Genesis
18:1-15
June
14, 2026
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.”
************************************************
There are solemn moments when for
some reason somebody starts giggling. The
more they try, the harder it is to stop.
That has even influenced how the Bible has been translated. There’s a part of II Corinthians where Paul writes
about the trials he has come through and the physical punishments that were
inflicted on him. He tells of being given thirty-nine lashes five different times
and being beaten with rods three times. In
the Revised Standard Version, published in 1946, he goes on to say how he had
survived the same kind of brutality that had killed Stephen, the first
Christian martyr. Says Paul:
“One
time I was stoned.” [II Corinthians 11:25]
That made
enough teenagers giggle in the 1960’s and 1970’s that when the New Revised
Standard Version was published in 1989, the words had turned into
“Once
I received a stoning.”
Sarah
found herself in one of those situations because she overheard the promise,
solemnly propagated to Abraham, that they would soon have a son, and she found
even the thought so silly that it was laughable. The Bible politely puts it,
“Abraham
and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the
manner of women” [Genesis
18:11]
Sarah was
a little bit earthier than that.
“Sarah
laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old,
shall I be fruitful?’"
[Genesis 18:12]
Of course,
the mysterious visitor called her out on that.
And, of course,
“Sarah
denied, saying, "I did not laugh," for she was afraid. He said, ‘Yes,
you did laugh.’" [Genesis
18:15]
It
was a “gotcha” moment. She wouldn’t want
to offend a guest by implying he must be crazy – but come on! Still, she got ahold of herself and must have
stifled the chuckling somehow.
It
wasn’t forgotten, though. In a section
of the story that we didn’t hear this morning, we learn the outcome:
“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.” [Genesis
21:1-3]
The word “Isaac”
means “laughter”. So you could say that
God let her have the last laugh.
It is alright, in fact it is more
than alright, to find joy in what God does.
If that joy bursts out in laughter, that’s fine. Yes, laughter can sometimes be bitter. Sometimes it can be meanspirited. I’m not talking about those. I’m talking about the times when it arises as
an aspect of gratitude and of surprise at just how wonderful God can be. Laughter, like song, can be a genuine, heartfelt
expression of praise – and no genuine expression of wonder at God’s goodness
and care (let’s use the word “praise”) should never be undervalued.
We have to learn that, though – at least
some of us. Sarah was living in a world
where women were supposed to keep their thoughts to themselves. We live in a world with its own rules of
decorum that find their way even into our spiritual lives. C.S. Lewis wrote,
“When I
first began to draw near to belief in God, and even for some time after it had
been given to me, I found a stumbling block in the demand so clamorously made
by all religious people that we should ‘praise’ God; still more in the
suggestion that God himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demands
continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness; we
despise still more the crowd of people round every dictator, every millionaire,
every celebrity, who gratifies that demand. Thus a picture, at once ludicrous
and horrible, both of God and of his worshipers, threatened to appear in my
mind. The psalms were specially troublesome in this way – ‘praise the Lord’, ‘O
praise the Lord with me’, ‘O praise him.’ (And why, incidentally, did praising
God so often consist of telling other people to praise him? Even in telling
whales, snowstorms, etc. to go on doing what they would certainly do whether we
told them or not?)” …
He
continued,
“But the
most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escaped
me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour.
I have never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise
unless (sometimes even if) shyness with the fear of boring others is
deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise – lovers
praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the
countryside, players praising their favorite game – praise of weather, wines,
dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical percentages,
children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes
politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same
time, most balanced and capacious, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and
malcontents praised least.”[1]
Sarah laughed. Maybe it was inappropriate but it was
real. Maybe it was out of line from someone
whose place was to wait silently behind the tent flap until it was time to
serve dinner. God was challenging her
reality, announcing that her troubles would be over in an unlikely way. It was funny.
But it was even funnier that it was true. She would give birth – at her age! – to a son
and his name itself would be a reminder of God’s faithfulness to her and to
everyone.
Praise
the Lord, then, however you do it, for his unexpected miracles of grace. Praise God for the shade of an oak tree on a
hot day. Praise him for strangers
passing by and for those who offer hospitality.
Praise God for solemn messages of joy or oddly deadpan delivery of good
news. Praise him for late-life pregnancies. Praise him for safe deliveries.
While
we’re at it, praise God for his own Son, born in a yet more miraculous way than
Isaac was, and for the rebirth that was his resurrection. Praise him for the chance he gives us all to
be born of his Spirit and to know the freedom that lets us laugh and the joy
that makes us sing and clap because we’ve seen for ourselves that “His
steadfast love endures forever.”
Amen.
[1] C.S. Lewis, “Reflections on the Psalms: ‘A Word about Praising’” in The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis (New York: Inspirational Press, 1987), pp. 177 and 179.
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