Real Joy and the Laughing Woman

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Good morning, Christchurch. My name is Carrie Moulton, and I'm a member of the Welcome Team.

And today's reading is from the book of Genesis, chapter 18, verses 1 through 15, and chapter 21, verses 1 through 7.

Genesis 18:1–15

A reading from the book of Genesis.

The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.

Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby.

When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

He said,

If I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, do not pass by your servant.

Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree.

Let me get you something to eat so you can be refreshed and go on your way, now that you have come to your servant.

Very well, they answered.

Do as you say.

So Abraham hurried to the tent to Sarah.

Quick, he said, get three sias of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.

Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice tender calf and gave it to a servant who hurried to prepare it.

He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before them.

While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

Where is your wife Sarah, they asked him.

There in the tent, he said.

Then one of them said,

I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife, will have a son.

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.

Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.

So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought,

After I am worn out and my Lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?

Then the Lord said to Abraham,

Why did Sarah laugh and say,

Will I really have a child now that I am old?

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.

Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said,

I did not laugh.

But he said,

Yes, you did laugh.

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah, as he had said,

and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age,

at the very time God had promised him.

Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.

When his son Isaac was eight days old,

Abraham circumcised him as God commanded him.

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Sarah said,

God has brought me laughter,

and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.

And she added,

Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?

Yet I have born him a son in his old age.

The grass withers and the flowers fade,

but the word of our God stands forever.

Good morning, Christ Church.

When we first moved here about 20 years ago to Berkeley to start this church,

I read a book by Bill Bryson.

Anybody read Bill Bryson?

Phenomenal writer.

He wrote a book around that time called A Short History of Nearly Everything.

And I thought maybe this will help me as I'm preparing to be a pastor here in Berkeley.

And he said this.

He said,

It appears that if you wish to have a planet suitable for life,

you have to be just awfully lucky.

And the more advanced the life, the luckier you have to be.

We are to an almost uncanny degree,

the right distance from the right sort of star.

One that is big enough to radiate lots of energy,

but not so big as to burn itself out swiftly.

We are also fortunate to orbit where we do.

Too much nearer and everything on earth would have boiled away,

much farther away,

and everything would have frozen.

And what he's talking about there is that we live in a Goldilocks universe.

We live in a Goldilocks solar system.

It's not too big.

It's not too small.

Not too hot.

Not too cold.

Everything is just right.

And the Christian interpretation of that data

is that we're neither lucky nor fortunate,

but rather that we have someone above us to thank.

And, you know, when we explore this first and foundational book of the Bible,

and we meet this God in Genesis 1 and 2,

this God who said,

Fiat Lux.

Go Bears.

Fiat Lux.

Let there be light and bang.

There was light.

And this God who said,

let there be a fine-tuned universe

with physical constants that are precisely calibrated

within an incredibly narrow range

so as to make the existence of life possible.

Let there be DNA.

Let there be this double helix structure

that encodes the biological information

and instructions for making you, you.

And let there be within that DNA

all the incredible things that would make for the human eye

and all of its brilliant complexity

and all the human hand

and its functional sophistication.

You see, the creator God of Genesis 1 and 2

who made this massive universe we live in

and these marvelous bodies that we inhabit

and who formed us in His image

and breathed life into us,

as Andrew prayed a minute ago,

He's the same Redeemer God

of the rest of Genesis,

from Genesis to Revelation,

that, in other words,

the maker of heaven and earth

is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

And from these people

that God has put Himself in a relationship with

will come Israel's Messiah

and the world's true Lord

through whom salvation will come into the world

and He'll remake reality

into a new heavens and a new earth.

He'll resurrect our bodies.

He'll grant us new and everlasting life

in this new space, time, and matter universe.

And we need to hold on to that big picture

and this sweeping grand metanarrative

when we, anytime we dive into the details

of a text like this,

the details of Abraham and Sarah

and this life of faith

that God is inviting them to journey into today.

And as we dive into this,

I want us to think about a couple things,

three things, as always.

I want us to think about God's power

and God's grace and God's Son.

God's power, God's grace, and God's Son.

Now, I need your help today

because I didn't get my day off this week

and had to spend it all day Friday

with a bunch of Presbyterians.

So, I'm sort of riding on your enthusiasm

and your intentiveness today.

This will rise and fall

on what you bring to the sermon.

So, we're going to talk, first of all,

about God's power.

Okay?

And in verse, chapter 18,

we can see here that Abraham

is a typical ancient Near Eastern Bedouin.

