" Sarah said, 'God has blessed me with laughter and all who get the news will laugh with me!"' Genesis 21:6 MSG
Now that I'm beginning to discover the truth of who my Father is as He revealed himself in Jesus, I've had a huge craving to reread the Bible starting from the beginning so that I can enjoy it from a much rosier perspective. My heart actually flutters within me when I go to open its pages because I know that I'm about to be wooed by His love. It's such a drastic change from the way I used to approach scripture: fearful and expecting condemnation. Or with a secret agenda that I hid under the guise of "intensive biblical studies" as I searched grievously trying to read between the lines of scripture and find something fresh so that I could impress people with my knowledge. Remember when Jesus rebuked the religious folks for studying the scriptures, trying to find eternal life in them, but in all their scholarship they missed the whole point of what was written or, more accurately, WHO was written? That observation describes my former way of thinking perfectly. The scriptures all point to Jesus, who is Life, and they can only be interpreted through him, his life, his death, his resurrection and ascension. And as two of my favorite evangelists, Francois du Toit and Andre Rabe, like to say: The scriptures are all about Jesus and Jesus is all about you! The scriptures reveal Jesus and Jesus reveals the true you!
I feel the need to throw in a disclaimer here: I've had no formal biblical training. I do not know all of the nuances of the Greek and Hebrew. So I like to take the same attitude that Robert Capon takes (although he is very learned in the Bible), which is to enjoy the scriptures and feel free to play and imagine with them as the Holy Spirit guides me into truth. Thankfully, we are the children of a childlike God who is innocent of evil and likes to bring us joy and make us laugh (more about that in a moment). In light of that, I will never reject a single verse, but I feel more than free to reject mine or anyone else's interpretation of any verse that doesn't line up with the self-giving, long-suffering, merciful love that I see displayed on the cross. I'm not at all against knowledge, after all it's the knowledge of the truth that pulls our experience of life out of the pit of Hades, which is ignorance and darkness, and into the freedom of light. I'm against the kind of knowledge that is empty of love and full of worldly reasoning that keeps people trapped in a system of hierarchy and shame.
Being a full time Mom and a part-time receptionist has made my read-thru a slow-going process, but if there's one thing I'm learning, it's that time is the least of our Father's concerns. He is never in a rush, but His love is of the utmost urgency. That is why He is always so happy, so ready to reveal Himself!
So at this point in my reading, I've recently come across Abraham and Sarah's story. Abraham is the man that God elects to make His covenant with and chooses to be the father of all nations. He isn't elected at the exclusion of everyone else, but for their inclusion! "All the families of the earth will be blessed through you." Many of us that have grown up in evangelical traditions have a very warped, and sometimes terrifying, view of election or being "chosen" that ignores the fact that the One always represents all. It was true with Adam, it was true with Abraham, it was true with Israel and is now true with Jesus Christ! That is why their actions had a tremendous effect on everyone they stood representing!
(Rabbit trail: Aren't you glad that Jesus represents you? That everything that is true of him is true of you? We thought that we were killing only one man by crucifying him, but what we didn't realize is that he is the fullness God! Everything that exists, exists in him! If he dies, everyone dies! If he's raised new and glorious, everyone is raised new and glorious! If he ascends to the right hand of the Father, everyone ascends to the right hand of the Father! That's what I call some pretty glorious atonement baby!!! As he IS, so are we IN THIS WORLD!).
We know from the New Testament that we (uncircumsized gentiles) are included in the covenant that God made with Abraham. We also discover that we are not children of the slave woman, which is a reference to Hagar and her son, Ishmael, and the fact that he was a product of human effort. But we are children of the free woman, which is a reference to Sarah and her son, Isaac, who was a product of God's promise and God's faith. But the thing that specifically tickled my heart as I read this section of Genesis is the meaning of Isaac's name: Laughter. God chooses this name after telling Abraham that the son through whom He would establish His covenant would come through his elderly, barren wife, Sarah. Abraham falls on the ground laughing and once he recovers, God says to name his son, Laughter.
A few chapters later, God visits Abraham to tell him that, by this time the next year, Sarah would have a son. Sarah is eavesdropping on the conversation and when she hears this news, she also starts laughing. When she finally gives birth to the son that she never believed she would bear, she says, “God has blessed me with laughter, and all who get this news will laugh with me!"
