Community Church Sermons
March 12, 2006
Genesis 17:1-7 & 15-16
R. TIM MEADOWS, Ph.D.
ASSOCIATE PASTOR
I’M GONNA HAVE A BABY, ABIE!
Haven’t you found that the mothers you know
Quit having babies at forty or so.
But Sarah at eighty though wrinkled and gray
Sat knitting booties through most of the day.
When Abraham said to her, “Sarah you’re knitting,
I feel that it’s fitting that you tell me why”.
Old Sarah just winked, then smiled and replied,
“I’m going to have a baby, Abie.”
It sounded so funny, they giggled out loud,
They bellowed and laughed and attracted a crowd
Who asked Abraham:
“What is so funny---could you tell us maybe?”
My Sarah is eighty, expecting a baby!”
“A baby! A baby!” They shouted with glee!
They rollicked and frolicked hilariously,
Holding their sides and slapping their knees!
They fell on the ground and roared out with joy,
“Tell us, old Sarah--- a girl or a boy?”
When one of them saw she was knitting some booties
They broke out in laughing and roaring and hooting.
One of them mocked her: “She’s quite off her rocker!
Dear Lady, you’re eighty, you can’t have a baby!”
They hooted and howled; for nine months they roared.
They made so much noise that they nearly ignored
The sound of the postman who knocked at he door,
“Hey fellas! A letter from Abie has come.
Old Sarah his wife had a new little son!”
At last they quit laughing,
And yet they felt joy,
All ran to Abie’s
To see his new boy.
They all smiled at Abie and said “Happy Baby!”
While Abraham beamed as proud as could be.
But God smiled down on nobody other
Than Sarah, the old one, the happy new mother!
(From When The Aardvark Parked on the Ark by Calvin Miller, p. 44-47)
Today, we focus on our second sign of the times, the sign of children. And just as Abraham and Sarah’s world was turned upside down by the thought of old people having a baby, so also ought our world to be turned upside down by the sign of the times that children can bring us. Now, I know, that many of you are thinking, Children?, if there are going to be any children in the village it is up to you! Let me assure you, that children are about as likely to happen at my house as they are at yours. So probably there are not going to be a lot of children “had” in the village, however, God has given us all some involvement with children at different levels and a responsibility to care for and invest in the children who are a part of our lives. Many of you invest yourselves; your time, talent, and money in the children of the greater Loudon community. So it is fitting for us to look at children as a sign of the times----to stop and ask just how they are a sign of the times. How do they remind us of God’s love and God’s work in our world? God also may speak to us through this sign of the times!
I. Children Remind Us of the Innocence Necessary to Get Along:
It was Rodney King who said it, “Can’t we all just get along?, but it is usually a child who demonstrates to us how to accomplish this task. How often has it been a child who confronted your prejudices by asking “ Why do we hate that person or Why do we treat that person differently, or Why do we not have anything to do with that person?” The innocence of a child allows them to be united by similarities rather than divided by differences. An innocence that allows them to see people as God sees people, as His creation created for His purposes. But something happens to the innocence of a child; we grow up and innocence is replaced by suspicion and mistrust and competition and difficulties that divide us. We begin to choose up sides, to establish groups, and we no longer possess that innocence that allows us to just get along. I think as we look at this sign of the times, we would do well, to let the child ask us again, “Why is it, that we can’t get along”? Why is it that we don’t like people who look different from us? Why is it that they don’t matter? Children remind us of the innocence necessary to get along. We would do well to learn the lesson that the child is trying to teach us, and to nurture that innocence within the child. We could also learn to capture that innocence and live in it ourselves.