He's living in a intense,

this semi-nomadic life

with his family and his flocks

in this harsh desert conditions.

There's no police force.

There's no justice system.

There's no hospital or urgent care.

There's no Trader Joe's.

And these three visitors,

these three travelers come to Abraham

and he has no idea who they are.

We do as readers.

We're told in verse 1,

but Abraham doesn't have a clue.

The only thing he knows

is that these are three guests

in these same harsh desert conditions

who are in need of welcome

and in need of hospitality.

Now, we all know that xenophobia,

the definition of xenophobia

is the fear of strangers

and that it's opposite.

Xenophilia is the love of strangers.

And in Abraham's day,

it was your highest duty.

It was a sacred virtue

to practice xenophilia,

to lavish hospitality

on guests and strangers,

to roll out the red carpet

for people you didn't know

to make them feel at home and at rest.

And these guests received from Abraham

this warm, gracious, royal welcome.

Now, just pause as an aside right here

to say that part of the mission

of God's church

in the midst of this epidemic

of loneliness

that we're living through

and the erosion

of all of our communities of trust.

What we want to do

and what we want to be

is like Abraham

where when guests arrive,

we hurry over to them

and we speak with them.

Right?

And you don't have to do like Abraham.

You don't have to bow down on the ground.

You know,

a warm smile,

a friendly handshake will do.

But Abraham

assesses the needs of these guests

and he says,

you know,

what would honor them?

What would make them feel refreshed?

And again,

you don't have to go bake bread

or wash their feet

or barbecue some choice meat.

You just have to say,

hey,

what are you doing for lunch today?

Hey,

you want to come to our coffee hour?

I want to invite you

to my table

and I want to invite you

into my life.

Again,

Abraham has no idea

who this is.

He just gives them a welcome

that's fit

for God himself.

And the book of Hebrews

in the New Testament says,

do not forget to show

hospitality to strangers

for by so doing,

some people have shown

hospitality to angels

without knowing it.

A direct reference

to our text today.

So it's not immediately apparent

who this is,

but we're told in verse 1

it's the Lord

and we're told in verse 13

that the Lord is the one

who's speaking.

So it's clear that this is Yahweh

and these are his two

angelic messengers

that he's brought with him

and why has he come?

Well,

look at verse 9.

It says,

where is your wife Sarah?

There in the tent,

he said.

And then the Lord said,

I will surely return to you

about this time next year

and Sarah your wife

will have a son.

Now Sarah was listening

at the entrance to the tent

which was behind him.

Abraham and Sarah

were already very old

and Sarah was past

the age of childbearing

so Sarah laughed to herself

as she thought,

after I am worn out

and my Lord is old

will I now have this pleasure?

We've seen the Lord

come for Abraham

the past few weeks.

But in this text,

the Lord doesn't come

for Abraham,

he comes for Sarah.

And we said last week,

this is remarkable

because in ancient

Near Eastern literature,

women hardly exist.

But in the Bible,

the first book of the Bible,

they're part of the main

cast of characters

from Eve to Hagar

to Sarah to Rebecca

and Rachel and Leah.

You get into Exodus,

Shipra, Puah, Miriam.

It's astounding.

And the Lord doesn't come

to talk to Abraham.

He's sort of talking

through Abraham at points

because he wants

a personal relationship

with Sarah.

Verse 9,

where's Sarah?

Verse 10,

he knows that Sarah's

listening at the entrance

of the tent

so he speaks a word

to her

and she becomes

the focus

of his attention

for the rest

of the text.

What we know so far

is that God

has called Abraham,

he's made promises

to Abraham,

Genesis 12,

Genesis 15.

Sarah knows

this information

but the question is

where is she

with the Lord?

Does she know

the Lord?

Has she come

to lean the full weight

of her trust

on the Lord?

Because the scriptures

tell us it's not

good enough

to just know

the Lord

through other people

and everything

she knows so far

is through her husband

Abraham.

The question here is

Sarah knows

about the Lord

but does she know

the Lord?

Has she had

her own personal

encounter and experience

with the Lord?

Now I've been a pastor

long enough

to see many girlfriends

and wives drag guys

to church

and many parents

drag their kids

to church

and I've seen it

work in the opposite

direction.

Kids sometimes drag

their parents to church

and guys sometimes

drag their significant

others to church

but what matters

is have you met

the Lord?

Do you realize

that he's seeking you?

Do you realize

that he knows

your name?

