“Surprise!”

(Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7)

  The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, 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, knead it, and make cakes.”  Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it.  Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, “Where is your wife, Sarah?”  And he said, “There, in the tent.”  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 tent entrance behind him.  Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.  So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?”  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 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.  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 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.”

              The first order of business for us as we hear and interact with this story is to be reminded that this wonderful tale is NOT to be taken literally.  First, we need to dig around to find the interpretation for today and secondly, we need to absolutely have a twinkle in our eye in order to do this work, this work that will ultimately result in something that, hopefully, enriches our lives.

              This wonderful story begins by showing us what true hospitality looks like.  At the beginning we are pretty clear that Abraham did not know that the visitors were divine creatures.  Abraham was just out there lounging under some shade trees at the entrance to his tent.  There is a lot of detail about offering his visitors water and bread.  They consent to staying for his hospitality.  Meanwhile, he goes to his wife Sarah, and enlists her help, then going himself to choose a calf.  He ordered a servant to prepare that food that included not just the meat, but also milk and butter.

He then returned to the visitors with their food, and, like a good host, stood by them while they enjoyed their meal.

Now, it’s worth putting the Abraham story into context.  His relationship with God has been such that when God directed him and his family to pick up and go to Canaan from the land in which their families had settled, he and Sarah went.  Because of Abraham’s willingness to listen to God, the story of Abraham becomes a centerpiece in the Hebrew Bible.  This covenant-making between God and God’s people is the gold standard for our understanding of the Old Testament.  This voice that calls Abraham from nothing into “a new future, a new community” shows us what reliance on God’s faithfulness looks like.  That is what sets us up for today’s lesson.

I’m imagining that Abraham and Sarah would have shown this hospitality to strangers even if this had not been God hanging around with them.  Jesus told us that when we don’t welcome strangers, we risk turning away Jesus.  The book of Hebrews says: “Be ready with a meal or a bed when it’s needed.  Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without even knowing it!”

Abraham and Sarah show us how to pay attention to God’s will in their lives and to show kindness and welcoming to all.  Really, the lesson could end there, but wait, there’s more!

There is a voice in our stories from the Hebrew Bible that is very engaging and conversational.  We call it the J source.  It uses the Hebrew word Yahweh which is usually translated as Lord.  Sometimes we get too judgy about how Sarah responds to this divine voice that is kinda crazy.  Now, many translations tell us about Sarah’s phase of life by saying, “It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.”  Newer translations tell us the truth without using euphemisms: “Sarah was no longer menstruating.”  Abraham and Sarah were elderly.  Please don’t spend time calculating their ages.  You will just get stuck in the mud, spinning your wheels.  They were old!

So, no wonder Sarah laughed.  Wouldn’t you women laugh if you had gotten the news that at this late date somehow you were going to give birth after all these years of not being able to give old Abraham a child?

Now, let’s not minimize the pain that couples go through when they want a family but are not able to conceive.  Sarah’s situation should not set any couple up for a conversation about having enough faith or asking and you shall receive.  Today’s couples who are going through infertility are real and their issues are not glibly solved.

But Sarah had given up on the possibility, so, of course, she laughed when she heard the Lord tell her that in a year there would be a baby.  She may have thought it was a cruel joke.  Through the centuries as scholars and others have read and heard this story, Sarah has been judged because she laughed. 

But we need to remember that the overall meaning of this story is the thread that runs throughout the Hebrew scriptures.  That is that we’re talking about a God who keeps the covenant with the people.  But we also must remember that this is a God/Yahweh/Lord who keeps the conversation going, a God who does not reject those who push back or even laugh at a divine declaration.

And then, surprise!  God was right.  A baby came to this most unlikely couple.  Again, this story cannot be taken literally.  We do a disservice to the Truth of our scripture if we try to put it under the microscope of our 21^st century eyes.  Rather, we need to share Sarah’s joy and lightheartedness in the beauty of our story.  That God made a way where there seemed to be no way.  The story gave us the answer to how Abraham was to be the father of nations.  Abraham trusted God and God was faithful. 

I know there are many problematic parts of the Abraham and Sarah story.  Don’t get me started on the side trip that comes earlier in Genesis when Abraham was told to make a baby with the slave woman Hagar.  She gave birth to Ishmael.  We know that our heroes in the faith used and abused their slaves.  It’s right there in the text, and we dare not pretend that it’s not there.

But, in interpreting this text, we search for the way that God has been faithful to a people who, over and over are in trouble.  The saga of Father Abraham and Mother Sarah really begin this tale, but the thread of faith and faithfulness AND faithlessness runs through the stories of our matriarchs and patriarchs. 

So, what can we take from this story?  Well, I noticed this time through that there is a clear emphasis on Abraham’s radical hospitality and welcoming.  Certainly we church people can learn from our Father and Mother in the faith.

And we can learn from Sarah’s spunkiness, as well as her sense of humor.  She laughed at the foolishness of an old woman giving birth.  So they named their child Isaac, which means God gave her laughter!  Sometimes church people are so afraid of offending God when we find humor in our holy scriptures or when we notice that our sacred texts contain stories that tap into the worst of our human sinfulness.  But those stories are products of their time.  Women were property.  Slaves were owned.  Violence was rained upon enemies.  Men were directed to have sex with slave women in order to be sure their genetic line continued.  This was reality in whenever this was—6000 BCE.  We cannot expect to model Abraham’s behavior or nor do we wish to.

But what is true is that God is faithful—not so much because Sarah gave birth in this unlikely way—but because God never gave up on the covenant, that these people would carry God’s wish that the people of God would carry on and become a community, dedicated to God’s vision.  Through the ups and downs, the vision would carry on. 

And so, we have been tasked to carry on God’s vision, to be partners with God, to form community with all God’s people.  May it be so….  Amen.