Acting On The Absurd
Sermon
ACTING ON THE ABSURD
Second Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost
In his stimulating book, The Dynamics Of Belief, the beloved former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Chattanooga, Don Harbuck, tells the story of a thirteen--year--old boy. Life for this young lad had been difficult. He and his younger brother had not only suffered through the loss of their mother, but they had borne the burden of an alcoholic father and his abject irresponsibility. In fact, the two boys often had nothing to eat. They lived on the berries they picked and the rabbits they killed and cooked over an open fire. Life for them was difficult, at best.
Once a neighbor had paid them 75 cents to cut wood all day. They had worked hard for the money and were headed to the store to buy food for their empty stomachs when their father intercepted them and demanded the money. What else could they do? They gave the money to their father, who then went to buy whiskey. That night the younger boy went to bed hungry. The thirteen year old left home for good. He found a job in a nearby city washing dishes all night in a restaurant and barely eked out a living.
Later in his life when friends would invite him to church, he hesitated to go because someone would always use the word "Father" for God. Every time he heard that word "Father," something at the very depth of his soul grew hard and frozen.1 Is God like that? Father God? What kind of God is God and can he be trusted?
A while back a denominational religious leader made the statement that a certain city in Florida had better be aware, because God might send a tornado through their town. It seems that a small group of people in that city made a decision with which the so--called religious leader did not agree. Now let me get this straight! Let's think through that. God is a God who sends tornadoes upon entire cities, levy's punishment on unknowing bystanders, destroys homes, and kills innocent children for a decision with which they had nothing to do! Is God really like that? What kind of God is God, and can he be trusted?
William Barclay, the great New Testament scholar, lost his daughter and son--in--law in an automobile accident. An individual wrote to him, anonymously, of course, and said, "I now know why God took your daughter. It was to save her from your heresy." Barclay wrote, "If I could have spoken to that person I would have said, 'Your god is my devil.' " Is God like that? What kind of God is God and can he be trusted? Can we really trust God?
I was in a shopping mall a few years ago talking with a four--year--old African--American boy who was as cute as a speckled pup. We were having a big time passing the time while his mother and my wife shopped. I would grin at him and he would grin at me. I would wave at him and he would wave at me. I would laugh and he would laugh back. We were having the best time. I reached into my pocket, took out one of those little mints that I always carry and tried to give him one. No! No! He backed off. He would not take the candy. On the way home, I sorrowfully told my wife that he would not take my candy. She said, "He has been taught not to trust strangers." I said, "I'm no stranger. I'm me." She said, "Believe me, you are stranger than you think." What kind of God is God and can he be trusted?
Not coincidentally, those are the very questions that Paul was addressing in his letter in our text. Paul says boldly, triumphantly, and without a shadow of doubt, "God is a God who can do anything." God is a God who can do anything? Verse 17 is probably one of the greatest faith statements in all of the Bible about the power of God. Paul says, "For God is a God who cannot only give life to the dead, but God is a God who can create something where there is nothing." God can take nothing and make something out of it. God not only can give life to the dead, but God can take nothing and make something out of it.
We've all heard the little jingle: "We have done so much for so long with so little we now qualify to do anything with nothing." Well, God can do anything with nothing. He has shown it! God has shown that he can create something out of nothing in creation. God is the God of creation. God created the vastness of our universe out of nothing! The fancy theological term is ex nihilo. God created everything out of nothing. The Bible says that only God can create. Man can fashion, man can control, man can manipulate, but man can create nothing! In Genesis the Hebrew word for "create" is bara, and is reserved for God alone.
The law of the conservation of mass and energy states that "matter can neither be created nor destroyed." It may change form from solids to liquids or gases, but cannot be created or destroyed. Only God can do that. God can create something out of nothing. God can even give life to the dead.
Paul states that God proved that he could make something out of nothing in the lives of Abraham and Sarah. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, " 'So shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead" (vv. 18--19 NIV). Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was ninety. This old couple was tired, weary, worn out, and half--dead. They were not considering the purchase of a new home near a nursery school! Write over their maternity hopes the word "ABSURD." There again is where God comes into play. Here God shows that he can give life to the dead by giving to those almost lifeless bodies new life in the form of their son, Isaac! No wonder they called their son "Laughter." Absurd! Impossible? Not with God!
But again God showed himself to be the master of the impossible as he took a slain carpenter, called a traitor by the state, and returned him to life after he had been stone--cold dead for three days. God raised Jesus from the dead! Our God can not only take nothing and make something out of it, he can also take the dead and give them life. Our God can do anything!
