The Poughquag Pastor
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Sermon 7/6/08 “Fairy Tale Ending”
Pastor Sung: America is a great country. That’s why my dad pushed so hard to come to America. When we got here, my parents had to work hard. Both of them worked, and I was watched by a babysitter named Betty. I don’t remember a lot about Betty except that she was a large kind woman with a daughter named Mimi. And they had given me a book on fairy tales for one of my birthdays. I loved reading fairy tales. But you know, fairy tales are not reality. They are great dreams, but I needed someone to tell me what a real life Prince Charming was supposed to be. My fairy tale impression was that I had to find the perfect guy. And I think I was really misguided for a long while. But little girls grow up, and I did find my Mr. Right before I had made any serious long term mistakes like many young girls are making in this day and age.
The story we are presented with today is the story of how Isaac met Rebekah. And rather than expound on this story myself, I am going to invite Miriam, who was a servant of Abraham, to tell you the tale herself. She has many insights into relationships and marriage which I hope you catch. But if you don’t, it’s ok, I’ll return later. So, Miriam, where are you?”
Miriam: Hello everybody! I am so honored to be here among you. Pastor Sung has invited me to tell you the story of Isaac and Rebekah from my perspective. And I need to start back when my mistress Sarah had Isaac. You see, she was an old woman, maybe 90 or older, when she gave birth to Isaac. Sarah really wanted a child of her own really badly, and God told her that she would, and lo and behold, she did. It was a miracle. Isaac was her miracle baby. So she spoiled him. He was a mama’s boy. He really loved his mama, and she really loved him. So when he came of the age when boys become men, my master Abraham said to my mistress, “We should find a wife for Isaac.” But my mistress Sarah would always say, “None of the girls here are suitable. We need to find him a wife from the old country.” Master Abraham would nod in agreement, but they never made the trip to the old country. And before we knew it, 30 plus years had passed and my mistress Sarah died at the age of 127. They never did make a trip to the old country, but my mistress made my master swear that the would not find a wife for Isaac among the Canaanite women.
The household was not the same. Abraham was busy with the affairs of his business. The death of his mother really devastated Isaac. My master Abraham put me in charge of my mistress’ duties. While I tried my best, they kept criticizing me that I was not doing things the way that my mistress did them. I did not have the meals cooked like they wanted. One day I just broke down and cried. My master Abraham decided that it was high time that he did something. So he called in his servant Eli one day and said, “Eli, I want you to go back to the land where I was born, to Ur, and find my son a suitable wife.” Eli protested, but to no avail. Now had my mistress still been alive, she would have talked some sense into my master. How could my master expect a servant to find a wife for master Isaac? I mean, everyone knows that we have matchmakers who can be hired. Perhaps my master was thinking that Eli would gain the services of a matchmaker in Ur. Some time passed since Eli left. Those days, my masters still were unhappy with the way the household was being run. I was counting the days when Eli would come back with a bride for master Isaac.
Some time passed, but Eli did come back. And he came back with this young girl, Rebekah. She was young and beautiful. As soon as night fell and the family had fallen asleep, the servants all swarmed around Eli to hear his story.
He said, “When master Abraham charged me to find a wife for master Isaac, I didn’t know what to do. I tried thinking of ways to find a bride, but all my plans seemed too imperfect. I thought about using a matchmaker, but what if they deceived me, then master Abraham would have my head. I thought about just going to my master’s kin, but they too could deceive me. I had no other option except to pray to the God of our master Abraham. I have seen this God answer the master’s prayers, so I boldly sought this God. I asked God to give me favor and to help me find a bride suited to our master. I said to God, “God of my master, if there is a girl who will water my caravan, then I will consider her to be the one.” No sooner had I prayed then a girl arrived who not only gave me water but watered the caravan as well. I asked her who she was and found out that she was the kin of our masters. When her father asked her if she would come and be the wife of master Isaac, she said she would. And that is how I came to be back home rather quickly.
Eli’s story amazed us all. God, the God of our master Abraham, found the right bride for our master Isaac. Quite honestly, I thought the way that the men were handling this whole issue was all wrong. But God intervened and found a way to make things turn out right. Praise be the Lord.
Now the household is at peace. Mind you, mistress Rebekah does not do things the same way as mistress Sarah, but she tells master Abraham, “Father, this is how we do it in the old country.” And the old man is satisfied. Master Isaac loves her so that she cannot do any wrong. So you see my friends, even though it may seem impossible, it is always possible to find the right person when God is in control of the plans. My story is finished, and now I am sure that Pastor Sung has a few last words that she wants to say.
