Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?

Genesis 18:1-15; Romans 5:1-8

            I remember learning the story of Abraham and Sarah many years ago in Vacation Bible School, which is coming up here, by the way.  Madison tells me we are at full capacity.  I remember being spellbound by this story.  Those three men who showed up at Abraham and Sarah’s tent.  Who were they?  Were they just three men out for a stroll?  Were they angelic beings?  Some kind of messengers from God? It’s unclear in the story.  Abraham’s response to them suggests they weren’t just three men out for a stroll.  He showed deference to them, hurriedly providing them food and drink.  And then their message.  It was unbelievable.  They told Abraham that his wife, Sarah, would bear a son.  She happened to be behind the door listening in on the conversation.    As we might say today, she was off camera.  When she heard the news about a baby, she laughed.  She was too old, Sarah said to herself, and so was Abraham.  We’re told in the previous chapter that Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was 90.  A baby?  She laughed.

            This next detail wasn’t pointed out in my Vacation Bible School lesson.  The location of this visit by the three men was important.  The oaks of Mamre.  If you drive into Calhoun County traveling south on Highway 431, you will pass a little church named Mamre Baptist Church.  It’s named after this important location.  When Abraham and his nephew, Lot, divided up the land, Lot went in one direction, and Abraham went in another.  The text says, “So Abram moved his tent, and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to God.”

            An altar.  That tells us something important about this location.  This was no ordinary space.  It was a place of worship, a place, they believed, where the presence of God dwelt.  It was underneath that oak canopy that Abraham met three angels and interceded for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  We know that King David made his royal residence there.  We know that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob all were buried under the oaks of Mamre. This sacred space took on such significance it became a city of refuge, one of six in the Hebrew Bible.  Those accused of crimes could go there and find “sanctuary,” protection from prosecution and revenge.

            And then there is verse fourteen.  This text turns on verse fourteen.  In fact, the whole story of Abraham and Sarah, the story of the people of Israel, turns on this verse.  After these three messengers informed an incredulous Abraham and Sarah they would have a son, they asked this question, “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”    The exact meaning of the verb here is obscure.  My study Bible, the Revised Standard Version, reads this way: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” 

            I didn’t know this back in VBS, but that question and the implied answer drive this story.  It drives the narrative of Abraham and Sarah.  It drives the story of the people of Israel.  It is the message embodied in the life and death of Jesus Christ.  Is anything too hard for the Lord?

            When circumstances look impossible, is it too hard for the Lord?  The people of Israel would end up in slavery in Egypt. Their homes were ransacked.  Their gardens and vineyards were plundered.  Even the Temple in Jerusalem was desecrated.  They became slaves in Egypt, laboring under a very hard taskmaster.  Would they ever be freed from Pharaoh’s powerful grasp? It was too hard!  Until God raised up a prophet named Moses who demanded, in the name of the Lord, “Let my people go.”  You know the story.  It wasn’t too hard for the Lord.

            The fleeing Israelites made it to the Red Sea.  The Egyptian soldiers were in hot pursuit.  The Red Sea stood between the Israelites and freedom.  But they couldn’t cross.  It was too hard!  Until God divided the sea allowing the Israelites to pass on dry ground.  It wasn’t too hard for the Lord.

            Then they got to the Sinai wilderness and ran out of food.  The people grew hungrier and hungrier.  They began to murmur, saying that it was better back in Egypt.  At least they had food to eat.  It was too hard!  Until God provided the manna in the wilderness, just enough for each day.  It wasn’t too hard to the Lord.

            There under the oaks of Mamre, a sacred space of worship, it looked impossible.  A baby?  A son?  An entire nation?  From us?  At ages 90 and 99?  It’s too hard!  So, Sarah laughed.  The text says “Abraham fell on his face” laughing.  But they would soon learn something about God.  Even when circumstances look impossible, we must not say that it is too hard for the Lord because the Lord has a history of proving that nothing is too hard.

            The story of Abraham and Sarah is a message of hope.  For you and me.  When our circumstances look impossible, our back against a Red Sea, when we’re in a wilderness with no food and our stomachs rumble, don’t abandon hope, it says.  Cling to hope because nothing is too hard for God.

            This is a true story.  It’s about a twenty-year heroin addict named Liz Moldovan.  You can read about her on Google or in her book in the library at Harvard University.  She was homeless.  Near death.  She was in a bad relationship and knew she had to get out.  She had no phone.  No car.  No money.  No friends.  She said her hair and teeth were falling out.  Her skin bled from the constant scratching common with addicts.  She weighed about 110 pounds, and her hands shook continually.  She wanted to die.  She even attempted to end her life.

            But she had a daughter, Grace.  She knew she had to live for Grace’s sake.  She had to get better.  She had to turn her life around.  For the sake of Grace, she had to do it.  But it was too hard!

            This is what she says happened.  It was the week before Christmas.  Through a series of unexpected events, she ended up at a church.  Ten rows back.  During the sermon, the preacher asked this question: “Do you want to be made whole?”

            Liz says she recognized that question.  She says she even recognized that voice.  She says she heard it a week earlier in the middle of the night.  Do you want to be made whole?

            It was a sign for her, a message of hope, that she could recover, that she could have her life back and that she could provide a life for Grace.

            That night she says she began “my excruciating journey towards the light of hope, truth and freedom.”  When she eventually wrote her story, she had been free of heroin for twelve years. 

            Here’s something she writes in her story,

I thought I was completely alone but came to know that God is in us and all around us to shine light in our dark times — to bring hope when all seems lost — to do the impossible.

            People found her story to be so inspiring it was turned into a book.  Today it is in the library at Harvard University. (Heroin, Hope, and Harvard, Daily Inspired Life)

            I’ve been a pastor for nearly forty years.  I’ll retire in a few months.  I could not have done it if I had not believed that is true.  Even when circumstances look impossible, we must not say it is too hard.  We must cling to hope because hope is the greatest power in life.  It is what finally inspired Abraham and Sarah to become the parents of a mighty nation.  It is what propelled the people of Israel from slavery into the Promised Land.  Hope is the heart of the gospel.  Therefore, we hope because nothing is too hard for God.

Closing Prayer           

 Lord, some days our hope is weak, and we waver.  Some days we are worn down, and we are tempted by despair.  Rekindle our hope. Remind us that nothing is too hard for you.  Amen.