This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
Transformation of God's People
Sarah: Lost Opportunities, Laughter and Faith
DATE: January 9, 2000
TEXT: Genesis 18:9-15

In the psychology of the Ancient Mideast, the giving of a name was intimately involved in the very essence of a person's being and inextricably intertwined with his or her personality. We are all familiar with various names of the Native American, names like "Sitting Bull" or "Cuyahoga" which means "crooked river" in Lenni Lenape. Conversely, giving a name was a creative act, an act that involved capturing the personality or character of a thing or person.
Occasionally, you still find that happening today. A favorite name among Hispanics is Jesus, obviously after Jesus. Joshua is the Hebrew equivalent to Jesus, all of which means "He will save."
Stanley literally means 'stony meadow' or is it 'rock garden?' Sneeringer is German for someone who 'ties things up with string.' It also means someone who comes from the middle region of Germany called Schnuring. Of course, some parents get it right like Uno and Aili Waltonen when they named their daughter Linda -- Hispanic for "beautiful," Latin for "graceful."
Sarah--the subject of this morning's transformation story--was that name by her parents, a name that means princess, because there was something regal about her, something that captured the attention of Abram as well as a couple of kings, but that is getting ahead of our story.
Changing your name in the Bible symbolized transmutation of character and destiny. To have one's name changed or to change your own name was significant. It meant that this person was putting away an old life and taking on a new one. Probably the most famous examples of this in the New Testament were Simon who Jesus renamed Peter or "The Rock" or Rocky for short for his steadfast faith (even though he waffled here and there) and Saul who when he became a follower of Jesus took the name of Paul to mark his leaving-taking of his Jewish ways for those of Jesus.
But getting back to Sarah, in Genesis 12 we meet a young couple from Ur, a highly civilized cultural center of the ancient near east who had since moved to Haran, likewise a significant near east community. Their names were then Abram and Sarai. When God formulizes the covenant with them that they would be the father and mother of a brand new nation, they were renamed Abraham and Sarah to mark this new relationship between them and God. However, even though Sarai became Sarah, still the meaning of the name remained the same--princess!
Why? Because in the beginning Sarah had it all. Born to a wealthy family in a prominent and cultural city, Sarah or Princess, was a woman not only of great sensuous or voluptuous beauty--and there was apparently a lot of that--but also of great intelligent, grace and quality. Hers was a regal beauty, a phenomenal woman. What did the young woman Sarah anticipate for her future? Prosperity, security, social prominence!
When we first meet Sarai, she is the young wife of Abram who also was a city boy with good prospects. To seek a better life she moves with Abram and his clan from the city of Ur to Haran--the equivalent of moving from New York City to Cleveland. But then, as Genesis 12 records, her life takes a sudden and irreparable turn as God calls both Abraham and Sarah to venture West far beyond the reaches of their clan to a new land. There they are to claim a land, found a nation, and leave to the world a posterity who would change human history forever.
When you reflect on Sarah's story from here on, the realization that immediately pops up in my mind is how much Sarah too sacrificed to follow God. Sarah--this regal, intelligent, sophisticated woman--was uprooted from the city, from her people, and from any sense of permanence, suffering many years of humiliation and degradation. Following Abraham in heeding God, these two lived a nomadic life for many years, a life that not only meant sacrifice but also occasional peril. But that didn't mean she like Abraham had completed the transformation process of faith to become the Mother as he the Father of a great nation.
Born beautiful, wealthy, intelligent, she ends up as a nomad's wife. Periodically, we are reminded of her remarkable quality and distinction even as she is given the role of playing with her husband's rather wimpy survival plan once they find themselves in Egypt.
One of the dangers Abraham and Sarah encountered was due to her striking beauty, and how she appealed particularly to two kings--Pharaoh of Egypt and then later Abimelech of Gerar. Something about Sarah commended her to kings as one who belonged in their royal court. So to avoid confrontation and perhaps annihilation, Sarah was instructed by Abraham to play the role of his sister; this, in the hope that he would not be killed and they might safely continue their travels.
