The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the time set I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son” [Genesis 18:13-14].
One of the dominant stories contained in Genesis is that of Abram and Sarai, a/k/a Abraham and Sarah. Even without a Bible in our hands, most of us know at least the high points. Abram and Sarai are good people, deeply respected by their extended family and others. Yet they have a significant problem.
We see it immediately when we are first introduced to Sarai. While we later learn that she is beautiful, initially we see, almost parenthetically, that “Sarai was barren; she had no child” [Gen. 11:30]. In a land and a time that, even more than today, saw children as a blessing, Abram and Sarai had no such blessing. There would be no line to follow them.
In chapter 12, we recall that in the face of Sarai’s barrenness, Yahweh tells Abram that they are to leave all that is familiar in order that they travel to an as-of-yet unnamed land that Yahweh will disclose [Gen. 12:1]. Yahweh utters what would have been ridiculous words to any of us, but even more so to an old, barren couple: that in and through Abram (and Sarai), “all of the families of the earth shall be blessed” [Gen. 12:3]. Yeah, right.
In the face of their “problem,” in the face of the seeming impossibility of creating a nation out of an old and barren couple, Abram and Sarai do as Yahweh has told, changing their names in the process. And they all lived happily ever after. Well …, not really.
As we turn to the OT text appointed by the Lectionary for the second Sunday after Pentecost (Gen. 18:1-15; 21:1-7, Year A), a portion of which I emphasized above, we find that it has been more than 20 years since Yahweh’s Promise. Still no child — well, that is, there is still no child from Sarah. There was that thing, of course, involving Hagar, but more about that in a bit.
Walter Brueggemann, who is, for my money, the most notable OT theologian of the past forty years, allows that the word of God never comes to fruition as we expect it [see Genesis: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Pp. 181, et seq., emphasis added]. Brueggemann continues that because it does not come to us as we expect, we often conclude that God’s word has failed. According to Brueggemann, in those hard times, we are either driven back to our own seemingly adequate resources or, if we have no such resources, we are driven to despair.
In this Sunday’s OT reading, Abraham and Sarah are at that place: the place where God’s Promise has not come to fruition. In fact, they’ve been there for almost 20 years. And, as Brueggemann suggests, their first reaction, crafted together some years before, had been to rely upon their own seemingly adequate resources. You know the story; that part is recorded in Genesis 16.
Peering at her “resources,” Sarah gave her Egyptian “slave-girl,” Hagar [ironic twist if we remember the later plight of the Hebrews in Egypt], to Abraham. We raise an eyebrow, but the scripture puts it somewhat obtusely: “He went in to Hagar, and she conceived …” [Gen. 16:4a]. And so, utilizing her own resources — not waiting any longer for Yahweh — Sarah saw to the birth of Ishmael. And how’d that work out, Sarah?
Resources gone, a growing Ishmael gaining at least some attention from his father, Sarah is in a bad place. Yahweh’s Promise is still unfulfilled as far as she can see. It’s enough to move a person into depression.
It is at Sarah’s low point that the Holy Scripture provides us with an unusual aside. As chapter 18 opens, Abraham (and Sarah) have some unusual visitors. Initially, the text says, “Yahweh appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre …” [Gen. 18:1]. Then — and this is a bit weird — the text tells us that when Abraham looks up, he sees not Yahweh, but three mean standing near him. Abraham scurries to be a good host. He says he’ll bring a little water, with which they can wash, and “a little bread” [Gen. 18:5]. He tells Sarah to mix up enough floor that, had this been Bruegger’s, she could have made 10 dozen bagels. A fattened calf is also killed and prepared. Things are going swimmingly, until the strangers ask an unusual question, “Where is your wife Sarah? [Gen. 18:9a].
How do the strangers know her name? “This can’t be good,” Abraham likely thinks. He nervously replies, “Oh she’s over there somewhere” [18:9b, my translation]. As readers, we know she’s actually eavesdropping just a few feet away.
Then one of them turns to Abraham and says, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife shall have a son” [Gen. 18:10, emphasis added]. Sarah, just out of sight, hears the preposterous words and laughs to herself. She quietly says to herself, “At our old age, will my husband and I have pleasure?” You get the gist.
The scene shifts back to host Abraham and the three guests. Notice, however, that in verse 13, we switch from three strangers back to Yahweh, who says, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I’m old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?” Some translators would say, “Is anything impossible for the LORD?”
Sarah, now apparently on stage, turns to the LORD and, out of fear, trembles, “I did not laugh.”
Yahweh’s response, “Oh yes, you did laugh” [18:15b].
Sarah laughed because Yahweh’s pronouncement seemed so blatantly and ridiculously out of touch with “reality.” She and Abraham had resigned themselves to their childless fate. They were even used to it by now. For Sarah and, indeed, for Abraham as well, their hopelessness was “normal.”
“How are you feeling today, honey?” The woman nervously realized that although it was barely noon, she had asked her husband of fifty years the same question four times in less than two hours. He looked so terribly weak.
He attempted a smile. For months now, his body had been ravaged, first by the illness, then by the medicines and other treatment given him to fight it. One step forward, three steps back, it seemed. The handsome, powerful man that she had known and loved for so many years was now frail and listless. On top of that, it was the 5th of the month. Their son had died on the 5th of the month — another month, but still the 5th. How could a simple number cause such pain?
The woman looked down at her iPhone. It was a text from a friend. “Hang in there kid, the Lord loves you and so do we?”
The woman sighed deeply and then she laughed quietly to herself, but hers was not a laugh with smiles. Hers instead was a tired and discouraged laugh — an almost bitter laugh — a laugh with deep, deep tears, the sort of laugh shared by Sarah so long ago. “Is there anything too wonderful for the Lord?” Or, as noted above, “Is anything impossible for the Lord?”
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus finished his last supper with his disciples and he went out into the garden of Gethsemane to think and to pray.
Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want [Mark 14:36, emphasis added].
We see in Jesus’ life, and it should be reflected in our own, that the one thing not possible is the removal of the cup. What Yahweh cannot/will not do is finesse the reality of the suffering, pain, anguish, and sadness of the cross. Yet, as Brueggemann teaches, “because of the character of God, everything is possible for those who stay through the dark night of barrenness with God.” The day of resurrection will come!
For Abraham and Sarah, there was no painless route to their heir; Abraham would indeed be “tested” on the mountain with Isaac. For our friend, who mourns the loss of her son, and who fears that she may lose her beloved husband, for those who mourn the loss of jobs, who are enduring broken relationships, who are lonely in these days of relative isolation, and to all others whose hope seems gone, Yahweh’s message is clear: Stay with Him through your dark night of barrenness. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, endured that long night, and more, and gave up life so that you might have new relationship with Him forever. Thanks be to God.
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