A Time to Laugh
David C. Myers
June 8, 2008
Proverbs 17:22
I Corinthians 1:18 - 25
Matthew 7:1 - 5; 23:25 - 26
Text (at least for this preacher): ". . . it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe." . . . I Corinthians 1:21
Please bear with me today. I ask you to indulge a small obsession of mine as long as I began studying the Bible in earnest. You see, ever since I began to take steps to become a minister I have always been fascinated with the idea that Jesus could be human and at the same time be God's Son, blessed by God and divine beyond our comprehension. It is hard to fathom how even Jesus can be both fully human and fully divine. More specifically, I always wondered about the person, Jesus, and what human qualities He might have lacked as kind of a trade-off for the more pressing work of redeeming, liberating and saving the world.
In my early religious training the emphasis seemed to be on Jesus' divinity. Although I was told that He lived and walked as we did, from all I was taught about him there didn't seem to be much that touched base with my life. On the one hand Jesus healed people; but people caught colds and mumps from me (when I was 6, my father caught mumps from me and was in bed 3 weeks!). Jesus told people to forgive, to love their enemies; I looked for ways to get even. He said, "walk a second mile"; I tried to avoid the first. He said turn the other cheek - well, at least that's what I said to Howie Dyum when I was beating him up at eight years old.
When I got to seminary, I was convinced from my early Biblical training that one of those human qualities Jesus lacked was a sense of humor. Not that I wanted my Savior to be a stand-up comic, but even the most somber of us chuckle now and then. And that quality just never came through in my Sunday School teachings. And yet some of those parables seemed so absurd. . . . Thus began a small but persistent obsession to uncover a meaningful sense of humor in religion.
Please bear with me.
One of my seminary professors helped me in this quest. While discussing our preaching styles he said to the class: "When describing the joys of heaven and faithful service, brighten up; . . . smile; . . . show some life!" Then, not quite under his breath, he added, "When describing the threat of hell, your usual dour expressions will suffice."
A member of the United Methodist church approached her minister and said, "Reverend, my dog died this morning and I want to know if you think it is all right to have a funeral for him. He was just like a member of the family." The pastor, somewhat taken aback by this strange request, said, "Yes, I suppose it would be appropriate." "Reverend," the grieving woman replied, "Who do I get to do the funeral?" Not at all pleased with the thought of having a funeral for a dog, the pastor replied, "I have a terribly busy couple of days coming up, try the Baptist minister. Perhaps he can help you." "Thank you, pastor," she replied, but how much should I pay the Baptist minister - $500.00 or $750.00?" The eyes of the Methodist minister lit up and he put his arm around the bereaved woman. "My dear lady, why didn't you tell me it was a Methodist dog?"
It feels good to laugh, doesn't it? Now you might be wondering how far I am going to carry this obsession of mine, or see if it is really a guise to use this time to be a stand-up comic. No doubt some aren't even sure about the propriety of telling a joke in church. And yet I can remember one of my childhood preachers telling me to watch out for what he called "mule-faced Christianity" which turned a lot of people off. I have come to believe that minister was speaking an important truth.
The importance of humor has been with us a long time. In Medieval times English monarchs employed Court Jesters and Shakespeare made one famous in his play King Lear.
There is even credible evidence that laughter plays a role in healing. Norman Cousins, famous editor of the old Saturday Evening Post tells about a remarkable healing experience he had when it was discovered that he had an incurable degenerative and painful disease of the joints. Not satisfied with the prognosis of the doctors, he checked himself out of the hospital and into the cheerful environment of a motel. He had read about the role that negative emotions play on the chemical balance of the body. By watching funny movies, especially old Candid Camera and Abbott and Costello routines, and by changing his dietary habits, Cousins began his road to recovery. He found that one ten-minute period of laughter gave him two hours of painless sleep. Two years later he was functioning at a normal level, reversing all medical predictions.
Philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard, many years ago, warned against those he called "stupidly serious" and pointed to the profound nature of humor. In fact, one former District Superintendent responded when asked what the hardest part of his job was: "dealing with ministers who take themselves too seriously."
It was not surprising that Abraham Lincoln, before he read to his cabinet the historic Emancipation Proclamation, eased the tension of the group by reading passages from a humorous book. He was a noted teller of funny stories. This too, was part of his genius.
What does the Bible - ah, yes, the Bible! - say about all of this? I think you may be surprised. One of the clearest indications of the role of humor in health is suggested in Proverbs 17:22: "A merry heart does good like a medicine; but a broken spirit dries up the bones." A number of other Proverbs suggest a cheerful outlook on life and the great importance that humor brings to life. Such Proverbs suggest that God's healing power is hindered by gloomy and negative feelings.
