The God Who Makes Laughter for Us

A Sermon preached by J. Stuart Taylor III

St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church

July 7, 2002

 

Our reading today from Genesis contains one of the most fascinating stories that is given to us in scripture.  With a little imagination we can almost picture this ancient Middle Eastern woman doubled up with laughter.  We can see the crow's-feet at her eyes, her long gray hair and her wrinkled skin as sunbaked as the desert. When she laughs tears roll down her cheeks and her whole body shakes as she slaps her hand against her bony knee until it seems hand or knee must break.  Why is she laughing?  She has just been told that she, a 91-year-old woman is going to have a baby. The woman is Sarah, the wife of the Shepherd Abraham. And the story goes like this: Three travelers suddenly appear at Abraham's camp, and like any desert dweller practicing the old traditions of desert hospitality, Abraham welcomes them, invites his guests to wash and refresh themselves and to rest in the shade of the oak trees until a meal can be prepared.  We can picture Abraham's household suddenly in a flurry of activity, hustling to prepare a meal for their mysterious guests.  Abraham watches his guests eat every bite and then while they are picking their teeth, and patting full bellies they ask Abraham,  "Where is Sarah your wife?"  "She is in the tent," he said with a puzzled look on his face.  The story does not explain how these men knew that Abraham was married to Sarah nor does it explain to us how it is that the Lord, Abraham's God, suddenly speaks through them, but he does,  "I will surely return to you in the spring and Sarah shall have a son."  Now Sarah hears all this for she is sitting in her rocker behind the tent door straining on every word.  Her face is one of comic disbelief and amazement. Though she positively shakes with laughter, she muffles it as best she can because she must not let her husband's guests hear her laugh or show disrespect.  "But a son and me 91 years of age.  Shall I again have pleasure?"  And she starts all over again.  And Abraham, poor Abraham must try to keep a straight face before his guests.  He has heard this once before.  In Genesis, Chapter 17 where it is recorded that God first made His promise to Abraham to give him a son - it says literally that Abe fell on his face laughing.  Well the guests could not help to hear these smirks, muffled guffaws and gasping for breath coming from the tent.  "Why does Sarah laugh?" they inquire, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"  Sarah rushed from the tent, "I did not laugh, I did not laugh."  But she had.

 

This is the third in a series of sermon on the saga of Abraham and Sarah. the story of how God blessed them  and promised  to bless all the world through their descendants. But the clock is ticking and the promise has yet to be fulfilled.  Abraham and Sarah are now long past the age for bearing children. And the barrenness of their marriage rested heavy on their hearts. The lack of a child seemingly called into question the promise God had made to them which was the meaning of their lives and the hope which had sustained them in their long journey.  And so who could blame Sarah for laughing?  Sarah laughed at the cruel joke she felt her life to be.  She laughed at the utter absurdity that she might still have a child - might still be blessed.  She laughed because she could no longer believe or because she wanted desperately to believe.  In her laughter you can hear her sorrow, fear, loss of hope. 

 

This story is one of the foundational texts of Bible and each time we look at it, it is like a fine jewel that catches and reflects the light in a different way.  When we hold this precious gem of a story up to the light, the first thing we might see is that the God of Abraham and Sarah is a God who helps us bears fruit in the midst of barrenness.  How many of you know the story of the Buena Vista social club? It is  another tale of old ones who are seemingly long past the age when they could bear fruit with their lives.  It all started when a well known US musician by the name of Ry Cooter, traveled to Cuba to see if he could find any surviving remnants of the great Cuban music traditions that flourished there since the 1930’s. As Ry Cooter traveled around Cuba, he discovered much to his surprise that many of these musicians were still alive. One, now in his late 80’s was playing piano for ballet lessons. Another in his 70’s was shining shoes. One by one, Ry Cooter brought these musicians together again to reconstitute what had been one of Cuba’s greatest bands, the Buena Vista Social club.  Before long the music of the Buena Vista Social club was being played all over the world.  The group went on an international tour that included a triumphant night at Carnegie Hall. Eventually the Buena Vista Social club graced our very own Centennial Hall at the U of A. Take my word for it – those guys had us dancing in the aisles that night. To see those old men, once forgotten and passed by, born again, doing what they love to do and doing it with passion was in my mind a testimony to the God of Abraham and Sarah: no matter how young or how old we are God is with us in our times of barrenness to help us once again to be fruitful. As our offertory, we will hear from the Buena Vista Social club. 

