Pastoral Letter 15
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Today we are in the second Sunday after Pentecost. Last Sunday, on Trinity Sunday, as we celebrated and listened (read) the Word of God and the message, we were reminded that the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, act as three, but in unity. The Father comes to us with His great love to give, to provide and to care for us. The Son comes with His grace to save us through His blood. And the Holy Spirit is with us with His power, encouraging us to be witnesses here in this world, till the Lord comes again.
Also, we were hoping soon to reopen the doors of our church for worship, being informed that the social distancing restrictions are easing step by step and it is possible to have fifty people gatherings. I indicated in my last week’s Pastoral letter that the Elders and the Council will meet in the coming days, and they did meet last Tuesday morning. We spent a long time to discuss the main agenda item. During our discussions, we realised that there are so many requirements imposed by the government and the Uniting Church to be completed, if we wished having our Sunday Services in the church.
At the meeting, the Elders and Church Council released the following statement:
The Elders and Church Council met on 9 June and discussed at length all the requirements to be fulfilled for the responsible opening of St. Andrew’s for Sunday Services. These requirements included the checking of attendees, the essential rigorous cleaning before and after, and the enforcing of spaced seating. In addition, to avoid spreading the virus, it would not be permitted to sing hymns, recite the Lord’s Prayer or take part in responsive readings or prayers.
Therefore reluctantly, the Elders and Council unanimously decided to continue ‘Worship Services at Home’ and to meet and reconsider this decision in the first week of July.
So, let us be a little bit more patient for few more weeks and look forward with hope and faith.
Let us continue to pray as we keep on doing our worship services the same way as we are doing for the last three months and assure you that we will commence our service at some stage. Until then, I ask you to be well and safe. Keep on praying and leave everything in the hands of our great God and again join the others tomorrow morning in worship, following the Order of Service. This week some of the hymns have been chosen by Mark, so please sing along, because you can in your homes and praise the Lord. Please do not forget to light a candle if you wish.
During the week I received a sad news. A member of the Armenian Evangelical Uniting Church Congregation, the wife of one of the Church Council members, who was diagnosed by malignant cancer in February and was undergoing chemo and radio therapy, suddenly her state turned to bad and her chance of recovering to none. She went downhill and the doctors have informed the family that there is nothing they can do. She is mid-40 and mother of two young adult children. Please pray for her and the family.
Prayer points:
- Continue to pray for those countries who are still in the midst of the pandemic, where the number of cases of COVID-19 is growing.
- Pray for the riots and anti-racial demonstrations around the world and in Australia.
- Please pray and contribute to the Exodus Foundation June appeal. Help is needed. For details refer to our Newsletter, which will be sent soon.
- Pray and if you can, contribute to the COVID-19 fundraising efforts of the Armenian Missionary Association of Australia.
If you have any prayer points, please let me know and I will include them in the next week’s letter.
Krikor
Your Minister
Message Summary
Laughter! This Time Next Year
Genesis 18:1-15
In our text today we read about a woman who laughed. “Sarah Laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?’ Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will really have a child, now that I am old?’ …… Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, ‘I did not laugh.’” Genesis 18:12-13 & 15
If we do a little research about why people laugh, we see that scholars state clearly that laughter is part of the universal human vocabulary. Every human understands it. Unlike English, Armenian, French or any other language, we don’t have to learn to show it or express it. We are born with that capability. In fact, the first laughter appears at about 3.5 months of age; long before we are able to speak. And one of the remarkable things about laughter is that it occurs unconsciously. We do not decide to laugh, and we don’t consciously produce laughter.
According to scientists, laughter is also a physical reaction to stress, tension, confusion, or anxiety. People laugh when they need to project dignity and control during times of stress and anxiety. In these situations, people usually laugh in a subconscious attempt to reduce stress and calm down.
Experts when they say these things, even they are not thinking of Sarah when she laughed, but they perfectly describe her situation. We read in our passage, that she was in the family tent, and she was listening to the conversation between Abraham and his guests. Surely, she did not know who these three visitors were, but it is obvious God/Lord was one of them and the other two were angels.
In our passage today we see that when three men appeared to Abraham, as he was sitting at his tent near a great tree, he hurried to meet them and bowed low to the ground. His action may indicate that he realised that it was a divine visit; the Lord Himself and two angels appeared to Him. Abraham’s first reaction was to invite the visitors, the guests, to come wash their feet and rest under the shade of the tree. He also offered to give them food to be refreshed and then continue their journey. When they accepted his invitation, Abraham instructed Sarah to prepare fresh bread, the servants to prepare and cook a calf, as well as to bring curd and milk. In today’s terms, Abraham wanted to provide the visitors with a three-course meal. Full five-star hospitality. He provided all this with grateful and hospitable heart.
After this big feast or banquet we find out the main reason for this divine visit. The Lord had come to Abraham and Sarah to confirm His previous promise of making him the father of many nation, once again promising them to have a child. But this time it was different, because Lord clearly said: “I will sure return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son”.
