This past week it was reported that actor Al Pacino became a father at the age of 83. Pacino and his girlfriend—age 29—had a boy. Actor Robert DeNiro, Pacino’s long-time friend, said, “Go Al, God bless him” at the news of the birth. DeNiro, age 79, gave birth to his seventh child earlier this year. As I heard this story about these two elderly gentlemen becoming parents at such old ages my only thoughts were . . . “Are they crazy!” I remember those parenting years that took place when I was much younger . . . I survived and I sure don’t have a hankering to do them again. That is the great thing about being a grandparent . . . I get the kids, but they go home to their parents at the end of the day!
I imagine there were quite a few jokes thrown around at their expense. Of course, we should note that their partners in these birth stories were much younger than they were. In our society . . . in most societies if not all . . . it is unusual for a geriatric person to be having children. The geriatric designation comes when a person hits 65 years of age. I am a geriatric! I became one this year. And the mere thought of having a child at my age not only makes me shudder, but it makes me laugh. It makes me laugh in disbelief. It makes me laugh in nervousness. Nervousness because apparently it can happen . . . ask Pacino and DeNiro, or even Sarah from our scripture reading this morning.
In our reading this morning we hear the story of Isaac. We hear how three strangers show up at Abraham’s camp. Through the hospitality they are given they tell Abraham that his wife would become pregnant and that within a year there would be a child born. In fact, it would be a boy. Though Sarah is not present among the men as they are talking, she overhears the conversation. Upon hearing the declaration of her impending pregnancy . . . she laughs. She laughs because she is old . . . geriatric . . . beyond the childbearing years. In her mind it is impossible. Unfortunately, God hears her laughter.
Of course, God wants to know why Sarah laughed. Embarrassed and scared, she lies. Her response to God is, “I did not laugh.” God’s response was just as blunt with its condemnation, “Yes, you did laugh.” In the end, I am not sure who got the last laugh . . . Sarah or God. After all, who really wants a child at a ripe old age?
Have you ever been caught in a laugh when someone said something to you? And, when confronted about your laughter, what did you say? I know that when I have let loose with inappropriate laughter that my response is typically, “I wasn’t laughing at you . . . I was just laughing.” Which we know is not the truth. Yeah, we were laughing . . . usually laughing in disbelief . . . laughing in nervousness. Had we been Sarah, we would have laughed. But let us not forget that Sarah was not the only one who laughed at such news, Abraham did too.
The disbelief comes in what is perceived as something that is impossible. In her old age, Sarah did not think that it was conceivable to give birth to a child. It was sort of one of those, “Yeah, right” sorts of laughs. But it was also a laugh of nervousness . . . what if it did happen? What if she did end up getting pregnant and having a child at her old age. Would she be up to it? Could she, do it? My grandchildren wear me out in a day . . . Sarah was getting this kid until he reached adulthood. I don’t blame her for laughing. We all would laugh.
Thus, it came to be . . . Sarah gave birth to a son. She named the child Isaac. Did you know that Isaac means “laughter” in Hebrew? It was a tribute to God and the miracle they experienced through God’s promise. Sarah says: “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
From laughing at God to laughing with God. That is the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac. It is holy laughter. Laughter born out of experience. It is acknowledgement of the Holy despite the odds against it. It is belief in the face of disbelief. God comes through and makes Abraham a father at the age of 100 . . . leaves Pacino and DeNiro in the dust. Together God and the couple laugh and seal the deal.
Whether we want to admit it or not, I imagine we all have laughed at God. In elementary school I was given the traditional assignment of writing a paper about what I wanted to be when I grew up. We had to list three choices. First choice was to be in the Air Force like my father. It was one that he discouraged. Second was to be a special education teacher. I received a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and special education, but I never became a teacher because I ended up doing the third choice . . . a minister. I went from college to seminary to become an ordained minister.
Now I want you to understand something. That third choice was out of the blue. As I was writing that paper, I could not think of a third choice of what I wanted to be when I grew up. Finally, my mother said to just put down the first thing that came to my mind. Where “minister” came from God only knows because we were not even a church going family. Everyone in the family had a good laugh at that one. So did my friends as I got older. My life was not of the ministerial quality one would expect . . . so there was a lot of laughter and surprise when I headed off to seminary. I think that my seminary professors laughed. Shoot, all the way through it all I still could not believe the route I was taking. Even after I was ordained, I made fun of it . . . laughed at it, telling people that they could just call me the irreverent reverend.
But look at where I am now. This past April I celebrated my 40th year as an ordained minister. God and I both smile at the journey its been . . . God probably laughs harder because God won in the end. I still laugh because I can’t believe I have spent my life doing this. Holy laughter.
Stuart Long. Recognize the name? Stuart Ignatius Long was from Helena, Montana. He lived a life far from pristine in holiness, but he ended up being a priest. He lived a pretty rowdy life into adulthood. He played football at Carroll College, graduated with a degree in English literature and writing, and had a boxing career. A pretty successful one at that, having won the state golden gloves title in 1985 and was runner-up in 1986. Then he was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident that nearly killed him. It changed his life as he had a religious conversion.
Having recovered from the accident he met a young woman that he fell in love with, but who refused to marry him unless he converted to Catholicism. Which he did . . . but, he felt a call to the priesthood . . . felt that God was calling him to serve. Of course, everyone laughed . . . his family laughed . . . his friends laughed . . . even the religious of the church laughed. But his girlfriend encouraged him despite the laughter and the loss of matrimony. While attending seminary he discovered he had a rare progressive muscle disorder much like Lou Gehrig’s disease. But he pushed on.
He was eventually ordained despite the disability quickly changing his life. His first parish was at the Little Flower Parish on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning where he was much loved. As the disease progressed, he was moved back to Helena and placed in a nursing home relying on the help of others to continue his ministry. When it became too much the people came to him. He died in 2014 in that Helena nursing home . . . much loved by the many he had touched. His life story was made into a movie, Father Stu, that premiered in 2022. Mark Wahlberg played him, and Mel Gibson played his father.
Despite the laughter . . . God’s will came through. In the end it was holy laughter.
God may ask of each of us to do and be things that we find impossible or unbelievable . . . things that might be difficult . . . things that we never imagined for ourselves. Things that make us laugh in nervousness and disbelief. Yet, we need to pause in that moment of laughter and ask ourselves . . . why? Why are we laughing? Is it because it seems ridiculous or because it could really happen . . . after all, with God all things are possible. In that moment we might discover that we are in the midst of holy laughter.
Yes, we may laugh at God . . . but the key to it all is to laugh with God. Sarah and Abraham discovered and recognized this in the birth of their son . . . that all things are possible. To acknowledge this realization they named their son Isaac . . . to laugh. To laugh with God. There is no better laughter than that of God and God’s children laughing together. It is holy. Amen.
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