As I was getting ready for this Sunday’s sermon I found myself going back again to the Old Testament lesson. In this story we see Abraham providing hospitality, with Sarah’s help of course, and Sarah laughing. I was hoping to connect the two of them and I’m not convinced I did. Please let me know in the comments or directly if you think I made it or didn’t.
Regardless of any success in putting them together, I did have a new, new to me that is, insight into laughter. The insight began with Sarah hoping against hope that the strangers eating her food were correct about her having a child and finished with the sequence we read in Romans 5:3-4, namely, “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope . . .” (NRSV) The insight was that laughter comes with hope but not with despair. Sarah was able to laugh, and let’s not forget the strangers did not rebuke Sarah for laughing; when she had some hope.
Image credit: This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Blessings,
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