 

Looking at this story of Sarah and Abraham from a slightly different angle, we catch a glimpse of another dimension of God’s saving grace. The God of Abraham and Sarah is a God who makes a way out of no way. This God who makes a way out of no way is the God who surprises us when we have reached what seems to be an absolute dead end. Perhaps you have known those moments in your life, when we have simply run out of options. There is no way forward. You are stuck, paralyzed and we do not know what to do next.  In these moments, may we be graced to encounter a God who makes a way out of no way. Such a moment is vividly told in Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel Prodigal Summer. The story is about two old Appalachian farmers who are neighbors but anything but neighborly.  On one side of the fence and the feud,  is a spinster; feminist Unitarian, tree hugging organic farmer, and on the other an old fashioned cranky Calvinist who is set in his ways. But in spite of his disposition, and his declining health, he has a dream. And that dream is to create a hybrid Chestnut tree that can withstand the blight that virtually exterminated that grand old tree at the turn of the century. This old mans dream is to make it possible that one day the Chestnut tree might once again, gloriously repopulate the Appalachian mountains.   Just when the dream seems to be slipping away from the reach of this old man, his neighbor reaches out in marvelous and surprising ways to keep the dream alive. Two old people at the end of their ropes, holding on together to a dream to bless the Appalachian Mountains with a tree that has long been considered dead. Kingsolver in her own wonderful fashion offers eloquent testimony to a God who makes a way out of no way. By the way, you may have been wondering about the bulletin insert that tells the story of the American Chestnut tree and the foundation that is actually trying to do what was described in Kingsolver’s novel. This God who makes a way out of no way is the God of Exodus who delivered the Israelites when the were trapped between the red sea and the approaching Egyptian army. This God who makes a way out of no way is the God who raised Jesus from the dead. It is the same God who accompanies you  and who in the context of your faith journey will make a way out of no way in gracious and surprising ways.

 

Holding the story up to the light, we can see that the God of Abraham and Sarah is a God who keeps the promise to bless us with descendants.  I don’t know if you are up to date on the current statistics of the PCUSA.  Totals for confirmed members in the PCUSA have fallen by 31, 549.  Bringing our total number to 2, 493,781 said stated clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick.  No faithful Presbyterian can look at these numbers or consider the demographics of our aging denomination and not wonder: Will our faith have children? Will God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah to bless the world through their descendants be fulfilled in the survival of the church and of our faith in coming generations? To look at the PCUSA right now is to look at Abraham and Sarah in advanced age wondering how there will be an heir to the promise.  I believe that finally when congregations like St. Mark’s have done all we can to be inviting, welcoming and inclusive. When we have done all that we can to passionately proclaim a Gospel that is relevant to a world of hurt, then we must simply entrust ourselves to the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God who will fulfill the divine promise. I believe that God has a future in store for God’s people. I believe that God will bless the world through the descendants of Abraham and Sarah but maybe that promise will be fulfilled in ways we can only begin to imagine. A new book that is causing quite a stir is entitled The Next Christendom: the coming of Global Christianity by a theologian Philip Jenkins. The thesis of the book is that the center of gravity for the Christian world is shifting from the Northern Hemisphere to the southern.  The number of Christians in Africa for example grew from 10 m in 1900 to 360 m in 2000.  Christianity in Africa and Asia and Latin America is no longer seen as a cultural import from Europe and the US. It has taken on its own distinct and dynamic cultural identity.  Though Christianity in US and Europe may seem to be suffering from a loss of memory, a hardening of the arteries and even impotence,  on other continents the God of Abraham and Sarah is fulfilling the promise to bless the world as the spirit midwifes the new creation of millions of children of blessings, children of promise. 

 

 And finally when we lift this story into the light, the light reflects and dances upon our eyes and we can not help but smile. The God of Abraham and Sarah is a God who makes laughter for us.  If we flash-forward in Genesis to the conclusion of our story, we find that the grass in the fields turned green, the leaves returned to the great oak trees and Sarah had a son and they named him Isaac which means "laughter."  Faith and wonder shone in the eyes of old father Abraham; and the mother - no one could describe the transformation that occurred in her. Sarah overflowed with joy and thanksgiving; "God has made laughter for me."  The story of an old man and old woman near despair and suddenly surprised by laughter, by joy, by God's blessing of new life.

 

If you will allow me to return once again to Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, Prodigal summer I would like to tell another tale from this marvelous book.  It is the story of a woman named Lusa, a cosmopolitan scientist who falls in love with an Appalachian farmer. She moves into the mountain hollow that is populated by all her new relations who neither understands nor accepts her. The difficult challenge of making a go of her new life is rendered all the more impossible by the sudden death of her husband in a traffic accident. Everything in Lusa’s grief stricken soul cried out to flee this unhappy place where she does not belong. During this time, her grief is crowned by the knowledge that her body will never again bear children.  As she agonizes, trying to decide if she can make a go of this farm and this family, she offers to watch over the kids of one of her sister’s in law who is dying of cancer. Lusa is drawn to the unhappy teenage girl and in their shared misery; the two forge a friendship and learn to laugh again. When it is clear that the sister in law is going to die, Lusa offers to adopt the girl and her brother.  It is then that Lusa knows that in her barrenness she is made fruitful, that a way has been opened up where there was no way. God has made her laugh again.

 

Kingsolver is indeed a master-storyteller but there is no greater Storyteller than the one who is revealed in Genesis, in the story of Sarah and Abraham. This great storyteller is collaborating with you on the narrative of your faith journey. The God of Abraham and Sarah, who promises to bless the world through us and through our descendants, helps us bear fruit in our lives in the midst of barrenness. The God of Sarah and Abraham leads us forward making a way out of no way. The God of Sarah and Abraham turns our tears to joy and makes us laugh again.  The Good news that I want you to hear today is that the God who journeyed with Sarah and Abraham is the God whom journeys with you.