11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

...and Sara your wife will have a son!
​Now Sara was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. And Avraham and Sara were old, advanced in days, the way of women had ceased for Sara.
Sara laughed within herself, saying: After I have become worn, is there to be pleasure for me? And my lord is old!
~Genesis 18:10-12
Schocken Bible
 
Sara laughs. Twice, actually. She laughs again a few chapters and, we presume, nine months later when Isaac, the Son of Laughter is born and an impossible promise is fulfilled.
 
What do we make of this laughter? How did it sound? What stories were carried in the amusement of this aged new mother? She has waited so long, endured so many tragedies and offenses, and even failed herself. And yet here she is confronted with such a remarkable hope for something more that has always been a part of her. And now, when her life should be over, it begins.
 
We can imagine all this in her laugh. Her laugh has everything to do with what it means to be human—limited by nature, yet drawn to a mystery, a goodness, a sense of possibility that always outshines our best and biggest hopes.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 18:1-15 (21:1-7) † Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 † Romans 5:1-8 † Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)
 
About the Art: Sarah and Abraham Offer Hospitality to the Visitors, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56993 [retrieved June 13, 2023]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ravenna_Basilica_of_San_Vitale_mosaic2.jpg.

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