Danville News Column
Robert John Andrews
Friday, January 16, 2015
“A Divine Sense of Humor”
Word count: 750
The deacons were preparing communion. At my church, whether we need it or not, we religiously
celebrate communion on the first Sunday of the month. Holy clockwork. The deacons thought they had
enough grape juice to fill the little plastic shot-glasses. They discovered they didn’t, so one of the
deacons rushed out to the grocery store, grabbed a jug off the shelf, rushed back, and then they filled all
the cups. The only problem was, it wasn’t grape juice but prune juice, we all discovered afterwards.
Give me a church with a good sense of humor. This is one reason why I’m an insufferable tease. Humor
is a brilliant means for accomplishing that old chestnut: that the purpose of ministry is to “afflict the
comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” Or as Mark Twain quipped: “Sacred cows make the best
hamburger.” It also is why for almost a decade now we have held our annual Joke Sunday (well, never
annually, more accidentally). Between church stuff, we spend an hour telling bad jokes from the pulpit,
mostly religious jokes. Laughter, we celebrate, “is carbonated holiness.” Humor can be our best friend,
a Jiminy Cricket on our spiritual shoulders. Humor helps us by poking holes in the boat our prideful
pretensions, by eroding the clay feet of our idols of haughty arrogance and self-importance.
Yes, we better than those pointing fingers outside the church know that the church is filled with
hypocrites. There’s always room for one more.
A friend tells about his first pastorate when a parishioner summoned him after Sunday worship to speak
with her. “Pastor,” she began, “you’re a fine preacher and all, but I simply can’t stand that beard of
yours.“ My friend went home, prayed about it, and decided, since it bothered her so much, he would
shave off his beard. Come the next Sunday she came up to him. “Oh, thank you, I’m so glad you shaved.
Now, about that moustache…”
A teacher who gained some familiarity with the Mid-eastern culture by having lived and taught in Beirut
his entire life taught me how the Biblical world pivoted on the hinges of pride and shame. Students of
the Bible never will appreciate the Bible (or Mideast) until they approach the stories from this
perspective. This perspective helps us interpret how a variety of our Biblical characters could
prevaricate and deceive and then be celebrated as winners. Take Abraham, take Moses, take David,
take that consummate con-artist, Jacob. This perspective also helps us interpret how pride and shame
can turn demonic when a perceived insult can result in revenge and murder, or when a daughter is
judged shameful and deserving death by stoning. Get a life. Get over yourself. If you don’t want to
take offense, don’t be offended.
The Western culture in contrast, my teacher said, turns on the hinges of right and wrong, as based upon
a constitutional ethos of individual rights. The danger within this operating principle, however, is when
you define what is right by your own attitude of superiority. It may be a right, but it isn’t always right.
So be mindful out there, you humorists, and look at yourself before you slam others. There is a
difference between being a comedian and being a humorist. I prefer the clever witticism. Satire,
however, can become an easy mask to hide behind when in reality you are simply sarcastic, spiteful, and
mean-spirited. There is merit in courtesy and magnanimity of character. There should be more to
offending people than simply for the sake of being offensive. That’s cheap. That’s easy. That’s trite
and boring, juvenile. That’s self-serving and self-gratifying. That says more about you than about those
at whom you poke fun. Ridicule lacking a love for people is plain vicious and useless. Humor can be
helpful and inspiring, provocative and revealing; cruel jokes simply hurt and degrade your own soul.
My Jesus, in contrast to both world views (which mix as well as water and oil – a literal pun), has come
to show us an altogether different means of engaging the world. Jesus shows what is Godly and what is
ungodly, what is loving and what is un-loving, what is human and what is in-human, more than as a
standard or operating principle but as an ongoing relationship requiring constant self-examination and
honesty. No wonder Jesus surprised, shocked, and annoyed just about everybody. He tweaked a whole
lot of noses in his career. He, like God, really wasn’t terribly worried about his dignity.