A bird, the golden plover, lives in the winter in the Arctic and travels in the summer to South America, a distance of 8,000 miles. At one stretch that bird flies 2,500 miles non--stop. How does the plover know the way? If God cares that much for a bird and guides that bird in such an ingenious way, how much more can he guide you - his child, made in his very image? How much more does God care for you? God is a God who can do anything.
In 1968, my wife and I left Gadsden, Alabama, borrowed 200 dollars and set out for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. I was in desperate need of a job. Our desperation was made more so by the fact that Sharlon was pregnant with our oldest son, Chris, and we had an 85--dollar medical insurance premium due any day. I journeyed to the state employment office. "We have an opening at Central Hospital," they said. "I'm not choosy. I can work in a hospital," I replied. I went to Central Hospital in Anchorage and to my surprise, found that it was a state mental hospital. "See Jim Collins," they said. I went to see Jim Collins. "Well, Gary, already they have called from the employment office and said that you have experience working in a hospital. I am glad to hear that!" said Jim Collins. "No, Mr. Collins, I do not have experience working in a hospital of any kind, much less a mental hospital." I tried to make it clear. A few days later, Jim Collins called, "Gary, I just wanted you to know that the job is between you and another person, but because of your experience, I am preferring you." "No, Mr. Collins, I promise you that I have never worked in a hospital." Two days later Jim called, "Gary, you have the job." The first day I reported for work Jim Collins said, "Gary, it is good to have someone of your experience on our staff!" "But, Mr. Collins...."
God can create what he wants to create, even if it is misunderstandings to get what he wants done. God is not only One that can do anything, God is a God who can be trusted. Romans 4:19--21 states: "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Abraham believed that God could be trusted to fulfill his promise. Can you not see the absurdity of it all? This old couple, weary of rocking an empty cradle, wondering how to bounce a baby boy on bony knees are told, "Got a promise for you. Leave your land because I am going to make you parents of a passel of people." And they went - half dead and 100 years old! No heir - no future - just a promise - and they left!
"Where are we going?" "I don't know?" "How will we know when we get there?" "I don't know!" So they set out on a long, weary, hot and dusty trip to only God knows where. Each day of the journey there were tents to put up, animals to tend, mouths to feed. No doubt Sarah said to the old man, "Abraham, can't we stay a few days here? Just tonight I would like to get out my best china, the linen table cloth, some cloth napkins, huh, Abraham?" "No, Sarah, just use the paper plates and styrofoam cups. We have to leave early in the morning." No rest for the weary. Gotta move on. Such is the journey of faith.
Then there was that day when Abraham and Sarah were going through another ordinary dusty day in the desert when they entertained angels unawares. Angels? Yes, angels who reiterated God's promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a little boy - at their age - a child? Sarah laughed. Who wouldn't? That was ridiculous, absurd, impossible. Maybe that's why the Lord did it, to show that this birth could have occurred in no other way except through the activity of God. I mean, this God can do anything! And he does not have to have perfect people through which to do it. Remember the episode at the genesis of the journey when Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife out of fear for his own skin? No paragon of virtue, this guy. Maybe that is one of the reasons why God chose to use him.
But Abraham did have his good days, some exceptional. After the boy was born and bonding made, God asked Abraham to offer him up. "Take him to Mount Moriah," God commanded, "and offer him as a sacrifice to me." Tough command. But in possibly his finest day, Abraham takes his only son, the heir to the promises for which he had lived his life and stumbles up the mount, heavy with the demand placed upon him. "Where's the sacrifice, Daddy?" Little Laughter asks. "God will provide," the old man answers. And God did. If you could summarize the life of Abraham, it might be found in Genesis 22:19, "God will provide." Here is not only a God who can do anything, but One who can be trusted to provide. God said to Abraham and Sarah and to all the Abrahams and Sarahs since, "Trust me!" And God says to us, "Trust me. I will provide."
A minister in the northern part of the United States has her office wall papered with a special paper. Every space is filled with the words, "Trust God! Let go! Trust God! Let go!" God is saying to us today, "Trust me! Let go!" God can be trusted.
Max Lucado has two daughters, Andrea and Sarah. Little Sarah loves to jump off the bed into his arms. He tried one night to get her to jump off the bed into the arms of the older sister, Andrea. "Jump off the bed into Andrea's arms." She would not do it. "Why won't you jump into Andrea's arms?" She said, "I only jump to big arms."2
God asks us to exercise a little faith and jump into his big arms. He is a God who can and will provide for us as he did for Abraham and Sarah.
