For the blessings of music and community you’ve showered down upon us, we give you thanks. For this time and this space to reflect on your many blessings in our lives, for this another day of grace, we give you thanks. Open our ears and our hearts now, may the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight for your are our strength/rock and our redeemer. AMEN.
One of the funniest commercials, maybe about 10 years old now, but I still remember it...[without this certain bank account Bob wasn’t the most honest of fellows...lemonade stand. But then...board meeting...and poker game (Steel Magnolias).] The best comedy is when you didn’s see it coming.
It’s the laughter I’m getting at here. Rather than talking about laughter, let’s experience it a little. (I once interviewed someone for the campus ministry position at SDSU, and he went on and on talking about laughter, but he never said anything funny.)
And speaking of Steel Magnolias (seen it?)...there’s a great line there from Dolly Parton’s character, Southern beautician Truvy Jones, that leads us into our text for today from Genesis: “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.”
Laughter through tears. Sarah and Abraham wanted a child, knew it was no longer possible. Imagine the tears all those years, many don’t have to imagine. The tears all those years. But then one day -- Abraham and Sarah are visited by three strangers and asked, “Is anything too wonderful for God?”
Sarah will have a baby, they told Abraham. Sarah hears this in the back room and laughs her head off. Laughter through tears.
After all the pain, after all the pressure, all the guilt, all the trying and coming up empty...it can’t be possible, can it? Years of tears. What might that be for us/you?
Perhaps this story comes very close to home. So many couples have dealt with this, and we must be sensitive to those tears. Perhaps the years of tears are for another reason -- a broken childhood, an addiction or an eating disorder, a loss or an emptiness in your life that’s never been filled. In some ways, I wouldn’t blame you if you got mad at this question, “Is anything to wonderful for God?” You know sometimes, I don’t know. I mean, why does God seem to sit there and just allow all this tragedy in our lives? All kinds of people have left the church because they feel that God has let them down, just sat there while they suffered. All those years, all those tears...
And yet here we are. Gathered again. (That right there is laughter through tears.) There has been pain in every one of our lives, at some level. And yet here we are, listening to these ancient stories of the faith, singing hymns new and old, gathered around wheat and wine, water and this Word. We keep coming back. We keep offering hospitality to strangers, like Abraham did.
And we learn that Sarah conceives and bears a son, Isaac (name means laughter). As one scholar pointed out, this is true “comedy” in the classical sense. You know how all of Shakespeare is either tragedy or comedy?
“Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion,” Truvy says. That might just sum up the whole Christian life. [pause]
Laughter through tears. Weeping spends the night, but joy comes in the morning, says the psalmist. Christ’s triumph over death. The resurrection is the greatest comedy, in the classical sense. (Norwegians laughing on Easter Saturday.)
This isn’t a story about wanting something badly enough, and finding that if we just pray hard enough, do enough good deeds, make enough sacrifices, then God will see all that and reward us with our hearts great desire. Rather it’s a story about God just showing up and surprising us. That’s the best comedy, by the way, when we didn’t see it coming.
Abraham and Sarah had pretty much given up on having children. They were just going about their call, showing hospitality to strangers, tilling the soil, shepherding the creatures, taking care of each other in their old age. Chopping wood, carrying water. And then one day, out of nowhere, this surprise. The best comedy: didn’t see it coming.
Abraham and Sarah were going about their call, doing what was right. And that’s our invitation too. Remember that mirror in Harry Potter? The Mirror of Erised? Harry discovers this mirror that shows you your hearts greatest desire, and he just gets caught staring at it, dreaming. And Dumbledoor warns Harry, “Many have wasted away in front of this mirror.”
We keep moving, sisters and brothers in Christ, going about our work of God calling us to do what is right -- showing hospitality to total strangers, welcoming the wandeirng, feeding the hungry, giving refreshment to the thirsty. And God surprises us, when we least expect it.
Sometimes our blessings are obvious, and other times life can seem pretty empty.
But we are called to press on, following in the footsteps of the faithful who have gone before us. Open to God’s surprises, open even to laughter through our tears. For God is with us, God’s love is poured out for us. God goes before us and beside us all the way. We might not always see it or even believe it, but this is the truth. This is the Good News: God in Christ Jesus gets right down next to us, and accompanies us through both the tears and the laughter of our lives, through both the tragedies and the comedies.
You are not alone, God goes with you all the way. And as if that wasn’t enough God also give us each other, tangible, visible, audible signs of that presence of God with us.
As if God giving us laughter through tears wasn’t enough, we have each other to share both laughter and tears. In good times and bad, we walk together, we embody Christ very body, broken and blessed, that’s us, embodying Christ’s body. We are the body of Christ, broken and blessed, given away for the life of the world. And in that, there is such deep joy and laughter.
This joy, this laughter, this comedy is ours this day. Thanks be to God. AMEN.
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