“Blessed are those who get the joke.”

I just finished Frederick Beuchner's book and found it to be very good.  This post is based on this book.  If this post strikes your interest I would encourage you to check it out.

Genesis chapter 17 tells us the story of a geriatric couple who were childless. Two oldies that stopped dreaming a long time ago. What it would be like to have kids? And now, in their late nineties, what it would be like to have grandchildren. Their dreams filled with youngsters who would sit in their laps to hear their stories. Children who would fill their home with laughter and run and play at their feet. The sound of laughing, and playing children didn’t seem to be in the cards for these two old folks. The embarrassment; living in a time where having children was such an honor and such a sign of favor. Yet, in spite of all their wishful thinking, and all of their hopes, Sarah was today like she had been yesterday, barren.

But this is not the end of the story. In their old age they have a visitor, an angel as a matter of fact. He comes baring news, ridiculous news actually, the news that Sarah will actually conceive. This news, so ridiculous that we are told Abraham fell on his face laughing. He did not give just a little belly laugh; he falls on his face knowing how incredibly preposterous a hundred year old man having a baby is. The Lord appeared again some time later we are told in Genesis 18 and Sarah overhears the Lord talking about this, wore out women, as she calls herself, having a child. What is her response? She laughs! When asked why she was laughing, she denies it, and the Lord says no, you did laugh. And because this is all so ridiculously funny, these old bags having a child, they wind up naming him Isaac, which means laughter-- “And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.”


We are apart of this promise to Abraham. We are the heirs as well—“ And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29). So you see, their joke is our joke as well because it is just as ridiculous that God would send his only son to die for lowly sinners. It is the unbelievable news that in our state of hopelessness, in our tragedies, when we are at out wits end and we are done hoping and longing that God steps in and makes us laugh with delight. In the midst of our sinful tragedy we can laugh because we are among the redeemed, we have been brought in on the joke, “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles “ (1 Corinthians 1:23). It is this lunacy that saves us , this foolhardiness is the power of God. It is a fairly tale that God will come for us his bride, breaking into our existence and take us away to his kingdom.

Blessed are those who get the joke!

Leithart on Lent

I saw this post and thought I would share it.

Lent is a season for taking stock and cleaning house, a time of self-examination, confession and repentance. But we need to remind ourselves constantly what true repentance looks like. “Giving up” something for Lent is fine, but you keep Lent best by making war on all the evil habits and sinful desires that prevent you from running the race with patience.

Going through the motions of Lent without turning to God and putting our sins to death is hypocrisy, and few things rile our God so much as hypocrisy. “Rend your hearts and not your garments,” Joel says.

So: During this season, don’t just give up soft drinks; mount a concerted campaign against impatience. Don’t just put aside your favorite TV show; subdue your anger. Don’t just fast; kill your self-centeredness.

This doesn’t make Lent a season for gloominess and defeat. On the contrary, during this season we celebrate the victorious suffering and death of Jesus, and we should enter the season trusting in the Spirit of Jesus, who subdues our flesh and molds us to the image of Christ.

Lent is a season for joy also because it is a motif in a larger composition. The rhythm of the church year follows the rhythm of the Lord’s day service. Each week, we pass through a small “Lenten” moment in our liturgy, as we kneel for confession. But we don’t kneel through the whole service, and in the same way we don’t observe the fast forever.

Jesus tells us to fast with washed faces and anointed heads, that is, to fast as if prepared for a feast. We fast properly when we fast not only in humility but in hope; we keep the fast when we fall before God full of repentance but also full of confidence that our Great King will raise us up.