God's Covenants--Abram & Sarai given 3-8-15

I don’t know about you, but the Sunday School education that I received never really said too much about humor or laughter in the Bible. That’s understandable. Most of us like to think of ourselves as taking our religion seriously. Levity in our faith, much less outright laughter in the Bible somehow seems rather suspiciously out of place. We assume that there’s no room in religion for humor--aside from the occasional joke or sermon illustration of course.

But these chapters of the Book of Genesis that tell of God's covenant with Abraham and Sarah fairly crackle with humor. Abraham laughs, Sarah laughs. Certainly the ancient Hebrew storytellers laughed and made puns and rude jokes, as they told and retold these stories again and again down through the centuries, until they were finally written down during the time of King David. 

It takes, if you think about it, a ridiculous amount of nerve to promise descendants to a ninety-nine year old man who is childless--except for one son born on the wrong side of the blanket. But it takes even more chutzpah to promise the old boy that he'll be the father of nations. Literally the father of both Jews and goyim, since the word for gentiles and nations is the same in Hebrew.

And this unlikely inheritance is not, mind you, to come through the illegitimate Ishmael--the son of Abram's concubine Hagar.  No, God the Eternal announces that it'll be the barren Sarai who shall be the mother of uncounted generations to come.

Can you imagine how that conversation must have gone?

"Ah, excuse me, Holy One. I just want to make sure I understand what you're telling me."

"Just call me El Shaddai."

"Right, El Shaddai. Anyway, are we talking about the same woman. Sarai?"

"Right, Sarai."

"My Sarai? The woman I'm married to? Little tiny woman about so high? Her?”

"Yes, Abram. You'll be the father of many gentile peoples and nations. And in fact I think we'll just change your name right now while we're thinking about it, to Abraham.  That's much more dignified don't you think? And like I said, your wife Sarai will be the mother of many gentile nations.  Sarai."

"I don't want to be a nag here, El. I just want to be clear. You mean my wife Sarai-- not Hagar my concubine. Sarai has white hair. Hagar is the younger one with the attitude. Come to think about it, they both have an attitude. We're talking about Sarai, right?"

"That's who I’m talking about--Sarai."

"Almighty One, I just want to be sure that I understand exactly what you're saying here. If I continue to follow your word in faith, you'll bless my line and make me the father of many nations, and my name-- my new name-- will be remembered for all generations."

"Don't forget the part about the pork."

"Oh, right, you mentioned that before. Don't eat pork. Okay. But I do enjoy an occasional ham sandwich...

“Can you say Pastrami, Abraham?

“ So if I continue to follow your word in faith, don’t eat pork…..”

"Don't forget the part about the circumcision."

"That part I was trying to forget. Okay. I follow you in faith all my life, circumcise all my male descendants and servants, and don't eat pork. And you'll bless my line and make me the father of many nations, and my new name--Abraham did you say?  My new name will be remembered for all generations.  Is that what you're telling me?"

"That's pretty much the gist of it."

"And all of this will happen through my wife Sarai. The woman I left Ur with."

"Right. Sarai shall be the mother of nations. Hey, and come to think of it, as names go Sarai doesn't have much of a ring to it, either. Let's change her name to Sarah"

"Ageless and Eternal One, I don't want to quibble, but... uh... Sarai, excuse me, Sarah is over ninety years old, for heavens sake!"

And at that point the sheer ludicrous-ness of the whole conversation must have hit Abraham. In the parallel version of the story found in the previous chapter--Genesis 17-- Abram literally falls down on his face to the ground. Not as an act of awe and worship.  No-- Abram was trying to hold in hysterical laughter.  Here in Genesis 18, we read that at that very same point in the conversation the eavesdropping Sarai lost her composure and actually laughed out loud. And I would venture a guess that Yahweh God must have been working to keep a straight face about then, as well.

It wasn't so much disbelief that made Abraham and Sarah laugh. It wasn't a denial of faith so much as an affirmation. Who here hasn't ever laughed for the sheer unexpected joy of a moment? Who here hasn't ever grinned in relief, or even surprise, at a much-desired, long-awaited gift finally received?  Who here has ever laughed, or at least smiled in pleasure at a half-forgotten promise suddenly remembered and honored?

After all, if anybody could pull off such a seemingly incredible, impossibly silly promise, it would have to be God.  The phrase "you've got to be kidding" can mean "no way", but it just as easily can mean "isn't that something".  God must have read old Abe's laughter that way as well. Anyway after everybody had wiped the tears out of their eyes, God moved right past, or right through Abraham's laughter to speak once more of the covenant.

"No. Seriously though, your wife Sarah shall indeed bear you a son. And you shall name him Isaac-- Laughter."  That very well might have started them all off again.

In his letter to the Roman church, the Apostle Paul took Abraham's laughter that way, too. Paul wrote that Abraham's faith wasn't weakened by the seeming ludicrous-ness of God's promise.  Despite the decrepitude of his good-as-dead, hundred year old body Abraham believed. Not even the barren-ness of Sarah's ninety year old womb was enough to put Abraham off his faith. In spite of the sheer, laughable implausibility of God's promise, Abraham believed.

It was preposterous of God to make such a promise, but God went right ahead and made it. It was preposterous for Abraham and Sarah to take the money they'd put aside for their retirement and go out and buy a baby carriage, but they went right ahead and did it. It was preposterous of Sarah and Abraham after so many years of waiting, hoping, praying, trying for an heir to believe God and keep on hoping against hope, but they did.

And God took their joyous laughter, their faith, their love, their hope, and reckoned it righteous, according to Paul. It was in the final analysis, the right way, the only possible way of responding to such a preposterously, ridiculously gracious Divine promise.

