God’s Laughter
Genesis 21: 1-7; Proverbs 17:22; Romans 12: 3-8
Sid Batts
First Presbyterian Church
Greensboro, North Carolina
May 4, 2014
On Easter Sunday many of you heard me tell of a monk in the Middle Ages who, during the
seriousness of Holy Week, broke out in laughter, interrupting the silence of the monastery. He
shared with his brothers a comic insight about God and Good Friday. He said Easter was the
greatest joke in human history. Because on Friday, Satan thought he had won…..that Christ was
dead and God had been defeated. But on Easter God had the last laugh….that the resurrection
was God’s joke played on Satan.
It became known as the “Easter laugh,” and monasteries and some Eastern Churches began to
see Easter Monday and the week following as a time to gather, to laugh, tell jokes, and to
celebrate history’s greatest joke, resurrection.
I have discovered that some United States churches, particularly Lutheran churches, (though I’m
not sure why them) have caught on to this idea and now call the Sunday after Easter Holy
Hilarity Sunday. It celebrates the laughter and joy of Easter.
So with no authority, and even though it is now the second Sunday after Easter, I am declaring
today and next Sunday, Holy Hilarity Sunday at First Presbyterian Church. Celebrating the joy
and laughter of the Good News, of resurrection, of new life, of God’s having the last laugh, of
God thumbing God’s nose at the forces of evil.
I
Truth is, much of Christianity has not known what to do with humor and laughter. Some of the
early church Fathers proclaimed that humor and laughter were inappropriate for Christians and
Christian worship.
And though I don’t agree with it I can see why they thought that way. Our Christian story starts
at the end and then looks backwards. When we look at the written gospels, Jesus’ last week,
Holy Week, takes up about twenty-five percent of the three-year ministry of Jesus. To
understand Christianity, we start with Holy Week’s brutality and the tragic crucifixion. Easter
only makes sense when viewed through the eyes of Good Friday!
There is not much humor in Holy Week. And if our focus remains there, and our Christian
conversation revolves around the suffering of Jesus, there is not much humor and laughter to be
had. This is one reason I like the Protestant symbol of an empty cross rather than a crucifix.
2
When we got to the Reformation, religion was such a mess. With the Inquisition, the burning of
heretics, with people putting their lives on the line simply by declaring themselves to be
Protestant or Catholic, with wars and revolutions being waged because a king or queen was
Protestant or Catholic, I mean, there was not a lot of humor going around.
And we Presbyterians have some part in a humorless faith. Our theological father, John Calvin,
is considered by many to be the foremost systematic theologian of early Protestantism. But I
would not have him at my cocktail party. Luther, who enjoyed German brew and turned beerhall songs into hymns, maybe? Calvin. Not a chance.
In sixteenth century Geneva, where Calvin led and reformed the church, that city became a
theocracy. There was no separation of church and state. In the city, dancing, drinking, gambling,
card playing, wearing fashionable clothes and other amusements were prohibited. And according
to town records, one man was put in jail for three days because he smiled at a baptism.
You can’t make this stuff up.
In the beginning of America the Puritans were worse than Calvin in Geneva. They viewed
laughter, happiness, and pleasure as suspect and undesirable. Making matters worse, they
frequently tried to impose their doleful philosophy on others.
Thank God, literally, that the twentieth century brought a fresh wind into a humorless and oftentoo-serious faith. Karl Barth, the most influential Protestant theologian of the twentieth century
once said: “Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.”
Amen.
II
The great irony is that the Christian message is such joyful good news. The angel says at the
birth of Jesus, “I bring good news of great joy!” Indeed, the word gospel is the Greek word,
euangelion which literally means good news. The resurrection was good news. Paul’s letters are
full of the word and the themes of joy. And, it is hard to imagine how we can experience joy
without humor and laughter. Plus the Bible is full of humor and laughter, if we can unloosen
ourselves to see and hear it.
The first lesson today gives us such a glimpse. It is that great story from Genesis where we
encounter Sarah and Abraham. Sarah is ninety and though Genesis sometimes plays loose with
numbers and age, we get the point that she was past her child bearing years. But she becomes
pregnant and delivers a boy, who they name Isaac. Do you know what the word Isaac literally
means in Hebrew? Laughter! Sarah says God has brought laughter to her. She says, “Everyone
who hears will laugh with me.” Yes the story could be titled, River Landing or Well-Spring
Opens a Maternity Ward. And we all laugh at this divine comedy.
