John 20:19-22
1 Peter 1:8-9
One day Groucho Marx was getting off an elevator. There happened to be a minister standing there waiting to get on. The minister introduced himself, and while shaking Groucho's hand said, "I want to thank you for all the joy you've put into the world."
Groucho replied, "Thank you, reverend. And I want to thank you for all the joy you've taken out of the world."
I wonder if Groucho's attitude is that of a lot of people: that ministers (and Christians in general) are stern, unsmiling saps; that Christianity sucks the humor right out of a person; or that God never laughs.
When you think about it, human beings are the only ones among God's creatures who laugh and weep. If the creation story in Genesis is true, and human beings were created in the image of God, then laughing and crying must be part of God's character that we carry within us. There may be something fundamental to the Spirit of God about our ability to laugh. In fact, says Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the great theologians of the 1900's, the very essence of sin may be the unwillingness to laugh, especially at ourselves. It is when we take ourselves so seriously that "sin is crouching at the door."
The Monday after Easter is called Easter Monday, or Bright Monday. The whole week after Easter is called Bright Week, and has been celebrated as one long day. Bright Week and Bright Monday in particular is the time to celebrate the laughter of the redeemed. Our sin has been canceled by God in Christ. God has, through the Resurrection, endowed us with eternal life. It's time to party. It's time to celebrate.
All around the world, some of the Easter Monday and Bright Week festivities include:
egg roll competitions
being doused with water
processions/parades
"smelling the breeze" (Egypt)
dancing the polka
flying kites (which were made on Holy Saturday)
picnics
If you didn't do any of that last week--celebrate this week, and keep celebrating. Keep laughing. Keep being filled with the joy of your salvation in Christ.
So we're going to do a lot of laughing this morning. We're not going to succumb to Groucho Marx's evaluation of Christians.
After the church service, a little boy marched up to the Pastor and shook his hand, saying, "When I grow up, I'm going to give you some money."
"Well, thank you," the Pastor replied. "But why are you going to give me some money?" he asked.
"Because my daddy says you're one of the poorest preachers our church has ever had."
A couple invited some friends over for dinner. At the table, the wife turned to her six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing, please?"
"I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied.
The mother said, "Just say what you hear Mommy say."
The little girl bowed her head and said, "O Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people for dinner?"
And then there was a minister who was working on his sermon. His young son was watching him, and finally asked, "Daddy, how do you know what to say in your sermon?"
"God tells me," the father replied.
The little boy thought for a moment and then said, "Then why do you keep erasing parts of it?"
Maybe the part of our faith that we Christians are too ready to erase is our God given ability to have a sense of humor about ourselves. If that be true, then one of the main ingredients of the grace of God may be the gift of laughter at ourselves. Maybe the divine laughter happens in that gracious moment when how we view ourselves meets up with how God views us.
Charles Schultz has a way of making that point so well in the comic strip, Peanuts. Snoopy has always been the God-dog in the strip. Snoopy symbolizes the God who is always trying to snatch away security blankets, and teaching other characters how to approach life more lightly.
In one cartoon, Snoopy is feeling great. He comes dancing into the first frame saying to himself, "Sometimes I love life so much I can't express it!" In the second frame he continues the dance, saying, "I feel like taking the first person I meet into my arms and dance merrily through the streets." Then in the third frame, he meets the very grumpy Lucy. Snoopy stands silently in front of her, neither of them speaking a word. In the fourth frame, Snoopy is dancing by himself again and saying, "I feel like taking the second person I meet into my arms, and dance merrily through the streets."
Or here's another one of Snoopy dancing:
I think Schultz was lampooning we Christians in those comics. More often than not we are the dour Lucy's, the sour pictures of a Christianity that is overly serious, even crabby. When we meet up with our dancing God, all we can do is stand there with piously dismal expressions, refusing to dance along with our exuberant God.
