June 14, 2026
Pentecost 3 / Proper 6, Year A
The Rev. Dr. Elaine Ellis Thomas
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Essex, CT
Genesis 18:1-15 ~ Psalm 116:1, 10-17 ~ Romans 5:1-18 ~ Matthew 9:35-10:8
Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14)
Can God bring a child to a woman beyond child-bearing years?
Can God create a nation from a couple with far more yesterdays behind them than tomorrows ahead of them?
Can God show up and make impossible promises to those of us who are hopeless, helpless, broken, and lost?
God can and has done and continues to do so.
Last week, we were with Abram and Sarai in Haran, and they made their way as far as the oak at Moreh and now, many years later, they are near another oak, this one at Mamre. If you haven’t figured it out, oak trees are a sign that something big is about to happen. Theophanies – appearances of the divine – take place at oak trees. Six chapters ago, the promise was a great nation, and so far, Abraham has had no indication that he would have any descendants after him with his wife, notwithstanding that he fathered a son with Hagar whose name was Ishmael.
Abraham can be forgiven for beginning to wonder where these heirs were to come from. And Sarah? It was such a preposterous notion to think that she would bear a child at 90 years of age, she, too, might be forgiven for laughing.
Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? Is anything too difficult for the Lord is another way it is translated.
Friends, the answer is “no.” There is nothing – no thing – too wonderful, too difficult, too marvelous, too big for God.
But here’s the thing about God. The Almighty never accomplishes their purposes alone. Oh, sure, God could have raised up sons for Abraham with the snap of the fingers. We’re talking about the One who crafted the universe, who thought up a hippopotamus and a platypus and a stegosaurus. Oh, sure, God could do it all, but it is apparently God’s good pleasure to partner with humankind to work wonders in the world. And God didn’t stop with Abraham and Sarah.
We are making our way through Matthew, a couple of chapters beyond the great Sermon on the Mount, and we are just getting to the place where Jesus sets aside the Twelve for his special mission. And he prefaces this by telling them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” (Matthew 9:37) even though Jesus has, on his own, been working wonders throughout Galilee, healing the broken and the least and the lost. But God wasn’t going to do it alone, and Jesus isn’t, either. For whatever reason, God wants us as partners.
Imagine that.
Yesterday, the vestry of this parish spent some time on retreat. I am almost at the one-year mark in my tenure here, this vestry has been in place and gotten to know one another since our annual meeting in January, and it seemed an appropriate time to step away for some intentional time to dream, to discern what God is calling us to now and in the months and years ahead. And as we wondered and prayed and considered and questioned, what became evident is that each of the leaders you elected to serve on the vestry has gifts for ministry. And it also became clear that they are not the only ones. Just as Jesus first called Twelve, those Twelve gathered others around them in this every increasing community of believers who are sent – that’s what apostles are, those who are sent – all the way down to today.
I have said it once and I will say it until the day I die: faith is not a spectator sport. With apologies to all the grammarians among us, faith is a verb. Love is a verb. Ministry is a verb.
And there is nothing that is too wonderful for the Lord to accomplish through each of us.
You will hear more about the direction the vestry believes will lead this congregation into a healthy and abundant future. But here’s what I can tell you I know to be true: there is nothing that is too wonderful for God to accomplish through the people gathered as this congregation of St. John’s. This community was formed in the year our neighbors to the east (Rhode Island) reluctantly ratified the Constitution of the United States, and every year since, we have adapted and grown and shared the Good News of God’s love because faithful people just like all of you have said “yes.” Because enough of you have been convinced that, no matter what self-doubts you may have about what you have to offer, you have understood that God does not call the prepared; God prepares the called. God can take a couple of fish and a few loaves and feed thousands because nothing is too wonderful, too marvelous, too difficult for God to do.
If God can love us, can give God’s very self for us, while we were yet sinners, God can take our earnest and willing hands and hearts and work wonders.
On the other side of that encounter with the mysterious strangers at the oak of Mamre, an heir was born. Isaac begat Jacob who begat the Twelve who were the patriarchs of the Twelve Tribes who set the grand sweep of the history of Israel in motion. And throughout that sweep of history, another Twelve spread Good News through the known world and here we are.
Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?
Thanks be to God, the answer is no. There is nothing that God can’t do. And the truly amazing thing is that God wants us to be part of it all. How wonderful is that?