I love this, these two passages that we've read this morning
about laughter and and laughing and Sarah getting caught
laughing in Genesis chapter 18. Oh, I didn't laugh.
I don't know. Yeah, you laughed.
I heard it. I heard it.
And then Sarah openly laughing in Genesis 21 as God's promises
at last fulfilled, and she has given birth to a baby, a boy
that she and Abraham named Isaac and name Isaac means laughter.
Laughter. They named their son laughter.
And it's fitting because God can be funny sometimes.
Now, to say that God can be funny sometimes begs this
question. Do we mean funny, strange or
funny? Ha ha.
And, and the fact is, yes, we mean both.
Sometimes God can be funny, ha ha, and we can laugh with
incredible joy gut, you know, bouncing, belly laughing, you
know, full throated, just laugh out loud funny.
God can be sometimes. And sometimes God can be so
strange and so weird and so different than what we expect
that we just have to laugh because it is so strange and so
weird and so different than we expect.
And we get both ends of the spectrum that we get to look at
and and reflect on this morning. So God's promise to Abraham and
Sarah in Genesis 18 was definitely funny.
Strange. Abraham was about 99 years old
and Sarah was about 85 years old.
And for 15 years now, God had been promising them that Sarah
was going to have Abraham's baby and that that through that line,
great nations would come and all of the world would be blessed.
And by this point, after 15 years of hearing the same
promise repeated over and over again, Sarah's 85 years old.
She knows she can't have babies anymore.
It's biologically impossible. People were not stupid back
then. They knew how the human body
worked in these things. And she knew.
And she heard the promise again, and she laughed.
Now she was quiet about it. And she wasn't even standing
with the folks or sitting with the folks where God was having
the conversation with Abraham. She was in the tent overhearing,
listening to what was going on and laughed to herself.
But God still hurt and God knew. But it was strange, it was, it
was funny, strange. Abraham and Sarah, both very old
by this time, Sarah long past the age of having children.
So she laughed silently to herself.
How could a worn out woman like me enjoy such pleasure,
especially when my master, my husband, is also so old.
I, I took the mind master out in one of the slides.
I didn't want to get into that Business Today.
I forgot to take it out of this one young.
Talk about that on your own when you get home.
I want to talk about the laughing part.
And I think there's a lot of humor and light hearted hearted.
I mean, there's so much dark at times in the scripture and and
it's easy to miss the humor and light heartedness.
But but when Sarah says how could a worn out woman like me
enjoy such pleasure, that's what she's talking about.
I mean, she we all know childbirth itself is not
pleasure. It's it's the making the baby
part that she's talking about here.
She's like, my husband's old. I'm old, how is this ever going
to happen? And this is this is what she's
laughing about in the tent to herself.
It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.
And she can't help but laugh. There are times when God
interacts with us in this kind of way, when God makes promises
that seem so extravagant, so ridiculous, so impossible that
that the impulse is to laugh. Laugh because it's just dumb.
And and I think the church is kind of in the midst of that.
I mean, this was 15 years of promise here, right?
15 years since we know the first recorded promise that God made
to Abraham. It's been 2000 years since Jesus
said I'll be right back. And we still are waiting for the
fulfillment of that promise. And I don't know what else might
be happening in your personal lives, whether you've ever
experienced God promising you something and, and, and you're
still waiting and waiting and waiting.
And it seems like it, it might be impossible for that promise
ever to be fulfilled. I know of a woman, she's since
passed, who loved her son. She had a large family, 5 kids
and and her youngest son made some disastrous decisions early
in life and became significantly addicted to very powerful drugs,
blew through multiple marriages and and the the last the most
recent time she saw him after he was gone for years and years and
years. He came back and told her he was
dying of cancer and and would she please cash in the insurance
policy that she had for him. She had for some reason bought a
policy specifically to insure for treating cancer and turns
out he didn't have cancer. He just wanted the cash and and
that was the condition he was in when she died.
