Sermon by Herman Kauffman
Turkey Creek Church of the Brethren
June 16, 2002
WHY DID SARAH LAUGH?
Genesis 18:1-15
The Bible has some fascinating stories to tell. This story, however, is one of my favorites. Abraham, often called the Father of the Faith, is the central character of the stories found in Genesis 12-25 while wife Sarah is most often in the background. Nevertheless, I find Sarah to be a most intriguing character in this story, even though much is left to our imagination.
The story begins in the 12th chapter when Abram is called by God to leave his ancestral home to go to an unknown land. Have you ever wondered about the conversation that took place between Abram and Sarah when Abram returned home to inform Sarah that God had called him - at the age of 75 - to pack up everything and head into the unknown? In my imagination, the conversation may have gone like this:
Abram: Sarah, dear, I'm home.... Sarah? Sarah? Sarah!
Sarah: Yes, Abram...I'm out back patching the hole in the tent! Were you successful in finding new pasture with fresh water for the sheep and cattle?
Abram: Yes ... but that can wait. I've got the most exciting news to tell you. God spoke to me!
Sarah: That's nice. Which God was it? The Sun God or the Rain God or ... maybe the God of Fertility???
Abram: No, No, Sarah! The One God - The LORD! The LORD told me to leave this place and move to a new land, and ...
Sarah: Move! Did you say move? O no, not again! Abram, I really wish we could just settle down in one place for a while. At my age, it's getting to be too much work to pack up this tent and move all the time.
Abram: At your age? Why, Sarah, you're only 65!
Sarah: And where is it that we're going this time, Abram? Back towards Ur or east towards Eden or on to Bethel? How far, Abram, how far?
Abram: Uh ... well ... I'm not sure ...
Sarah: What do you mean you're not sure! You want me to leave this place - the best place we've lived in nearly 50 years of marriage - and you don't even know where we're going!? Abram, I think you're getting senile in your 75th year!
Somehow, though we don't know exactly how, Abram managed to convince Sarah that they should accept God's call and move to a new land that God would show them. But Abram still had the best part of God's promise to share with Sarah:
Abram: Sarah, dear, there's more. The LORD told me that I will have many descendants, and they will become a great nation!
Sarah: O Abram, now I know you've been out in the hot sun too long. We have no children. For 50 years we've wanted a child, but ... O Abram, you know I can't have children!
Abram: I know, Sarah, but maybe now ... God promised, Sarah!
The years that follow are full - they move to Canaan but a famine forces them to go to Egypt. While in Egypt, Abram tries to pass Sarah off as his sister to the King in return for special favors, and they barely escape alive. Then, back in Canaan, Abram and Lot have a big quarrel and go their separate ways. Meanwhile, it looks like Sarah was right - there are still no children 10 years after God's promise.
Sarah is worried about Abram. His whole life is centered around God's promise that he will have many descendants and become the father of a great nation. Finally, Sarah arrives at an answer - if she can't give Abram a child, why not let him father a child with Hagar, her maid, ... and so at the age of 86 Abram becomes a father.
The scriptures do not describe Abram's feelings at this point but they do tell us that Sarah became jealous and angry and treats Hagar so cruelly that Hagar takes her son, Ishmael, and runs away into the desert.
Running away from a problem situation may seem the best way out for many of us, but it's never been God's way. God intervenes to say, "You've created a bad situation here but you're going to have to live with it." Then God renews the promise to Abraham and Sarah - they will have a child - an heir to the promise - and from this child will come many descendants to form a great nation.
The years continue to fly by - Abraham is 99 years old, Sarah is 89, and they still have no child. Abraham suggests to God that, maybe under the circumstances, Ishmael (who is now 13 and a teenager) be considered the fulfillment of God's promise. But God says NO! "You're wife Sarah will bear you a son. I will bless her, and she will become the mother of nations...."
We've all heard of miracles and none of us wants to say that God can't do something, but I wonder how many of us would tend to be like Abraham and Sarah - ready to give up on God! Perhaps at the age of 89, Sarah is not exactly sure she wants to take on the responsibilities of motherhood - even if it were possible.
Which brings us to this interesting story in the 18th chapter of Genesis. "The LORD appeared to Abraham at the sacred trees of Mamre." This is the storyteller's way of letting us in on a secret that Abraham and Sarah to not discover until later - the secret that it is the LORD who comes to visit in their home (or rather, their tent). Keeping this insight in mind, let's listen to the story again, this time from Sarah's point of view:
I was in the tent scrubbing the floor ( a woman's work is never done they say, especially in a tent with dirt floors). Abraham was relaxing under a shade tree in front of the tent, when suddenly three strangers appear out of nowhere. It was a very hot day, and I heard Abraham invite the vistors to rest under the shade tree while he went for some cool water and a bit of food.