And if that were not enough, there was the humiliation that Sarah was childless. In the ancient Mideast, as in most ancient and many modern cultures, a woman's barrenness withheld from her, her allotted vocation and her validation as a woman. The promise that she was to be the mother of a great nation, well, that promise only seemed more and more taunting as well as preposterous as her growing awareness that she was unable to bear children deepened.
I hope you can sense the struggle of Sarah. First, her background and upbringing reminded her what might have been--the admiration of kings, the pleasures of the palace court and perhaps it was not her fault she was childless. Secondly, in any case Sarah couldn't even get pregnant, something her lowliest slave girl, Hagar, would eventually do!
The one thing God promised they would have--children--she believed, rightly or wrong it makes no difference, was unavailable to her and so her responsibility. It was her sorrow, her shame, her disgrace. We know differently today but back then that is the way it was. So why not go along with Abraham's plan. At least, she could find some release from her shame. Even she was beginning to doubt God's veracity.
Abraham Maslow--psychologist--wrote a significant work on what basic needs motivate people in life. He made this simple but wise statement: "That which a person can become, they must become" (fulfilling our own potential is a deep and profound need). Maslow is talking about the deep-felt need within all us to actualize our potential, to be all that we can be. Sarah--Princess--wanted what she thought was her destiny. She wanted to forget the shame of her childlessness. So she went into Pharaoh's palace. And then into Abilmelech's castle. She had found herself empty, vacant, wandering without a home. Here was a way of fulfilling her destiny only to discover each time her decision brought calamity on each king and she was told as was Abraham to leave the country.
However, even as Abraham and Sarah grew well beyond the childbearing years, God continued to come to them to reiterate and encourage them in the promises he made
Finally, Genesis 17 records when God announced once more that Sarah would conceive and bear a son both she and Abraham fell down laughing. It was too late. There was nothing else left but to laugh. In response God announces that their son shall be named Isaac, which means "laughter."
When the messenger hears Sarah laughing, she is called to task for it: "Why did Sarah laugh and say 'Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?'" She denied it; but somehow, for some reason, the Lord pressed in confronting her as he would later confront her husband on a hill with a knife and a son in his hands. He said to her, in parting, "Oh but Sarah: yes you so did laugh."
Imagine yourself in Sarah's shoes. Do you still remember the great dreams, and high expectations, or your youth? Like young Sarah you once imagined, perhaps you were confident of, the attainment of goals and position in life that you saw yourself as destined for. But time passes by and with it opportunities and maybe your dreams.
No distinguished and fulfilling career.
No modeling job in New York
No prince or princess charming with whom life is effortlessly enjoyed ever after.
Sarah had covered many miles; what do she have to show for it. She had no dream home; no winter vacation opportunities; not even a child; she did not have any of the things she expected would be a part of her life. WHAT ELSE WAS LEFT. WHAT ELSE DID SHE HAVE BUT A PROMISE AND A SENSE OF HUMOR.
SO SHE LAUGHED.
(Genesis 21) 1 And the LORD dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had promised. 2 Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 Now Sarah said, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me." 7 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."
FROM THEN ON SARAH HAD MORE THAN JUST A PROMISE AND A SENSE OF HUMOR. SHE NOW HAD LAUGHTER--ISAAC.
See with what great care God meets Sarah. God keeps his promise but only when we are open to it's happening . He heard her heart cry. Late in time, when it seemed too late, God gave Sarah laughter to share.
My friends, as God did not leave Sarah desolate, as he did not leave his chosen people desolate, so he will not leave your heart's cry unanswered. When he knows we are ready, He will answer our cry.
At times God uses the pain of our journey and our sense of emptiness to prepare a space and need within that only he can fulfill. At other times, it is when we have finally stopped relying on our own to find our way. Would that have happened if Sarah had been the wife of a king, luxuriating in a palace? What if Isaac had been born in Haran instead of the promised land? But now it was time for Sarah to have the last laugh. To hold in her arms a Miracle Son who would impact the whole world. God called her Sarah--Princess--and God made her potential a beautiful and timeless reality. Our transformation begins when we are ready to receive it. And when we are ready to be transformed into the likeness of God, he will be there.
If you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and savior, do it now and begin the journey of discovery and joy that lasts a life-time.
AMEN