you felt it yet? That little stirring deep within that keeps telling you, I gotta do something.
I think you know what I'm talking about, not just because I’ve been preaching about it for the last few weeks but because as a Christian, God's spirit dwells within you and so you see the world a little bit differently. You can see its brokenness more clearly and you see each person as a life that matters to God . . . and as you see the world through the lens of God's grace . . . His Spirit stirs within you and you think to yourself . . . I gotta do something.
But so often, we tend to find every reason why we shouldn't follow that stirring.
• Now is not the time . . . I'm too busy with life. When things slow down then I'll do it.
• My family comes first . . . when my kids grow up then I'll do it.
• Who am I to do something like that . . . I'll just hand that one off to the profession Christians and they can start a program in the church.
• Or perhaps some of you are just paralyzed by perfection.
What I hope you’ve heard over the past few weeks is that God values faith. And I think he gets a little fired up when you follow that stirring and step out in faith and just do something.
It doesn't have to be big, it doesn't have to be perfect . . . it just needs to be done in faith.
But what about those times when you do step out in faith, you do take the risk but after months, even years of walking this journey of faith . . . there don’t seem to be any results? Things didn't turn out the way you envisioned they would. And honestly, you're just tired.
What happens then? Do we throw in the towel? Do you give up? Do you just walk away, thinking "well I guess I was wrong about that one".
What the writer of Hebrews is saying to those early believers who, like many of us, are struggling with faith; what it means and how it works itself out in your life is when things is . . .
• When things get a little difficult . . . and that will happen.
• When things don’t go exactly as you planned . . . and that will happen.
• When things don’t move as quickly as you think they should . . . and that will happen.
Don’t give up. Don't tap out. Don’t lose sight of who God is and what he has called you to do because who you become on the journey is just as important as the journey itself.
And today we continue to look at the lives of Abraham and Sarah who were at retirement age when God gave them a promise of a son and land. In fact, they were told that their descendants will be as numerous as the stars.
And now, it’s been twenty-four years since they ripped up their entire lives to set out on this journey of faith . . . so you would think that by now they would be enjoying retirement in their new land, chilling out in their recliners, watching their favorite TV shows while their promised son took care of them but instead they are out in the middle of nowhere, without the son or the land.
They were faithful but it seems that they have nothing to show for it but remember, who you become on the journey is just as important as the journey itself. God had been using those 24 years to refine and shape and prepare these two senior citizens to receive his promises.
And as we enter the story today, Abraham is hanging out at the entrance to his tent, when out of the corner of his eye he sees three men standing nearby. They seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and something strange stirs deep within Abraham when he sees them, something like fear, but not quite. It’s more like excitement and anticipation.
He gets up and rushes over to where they stand and speaks to the one who seems to be their leader: Let me get you some water so you can wash you feet and rest under this tree and let me get you something to eat so you can be refreshed and then go on your way.
When they agree to accept his hospitality, he hurries into the tent and tells Sarah to make some bread and then he runs out to his herd, picks out one of his best, most tender calves and orders a servant to slaughter it and cook it. He then brings some hors d'oeuvres for his guests to enjoy as they wait for the bread and meat to cook.
The three men eat silently for a while as Abraham stands watching them, trying to understand the feeling he has in their presence. Then they speak, asking him where his wife, Sarah, is.
Abraham says, “There, in the tent.”
Then the leader speaks, and Abraham knows the reason for his butterflies. This is no man, and no stranger; this is the One he had heard speak to him the year before. This is the One who promised him and Sarah a son. This is the Lord!
“Then the LORD said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son’ ” (Gen. 18:10).
Well, Sarah had been eavesdropping on the conversation and when she hears the man say that she was going to have a son, she has to stifle her reaction.
She has heard that story before; for the last twenty-four years, to be exact. But now she is in her nineties, and Abraham is nearly one hundred years old. She has long since given up on the hope.
It hurt for a while to wait and not to receive. Then the hurt turned to anger, and the anger to cold resignation. So she was probably surprised at what she feels now. When she hears the seemingly empty promise again, it strikes her as . . . well, funny . . . and she begins to laugh.