And that righteous belief was the real heart of Abraham and Sarah's covenant relationship with their Maker.  All of God's other promises pale before it. All of God's other promises to Abraham and Sarah were to be fulfilled, of course. The spiritual descendants of those two old people and their sons Ishmael and Isaac are indeed  considered to be the founding ancestors of Monotheism-- three great religions of humanity--Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The physical descendants of Abraham and Sarah did indeed find their promised land.  But their squabbles over it down through the centuries have made that last one a somewhat dubious gift.

The real gift was not the promise of heirs, or land, or even fame. The real gift was and is the covenant relationship of mutual love between us and our God. Here is humanity’s ultimate guarantee that life can worth living.  We can rejoice. Our faith can be real and deep and fruitful. Our existence can have meaning and purpose.

This profound understanding knows well the limits and failures of humankind. Yet it has been gripped by the amazing faith that we human beings--in all our sin and weakness--are never-the-less under-girded and supported by the infinite love of our God. 

And so we can live our lives joyfully and confidently.

Not confident in ourselves. (It’s not like we have so much to be confident in.) An amazingly high amount of the work of modern counselors is around the issue of self-esteem—confidence in ourselves.  That’s because you and I know that one way or another, we are all at bottom, fallible. Sooner or later  humanity will drop the ball, bail out, flop, goof up. 

But we can be completely and utterly confident in God. In fact, the good news is that you and I can’t afford not to be confident about our place in this life. Not when we exist in loving relationship with the Source of life, the One who is greater than all that is. Our ultimate confidence is in God.

It's a relationship—a confidence that we see again and again throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. It only begins with Abraham and Sarah. Down through the ages, the Biblical mind and heart has reached up, out, inwardly-- to transcendent, immanent, ultimate Reality. The faith of Israel and of Jesus, instinctively knows that the deepest springs of life are not buried in the shallow grave of our finite human existence, but in the utter unlimited nature of God.

God is. God enters into relationship with human souls. All that is worthwhile and inspiring and good comes to humanity as a gift from God. That inheritance is the very essence of Biblical religion.  That is our inheritance of faith as well.

Notice that the relationship between God and humanity was not initiated by Sarah and Abraham, but by Yahweh God. Religion is not a human notion. Religion is not a matter of us pathetic mortals wishing for the Ultimate-- and maybe receiving an answer.

On the contrary, Religion is God moving toward humanity. The bond between us and our Maker is the eternal assurance of God's own Divine Purpose. Great religious experience is always under-girded by the certainty that our spirits will not go out of this life into an empty cosmos. The heart of our faith is that the Maker and Ruler of the Universes has entered into our world, entered into our spirits, and spoken words of love and assurance to us. How can we not believe even the most unlikely promises—when they come to us from God?

And as that gracious gift of faith comes to us from our God, we need to recall that it also God-- and God alone, to whom we must look for its implementation.  We haman beings are always ready to pontificate what God thinks, or what God wants, or what God does. But how ready we are to stop and simply listen for what God is trying to say to us? How ready are we to actually stop talking, and honestly ask , honestly listen, and simply wait to hear God's Will in prayer?

There's a story that tells of the time Abraham Lincoln was approached by a self-confident delegation that wanted something or other from him. There was no need to hesitate or worry about the decision, they assured the President.  They had prayed about it and they knew that God was on their side.

"I am not so much concerned to ask whether God is on my side," replied Lincoln. "What I am concerned with is to try to be sure that I am on God's side."

On God’s side, conventional wisdom is turned upside down.  Old women bear babies, young boys slay giants with slingshots, dry bones dance, empires rise and fall, the enslaved are freed, women vote, peoples and nations are liberated by non-violence, and men walk on the moon. On God’s side our nation has been so transformed that a Mormon is competing with a radical evangelical, a libertarian senior citizen and a twice divorced lobbyist  to run against an African-American for our nation’s highest office. Who’d have even believed that to be possible-- even ten years ago?

The Presence and power of God makes the laughable possible.  “In a world where carpenters get resurrected, everything is possible.”   says Eleanor in James Goldman’s play, The Lion in Winter.

So why should you and I think it ludicrous that an unexpectedly decimated church can be revitalized by the work of the Spirit in our hearts?  That’s God’s side, too.

God’s side--the covenant of faith that God offered to Abraham and Sarah, and offers to you and to me makes all other covenants subordinate and some other covenants unthinkable.

In ancient Israel, just as in our world today, there have always been those who thought that the latest shifting political alliances, that the most expensive high tech weapon systems, that the neatest toys would help them to survive, help them to get through life, help them to prevail over their neighbor.

There have never been enough people who sought to be on God’s side. There have never been enough who understood that the secret to successful, joyous living is not "I got mine and the hell with you, Jack." There have never been enough Christians committed to listen for God’s call and follow it—no matter how laughable or unlikely that call seemed to be. .

There have never been enough of God’s children who understood that the truest path of life and faith and peace of mind is to hold on tight to integrity, to commit to peace-making, to open our hearts to compassion for the brother or sister in need, to open our minds to God’s Will,  and to open our spirits to laughter, and  to joy and awe before our Creator.

. "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength", said the prophet Isaiah. In every age, there have been those who have dared to hope against hope and believe even in the preposterous. In every time and every age, there have been those who kept faith with the best that they believed, and have found in return, that God would not fail them.

And in fact, they have found that in ways they never could have predicted or expected, that God would be their strength, and the Source of blessings that were literally laughable in their sheer, preposterous extravagance. So can we.                 Amen