Scripture - Genesis 16:1-5

Rev Dwayne Morgan

Being the youngest of seven children has availed to me the opportunity to learn many things from my older siblings. One of my sisters is 18 years older than I. Shortly after she was married she discovered that she was unable to have children. After several years, she and her husband began to pursue adoption.

It took quite a few years but they eventually adopted two girls who were half-sisters. The girls were three and four when my sister and brother-in-law adopted them.

Fast forward 12 years when the cute little girls turned 15 and 16. If you’ve ever been around 15 and 16 year old girls, you know what I mean. Years ago when I was working as an associate pastor and had the responsibility for the youth group of the church, I could relate quite well to all of the young people except the 15 and 16 year old girls. To them I would simply say, ‘why don’t you go talk to the pastor’s wife.’

But there’s my sister who couldn’t have children of her own who lovingly adopted two cute little girls, twelve year later dealing with the joys of two rebellious teenage terrors. One day at the height of the struggle she said to me: ‘I couldn’t have children. God knew what she was doing. I just had to interfere and mess things up!’

I’m sure that’s how Abraham and Sarah must have felt.

They interfered seriously with God’s plan for their lives. They had been promised in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis that they would be the parents of a large nation. God had spoken to them that their descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky.

But Sarah wasn’t getting pregnant and she was getting up in years. Maybe they had misinterpreted what God had said. Maybe God needed a little help. So they followed the custom of the day and took one of Sarah’s servants and made her Abraham’s wife and the child that would be borne would be viewed as Abraham and Sarah’s child.

Things looked good in the beginning. Sarah’s servant, Hagar, did indeed become pregnant and nine months later a son was borne. What joy! Now God could fulfil the promise thanks to a little human assistance on the part of Abraham and Sarah.

Have you ever noticed how we can be so full of confidence and faith at the promise that God gives us in the beginning but when things get delayed we start thinking maybe we missed God? Or we misunderstood God. Maybe we’re supposed to be moving in a different direction. Maybe we need to assist God along. After all God gave us two hands and two feet, we must be busy doing something, going somewhere, God needs our help!

Yes, it is true that we shouldn’t sit on our bum and just expect God to do everything for us. Scripture speaks about those who don’t work won’t be eating. We’re not created to be marionettes waiting on God to move our strings.

But we must learn the spiritual discipline of trusting in Divine guidance, waiting for God’s timing, having faith that that which God promised, God will do.

Abraham and Sarah missed this lesson. They tried to help God along instead of having faith in God’s timing and provision.

Sarah’s servant, Hagar, after giving birth to a son for Abraham, began to show contempt for Sarah and a conflict arose. Sarah’s life became miserable because Hagar was able to give to Abraham that which Sarah wasn’t.

Sarah had felt incompetent in her infertility. She no doubt suffered from low self-esteem, unable to perform that which it appeared God wanted from her. But in her own human attempt to carry out God’s will for her life by human intervention she was made to feel even more inept and publicly embarrassed.

We all have our human weaknesses. God knows them. God plans to use them to show forth the power of a God that knows no limits.

But when we interfere by trying to overcome our weaknesses with our human attempts, we end up even more embarrassed and, quite honestly, looking like a great big fool.

Years later God would indeed fulfil the promise made to Abraham and Sarah. In their old age, Abraham at one hundred and Sarah in her nineties, God would give them the child promised. Isaac would be borne and would become the ancestor of the nation which God had promised.

But because of their interference in God’s plan, a conflict arose between Sarah and Hagar. This conflict continued between Ishmael and Isaac. And this conflict continues today between the Arabs who see themselves as the descendants of Ishmael and the Jews who see themselves as the descendants of Isaac. Quite a lot of conflict brought on simply because of impatience that led to interference.

This weekend in Manchester we celebrate being proud of who we are as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. We have learned to accept who we are and stop interfering with God’s creation and, hopefully, stop letting others interfere in our lives with who God wants us to be.