And it wasn't till after her death that he was sent to prison
because he had so many DU is And in prison he found Jesus again
and his life was dramatically changed and transformed and we
got out of prison. He was very much a different
man, became a pastor, a lay pastor and served a church and
cared for people and and and lived a wonderful, beautiful
life from that point on. He has since passed as well.
But that that mom never saw the promise fulfilled when her son
was born, when he was growing up, when he gave his life to
Christ, when he was baptized and and the hope that she had for
him, the dreams that she had for him, the prayers that she said
for him, and none of it was filled fulfilled in her
lifetime. God is strange.
Sometimes. God is weird.
God will, will, will promise things and we think we know what
we're being promised. And it turns out that God's
going to fulfill the promise in a way that's completely
different than we expect. Sometimes we try to make the
promises work out on our own. That's what Abraham and Sarah
did after years of not receiving the promise and then everyone
knowing Sarah's too old to have a baby anyway.
So, so Sarah gave her slave Hagar to Abraham and said, have
a baby with her. And and that has had that had
disastrous consequences for generations and generations and
generations afterward trying to make God's promises come true
instead of waiting for God to fulfill his promises.
And it's so hard. It's easy for us on this end of
it to look at Sarah and Abraham's situation and say,
well, they should have just been patient and trusted God.
But think how you would react if an 85 year old woman came and
told you, you know, God promised me I was going to have a baby
before I die. It's going to happen next year,
God promised me. You'd think this lady needs to
be receiving some care, right? You, you would think that it's
easy for us on this side of the story because we know how the
story ends. But when we're in the middle of
the story and we're waiting for the promise or God seems to have
promised something that's so extraordinarily impossible that
it can't possibly become come true.
And, and, and we despair or we give up or, or, or we, we just
laugh it off and say this whole thing is just crazy.
God can be funny sometimes and very strange sort of ways.
God can also be funny, ha ha. And God was funny, ha ha.
By Genesis chapter 21, just about a year later, Sarah had
apparently enjoyed that pleasure and Abraham too.
And now there's a baby and Sarah's nursing and she can't
help but laugh. She can't help but laugh.
Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he said, and the Lord
as he said. That's, I think, one of the most
important phrases in the Bible. The Lord was gracious to Sarah
as he said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.
And Sarah said, God has brought me laughter, and everyone who
hears about this will laugh with me.
When God fulfills a promise, there is tremendous laughter,
there can be tremendous joy, tremendous surprise.
I mean, Can you imagine Sarah's relatives and friends and family
when they say Sarah's, Sarah's, Sarah's pregnant, Sarah's,
Sarah's? I will believe Sarah's pregnant
when Sarah has the baby. Sarah had the baby.
And wow, folks were just overwhelmed with joy as Sarah
was. What did she have to laugh about
at this, at this point? You know, I mean, there's a lot
of work going on with the raising a baby and 85 years old
and wow, now I got to raise a baby.
There's a lot of work going on with that.
What did Sarah have to be laughing about?
Sarah had the joy of being a mother, the absolute joy of
being a mother. Clearly she'd been longing for
this, for she was in her 8th decade.
I don't know how old she had to get before she started wanting
to have a kids of her own. But in a culture in which that
was what was expected, that that was the purpose of life for for
human beings to get married, to have children, to be fruitful
and multiply. This was this was still part of
the ethos then, as it is in many places still today, that one of
the reasons we're here on this earth is just what God said, be
fruitful and multiply. And here's Sarah for 85 years
with no multiplication, with no addition.
And now she gets the joy of being a mother.
She gets the joy of holding a baby and saying this is my baby.
The joy of nursing a baby, saying I'm giving this child
life from my own body. The joy of his first laugh, the
joy of his first kick inside the womb.
The joy of his first steps, the joy of his first words.
And Sarah was at that moment anticipating all of those joys
that she had given up all hope for.
God bless Sarah with the joy of being a mother.
God bless Sarah with the joy of a lifelong desire come true. 85
years or let's, let's, let's give her ten years of, of being
a kid and saying, you know, boys are yucky.
Maybe even, you know, 1215 years of that.
