“Holy Humor”

Luke 6:39-49

A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

February 22, 2004

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

One day a pastor noticed seven-year-old Alex staring at the large plaque that hung in the foyer of the church. It was covered with names, and small US flags were mounted on either side.  Alex had been staring for a long time, so the pastor walked up beside him and said, “Good morning, Alex.”

            “Good morning, Pastor,” replied the youngster, still focused on the plaque.  “Pastor, what’s this for?”

            “Well, son, it is for all the young men and women who have died in the service.”

            Soberly, they stood together staring at the plaque.  Little Alex’s voice was barely audible as he asked, “Which service, the 9 o’clock or the 11 o’clock?”        

I love religious jokes, don’t you?  There’s so much trouble, death and horror in the world that we need to do some laughing from time to time.  On top of that, it’s the Sunday before Mardi Gras.  It’s the Sunday before Lent, so maybe it’s a time for frivolous celebration. Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday is the last indulgence before Ash Wednesday, when some of us give up something for Lent.  Too many of us come to church and give up the ability to laugh, especially at ourselves.

            A very embarrassed woman apologized to her pastor because her husband had gotten up and left the sanctuary during the sermon.  “My husband didn’t leave because he disagreed with your sermon,” she said.  “Actually, he’s been walking in his sleep since he was a child.”

Did you hear about the agnostic, dyslexic insomniac?  She stayed up all night wondering whether there was dog.

From the "Gator Gay Straight Alliance" comes this biting bit of satire around the so-called logic of the opposition to gay marriage:

 

1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth
control.
2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children.
Infertile couples and old people can't legally get married because the
world needs more children.
3. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents
only raise straight children.
4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful, since Britney Spears's
55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.
5. Heterosexual marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at
all; women are property, blacks can't marry whites, and divorce is illegal.
6. Gay marriage should be decided by people not the courts, because the
majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the
rights of the minorities.
7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the
values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we
have only one religion in America.
8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that
hanging around tall people will make you tall.
9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy
behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal
standing and can sign a marriage contract.
10. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at
home. That's why single parents are forbidden to raise children.
11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual
marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new
social norms because we haven't adapted to cars or longer lifespans.
12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a
different name are better, because a "separate but equal" institution is
always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just
as well as separate marriages for gays and lesbians will.

           

I love the humor that has sprung up across this country around these gay marriages.  It is humorous to watch people fall all over themselves talking about what is happening to the fabric of society because two people are happy and in love and want to share it with the world.  It makes the opposition look foolish.  There is a town in New Mexico poised to start signing same-sex marriage licenses, following San Francisco’s lead.

            All of this has everything to do with the Christian life.  Humor is important.  It’s natural and it has healing qualities.  We need some room in our serious lives to find some holy humor.

            Since this is a sermon, I suppose we should get around to the scripture reading.  It’s the end of the sermon on the plain.  We’re happy because it only took us three Sundays to get through it.

Two weeks ago we looked at the beginning blessings and curses.

Last week we looked at the responsibility to love our enemies.

Today we wrap it all up by talking about being more than merely hearers of the word, but doers.  We’ve spoken about that a lot here.  Heck, it’s what we live.  We take Jesus seriously and we want to be more than simply admirers of him, we actually want to shape our lives like he did.    Jesus even says in verse 40 today’s Gospel lesson that “everyone who is fully trained will be like the teacher.”  We can be like Jesus if we live right.

We try to do that with all of our service projects. 

We try to do that in our relationships with our families.

We try to do that by protesting and organizing and lobbying and advocating and agitating.

We try to do all of this by standing in the gap between the haves and the have-nots; between the ins and the outs; between the included and the excluded. 

It’s all good and heady and heavy work.

The problem is it can make us such a drag to be around.

We can be so dang serious about the problems of the world that we don’t spend enough time being frivolous.  And if we’re not careful, we can become so serious that we can exhaust ourselves and burn ourselves out by trying to be so good.  I’ve seen it happen.  I’ve had it happen to me even.  So I want to invite you to take a moment, maybe even during Lent to find something that makes you laugh.

I remember reading Phyllis Trible’s monumental book “Texts of Terror” during Seminary.  I found that the stories were so horrifying that I had to spend some time watching sitcoms in between chapters.  It was way too heavy.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to minimize anyone’s pain or trauma.  I am saying that sometimes we need to find some balance in our lives.  If we don’t find something that makes us laugh, we might not have much of a foundation from which we are able to face the world.  The Jews understand this which is why every year they have the feast of Purim which is designed to poke fun at the religion and even the clergy.  The GLBT people understand this which is why the Pride celebrations are so dang much fun.  They are opportunities to cut loose and poke fun at themselves.

My friend and colleague from my Dolores Street days, Jim Lowder, now serves as Interim Director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America.  He used to have a huge stuffed dinosaur on the floor of his office where he worked tirelessly to feed and house the immigrant homeless and provide a residence for people with AIDS.  He told me that the dinosaur was there to remind him to have fun.  It was to remind him of the absurdity of life.  It was to remind him to not take everything so seriously.

We need to find places where we can appropriately laugh which means no laughing at another’s expense.  The best humor is when we see something in a joke that mirrors our own lives.  It puts things in perspective.  It can even put scripture into perspective.

Whenever I read the passage about the log in the eye, I picture William Mavity’s slapstick routine from the Gospel according to Kermit, last year’s Mardi Gras event.

You have heard of laugh therapy or that laughter is the best therapy.  It’s true, when we laugh, we release the Body’s natural healing enzymes called endorphins.  Singers get that kind of release when they sing.  Runners and bikers get that running high endorphins.  You get endorphins from good sex, from hugs, from chocolate, from listening to music.

Holy humor releases endorphins.  It’s one of the things God grants us with as a gift.  It is one of the ways that God grants us healing.

My Mom who has been through a lot of trauma in her life came to visit us around Thanksgiving.  Being Minnesota, we obliged with a nice snowfall.  Since it was early in the season and it was still a novelty, we took her and four of her grandchildren on a sledding outing at the neighborhood school.  Brave woman that she is, she rode down the hill and squealed with glee in a voice I had not hear din half a lifetime.  She said to me afterwards it was the first time she had gone sledding since we were kids—a long time ago.

Yesterday, I went down to Lake Elmo with Amanda’s Girl Scout troop.  I love chaperoning these events.  Not only is it fun to spend time with Amanda, but it’s also an opportunity for me to be a fun-loving surrogate dad to a lot of other kids.  For the first time in my life, I went snow-tubing.  Very often with a bunch of squealing seven-year-olds clasped onto each other’s tubes we raced down the hills enjoying ourselves like nobody’s business.  It was great fun at no one’s expense but our own.  I think God may be laughing at me now which is why she invented Advil.

So I want to encourage you sometime in the coming weeks to do the important work of introspection and action that is the lifeblood of the Christian life.  But also find times to do something that makes you laugh.

Now, you know me.  I can get pretty serious.  I can also use humor as a tension-breaker or even a disguise.  But mostly I use humor to set my life back into balance. 

I hope you will find some opportunities in the days ahead to laugh at something, even if it is yourself.  Take your life seriously, take your Christianity, your discipleship seriously, and take your pleasure seriously, too.

And from time to time, indulge yourself in some holy humor.  It might not heal you or society, but it could put your life into better balance.  I have to think that God would approve.