Where's Sarah?

The Lord

it's interesting

he comes into her life

in such a different way

than he came into

Abraham's life

because if you remember

back to Genesis 15

the Lord

appeared to Abraham

in this super dramatic way

in the darkness

God is this

you know

this smoking pot

and fiery torch

sort of image of God

and he's walking

through these broken bodies

and all this shed blood

and you know

how does

how does God come

to Sarah here?

Totally different

he comes in the middle

of the day

he comes in

in such a personal

such a familiar

such an accessible

and approachable

way

that they don't even know

it's him

for like most of the time

and if you compare

Genesis 15

with Genesis 18

you can see

that the Lord

comes into our lives

in a variety

of different ways

sometimes dramatic

and sometimes

just natural

and normal

sometimes suddenly

and a lot of times

gradually

sometimes it's super obvious

sometimes it's just

so subtle

but he's a

he's a God

of both infinity

and intimacy

right

and we've got to be careful

we don't make one

of those two

more normative

than the other

we've got to be careful

not to try to emulate

someone else's experience

of God

or not to project

our own experience

of God

onto other people

and say

well you're not

a real

spiritual person

you're not a real

Christian

unless you've encountered

God in the way

that I have

it's clear that

the Lord wants

a personal

and direct relationship

with Sarah

and notice how

he gets her attention

he says

where's Sarah

and she must be

thinking to herself

okay how does

this stranger

whom I've never met

know my name

and then

verse 10 says

the Lord said

I will surely return

to you about this time

next year

and Sarah your wife

will have a son

now the Lord knows

Sarah's listening

and the Lord also knows

that Sarah's had a lifetime

of infertility

and barrenness

the Lord knows

that now she's 90 years old

she's well past

the age of menopause

Abraham's 100 years old

the Lord knows

that conception

is impossible

for this couple

that's well beyond

childbearing age

the Lord knows

that even if

conception were possible

a safe delivery

a healthy birth

would be out of the question

the Lord knows

that this couple

is procreatively dead

and that it would take

a divine intervention

it would take

a supernatural work

of almighty God

for them to have

a child

and so the Lord

reiterates

his word

and his promise

knowing how ridiculous

it sounds

knowing how impossible

it seems

to see

how she'll respond

and verse 12

says that

Sarah laughed

to herself

as she thought

after I'm worn out

and my Lord is old

will I now have

this pleasure

have any of you

ever laughed

at God

you ever laughed

at his word

you ever laughed

at the promises

that he's made

Sarah was not

the first person

to laugh at God

if you go back

to Genesis 17

God tells Abraham

he says

your wife Sarah

will be the mother

of nations

and kings of peoples

will come

from her

and the text says

that Abraham

fell face down

laughing

with incredulous

laughter

Abraham laughed

but the Lord

transformed

his unbelief

into belief

but Sarah's laugh

is an indicator

that Abraham's

not been able

to persuade her

not been able

to convince her

not been able

to win her

over the way

the Lord won him over

her laughter

means that

her interest

in the Lord's promise

the Lord's covenant

is not very deep

that her belief

in the Lord's power

the Lord's ability

is not very strong

and secure

at all

and that's why

he comes seeking her

where's Sarah

because he wants

to draw her

into this

relationship

of believing

participation

and establish her

in his promises

so how does this

apply

how do we apply

this to our lives

what does God

say to Sarah

listen

you little mortal

how dare you laugh

at me

the Lord

of the universe

no he says

in verse 14

he says

is anything too

hard

for the Lord

it's one of the

great verses

in the whole Bible

it's repeated

over and over

and that word

hard

that word

difficult

can also be

translated

wonderful

is there anything

too wonderful

for the Lord

the Psalms

use this

word all the time

if you read

the prayer book

of the Bible

you'll see

it says

it talks about

the God

who works wonders

and it says

be filled

with awe

at his wonders

tell of all

his wonders

praise his

wonderful person

praise his

wonderful works

and the question

is anything

too wonderful

for the Lord

reveals Sarah's

basic problem

it reveals

our basic problem

because her laughter

is a laughter

of incredulity

and skepticism

it's a laughter

that's devoid

of wonder

a laughter

that's devoid

of awe

and astonishment

and adoration

at the almighty

power

of the living

God

another place

this text

is repeated

is in the

prophet Jeremiah

the prophet

Jeremiah says

in Jeremiah 32

ah sovereign

Lord

you have made

the heavens

and the earth

by your great

power

and your

outstretched arm

nothing is too

hard

for you

now one of the

things I'm

fascinated by

and maybe

some of you

