After the birth of their child, an Episcopal priest, wearing
his clerical collar, visited his wife in the hospital. He
greeted her with a hug and a kiss, and gave her another hug and
kiss when he left. Later the wife's roommate commented: "Gee,
your pastor sure is friendlier than mine."
A pastor arranged for the installation of sanitary hot air
hand dryers in the rest rooms at his church but after two weeks
he had them removed. A colleague asked him why and he confessed
that they worked fine, but when he went in one of the restrooms,
hung by the hand dryer was a sign that read, "For a sample of
this week's sermon, push the button."
Holy Humor Sunday. It goes back a long way. In the 1200's,
Orthodox Christians often celebrated the resurrection of Jesus
for the entire week following Easter Sunday to the next Saturday.
The customs were rooted in the musings of early church
theologians (big names like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John
Chrysostom) that God had played a wonderful practical joke on the
devil by raising Jesus from the dead. "Risus paschalis," the
Easter laugh," the early theologians called it. "Bright" week
was filled with parties, picnics, feasts, joke-telling, and good-natured pranks. Other Christian traditions held parties on the
day after Easter ("Bright Monday") as another way of giving
thanks for the good news of Easter. Sadly, between the efforts
of such folks as Pope Clement X, who prohibited such practices,
and the Reformers, who were so serious about everything (admit
it...ever seen a picture of Calvin or Knox smiling?), the
laughter soon went out of Easter.(1) Too bad.
Our denomination has never been known as a particularly
joyous one. According to a book I read sometime back called How to
Survive Being a Presbyterian,(2) we sometimes operate as if we are
in a humor-free zone. "It's been said that Calvin put a man in
jail for three days for laughing in church and some reports have
it that he sometimes woke up in the middle of the night worrying
that, somewhere in the world, someone was having a good time...A
few physicians - of other faiths, of course - say that many of us
suffer from a wonderfully-named condition known as anhedonia, the
incapacity for experiencing happiness." Hmm.
But we are getting some better. About twenty years ago, a
group called the Fellowship of Merry Christians (which includes a
few of us Presbyterians) called attention to the fact that these
joyous observances of Jesus' resurrection had been sorely
neglected by the modern church and began encouraging us to
resuscitate the old customs. And today, more and more churches
are doing just that.
And why not? Is not the God we worship the one who "sits in
the heavens and laughs," according to the psalmist?(3) Doesn't our
Bible tell us that "a cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a
downcast spirit dries up the bones?"(4) And if someone like the
Apostle Paul is willing to be a "fool for Christ's sake,"(5) then
maybe it is time for us to bring back laughter and joy into the
house of God. That is the purpose of Holy Humor Sunday - to
continue the energy and enthusiasm of Easter, to continue to sing
the glad songs of life and hope, to celebrate God's grace flowing
out of the darkened tomb.
I know very well that the idea that laughter, joy and good
fun do have a place in worship still shocks some people, who
believe that what we do in church is serious, sober business.
They are not comfortable with reverent dance presented as praise,
or with any sort of revelry or festivity during church services.
Faith and fun do not mix.
Truth be told, they come by that attitude honestly. We can
catch glimpses of it in the gospels when the disciples tried to
chase away children coming to Jesus for a blessing. They wanted
nothing interrupting the day's schedule; there were more
important things for Jesus to be doing than spending time with
the children. You remember the story. When Jesus saw what was
going on he was indignant and said, "Let the little children come
to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the
kingdom of God belongs."(6) Jesus welcomed the children, adjusted
his schedule for them, accepted their eyes of wonder, giggles of
shyness and unabashed curiosity and openness. He blessed them
and their playful presence.
Jesus had a delightful sense of humor, which I am convinced,
is part of what made him attractive to kids. Jesus' illustration
of someone trying to call attention to a tiny speck in a
neighbor's eye while a whole log is hanging out of his own eye is
one example. Elton Trueblood wrote a whole book entitled The
Humor of Christ that was inspired by that passage. He says,
The germ of the idea which has finally led to the
writing of this book was planted many years ago when
our eldest son was four years old. We were reading to
him from the seventh chapter of Matthew's Gospel,
feeling very serious, when suddenly the little boy
began to laugh. He laughed because he saw how
preposterous it would be for a man to be so deeply
concerned about a speck in another person's eye, that
he was unconscious of the fact his own eye had a beam
in it. Because the child understood perfectly that the
human eye is not large enough to have a beam in it, the
very idea struck him as ludicrous. His gay laughter
was a rebuke to his parents for their failure to
respond to humor in an unexpected place.(7)
Sometime back there was a letter in the paper to Dear Abby
and the headline read, "Church applause welcomed as joyful noise
to the Lord."(8)
It was in regard to a previous letter from an
individual who had complained about clapping in church. One of
the responses was from Ronald C. Bauer of San Juan Capistrano,
California. He wrote:
I have been an Episcopal priest for 33 years,
ministering to the "frozen chosen," as others call us.
I began ministerial life as a cleric believing in the
rectitude of proper demeanor in worship. This meant
that a show of joy or emotion was forbidden. After
looking for years out at a congregation and seeing the
frustration on the faces of those who wanted to join in
an expression of appreciation for some moving sermon,
reading, choir anthem or instrumental piece, I have
been converted. In the Old Testament, worshipers are
taught: "Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God
with loud songs of joy," (Psalm 47:1). In other
passages, all of creation is to praise God with
clapping and singing. Psalm 98:8 says: "Let floods
clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy."