She is still holding her hand over her mouth when the man talking to her husband asks, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ ”
And before she can crawl away to the back of the tent and hide, he continues: “Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”
Terrified at what is happening, she shouts from inside the tent, “I did not laugh.” Without even turning in her direction, the stranger says, “Yes, you did laugh” (Gen. 18:13-15).
What is the meaning of Sarah’s laugh? Or, for that matter, what makes any of us laugh?
This may come to you as a surprise but a lot of people have debated this question and a lot of theories have emerged but there seems to be two elements that are always present in what makes something funny; incongruity and surprise.
Incongruity is when there is a contradiction between what is being said and what is reality. When something goes against our expectations.
Two fish in a tank. One turns to the other and says: “Do you know how to drive this?”
The set-up line leads us to think about two fish in a fish tank. But the punch line surprises us – why should the fish be able to drive a fish tank? Then, a split second later, we suddenly realize that the word ‘tank’ has two meanings, and that the fish are actually in an army tank . . . now, that 's funny.
Surprise is when someone or something enters the story that is totally unexpected.
Incongruity and surprise should go together to make a really good joke but . . . it is possible to have humor that deals only with incongruity and is completely without surprise.
That is Sarah’s humor. She can laugh at the unexpected, an old woman, having one foot in the grave and the other in a maternity ward . . . well, that's funny.
But she expects no surprises from God . . . the idea that he can do something totally unexpected doesn't even cross her mind, and as a result, her laugh is bitter and cynical.
But I think that sometimes this kind of humor is a prelude to a deeper faith because it helps us from taking ourselves too seriously.
If you've ever had a day when everything was going wrong, and at the end of the day you just sit back and laugh at the incongruity of what you wanted to happen and what actually happened-then you know what I mean. Sometimes all you can do . . . is laugh.
But when it happens over and over and over, it's not so funny . . . right?
But it's here, when we see the incongruity of our lives . . . when things don't turn out the way you envisioned they would. When you've been trying to do everything you can to leave your mark in this world but nothing is sticking and when you've been on a long journey of faith but there don't seem to be any results and honestly, now you're just tired . . .
It's in that moment, that moment of bitter laughter . . . when we are open to faith.
When Sarah laughs, she is laughing the laugh of despair that will not see anything but the ultimate incongruity of her life. Her long waiting has sapped her of her humor.
That is why God’s response to Sarah has such force.
When he says to her, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” he is inviting her to have a really good laugh and let surprise back into her life.
He invites us to do the same. It is only when our sense of the incongruity of our lives meets God’s great surprise of grace and promise that we are enabled to live our lives with the hilarity he intended. There’s a version of pop psychology whose slogan is “I’m OK, You’re OK.” With the gospel, it is different: it is “I’m Not OK, You’re Not OK, But It’s OK!”
“Is anything too hard for God?” That is an overwhelming and shattering question. It demands an answer.
• Answer yes and the world is shut down, the universe is closed, and God is no longer God: benevolent, maybe; kindly and concerned, perhaps; but as powerless as we are in the face of our cosmic incongruity.
• Answer “No, there is nothing that is too hard for God,” and you and the world are in his hands and the possibilities are endless. He is radically free to keep his promises, despite the odds against it.
But beware. When his surprise completes your incongruity, you had better be ready to be shaken out of your customary, stable, reliable existence.
Sarah will go through a pregnancy in her nineties, and worse, her son’s adolescence when she is over one hundred!
The question is, do we really want to believe that with God there is nothing that is impossible? For if we do believe that, then we can no longer be content to keep on living our lives as though business were normal. Wild and crazy things can happen and usually do.
As we wait, it is critical that we keep our sense of humor in the fullest meaning of that word. When laughter goes, so does hope. When God reaffirms his promise to Abraham and Sarah, he restores not only their faith, but their ability to laugh as well. One goes with the other. Only the laughers can believe. Only the believers can laugh. The only thing worse than waiting is waiting without laughing.