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GOD'S ANNOUNCEMENT, SARAH'S LAUGHTER!
Imagine a group of eccentric medieval monks meticulously
copying sacred manuscripts of the early church fathers. As one monk laboriously
duplicated each letter and mark, he looked to his superior and said, "Copy,
copy, copy. Why don't we ever get to see the originals?"
"Ah, you want to see the original manuscripts
of the sacred writings of the Church, eh? Well, go down into the cellar, and
you will find what you seek."
The young monk disappeared and did not return
for a long time. After a while, his superior grew concerned and sent down
a second monk to see if the first monk was okay. When he, too, did not
return several others were sent down. Not one of them returned. Finally,
the old priest made his way down to the cellar. About half way down the
stone steps he heard what appeared to be laughter, or perhaps weeping. Completing
his descent he found the monks doubled over with laughter, most were laughing
so hard they had tears in their eyes.
"Why are you laughing?" Asked
their superior.
The first monk composed himself and with a huge
grin on his face showed his superior the original passage. "See, it
says celebrate, not celibate."
Now I want you to think about the first monk. When
he discovered what the original manuscripts said he, as you can easily imagine,
started laughing. A cosmic joke had been played out and the young monk
laughed. When he laughed, was he sharing his laughter with anyone?
Yes! As G. K. Chesterton noted, "when
a man (in the generic sense) laughs to himself, he shares his laughter either
with God or the devil." His point, I believe is that you can't keep
laughter to yourself. It is always shared with someone in this realm or
in the spiritual realm.
Well, as of the latest chapter in Abraham's life,
as found in Genesis 17, Abraham has been inwardly laughing. God has told
him in clear Hebrew that he and Sarah were going to have a child of their own;
a son. He tried to tell Sarah that they had to get a nursery ready but
she just looked at him as he if he had lost it.1
Her skepticism was understandable. She had
given up on ever having any children well over a decade ago. Besides, she
had never actually heard God say anything to her about having children. God
had always appeared and spoken to Abraham, and she knew that her husband like
all husbands only half listened to what others were saying to them. Also
her husband was ninety-nine years old and; well let's just leave it at the fact
that he was ninety-nine years old.
So here we have a rather unusual situation. Abraham
believed what God said, but his wife didn't believe a word of it. He tried
to convince her but she had lived with the guy for a long time and what had failed
to happen at the age of forty-five wasn't going to happen at the age of ninety! And
no ninety-nine year old husband, bless his soul, was going to convince her of
it.
This is where God stepped in and did his thing. In
Genesis 18:1 - 12 we read:
The LORD appeared again to Abraham while he was
camped near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. One day about noon, as Abraham
was sitting at the entrance to his tent, 2 he suddenly noticed three men
standing nearby. He got up and ran to meet them, welcoming them by bowing low
to the ground. 3 "My lord," he said, "if it pleases you,
stop here for a while. 4 Rest in the shade of this tree while my servants
get some water to wash your feet. 5 Let me prepare some food to refresh
you. Please stay awhile before continuing on your journey." "All right," they
said. "Do as you have said."
So Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, "Quick!
Get three measures of your best flour, and bake some bread." 7 Then
Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a fat calf and told a servant to hurry
and butcher it. 8 When the food was ready, he took some cheese curds and
milk and the roasted meat, and he served it to the men. As they ate, Abraham
waited on them there beneath the trees.
"Where is Sarah, your wife?" they asked
him. "In the tent," Abraham replied.
Then one of them said, "About this time next
year I will return, and your wife Sarah will have a son." Now Sarah was
listening to this conversation from the tent nearby. 11 And since Abraham
and Sarah were both very old, and Sarah was long past the age of having children, 12
she laughed silently to herself. "How could a worn-out woman like me have
a baby?" she thought. "And when my master-my husband-is also so old?"
Hiding behind the tent flap, Sarah had been eavesdropping. She
knew Abraham wouldn't remember everything the strangers said to him so she listened
in on their conversation. She knew something was afoot, but now she heard
it from the strangers mouth - this joke about having a son of their own.
And she laughed to herself. Perhaps she
imagined how she would balloon out like a remoistened prune. Or, she thought
about having morning sickness, queasiness, and problems Abraham had never thought
of in his entire life and she laughed.
When stumbling upon a headline that shouted:
"Women in 50s Can Safely Have Babies!"
A Kerry Dougherty shouted back, in print: "Oh joy. Women today
really can have it all. Hot flashes and morning sickness. Wrinkles
and stretch marks." What's next, she thought, "nursing homes
and nurseries?"
