God Squeezes Good from Bad

God Squeezes Good from Bad

Where is God when… ? - Part 3

Sunday, November 19, 2023
Romans 8:1-39; Genesis 50:20

We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called  according to his purpose. 

Romans 8:28 (CEB) 

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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Last week we explored the nature of God’s uncoercive and uncontrolling love.  Because love cannot coerce or force itself on another, it is impossible for God to singlehandedly prevent evil, particularly when that evil results from the choices of free-willed human beings.  Yet we can also say that love always works for the good, for the flourishing of humanity and of all creation. 

We can think of countless examples of people who have suffered tremendous evils in their lives and came out must stronger on the other side.  Victims of abuse may stand in the gap to protect others or care for others who have gone through similar trauma.  Someone whose child was killed by a drunk driver may become an advocate to prevent similar tragedies in the future.  Even if a person who has suffered doesn’t end up doing something so great and public, there are many who look back on their pain and trauma as an experience that shaped their character, that made them stronger, and potentially enabled them to do things with their lives they never dreamed possible.  Perhaps this is your story too.

This is where God’s best work comes in to play.  God is always creating and re-creating, renewing, restoring, healing, and making whole what is broken.  It does not mean, as so many have claimed, that the tragedy or suffering was a part of God’s plan in order to bring about this better outcome.  If suffering and evil is part of God’s will or God’s plan then to work against it would be to fight against God.

A loving God never causes pain or suffering.  But God’s love always works to squeeze every possible good out of even the worst situation.  Not every evil can be redeemed, even by God, but as Frederick Buechner says, resurrection reminds us the worst thing is never the last.  God is always weaving the bad into good.

God Can't...

God Can’t Prevent Evil Singlehandedly

Where is God when… ? - Part 2

Sunday, November 12, 2023
1 John 4:7-16, John 4:24, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them.

- 1 John 4:16 (CEB)

God is Spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and in truth.

- John 4:24 (CEB)

 Love doesn’t force itself on others.

 - 1 Corinthians 13:5a (The Message)

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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In his book, God Can’t: How to believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse & Other Evils, Tom Oord tells the story of his friend Jayne, who endured sexual abuse at an early age, followed by years of trauma and destructive patterns that nearly led to her taking her own life.  Jayne describes her long and painful process toward healing, which began, she says, on “the day I realized I had choices.” 

“God did not control me on the cliff;” she writes.  “I chose to turn and live.  But so did all those who hurt me.  We all had free will.  And I don’t need to say nonsensical things such as, ‘God allowed my abuse to build my character.’”

Far too many people suffer deep emotional, mental, and spiritual scars from the idea that God’s predetermined plan included their abuse or other traumatic event in their lives for some greater mysterious purpose.  In recognizing her own free will and the free will of her abusers, Jayne came to see God not as an all-powerful overseer who watched the evil happen to her, but as a loving God who is never coercive or manipulative and who by nature, cannot take away someone’s freedom even if they use their freedom for evil. 

“The God who controls could not be my anchor,” she says, “but the God who loves me, comforts me, brings me support by prompting the good actions of others, and guides my choices most certainly can.”

It is difficult to imagine that there are things beyond God’s control, but Jayne realized that a truly loving God who has the power to prevent evil and harm but chooses not to is not very loving at all, at least not in any sense of the word “love” we could comprehend. 

Michael Fortier, who served prison time after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, was not directly involved in the attack, but he was convicted because he knew of the plans ahead of time and did not alert the authorities.  In other words, even our imperfect human justice system acknowledges that all people have a responsibility to prevent evil and harm to whatever degree they are able.  If we say God is in absolute control of everything and has the ability to prevent evil but chooses not to, surely God would be just as culpable if not more so than any human who fails to do what they can to prevent such a horrendous tragedy. 

This does not make God weak or powerless, and we will see in the coming weeks how God uses the persuasive power of love to work in cooperation with humanity to squeeze the most possible good out of every situation.  God moves people to act with compassion and boldness to help prevent evil, but the power of Love cannot be coercive or forced.  Jesus shows us a God who is fully present in our suffering, not a God who sits by and allows otherwise preventable evil to go unchecked. 