This is the perfect picture of the New Covenant. Our Father loves to bless us with jubilant, deep, guttoral laughter! If the version of the Gospel that you have been presented with doesn't cause your heart to bubble over in gleeful laughter, or at least provoke a bright smile, chances are you've heard a very diluted, watered-down to ineffective, non-gospel: full of conditions, laws and fear tactics. So don't feel guilty if you've never laughed over the goodness of the Gospel. Most likely, you've just not heard it aright and it is my prayer that Abba Father will make His appeal to you as the Holy Spirit shows you who He is, as revealed in Jesus and who you are, as revealed in Jesus. I hope that you will hear his loving voice whispering,
"Come to me you weary and heavily burdened. I am gentle and humble in heart. I will give you rest. Drink freely of my water and streams of living water will flow from your belly. I remember your sins no more! I am patient and kind. I keep absolutely no record of your wrongs. I am Love. I will never insist upon or force my own way, but I will help you discover that my way is for your utmost pleasure. As I persuade you of my goodness, your belief in me will melt your will into mine because you were created for truth and freedom. I choose you and woo you and find you; not the other way around. I am full of grace and truth. I dwell in you and never leave or forsake you. There is nowhere you can go to escape my presence or love. My judgment is mercy. If you believe lies that cause you to be faithless, I am still faithful. If you deny me, I'll never deny you, but I will deny the lies that you believe about me and yourself. I can never agree with a lie. If you reject me, I'll reject your rejection and keep pursuing your heart. My calling is irrevocable. I'll never stop helping you to change your mind about who I am; to show you that I'm not angry or disappointed, but in love with you. I even became a man, just like you and allowed humanity to pour all of their anger and wrath upon me, becoming your scapegoat. I let you curse me and kill me, and I did not cling to my rights as your God. My rights and dignity are nowhere near the importance of winning your love and freedom. As William Paul Young puts it: On Good Friday, I was God in the hands of angry sinners. I did not seek revenge. You are my treasure. I knew you before I even formed you and you are of great value to me. You are holy, blameless and spotless before me! I will show you that there is no love greater than this. Nothing, not even death can separate you from my love. My greatest desire is that my perfect love will cast out all of your fear of me; that you will no longer feel ashamed or that you must hide before me, but that you will see yourself as I see you: A clear reflection of my very own image and likeness. And that you will forever enjoy being in union with me."
I hope you are giggling or at least smiling as you allow His infectious joy to permeate your entire being. His covenant was meant to make you laugh with its goodness. Don't let the wolves, even when they're in their best sheep's disguise, lead you to believe otherwise. You'll know that they're wolves because they'll try to ravage your joy, weighing you down with guilt, condemnation, shame, rules and the sneakiest forms of idolatry that say that Jesus' work on the cross wasn't enough to justify you. Be oh so careful of these! Many are well-meaning and scared and have just been deceived themselves. But their doctrine will destroy you with hopelessness. Remember Jesus' warning to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Their leaven begins with fear and a false doctrine of separation that leads to a system or formula of impossible demands and expectations. Baxter Kruger says something along these lines: If you start with a perception of separation from Father, Son and Spirit, you will get a dead religious system that demands that you work for something you've already got. But if you start believing the union that was revealed in the person of Jesus, you will get a life of freedom to explore the depths of the love we were created for and you will experience utter astonishment at the goodness of Father, Son and Spirit.
Do you see why this distinction is so important? The Gospel message that we have to offer to the world is not: Do this so that you can become that. It's not: Repent and confess so that God will forgive you. It's not: Pray this prayer so that you can go to Heaven and be with Jesus when you die. It's not: Jesus died for you, but you must now apply the blood to your life in order to be vitally forgiven. It's not: You are currently the child of the devil, but if you ask God, he'll adopt you as his own.
Our Gospel message DOES NOT start from a place of separation to which our union or perfection or sanctification or righteousness is dependent on something we must do, nor is our remaining in that state dependent upon something we must do. Our Gospel message is from faith to faith. That means that it originates in God's faith and when we discover what He believes, our own faith is ignited. From faith to faith. We declare WHAT IS. The Good News is that Christ has done it! In Him, the fullness of God dwells and in Him all things-including humanity- consist. Jesus reveals the union of Man and God. He has included humanity in his own relationship with the Father in the fellowship of the Spirit. Through his death, He reconciled the whole world, whom He loved, to Himself. This is HIS faith. This is HIS conviction. We now have the exciting joy of participating in His ministry of reconciliation and telling the world of what has happened to them in Christ. So whether someone is a believer, unbeliever, atheist, Jew, Muslim or Christian, you can joyfully proclaim to them that they were included in the death and resurrection of Jesus and that Jesus is the full revelation of the Father AND Jesus is the full revelation of their true selves. They have been successfully reconciled to the Father and the Spirit now makes his appeal to them to be reconciled.
As Andre Rabe likes to clarify, the appeal to "be reconciled" is not to be mistaken as an appeal to "become" reconciled. No one can become what they already are. But you can certainly cease striving, cease believing a lie and be what you already are. You can stop acting and living as though you were cut off from this great love. You can be the transformed person that you already are as your mind is renewed to the truth.
This great love invites, hopes and anticipates a response, but the response is not the condition for making it true; it's not "your part" of some legal contract. The response is just the joy, the laughter, the belief, the love that arises from your heart when you hear the truth of the proclamation of Father's affections toward you and how He sees you! It is the participation in what He has already accomplished!
Isn't it great? God has given me laughter and all who hear the Good News will laugh with me!!!!! Amen.
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