“While We Wait” - Sermon for September 15, 2019

This week's Bible reading, from the Narrative Lectionary, Year 2, is Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7. Do we need to protect ourselves from God? Can we keep ourselves safe by running away like Jonah, or hiding like Adam and Eve? In today’s sermon, Rev. Amy looks at when the story of Abraham and Sarah takes a bit of a dark turn, when Sarah laughs at God’s promise that she will have a son. The story begins with faithful generosity to three strangers. But is Sarah‘s laugh protecting herself from hope? Can she risk disappointment yet again? And if this disappointment comes from God, what else is left for her? Rev. Amy describes how we are all in that season of waiting, daring to hope in God. But that hope is not in a specific outcome we desire from God, but in God’s presence itself. The promise will never fade that God will always be with us - in sorrow and in happiness - when we laugh to protect ourselves, and when we laugh in holy joy.