Laughter Was Born
Laughter Was Born
Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7
Rev. Dr. Rhonda Blevins
June 18, 2023
The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
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The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
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Since it’s Father’s Day, I want to begin with an old Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.” On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers.[1]
When we find Abraham in our scripture lesson today, he is already a father. His wife’s handmaid, Hagar, bore him a son, Ishmael. That’s a sordid story that may be too sensitive to church ears. But if you’re familiar with Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, you’ll have a pretty good idea about how the whole Hagar and Ishmael thing went down.
You see, Sarah was never able to conceive. Yet God promised Abraham to make a great nation from him. So by the time Sarah is 75 or 76 years old, she’s done waiting for God to fulfill this promise. Sarah took matters into her own hands. She suggested her own handmaid, Hagar, as a surrogate to fulfil God’s promise. And nine months later or so, Ishmael was born, not quite the apple of his father’s eye and the bane of Sarah’s existence.
That’s some of the backstory for the scripture lesson we read together today. Today’s pericope picks up some thirteen years later—Ishmael is not quite a child but not yet a man. Abraham is 99-years-old. And Sarah? Sarah is 89-years-old when she overhears some mysterious strangers tell her husband that she is going to have a child. Now I’ve known a few older moms in my day (I look at one in the mirror every day!) But I’ve never known a woman who gave birth at 89-years-old. Have you?
So when these three mysterious strangers arrive—some speculate manifestations of the Holy Trinity—and they tell Abraham (within earshot of Sarah) that Sarah will have a son . . . what does Sarah do? What would ANY 89-year-old woman do?
Sarah laughed.
I mean, come on. Wouldn’t you laugh? What a preposterous, ridiculous, unbelievable thing to say about an 89-year-old woman, right?
Why did Sarah laugh? Maybe she had visions of . . .
. . . carrying the car seat on top of her walker, or . . .
. . . buying Pampers and Depends on the same shopping trip.
Ok, seriously. Why did Sarah laugh?
I think Sarah laughed as a coping mechanism.
Think about it.
· Think how painful infertility is for women who desperately want children.
· Think of that plus the shame that went with infertility in Sarah’s day as infertility was associated with God’s punishment.
· Think of both of those things plus God’s (seemingly) unfulfilled promise to Abraham that God would make of Abraham “a great nation.”
Decades of disappointment. Decades of shame. Decades feeling like a failure.
And then three men show up when Sarah is 89-years-old saying she’s going to have a baby? They stirred up so many emotions in her, that there had to be some kind of release.
So Sarah laughed. She laughed to keep from crying.
They say laughter is the best medicine, you know. When life is hard and emotions overwhelm, laughter can provide a temporary respite, allowing us to momentarily escape the weight of our emotions. Laughter is like a release valve, like letting off steam, diffusing emotional tension and offering a sense of relief. Laughter can take something heavy, and make it feel a little bit lighter, if but for a moment.
That’s why we all should laugh at Joe’s jokes, even when they’re not funny. (And they’re always not funny!)
Here are some laughter factoids:
· Did you know that there is evidence that “older people who laugh regularly with friends and family could be significantly less likely to develop health problems than those who do not?”[2]
· Studies show that “laughter dramatically suppresses stress hormones, such as cortisol, reduces anxiety through lowering adrenaline levels and activates the body’s natural relaxation system.”
· Laughter-induced therapies are shown to improve depression.
· Laughter is shown to have a similar effect as exercise on our bodies. Give me a choice of going to a comedy club or the gym? I’m going to choose the comedy club every time!
Back to Sarah. She laughed. It was how she coped with decades of disappointment. 89-years-old, and God had not granted that which she most desperately desired. She had given up the idea that God would provide.
What about you? Do you believe in a God that provides?
There’s a story about a young woman who brought her fiancé home to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother prompted her father to find out about the young man.
The father invited the fiancé to his study for a talk.
“So what are your plans?” the father asked the young man
“I am a biblical scholar, sir,” the young man replied.
“A biblical scholar. Hmmm,” the father said. “Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in?”
“I will study,” the young man replied, “and God will provide for us.”
“And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?” asked the father.
“I will concentrate on my studies,” the young man replied. “God will provide for us.”
“And children?” asked the father. “How will you support the children?”
“Don’t worry, sir. God will provide,” replied the fiancé.
The conversation proceeded like this, and each time the father questioned, the young idealist insisted that God would provide.
Later, the mother asked the father, “How did it go, Honey?”
The father answered, “Well, he has no job and no plans, and he thinks I’m God!”
Back to Sarah. She laughed. She had given up the idea that God would provide.
But then . . .
The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him.
Do you want to know what the name “Isaac” means in Hebrew? Laughter!
God had the last laugh when “Laughter” was born! God provided! God fulfilled the promise from decades prior. And as for Abraham and Sarah, they finally experience the sweetness of “Laughter,” 8 pounds of joy and the sweet baby smell of God’s faithfulness.
This story of barrenness and birth reminds us that even in the midst of our doubts, even in the midst of our struggles, God is faithful. God’s plans are never limited by our doubts. God’s provision is never conditional upon our circumstances.
So my friends, what are you going through? Everybody’s going through something. What are you going through?
Laugh.
Don’t laugh just to cope. Laugh because you know that victory is yours through God who is always . . . always . . . faithful.
Remember Paco from my opening story? Or should I say the 800 Pacos who showed up at the newspaper office at the behest of a loving father who put an ad in the paper: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.”
That story isn’t about Paco, is it? That story is about a loving Father.
And so is yours.
[1] Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, p. 13.
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/oct/09/why-the-health-benefits-of-laughter-yoga-will-make-you-smile