Remember Sarah Who Bore You

After the narrative of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis, the name Sarah only appears once in the entire Hebrew Bible – Isaiah 52:9. That text says “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.” (ESV)

In that text, the Lord declares to His people who are pursuing righteousness and seeking him, “look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.” (51:1) Then comes the “remember Sarah who bore you” comment. Whatever else these words might suggest, it seems impossible that they don’t serve as a reminder that Israel can ill afford to assume that there weren’t people of God who existed before them. In fact they can’t afford to think they could exist without the lives of those who came before them. 

It is so easy to slip into an attitude that suggests the present life we live and enjoy “just happened.”  Isaiah seems to think that if we are “pursuing righteousness” and “seeking the Lord” we ought to “remember Sarah who bore us.” It intrigues me that the only other place in the Hebrew Bible her name gets mentioned after Genesis is in a reminder that we shouldn’t forget how we got here.

I am currently sitting in my office looking around. I sit behind a desk that was given to me by an elder form First Christian in Tyrone who was one of the most authentic, spiritual people I’ve ever known. I learned tons about life, Jesus, and serving God sitting up all night with him while he barbecued pigs for the church’s homecoming dinner on the grounds every fall.

I didn’t just get here.

I can look at my book shelves. I see books given to me by Professor Jim Evans, who taught me Greek, how to really engage Scripture, and a lot of other stuff about life. I have a book or two from Professor Roy McKinney, who took me under his wings as a young college professor and made me what I ought to be, not what I might have been. That list could keep going, but you see the point.

I didn’t just get here.

Hanging on the wall not too far from where I’m sitting, there is an ordination certificate from Russellville Christian Church, the little country church I grew up in in South Carolina. There are eleven signatures on that certificate – one of them from my Dad and one from my Dad’s brother, Uncle Billy. Only two of those people are still alive, but forty-plus years ago they thought I was trustworthy enough to be set apart for ministry.

I didn’t just get here.

I have the privilege every semester to walk into classrooms at Point University and teach young adults about Jesus and His kingdom. But would those classrooms even be here were it not for those who stood in similar rooms before me – in many cases, before I was even born? Point has better programs, better prepared professors, a broader curriculum, and all kinds of “better” than we once did – but could that “better” exist had it not been for those who went before us?

I didn’t just get here.

I live in a place where I have lots of personal freedom. But I know that didn’t just happen and thousands upon thousands paid high prices for me to have the freedom to write this blog and post it without fear of being arrested like Bonhoeffer was for doing similar things in his world. Obviously all of our history isn’t good – some of it is, quite frankly, embarrassing. The history of Israel was exactly perfect either, but God seems comfortable telling His people “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you.” 

I didn’t just get here.

I can look out of my second-floor office windows onto the Denver and Helen Sizemore Courtyard at Point’s J. Smith Lanier II Academic Center. If you know anything about Point and its history, that sentence has a ton of “remember Sarah who bore you” in it! The floor of the courtyard has a huge collection of engraved bricks that lots of people purchased in memory of Point-connected people. I can’t read the names from my office, but sometimes I just go down there and read names.

I didn’t just get here.

For the last chapel service of the Spring 2018 semester, we focused on the theme “Hope: Discover Life by Continuing the Story.” I still have the wrist band on my arm with “Continue the Story” written on it. (I still have some of these wrist bands, if you would like one, send me an address and I’ll mail it to you.) God has been writing a story for centuries – and without that story, we simply wouldn’t be here. I can’t “continue the story” without “remembering Sarah who bore me.”

As a preacher, I always dreaded preaching on Mother’s Day. The only Mother’s Day sermon I preached that I still remember was titled “Remember Sarah Who Bore You.” I gave a healthy nod to the fact that while we talk a lot about Abraham, there would be no Isaac with Sarah. It was barren, old Sarah who, like Abraham, trusted God and the first huge step toward “the fullness of time” was taken.

I didn’t just get here.

Revisionist history can be a dangerous practice if we are studying world history, U.S. history, the history of any part of our existence.

But it is never more dangerous than when those of us who claim to be seeking righteousness and the Lord forget to “remember Sarah who bore us.” 

We didn’t just get here.