Good answer. Joy is God's word to us today. The late Pope
John Paul II wrote, "Christ came to bring joy...In a true sense,
joy is the keynote of the Christian message and the recurring
motif of the Gospels...Be messengers of joy." Yes, there are
gracious plenty heartaches and sorrows out there, and no one
knows that better than a church congregation, which experiences
all the tragedies, troubles, setbacks and concerns of an extended
family. That is precisely why we need joy, and its companion,
humor, so very much.
Abraham Lincoln, despite being caught up in the midst of the
most disastrous war this nation has ever experienced, and despite
fighting his own private war with depression, was well-known for
his sense of humor. There was a story that circulated around
Washington during those years concerning him and Jefferson Davis,
the president of the Confederacy. Two pious Quaker ladies were
discussing the relative merits and prospects of the two leaders.
One said, "I think Davis will succeed because he is a praying
man."
The other replied, "But so is Lincoln."
The first responded, "Yes, but when Abraham prays, the Lord
will think he's joking."(9)
Once at a Cabinet meeting, the president read aloud from a
humorous book. The Cabinet members were amazed; not one of them
even smiled. "Gentlemen," Lincoln asked with a sigh, "why don't
you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me day and
night, if I did not laugh, I should die. You need this medicine
as much as I do." We know.
Laughter is good for us; laughter releases tensions;
laughter can cause creative outbursts; laughter can bring about a
positive outlook; laughter does every single one of us a world of
good! The Navajo have a special rite of singing and dancing to
celebrate the first laugh of a baby.
In one of the well-loved American folk tales of Uncle Remus,
Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear have got Br'er Rabbit in a serious
predicament. They've got him tied up and are preparing to roast
him for their supper. Just as they place Br'er Rabbit over the
fire, he begins to laugh.
This just does not seem right nor proper to Br'er Fox. He
takes it upon himself to impress upon the rabbit the seriousness
of his situation. But Br'er Rabbit continues to laugh. He
cannot help it, he explains. He is thinking about his laughing
place.
Say what? Br'er Bear's curiosity begins to get the best of
him. He blurts out that he has got to see this "laughing place."
He is so insistent that he convinces even Br'er Fox to go along
with it. The two of them cut Br'er Rabbit loose, and order him
to lead them to his "laughing place."
Br'er Rabbit leads them on a winding path through the
forest. He really does not have a "laughing place," of course,
but he has to figure out some way of escaping. Finally, he spots
a hornet's nest in some dense brush. He points to the brush,
saying, "There it is. There's my laughing place!"
The impetuous Br'er Bear rushes in. In no time at all, he
has the hornet's nest caught on his head. The angry insects rush
out, attacking both him and Br'er Fox. As Br'er Fox and Br'er
Bear are busy evading the hornets, Br'er Rabbit runs free.
Later on, Br'er Bear catches Br'er Rabbit again. He says,
"If this is the laughing place, I ain't laughin'!"
Br'er Rabbit replies, "I didn't say it was your laughing
place. I said it was my laughing place!"
At this point, the cloud of angry hornets catches up once
again to Br'er Bear and Br'er Fox, who have no choice but to let
Br'er Rabbit go as the hornets chase them off into the sunset.
Everyone needs a laughing place, a place that gives joy.
For Christians, the laughing place is the empty tomb of Jesus.
It took Mary Magdalene and the other disciples a little while
before their fear and confusion turned to laughter -- but once it
did, that laughter spread, infectiously, around the world.(10)
Several years ago, the Reverend Sylvia Guinn-Ammons served
as moderator of the Presbytery of Denver, Colorado. In her
installation address, she offered the gift of good humor during
her time in office, encouraging all the officers in the
Presbytery to begin each meeting with prayer and good humor, a
joke or happy story to make committee members smile after saying
'Amen.'
Sylvia went on to say, "The best evangelism in the world is
laughter, a church laughing - not naïve tittering, not sarcastic
boisterousness, not angry irony, but deep, joyful laughter from
the pit of our being...laughter which has suffered from the
consequences of evil choices and found redemption and newness of
life through the cross of Jesus Christ, laughter which remembers
tears, yet knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are not to
fear, for Jesus, God's good-humored Christ, has overcome the
world."(11)
Amen!
1. Thom Shuman, "The Immediate Word," for 4/23/06, http://www.csspub.com/tiw.lasso
2. Bob Reed, (New York ; Writers Club Press, 2001), p. 171
3. Psalm 2:4
4. Proverbs 17:22
5. 1 Corinthians 4:10
6. Mark 10:13-16
7. Elton Trueblood, The Humor of Christ, (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1964), p. 9
8. Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, 2/7/98, p. 1F
9. Clifton Fadiman, Gen. Ed., The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, (Little, Brown & Co.,
Boston, 1985), p. 358
10. "The Immediate Word"
11. Katherine Fagerburg, "The Playground of God," sermon, 8/1/04,
http://www.southchurch.org/sermons/08012004.htm
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