WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:01.200 Good morning. 2 00:00:01.200 --> 00:00:05.100 My name is Steve Miller. I'm a pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church on 3 00:00:05.100 --> 00:00:05.800 South Grand. 4 00:00:05.800 --> 00:00:09.900 Just across the street from Tower Grove Park and it is my privilege 5 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:12.200 to be here with you this morning. 6 00:00:12.200 --> 00:00:14.100 And to be preaching in your midst. 7 00:00:14.100 --> 00:00:20.600 Today I would like to begin with a prayer that is likely familiar to many of you. Now 8 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:24.800 the common table prayer and if that is the case, I would invite you to 9 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:30.900 join me in praying at this morning. Come Lord Jesus, Be our guest and 10 00:00:30.900 --> 00:00:33.900 let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen. 11 00:00:34.900 --> 00:00:37.400 Since, I've been preparing to preach they've been thinking a lot 12 00:00:37.400 --> 00:00:40.900 about this prayer and the more that I think about it the more I'm 13 00:00:40.900 --> 00:00:47.100 convinced that this is a pretty bold prayer to pray. Come Lord Jesus. 14 00:00:48.700 --> 00:00:50.900 Come be our guest. 15 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:57.100 Every time I we say these words we are inviting Jesus asking Jesus to 16 00:00:57.100 --> 00:01:00.400 get involved in our lives and I've said this prayer 17 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:05.500 more times than I can count. Likely before meals usually in the 18 00:01:05.500 --> 00:01:09.500 company of others and maybe that is the case for you too. 19 00:01:09.500 --> 00:01:13.100 And when I stop to think about it gives me pause. 20 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:20.700 You make me wonder what is it look like to invite Jesus into our lives 21 00:01:20.700 --> 00:01:25.900 to let him be our guest? And as of any other question or two answers 22 00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:29.400 come to mind, a welcoming and trusting. 23 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:36.400 Welcoming Jesus and trusting his ways and that's that's the theme that 24 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:39.900 I'd like to explore today. A theme that occurs a number of times in the 25 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:43.000 reading you just heard from the book of Genesis and it's a theme that touches 26 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.900 our lives in some rather significant ways. 27 00:01:45.900 --> 00:01:49.800 And I think what we see is that although welcoming seems easy. 28 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.400 Welcoming means trusting 29 00:01:54.600 --> 00:01:57.100 Trusting is hard. The other thing 30 00:01:57.100 --> 00:02:01.900 I think we see is that this is why Jesus is just so significant that 31 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:07.400 because God is always faithful to his promises and that way we can 32 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:12.100 place our trust in him. As a welcoming and trusting others were looking 33 00:02:12.100 --> 00:02:15.500 at and the story you just heard from the book of Genesis involves two people 34 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:19.000 from the Old Testament that are likely familiar to many of you Abraham 35 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:23.900 and Sarah. And their story comprises a rather significant chunk of the Book of 36 00:02:23.900 --> 00:02:24.700 Genesis. 37 00:02:24.700 --> 00:02:28.500 And while we are not not at the we're somewhere in the middle. 38 00:02:28.500 --> 00:02:32.800 We're not at the beginning of that story. The beginning starts about 39 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:36.600 six chapters earlier. Abraham and Sarah are in a place called Haran 40 00:02:36.600 --> 00:02:41.000 somewhere on the border between modern-day turkey and Syria. And 41 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.800 it's in this place that the Lord first appears to Abraham and says to 42 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:47.500 him get up and go. 43 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:52.400 Go from your father's house to the land that I show you and I got 44 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:57.700 imagine that this raises all sorts of questions. Questions like, 45 00:02:58.700 --> 00:03:03.400 Which land and and God why should I listen to you? 46 00:03:04.600 --> 00:03:08.100 But if your Abraham in this story you don't get to ask them because 47 00:03:08.100 --> 00:03:11.800 God goes on to make this absolutely incredible promise. 