But in this room are many of the scars of interference. The failed marriages to persons of the opposite sex because someone interfered and said we should live a ‘normal’ life. The years of living in a body we knew wasn’t meant for us because others interfered and told us that God gave us the genitalia meant for us and we should learn to accept it as is. The years of pretending to be either straight or gay because people told us to make up our mind, that there was no such thing as bisexual.

Many of us in this room know the ill effects of interfering with God’s plan because we spent years of trying to change that which God planned for us to be all along.

So if any followers of Jesus Christ should understand the importance of not interfering with the plan of God it should be us, God’s queer daughters and sons!

But one cannot preach a sermon like this without knowing that there are many in this congregation this afternoon who are struggling with the ill effects of interference with the plan of God for your life. So just a few words for those of you who might be sitting here thinking, ‘I’ve interfered, I’m doomed, there’s no hope, I don’t know what to do.’

First of all, get over it. You’re not the first to interfere in God’s plans and you won’t be the last. God has worked in the lives of many people in spite of their interference and God will work in your life in spite of your past interference.

Second of all, know that the promise of God is sure and certain, despite your failures of the past. Remember this: you might be delayed but you are not denied. Turn the mess you’ve made over to God and then for Pete’s sake, let go and let God.

Thirdly, learn to stop interfering in the future. Learn to have patience in God’s plan. Learn to have faith in God’s future.

And most importantly, learn to have faith in yourself to hear from and follow God.

So many people are afraid that they will miss God’s direction in their lives, as if God is trying to keep it a big secret. If God has a plan or direction for your life, then it’s not a big secret. If God wants you to do something or go somewhere, then do you really think that God isn’t going to tell you somewhere down the line?

Your job isn’t to panic about it or worry about it. Your goal should be simply to draw closer to God. As you grow in your relationship with God through prayer, reading the Bible, and worship, then you will place yourself in a position to be able to listen for God and know God’s direction.

Lastly, know that patience is oftentimes painful. The process of getting to where God wants you, learning the lessons you need to learn to do that which God is leading you to, is not always the most pleasant of experiences.

You see, I think we as humans often misunderstand pain. We immediately think of pain as bad. But as our S&M friends can tell us, sometimes pain is good.

The experience of pain often means there is growth, change, healing, progress. Oftentimes it is the pain that gets us to where we need to be.

David, was 2-years old and had leukaemia. He was taken by his mother to a hospital in Boston, to see Dr. John Truman who specializes in treating children with cancer and various blood diseases. The countless clinic visits, the blood tests, the intravenous drugs, the fear and pain. David never cried in the waiting room, and although his friends in the clinic had to hurt him and stick needles in him, he hustled in ahead of his mother with a smile, sure of the warm welcome he always got.

When he was three, David had to have a spinal tap—a painful procedure at any age. It was explained to him that, because he was sick, Dr. Truman had to do something to make him better. ‘If it hurts, remember it's because he loves you,’ his mother said. The procedure was horrendous. It took three nurses to hold David still, while he yelled and sobbed and struggled. When it was almost over, the tiny boy, soaked in sweat and tears, looked up at the doctor and gasped, "Thank you, Dr. Tooman, for my hurting."

Your pain as you wait on God’s timing and God’s plan might be immense. Others may not understand you and may mock you. The success of those around you may make you feel inferior or left out. Waiting on God can even sometimes make you look like a failure to the world.

But Abraham and Sarah were far from failures. It may not have come about for many years—they were well into old age and past the age for having children—but God’s promise to them was fulfilled. They became pregnant and had a son, Isaac, who became the father of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel. Israel became the ancestor of King David. David was the ancestor of a chap named Joseph, a carpenter in Nazareth who took for his wife a young virgin named Mary.

Yes, God has a plan, if we are but patient enough to not interfere.

Imagine how proud Abraham and Sarah must be.

This weekend as we celebrate being proud of whom God has created us to be, let us learn to find greater pride in following Jesus Christ as we see the plan of God unfold in our lives.

Amen.

(Rev Dwayne Morgan)