Rather late in the day again today, apologies, more pressing, more important things to be doing.

Today's three readings:

Psalm 139: 17 - 18a

Genesis 17: 3 - 6, 15-17

Philippians 3: 12, 14

Perhaps my choice of reading to go with is surprising, but I've opted for the Genesis:

Abram fell face down, and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.  No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations  I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you... God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her." Abraham fell face down; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"

How, you may ask, do I find something hinting at 'peace' in this reading?  Well, for me it's in the last line, where Abram falls about laughing and wondering to himself at the absurdity of what God has told him.  If we read on in the story, we would find Sarah being chastised for laughing, and yet the name of their son, Isaac, is said to mean 'he laughs.'  What kind of relationship must Abram, this old man, have had with God that he could release a belly laugh in response to divine dictate?  To me, it suggests he must have been a man very much at peace with himself and with his God.  I'm not so sure that I'd feel comfortable enough to laugh out loud at something I thought God was telling me.  I'm not that much at peace, with it's connotations of absence of anxiety, assurance of acceptance, confidence in my responses, as it seems that Abram was.

There is the old joke, isn't there, "if you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans" (I'm never quite sure why this is a joke where God becomes feminine, but hey, we'll go with it) so perhaps it's not such a big stretch to laugh with God?  Perhaps part of real peace is a sense of fun, a rascally humour, an indefatigable lightness that rocks with laughter at the preposterous possibility of what God might do?  I mean, c'mon, born to an unmarried peasant girl from Nazareth, in an outhouse in in backstreet in Bethlehem - ludicrous!  But we believe it was so.

And God giggled

And God chuckled

And God guffawed

And God held God's wobbly belly

(And crossed God's legs for fear of rather unholy accidents)

And the universe rang with God's laughter

And a plan was born

A crazy

Ludicrous

Ridiculous

Utterly stupid

(And really rather wonderful)

Plan

Peace on earth

Peace to earth

Earth embraced by peace

Come God of Laughter

Fill our world again with your mirth

Relationships restored

Peace reborn

Amen