Tony Campolo tells a story about being at a worship service where a man prayed loud for a friend. “Dear Lord,” he said, “you know Charlie Stoltzfus. He lives in that silver trailer down the road a mile. He’s leaving his wife and kids. Please do something to bring the family together.” The man prayed again, repeating the location: “the silver trailer down the road a mile.” Annoyed, Tony wanted to say, “Enough already. Do you think God’s asking,
‘What’s that address again?”

Anyway, after the prayer service, Tony was driving home when on the turnpike he noticed a hitchhiker. He decided to give him a lift. “My name’s Tony,” Campolo said. “What’s yours?” “Charlie Stoltzfus,” the hitchhiker said. Campolo was dumbfounded. It was the young man for whom the prayer had been offered.

Campolo got off at the next exit. “Hey, where you taking me?” asked the hitchhiker. “Home,” Campolo said. The hitchhiker stared in amazement as Tony drove right to the young man’s silver trailer. That afternoon the young man and his wife gave themselves to each other and to God.

You never know what God’s going to do. And you never know how God’s going to do it. People pray all kinds of prayers and ask for all kind to things, sometimes for themselves and sometimes for others. And we never know what God is going to do in response to those prayers or who God is going to use. Oh, we
have our own ideas of how we would like to see things turn out, some reasonable and some unreasonable. But if we are truly faithful, all we know for certain is that God will respond in a way that meets God’s will and purpose, not necessarily ours.

I can imagine the Old Testament patriarch Abraham and his wife Sarah, newly married and praying like all young couples of their day, asking for the blessing of a son. They were people of faith, people who believed that God
would answer their prayers if that was God’s will and purpose. They years go by and no son appeared. Yet their prayers still flowed to God’s ears. They grew older and time was running out for a child to be born, but still they
didn’t give up hope and they continued to pray. Then came the time when they were too old and children were no longer possible. They accepted God’s will for their lives for God had answered their prayer, just not in the way that they had hoped. And still they prayed to be faithful to God’s will and
direction for their lives.

Then one day, God spoke to them a message of fear and of hope. The message of fear was that God asked them to pick up everything they had, leave their comfortable and safe surroundings and journey to an unknown and unsafe land where God would bless them. Abraham was 75 years old and Sarah was 65. They
had entered old age and were settled into enjoying their gold years in a home that was familiar and surrounded by extended family and friends. Now God wanted them to risk everything and travel hundreds of miles over rugged, dangerous, and harsh country to settle in the middle of nowhere.

And if that wasn’t incentive enough, God gave them an unrealistic hope. If they would obey God’s words, God wwould give them many descendants, and they would become parents of a great nation. Some perverse sense of humor this God has, promising a childless couple who are beyond child-bearing years that they
will have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I’m sure that in the back of their minds, Abraham and Sarah were saying to themselves, “Enough already. God didn’t really promise this; we’re just grasping at straws trying to negotiate with God. If we agree to go on this journey, then God will agree to give us
what we most want.” Was this hope or false hope?

Well, being the faithful and obedient people of God that Abraham and Sarah were, they took that journey and left their home to never return. They underwent many experiences, roaming around the new country that they entered, remaining childless. Almost another 25 years passed, and one noonday, Abraham
sees 3 strangers walking towards his encampment. Being the good host, Abraham immediately prepares to feed them and give them rest from their weary journey.

What Abraham doesn’t know, but we the readers do, is that the 3 strangers are God and 2 angels who are on a divine mission. They have stopped by Abraham’s tent to announce the fulfillment of their hope. After the meal, God says to Abraham that he and Sarah will have a son. Like all good spouses who are not
included in the festivities, Sarah was at the door listening to the conversation. This 89 year old woman falls down on the ground laughing at such a ridiculous blessing from a stranger. God has
promised this same ridiculous hope for 25 years, and it just isn’t going to happen.