II. Children Give Us Hope for the Future:
Children possess a boundless energy and a curious optimism that provides encouragement and purpose to their lives. They do not look at a series of obstacles to be overcome, but rather a series of opportunities filled with possibility. We are all looking for hope. We are all wondering where this race is going? We are all asking what will be the end of the thing we call life? When we look at the boundless energy and curious optimism of a child, we are provided with a source of encouragement and purpose. In their energy and optimism, and in their hurry to go nowhere in particular, they remind us that God wants us to live as hopeful people. But something happens to a child’s hope; we grow up and hope, energy, optimism, and curiosity, are diminished by cynicism and fear. We no longer see the glass as half - full we see it as half -empty. We no longer see life as a series of opportunities----- we see it as a series of obligations. We no longer enjoy the time we spend. We simply endure that which is ahead. We would do well to be reminded of the by the little child of the energy and optimism and the curiosity that comes with childhood and allows us to enjoy life as the wonderful gift God intended it to be. To live in their energy, to exercise their curiosity, to look with purpose to our lives, rather than live in the cynicism that takes hold of us as adults.
III. Children Remind Us of God’s Power to Give Life:
They ignore the mystery of why we are here and simply charge forward in excitement. Life for a child is an adventure not to be missed. They simply seize the moment--- to fill it with as much as they can. They charge into what is in front of them, believing they can conquer it, no matter how long it takes. But something happens to a child’s sense of mystery; we grow up and seek to define the mystery and control it, rather than enjoying it to the fullest. Life becomes a chess match. Life becomes difficult. Life becomes that, which we no longer enjoy. Oh, that we could recapture the mystery that a child understands, and simply engage life in the mystery and the hope and the opportunity that it is. This is the sign of the times that children offer us here.
IV. Children Make Us Laugh:
They possess a whimsy and delight that deifies reason. We are captived by their joy and delighted by how they carry on. We look at children and wonder, what it is that makes them so happy, what is it that makes them so joyful, what is it that they do not get about life? But something happens to the laughter of children and the laughter caused by children. We grow up and the whimsy and delight they experienced and brought, turn to worry, anger, and disappointment both for the child and for those responsible for them. We would to do well to recapture the laughter, the excitement, the joy of childhood, and that childhood brings, and do away with the worry, anger, and disappointment, that so pervade our lives.
So, we’re gonna have a baby, Abie, but what should we do with this sign of the times, given by God? Let me suggest at least five things:
I. We should nurture the innocence of children: Do not discourage it, do not try to erase it, nurture the innocence and let it be what it is. Because in that innocence there is hope for our world. In that innocence there is peace to solve problems that we adults seem unable to solve. In that innocence there is the blessing of God that all of us hope for again, but seem to be unable to recapture.
II. We should encourage the hope: We look at the boundless energy of children and we want to tell them to slow down, to settle down, to be careful. Those may be words that at times they need to hear, but they also need to hear that their hope is warranted----- their hope is well placed---- that we believe they can and will change the world. We believe that what they are doing is important. We must not stifle their hope, or dismiss it as naiveté, we must encourage it.
III. We should bless the life: It is so easy to discourage people, a word or two, spoken in bitterness and anger will take the life right out of someone. How much better would it be for us to give our blessing, to give our encouragement? Sociologists and psychologists have concluded after numerous studies that one of the things children struggle with is the need for blessing. They are looking for someone significant in their life to say well done, and until that happens they often continue in the trouble, anger, and despair that marks many of their lives. One of the best things we could do for this sign of the times is to give them the blessing they need, so that they can become all that God has created them to be.
IV. We should enjoy the laughter: After all, it is better to laugh than to mourn. It is much better to laugh than to be angry, surly, or bitter. Where there is laughter there usually is fun, so enjoy the laughter that children bring to us. Recognize that the moment of lightness--- if it does nothing else----- brings hope and encouragement for that moment. There is so little to laugh about in our adult world, so when a child laughs, let’s just laugh with them.
V. We should recapture childlikeness: God gave us children as a sign of the times not to tell us that we should be childish, but to remind us that in childlikeness, there is the innocence, the hope, the potential of life, and the laughter, that will make a difference in a dark and troubled world.
So, there are signs of the times in children. And the question is,------- how much will we embrace the sign? How much will we encourage? How much will we live in the blessing that they bring us?
So, we’re gonna have a baby Abie, and he’s gonna be a sign of the times, and she’s gonna be a blessing to all the world around. And they are going to bring something to us, that we lost in adulthood and need to recapture.