The Name of the Promise Is Laughter

The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love

Why do you laugh? Genesis 17: "God said to Abraham... 'I will bless [Sarah], and moreover, I will give you a son by her... she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.' Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, 'Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old?' God said... 'You shall call his name ‘Isaac.'" Genesis 18: "The Lord (The God/man) said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.' And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. So, Sarah laughed to herself, saying, 'After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure (eden)?' The Lord said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh... Is anything too hard for the Lord?' But Sarah denied it saying, "I did not laugh,' for she was afraid. He said, ‘No, but you did laugh.’" Abraham and Sarah must not take God very seriously for they take themselves so seriously. They must actually believe that some things are too hard for God. And yet God had already told them, "In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed." The disciples once asked Jesus, "Who then can be saved?" He answered, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." At a conference in Oxford, I once raised my hand and asked a famous theologian, "Would you say that it's impossible for God to save all?" He knew that he couldn't say, "No," so he said, “I wouldn't say 'impossible,' but I wouldn't bet on it." Then, if I remember correctly, he kind of . . . laughed. If he thinks salvation is too hard for God, isn't he mocking God? If we don't bet on Grace, what are we betting on? Ourselves? Isn't the outer darkness reserved for those who laugh at God, until they learn to laugh with God, and at their own pompous ego? Genesis 21: “And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son… Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, 'Isaac’ (literally, "he laughs" or "laughter")... And Sarah said, 'God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.'" Everyone will laugh, not at God but with God and at themselves over the Blessing: Laughter. You cannot serve two masters. You will take God seriously and laugh at everything else, including yourself, or you will take yourself seriously and laugh at everything else, including God, and yet it won't be real laughter; it will be imitation laughter. You will be mocking God. St. Simeon Salos was the first saint to be officially recognized by the early church as a "Holy Fool." As they were dragging him out of a Good Friday worship service for eating a sausage during the mass, he said, "The essence of human sinfulness is to take ourselves and our rituals too seriously." We take the manger so seriously that we miss the baby. We are the manger, but when we see the baby in the manger, we'll laugh. "Sing oh barren one who did not bear... for the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married," says the Lord. "Your maker is your husband; The Lord of Hosts is his name." Your desolate old self will give birth to your new self who isn't just yourself, but Christ in you and an entire new creation. "Angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly," wrote G. K. Chesterton. "Satan fell by force of Gravity." He cannot take a joke. In the theological classic, Mary Poppins, Uncle Albert gets stuck on the ceiling because he floats when he laughs. Mary Poppins, Bert, Jane, and Michael, all laugh themselves to the ceiling, where Mary Poppins serves tea and biscuits in a communion of laughter. Uncle Albert apologizes for the inconvenience, saying, "I try, really I do, but everything ends up so hilarious." That's almost offensive, isn't it? In a world where people are abandoned, raped, and murdered, how about, "I try, really I do, and everything dies”? Genesis 22: "[God] said, 'Take your son, your only son (Laughter) whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'" Why would God do that? Why does everything die? It helps me to think about this strange and wonderful thing called laughter — not mockery (fake laughter, forced laughter), but real laughter rising uncontrollably from the depths of your belly. Laughter has something to do with the distance between confusion and illumination, lies and Truth, evil and the Good, death and Life, absence and Presence, despair and Hope. Hope is Faith that Love will cover the distance. If you have no hope, you laugh at those who do. But it's not real laughter; it's imitation laughter; it's mockery. But when you hope, you open your heart to laughter (and yes, pain). Faith is surrendering your laughter (your Isaac) to Love, and God is Love. Your heart knows that laughter is the revelation of Grace. And Grace is not something you can control; it's not something you do, but something that is done to you, in you, and through you. And so, I'm not telling you to "try" to laugh but to stare at the baby in the manger. He will make you laugh; he is Laughter. Have you ever played peek-a-boo with a baby? It almost seems mean, but I did it with all four of mine. At a certain age, they each realized that I existed, and I wasn't them. And this seemed to fill them with wonder. But if I hid my face, they'd hold their breath and their face would be filled with sorrow; but when I revealed my face, they'd squeal with delight and laugh. Laughter is surrendered breath. And each time the laughter would get louder as the sorrow of my perceived absence was more than filled with the joy of my manifest presence (my "parousia"). Psychologists claim that peek-a-boo is critical for the social development of a child. It teaches the child "object permanence" (Our Father is named "I am that I am") and Grace; it's the Revelation of Relentless Love. It's the knowledge of absence and Presence, evil and Good. The absence is a temporary illusion (I never left them nor forsook them) and the Presence is Eternal Reality. God is not mocked — no one can see God and laugh "at" him rather than with him. But Jesus is mocked for us and in us; He is God hidden in us. It was on the tree in the Garden on Mount Moriah that Jesus said, "Father, into your hands I commit my breath." And I suspect that whenever a child of Adam truly laughs at the revelation of Love, it's the very same thing. He said to His disciples, "A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again, a little while, and you will see me (sounds like peek-a-boo)... you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy... and no one will take your joy from you." In fear, we all hold our breath and hang on to life; but when in faith we surrender our life and expire the breath, we will discover that we haven't died, we've only just been born. Life is a communion of Laughter. Hebrews 11: "By faith... Abraham offered up Isaac (his laughter, his life)... He reasoned that God was able to raise him from the dead, from which, as a parable, he did receive him back." When God, our Father, offered up Jesus to us on Mount Moriah, He offered up His life and laughter. And when Jesus in us offers our breath back to the Father, we will experience ourselves as Divine Laughter. Eternal Life is a communion of laughter. Genesis 21:12, "Through Isaac (Laughter) will your seed (Jesus) be named." So, to call on the name of Jesus and receive all things with Him, you will have to learn to laugh. And you will only learn to laugh when you have learned to take yourself less seriously, for you see that God in Christ Jesus has taken you so seriously that He's given you His own Life and Laughter. In other words, you are saved by Grace through Faith, and this not of yourselves, lest any should boast, lest any should mock the Grace that is God, our Father. Try and mock Him if you want; kill Him and consume Him if you want . . . but He will get the last laugh. And when He does, it will be coming right out of the depths of your belly. The God/man that asks Sarah, "Why do you laugh?" is her great, great, super-great, grandson; He is the Promise already growing inside of her womb. Yes, this world hurts. But you can start laughing right now.