God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.” And when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Genesis 17
This is the third and final post on Genesis 17. And as the cliché goes, I think we did save the best for last. I love this passage for two reasons. First, I think this says something very profound about God's willingness to rename both Abram and Sarai. For ten years, God's promise has revolved mainly around Abram, his ability to take leaps of faith and his willingness to trust in the midnight of his soul as the stars twinkled over his head. And so it would make sense if the name change was only for Abram to Abraham. But it is not. Sarai to Sarah finally gets involved. Maybe that is why finally in the next few chapters the promised son will finally arrive. Changing names is important. Our name offers insights into who we are and defines a part of our identity. While Abraham means father of a great nation, Sarah means pure and happy. What makes you happy in your faith right now?
Second, while usually we remember Sarah laughing, which we will examine in the next post, Abraham has his own funny bone tickled too. And it is not just a polite chuckle that erupts uncontrolled from deep within. Scripture says he fell on the ground. I imagine the kind of laughter where your stomach hurts and you cannot breathe kind of laughter.
When was the last time you laughed like that? Usually that happens with family or friends. So maybe more importantly, when was the last time you laughed like that in church? Most of us make faith out to be such a serious and somber event that we never laugh in church. We wear these stern faces on Sunday mornings. But we should laugh every time we come to the table. Seriously this tiny piece of Wonder Bread and sip of juice is to communicate God's grace? Get real.
We should laugh hysterically every time we talk about God's unconditional love making all the difference in our life. Seriously? Love? Have you not watched the news recently? Any political or public leader who talked about love would be laughed right off the stage and not taken seriously. It is all well and good to talk about love in church on Sunday. But don't ask me to love my enemy, he will mock me on Monday morning. Don't ask me to love unconditionally, it will make me look foolish. Which is what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:10: "We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ." Being able to hold that in tension is a key to faith. People will rarely understanding Christians...what we do (like listen to sermons) and why we would give some of our hard earned money way. The evidence for our foolishness is widely documented by those many others throughout history.
We should laugh uncontrollably at church. Seriously, are committees really the best way to do things? No. But it is an incarnational way of living life. Does getting up early on Sunday and driving to church for community make sense? No, we could find community at a more reasonable time and convenient location.
I do believe laughter is a prayer to God. And we have our patron saints Sarah and Abraham to thank for that.
Today, may the traces of God's grace be found as you laugh...and may that be a prayer and a moment of God's presence for you.
blessings ~
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