Lesson A 0618 Reflection

The Lesson [Continuous Reading Option]

Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

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This Lesson describes an interaction between God and the Patriarch Abraham, as well as his wife Sarah.  Remember that in times past Abraham had been promised a son who would carry on his heritage.  Abraham thought that this promise had been fulfilled.  Sarah, his wife, had given her servant to Abraham as a wife.  From that servant, Abraham had fathered a son.  But at some point prior to this, God had told Abraham that in fact the fulfillment of the promise was yet to come.  The promised son was to be the son of both Abraham and Sarah, and not just of Abraham.  A good deal of time had passed, and the fulfillment was not yet realized when these "three men," God made visible, came to the home of the Patriarch and his wife.  Here once more the promise is made that Sarah would give birth to a son.  It is beyond denial that at this point in their lives, for Abraham and Sarah to produce a child, it would be humanly impossible.  But the promise made again is the reminder that God does all things, especially the impossible.  The challenge for Abraham and Sarah is to cling to faith in the God who does the impossible, and to trust the divine promise that appears to be human foolishness.  Abraham does better than his wife at clinging to that promise.  Sarah laughs; Abraham believes.  And in the extended optional ending of the reading, we find the fulfillment of that impossible promise.  In their old age, Sarah becomes pregnant, and gives birth to Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of the Promise.  Today when we read this, we would do well to ponder what is the impossible promise of God given to us, that when it is accomplished, can be seen as having had to be the work of God, for otherwise it would truly be impossible.  And as we wait for the fulfillment of that promise, let us cling to the faith of Abraham, making it our own, placing our trust in God who does all things well, even the impossible.

Father Tim+