Wednesday Bible story: Sarah & the Holy Spirit!
Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)
The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
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They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance 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 said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”
The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. 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. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
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This story is above and beyond for good old Sunday School class favorites! All manner of things here and I'll share a few of them, though sharing from afar is no fun compared to the riot that is our Sunday School class.
First to mind is that Christians read this as the Trinity appearing to Abraham. In fact, Rublev 1411, perhaps the most famous eastern church Trinity icon
Faithwise, the visit and Abraham's response is our bible call to welcome strangers with hospitality. That may seem to have been safer in Abraham’s age than in ours. Sadly not a Christian characteristic, hospitality is a faith principal for Jews and Muslims to this day, especially for Muslims.
Another thing is the visitors asking “Where is your wife Sarah?” Couple of thoughts: one is that Abraham hadn’t told them about Sarah, but they knew anyway. We would expect that of an omniscient God, eh? We wonder why they're so interested in who my seminary New Testment professor called "Abraham's sexy ninety-year-old wife Sarah". We'll soon find out!
Second, their question reminds me of the Lord God in the Garden calling Adam, “Where are you?” The LG already knew that Adam and Eve were hiding, and he knew why! And when he says “Who told you that you were naked: have you eaten the fruit of the tree of which I commanded you NOT to eat?” there is never disagreement that the Lord God already knew the answers. Was not deceived by Adam’s lie, was not surprised at Adam passing the blame to his wife either, nor at Eve blaming the serpent.
There’s some snickering Hebrew humor in there about הַנָּחָ֑שׁ haNachash, but we're not going there right now because this blog is linked on the HNEC website and kids might read it. Besides we discussed it in Sunday School class years ago, and anyway this is not about Adam & Eve, it's about Abraham & Sarah.
We love to digress in our Sunday School class, but we usually come back on track. So “Abraham, where is your wife Sarah?” Is reminiscent of “Adam, where are you?” The Trio knew full well where Sarah was!
This goes a little further. Sarah laughed at the Lord’s familiar old covenant promise of giving them children. Sarah had heard this before, in fact, she heard it every single time the Lord came around to have a beer with Abraham. We could say it was getting old to Sarah, but I think she loved the Lord as much as her husband did, I think she enjoyed his visits, I think she loved eavesdropping on their conversations about old times and their daydreams about a homeland and a child for her and Abraham. I think the Lord was fully aware of Sarah’s presence and of her devotion to both him and to her husband. They were dear friends.
Moses the Lord's friend was a constant whiner, but Abraham and Sarah, always faithful, were God’s favorite people in the Hebrew bible, second only to king David.
Over time, all three did disappoint God now and then, Moses, Abraham, and David. Moses the Whiner, Abraham who cowardly palmed Sarah off to the King as his Sister, David the Adulterer, but God never gave up, never stopped loving them! Might be the same with you and me!
There’s more in the story. Some of it maybe a little bit edgy? Look at the picture! Three handsome, virile young men sitting under the oak tree. I’m not doubting Abraham’s prowess at age 99, mind, but I’m wondering if one of those guys is the same eternal Holy Spirit who visited the Blessed Virgin Mary that night hundreds of years later?
And maybe the same who came and told Zechariah that his barren wife Elizabeth would get pregnant with John the Baptist?
Even maybe whoever visited Samuel's barren mother Hannah? IDK.
No, I don't know, I'm just remembering the line in the Apostles' Creed that we used to say every Sunday morning when I was growing up, "who was conceived by the Holy Ghost."
Listen, there’s nothing far fetched in such speculation. At a Jesuit retreat I attended years ago, my spiritual advisor was a Roman Catholic deacon who told me that Joseph was not Mary’s husband, that her husband was the Holy Spirit, and to bring Joseph into it would be adultery and Mary would never commit such a sin. I asked him, “Does your bishop know you are teaching this?” and he said “Yes, of course.” Oooookay! Nothing I say could be goofier than that.
But it would be logical, wouldn’t it, to wonder if the reason the Holy Spirit came along with the other two on God's visit to Abraham and Sarah at the Oaks of Mamre was to check out Sarah before he made his promise to come back later, nome sane? That's her photo at the top of the page this morning, and we do remember that when Samuel was vetting the sons of Jesse, when the oldest came out and Samuel thought "Surely this is the one the Lord has chosen to be king", God said "I look at inside beauty, not external beauty".
Stirring possibilities is one thing we do in Sunday School. "One said, 'I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son'”, are you kidding me? Who but the Holy Spirit would have said such a thing? Look at those young guys, look at oblivious 99-year-old Abraham, and look how giddy, giggling excited Sarah is standing there in the tent doorway.
If you don't like Episcopal Sunday School and Bible study, you probably oughtn't be reading this anyway.
There’s plenty more to go for in this story, but maybe one last thing that was not my idea. It came from something I read somewhere long ago in rabbinical stuff. The rabbis often apply a Jewish sense of humor to Bible stories. (look at the round-the-campfire chortling and snickering over the story of Jacob waking up the morning after his wedding night to see that Laban had tricked him into marrying the ugly one, now several hours pregnant with Reuben).
Anyway, Sarah is appalled that at the age of ninety (yep) she might have a child, and she scoffs, laughs, knowing this will never happen.
God is humiliated that Sarah laughs at him in front of other persons: Abraham, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and probably a servant heard it too. Not to lose face, God vows to actually keep the covenant promise this time, and make Sarah pregnant so she can “enjoy” pregnancy and "enjoy" childbirth (remember Adam and Eve again: in punishing Eve for disobedience and for trying to pass her guilt off onto the serpent, God said childbirth would be painful). So God decides, “Sarah will not have the last laugh on me!! Sarah will NOT have the last laugh!”
Nine months later Sarah has a baby boy and names him Isaac, which means “The Last Laugh”.
Always, in viewing the icon of the Trinity (or art of the three visitors enjoying Abraham’s hospitality), I notice that the figures seem somewhat feminized, but how nice they always look, and it occurs to me to wonder where they get their hair fixed. No, really.
No, one more thing, not facetious. Has to do with art depicting God, especially depicting the Trinity. If Creator, Spirit and Word are co-eternal, which makes them either ageless or all the same age, isn’t it heresy to portray the Father with fuzzy white hair like George Washington, but the Son as a dashing young man about town? No, come to think of it, there's Daniel 7 with the Ancient of Days, hair like wool and white as snow, and the Son of Man, so IDK.
And what about the iconic Trinity triangle? It usually (not always but most often) has the Father at the top (or if not, Father and Son at top and Holy Spirit at bottom), consciously or unconsciously implying some degree of seniority to the Father, and base juniority to the Holy Spirit. Creeds and Christian doctrine hold that “in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or less than another”. The Trinity Triangle with the Father on top does not convey that impression of majesty co-equal.
So quiz:
Which angel at the table is the Father, which the Son, and which the Holy Spirit? Look it up!
What is in the chalice or bowl on the table? Nope! look it up!!
Can’t wait for our Sunday School class to reconvene!
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https://catholic-link.org/andrei-rublevs-icon-of-the-holy-trinity-explained/
https://aleteia.org/2016/05/21/the-russian-icon-that-reveals-the-mystery-of-the-trinity/
https://www.soulshepherding.org/enjoy-the-hospitality-of-the-trinity-with-rublevs-icon/
https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/whos-who-in-the-trinity-icon/