| Sometimes, laughter really is the proper response |
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| Sept. 16, 2007
Background Scripture: Genesis 15:1-6; 18:1-15; 21:1-8
Devotional Reading: Isaiah 51:1-5
By the time I had reached ninth grade, I had attended churches of two different denominations, both of them quite somber and forbidding.
I had noted often that even when the congregations sang about “joy,”’ they did so with great solemnity.
My “steady” girlfriend persuaded me to visit the youth group of her church. I did and was surprised to find that, although they were serious about their faith, they also laughed often and had lots of fun – both of which I had thought forbidden. The girl and I stopped being steady shortly thereafter but, hooked on their faith and fun, I continued to attend – and it was one of the most important turning points in my life.
I have since come to realize that some life experiences are so serious that often the only way to respond is with a holy laughter. Our story of Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) is a serious story illuminated by laughter.
It begins with God telling Abram, that he would be greatly rewarded. But Abram replied, “O Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless.” In Abram’s time, it was no laughing matter to not produce a son.
But God promised “… your own son shall be your heir …” (15:5). Abram believed this fantastic promise and the Lord “reckoned it to him as righteous,” a theme that would be repeated in the New Testament (see Heb. 11:8, Rom. 4:12).
Three mystery guests
Later, Abraham and Sarah (God had modified their names) were staying at the sacred oaks of Mamre. Seated at the door of his tent, Abraham saw three men approaching.
“When he saw them, he ran … to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, ‘My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant” (18:2). His self-deprecating behavior was typical of Oriental courtesy.
Abraham must have been mystified when these complete strangers asked after Sarah by name. One of them revealed that he not only knew her name, but also Abraham’s and Sarah’s most pressing concern: “I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son” (18:10). How could this stranger promise a son to this octogenarian couple?
Why did Sarah laugh?
Some people would be offended with this stranger who presumed familiarity with their inmost thoughts and emotions. But it was so serious a pronouncement that “Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’” (18:12). Yet, serious and troubling as were the visitor’s remarks, Sarah would not have offended him by laughing aloud – she laughed to herself.
Then the stranger asked, “Why did Sarah laugh?” Who was this man? Was he an angel of the Lord? Was he God incognito? But the writer of Genesis thinks he knows, for now he designates the stranger as “The Lord” – “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (18:13). That’s a question God asks us virtually every day.
We don’t know if the stranger spoke angrily, solemnly or with a generous smile. But Sarah was no longer laughing – she was anxious: “I did not laugh.” I can sense a gentle humor in his voice when the stranger replies to her denial: “No, but you did laugh” (18:15).
The laugh was on Abraham and Sarah, but it was a kindly laugh. God had the last laugh, but He did not gloat.
In Thomas Mann’s novel, Joseph the Provider, Joseph says that some of the hard questions of life “cannot be answered with a long face. Only in lightness can the spirit of man rise above them: With a laugh at being faced with the unanswerable, perhaps he can make even God Himself, the great Unanswering, to laugh.”
Today, may God smile upon us and our questions. And don’t forget to smile back!
This farm news was published in the Sept. 12, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 9/12/2007 |
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