There was a small turtle walking across the forest floor. He walked with resolve to the tallest tree in the area and began to climb up this tall tree. It took a great deal of effort for this small turtle to climb to the top of this tall, tall tree and when he got to the top he fell to the ground. He righted himself and walked once again to this same tall tree and headed up. Once again it took considerable time and effort, but he once again got to the top. He looked down, stepped off the branch, and fell, once again, to the forest floor. Nearby there were two birds watching this young turtle. After the second fall, the Mama bird turned to the Papa bird and said, “I think we have to tell him that he’s adopted.” We laugh at many things, but the humor of jokes is often at the expense of some one or some thing. As I pondered jokes to open this morning’s sermon I thought of all the jokes I had heard – though, I have to admit, very few that I remember well enough to re-tell. There was the season of the great bulk of Polish jokes, and then – trying to be more politically correct – we picked on blonds – both told with the presumption that a certain group of people was lacking in knowledge or common sense. Sarah this morning laughs at God who has appeared to Abraham and Sarah in the form of three beings.

There was a small turtle walking across the forest floor.  He walked with resolve to the tallest tree in the area and began to climb up this tall tree.  It took a great deal of effort for this small turtle to climb to the top of this tall, tall tree and when he got to the top he fell to the ground.  He righted himself and walked once again to this same tall tree and headed up.  Once again it took considerable time and effort, but he once again got to the top.  He looked down, stepped off the branch, and fell, once again, to the forest floor.  Nearby there were two birds watching this young turtle.  After the second fall, the Mama bird turned to the Papa bird and said, “I think we have to tell him that he’s adopted.”

 

We laugh at many things, but the humor of jokes is often at the expense of some one or some thing.  As I pondered jokes to open this morning’s sermon I thought of all the jokes I had heard – though, I have to admit, very few that I remember well enough to re-tell.  There was the season of the great bulk of Polish jokes, and then – trying to be more politically correct – we picked on blonds – both told with the presumption that a certain group of people was lacking in knowledge or common sense.  Sarah this morning laughs at God who has appeared to Abraham and Sarah in the form of three beings.  Most of us don’t often think of laughing at God, but God today tells Abraham that within the next year Sarah will bear a son.  Sarah is 90!!  And she knows the ways of the world and that she is long past her child bearing years.  Sarah laughs at the absurdity of the whole idea.  This may be God, she thinks, but some things are just not possible. 

 

Or are they?  “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” Abraham is asked.

 

Obviously not, because Sarah does give birth to a healthy baby boy.  And Sarah laughs again, but this time out of pure joy, pure pleasure.  After all these years God has given Sarah and Abraham the one thing that they wanted above all else – a son.  They name him Isaac -- which in Hebrew means laughter.  I would imagine that this name was a constant reminder of the joy that this child brought, but also a reminder of the laughter of Sarah when told she would have a son.  It is good to remember that while our world may have rules and limits – these do not apply to God.  With God, all things are possible. 

 

God is able to see beyond our limited vision – especially when it comes to our view of ourselves.  How many of us hear that God created each and every one of us as unique individuals – with gifts and talents that God calls on us to use in and for the world – but inwardly think, “well, God may have created someone else with the ability to change the world….but not me”?  “I am able to plod (or soar – depending on our self image) along doing worldly things, but making an impact on the world to bring about God’s kingdom on earth – well, it’s just beyond me and my abilities.

 

We can hear each week the stories of the miracles that Jesus performed and think, “Well, Jesus was the Son of God.  Of course, HE can do miracles.”  The beginning of our Gospel reading tells us that Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching, proclaiming the good news, and curing every disease and every sickness.  That is all part of Jesus’ job description…teaching, proclaiming, healing.  When Jesus told the disciples that he was sending them out to proclaim and to heal, I wonder how many of them wanted to laugh?  Or to run?

 

But what if Jesus walked in to St. Mary’s this morning and said to us what he told the disciples that day?  Go out into the world, “proclaim the good news that ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near.’   Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.”

 

How many of us would laugh?  At the absurdity of the request?

 

I don’t know about you, but the proclaiming part can be scary enough – but cure the sick?  This may not be quite so daunting to the medical people among us, but as far as I know Jesus’ twelve disciples did not have any medical expertise.  They were fishermen, tax collectors, common folk.  Nor do I have any such training.  Cleanse the lepers?  Remember leprosy at this time was incurable – it was a life sentence.  Now, at least, we have made some medical inroads, but raise the dead and cast out demons?  I wouldn’t know where to begin. 

 

Luckily we have not been called out to do these miracles, but if we were, I suspect that it would be our own fears – our own self-imposed limitations – that would be our down fall.  If Jesus called us out to cure the sick and raise the dead, and cast out demons, he would equip us – just as he equipped the twelve that he did send out. 

 

These disciples had been following Jesus for some time and they had experienced first hand Jesus himself doing these same deeds.  Jesus performed miracles out of love – as a continuation of the blessings that God has given us. The challenge of humanity is that we most often want what is reasonable, what is acceptable, what is easy.  For Sarah giving birth at age 90 must not have been easy, but God did not ask of her what she was not capable of doing. 

 

We can only imagine the doubt and most likely the fear that the disciples felt as they were sent out into the surrounding villages.  But Jesus warns them that this will not be an easy task.  The amazing thing is that it is not the miraculous acts that will be their stumbling block, but rather the attitude of the people to whom they are offering these miracles – and just perhaps – their own attitude about what they themselves were capable of doing.  Jesus cautions the disciples that he is sending them out like sheep into the midst of wolves.  Those who are sent may be handed over and flogged, betrayed, persecuted and hated.  Those who follow in the path of Jesus may very well experience what Jesus himself does in his own lifetime.   

 

Most of us will not face such persecutions.  But the facts remain the same – whenever we go into the world offering our love to those with whom we come into contact – then we are vulnerable – we have opened ourselves to the possibilities of rejection and to mistreatment.  We may not be flogged or put to death, but most of us have certainly experienced disappointment, frustration or disillusionment when we were trying to do a good deed – offering our love -- trying to do our best to bring a bit of God’s kingdom here on earth.  Such disappointment can make it more difficult the next time we think about doing good.  If Jesus can tell his disciples that working for God’s kingdom is worth these persecutions that they might face, that Jesus can even suffer death on a cross to bring this kingdom nearer, then what we endure is small indeed.

 

Have you heard that still, small voice of God calling you to do something that seems impossible?  Perhaps you think that you are too old – or too young.  We may assume that we don’t have the skills, the contacts, the innate gifts to do this something new.  We may fear rejection, disappointment, making a fool of ourselves.  We may fear the possibility of change that doing something new entails.  We may even fear the fear.

 

When we face such times – like Sarah and the disciples – when we are called to do the seemingly impossible – we will not be alone.  God walked with them as they went forth in faith and God will walk with us.  At the end of the journey we also may find that we have the laughter of joy – with an outcome that we could not see with our limited, linear vision.  With God all things are possible.