God is Love and Love never fails.

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For a more in depth reflection on the questions around God’s goodness and love in the midst of suffering and evil, check out God Can’t: How to believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse & Other Evils.

God Feels Our Pain

God Feels Our Pain

Where is God when… ? - Part 1

Sunday, November 5, 2023
Luke 10:25-37; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion.  The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds.

Luke 10:33-34 (CEB)

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort.  He’s the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (CEB)

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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All Saints Day often brings up a mixture of emotions, from joyful memories to tremendous grief in the absence of those who have gone before us.  The stark reminder of death is difficult to process and often avoided in a world so overwhelmed by human suffering. 

So where is God in the midst of all this death and suffering?  Over the coming weeks we will wrestle with why God cannot simply put an end to pain or death or even evil.  For now we must begin with a key aspect of God’s character, that no matter what it may seem, God is a God of compassion.

Compassion is not simply feeling sorry for someone in their grief, but actually empathizing with them in suffering. 

Psychologist Brene Brown says empathy involves “listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating the incredibly healing message, ‘You’re not alone.’” Empathizers are fellow sufferers who understand. I distinguish empathy from pity. To pity is to feel sorry for others at a distance. The one who pities remains detached and says, “That’s just too bad for her.” “Ain’t that a shame?” “Bless your heart.” Or “Sucks to be him!”

Tom Oord, God Can’t, 49.

When the Samaritan in Jesus’ parable sees the dying man on the road, he was “moved with compassion.”  It is hard to be moved with compassion from afar.  As we draw near to the suffering, our capacity for compassion and empathy increases. 

This is equally true of God.  In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul describes God as a God of compassion and the source of all comfort.  Unlike humans, God does not suffer from compassion fatigue, but always draws near to the hurting and brokenhearted.  God doesn’t merely see our suffering from a distance, but God feels our pain and can handle it.  God’s empathy and compassion always moves God toward expressing love in a variety of ways. 

John Wesley calls our mysterious perceptions of God’s presence “spiritual sensations” because the Spirit communicates with us beyond our five senses.  Jesus sends the Spirit as the Comforter.  The Spirit often uses human comforters as conduits of God’s presence to those in pain.  God demonstrates compassion through communities of compassionate people. 

Sometimes we feel God’s love and compassion more than others, but even when we can’t, God always feels our pain and is moved to extend love and mercy toward all who are hurting.  If the cross shows us anything, it is that God is a God who understands… a God who always with us in our suffering and who deeply feels our pain.

God of the Rivals

God of The Rivals

The God of Abraham - Part 8

Sunday, October 22, 2023
Genesis 25:19-34; 33:1-10

Two nations are in your womb;
   two different peoples will emerge from your body.
One people will be stronger than the other;
    the older will serve the younger.

Genesis 25:23

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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The complicated story of Jacob and Esau is but one of many great sibling rivalries throughout scripture and indeed throughout human history.  It would appear that such rivalries, the choosing of sides between “us” and “them” is simply the natural way of things.  In some texts, it almost appears to be God’s design.

 [But] can it really be true that the God who created the world in love and forgiveness, setting his image on every human being, loves me and not you?  Or you but not me? Sibling rivalry exists in nature because food is in short supply.  It exists in human society because material goods—wealth and power—are, at any given moment, zero-sum games.  It exists within the family because we are human and sometimes parents have favorites. But can the same possibly be said about God’s love or forgiveness or grace?  Are these in short supply, such that if God gives them to you, God must take them from me?  There is something odd, discordant, about such an idea.

- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Not in God’s Name, 102.

Jacob and Esau make a perfect case study to examine this issue.  After all, scripture seems clear that God loves Jacob and hated Esau (Malachi 1:3, Romans 9:13).  But what if it’s not as clear as we think?  Can God really “hate” Esau, or anyone else for that matter? 

In scripture, as in the ancient world, “love” and “hate” are often used as covenantal language.  In other words, to “love” someone means I have chosen to make a covenant with them and to “hate” someone means I have not made a covenant with them.  There is no emotional attachment to these words and the acceptance of one does not imply a rejection of the other.  It is simply defining a different type of relationship.  It would be like saying “I love my wife” but “hate all other women.”  Obviously I don’t “hate” other women, and we would never say that today, but the language of “love” and “hate” in the ancient world often implies a different kind of relationship, an exclusive, covenantal relationship that I do not have with others.  It is not a rejection of those who are not in that particular relationship.

