When The Joke's On You

God has an amazing sense of humor. He has a keen sense of the ironic, and loves surprises. God likes to put little twists into the plots of the stories He tells. He revels in the unexpected. Often when humans think of God they think of words like dour and humorless. The biblical record reveals Someone very different.

Take the readings from the Lectionary reading for this Sunday: In Genesis 17 we find God’s third enunciation of covenant with Abraham. The first time God appeared to Abraham in Genesis 12, Abraham was 75 years old. God tells Abraham at that time that He will make Abraham into a great nation and that all of the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. Abraham believes and sets out at 75 years of age to settle in a new place many miles away.


In Genesis 15 God appears again to Abraham. This time God tells Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. Eleven years have passed since God first called Abraham. He still doesn’t have any children. He’s 86 for crying out loud! Abraham and Sarah figure that maybe they need to think out of the box. Maybe God wants them to get creative in solving the problem of an heir. So that’s what they do. They “solve” the problem with Sarah’s slave Hagar, and along comes Ishmael.

When Abraham’s 99 God appears to him again. God reaffirms His promises to Abraham – to bless him and to make him numerous. Kings and nations will come from Abraham. It’s now that God changes Abraham’s name from “Abram” or “honored father” to “Abraham” meaning “father of many”. God not only changes Abraham’s name, Sarai becomes Sarah, and Sarah is included as a full partner in God’s promises and plan. God tells Abraham that He will give him a son by Sarah. It is this son who will inherit the covenant. Not Ishmael.


What’s Abraham’s response? He falls on his face and laughs - at first. Listen to some of the verses that were not included in today’s lection: “Abraham fell face down; he laughed and said to himself, ‘Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?’ And Abraham said to God, ‘If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!’" At first Abraham finds God’s little joke funny. But then…… hadn’t Abraham and Sarah already solved the problem of an heir? Why, then does God insist on this complication?

Here’s the thing: God is working His plan out in His way. The plan’s very particular; and God doesn’t need Abraham and Sarah’s help to bring it to fruition. He wants to do the impossible in their lives. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham, but it’s really God’s work, not Abraham’s.


Abraham and Sarah are on the receiving end of covenant life with God and so are we. In Romans, Paul says that we who live by faith are all Abraham’s children. We too are heirs and are living in the presence of the God who brings the dead to life and calls into existence things that did not exist. God is still working out His plans: on the earth, in our church, and in our lives. We must remember, though, that the plans are His and He’ll work them out in unexpected sometime counter-intuitive ways. It may be that the very times we’re tempted to fall on our faces laughing are the very times we need to perk up and pay attention. So...What’s got you laughing?