Genesis 18:1-15 Matthew 9:35 – 10:8 Romans 5:1-8
If you haven’t occasionally read about such things, there is a territorial dispute between China and the rest of the world in the South China Sea. While everyone typically recognizes a nation’s right to a 12 mile exclusion zone as their territorial waters, in the South China Sea, the nation of China has repeatedly claimed some shallow waters, shoals, and sketchy manmade islands in order to push their claim of territory past what the rest of the world, and international law, recognizes as international shipping lanes. While China and other nations occasionally lift diplomatic and legal protests against one another, sometimes the United States and its allies employ a more… visible demonstration. By that, I refer to what is called a “freedom of navigation” cruise. Because China can, and often does, threaten and bully smaller, neighboring nations like the Philippines, occasionally the British, or the United States, and others with more powerful navies, will deliberately sail several ships through these legally recognized, international waters just because they can, because they want to make a point, and because they know that the small Chinese Coast Guard ships really can’t do anything about it.
While I don’t have anything much to say, politically, about such things, I mention this because it is a real-life demonstration of the principle that while talking and posturing might be important, sometimes a more tangible demonstration is required. And that is what we see God doing as we read today’s scripture lesson. We begin this morning in Genesis 18:1-15, where three men, with God among them, visit Abraham and Sarah, both now well advanced in years, Abraham near one hundred years old and Sarah something over ninety.
18:1 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord,] do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”
“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahsof the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”
7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There, in the tent,” he said.
10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
There is a lot here that we could easily dig into. First, at least two of the three men who appear must be messengers of God, or angels, and one of them may be God in human flesh, because the passage begins by saying that “the Lord appeared to Abraham.” Theologically speaking, this is a theophany, a moment when God appears to humans on earth, but may also be a Christophany, because if we are to understand that Jesus’ role in the trinity is God in human flesh, then this may very well be him, two thousand years before he is born. But we don’t know for sure, so don’t hurt your head trying to understand that.
The point that I want to highlight from this exchange is that God is honoring his promise of children to Abraham and Sarah in the most visible and miraculous way possible. Rather than just allowing them to have children, when ordinary people have children, usually somewhere between the ages of 15 and 45, God allows so much time to pass that even Sarah no longer believes that it is possible. And to be fair, why would she? It becomes increasingly rare for women to have babies after the age of forty, and even rarer if they haven’t already had children. The oldest woman on record to have a baby naturally, is Dawn Brooke, from the United Kingdom, who in 1997, had a healthy baby boy at the age of fifty-nine. But just to be sure that everyone knows that this is a divine miracle, God waits until Sarah is ninety.
A little closer to home is a message that informs our present-day mission and ministry, and that is the story of Jesus sending out his twelve disciples to do ministry without him in Matthew 9:35 – 10:8.
9:35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
10:1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim this message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
Jesus begins by asking the disciples to pray for workers that would go out into the harvest field, but immediately equips, and sends them out into the countryside to do exactly that. First, just as we saw in the story of Abraham, Jesus makes sure that the work of the disciples, raising the dead, healing incurable diseases, and driving out demons will leave no doubt that God is doing miracles. But we cannot miss that when we pray for God to help us do the work of mission and ministry, that the very next step is for us to get our hands dirty and get started doing the work.
And finally, as Paul writes to the church in Rome in Romans 5:1-8, he explains how God has performed a visible and unexpected miracle in each of our lives, saying:
5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
First, Paul reminds us of the message that we heard just last week, that God has justified us through our faith and has given us peace with God through his son Jesus Christ. And it is through Jesus that we have gained access to the grace of God. But the miracle is this: when we were powerless, when we had done nothing to earn the blessings or the grace of God, while we were still the enemies of God, Christ still died for us. The gift that we have been given, purchased at the expense of Jesus’ very life, was completely un-merited, and un-deserved.
Just as we see in “freedom of navigation” cruises, there are times when powerful nations do things in a highly tangible and visible way rather than exercise simpler, safer, and quieter legal and diplomatic options. And, as we have seen in our scriptures today, God sometimes does the exact same thing. God could have kept his promise to Abraham and Sarah by giving them children when they were much younger but chose instead to allow Sarah to bear a child in her nineties when her husband was over one hundred years old. Jesus could have sent his disciples out into the countryside to preach and teach, but he chose to bless them with the power to raise the dead, heal the sick, cure the incurable, and cast out demons so that everyone would know that God himself walked with them. But we should never sell ourselves short in this regard because the salvation and rescue of each and every one of us is a visible and tangible miracle. When we were unlovable, God chose to love us. When we least deserved favor, God blessed us. When we were God’s enemies, God chose to forgive us and welcome us into his family, his life, and his home.
Never forget that you are a walking miracle.
Whenever we pray for mission and ministry, we are not praying for God to send others to do that ministry for us, but for God to send others to join us.
Never forget that when we pray for mission and ministry, the very next step is to get our hands dirty and get started doing it.
*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com . All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
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