Abraham rushes into the tent and asks if I would mind doing some baking!?!
It was too hot for baking, but I agreed knowing how much it would mean to Abraham. You see, we didn't get many guests out in the desert and Abraham felt obligated to be a good host when someone did stop by.
When the meal was ready, Abraham took it out to our guests while I stayed behind in the tent to clean up and rest ... well, actually, I was sitting behind the door hoping to eavesdrop on their conversation ... and, wow, did I catch an earful! One of the vistors said to Abraham: "In nine months ... your wife Sarah will give birth to your son."
Why, I tell you, I nearly fell off my chair! I was laughing so hard to myself and trying not to be heard. Me, a 90-year-old woman, have a child! And where had I heard that before?
And the more I thought about it, the louder I laughed - it was uncontrollable and my laughter carried outside the tent. And then I heard the same voice ask Abraham: "Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too hard for the LORD?"
We leave the story now, for a moment, to reflect on these two questions.
Why did Sarah laugh?
I suspect her age had something to do with it. She was past the age of child-bearing, but I suspect there were other reasons for her
laughter, as well. It may have been nervous laughter - why was this stranger so insistent, so sure, that she would have a child? And
why did God keep promising a child which never came? Was she the only one who could not believe in what God had promised?
Oh, and one more reason. For 70 years Sarah had wanted to be a mother - to feel new life growing in her womb; to hold in her arms the child born out of her love for Abraham; to see her own beautiful baby; to hear his cries and coos and babbles; to experience the joy of motherhood. This had been her hope, her life-long dream, her deepest wish.
Why did Sarah laugh? Perhaps only a mother can understand or one who has hoped for something they had long-since given up hope of receiving.
The second question: Is anything too hard for the LORD?
If we believe that God created the world ....
If we believe that God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to forgive us and show us how to live and love one another ...
If we believe that God is still in control ...
.... Is anything too hard for the LORD?
Is it too hard to believe that God can help persons today resist the evils of alcohol and drugs and child abuse?
Is it too hard to believe that God can help couples reconcile their marital and family problems?
Is it too hard to believe that God will be with us in our older years when our memories fail and our minds play tricks on us?
... Is anything too hard for the LORD?
Is it too hard to believe that God loves us enough to be patient with us even as we struggle with our faith questions?
Is it too hard to believe that the strength of God's protective power is greater than all the world's terrorists and evil doers?
Is it too hard to believe that God who fulfill the promise to Abraham and Sarah of the child they wanted so badly?
Is anything too hard for the LORD?
Like you and I, Abraham and Sarah would never come right out and say: "God, you can't do it!" But they must have had their doubts. They must have asked themselves: "Why hasn't God acted and kept his promise?" "Where is God when I am crying out for help?" "Why doesn't God explain this delay?" "Why? Why? Why?"
And then (jumping ahead to chapter 21) it happened! One morning Sarah woke up with morning sickness! She kept it to herself for a time, until she was sure, and then in one electrifying moment she whispered to Abraham: "We're going to have a baby!" Wouldn't you have liked to have been there to see the look on Abraham's face? I know I would.
The months go by ... the morning sickness ends and the strange food cravings begin ... the body expands until one day Sarah feels the baby kicking within her ... and finally, right on schedule - God's schedule, that is - a son is born! Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah is 90. Is anything too hard for the LORD?
Listen! It's the sound of laughter! Why is Sarah laughing? This is a different laugh - the laugh of joy and happiness, the laugh of relief and celebration! And Sarah says: "God has brought me joy and laughter. Everyone who hears about it will laugh with me." And Abraham and Sarah name their son "Isaac" - which in the Hebrew means laughter!
Today as yesterday, the sound of laughter may not always mean the same thing. There are times when our laughter is merely a
means to hide our fears or to cover up our lack of faith. And yet, there are other times when laughter reflects our joy and flows
forth in a spirit of celebration. Sometimes it is difficult for us to understand what the laughter means ... but God understands.
God looks deep within our soul and sees our fears, our desires; God listens to our cries of despair and our songs of praise; and
God cares! There is nothing in our lives too hard for God's caring.
We may not always understand the ways of God.
We may live with the fear of the known and the unknown.
We may become frustrated when God seemingly does not act
in the way or by the time schedule we would choose.
We may at times even laugh at God's promises,
we may even give up on God.
But let us remember and affirm today that God cares for us and
will never forget the Promises that have been made to us. Amen.