Holy vs Unholy Laughter: Calvin on Gen. 21.1-21
Calvin discovers in Gen. 21, with its record of
Isaac's birth and Ishmael's banishment from Abraham's house, a contrast between
two kinds of laughter, one "holy and lawful," the other "canine and profane."
Holy laughter -- not (of course) to be confused with the phenomenon of inexplicable
giggling that cropped up in certain late-twentieth century charismatic circles
of the church -- flows from sheer wonder and astonishment at God's unexpected
and undeserved goodness to his people. It is an expression of pious and
believing disbelief (as it were); the fruit of recognition that the most
appropriate response to "Can it be that I should gain?" is simultaneously "of
course not" (given sin) and "yes, I not only can, but already have" (by God's
sheer grace).
In Gen. 21 it is Abraham and Sarah who thus laugh wholly and
holily in response to God's goodness to them. Their laughter is prompted by God's
fulfillment (at last!) of his promise of a child to them. "The Lord visited
Sarah as he had said, ... and Sarah
conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age" (Gen. 21.1-2). Calvin comments:
"Isaac was to his father and others the occasion of holy and lawful laughter;
... [he] brought laughter with him from his mother's womb, since he bore --
engraven upon him -- the certain token of God's grace." The laughter which
Isaac engendered in his parents and others finds reflection in his very name: "Isaac"
means "laughter."
Such "holy and lawful laughter" is contagious and inviting.
It includes rather than excludes. The inviting and inclusive nature of holy
laughter is witnessed in vs. 6, when Sarah notes that "everyone who hears will
laugh with me." It is equally witnessed in vs. 8, when Abraham throws a large
party on the occasion of Isaac's weaning -- a context for joyous and grateful
laughter by all. "It is not [God's] design," Calvin notes on this score, "to
prohibit holy men from inviting their friends to a common participation of
enjoyment, so that they, jointly giving thanks to God, may feast with greater
hilarity than usual." Of course, Calvin quickly adds, "temperance and sobriety"
are always in order. But "God does not deal so austerely with us as not to
allow us, sometimes, to entertain our friends liberally." Calvin goes so far as
to note several appropriate occasions for festive "hilarity," for instance "when
children are born to us" or "when nuptials are to be celebrated." Calvin's
rather blunt endorsement of parties to celebrate births and marriages would no doubt have caused
some of his seventeenth-century Scottish heirs some discomfort.
But, of course, not all laughter is holy. "Sarah saw
the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So
she said to Abraham, 'Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son
of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac'" (Gen. 21.9-10). Sarah's
response to Ishmael's laughter is harsh, but is not, in Calvin's judgment, "without
cause," because Ishmael's laughter was prompted not by joy, but by ridicule and
hatred. "Therefore, as an impious mocker, [Ishmael] stands opposed to his
brother Isaac.... [Isaac] so exhilarates his father's house that joy break
forth in thanksgiving; but Ishmael, with canine and profane laughter, attempts
to destroy that holy joy of faith." Ishmael's laughter was thus ultimately an
expression of "manifest impiety against God."
If holy laughter is inclusive, unholy laughter of the kind
expressed by Ishmael is exclusive. It is forbidding and divisive, rather than
inviting. Ishmael is not among the number laughing "with" Sarah, as she
predicted in vs. 6 that some would do. Ishmael is among the number laughing "at"
Sarah and her child, and thus he ultimately mocks not only God's goodness, but
God's peculiar promise and fulfillment of a seed (from which would come the Seed) to Abraham.
Considered in relation to its roots, then, Ishmael's unholy
laughter provides ample justification for the apparently severe treatment he
subsequently receives at Abraham's hand. "For nothing is more grievous to a
holy mind than to see the grace of God exposed to ridicule." Indeed, given
Isaac's peculiar identity, Ishmael's laughter at him ultimately constitutes
persecution of the church in Calvin's estimation. The Reformer reads Gal. 4.29
("just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted
him who was born according to the Spirit") as a direct reference to Ishmael's
laughter in Gen. 21.9. "Was it," Calvin asks, "with sword or violence [that
Ishmael persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit]?" "Nay," he
answers, "but with the scorn of the virulent tongue, which does not injure the
body, but pierces into the very soul." Unholy laughter, in sum, is murderous, reaching
its intended victim with a force more deadly than bullet or blade.
Gen. 21 ultimately points to the
eschatological outcome of holy laughter and its unholy imitator. Holy laughter
leads to a "great feast." Unholy laughter brings exile and banishment in its
wake. In light of the same, the contrast
between holy and unholy laughter in Gen. 21 invites us to honest and critical
examination of our own merriment and its sources. What prompts genuine laughter
from us? Is our laughter inclusive or exclusive? Inviting or forbidding? Are we
laughing with or at others? Most importantly, are we laughing with or at the ultimate Child
of promise? If the former, our laughter will culminate in the participation of
the greatest "feast" of all. As Calvin once noted in a letter to a friend, "we
can only really laugh once we have
left this life" (emphasis mine). If the latter, our laughter will culminate in eternal banishment and exile from the true Father and his household.
But Gen. 21 (and Calvin's comments on it) also invites us to
laugh considerably more than we currently do, even if, as just noted, ultimate
laughter belongs to the age to come. If God's fulfillment of the promise of a
seed to Abraham and Sarah was funny (in the best sense of the word), how much more
funny (again, in the best sense of the word) the fulfillment of his promise of
the Seed (Gen. 3.15) in whom we have forgiveness of sins and life everlasting? How
much more frequent, how much more joyous, how much more hilarious ought to be
our laughter when we ponder the sheer enormity and extravagance of God's unexpected
and liberal grace to us in the person and work of his Son Jesus Christ.
So "laugh often," as Bessie Anderson Stanley advised. But
make it holy laughter, as I'm sure Calvin himself would have quickly added.