No laughing matter

Abstract

Some of us have a hard time thinking of God as having humor. But take a look at some of the stories in the Bible. If we really look at some of the stories, we can come to no other conclusion than that God has a sense of humor. For example, in the first lectionary text assigned for this second Sunday in Lent we read of God saying to Abram, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” That's an incredible, wonderful promise! The only problem is, God made that promise to someone who was childless ... at age seventy-five. And his wife Sarah is sixty-five. Certainly it’s a joke of some kind! Couldn't God have made a promise for countless offspring with someone who was, say, nineteen? And it was twenty-five years later, in Chapter 18, that angelic messengers came to Abraham's tent to say, "That's right. Sarah's going to have a baby." Sarah was the only one who had an appropriate response to this. She heard what was said and she laughed! There she was, ninety years old, doubled over outside the tent laughing.