48 00:03:11.800 --> 00:03:16.200 He tells you that you are going to have a family and not just any 49 00:03:16.200 --> 00:03:20.900 family a family to become so large that it's not going to be called 50 00:03:20.900 --> 00:03:24.300 the family anymore. It's going to be called a great nation. 51 00:03:24.300 --> 00:03:30.500 It goes without saying that if you were Abraham in this story, this 52 00:03:30.500 --> 00:03:31.400 is some pretty good news. 53 00:03:32.900 --> 00:03:37.600 Rather quickly you discover that there is a problem and the problem 54 00:03:37.600 --> 00:03:42.700 is that if your Abraham you are 75 years old. 55 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.000 Your wife is 65 and the scriptures are pretty clear about her 56 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:47.200 condition. 57 00:03:47.200 --> 00:03:50.500 She is not just beyond the age of having children. 58 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:56.500 She is Barren and so this good news also seems like some pretty crazy 59 00:03:56.500 --> 00:03:57.000 news. 60 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:01.700 But here's the thing if you are Abraham, you are a faithful man. 61 00:04:01.700 --> 00:04:06.700 So you pack your bags and you leave your travel to this far-off 62 00:04:06.700 --> 00:04:07.900 distant land. 63 00:04:07.900 --> 00:04:13.600 And as you do a time begins to pass 9 years to be exact, 9 years, and 64 00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:16.800 it's the next time that we catch up with you in at this point if you 65 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:20.399 are Abraham, you are 84 years old. 66 00:04:21.700 --> 00:04:25.400 You're 84 years old and you're beginning to get a little anxious and 67 00:04:25.400 --> 00:04:30.600 no one's going to blame you and so God tells you to go outside and to 68 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:31.900 look up at the stars. 69 00:04:33.200 --> 00:04:37.600 So you go outside you you look up at them and you try to count them 70 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:43.600 and then the Lord says so shall your offspring be. Time continues 71 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:44.700 to pass and we meet you next. 72 00:04:44.700 --> 00:04:49.900 It's Sarah who's getting anxious and again no one's going to blame her. it's at 73 00:04:49.900 --> 00:04:50.300 this point 74 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:54.600 that she realizes that she's in her seventies and and she's barren 75 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:58.400 and she thinks maybe maybe God needs us to be a little bit more 76 00:04:58.400 --> 00:04:58.900 creative. 77 00:05:00.300 --> 00:05:04.700 And so she says to go have a child with my servant you going to do 78 00:05:04.700 --> 00:05:04.900 that 79 00:05:04.900 --> 00:05:10.300 and would rather quickly discover that this is not what God had in 80 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:10.600 mind. 81 00:05:11.900 --> 00:05:14.400 And that brings us to the reading you just heard. 82 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:16.300 And if your Abraham 83 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:18.400 you're a hundred years old. 84 00:05:19.900 --> 00:05:22.500 Your wife Sarah is is 90. And for just a moment 85 00:05:22.500 --> 00:05:29.300 I want you to consider this. You have been waiting for 25 years. 25 86 00:05:29.300 --> 00:05:34.300 years a quarter of your life for God to make good on this promise and 87 00:05:34.300 --> 00:05:36.200 yet in the midst of it all you're still welcoming, 88 00:05:36.200 --> 00:05:37.800 you're still trusting, 89 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:39.100 you're still faithful. 90 00:05:39.100 --> 00:05:41.000 I mean, can you imagine what 91 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:44.000 that would be like? 92 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:47.400 Now a little after noon 93 00:05:47.400 --> 00:05:50.800 during the hottest part of the day when the Lord comes to visit and 94 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:54.200 and you're sitting at the entrance to your tent when you see these 95 00:05:54.200 --> 00:05:56.100 three figures off in the distance. 96 00:05:56.100 --> 00:06:02.400 And and you welcome these men like honored guest. You serve them bread 97 00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:03.600 from your choice flower. 