can come and

help me with this

after the service

but the James

Webb telescope

is sending back

information

and it's telling

us that there

are either

100 billion

or 400 billion

stars

in the Milky Way

galaxy alone

which is a big

difference

and a lot

of stars

and then it

says that

there's either

100 billion

or 200 trillion

galaxies

out there

and we know

that just our

star

our sun's

energy output

every second

is equivalent

to the explosion

of 91 billion

hydrogen bombs

right

we know

so much

more

about

the wonders

of God's

creation

and the

point here

is this

that if God

can create

all of this

if God

can make

this massive

universe

and these

marvelous

bodies

then he

obviously

does not

find things

difficult

or stressful

or overwhelming

or exhausting

the way

that you

and I

might

giving life

to the

procreatively

dead

becoming

incarnate

in the

womb

of a

virgin

dying

on a

cross

for the

sins

of the

whole

world

defeating

death

on the

third

day

regenerating

a sinner

like me

glorifying

a sinner

like you

it's not

a problem

for him

there are

no difficulties

there's no

barriers

there's no

opposition

that would

render him

impotent

or unable

to keep

his promises

and so what

the Lord is

doing is he's

seeking Sarah

and he's

challenging Sarah

and he's

converting

Sarah

from unbelief

to belief

in his

wonderful

power

and perhaps

he's asking

you the same

question

is there

anything

too

wonderful

for the

Lord

some of

you are

facing

big

things

difficult

things

but is

your God

too small

have you

put God

in a box

are you

imposing

unnecessary

limitations

on God's

power

is God

able to

do

beyond

what all

all that

you can

ask or

imagine

and where

is your

wonder

where

where's

your

awe

where's

your

astonishment

and adoration

of the

almighty

power

of the

living

God

he delights

in exercising

his power

to do

things that

are hard

and to

do things

that are

wonderful

and not

only can

he bring

about the

supernatural

birth

of this

promised

son

Isaac

but

he's

also

able

to affect

the

supernatural

rebirth

and conversion

of Sarah's

heart

and if he

did that

for her

man

he can

do it

for anyone

he can

do it

for you

he can

do it

for all

the people

in your

life

so

God's

God's

power

again

I was

with

Presbyterians

all day

on Friday

so

help

help a

brother

out

let's

talk about

God's

grace

the

Hebrew

name

that

Abraham

and Sarah

gave

to their

son

means

laughter

Isaac

laughter

and

if you

look at

chapter 21

verse 6

it says

Sarah said

God has

brought me

laughter

and everyone

who hears

about this

will laugh

with me

well wasn't

she already

laughing

well

I want

to

more closely

examine

the different

kinds

of laughter

here

because

in the

first

part

of the

story

Sarah's

laughing

with a

laughter

of

incredulity

and skepticism

but it's

clear by the

second part

of the

story

God has

transformed

her

laughter

into a

laughter

of belief

and a

laughter

of wonder

and how

do we

move

from one

kind of

laughter

to the

other

how did

that work

for Sarah

how

might it

work

for you

again

chapter 18

verse 12

so Sarah

laughed

and she

laughed to

herself

and she

thought

this

to

herself

she

thought

after I

am worn

out

and my

Lord is

old

will I

now have

this

pleasure

now what

is she

laughingly

thinking

to herself

she says

I am

worn

out

and that

word

means

I am

useless

I am

worthless

I am

good for

nothing

I am

a nobody

perhaps

you've

had that

thought

run through

your head

she says

will I

have

pleasure

will I

have

the

blessings

of

motherhood

see

after a

lifetime

of

barrenness

and

infertility

this

has

become

her

identity

her

core

self

is

defined

by

what

she

is

not

rather

than

by

what

she

is

and

a

life

of

long

disappointment

has

taught

her

this

unbelieving

hopelessness

and

despair

which

of course

she

doesn't

share

with

anyone

she

just

keeps

all

of

these

emotions

hidden

and

buried

in

her

head

and

in

her

heart

she

dares

not

laugh

out

loud

she

laughs

on

the

inside

to

herself

and

she

laughs

not only

because

God

is

unable

she

laughs

because

she

is

useless

and

she

has

this

strong

inner

critic

this

inner

voice

of

devastating

self

hatred

I'm

worthless

not only

disdaining

God

but deriding

herself

and too

many of

us

know

what

that

is

like

can

any

of you

relate

to

the

complexity

of

Sarah's

story

world

I

we

had

time

to

explore

it

together

but

how

does

the

Lord

respond

how

does

the

Lord

look

upon

us

and

relate

to

us

does

he

say

Sarah

great

point

you

are

you

are

spot

on

you

absolutely

are

nothing

you

are

worthless

you

are

useless

no

he

says

in

verse

13

the

Lord

said

to

Abraham

why

did

Sarah

laugh

and

say

well

I

have

old is anything too hard for the Lord. I will return to you at the appointed time next year