The Bible is a book of realism and doesn't ignore the place of humor. For example, in the 17th chapter of Genesis there is the story of Abraham and Sarah. God told Abraham that his wife Sarah would have a child. And Abraham broke out with a belly-laugh! "You've got to be kidding! Shall a 100-year-old man father a child with his 90-year-old wife?" Then the Lord told Sarah the news. The results were the same - she, too, broke out in laughter. P.S. They had the baby, which carried on the lineage of faith, even to this day.
Elsewhere in the Old Testament we find, for example, in Psalm 2, the rulers of the earth in their somber and long faces plotting against the Lord. The Psalmist, however, puts things into proper perspective, "God Who sits in heaven laughs."
But the Old Testament is not the only place in the Bible where we can find a refreshing use of humor. Indeed, perhaps the One Who makes the best use of humor is Jesus. Imagine, if you will, the scene as it unfolds in the first century. There is a man who is meticulously dressed. Every hair is in place; all of his robes match, sandals are in place with every strap neatly wrapped around his ankle and calf. He is the epitome of the perfect model of first century gentleman - a model for the cover of the Hebraic version of Esquire Magazine. But he is hungry. He has a container of soup in one hand a bowl in the other. As he starts to pour the soup into the bowl, he accidentally drops the bowl into the dirt. He looks down and it is covered with dust and grime. He picks up the bowl and takes from his pocket a clean handkerchief and proceeds to clean and shine the outside of the bowl! He does this for quite a while, then he pours into the bowl the soup and proceeds to eat, thinking that everything is clean.
Ugh! You can almost taste the grit left inside the bowl.
This is the criticism Jesus levels at the Pharisees and Sadducees who "clean the outside of the cup and plate but do not clean the inside."
And this is just one use of humor by analogy that Jesus uses as he tries to make us understand ourselves and our relationships to God and others.
Dr. Elton Trueblood tells us that he had his eyes opened to the humor of Christ when he and his wide were having family devotions. He read, very seriously, from the seventh chapter of Matthew the story of the person with a log in his own eye trying to help the person with a speck in his eye. All of a sudden the 5-year-old son began to laugh. He could see how utterly ridiculous this whole scene was. This 5-year-old, not contaminated with the stuffiness and somberness that we have put into our brand of religion, was able to see Jesus' keen sense of humor.
This began for Trueblood a pilgrimage that eventually led to a book entitled The Humor of Christ. Trueblood points out, rightly so, that we have misunderstood the character of Jesus. We have been thinking of a fictitious Jesus Who was mild in His manner, endlessly patient, and always somber in his speech. This misunderstanding, Trueblood argues, probably stems from the nature of His passion and death. We have just come to assume there was no room for levity in the life of One Who had so great a mission.
Of course, we are wrong. Sometimes Jesus became very angry and called His enemies, "white-washed tombs, full of putrid and decaying flesh." At other times Jesus was teasing and teaching with a brilliant kind of irony and humor. References to candles trying to burn under a bushel or trying to stuff a camel through the eye of a needle surely brought some snickers, if not outright belly-laughs from His hearers.
There are many other instances of Jesus' use of humor, whether it is tongue-in-cheek, irony, or setting the scene in an absurd situation. In fact, irony was a use of humor Jesus employed to show us the inconsistency of our own behavior. He frequently chided those who professed with so somber a sternness their correctness and their moral rectitude in living - He showed them their own ironic inconsistencies.
As the preacher in Ecclesiastes tells us, there is a time to weep and a time to laugh. We have tended to think that weeping was religious and laughing was a sign of the world. Humor has a tremendous place in the lives of Christians. The wisdom of Proverbs grows with the ages: "A merry heart does good like medicine; but a broken spirit dries up the bones." (Proverbs 17:22)
A merry heart cannot be produced by a drug company and encased in a capsule for our consumption. It is the product of the heart in harmony with God. Not only will humor add years to your life and free up your body for God's healing, it will give you a new zest for living. It will help you to not take yourself so seriously. God knows that there is enough folly and inconsistent behavior in all of us to keep us laughing for a lifetime.
Think, if your will, how ludicrous it is for one person as imperfect as me to stand in a pulpit and preach about the meaning of life. When I stop to think about it, especially since I know my weaknesses and imperfections far better than you, I can't help but chuckle - one frail, struggling person trying to suggest to people the truth of the Gospel. Yet for centuries God has been using this strategy to speak to people and call them from a life of folly to a life of faith. Paul understood, as he told the Corinthians, ". . . it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to those who save those who believe." Thank goodness the success of the Gospel doesn't depend upon this preacher. But somehow God's Spirit can work through even me.
Ah, . . . it is good to laugh!
Come to think about it, we Christians are the only folks in the world who can really laugh - long and hard. We have walked into the deep waters and we have found that the foundation is secure. We have seen crucifixion day and we have found it to be but a door to Easter morning. We have seen the exposed face of God painted by ages of ignorance and we have seen it is the face of love.
We can laugh and be free, for Jesus has come that we might have life and have it abundantly.