In verse 17, Paul states that Abraham knew "in whom" he had believed. In the original language there is an intriguing play on words. The words "in whom" can also mean "over against." Here is a beautiful image of Abraham standing over against God or face to face with God. Thus, Abraham could trust God because he had a personal relationship with God face to face. Same with us! Paul adds, "That's why it is said, 'Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right!' But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the one who brought Jesus back to life when the conditions were equally hopeless"3 (vv. 22--25). It is nothing for our God. He majors on the ridiculous, the absurd, the impossible!
Perhaps Zig Ziglar gives to us a picture of what this looks like in his true story of Little Annie. Things were seemingly hopeless for a young girl locked in manacles in the dungeon of a mental institution just outside Boston a number of years ago. She was called "Little Annie." Even though this institution was one of the more enlightened ones for its day, the doctors felt that a dungeon was the only place for those who were "hopelessly" insane. So Little Annie was consigned to a living death in a small cage that received little light and even less hope.
About that time, an elderly nurse in the institution was nearing retirement. She felt there was hope for all of God's creatures, so she started taking her lunch into the dungeon and eating outside Little Annie's cage.
In many ways, Little Annie was like an animal. On occasions, she would violently attack the person who came into her cage. At other times, she would completely ignore the person. When the elderly nurse started visiting her, Little Annie gave no indication that she was even aware of her presence. One day, the elderly nurse brought some brownies and left them outside the cage. Little Annie gave no hint she knew they were there, but when the nurse returned the next day, the brownies were gone. From that time on, the nurse would bring brownies when she made her Thursday visit. Soon the doctors in the institution noticed a change was taking place. After a period of time, they decided to move Little Annie upstairs. Finally, the day came when this "hopeless case" was told she could return home. But Little Annie did not wish to leave. The place had meant so much to her she felt she could make a contribution if she stayed and worked with the other patients.
Many years later, Queen Victoria of England, while pinning England's highest award on a foreigner, asked Helen Keller, America's First Lady of Courage, "How do you account for your remarkable accomplishments in life?" Without a moment's hesitation, Helen Keller responded, "I could not have accomplished anything if it had not been for Teacher, Annie - Little Annie - Annie Sullivan - the miracle worker."4
It truly is amazing what can happen when we act on the absurd promises of God. As Tertullian, the early church father said, "We must believe it, because it is absurd."
____________
1. Don B. Harbuck, The Dynamics Of Belief (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1969), p. 37.
2. Max Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994), p. 101.
3. Eugene Peterson, The Message: The New Testament In Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1993), p. 312.
4. Zig Ziglar, See You At The Top (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., 1972), pp. 113--114.
Once a neighbor had paid them 75 cents to cut wood all day. They had worked hard for the money and were headed to the store to buy food for their empty stomachs when their father intercepted them and demanded the money. What else could they do? They gave the money to their father, who then went to buy whiskey. That night the younger boy went to bed hungry. The thirteen year old left home for good. He found a job in a nearby city washing dishes all night in a restaurant and barely eked out a living.
Later in his life when friends would invite him to church, he hesitated to go because someone would always use the word "Father" for God. Every time he heard that word "Father," something at the very depth of his soul grew hard and frozen.1 Is God like that? Father God? What kind of God is God and can he be trusted?
A while back a denominational religious leader made the statement that a certain city in Florida had better be aware, because God might send a tornado through their town. It seems that a small group of people in that city made a decision with which the so--called religious leader did not agree. Now let me get this straight! Let's think through that. God is a God who sends tornadoes upon entire cities, levy's punishment on unknowing bystanders, destroys homes, and kills innocent children for a decision with which they had nothing to do! Is God really like that? What kind of God is God, and can he be trusted?
William Barclay, the great New Testament scholar, lost his daughter and son--in--law in an automobile accident. An individual wrote to him, anonymously, of course, and said, "I now know why God took your daughter. It was to save her from your heresy." Barclay wrote, "If I could have spoken to that person I would have said, 'Your god is my devil.' " Is God like that? What kind of God is God and can he be trusted? Can we really trust God?
I was in a shopping mall a few years ago talking with a four--year--old African--American boy who was as cute as a speckled pup. We were having a big time passing the time while his mother and my wife shopped. I would grin at him and he would grin at me. I would wave at him and he would wave at me. I would laugh and he would laugh back. We were having the best time. I reached into my pocket, took out one of those little mints that I always carry and tried to give him one. No! No! He backed off. He would not take the candy. On the way home, I sorrowfully told my wife that he would not take my candy. She said, "He has been taught not to trust strangers." I said, "I'm no stranger. I'm me." She said, "Believe me, you are stranger than you think." What kind of God is God and can he be trusted?
