Genesis 18:1-14
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
July 20, 2025
“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” today’s scripture asks. If we take that as a rhetorical question and don’t think much about it, we will – as the good Christians we are – automatically respond, “No, nothing is too wonderful for the Lord!”
But do we, in the living out of our days, really believe what we profess?
There are many testimonies from people about God’s working wonders. But how much credence do we give them? Let me tell you one, and invite you to honestly reflect on what you make of it.
Amy Knight – single mother of Kayla, Ryan and Alex – had heard many stories in church about miracles, but never personally seen one.
After 11-year-old Kayla kept complaining about headaches that were growing in severity and frequency, Amy brought her to the ER. They took an X-ray, noted an abnormality and urged her to see a neurologist. By the time Amy finally found one who’d accept Medicaid payment, Kayla’s headaches had become so unbearably intense that the girl often couldn’t get out of bed. The first MRI revealed a large white blotch, signifying a brain tumor. The doctor immediately rushed Kayla to a specialist, whose further tests showed the tumor to be growing so rapidly that within two weeks Kayla would likely be brain dead. The only available, last-ditch effort to save her was a surgery that Kayla only stood a 5% chance of surviving. Amy and Kayla decided to leave things in God’s hands, but they did ask the church to gather around Kayla and to pray for a miracle.
Days later, Kayla had another MRI. The specialist, almost immediately, called in her mother – to break the bad news to her, Amy felt sure. Without a word, shaking his head, the doctor slid the MRI in front of her; but she couldn’t interpret it and just assumed the cancer had taken over Kayla’s entire brain. The doctor, looking stunned, struggled to speak. The tumor had vanished without a trace! He said he’d long wondered whether some kind of “higher power” existed; but now, because of what he was seeing, he said to Amy, “If I didn’t believe in your God before, I just might now.” Amy replied, “He’s not my God. He’s everyone’s God.” And everyone’s God has kept Kayla cancer-free ever since!
Honest now, what do you make of that story? Do you believe that a miracle occurred and that you should hope and dare to pray for further wonders? Or do you doubt that a miracle occurred and expect doctors to find one day a purely scientific explanation for such a healing? Or are you just not sure either way?
It’s worth your while to figure out what you think about the story. It’s also worth your while to figure out what you feel about it. Does it worry you that you might have been so dogmatic in your skepticism that you missed out on miracles God might have performed? Or does it anger you to consider that, while God might have worked a wonder for Amy’s baby, He didn’t work one for your baby or for someone else you loved? Or does it confuse you to realize that the God, who is supposedly always good, only rarely works such wonders?
Even the strongest believers acknowledge that the workings of God, as well as of life, are mysterious, and that it is harder to believe than to doubt.
Though later Abraham would be held up as a model of faith, Abraham and his wife Sarah are, at this point, tentative in their faith. In today’s story when Sarah hears it said that she and Abraham will yet be given a son in their old age, she laughs at the idea – which is exactly what her husband did when he, in the previous chapter, heard the same thing – and why their baby gets named “Isaac”, meaning in Hebrew “one laughs”. The two of them are still hesitant about trusting God, especially when He promises something they deem impossible.
We should also note that, while the text tells us readers right from the start that it is the Lord with whom they are dealing, it is not clear when or if Abraham realizes God is in this party of visitors. Yes, Abraham addresses one of the three as “Lord”, but the Hebrew word there is one that could be translated as a polite English “Sir”. That Abraham falls over himself to lavish upon the strangers generous and solicitous hospitality only proves that he takes very seriously the standard duties of nomadic etiquette back then.
The identity of the visitors must be confusing and mystifying to Abraham. But what is made clear to us readers is that God is among them and that, after twice reiterating His promise that Abraham and Sarah will yet have their child, God puts Abraham on the spot by putting to Him the tough question of faith: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”
It is not for Abraham a question whose answer is obvious. It is a question that asks for a decision from him. Will he take the risk of believing that his God is One who can make the impossible possible and, at the right time, actual? One in whom we can hope for the wildest and most unlikely of things? One for whom no situation, or doubt in those who should know better, can stymie the fulfillment of His sworn intention?
We’d be wise to bear in mind, however, lest we jump to conclusions and set ourselves up for disillusionment with God, that there is no encouragement here to hope for whatever we’d like. We may base our hope only on what God has explicitly and repeatedly promised. Only when our hope corresponds with God’s clear and resolute intention, can we believe that not even the impossible is too wonderful for Him.
A.W. Tozer challenges believers when he remarks: “Anything God has ever done, He can do now. Anything God has done anywhere, He can do here. Anything God has done for anyone, He can do for us.”
“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” So what miracles might we hope God wants us to be a part of?
Charles Galbreath, pastor of a church in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn, tells of a day when anger exploded in his neighborhood after another black man got gunned down by police, and built-up frustration from years of racial oppression threatened to erupt in violence. Many had lined up to march in protest and police officers had gathered around them.
Galbreath and a group of pastors rushed to the scene and found themselves caught between the police and the protestors. Tensions were rising. Harsh words were hurled across the divide. One side picked up rocks; the other clutched their holsters. Though realizing bullets could fly at any moment, a group of pastors walked into the middle of the street between the two warring parties, knelt down on the pavement and prayed for God to come into their midst. And God did…and the tension started to subside…and protestors began to put down their rocks and police began to lift their hands from their gun belts…and those who cared stayed to engage in dialogue with each other and eventually to make heart-felt promises to work together to bring justice and reconciliation to a troubled community.
Is anything too wonderful for God?
So what miracle might we hope God wants us to be a part of?
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