This is what Jacob struggles with his whole life.  From before birth he grasps onto Esau, taking Esau’s blessing as the firstborn, trying to become Esau out of his own jealousy.  In his wrestling with “God”, he is reminded that his blessing doesn’t come from being someone else or from taking a blessing away from his brother.  Rather, he and his brother are equally loved and equally blessed, but in different ways and for different roles.  In coming to grips with the fact that he is enough in himself, he is finally able to reconcile with Esau and live into the special call God has on his life. 

We must do the same.  We must give up the idea that we have some exclusive claim to God’s favor or love.  We must accept the fact that God’s love for others does not mean a rejection of us.  We cannot build ourselves up by tearing others down.  We must lay aside this endless sibling rivalry and see the face of God in each other.  There is no “us” or “them”, only WE, the beloved of God.

God of the Generations

God of The Generations

The God of Abraham - Part 7

Sunday, October 15, 2023
Genesis 24:34-67

[Her family] called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?”  She said, “I will go.” So they sent off their sister Rebekah, her nurse, Abraham’s servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, saying to her, “May you, our sister, become thousands of ten thousand; may your children possess their enemies’ cities.” Rebekah and her young women got up, mounted the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.

 The servant told Isaac everything that had happened. Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent. He received Rebekah as his wife and loved her. So Isaac found comfort after his mother’s death.

Genesis 24:58-61, 66-67

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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Most of us are uncomfortable with our own mortality.  As one doctor said to a newly diagnosed cancer patient, “We all have a terminal illness.  It’s called life.” 

While I don’t know that I would call life an “illness”, there is definitely truth to the fact that it is a terminal condition.  One of the worst parts of that truth is that no matter how long we live, we will always leave something seemingly unfinished.  We long to know what will happen beyond us.  We want to leave a lasting legacy. 

The good news is that God is a God of the generations. 

Abraham barely saw a glimpse of God’s promise.  He never even lived to see his grandchildren, yet God remained faithful to Isaac, Jacob & all the rest. 

Let us live with this eternal perspective, in faith and hope because God is faithful in every generation. 

Amen.

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 Hymn: God, We Spend a Lifetime Growing

Tune: 8787D, ODE TO JOY, BABILONE (Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee)

God, we spend a lifetime growing,
learning of your love and care,
planting seeds you give for sowing,
working for the fruit they’ll bear.
Now we honor faithful servants
who, with joy, look back and see
years of growing in your presence,
lives of fruitful ministry.

 Thank you, Lord, for ones who teach us
what has brought them to this place!
May their faith-filled witness reach us;
may we glimpse in them your grace.
Strong in you, their strength uplifts us
from our birth until life’s end;
Spirit-filled, they give us gifts, as
prophet, mentor, guide, and friend.

 Christ our Lord, you walk beside us,
giving daily work to do;
years go by and still you guide us
as we seek to follow you.
If our sight fails, weak hands tremble,
minds forget the things we’ve known,
Lord, we trust that you remember,
hold us close, and see us home.

— by Carolyn Winfrey GilletteText: Copyright © 2001.

All rights reserved.

God of Life

God of The Invisible

The God of Abraham - Part 6

Sunday, October 8, 2023
Genesis 22:1-18

The messenger said, “Don’t stretch out your hand against the young man, and don’t do anything to him. I now know that you revere God and didn’t hold back your son, your only son, from me.”  Abraham looked up and saw a single ram caught by its horns in the dense underbrush. Abraham went over, took the ram, and offered it as an entirely burned offering instead of his son. Abraham named that place “the Lord sees.”  That is the reason people today say, “On this mountain the Lord is seen.”

Genesis 22:12-14

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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Perhaps one of the most difficult and gut-wrenching passages of scripture is the famous story of God asking Abraham to kill his son Isaac as a human sacrifice to prove his loyalty and faithfulness.  And of course, as a man whose faith is credited to him as righteousness, he willingly offers his beloved child up to die.