Sarah laughed when she eared what the visitors were saying about her having a child soon. Now, just so we understand what her emotions were like at this point, it helps to realise that God had made this promise to Abraham of a child, four times already in the past.
We read in Genesis 12:2 that God promised Abraham and said: “I will make you into a Great Nation”.
Then in Genesis 13:16 God says: “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.”
And again, in Genesis 16:10: “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”
And then in Genesis 17:4 we read: “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.”
Probably she had some doubts, stress and confusion in her mind, because it was hard for her to believe. In fact, there are so many emotions that her nerves got her, and she laughed.
Then God asked Abraham “Why did Sarah laugh?” He was not angry with her. And part of the reason is because He did not punish her. In the Gospel of Luke, we are told about a priest Zechariah and his wife, the parents of John the Baptist, who were both well old. An angel appeared to Zechariah and said that they are going to have a son, but Zechariah apparently did not buy it! The angel told Zechariah: “Behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words.”
God punished Zechariah. But here we see that He did not punish Sarah, because probably she believed, but she was confused, stressed and nervous.
When God asked, “Why Did Sarah laugh?”, actually He was challenging her. He knew that she was listening, and He knew that she was struggling in her faith, and so He acknowledged the conflict in her mind. He said: “You laughed”. But then He said something that Sarah needs to hear: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Genesis 18:14
Sarah is not all that much different than a lot of us. Theologically we know that God can do whatever He wants to do. But when life turns sour, when the walls begin to close in and there is no rational reason to believe life will get any better, we struggle. We have all been there, and we all know there are times when answers to our situations are illogical, irrational and impossible.
In our current circumstances we and the world are still struggling with the pandemic and the racial turmoil. If we look around, we see the riots, demonstration, looting, raiding and violence. And if we hear God saying to us and promising that things will get better, which are happening slowly, we wonder if that could happen. Sarah, a 99-year-old woman getting pregnant would seem to fall into that category. Sarah’s struggled with this and she was not ready to digest and clearly understand God’s promise and that all things are possible with God. There will be times in our Christianity and faith when we are going to struggle too.
In this familiar story God, as one of the visitors, states: “Surely I will return to you this time next year”. God was assuring that He was going to fulfill His promise and give them a male child and Abraham will be the father of many nations.
God performs His miracles. To recognise what God has done or could do to us and for us, we need to have faith. Hebrews 11:6 says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he exists and that His rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
What I find interesting about this story about Sarah is this: When God first calls her out for laughing, she denies that she laughed. She was afraid, or probably even ashamed that she laughed. But that shame does not last very long because, eventually her laughter becomes part of her story.
Sarah and Abraham name their son, Isaac which means “Laughter.” Imagine another woman coming up to Sarah and saying: “That’s a handsome boy you have there, what’s his name?” And Sarah responds: “Laughter.” The other woman is a bit shocked and says: “Why on earth would you name him that?” And Sarah responds by saying: “Well, let me tell you about that…” Every time someone asks her about her son’s name, she can share how she laughed when God told them that they will have a son in their old age. And she can share how God did something miraculous in her life. He fulfilled His promise and there was real joy and laughter, the same time a year later, when the son, Isaac, was born. And it becomes the story that Sarah shares with others.
There is a saying that goes: “They who laugh last… laugh best”. One source says that this expression means: “The final winner will have more glory than someone who was winning in the beginning, but ultimately lost.”
In the second part of the Genesis reading we see that Sarah literally had the last laugh. God did the impossible in her life, and she had the last laugh, because God gave that laughter to her. God gave the promised son, which brought joy to their lives. Sarah said: “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” Genesis 21:6
Do you think He can give us a last laugh as well?
Will we be in a situation, when we will joyfully praise the Lord for being with us during the terrifying pandemic?
Will we be able to sing and praise our Lord, for what He has done?
Of course, He can give us the last laugh. Yes, there will be a time soon, when we will be able to laugh and be joyfully praise God’s name. We know this because only God has the power to give us that last laugh.
Psalm 2:1-7 says: “Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains, “and throw off their fetters.” He One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will proclaim the decree of the Lord. He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father’”
Our God is more powerful than any force on the face of the earth, and the reason we are assured of that is because He came to us through His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who died on the cross and rose from the grave to save us and gave us hope for eternal life. A life, where there will be no more pain, suffering, sadness, sickness, tears, etc. Rather there will joy, happiness, blessings and blessings and most of all laughter.
What did God promise to Sarah? A son! And she laughed. But God kept His promise.
Nothing is hard for God.
So, when God tells and promises us that there will be times of joy, prosperity and abundance, let’s not take it with disbelief. He is the mighty and loving God, who keeps His promises. All we have to do is to have faith and hope to receive His joy of provision and loving care.
Yes, there will be laughter again “this time next year” and most probably sooner. Our God is faithful.
Amen!