Pastor Sung: Parents and grandparents, what can we learn today? We need to teach our kids the importance of finding a suitable spouse. Too many kids go on chemistry and overlook some very important qualities when they begin dating. Chemistry is needed, but they should also weigh things like how they are treated, what they plan to do with their lives, what kind of family they come from, whether they share the same religious values and such. We, as the adult caregivers of children, need to discuss the importance of a well-balanced relationship. When I was a teen, we were told to make a list of the qualities we wanted in our spouse to be. So I started a list, and over the years I refined the list. When I was a teen, I wrote “good-looking” as one of the qualities, but in later years, I modified it to “good-looking to me.” I have kind of a jealous nature so I didn’t want to marry someone too good looking. But even doing this exercise with your kids gives you the opportunity to influence their thinking about what is really important versus what is nice to have.
But the main thing I want to stress about all of this is that God needs to be brought into your plans. You may have your ideas, and your kids may have their own ideas, but you will have success if God is brought into the plans.
I think I shared with you before that I prayed 10 years for my spouse-to-be. In the beginning, I prayed for his many qualities and such, but eventually it boiled down to: “Lord, send me someone who is a man after Your own heart.” So I think I succeeded in getting a great guy because God was in on the works from an early enough point that God could work on me and work on him and get us to a place where our lives could join one day.
We live in a day and age where the media bombards our kids with images of great looking guys and women and it creates an unrealistic level of expectation when young people look to date. When they are taught in the home what the really important qualities are: things like kindness, caring, healthy, financially stable, comes from a good family, happy, has good self-esteem, not proud, not competitive, Christian and you can add to that list. But when we share these ideas with out young people, it can help them to develop a balanced idea of the kind of person they want to commit themselves to.
We live in a day and age where our young people are disillusioned with marriage and so they co-habit or just keep casual relationships. Marriage as an institution is not broken. What is broken is our expectations and us. We need to understand what it takes to make a good marriage and what we need to become to make it work. We need to raise our kids with the hope that God will deliver a great spouse to them and they need to work on becoming a great spouse for that person in the meantime.
Brothers and sisters, we have just celebrated Independence Day, a day which marks America’s freedom from political oppression and injustice. Today can be the first day that your sons and daughters can celebrate independence from spiritual oppression caused by the desire to look a certain way and media messages that conflict with the peaceful life God intended for humanity to experience.
If you are afraid that you or your kids might become one of those statistics that make you cringe, then change your thinking. You can do something about it. The pursuit of happiness is not chasing after fantasies, it is catching and holding on to something good even though she may not be a supermodel and he may not be a hot millionaire. Be thankful if you’ve got something good and hold onto it. Treasure each other. This will speak volumes more than words. Amen.
Pastor Sung: America is a great country. That’s why my dad pushed so hard to come to America. When we got here, my parents had to work hard. Both of them worked, and I was watched by a babysitter named Betty. I don’t remember a lot about Betty except that she was a large kind woman with a daughter named Mimi. And they had given me a book on fairy tales for one of my birthdays. I loved reading fairy tales. But you know, fairy tales are not reality. They are great dreams, but I needed someone to tell me what a real life Prince Charming was supposed to be. My fairy tale impression was that I had to find the perfect guy. And I think I was really misguided for a long while. But little girls grow up, and I did find my Mr. Right before I had made any serious long term mistakes like many young girls are making in this day and age.
The story we are presented with today is the story of how Isaac met Rebekah. And rather than expound on this story myself, I am going to invite Miriam, who was a servant of Abraham, to tell you the tale herself. She has many insights into relationships and marriage which I hope you catch. But if you don’t, it’s ok, I’ll return later. So, Miriam, where are you?”
Miriam: Hello everybody! I am so honored to be here among you. Pastor Sung has invited me to tell you the story of Isaac and Rebekah from my perspective. And I need to start back when my mistress Sarah had Isaac. You see, she was an old woman, maybe 90 or older, when she gave birth to Isaac. Sarah really wanted a child of her own really badly, and God told her that she would, and lo and behold, she did. It was a miracle. Isaac was her miracle baby. So she spoiled him. He was a mama’s boy. He really loved his mama, and she really loved him. So when he came of the age when boys become men, my master Abraham said to my mistress, “We should find a wife for Isaac.” But my mistress Sarah would always say, “None of the girls here are suitable. We need to find him a wife from the old country.” Master Abraham would nod in agreement, but they never made the trip to the old country. And before we knew it, 30 plus years had passed and my mistress Sarah died at the age of 127. They never did make a trip to the old country, but my mistress made my master swear that the would not find a wife for Isaac among the Canaanite women.
The household was not the same. Abraham was busy with the affairs of his business. The death of his mother really devastated Isaac. My master Abraham put me in charge of my mistress’ duties. While I tried my best, they kept criticizing me that I was not doing things the way that my mistress did them. I did not have the meals cooked like they wanted. One day I just broke down and cried. My master Abraham decided that it was high time that he did something. So he called in his servant Eli one day and said, “Eli, I want you to go back to the land where I was born, to Ur, and find my son a suitable wife.” Eli protested, but to no avail. Now had my mistress still been alive, she would have talked some sense into my master. How could my master expect a servant to find a wife for master Isaac? I mean, everyone knows that we have matchmakers who can be hired. Perhaps my master was thinking that Eli would gain the services of a matchmaker in Ur. Some time passed since Eli left. Those days, my masters still were unhappy with the way the household was being run. I was counting the days when Eli would come back with a bride for master Isaac.
