Out Our Way:

Genesis 17:15 - 21: 7

  Out our way, I have discovered rough cowboy humor. I recall, on my first roundup, one of the guys handed me a rope and said real cowboys know how to rope. But they have to begin somewhere, and he figured it was a good idea for me to come into the corral as they were branding calves and try to get a loop on one just as they released him.

  I swung out a loop and began twirling it as I had been taught, when it suddenly occurred to me that a freshly branded and nicked calf is going to bolt the moment he is released. If I did manage to get a rope on him, because I had no place to dally or tie off the rope, I would either get yanked off my feet and dragged or get really bad rope burns. Probably both.

  So I handed Amos back his rope and said, "Show me how to do it." He just grinned and walked away while the rest of the crew laughed heartily at the whole joke. 

  Humor has always been important to me, and I was amazed and tickled to discover God highly treasures it as well. Have you ever noticed so many of our greatest comedians are Jewish? I didn't really quite realize that until I took Biblical Hebrew in seminary and began doing some translations of the Holy Scripture. There is laughter throughout as puns, inside jokes and snide remarks abound designed to crack up the listener. Genesis is filled with such things and even in English we get some of them, such as the story of Isaac.

  As we saw last week, God has a plan. And as one of my professors used to note, "God not only has the means to carry it out, but He means to carry it out."

  Recall that God declared to Abraham that he would be the father of a new people. But remember, Abraham was an old man. Now it is possible even for an old coot to still impregnate a fertile female. My grandfather was 68 when he married my 26-year-old grandmother and they had two kids. Abraham and Sarah assume this is the only way possible. So, as was common in those days, Sarah turns over her Egyptian slave girl, Hagar, to Abraham and yes, indeed, she gets pregnant and a son, Ishmael is born. Prophecy fulfilled, right?

  Well, no, for as Abraham is to be "the father of nations," so Sarah is to be the mother. But hold on there! Sarah is as old as Abraham and long past the age of having kids. Yet God insists the mother of this new people will be Sarah. And Abraham's reaction? Laughter! "Right, sorry Lord, that is just not possible." Really? Wait and see, Abe.

  Later, we find the Lord and Abraham together again and once more God tells Abraham that Sarah will be pregnant soon. Sarah is eavesdropping from inside the tent and overhears this. What is Sarah's reaction?  Laughter. To make it even funnier, as God leaves He says to Sarah, "Why did you laugh?" She, thinking he could not possibly know she had laughed, lied and said, "I didn't laugh." And God, you can almost see the twinkle in His eye, says, "I will be seeing you again, and by the way, you did too laugh."

  And lo and behold, the impossible happens. Sarah, the barren one who is far too old to give birth anyway, conceives and has a son. And what do Abraham and Sarah name the child? Isaac, which is Hebrew for ... wait for it ... "laughter."

    They laugh in their amazement, they laugh in their joy and they laugh at their former ignorance of the power of God. In the ancient world names had meaning. Every time people met Abraham, Sarah and Isaac, they would note that the name of the boy means "laughter," and perhaps inquire as to why that name. And thus the story and the testimony to God's covenant and His faithfulness would spread.

  And God laughed as well, for He shared their joy.

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John Bruington and Goliath serve the Lord with humor and bring laughter - not always intentionally - to the church and community in Havre. "It is our gift," said John, lying in the cactus while Goliath snickers.