98 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:09.700 You serve them meat and curds from your choice calf. You serve them water from 99 00:06:09.700 --> 00:06:10.400 from your choice 100 00:06:10.400 --> 00:06:14.200 well. I mean you stop at nothing to welcome them. 101 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:18.600 And they seem to enjoy what you've given them and it's just about the time 102 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:21.500 that they finish this fascinating thing happens. 103 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:26.400 One of them asks you where Sarah is and without missing a beat you 104 00:06:26.400 --> 00:06:29.400 point off in the distance and you say she's over there 105 00:06:30.400 --> 00:06:31.300 in her tent. 106 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:37.600 All of a sudden it's not three men responding anymore. 107 00:06:38.700 --> 00:06:42.300 Even today we're not exactly sure how this works though 108 00:06:42.300 --> 00:06:46.300 we like to think a lot about it, but it's it's not 3 men it's the Lord 109 00:06:46.300 --> 00:06:50.000 speaking to you. And he says at this time next year 110 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:52.200 I'm going to return 111 00:06:53.400 --> 00:06:55.000 and Sarah's going to have a son. 112 00:06:56.100 --> 00:07:00.300 You know just in case anyone has forgotten its at this point of the 113 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:06.900 narrator in the story tells us that you and your wife are old and your 114 00:07:06.900 --> 00:07:11.900 hundred, Sarah is 90. And maybe that's why you can hear her laughing 115 00:07:11.900 --> 00:07:15.600 off in the distance and quite honestly, maybe you're laughing too. 116 00:07:17.200 --> 00:07:20.900 Lords adamant next year I'm going to return. 117 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:23.400 You're going to have a son. 118 00:07:24.900 --> 00:07:27.000 See welcoming and trusting 119 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:31.300 is the theme that I see in this reading. And what we see is that 120 00:07:31.300 --> 00:07:32.000 welcoming 121 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:36.400 although it seems easy welcoming also means trusting. 122 00:07:37.400 --> 00:07:38.300 Trusting is hard. 123 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:41.200 Now you 124 00:07:41.200 --> 00:07:44.900 when I think about Abraham's story or Abraham and Sarah's story. 125 00:07:44.900 --> 00:07:48.900 It causes me to think on all sorts of stories for my own life. 126 00:07:48.900 --> 00:07:53.900 I think about that the night said that my son Grant was born. 127 00:07:53.900 --> 00:07:57.800 I remember my my wife and I went into the hospital and and I'd like to 128 00:07:57.800 --> 00:07:59.400 think out of the two of us. 129 00:07:59.400 --> 00:08:02.300 Welcomed the Lord into the delivery room that night. 130 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:06.900 Ah but then in the 12th hour of delivery. 131 00:08:06.900 --> 00:08:09.000 It strikes me that that welcoming 132 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.100 although it seems easy welcoming means trusting. 133 00:08:14.400 --> 00:08:15.500 Trust is hard. 134 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:19.100 Yeah, I think about that the process that takes you from being a 135 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:24.800 Seminary Student to being a pastor and if that process has anything in 136 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:27.700 common with all the pieces it's but it all involves welcoming. I mean 137 00:08:27.700 --> 00:08:32.200 everything from from the interviews to the phone calls to working 138 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:36.900 with the placement office. It all involves welcoming and the placement 139 00:08:36.900 --> 00:08:40.400 director, the district presidents, the congregation they'll take 140 00:08:40.400 --> 00:08:44.300 welcoming very seriously and every meeting begins and ends with prayer 141 00:08:44.300 --> 00:08:47.400 and yet then you find yourself standing over there. 142 00:08:48.700 --> 00:08:53.200 And hear your name called or you're standing over there and your wife 143 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:54.500 hears your name called. 