In our Christian faith we do confront so many serious problems: sin, injustice, hunger, prejudice, hate, war, disease, as Lucy described, “a world coming apart.” How dare someone laugh in the midst of our seriousness?!! But maybe Resurrection laughter, God's laughter and the dance of grace is exactly how we should confront such serious matters.
In one church, a retired minister was doing the Children's Message. A little girl came down the aisle and sat next to the old Pastor. She looked at his white hair, his wrinkles and asked, "Did God make you?"
"Yes," he said.
Then she asked, "Did God make me, too?"
"Yes."
"Well," said the little girl, "Don't you think God is doing a better job now than he used to?"
One little boy asked his father, "Why does the minister get a month's vacation and you only get two weeks vacation a year?"
"Well, son," said the father, "if he's a good minister, he needs it. If he isn't, the congregation needs it."
Maybe one of the ways a minister can be the best Pastor is to help the congregation laugh. We've all heard that if you can't cry, the next best thing is to laugh. So often we don't give ourselves permission to cry. We think it's a sign of weakness. So why is it that we Christians think it is unGodly also to laugh, even at the seriousness of life?
Martin Luther used to laugh at the devil to make him flee, because the one thing the devil does is take himself absolutely seriously and can't stand to be laughed at. It is interesting that one of the most unChristian philosophers, Nietzsche, said one of the most Christian statements: "The devil is the spirit of gravity." Evil, is that which puts weight to everything, pressing down the joy of living, which seeks to drag the corners of your mouth down.
Who were the ones who had the hardest time with Jesus? The seriously devout religious types--the Pharisees and teachers of Jewish religiosity. They thought Jesus' light-hearted attitude about God and faith was sacrilegious. The light-hearted laughter of the grace of God was beyond their dour grasp. "How dare some upstart from Nazareth poke fun at our righteousness!"
I try to imagine the Pharisees and other legalistic types as comedic Rodney Dangerfield characters. They are comical in their dead pan seriousness about themselves, and their inability to simply get it and enjoy life. You can imagine a Rodney Dangerfield type Pharisee saying:
I tell 'ya I don't get no respect. I was on an airplane that lost one of its engines. A lady said, "You're a minister; do something!" So I took up an offering. I tell 'ya I don't get no respect.
I was talking to a man on death row. I didn't know what to say as he was walking to the electric chair, so I just said, "Hey, more power to you." I don't get no respect.
One time I was sick and couldn't preach. My church board visited me and said, "We had a meeting and voted 10-9 to send you a get-well card. I tell 'ya I don't get no respect.
One time I came to church with a bandaid on my face. C.L. Meigs asked me about it. I told him I was thinking about my sermon while shaving and accidentally cut myself. C.L. said, "Why don't you think more about your shaving and cut your sermon." I don't get no respect.
One time I dreamed I was preaching. I woke up and I was. I tell 'ya I get no respect.
The spark of the divine in the human person may just be the ability to laugh, even at what we hold most dear--maybe especially at what we hold most dear. And that, usually, is ourselves.
Think of the important role of the court jester in the kings court who, by humor, was able to get away with poking fun at the king himself. So a well developed sense of humor fulfills the role of a personal court jester, and through grace and wit enables us to look at ourselves in new and fresh ways--humorous ways; to enjoy ourselves as God must, sitting up in heaven laughing at the incredible things we do.
It's been told that a student once asked a rabbi why God created human beings. Wouldn't the world have been a much better place if God stopped at the animals? The Rabbi responded, "God created human beings because God likes a good story." If that's true, I'd guess we supply God with a lot of comedy.
Mother Teresa wrote,
Let nothing so disturb us, so fill us with sorrow or discouragement, as to make us forfeit the joy of the Resurrection. Joy is not simply a matter of temperament in the service of God and souls; it is always hard. All the more reason why we should try to acquire it and make it grow in our hearts. We may not be able to give much but we can always give the joy that springs from a heart that is in love with God. All over the world people are hungry and thirsty for God's love. We meet that hunger by spreading joy.
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