A poem-sermon for Friday in the first week of the 2023 Chautauqua season at the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. The readings include Genesis 17:1,9-10,15-22

Abraham also laughed,
in the face of God, no less,
and lived – more than lived –
thrived and grew and strew
descendants across the centuries
like seasons, like days, like hours.

Abraham laughed,
and God laughed with him,
shaking earth and quaking the continents.
God laughed until the tears came
and fell like rain,
and Abraham lifted his face to the sky
like purple sage.

God and Abraham laughed until
they no longer knew if they were
laughing or crying,
or why.
They laughed like old friends who knew
that this moment will not pass by again;

and Abraham, finding himself alone
once more, head and shoulders shaking
with the occasional aftershock of glory,
called himself an old fool
as he lifted his feet toward home,
where his son played havoc with his heart.

Featured image: the patriarch Abraham, via wikimedia commons