So everything. 70 years. 70 years of wanting a child, 70
years of wanting to participate in God's good creation in this
way, 70 years of wanting to fulfill what she felt she was
born to do. However many years she'd been
married to Abraham, of wanting to provide her husband with the
child. This lifelong desire that she
had given up all hope of ever coming true.
It was impossible. It was a laughable, It was
ridiculous. And now here it was, this thing
that she had hoped and longed for and dreamed of, and now here
it was. And God had done it in a way
that neither she nor anyone else could have ever anticipated,
predicted, or planned for. Nothing like this had ever
happened before. Ever.
A joy. A joy of the lifelong desire
come true. And Sarah had the joy of being
honored by those around her. Let's make no mistake about it.
In that culture, in that time, in that place, a woman's
purpose, a huge part of a woman's purpose, was to bear
children not here to judge or condemn or bless or praise
another culture that existed in another part of the world
thousands of years ago. But that was what she was living
in, and in her culture, surrounded by her community, she
would have been deemed inadequate.
She would have thought herself inadequate, not up to the task,
not good enough. Not good enough for God to bless
her with the simplest and most basic thing that most women get
to experience and do, having a child.
It would have been a shameful thing for her.
She would likely have been filled with guilt.
Guilt and shame that drove her to do to Hagar what she and
Abraham did to Hagar, and then be so angry about it afterwards
that she made it worse by abusing Hagar and and and
kicking them out. The shame, the indignity, the
inadequacy that she had experienced for decades in her
life now vanished in an instant. Well, nine months vanished.
Gone. No shame, no indignity, no
inadequacy. She has now done what no other
woman has done before. She has given birth after her
childbearing years. She has brought life into this
world, and she's nursing that life with her own body.
And now, far from being dishonored, she's being honored.
Far from being put down behind closed doors and in conversation
on the other side of town, now she's being lifted up and
praised and celebrated. Honored.
One of the most honored women in all of human history.
Sarah has become, and she has that joy.
Is it any wonder that she laughed that day?
Is it any wonder that she couldn't contain the joy that
was within her? And knowing that her experience
would bring joy to others, she laughed even more.
God can be funny, strange. God can be funny, ha ha, and can
give us reasons to laugh from deep within our souls, but we
need some clarity and accuracy here or we we stand to take away
the wrong things from the story. The point of this, one of the
amazing things that happened in this story is that Sarah
received what she had longed for and dreamed of her entire life,
that God gave her that. But that's not the point of the
story. That's a side effect of the
point of the story. The essential thing to take away
here is not if we pray hard enough and we just don't give up
hope that God will eventually give us what we are longing for
too. That message is not in the
Bible. Name it and claim it not, no.
If you believe it, you can achieve it.
No, that is not the lesson to take away from this.
That will undermine entirely and thoroughly the lesson and this
point of this entire experience that God shares with us in the
Scripture for clarity and accuracy, we have to get because
many, many, many faithful people die without getting the things
that they longed and dreamed for.
And sometimes they don't even happen after they die.
They never happened. There are faithful people who
live and die and will spend eternity in heaven without
getting things that they really, really good things that they
longed and hoped and prayed for. This, The essential take away
from this story is not if you name it, you can claim it.
If you believe it, you can achieve it.
The essential point here is about the faithfulness and power
of God, not the fulfillment of Sarah's hopes and dreams.
The main thing is the faithfulness and power of God.
God did what God said He would do.
And that's what God wants us to hear in this story, That God
made a promise that everyone thought was stupid and
ridiculous and impossible. And Sarah at least had the
courage to respond to that promise authentically and
realistically in that way. Even if it was quiet, she was
laughing at it. But God did it.
God did what he promised. God always does what God
promises. God will always do what God
promises. And even if all of the
circumstances in front of us seem to deny the reality of that
promise, that either is saying, I don't care what God said, he
won't do it or he can't do it. This is one of the, this is one
of the, the, the number one arguments of atheists against
Christianity that that God has not fulfilled all his promises.
And there are lots of promises and prophecies about Jesus
himself that are not yet fulfilled, not the least of
which is be right back 2000 years.