I’m sure Abraham had his chuckle too, although he was trying not to be rude in front of his guests. But God hears Sarah laughing and calls her on it. “Do you think anything is too hard for God?” And Sarah responds, “I didn’t laugh.” And God responds, “Oh, yes you did. I heard you.” While Sarah and Abraham
were mortified that their hospitality was compromised by their unbelief in such a blessing from their guests, they certainly didn’t think the blessing was real, not at their age. God had not fulfilled the divine promise.

It’s amazing what we pray for. But it’s even more amazing that we many times don’t believe what God tells us. God has made all kinds of promises to us, called us to accomplish all kinds of ministries in the name of Christ, has set certain requirements and expectations before us to live as people of love and
grace. And frankly, there are many times when we just don’t believe what God says or that God means it. And so we laugh in God’s face or turn our back on God.

Now, I’m not talking about God answering our personal prayers in the way we want them answered. Rather I’m talking about God’s words to us to believe what God has said, to do what God tells us to do, to go where God wants to send us. Remember the story of the prophet Jonah and the whale? God told Jonah to go to
the nation of Assyria and preach for repentance. Jonah looked at God in disbelief. “You can’t be serious. Those people are bloodthirsty and violent. They don’t believe in anything spiritual, so there’s no way they will even
listen to my prophetic message. They are Israel’s enemies. These are the people who destroyed the 10 Northern tribes of Israel and they want to do the same to the last 2 Southern tribes. The world would be better off if they were dead. This is not the right course of action and I won’t do it.” It was at
this point that Jonah ran in the opposite direction and caught a ride on a ship to sail away West over the Mediterranean Sea. During a terrific storm at sea, he discovered that God was serious. He ended up being swallowed by a big fish and then spit out on the Western coast of the Holy Land. By this time, Jonah
knew that he needed to obey God’s command to preach repentance to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria. That’s the part of the story that many of us know.

What we may not remember is that Jonah went to Nineveh, praying all the while that Nineveh would reject God’s word of repentance because he felt they didn’t deserve to live. Not only is Jonah surprised, but he is disgusted that Nineveh hears God’s word and repents. This may be what God wanted, but it wasn’t what
Jonah wanted. Jonah wanted death for the Assyrians, not life. Part of our problem is that we people think and dream too small. We’re afraid to take a baby step oblivious to the call that God is calling us to jump over
an impossibly wide chasm. We’re not only afraid of not making it, but we don’t want to take too big of a step. We don’t trust in God and that God can see the end. We don’t trust that God will be with us to the end, either.

Remember Jesus on his last night? He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that he didn’t want to suffer and die; couldn’t God find another way. But in the next breath he prayed, “Not my will but yours.” And so Jesus followed the path that God had set before him and fulfilled God’s plan of salvation for the
world. Jesus believed the God was true to his word, even in death.

When God asks the question, “Is anything too hard for God?”, we need to remember the affirmation of Mary, the Mother of Jesus: “Nothing is impossible with God.” No matter what God says to us, no matter what God calls us to do, no matter what God requires, this much we can be assured: God can make it
happen, God will make it happen. In the face of the craziest, most impossible promise, God will fulfill all divine promises. Guaranteed. That we can trust and that we have to faithfully expect that God is true tot he divine word.

We’re not Abraham and Sarah promised a child in our old age, but what about what God promises us, what about what God asks us to do in the name of Jesus? Do we really think that God is crazy to ask of us the impossible as though there is nothing to it? God always has a purpose and a way, and nothing is
impossible if God says it’s possible.

Are you going to laugh at God? Are you going to run away from God? Are you going to live as though God can’t be serious? Or will we in the words of Jesus humbly respond, “Not my will, but your will.”

I’m not done. Here’s the end of the Sermon.

Oh, by the way. I forgot to tell you that Abraham and Sarah had that son the very next year. Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah was 90 years old. They named him Isaac. Anybody know what Isaac means in Hebrew? “Laughter!” And God laughed and laughed and laughed!