Sarah, realizing for the very first time that
she could have it all, laughed to herself. She thought she had muffled
it, but her joy went beyond grinning. The thought of her body and Abraham's body
coming together to produce a baby gave her good reason to laugh. So she
gave herself over to faith; to the Lord and to his promise of laughter and life
within her dusty, dry, deadpan womb.
She shared her laughter, or so she thought, with
no one. But her laughter silently roared out from behind the tent curtain
and was heard by God himself. We know this from vv. 13 - 15 where we read:
Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah
laugh? Why did she say, 'Can an old woman like me have a baby?' 14 Is anything
too hard for the LORD? About a year from now, just as I told you, I will return,
and Sarah will have a son." 15 Sarah was afraid, so she denied that
she had laughed. But he said, "That is not true. You did laugh."
When our all-knowing God asked this question it
appears that his question was more than simply rhetorical. It seems that
God who understood Job better than Job understood Job was truly at a loss as
to what prompted Sarah to laugh. "Why," he asked of Abraham, "did
Sarah laugh?" But Abraham who was still trying to figure out why
Sarah even married him had no answer for God.
Terry Lindvall in his book The Mother of All Laughter
believes that this situation has so many comic possibilities that he made up
a David Letterman-like top ten list. I've revised it a little bit, but
in general it goes like this:
Why did Sarah laugh?
10. She was secretly watching I Love Lucy
behind the tent flap.
9. She imagined Abraham singing the
baby to sleep.
8. Their toothless, wrinkled child
would have a toothless wrinkled father.
7. She now knew that 13 years earlier
God had provided a baby-sitter.
6. She pictured herself explaining
all this to her local obstetrician.
5. She had an immediate craving for
pickles and ice cream.
4. God finally turned the tables on
her servant, "Hagar the Horrible."
3. Abraham would no longer be able
to pass her off as his sister.
2. She wondered if her son would enjoy
nursing on milk with a
hint of Geritol
in it.
1. She now knew that God not only
performed miracles, he did comedy.
So Sarah laughed. It was the sheer surprise
of realizing that Abraham was right. The promise of a child could still
come true even in her pickled condition at the grand old age of ninety!
But then she had a little tiff with God. She
came outside just as God had asked Abraham:
"Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, 'Can
an old woman like me have a baby?' 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD?
About a year from now, just as I told you, I will return, and Sarah will have
a son."
Abraham, not having an answer, tried to laugh
it off. But Sarah popped up and denied the fact that she had laughed. Instantly,
she became the Queen of Denial. Why? Why did she lie about it? Why
did she tell God that she didn't laugh?
George MacDonald writes, "Sarah was afraid. It
is the heart that is not yet sure of its God that is afraid to laugh in His presence." For
many years she had been expecting a child, but never found herself expecting. Finally,
she took matters into her own hands and offered Hagar, who couldn't say "no," to
Abram.
Now with God at her door, now that they were face
to face, she was afraid. After all, in her day Jehovah was not seen as
a kind grandfather ready to give his grandchildren any and everything they requested. In
her day counseling had not replaced repentance. In her day, fear and reverence
were the right responses.
So what did she do? She lied! Now
anyone who has a kid or who has ever been a kid is a member of Sarah's tribe. You
get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, or you find yourself face-to-face
with overwhelming evidence that declares you guilty and you lie. You say
something stupid such as, "It's not what it looks like!" when it is
exactly what it looks like and everyone, including you, knows it.
Now let me remind you what Jesus said in John
10:10. He said,
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may
have life, and have it to the full.
Satan, the father of lies, convinces us that the
best way out of a sticky situation is to lie. But lying robs us of our
joy because it steals our truth and laughter, true laughter, depends on a healthy
diet of truth. In her denial Sarah not only invited judgment but lost her
laugher as well.
God, however, knows the truth. He knows
when we've been naughty or nice. He knows our shadows, the evil that lurks
in the heart of man. He knows the rebellion, the pride, and the disobedience
of his children. And he never ignores it. He confronts us and does
so in such a way that he heals our hearts at the same time.
In his reply to Sarah he simply said, "Yes,
you did laugh." But, my guess is, that he said it in such a way or
added something to it to let her know that while it wasn't okay it was forgivable. For
God knows the tragedies in our life and he knows comedy. So he turns our
ashes into praise, our mourning into laughter.
1 In Terry Lindvall's book The Mother of All Laughter, it is noted on p. 36 that a comedian by the name of Robert G. Lee figured that one thing may not be all that funny in Abraham's situation. He imagined that when Abraham received the good news he responded by saying, "God, you're all wise, but would you want to live with a ninety-year-old pregnant woman in the desert? I think not!"
THE JOY OF LAUGHTER 9/03/06 5
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