and Sarah will have a son. Now there's a mild rebuke in there because the Lord is astonished

at her unbelief and he's astonished when we fail to believe in him.

But it's a gentle rebuke because he knows he's asking us to believe big things and wonderful

things. And so he gives her this reassurance. He says, I'm going to come back to you because I'm

the Lord. I'm the Lord who's chosen you. I'm the Lord who has a plan for you. I'm the Lord who's

planned an entire timeline for your life. And so did Sarah respond and say, well, wow, what a relief.

Now I see myself as you see me. Now I trust in your trustworthiness. No. Verse 15 says,

Sarah was afraid so she lied and said, I did not laugh but he said, yes, you did laugh. And it's

like one of the most awkward, uncomfortable scenes in the whole Bible. Like the nervous laughter when

it was read is just telling. Somehow this mysterious stranger outside whom she cannot see is powerful

enough to read her mind and verbalize her innermost secret thoughts. And this means that whether you

like it or not, you're known. You're known. And does the Lord explode at her when she lies?

When she denies the truth and deceives? No, it's, the scriptures say that God's a wonderful counselor.

And he comes in this gentle way. I imagine him kind of smiling and putting his arm around

Sarah and saying, yeah, you did laugh. And he's not just speaking the truth and love to her as we

must do. Not just trying to hold her accountable for her words. Not just wanting his people to be

truth tellers. No, he's saying, I want you to acknowledge the wonderlessness of your laugh.

And somehow over the next 12 months, between Genesis 18 and Genesis 21, the Lord amazingly

transforms Sarah's laugh from that laughter of incredulity and bitterness and cynicism and despair

and hopelessness into a laughter of joy, a laughter of grace, a laughter of faith and wonder and hope.

And you can see it in chapter 21. In verse 1, it says, now the Lord was gracious. The Lord was

gracious to Sarah. And he said, and the Lord, the Lord did for Sarah what he'd promised. And Sarah

became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, the very time God had promised. And Abraham

gave the name Yitzhak. He laughs to the son that Sarah bore him. He's a God of grace.

He graciously gives the son of laughter to show Sarah that he's sovereignly in control.

And that his word is reliable. He does not make empty promises, but he makes gracious promises. And

then he faithfully fulfills those promises precisely as he said he would. And Sarah's response to this is

she breaks out into poetry to express her wonder and to express her joy at the grace of God, the grace

of what God has done for her. She says in verse 6, God has brought me laughter and everyone who hears

about this will laugh with me. And she added, who would have said that to Abraham that Sarah would

nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age. She says, who would have said that Sarah would

nurse children? She's looking beyond this singular child, Isaac, to children, to Isaac's children,

and to their children's children, and to the great nation that God had promised, and to the kings of

nations, the peoples that would come from her womb that would bless the whole world.

And she's inviting everyone who hears this story to contemplate the power and the grace of God.

God causes the laughter of incredulity to give way to the laughter of grace. And that God causes Sarah's

hopeless despair to be transformed into joyous praise. Now friends, again, how do we apply this to

our lives? Well, first of all, it's kind of a picture of when you become a Christian, right? When you become

a Christian, you get a new identity. You get a new self-image in the way that Sarah does here. She gets this

new joyful relationship with God. She says, God has brought me laughter. God has been so gracious to me.

But you also get this new joyful relationship with others. She says, when people hear the story of God's

gracious intervention and God's salvation in my life, they're going to laugh with me. I'm going to be part of a

community of laughter. And then she gets a new joyful relationship with herself. She who called herself

worthless? She says, who would have thought that my story would have turned out this way? And that's how

you feel when you become a Christian. You say, who would have thought that me, of all people, would be a

Christian? Amazing love. How can it be that thou, my God, should die for me? Joyful, joyful, we adore thee.

