I find it fascinating that this passage ends with Sarah’s denial. Why include Sarah’s cringey moment of laughter that she only makes worse by saying she didn’t do it?
Genesis 18 tells us that the Lord appeared through three men who revealed that Sarah and Abraham would have a child in the next year. Considering that Sarah and Abraham were well past their child-bearing years, this was on face value a ridiculous thing to say. So absurd that Sarah just laughed it off. And let’s be honest, any of us in her position would have.
There are lots of commentaries on how there’s no need to laugh when the Lord presents something grand for our lives because nothing is “too marvelous for the Lord.” But I’ve never heard anyone hone in on the denial. Sarah’s laughing was likely an involuntary scoffing, but the denial of her laughter was a conscious choice. She wanted to cover up her embarrassment.
When I was seven years old, I used an ink pen to draw a band-aid on my favorite doll’s forehead. I was trying to cover up a smudge I couldn’t clean off and came up with what felt like a reasonable plan to give her a bandage to make it all better. Why the ink pen and not an actual band-aid? Who knows? What I do remember is that when my mom asked me if I knew how the drawing got there, I denied that I had done it. I offered that maybe a friend had done it (sorry, Lindsey!). My mom knew. I knew. But I was too embarrassed to admit it.
It’s human nature to want to deny or cover up our mistakes. Even as really faithful adults, we do it too. It’s often more subtle than ink on a doll, like denying our role in a conflict or situation: “the reason that person is mad is totally unreasonable (and therefore not my fault)!” We focus on how our colleague got defensive, forgetting that we first said their idea was unreasonable. Parents do it with kids when we assume our anger is a direct result of our kids’ actions and not on our own ability to regulate our emotions. Church members try to shield embarrassment when things don’t go their way by holding on for dear life to “but that’s how we’ve always done it!” or a well-timed, “that will never work!”
So why include Sarah’s denial in scripture? Why is it important? Because this didn’t hold Sarah back from playing a great role in God’s plan. Because Sarah was not defined by the laughter nor the denial of it: being a person of faith means reckoning with our cringey and unsavory moments and not letting them define us. It’s an invitation to be honest with ourselves because the Lord already knows the truth. It’s scary to hold up our cringiest moments to God, to others, and maybe even mostly to ourselves; and it’s also freeing because it opens us up to the real and great possibility God has in store for us. Something beyond our wildest imagination. So don’t pray for God to take those moments away, pray that you will not let them define you and that you will be open to the plans that God has in store for you.
Rev. Martha Slocombe
My faith is rooted in the belief that each of us is a beloved child of God, and that there is nothing that any of us can do to change that. I grew up in a church community where my faith was encouraged and doubts were accepted, where I could find my friends, and where God was in our midst. While churches and people of all denominations are facing new challenges, the same God calls and inspires us to listen and discern together to follow in God’s path. As an educator and ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), I have served in a variety of school and ministry settings. In my role at Creighton, I have the privilege to walk alongside and support students from a variety of Christian backgrounds in their personal and communal faith development through weekly worship, social gatherings, and leadership coaching.
As someone who loves to read, scripture is full of literary gold: the drama, the stories, the juxtapositions, the metaphors, the allegories, and the surprising power reversals. The richness and depth of the written word inspire us to dig in to the text to learn more about this amazing God, surprising Spirit, and paradoxical Jesus we encounter within it.