Some time passed, but Eli did come back. And he came back with this young girl, Rebekah. She was young and beautiful. As soon as night fell and the family had fallen asleep, the servants all swarmed around Eli to hear his story.
He said, “When master Abraham charged me to find a wife for master Isaac, I didn’t know what to do. I tried thinking of ways to find a bride, but all my plans seemed too imperfect. I thought about using a matchmaker, but what if they deceived me, then master Abraham would have my head. I thought about just going to my master’s kin, but they too could deceive me. I had no other option except to pray to the God of our master Abraham. I have seen this God answer the master’s prayers, so I boldly sought this God. I asked God to give me favor and to help me find a bride suited to our master. I said to God, “God of my master, if there is a girl who will water my caravan, then I will consider her to be the one.” No sooner had I prayed then a girl arrived who not only gave me water but watered the caravan as well. I asked her who she was and found out that she was the kin of our masters. When her father asked her if she would come and be the wife of master Isaac, she said she would. And that is how I came to be back home rather quickly.
Eli’s story amazed us all. God, the God of our master Abraham, found the right bride for our master Isaac. Quite honestly, I thought the way that the men were handling this whole issue was all wrong. But God intervened and found a way to make things turn out right. Praise be the Lord.
Now the household is at peace. Mind you, mistress Rebekah does not do things the same way as mistress Sarah, but she tells master Abraham, “Father, this is how we do it in the old country.” And the old man is satisfied. Master Isaac loves her so that she cannot do any wrong. So you see my friends, even though it may seem impossible, it is always possible to find the right person when God is in control of the plans. My story is finished, and now I am sure that Pastor Sung has a few last words that she wants to say.
Pastor Sung: Parents and grandparents, what can we learn today? We need to teach our kids the importance of finding a suitable spouse. Too many kids go on chemistry and overlook some very important qualities when they begin dating. Chemistry is needed, but they should also weigh things like how they are treated, what they plan to do with their lives, what kind of family they come from, whether they share the same religious values and such. We, as the adult caregivers of children, need to discuss the importance of a well-balanced relationship. When I was a teen, we were told to make a list of the qualities we wanted in our spouse to be. So I started a list, and over the years I refined the list. When I was a teen, I wrote “good-looking” as one of the qualities, but in later years, I modified it to “good-looking to me.” I have kind of a jealous nature so I didn’t want to marry someone too good looking. But even doing this exercise with your kids gives you the opportunity to influence their thinking about what is really important versus what is nice to have.
But the main thing I want to stress about all of this is that God needs to be brought into your plans. You may have your ideas, and your kids may have their own ideas, but you will have success if God is brought into the plans.
I think I shared with you before that I prayed 10 years for my spouse-to-be. In the beginning, I prayed for his many qualities and such, but eventually it boiled down to: “Lord, send me someone who is a man after Your own heart.” So I think I succeeded in getting a great guy because God was in on the works from an early enough point that God could work on me and work on him and get us to a place where our lives could join one day.
We live in a day and age where the media bombards our kids with images of great looking guys and women and it creates an unrealistic level of expectation when young people look to date. When they are taught in the home what the really important qualities are: things like kindness, caring, healthy, financially stable, comes from a good family, happy, has good self-esteem, not proud, not competitive, Christian and you can add to that list. But when we share these ideas with out young people, it can help them to develop a balanced idea of the kind of person they want to commit themselves to.
We live in a day and age where our young people are disillusioned with marriage and so they co-habit or just keep casual relationships. Marriage as an institution is not broken. What is broken is our expectations and us. We need to understand what it takes to make a good marriage and what we need to become to make it work. We need to raise our kids with the hope that God will deliver a great spouse to them and they need to work on becoming a great spouse for that person in the meantime.
Brothers and sisters, we have just celebrated Independence Day, a day which marks America’s freedom from political oppression and injustice. Today can be the first day that your sons and daughters can celebrate independence from spiritual oppression caused by the desire to look a certain way and media messages that conflict with the peaceful life God intended for humanity to experience.
If you are afraid that you or your kids might become one of those statistics that make you cringe, then change your thinking. You can do something about it. The pursuit of happiness is not chasing after fantasies, it is catching and holding on to something good even though she may not be a supermodel and he may not be a hot millionaire. Be thankful if you’ve got something good and hold onto it. Treasure each other. This will speak volumes more than words. Amen.
posted by Sung # 10:49 AM 
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