Genesis 17:15-21; 18:9-14; 21:1-7

And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of 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? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in thy sight!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”

[The three men] said to [Abraham], “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” The Lord said, “I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door 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 have pleasure?”

The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 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. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would suckle children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

I love to play board games. I have been told that I am more than a little on the competitive side, and I guess that’s true. I do love to win. One of my favorite games is Trivial Pursuit. One day I was at my best friend’s house, winning at Trivial Pursuit, and I was confident that I would indeed emerge victorious. I had collected all my pie wedges and finally landed in the center of the board for my chance to win the game. Lori chose as my category, “Sports and Leisure.”

The question on the card was, “How many players are there on each side in water polo?” Now, I had absolutely no idea how many players there were on each side in water polo, but I at least wanted to sound like I was making an educated guess. In an effort to buy more time, I asked for clarification, “Including the horses?” Well, Lori burst out laughing. She laughed so hard, she cried. I sat there getting angrier and angrier, because I had no clue what she was laughing about. Finally, she managed to say, “Swim, baby, swim!” And I realized what I had done. Horses. In water polo. Oh, well. We never did finish that game. And I still don’t know how many players there are on each side in water polo.

Since that day, I have tried to learn to take life – and myself – a little less seriously. I have discovered that the ability to laugh at myself can be a good approach to things besides board games. It is definitely better than having people laugh at me. Laughter and a good sense of humor can be some of the best coping tools we have for facing life’s challenges, troubles, and trials. Humor can help us take a step back and look at things from a different perspective. When you can laugh at a problem, you gain a measure of control over it.

Sometimes Christians act like faith and humor are at opposite ends of some invisible spectrum. They come into church looking like they sucked lemons all week just to get the right look on their faces. It’s like an automatic reflex – walk into church, check your smile at the door. But that doesn’t seem right to me. Christians, of all people, have something to smile about. After all, we believe in the good news: Christ is risen! Christianity is joyous and fun and playful.

God has a sense of humor. He must. The same God who created DNA and gravity, who thought up nuclear physics and photosynthesis, also made porcupines and giraffes, ostriches and otters, freckles and dimples, caterpillars and dandelions. Think about it! God even made one creature, called the leviathan, just to frolic in the ocean.

The Bible is filled with humor and laughter and funny stories. Remember Balaam’s donkey seeing angels? Or how about Noah building a boat in the middle of a desert? Then there is the story of Rahab the prostitute saving Hebrew spies in Jericho. Jesus used humor often – jokes, irony, satire, parables. He talked about camels going through the eye of a needle, good Samaritans helping Jews in trouble, the blind leading the blind, and prodigals welcomed home with parties. Humor helped Jesus get past people’s defenses so that they could hear the message he was trying to get across.

One of my favorite stores in the Bible is the story of Abraham and Sarah, and their unexpected bundle of joy. Abraham was over 100 years old and Sarah was over 90. There they were, enjoying retirement, hoping that Geritol and Grecian Formula would improve their lives, when one day God sent them a message with impossible news: Abraham and Sarah were about to become parents! Can you imagine?

Abraham laughed so hard that he fell on his face, and Sarah hid behind the tent flap just cackling. And you know what? God didn’t zap them dead on the spot for laughing. He joined in the fun. He told them that they were going to have a baby boy, and that they should name him “Isaac.” Do you know what “Isaac” means in Hebrew? “Laughter.” Isaac means laughter. What better name could there have been for this child? God played quite a joke on these two. And when Sarah finally held her baby in her arms, she said to herself, “God has made laughter for me.”

What a great verse. “God has made laughter for me.” God made laughter for Abraham and Sarah, and God made laughter for you and me. It’s good theology. If God can laugh and Jesus can tell funny stories, then it’s okay with me. And laughter is also good psychology. It is one of the best coping strategies there is.

Humor can give us power over difficult situations. When we laugh, we get out from under things that weigh us down. We can minimize the things that seem to be enormous burdens. Humor can help us see things differently, and that just might be enough to get us through. As comedian Michael Pritchard said, “Laughter is like changing a baby’s diaper. It doesn’t change things permanently, but it makes everything okay for a while.”

Humor can also contribute to good health. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like medicine.” A part of the healing process in ancient Greek culture involved visiting the home of a comedian. One Native American tribe had clown-doctors who performed for the sick. And the French philosopher Voltaire wrote, “The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” No wonder my mom always bought me comic books when I was sick! Studies have shown that laughing hard stimulates nearly all the major organs of the body and uses the very same muscles as when we cry hard. We can get the same physical release from laughing as we do from crying. And given a choice, I’d rather laugh.

So how do we appropriate humor in our lives and use it as a coping tool?

First, learn to react with humor to lighten up tense situations. When you have a choice of getting angry or using humor, humor is often the best choice. One woman had to submit her budget to her boss, and he rejected it four times in one week, saying that it was still too large. Finally, the woman went to the copy room, placed her budget on the glass, and shrunk it to the size of a postage stamp. She then resubmitted it with a note attached, “Reduced budget.”

A second technique is to learn to laugh at yourself, to take yourself a little less seriously. Abraham Lincoln was a master at this. During his debates with Stephen Douglas, Douglas accused Lincoln of being two-faced. Lincoln quickly responded, “If I had two faces, I certainly wouldn’t wear this one!” Another whiz at this kind of humor was Ronald Reagan. He faced constant criticism about his age, especially while running for re-election. During one press conference, he showed his good humor when he said, “Andrew Jackson was seventy-five years old and still vigorous when he left the White House. I know, because he told me.” The story is told of Mary Martin that she was walking down the street in Paris with a friend, wearing a new designer outfit, when a bird flew over and made a deposit on her shoulder. Without missing a beat, Martin turned to her friend and said, “For some people, they sing.”

Third, a great strategy is to look for the humor all around you every day. I remember seeing a plumber’s truck that had a motto painted on the side, “A flush beats a full house.” There was a sign at a gas station that read, “Courteous and efficient self-service.” And I love to look for bloopers in the newspaper, and especially in church bulletins and newsletters. I have been collecting those bloopers for years. One said, “This afternoon there will be a meeting in the north and south ends of the church. Babies will be baptized at both ends.” Another read, “This being Easter Sunday, Mrs. Jones will come forward and lay an egg on the altar.” I love the one that said, “Weight loss group meeting on Thursday. Please use the double doors on the side.” Or how about, “Bean supper on Saturday night. Music to follow.” They go on and on. Funny, absurd, ridiculous things are all around us. Just look for them and let yourself enjoy a chuckle.

I know that things are tough in our nation and world right now. The pandemic is serious business. But still people are trying to find humor in their situations. There have been families who recorded songs from Broadway plays with new, quarantine-based lyrics. Some t-shirts are being made such as the Teddy the Dog t-shirt that has the dog holding a martini glass with the slogan, “Quarantini.” In the midst of all the serious, stressful days, it would do us well to look for the humor where we can find it.

I believe that God gives us the gift of laughter, of joy, of humor. Jesus enjoyed humor and pointed out the funny things in life. Maybe that’s why he spent so much time with children; you can’t be around children for very long without discovering that laughter is good for your soul. Life will not always be fun. Everyone will go through hard times. But we can still have joy in our hearts that enables us to survive and even thrive during those hard times, with our faith and our spirits intact. The presence of Christ is with us, within us, bringing that joy. As the hymn says, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” Amen.