I used to have a watch there and that gesture worked much better
than it does right. There we go, 2000 years.
That's where I live now. God is faithful and God is
powerful and God will keep his promises.
If God has promised it, God will do it.
And, and God has made promises. I go to prepare a place for you,
a dwelling place for you, he said to his followers, many of
whom had no place to live. If it were not true, I wouldn't
have told you. Jesus said, come to me, all you
who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.
I know a lot of people that I've worked very very hard and
labored under great toil and great burdens till the day they
died. I will return.
I will never leave you or forsake you.
I have been and will be king over this entire universe.
My Kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.
When? I don't know.
Since I was a little kid, I've
had preachers and, you know, on TV and other places telling me
it's almost here. It's all the prophecies, the
signs are fulfilled. There's birds in Israel and
there's war and it's just be. And we don't know.
It might be in 10 minutes, it might not be for another 2000
years. We don't know, but as people of
faith, we don't have to know when we don't have to know how.
All we are asked to do is believe that God will do what
God has promised he will do. And he one day will wipe away
every tear from every eye. And we'll all laugh together.
We'll all laugh together. If God has promised it, we will,
he will do it. So until then, let's be open to
the impossible. I I, there is this constant
tension in life. You know, we as parents, we know
we got to tell our kids often. Be realistic.
You know, I had very unrealistic expectations at Christmas time
every year because I believe Santa could make anything in his
shop. Couldn't understand why I didn't
get what was on my list. What's holding Santa back?
He can make socks. Why can't he make me?
ATVI don't understand. We got to teach our Yeah, and
I'm naughty. Let's.
We're going to leave that part aside for now.
Never even thought of maybe I was on the naughty list.
That didn't occur to me. So we, we, we at some level, we
teach, we teach our kids to be realistic, to temper
expectations and at the same time, at the same, and, and
that's important and that's valuable and that's necessary.
And at the same time, we have to cultivate within ourselves, if
within our kids, the capacity to be open to the impossible that
that God can do anything. I've spent a lot of time working
with kids and youth. I've heard the number of kids
that I have met that are going to be professional athletes is
extraordinary. And I don't want to crush
anyone's dream. God can do anything that God
wants to do. I always tell them have a Plan
B. I have a Plan B.
So I don't want to stomp on anyone's dreams.
But the number of times when God calls his people to do a thing
and the response is simply I can't do that.
I can't do that. That's impossible.
I don't have the influence. I don't have the wealth, I don't
have the money. I don't have the opportunity.
I don't have the time. I don't have.
We don't have. We can't.
We can't.
What's God calling us to do? What has God promised us?
Be open to the impossible. Trust in God's promise even when
it seems impossible and way overdue.
And then we can be igniters of joy by giving the gift of God's
impossible love, forgiveness and adequacy to others.
Here's one of the things that a lot of people, there's a lot of
things that people believe are impossible, that that they're
lovable, that they'll ever have anyone in their life that will
simply love them for who they are, not what they can do or
accomplish. That they can be forgiven that
the wrong that they've done the shameful thing or things that's
in their past, that it can be forgiven, it can be washed away.
It can be made so that their life is almost like it never
happened. A lot of people cannot believe
that they are adequate to the tasks that are in front of them.
If you spend time on social media today, there is an awful
lot of despair and dread about the future right now.
There's a lot of reason for that.
And I'm not going to get into all of the politics that behind
that's behind it. But when when everyone's
screaming about all of the disasters that are going to come
if they don't get their way and no one's people are, it's one of
the first generations, at least in American history, that has a
gloomy outlook for the future. That the future looks
impossible, that they're not adequate to it.
I'll never have enough money to own a home.
I'll never be able to afford an education.
I won't be able to afford the healthcare for the people that I
love. I can't raise a kid and make
them feel safe and loved and welcome and whole.
In this world, there are a lot of things that people believe
are impossible, but because we can believe in the impossible,
we can say to whoever, whenever, wherever, you can be forgiven.
You can be forgiven. You are loved.