3
Maybe this is why Jewish tradition has embraced laughter and humor with more ease than
Christianity. On the surface, Jews might seem to be the least likely religious candidates to see
divine humor, with their history of being oppressed.
Yet humor, in Jewish faith, can be seen even in dark times. You know how certain jokes and
humor have a genre such as There was a Rabbi, a priest and a minister or St. Peter and Pearly
Gate jokes. A genre in the Jewish community is called, Two Jews on a train. And these stories
were told and passed on to children during the Holocaust.
So it begins:
Two Jews are sitting on a train in a railway station in the old country. One is an older
man, a rabbi, who is reading from a much-worn prayer book. Occasionally, he looks at
his big gold watch attached by a gold chain in his vest pocket. The other man is much
younger and wearing modest clothes. After some time the young man asks, “Excuse me,
could you tell me what time it is?”
The older man does not reply.
“Excuse me, again but could you please tell me what time it is?” The older man looks out
the window then looks at the young man and says, “No!”
The younger man is irritated by this. “Look here. I asked you a perfectly civil question.
Why don’t you tell me the time?”
Finally the old rabbi says, “If I tell you what time it is, we start a conversation. You will
find out things about me. You will find out that I am a rabbi living in a nearby town, that
I have a beautiful, unmarried daughter. You will come to visit us. You will fall in love
with my daughter. You will marry her.”
“Well, would this be so terrible? I am a perfectly respectable Jewish man.”
“Perhaps,” says the old Rabbi. “But I don’t want a son-in-law who cannot afford a
watch!”
Another Jew writes a letter to God after the Holocaust. “Dear God, for five thousand years we
have been your chosen people. Enough! Choose another people.”
Charlie Chaplin once said, “To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it.”
Humor can open the door to divine comfort. Maybe that is why Barth said that laughter is the
closest thing to grace. Laughter seems to help us sense God saying: “I promise you’ll get through
this.”
Next week, I’m going to continue Holy Hilarity by looking particularly at Jesus and his use of
humor in his ministry. But today, let’s connect humor as a primary ingredient of the spiritual
journey.
4
III
Paul, the Apostle, is not known for his sense of humor. Though, I think there is humor in Paul’s
writings and thinking, if we look for it. I mean he makes fun of himself and his appearance; he
uses the amazing image of the human body to describe the community of Christ, using the comic
image of a foot thinking it is an arm, or the elbow an eye. He is describing the uniqueness of our
gifts and roles to make the church, the body of Christ, and able to function with divine purpose.
Then today from Romans, Paul says: “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to
us…”
Then Paul lists some of these gifts and the last one is being “compassionate, in cheerfulness.”
Cheerfulness is the translation of the Greek word, hilaritos which is the root word for hilarity.
Hilarity is extreme amusement expressed by laughter.
Holy hilarity!
Truth is we are much in need of holy hilarity. We know from all kinds of sources that humor is
healing….that it is like inner jogging when endorphin hormones are released in our immune
system, aiding the healing process. Depression is being fought with intentional ways of putting
folks in places of humor. Humor is good spiritual medicine, taking care of our soul.
IV
One spiritual function of holy humor is that it enables us to step back, not take ourselves too
seriously, to laugh at ourselves, and in that process, we become more graceful and grace
dispensing. Perhaps a stinging indictment on spiritual and religious people is that we are too
serious and that we take ourselves too seriously. And I often think of Mark Twain’s quote that
he’d choose hell over heaven because he thought the company would be better.
Recently, you have heard me reference the importance of intentional spiritual practices that help
us create space in our lives to experience God. These practices help us see God in the everyday.
Is there a way that we can turn humor into spiritual practice…to be able to take certain cues
during the day to smile, or to see the humor in a complicated and messy circumstance? Perhaps a
spiritual practice could be to tell a funny story or joke….just for the purpose of creating a climate
where joy and hilarity can be practiced by the Easter people.
Lastly humor enables us to critique our self-righteousness, especially in matters of faith. Once I
saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I
said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.”
I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?”
He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too!”
5
“Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.”
I said, “Me, too! What stream of Protestantism? Baptist, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed?”
“Reformed.” “Me too.”
“What part of the Reformed tradition?”
“Presbyterian.” “Me too!”
“Northern Presbyterian or Southern Presbyterian?”
“Southern Presbyterian.” “Me too!”
“What part – EPC, PCA, ARP, OPC or PCUSA?”
“EPC.”
And I said, “Jump!”
Humor enables us to critique our self-righteousness.
Laugh!