144 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.400 All the sudden it strikes you the welcoming seems easy, but welcoming 145 00:08:58.400 --> 00:09:03.200 means trusting. And trusting is hard. Or I think of the stories of being 146 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:08.300 a pastor for the past eight years or the people that I've met. The 147 00:09:08.300 --> 00:09:12.400 couple whose daughter went missing and was presumed for dead. 148 00:09:13.800 --> 00:09:18.400 Or the preschool teacher who comes in one morning and tells you 149 00:09:18.400 --> 00:09:21.500 that one of the preschool parents committed suicide last night. 150 00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:27.200 And these stories they they go on and on and what other than the lives 151 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:30.900 of others of the lives of people like me and you I think we all know 152 00:09:30.900 --> 00:09:33.800 what they're like. That moment 153 00:09:33.800 --> 00:09:37.800 where are the only thing left to do is to trust in the Lord. And in the 154 00:09:37.800 --> 00:09:39.700 difficult thing about trusting means that 155 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:41.900 you're not in control. 156 00:09:41.900 --> 00:09:47.400 You have to rely on someone else and that's why trusting, even trusting 157 00:09:47.400 --> 00:09:50.700 in the Lord can be just so hard. 158 00:09:52.300 --> 00:09:55.000 That's why at moments like these I like to think about the story of 159 00:09:55.000 --> 00:10:01.500 Abraham and his wife because they have been waiting for 25 years. 25 160 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:06.000 years for God to make good on this promise and yet what we what we 161 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.100 know we see is it when the Lord makes a promise 162 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:10.800 he is faithful to it. 163 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:16.200 It's a year later about three chapters in The Bible, and this is what we 164 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:16.600 read. 165 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:22.900 The Lord was gracious to Sarah as he said and the Lord did for Sarah 166 00:10:22.900 --> 00:10:29.800 what he promised. Sarah who is 90 years old became pregnant and she bore 167 00:10:29.800 --> 00:10:35.300 a son to Abraham who's a hundred years old in his old age. At the very 168 00:10:35.300 --> 00:10:37.800 time that God had promised. 169 00:10:38.800 --> 00:10:40.000 What grabs my attention here 170 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:46.200 is that Isaac, Abraham and Sarah's son, isn't the only child that's born 171 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:52.600 at the exact time that God had promised. Because Jesus the one 172 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:57.800 who who lives and dies and rises is also born at the exact time that 173 00:10:57.800 --> 00:11:00.700 God had promised for people like you and me. 174 00:11:01.900 --> 00:11:08.000 Welcoming seems easy. Welcoming means trusting. Sometimes trusting is 175 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.700 hard and that's really been the case for me and my congregation as we 176 00:11:10.700 --> 00:11:11.900 navigated covid-19. Ans whether it is placement in a Vicarage, a Call service, navigating the transition of a Seminary president or some other thing in your life. 177 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:25.000 Imagine the same is true for you. 178 00:11:26.300 --> 00:11:30.400 And yet the promise that our Lord makes to us at the promise he makes 179 00:11:30.400 --> 00:11:36.500 is that we never trust we never believe alone. instead he sends us his 180 00:11:36.500 --> 00:11:40.800 Spirit. His Spirit who calls us by the gospel who enlightens us by his 181 00:11:40.800 --> 00:11:45.100 gifts who makes us holy who keeps us in the faith who who feeds us 182 00:11:45.100 --> 00:11:46.500 at his table. 183 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:49.500 He sends us his spirit. 184 00:11:50.900 --> 00:11:55.900 So that we might always welcome and always trust in him. Just like Abraham. 185 00:11:55.900 --> 00:12:00.800 Just like Sarah. Just like all those who have gone before us in the 186 00:12:00.800 --> 00:12:01.100 faith. 187 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:05.200 And so maybe a rather bold prayer to pray. 188 00:12:06.300 --> 00:12:11.800 But today we can pray. Together come Lord Jesus Be Our Guest and let these 189 00:12:11.800 --> 00:12:14.400 gifts to us be blessed. Amen. 190 00:12:15.400 --> 00:12:19.000 And now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and 191 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:20.200 your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.