June 12, 2005

Fourth Sunday of Pentecost

Matthew 9:35-10:8

Genesis 18:1-15

“Unbelievably Funny”

     In the part of the country where I come from people still occasionally ask the minister to come for Sunday dinner and some still believe a minister’s favorite food is chicken.  I don’t know how that rumor got started, except that there was once a time when rural ministers were paid in chickens.  Now don’t get any ideas!

     There’s an old story about a country preacher who ate dinner one Sunday at the home of one of his parishioners.  When the fine meal of fried chicken was over, he got up from table and stood at the window looking out at the farmer’s barnyard.  He saw a big rooster strutting back and forth.  He said to the farmer, “My, what a proud-looking rooster you have!”  The farmer replied, “Well, he should be proud - his son just entered the ministry!”

     Psalm 2:4: “He who sits in the heavens laughs!”

     I don’t know what God was thinking when he created me…must have been bored and needed something to laugh about.  I was working on my old Volkswagon the other day when the hood slammed shut and caught the fingers of both my hands!  It dropped me to my knees!  I couldn’t get my hands out.  Fortunately, the hood didn’t latch and I was able to grab the edge of it with my teeth and lift it up and get free.  It hurt a bit.  Even so, I had to laugh – all I could think of was the police, fire department and Tim Cook showing up with his camera.  I imagined my photo on the front page of The Day with the caption: “Local Pastor Turns to Paganism and Bows Down to His VW.”  I mean, sometimes you just gotta laugh in spite of yourself.

     That’s what Sarah did when the angelic visitors she and Abraham invited to dinner told her she was going to have a son.  Who were they kidding?…she was a post-menopausal woman in her nineties!!  How was she supposed to react to news like that?  All she could do was laugh at the preposterousness of the idea.  It was hilarious!

      But God was serious.  OK, maybe not completely serious expecting a couple of senior citizens to go shopping for a crib and to start decorating a baby’s room. 

     Almost at the 50 mark and with three grown children, Kay and I can’t imagine starting over…diapers, 2:00 AM feedings…don’t know whether we’d laugh or cry if we found we were going to have a child.  Probably both.  And to think Sarah and Abraham were twice our age.

     God’s purposes will be fulfilled no matter how unbelievable we think they are, and that’s what the Sarah and Abraham story is about.  Good things can find opportunity, God’s love can find its deepest expression just when it seems there’s no chance for it.  In a world of so much tragedy and pain, of war and unrest and uncertainty, God’s acceptance of us and high expectations for us are great surprises.  It is a surprise to find that when all hope seems lost it just might be getting started, just might be about to be born…in our old age or our immaturity, in a dark spot, in a disappointment or a loss.

     Have you heard of Alex’s Lemonade?  She was an eight-year-old girl who died of cancer.  She ran a lemonade stand and gave the money to the hospital because she appreciated what they were doing for her and because she hoped other people might be helped.  Now that she is gone, others have picked up where she left off.  Today, there are more than a thousand Alex’s Lemonade stands around the country and over a million dollars has been donated through them to help fight childhood cancer.  Alex is gone, but her good spirit lives on. From the incredibly dark and difficult circumstances of a child’s illness and death, hope springs forth.  And because of her, more children will be able to laugh.

     You don’t have to be a person with great position or experience or ability to do great things.  If a sick, eight-year-old kid with a lemonade stand can make a real and positive difference in the world God knows, we can too.

     Jesus called his disciples together and said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”  Then he commissioned them by “giving them authority over unclean spirits, to cast out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.” 

     Do you think they jumped right up and said, “OK, let’s go!” or instead, did they all say to themselves or even out loud, “What…me do THIS??”  You bet they did.  The surprise Jesus had for them was the same surprise God had for Sarah and Abraham – regular folk, called right where they were to do great things.  It was a great surprise, unbelievable and maybe some of them laughed (or cried) at the thought of it.  But he called and sent them just the same and great things did happen through them because they were open and willing to hear and heed that calling.

     Are we open and willing?

     We often carry around with us the burden of low expectations for ourselves and often for those around us.  Who are we and what can we do?  What do we have to offer?  Considering the magnitude of the problems in our lives and our world, what chance is there that we can really do much of anything about it?                 

     Every chance, every moment holds within it great opportunity for those who are open and willing heed Christ’s call upon their lives.

     We had an ice cream social last Thursday evening and an open and honest Roundtable discussion about the possibility of a merger with Second Church.  Along with hopes there were concerns because it is impossible to see into the future and it is difficult to imagine what can be.  We aren’t all that sure of the present.  If only the answers were clearer.  If only we could be better prepared or have more experience with the “strangers” up the street.  But ready or not, we are called by the grace of God to wrestle with these issues at this time.  And maybe we feel we are caught be surprise and can’t help but wonder, “Why me and why now?  Who am I to be given the great task of working out the future of Christ’s church?”

     But we are the ones called and sent now, challenged with being open, to hear and heed the will of God.  This is a great surprise and maybe we want to laugh and maybe we want to cry, but either way there is no denying this is now our time to do our faithful best.  And whether we merge or ultimately choose not to merge, what will matter most is that like Sarah and Abraham and those first disciples, we do the unbelievable thing and say “yes” to God’s call upon our lives.  From there, we can expect great things to happen.