Yes, we know the end of the story.  We know how God spared the boy and sent the ram.  There are volumes of theological texts explaining how God sent a ram instead of a lamb because the lamb would be his own son, Jesus, who would willingly give his life as a ransom for sin. 

I don’t want to diminish God’s faithfulness to Isaac or the redemptive work of Jesus in his own sacrificial love, but if we’re really honest, none of these outcomes are sufficient to help us process what to do with a God who would ask such a thing in the first place.  Yes, Abraham lived in a different culture and time, but to simply say OK to some mysterious voice in the sky who tells you to kill your child and assume that voice comes from a loving God is not something most rational human parents would do. 

In Abraham’s culture, human sacrifice was not uncommon.  It would not be surprising for him to assume that such a sacrifice would be required as a faithful response to God’s blessing.  But instead of accepting the sacrifice, God steps in to definitively put an end to this whole ordeal.  “Do not stretch your hand out against him.”  Throughout the prophets God rejects the sacrifices of his people, declaring that he seeks mercy, justice, and humility rather than violence and bloodshed. 

What if the question or “test” is: “Would you make the same offering to me, your God, as the Canaanites make to their gods?”  Or to look at it another way, what do we do when what we are sure God is calling us to do actually runs counter to God’s character?  Is it possible that when we use God’s word to do harm, that we have misunderstood or misused God’s word?

It's easy to take everything God “says” in scripture at face value, but if we’re honest, we put words into God’s mouth all the time. We take a particular view on an issue and find verses to support it, claiming God’s absolute agreement with our position.  What if the Biblical writers did too?  What if they were doing the best with what they had, trying to paint Abraham as absolutely loyal and faithful as possible in the only way that would be expected according to their cultural norms?  But then God steps in and writes a different story. 

When we look at God through the lens of Jesus, we see a God who will do anything to re-write the human story of violence and death.  No matter what scripture may appear to say at first glance, God is always a God of life!

God of the Sinner

God of The Sinner

The God of Abraham - Part 5

Sunday, October 1, 2023
Genesis 18:16-33

The men turned away and walked toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing in front of the Lord.  Abraham approached and said, “Will you really sweep away the innocent with the guilty  What if there are fifty innocent people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not save the place for the sake of the fifty innocent people in it?  It’s not like you to do this, killing the innocent with the guilty as if there were no difference. It’s not like you! Will the judge of all the earth not act justly?”

The Lord said, “If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom, I will save it because of them.”

 - Genesis 18:22-26

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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People are quick to use the story of Sodom & Gomorrah as a condemnation of entire people groups with whom they disagree.  When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, several so called Christian TV personalities claimed it was God’s judgment upon the city because they allowed the sins of Sodom to run rampant.    Even then, I  found the picking and choosing ironic, as I had lived through several devastating hurricanes in Florida and no one claimed God’s judgment on our small town. 

There is much we can learn from these infamous cities in Genesis, but this claim of divine wrath over some particular sin is not it.  In fact, God explicitly declares the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah through the prophet Ezekiel and it’s not at all what most people think.

This is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were proud, had plenty to eat, and enjoyed peace and prosperity; but she didn’t help the poor and the needy (Ezekiel 16:49).

This is an age old story about pride, greed, inhospitality, rejection of the poor, and even violence toward those on the margins.  It’s a story that is repeated in every empire and nation throughout history as power becomes more and more corrupt.  Those in power will do anything to stay in power, even Christians.  How much harm has the church done throughout the centuries and even in our own day just to maintain some degree of cultural dominance, influence, and comfort?

The bigger question for today, however, is how we might respond to sinners less like a judge, jury and executioner rolled into one, and more like Abraham in his conversation with God, especially since we ourselves are among those sinners, no matter how righteous we think we are.

Abraham pleaded for mercy on this corrupt city, even for the sake of only 50 good people.  Eventually he went all the way down to 10.  He didn’t ask that only the righteous ones be protected, but that the whole city be saved for the sake of those few.  We might argue that God destroyed them anyway so it doesn’t matter, but notice that God shared Abraham’s heart for the guilty and innocent alike.  God did not argue with Abraham.  God was readily willing to extend mercy.  God wanted to show mercy. 

