Midweek
Sermon for Advent 2 (December 13, 2017)
“By the Oaks
of Mamre”
TEXT: Genesis
18:1-33
Psalm 85
LSB 798: The God of Abraham
Praise
Abraham
was camped out by the oaks of Mamre, somewhat to the south of Jerusalem. He had been living here for a while after the
Lord called him from his homeland far away in Haran and promised him land in Canaan. Three men showed up at Abraham’s tent and
like a good middle-easterner, he shows them great hospitality. He runs from the tent door to greet them,
bows himself to the ground, offers to wash their feet and refresh their bodies
with bread and meat. He invites them to
sit for a while and rest under the shade of the tree under which he had pitched
his tent.
Who
were these three men? Abraham recognizes
one of them as the leader of the three and addresses him, saying “O Lord.” He hasn’t necessarily recognized yet that
this man is God … another theophany … thought to be a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
That comes soon enough … in verse 10, where the text says, “The LORD
said.” Notice that. All capital letters. When you see that in the English text, that
tells you that in the original Hebrew, it’s YHWH. God’s personal name. And the light seems to come on for Abraham
when the LORD brings up all the talk about a promised baby to Sarah, even
though she is far beyond child-bearing years.
And
Sarah laughs. She can’t believe that in
her old age she would have a baby. And
the LORD says to Abraham, “What’s so funny?
Why is your wife laughing?
Nothing is too hard for me. Just
you wait and see. I’ll check back with
you in about a year.” Embarrassed and
ashamed, Sarah denies that she laughed, and the LORD says, “Uh, yeah, you did!”
Immediately
after that, the other two men (who we find out in the next chapter are angels)
head off to Sodom, a place that was no laughing matter. This was the home of much wickedness that the
LORD was about to put an end to. And it
was the home of Abraham’s nephew Lot, who had settled there some time earlier. So, the two angels go there to rescue Lot and
his family from the coming destruction that God had planned.
But
let’s get back to that promise of a child given to Abraham and Sarah, the
promise that the LORD came to personally confirm here at the Oaks of
Mamre. This is another step along the
way in the continual unfolding of the promise given after another couple
without children – the first couple, Adam and Eve – had fallen into sin and
brought sin and death into the world.
But God promised that the offspring – the seed – of the woman would
bruise the serpent’s head. Now, to
Abraham and Sarah, the LORD confirms the promise he had given previously. In Genesis 12, the LORD says to Abram (his
name at that time), “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you
and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing … in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:2-3). In Genesis 15, the LORD says, “Your very own
son shall be your heir … Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are
able to number them … so shall your offspring be” (Gen. 15:4-6). In Genesis 17, God changes Abram’s name to
Abraham. Abram, meaning “Exalted Father,”
now will be called Abraham, “Father of a Multitude.” And to Abraham, God says, “I will make you
exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come
from you.” (Gen. 17:4-6).
As
old as they were, though, Abraham and Sarah got a little tired of waiting. They tried to force God’s hand by taking
things into their own hands. Abraham had
a servant by the name of Eliezer from Damascus whom Abraham had named as his
heir since he had no children. In Genesis 15, Abraham asks God if Eliezer could
be the child of the promise. But that wasn’t God’s plan. The child was to come from Abraham’s own
loins. That being the case, Sarah offers
her maidservant Hagar to Abraham and she gave birth to Ishmael. Ishmael would be blessed as a child of
Abraham. But God’s plan was for a child
to be born by Sarah. Finally, Isaac was
born when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90.
Isaac was the child of the promise.
The promised Savior would come through his lineage.
Like
Abraham and Sarah, you and I often try to take things into our own hands … the
things of God, that is. God’s plan is
not good enough for us, and so we try to do it our own way. We still like to think that there’s some
effort involved on our part. We think we
have to do something. Trust in a bloody
man who died on a cross over 2,000 years ago?
What good could that possibly do?
I need to shape myself up and prove that I’m worthy. Have a little water sprinkled on me with some
words invoking God, and that brings me into God’s family and my sins are
forgiven? How can that be? Besides, that happened when I was a baby. What good does that do me now? I just need to get really serious about my
faith now and make a real effort at proving to God how much I love him by being
obedient to him. Eat some bread and
drink some wine, and that’s supposed to be the body and blood of Jesus, given
to me for life, forgiveness, and salvation?
Impossible! Maybe if I just
meditate hard enough on the death of Jesus as I kneel at the altar, then it
will be really meaningful to me.
And
God says, “Nope. I have a better
plan. The one I planned all along. To save you without any effort on your part. Don’t try to force my hand. Don’t try to take things into your own
hands. I’ve already done it all for you. It’s not your way. It’s my way.
My way of grace and mercy through my Son whom I sent for you, the one
whose hands made all the effort for you, his hands that acted in love and
compassion for the sick and the oppressed, his hands which he stretched out and
allowed to be nailed to the cross. From
that cross he cried out, ‘It is finished.’
And it was. There’s nothing left
to be done to save you from your sins.
And baptism? That’s a gift, pure
and simple. What happened to you as a
baby still holds true. You belong to
me. And the Lord’s Supper? It doesn’t matter how hard you think about it
… it’s still my Son’s body and blood, given and shed for you for the
forgiveness of all your sins. Like I
said to Abraham after Sarah laughed, ‘Is anything too hard for the LORD?’”
Following
on the promise of the child we learn about the premise of intercession
(18:22-33). Abraham was on a familiar
basis with God. He conversed with God in
his camp … man to man, if you will. God
revealed his plans to Abraham to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And because of this relationship, Abraham was
permitted to “negotiate” with God, to intercede for Sodom since he knew his
nephew and his family lived there … and perhaps others who were still righteous
by faith like Abraham.
God has
graciously revealed his plans to us in the Scriptures. Not all the details. But the details we need
to know. In particular, his plan to
rescue us from the wickedness in our heart and from this wicked world around us
through the Christ Child who was sent for us.
The Seed of the Woman. The
Offspring of Abraham. The Son of David. The Son of Mary.
As God’s
beloved, baptized children, we are on a familiar basis with God. He invites us
to converse with him. Through Jesus we
can pray, “Our Father.” We listen to his
voice in the Scriptures. We respond to
him in prayer. We intercede on behalf of
our city, our region, our family members and our friends.
With this
promise of a Child fulfilled for us in Christ Jesus, and with the premise of
intercession given to us so that we are on a familiar basis with the God of the
universe, we can laugh. Not like Sarah’s
laughter at the Oaks of Mamre. That was an incredulous laughter … a laughter
that says, “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” More like her laughter after the birth of
Isaac, whose name means “He laughs.”
Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh
over me” (Gen. 21:6).
At the
birth of her son, Sarah’s laughter turned from unbelief to faithful
rejoicing. At the birth of Jesus, the
angels rejoiced. Jesus, the Promised
Seed of the Woman, completed his mission of giving his life for us so that we
might be forgiven and brought back into a familiar relationship with God. That Good News is proclaimed to us, and our
laughter turns from unbelief to faithful rejoicing. The LORD of all invites us to rest in the
shade of the tree of Calvary. And we
feast with our familiar God, enjoying his hospitality at the table.
Amen.
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