Sunday February 25th, 2024 Worship

Maybe it’s just a name connection thing, but there are very few things that I am as passionate about in Scripture as the defense of Sarah’s laughter when she overheard that she is going to become pregnant in her old age. So often, people are quick to judge Sarah for this laughter (Genesis 18:12), but I just want to point out that Abram laughs first! We hear in our reading today that Abram falls on his face, and then directly following our reading for today he falls on his face again and laughs (Genesis 17: 3 and 17:17). Falling on one’s face can be used to talk about lying down in reverence, but in Seminary, we talked quite a bit about its connection the laughter here too. For better or for worse, I always think about it like “rolling on the floor laughing,” as the kids used to say. However, I think it’s more faithful to read that there is a little bit of both in here too; Reverence, shock, and maybe even joy. And, really, who can blame them for their laughter when they hear this seemingly impossible promise. After all, they were way past their child-bearing years when God brings this covenant before Abram. So, Sarah and Abraham both laughed when they heard the promise of an heir and the nations that would come from them (Genesis 17:6). After all, they name their child Isaac, which comes for the Hebrew word for laughter!
At the center of all of our readings today is this question of what it means to be faithful, centered in Jesus’ commentary about taking up our crosses and following him (Mark 8:34). Throughout Scripture, we are given these examples of people who exhibited great faith, including Sarah, Abraham, and Peter. Paul in the Romans reading spends several verses extolling the faithfulness of Sarah and Abraham for their faith and never doubting God despite their old age (Romans 4: 18-22). Of course they doubted! They literally both laughed because their first response was doubt that this would be possible after so many childless years. It’s so unbelievable that they cannot help but laugh. And, of course it would be harder for Sarah to believe because she’s about to be pregnant in that later stages of life… her whole world is about to change so much more than even Abraham’s will.
And, then we have Peter, the rock on whom the church is built, who listens to what Jesus has to say in today’s Gospel and begins to rebuke him because these things can’t possibly be right (Mark 8: 32b). How can Jesus stand there and talk about how he will suffer, be rejected, die, and rise again? (Mark 8:31). This is not what Peter expected from his faith at all! This was supposed to be their teacher, their leader, not the one who would suffer a horrible and shameful death. So much for just trusting in the words that Jesus said…
Honestly, while at first I was confused at how these readings all went together today, I’m really glad we get this reading from Genesis and Mark paired together because it gives us an example of the wide variety of expressions that people have when they receive unexpected news. Sometimes there is shock, anger, and tears, while other times it can incite laughter. Sometimes it can also provoke grief, which is how Peter is responding today. In his anger, there is an undercurrent of grief there which is ultimately what is causing him to react this way. And, while Sarah and Abraham can rejoice, and laugh, about the fact that they will finally have a child, it doesn’t negate the approximately 70ish years of their life that they tried to have a child and could not. They are not alone in their experience of trying to have a child only to remain barren, and we cannot forget that even in the midst of this beautiful covenantal promise today, there is still this grief tied in too.
Both of these stories today show us examples of how grief can be entangled in the midst of faith, and that this grief and pain isn’t a sign of a lack of faithfulness on the part of those believers. In fact, I think for some people, our faith can be strongest when we are in the midst of grief. For example, while it is always emotionally challenging to be at the bedside of someone who is dying, many of us who have experienced it have said that it is one of the most holy moments we can ever experience. It’s often called a thin space, where the presence of God is most deeply felt.
The other thing I love about these stories being used together is that they show us the humanness of faith. That there are times when we might get it wrong, have a hard time trusting in the promises, don’t want to hear the things we are being told, or hope for different outcomes. This is not an absence of faith on our part, but a faith that is fully enmeshed with our human experiences of living in the world. It’s why I have always struggled with the way Abraham, Peter, and Paul are lifted up as these perfect examples of faith. I think they are incredible examples of faith, when we tell their whole stories. When we tell the story that they are perfect examples of faith because they never doubted, questioned, or had issues with what God said to them, I think it does us, and them, a disservice because we get the idea that we too are only good examples of faith when we are perfect.
Instead, we are invited to laugh, like Sarah and Abraham did. To question, like Peter did. To change our ways, like Paul did. Faith is meant to be a part of our daily lives, the whole of it. Not just the moments that it is easy to trust God or when it is convenient to do so. Faith calls us to bring our whole selves before God and to trust that we will always remain the beloved children of God that we are when we set down the mask of perfection. God saw creation and called it good. We have already been created good, we do not have to prove that goodness or that worthiness. This, beloved in Christ, is good news!
So, if you get nothing else out of the sermon today, I hope that you hear that our faith is a part of our human experience. It is not something that needs to be perfect or set apart from the rest of our lives, but something that accompanies us through all of the messes, pains, and unexpected news of life. We get to live this embodied faith where we are called to be exactly the people that God created us to be. And, that grief is not something that is separate from faith either, but is in fact a faithful response to the life that God has given us. It attests to the way that we show up in the world and the way that we love one another. So, may Sarah, Abraham, and Peter be examples for our faith. Not because they lived out their faith perfectly, but because they show us how our faith and our humanity are intertwined. May we too feel this freedom in our faith.