There is of course far more to this story, but for now let us consider two key points.

1. God desires mercy and wants us to desire mercy.

2. It only takes a few faithful people to save an entire city.  10 people is not some magic number, as though there were only 9 so the city had to burn.  Rather, it reminds us that every little bit of faithful love makes a difference. 

Seeing sinners through the eyes of love and mercy can truly transform the world.

God of the Stranger

God of The Invisible

The God of Abraham - Part 4

Sunday, September 24, 2023
Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7

So Abraham hurried to Sarah at his tent and said, “Hurry! Knead three seahs of the finest flour and make some baked goods!”  Abraham ran to the cattle, took a healthy young calf, and gave it to a young servant, who prepared it quickly.  Then Abraham took butter, milk, and the calf that had been prepared, put the food in front of them, and stood under the tree near them as they ate.

 - Genesis 18:6-8

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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Three strangers are traveling near Abraham’s desert camp in the heat of the day.  He has no idea who they are, or what their intentions might be.  Could they be hostile?  Could they be criminals or escaped slaves?   Could they be outcasts because of a highly contagious disease?  Who knows?  The only thing that matters to Abraham is that God has called him to care for the stranger, just as he was cared for when he himself was a stranger in this new land.

We don’t generally have strangers in need walking by our homes or our churches, so the question is, what does it look like to extend this kind of hospitality today?  In Laura Buchanan’s article on umc.org, “Hospitality tips for the 21st century,” we find just a few suggestions to get us started, especially when it comes to showing hospitality as a church.

1. Make a personal connection

   Sit beside people, ask them how they are.  Learn their story.  Ask questions.  Build relationships… Don’t be aggressive.  Learn about them rather than trying to get them to come to all of your activities.

2. Learn to be a guest 

   People don’t naturally come to church.  We have to go to them in the  community.  Ask yourself, “Who do I hang out with every week?  What do we do together?  Where do I spend a lot of time outside of church?”  What if those  relationships became a form of church?  What if we created community wherever  we go?

3. Find spaces to build relationship

   Evaluate your life, interests, where you find yourself in the community on a regular basis.  Don’t think you already know the community or the people you are talking to.  Come in as a  learner… be a learner of people, a learner of your community.  Let the place and the people teach you.

4. Rethink evangelism

   Simply inviting people to church is not evangelism.  We must listen, love, and serve people.  Find out how to do things together.  Build relationships slowly over time.  When little spiritual openings come up in conversation, you can share your faith. You can offer to pray for people.  You can form little faith communities within your everyday relationships. 

Hospitality is about creating friendships with people who don’t go to church, not just about how we welcome people when they come to church. 

Authenticity is key. 

When our motive is to grow our church, we reek of desperation and we push people away.  When we show up with no agenda except to show love to the other person and to get to know them for who they are, God has a way of showing up, just as God showed up for Abraham.

God of the Invisible

God of The Invisible

The God of Abraham - Part 3

Sunday, September 17, 2023
Genesis 16:1-16, 21:8-21, 17:20-22

So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”

Genesis 16:13

God heard the boy’s cries, and God’s messenger called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “Hagar! What’s wrong? Don’t be afraid. God has heard the boy’s cries over there.  Get up, pick up the boy, and take him by the hand because I will make of him a great nation.”  Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. She went over, filled the water flask, and gave the boy a drink.  God remained with the boy; he grew up, lived in the desert, and became an expert archer.  

 Genesis 21:17-20

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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As we journey with Abraham and the story of Israel’s beginnings, it is very easy to cast Hagar and Ishmael aside just as Sarah did.  After all, we are worship the God of Abraham, Issac & Jacob, not the God of Ismael.   Hagar and Ismael are not part of our story, or so we think. 

But what if the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob is the God of Ishmael too?  What if the God we worship also cares for those we cast aside because they are different than us?  For centuries Muslims and Christians have been at war, and yet we are all children of Abraham, one nation descended through Isaac and Israel and another through the line of Ishmael. 