Not coincidentally, those are the very questions that Paul was addressing in his letter in our text. Paul says boldly, triumphantly, and without a shadow of doubt, "God is a God who can do anything." God is a God who can do anything? Verse 17 is probably one of the greatest faith statements in all of the Bible about the power of God. Paul says, "For God is a God who cannot only give life to the dead, but God is a God who can create something where there is nothing." God can take nothing and make something out of it. God not only can give life to the dead, but God can take nothing and make something out of it.
We've all heard the little jingle: "We have done so much for so long with so little we now qualify to do anything with nothing." Well, God can do anything with nothing. He has shown it! God has shown that he can create something out of nothing in creation. God is the God of creation. God created the vastness of our universe out of nothing! The fancy theological term is ex nihilo. God created everything out of nothing. The Bible says that only God can create. Man can fashion, man can control, man can manipulate, but man can create nothing! In Genesis the Hebrew word for "create" is bara, and is reserved for God alone.
The law of the conservation of mass and energy states that "matter can neither be created nor destroyed." It may change form from solids to liquids or gases, but cannot be created or destroyed. Only God can do that. God can create something out of nothing. God can even give life to the dead.
Paul states that God proved that he could make something out of nothing in the lives of Abraham and Sarah. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, " 'So shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead" (vv. 18--19 NIV). Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was ninety. This old couple was tired, weary, worn out, and half--dead. They were not considering the purchase of a new home near a nursery school! Write over their maternity hopes the word "ABSURD." There again is where God comes into play. Here God shows that he can give life to the dead by giving to those almost lifeless bodies new life in the form of their son, Isaac! No wonder they called their son "Laughter." Absurd! Impossible? Not with God!
But again God showed himself to be the master of the impossible as he took a slain carpenter, called a traitor by the state, and returned him to life after he had been stone--cold dead for three days. God raised Jesus from the dead! Our God can not only take nothing and make something out of it, he can also take the dead and give them life. Our God can do anything!
A bird, the golden plover, lives in the winter in the Arctic and travels in the summer to South America, a distance of 8,000 miles. At one stretch that bird flies 2,500 miles non--stop. How does the plover know the way? If God cares that much for a bird and guides that bird in such an ingenious way, how much more can he guide you - his child, made in his very image? How much more does God care for you? God is a God who can do anything.
In 1968, my wife and I left Gadsden, Alabama, borrowed 200 dollars and set out for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. I was in desperate need of a job. Our desperation was made more so by the fact that Sharlon was pregnant with our oldest son, Chris, and we had an 85--dollar medical insurance premium due any day. I journeyed to the state employment office. "We have an opening at Central Hospital," they said. "I'm not choosy. I can work in a hospital," I replied. I went to Central Hospital in Anchorage and to my surprise, found that it was a state mental hospital. "See Jim Collins," they said. I went to see Jim Collins. "Well, Gary, already they have called from the employment office and said that you have experience working in a hospital. I am glad to hear that!" said Jim Collins. "No, Mr. Collins, I do not have experience working in a hospital of any kind, much less a mental hospital." I tried to make it clear. A few days later, Jim Collins called, "Gary, I just wanted you to know that the job is between you and another person, but because of your experience, I am preferring you." "No, Mr. Collins, I promise you that I have never worked in a hospital." Two days later Jim called, "Gary, you have the job." The first day I reported for work Jim Collins said, "Gary, it is good to have someone of your experience on our staff!" "But, Mr. Collins...."
God can create what he wants to create, even if it is misunderstandings to get what he wants done. God is not only One that can do anything, God is a God who can be trusted. Romans 4:19--21 states: "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Abraham believed that God could be trusted to fulfill his promise. Can you not see the absurdity of it all? This old couple, weary of rocking an empty cradle, wondering how to bounce a baby boy on bony knees are told, "Got a promise for you. Leave your land because I am going to make you parents of a passel of people." And they went - half dead and 100 years old! No heir - no future - just a promise - and they left!
"Where are we going?" "I don't know?" "How will we know when we get there?" "I don't know!" So they set out on a long, weary, hot and dusty trip to only God knows where. Each day of the journey there were tents to put up, animals to tend, mouths to feed. No doubt Sarah said to the old man, "Abraham, can't we stay a few days here? Just tonight I would like to get out my best china, the linen table cloth, some cloth napkins, huh, Abraham?" "No, Sarah, just use the paper plates and styrofoam cups. We have to leave early in the morning." No rest for the weary. Gotta move on. Such is the journey of faith.