God of glory. God of glory, Lord of love. It's a new identity. But secondly, the second application is that

when you become a Christian, you get a new relationship with your failures. Right? Because the one time God

comes to Sarah, she laughs in his face. And it's like her one moment. It's her one moment. And she, it's

probably the greatest failure of her life. Right? And yet her son's name is what? Laughter. Right? From

now on, every time Abraham and Sarah say Isaac's name, they're going to remember that they laughed at God

in disbelief. But they're also going to remember that God always has the last laugh. That we do not live in

a tragedy. We live in a comedy. The child's name is a memorial to remind Sarah and Abraham both of

their faithlessness and of God's faithfulness. And you see, grace enables you to look upon your past

failures. It enables you to look at your bitter laughter in the face of God's promises and to realize

that he loves you. And that he accepts you in spite of all your failures. And then that the memory of

all of your past faithlessness shows you just how good and how gracious God really is. And that only

increases your gratitude to praise him more and more for his faithfulness. And then it in turn makes you

into a person who's humble and compassionate toward the failures of others. That's God's grace.

So, I'm running out of time. Blame the Presbyterians on Friday. But I do want to talk not only about

God's power and God's grace, but just close with a word on God's Son. And as we close, I want to caution

you against a particular way of interpreting the Bible. Because we can read this and we can say,

oh, okay, I got it. Sarah was old. She wanted something. She wanted a child. She believed. And

she got what she wanted. Therefore, if we really believe, if we pray, if we trust God who says,

is anything too hard or too wonderful for me, then we should expect all the impossible things to become

possible. And we should stop settling for less. We should have greater visions, greater, bigger goals.

We should ask God for amazing things. We should trust God for physical health and material wealth

and unbroken prosperity and happiness and success in a life that just goes up and to the right.

Anybody ever heard Christians suggest this? Well, I want to point out two things. First of all, that this text

does not teach us if we believe like Sarah, then God will do incredible things. Because the whole point of the

story is that Sarah didn't believe. She's not seeking God. She's not on her knees. She laughs in God's face.

And when God comes down to bless her and do incredible things for her, he does it in spite of her unbelief.

She does eventually believe, but my goodness. And the second thing I want to point out is that this text is

wanting us to look at what happened to the son of promise. And of course, in this story, the son of promise is Isaac.

But who's the real son of promise? Who's the true and better Isaac? That son of promise that was born

in a ridiculous and laughable situation? Who was born to that woman who wasn't just infertile. She had no husband.

In the Gospel of Luke says that the Lord came to her and through his angel, he said to her,

the Lord is with you and you will conceive in your womb and you'll bear a son. And Mary said to the angel,

she said, how can this be since I'm a virgin? And the angel answered her, nothing will be impossible

with God. Nothing's too wonderful for God. And what happened to this promised child? Did he get physical

health? Did he get material wealth? Did he get unbroken prosperity and happiness and success and a

life that goes up and to the right? No, the greatest person who ever lived in the history of planet earth

this man who had more faith than all of us combined, this man whose prayer life was a trillion times

greater than any of our prayer lives,

this man who trusted that nothing's too wonderful for God. What happened to him? He died on a cross,

abandoned by his friends, mocked by his enemies, forsaken by his God. And why does God,

in his wisdom, put the cross at the center of history and the center of reality? Why does he want us to keep

our eyes fixed there? Because he wants us to see that the ultimate Isaac, the ultimate son of laughter,

the one in whom we hear the laughter of God, the one who lived in a world of heavenly laughter, the one

that says he was at the father's side, he was in the father's bosom from all eternity. They were

infinitely laughing and rejoicing in each other. That he came into this world to become a man of sorrows,

to become acquainted with grief, to be overcome with weeping at the tomb of his friend Lazarus,

to be torn apart by the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, to be crushed under the agony of

Gethsemane and to cry out on his cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And the whole point is that Jesus lost the divine laughter so that you and I could get it.

And he took our place of misery and condemnation

to deal with sin and death so that we could live forever with him in laughter.

Friends, God and Jesus Christ has trampled down all the impossibilities of our situation

so that we can say like Sarah, who would have thought?

Who would have thought? Who would have said that we who were trapped forever in sin and death

would be liberated to live with God everlastingly?

Who would have thought? Who would have said that in spite of all the ways that we have lived,

we'd be adopted into the very family of God?

See, friends, God has done the ridiculous.

God has done the laughable.

He's welcomed us strangers.

Indeed, he's welcomed us enemies to his feast at his table.

And so I want to encourage you with Paul's words in Romans 8, 32.

He says,

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.