Isaac may have been chosen by God as the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham, to birth a nation through whom all the world would be blessed and would come to know the love of their creator, but that choice does not imply any condemnation of Hagar or Ishmael.  They did not do anything wrong.  They and their descendants are not our enemies, nor are they enemies of God.  In fact, Hagar is the first person in our scriptures to “name” God, and the name she uses is “the God who sees.” 

By our modern sensibilities we may want to condemn her as immoral for having a child with a married man, but in her culture, she only did what was demanded of her for the greater good of making sure Abraham had an heir.  She was cast out not because of wrongdoing on her part, but because of Sarah’s jealousy, particularly after the birth of her own miracle baby, Isaac. 

So what does this ancient story of an abandoned single mother and child in the wilderness have to do with us?  Perhaps a lot more than we think, especially considering this abandoned child is our brother.  The fact that God did not abandon Hagar and Ishmael means that we cannot abandon them either. 

Who are the Hagars and Ishmaels cast out in the deserts of our world today?  From a genealogical perspective, that would at least include the Muslim people who descended from Abraham and Ishmael and yet are continually demonized by Christians all over the world. 

More than that, however, we see the face of Hagar & Ishmael in every person who is cast out, who is on the margins, who has lost everything and everyone in their lives.  We see the face of Hagar in those we have overlooked, ignored or even turned our backs on.  We see the face of Ismael in those we do not even know, in the poor and abused and abandoned in our own community who we do not even notice. 

God sees them all.  Do we?

God of Promise & Possibility

God of Promise & Possibility

The God of Abraham - Part 2

Sunday, September 10, 2023
Genesis 17:1-20

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai.  Walk with me and be trustworthy.  I will make a covenant between us and I will give you many, many descendants.”

Genesis 17:1-2

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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God had promised to make Abram into a great nation, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, and that through him all nations of the world would be blessed.  There was only one problem… Abram and his wife were far too old to have children. 

In the ancient near eastern culture, having a male heir was crucial, so Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave her maidservant Hagar to Abram so that she could bear for them the son that she could not have.  By the time we get to chapter 17, Abram’s son Ismael is coming of age as a 13 year old young man.  We’ll come back to Ishmael & Hagar next week, but for now, it is important to remember that according to their culture, Abram did nothing wrong by having a child with Hagar to be his heir.  Though our modern sensibilities consider this immoral, even God does not condemn the morality of Abram and Sarai’s action.

The problem for God, as we see in chapter 17, is not that Abram had a child with his maidservant, but that Ishmael, despite being Abram’s firstborn, is not the child God had promised.  For the Biblical writer, it is not a question of morality or even marital faithfulness.  It is rather a question of Abram taking God’s promises into his own hands and doing things his own way.

13 years have passed.  Abram is 99 years old and preparing his son to one day take responsibility of his great inheritance.  Then God shows up and reminds Abram that the promise has not yet been fulfilled.

“What do you mean, God?  I have Ishmael.  All is well.  Why can’t he inherit your promise?” 

Next week we’ll see that God does not forsake Ishmael.  At the same time, God is working toward a new creation through the faithfulness of Abram’s lineage.  Just as God created all things from a formless void and shaped Adam out of the dust of the ground, so God wants to bring forth his people out of the barrenness of Sarai’s womb.  This is God’s promise to fulfill, not Abram’s. 

The trouble is that while Abram believes God’s promise, he feels he alone is responsible for making it happen.  He is not able to comprehend God’s power to bring new life out of barrenness.  Abram clings to the rational solutions of the flesh over the seemingly impossible work of the Spirit.  He is not trying to be disobedient.  Rather, he is trying to obey in the best way he knows how.  If God says he must have descendants, Abram made sure that would happen in the only logical way available to him.  By verse 17 we find Abram laughing at God.  In chapter 18, we’ll see Sarai do the same. 

I wonder what might be behind this laugh.  Maybe the laugh was simply at the absurdity that he and Sarai should bear children so old, especially given her inability to conceive throughout her life.  Maybe the laugh was to keep from crying over his own desperate frustration that all he invested in Ishmael seemed like it was for nothing.  Maybe it was just a laugh of “You’ve got to be kidding… Now What?!” 

More importantly, I wonder in what ways we are still laughing today as we consider the absurd and impossible promises and possibilities of God for our own life?