Then there was that day when Abraham and Sarah were going through another ordinary dusty day in the desert when they entertained angels unawares. Angels? Yes, angels who reiterated God's promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a little boy - at their age - a child? Sarah laughed. Who wouldn't? That was ridiculous, absurd, impossible. Maybe that's why the Lord did it, to show that this birth could have occurred in no other way except through the activity of God. I mean, this God can do anything! And he does not have to have perfect people through which to do it. Remember the episode at the genesis of the journey when Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife out of fear for his own skin? No paragon of virtue, this guy. Maybe that is one of the reasons why God chose to use him.
But Abraham did have his good days, some exceptional. After the boy was born and bonding made, God asked Abraham to offer him up. "Take him to Mount Moriah," God commanded, "and offer him as a sacrifice to me." Tough command. But in possibly his finest day, Abraham takes his only son, the heir to the promises for which he had lived his life and stumbles up the mount, heavy with the demand placed upon him. "Where's the sacrifice, Daddy?" Little Laughter asks. "God will provide," the old man answers. And God did. If you could summarize the life of Abraham, it might be found in Genesis 22:19, "God will provide." Here is not only a God who can do anything, but One who can be trusted to provide. God said to Abraham and Sarah and to all the Abrahams and Sarahs since, "Trust me!" And God says to us, "Trust me. I will provide."
A minister in the northern part of the United States has her office wall papered with a special paper. Every space is filled with the words, "Trust God! Let go! Trust God! Let go!" God is saying to us today, "Trust me! Let go!" God can be trusted.
Max Lucado has two daughters, Andrea and Sarah. Little Sarah loves to jump off the bed into his arms. He tried one night to get her to jump off the bed into the arms of the older sister, Andrea. "Jump off the bed into Andrea's arms." She would not do it. "Why won't you jump into Andrea's arms?" She said, "I only jump to big arms."2
God asks us to exercise a little faith and jump into his big arms. He is a God who can and will provide for us as he did for Abraham and Sarah.
In verse 17, Paul states that Abraham knew "in whom" he had believed. In the original language there is an intriguing play on words. The words "in whom" can also mean "over against." Here is a beautiful image of Abraham standing over against God or face to face with God. Thus, Abraham could trust God because he had a personal relationship with God face to face. Same with us! Paul adds, "That's why it is said, 'Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right!' But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the one who brought Jesus back to life when the conditions were equally hopeless"3 (vv. 22--25). It is nothing for our God. He majors on the ridiculous, the absurd, the impossible!
Perhaps Zig Ziglar gives to us a picture of what this looks like in his true story of Little Annie. Things were seemingly hopeless for a young girl locked in manacles in the dungeon of a mental institution just outside Boston a number of years ago. She was called "Little Annie." Even though this institution was one of the more enlightened ones for its day, the doctors felt that a dungeon was the only place for those who were "hopelessly" insane. So Little Annie was consigned to a living death in a small cage that received little light and even less hope.
About that time, an elderly nurse in the institution was nearing retirement. She felt there was hope for all of God's creatures, so she started taking her lunch into the dungeon and eating outside Little Annie's cage.
In many ways, Little Annie was like an animal. On occasions, she would violently attack the person who came into her cage. At other times, she would completely ignore the person. When the elderly nurse started visiting her, Little Annie gave no indication that she was even aware of her presence. One day, the elderly nurse brought some brownies and left them outside the cage. Little Annie gave no hint she knew they were there, but when the nurse returned the next day, the brownies were gone. From that time on, the nurse would bring brownies when she made her Thursday visit. Soon the doctors in the institution noticed a change was taking place. After a period of time, they decided to move Little Annie upstairs. Finally, the day came when this "hopeless case" was told she could return home. But Little Annie did not wish to leave. The place had meant so much to her she felt she could make a contribution if she stayed and worked with the other patients.
Many years later, Queen Victoria of England, while pinning England's highest award on a foreigner, asked Helen Keller, America's First Lady of Courage, "How do you account for your remarkable accomplishments in life?" Without a moment's hesitation, Helen Keller responded, "I could not have accomplished anything if it had not been for Teacher, Annie - Little Annie - Annie Sullivan - the miracle worker."4
It truly is amazing what can happen when we act on the absurd promises of God. As Tertullian, the early church father said, "We must believe it, because it is absurd."
____________
1. Don B. Harbuck, The Dynamics Of Belief (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1969), p. 37.
2. Max Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994), p. 101.
3. Eugene Peterson, The Message: The New Testament In Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1993), p. 312.
4. Zig Ziglar, See You At The Top (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., 1972), pp. 113--114.
