Episode 1655: A Miracle Called Laughter

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,655 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Brent Pohlman: I'm Brent Pohlman. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time talent. Your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to dig deep and understand what's in your heart is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: I.

That's part of the laughter and the joy that is going on. That's part of the reaction to the grace and miracle of the moment that joy is the response to a miracle. And sometimes that joy comes in the miracle of [00:01:00] laughter itself.

Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can

impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Genesis chapter 18 verses one through 15 and chapter 21 verses one through seven. I share the gift of receiving miracles, and I also talk with you about how laughter is a gift that we need to have in our life. Genesis chapter 18 verses one through 15 and verse verses one through [00:02:00] seven from chapter 21, say, the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mam Ray as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.

He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground. He said, my Lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on since you have come to your servant.

So they said, do as you have said, and Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said. Make ready quickly. Three measures of choice, flour, need it and make cakes. Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf tender and good and gave it to the servant who hasten to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, where's your wife, Sarah? And he said, there in the tent. [00:03:00] Then one said, I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah, shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the 10 entrance behind him. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age. It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of a woman.

So Sarah laughed to herself saying, after I've grown old and my husband is old, now that I'm old, is anything too wonderful for the Lord at the set time? I will return to you in due season and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied saying I did not laugh for she was afraid. And he said, yes, you did laugh.

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham, a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son, whom Sarah bore him, and Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old as God had commanded him.

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son, Isaac was born to him. Now, Sarah [00:04:00] said, God has brought laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh with me, and she said, who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age. This idea of having children in old age relates to the struggles that many families have around having children.

Sometimes there's physical reasons, sometimes there's emotional reasons, but different parents and different couples struggle in various ways around the concept and the idea of having children fostering, adopting infertility. There's lots of issues around this and there's a lot of resonance in this story about what's going on.

Between Abraham and Sarah, obviously there's cultural differences and there's [00:05:00] historical differences, but this idea of a call to family a call to beginnings, a call to putting down roots and passing on your story is part of the journey that's going on. We skipped ahead last week. I talked about the beginning of this story when they set out.

On a journey when they went to the world and went to the place that God was sending them, and now we're talking about this time on the brink of a miracle and it's wise to pay attention to the miracle. That's often where we focus on in this passage, but there's a lot more going on in this story. We've skipped over a lot, but picking up here, hospitality.

Is more than just something that's kind of an aside that happens in the story. The whole [00:06:00] beginning passage is Abraham setting out hospitality for these strangers, ushering in the presence of God, but not even realizing that it was God that he was ushering in this issue of hospitality, of how we treat strangers, how we treat others.

Is important. When we talk about the nature of God, when we talk about exemplifying and representing the nature of Christ, how we welcome others is central. Maybe Abraham did recognize that these travelers were angels or a manifestation of God, maybe not. In fact, probably not. He was probably just living out what nomadic people at this time in this part of the world did.

What the call for hospitality and treatment of strangers was. It's not that he's saying there's no rules about belonging and citizenship, but it says, say that even these that are different that are coming in from [00:07:00] outside. We're not to treat them cruelly. We're not to mistreat them. We're to welcome them in.

And then there's also the miracle that happens, and how do you respond to a miracle? I don't know about you, but miracles is one of those things that I wrestle with in the Bible. What are we supposed to do with them? Do we try to explain them away and make them something that occurred naturally? Do we accept them at face value?

There's all sorts of debates around miracles and what they are and what they represent. But rather than trying to decide, let's just look at what happens here, what is the example that is being set? I mean, no doubt about it. Having a child at this old age is a miracle. And how do they respond when this miracle is pointed out, when they're told this is what's going to happen.[00:08:00]

First the second part of the reading in chapter 21 kind of helps explain the first part of the reading in chapter 18, and that's kind of why they're put together. It's actually called out. In a passage that we didn't read here earlier, that they laugh in response to this. That's why the angel says, you laughed.

Maybe that laugh was disbelief. Maybe it was kind of laughing things off. Maybe it was joy, maybe it was anger. I don't know. What was their reaction to this? Maybe it was a, where were you years ago when we were trying for children? Why tease us now with this impossible promise? But no, that's not really what's going on.

It doesn't seem to be that they're rejecting the miracle. Instead, it seems to be that there's a little bit of hope that's triggered by this. I mean, it's impossible. It's outrageous, but maybe [00:09:00] God can do this. And in fact, Isaac, that name means one who laughs or he who laughs. They literally named the child laughter as a reminder of this miracle and this joy.

I think that's what happens a lot of times when people welcome a child into their life, whether that's a child born to them naturally, or an adoption or a foster, or even just the bonus children that some of us have in our lives that we welcome and invite in. That laughter that comes with the joy of recognizing that we're partly responsible for raising the others.

That's what happens in the community of the church too. During a baptism. We all say together that we will work together to raise this person into the community of God. That's part of the laughter and [00:10:00] the joy that is going on. That's part of the reaction to the grace and miracle of the moment that joy is the response to a miracle, and sometimes that joy comes in the miracle of laughter itself.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much

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