I'll show you that. God can love you because I'll
love you. And if I can love you, God can
love you even more. And you are adequate.
With God, nothing is impossible. And no, we're not adequate,
maybe on our own, but you can take the next step.
You can trust in God. You can walk into the future
without knowing how the bills are going to be paid or where
the money's going to come from or where you'll find the energy
and the strength to do these things.
But just take the next step, do the next thing and trust in God
along the way. And God, God says that with His
Spirit in you, there is nothing you can't do.
That doesn't mean we can't take that hyper literally.
I will never be an opera singer or an NFL player.
Not going to happen. Not going to happen.
Good news is, that's not what God wants me to be.
I'm really glad that's not what God wants me to be.
Whatever God has called you to, whatever life God has put in
front of you, God will give you whatever you need to do and be
to live that life. And so we can face tomorrow with
hope and expectation because God has not brought us this far to
leave us. And that's true as individuals.
It's true as a society, it's true as a people, it's true as a
church. God has not brought the world
and the universe this far to wash his hands and be done with
it. God will do what God has
promised for the world and for us and for the people that we
meet. And by the grace of God, we
could ignite that joy in the people around us.
Nelson Mandela, I think, might be one of the greatest examples
of this kind of living that there is.
He spent 27 years in prison, 27 years.
And for most of that time he experienced horrible abuse and
deprivation. I'm and I'm forgetting there was
an I just just a reminder and I can't remember the island where
the prison was. Spent most of that 27 years
there with inadequate food, inadequate shelter, inadequate
clothing, often in solitary confinement, cut off from the
outside world. Allowed one guest and one letter
every six months. Made to sleep on a cold stone
floor with nothing but a thin straw mat.
Did hard labour in in quarries, quarrying limestone without
adequate protection that permanently damaged his lungs
and his vision. 27 years in prison and and during that time,
somehow, by the grace of God, did you know he was a Methodist?
There's something a lot of people don't know.
Nelson Mandela was a Methodist. He grew up a Methodist, raised
in the Methodist Church. We learned the grace and hope
and trust and power of God and, and during that time, he never
gave up hope. He even when guards were abusive
to him, he refused to be abusive back.
He treated them with dignity. He treated them respect.
He treated his fellow prisoners in the same way.
He took law classes. He he taught his fellow
prisoners how to live lives of dignity and respect and hope and
peace. In his book Long Walk to
Freedom, he had this to say. OOP, I closed that app boy,
messing up my timing here. I never lost hope that this
great transformation would occur.
His hope was the transformation of South African society from
horribly abusive, racially divided, dictatorial apartheid
in which he and everyone that looked like him was a second
class citizen at best. There have been that way for his
entire life and and it looked like there was no real hope or
possibility of change. But in prison for 27 years, I
never lost hope that this great transformation would occur, not
only because of the great heroes I've already cited, but because
of the courage of the ordinary men and women of my country.
I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is
mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another
person because of the color of his skin or his background or
his religion. People must learn to hate, And
if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.
For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its
opposite. You know what's impossible?
Someone to be imprisoned for 27 years as a political prisoner
and come out still believing that by the grace of God and God
eventually fulfilled that dream and that hope for Nelson
Mandela. Now here's the thing, if we, if
we follow God, if anyone decides to follow God for the laughs,
they are going to be sorely disappointed.
Much of the time when people come to me wanting to get
baptized, they often spend a good amount of time trying to
talk them out of it, or at least making it clear to them that
what they are committing to is not happy.
Happy joy, joy, life where everything hope and dream they
want is fulfilled. Our leader is described by the
Holy Scripture as a man of sorrows who experiences grief.
And how can we expect lives then, that are free from sorrow
and grief? But there are those times.
There are those moments when we see God's promises fulfilled in
our lives or in the world around us, and the joy just is
overwhelming. And we have the opportunity to
ignite that joy in others by sharing the impossible with
them. Hope, love, forgiveness,
adequacy, these are the promises that we have.
God can be funny sometimes. Because God can be funny, we can
laugh and help others to laugh as well.
In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.