Acts
4:32-35
Luke
24:1-9
One Easter a priest and a taxi driver both died and went to heaven. St.
Peter was at the Pearly gates waiting for them.
'Come with me,' said St. Peter to the taxi driver.
The taxi driver did as he was told and followed St Peter to a mansion.
It had everything you could imagine from a bowling alley to an Olympic size
pool.
'Oh my word, thank you,' said the taxi driver.
Next, St. Peter led the priest to a rough old shack with a bunk bed and
a little old television set.
'Wait, I think you are a little mixed up,' said the priest. 'Shouldn't
I be the one who gets the mansion? After all I was a priest, went to church
every day, and preached God's word.'
'Yes, that's true.' St Peter rejoined, 'But during your Easter sermons
people slept. When the taxi driver
drove, everyone prayed.'
--
How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?
“Change!? My grandmother donated
that lightbulb!”
--
"Are limericks suited to Lent?
Yes indeed, in both form and intent:
They're a well-designed ploy
To bring insight and joy
With a final, uplifting event.”
"Here's the question that Eastertide begs:
Is it all about candy and eggs?
No, the point to be praised
Is that Christ has been raised
And death taken down a few pegs.
--
The point of humor Sunday
is the same every year: God has had the last laugh, has even overcome death by
raising Jesus. There is nothing to fear,
nothing to mourn, nothing to worry about because God has overcome the worst
thing to be feared, the worst pain to be overcome, the greatest loss. Maybe
that doesn’t bring laughter to your lips, but the absurdity of the one thing
that could be counted on: death: that, too being overcome, being challenged,
being faced – that should bring a joy that bubbles over into laughter. If you trust that having even that which is
un-challengable challenged by a loving God, if you can have faith that the God
who overcomes even the most natural of things is a good and loving God, then
all the rest must seem silly, trite, unimportant, and laughable.
Easter, and the Sundays that follow it should be a
relief! All really is in God’s hands,
and the outcome IS known. It will end
well, it will be okay. This is God’s world and we get to enjoy it as well as work
to make it better for everyone. We get
to delight in the good, celebrate the beauty, and work for wholeness from a
place of joy and trust. But even if that is hard to see, hard to trust and hard
to take in, the gift of laughter is still there for us. It is still a gift to be given and
received. We know it helps health-wise,
we know it releases tension and stress.
It also reminds us to not take ourselves and our lives so very
seriously.
The funniest things I find are actually situations that
happen in my own family, especially with my kids. When Aislynn was 6, Jonah was 8 and Jasmyn
was almost 12, we had a typical morning interaction. I asked Aislynn, as I often do, "How did
I get such an adorable child?" And
then turning to Jonah, who was also there, "How did I get such a handsome
son?" Again, this is part of a
familiar morning routine. But their
answers have always been really unpredictable.
That particular morning Aislynn responded, "Well, your heart picked
Daddy. And that is why you now have an
adorable daughter, a handsome son, and also an older, cranky daughter!"
Another story from this year. We were watching the Olympics and Jonah asked
from the other room, “what’s happening on the Olympics now?” to which Jasmyn
replied, “Well, it appears to be synchronized skiing. However, they are not
doing a very good job because some are trying to outrace the others, which is
not good team-work, people!!”
I remember taking my kids to see Zaboomafoo at the
Oakland zoo when they were very little.
One of the things that the Zaboomafoo hosts always did was tell knock
knock jokes. But in person, they would
bring the mic around and ask the children to tell their jokes. But what was so funny about their jokes was
that the kids understanding of humor was so different from adult humor. “knock knock” the child would say, “Who’s
there?” they would respond. “Me!” they’d
shout and then laugh their heads off. We
would laugh too – both because of their lack of understanding of what makes
jokes jokes, but also because their laughter would be infectious.
My experience in that humor is two-fold. First, those real life stories are the ones
that I remember most, that bring me the most joy and delight in this
world. But second, it is in those
moments of utter silliness that I see God most clearly. I hear God laughing alongside of us, enjoying
the creation that He/She made, delighting in the beautiful, the wonderful, the
absurd, the silly.
Today we are given two stories in scripture. The first is a reminder that the early
believers shared everything and that we are called to also share. I believe that in our laughter we share a
connection and a depth like no other. I
found the following story about a harried pastor in Alaska who was trying to
bring together a very fractious, divided church. The church was in turmoil with
a heavy, discouraged spirit. For several years, the pastor had tried
everything, without success, to bring the various squabbling cliques together.
He finally decided to try a Holy Humor Sunday celebration on the Sunday after
Easter. The service was filled with joyful songs and hymns and inspiring
Scripture readings celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Members were
encouraged to tell their favorite jokes. And practical jokes were played on the
pastor and others. Everybody had a lot of fun. The entire congregation rallied
around the resurrection of Jesus. The Holy Humor Sunday service brought
everyone together in a spirit of good cheer and camaraderie. "The response
was overwhelmingly positive," the pastor wrote. "The congregation
needed to know that they could come to worship and just 'let go' for an
hour-and that it was possible to come to church and feel good. People have been
talking about the service all week. And some, who said they had intended to
leave the church and go to another church, said they had decided to stay.
"The Holy Humor Sunday service was just what the doctor ordered for our
church. It provided much-needed healing."
In the second scripture we are reminded of how scary and
unbelievable it felt to the disciples to hear that Jesus was risen. This, too, the unpredictable nature of life
can be scary for us, too. But laughter,
humor Sunday is again another opportunity to listen to the angels who say again
and again, “Be not afraid!” and who invite us into joy and trust and faith.
I want to end my sermon with this poem:
"Smiling is infectious. You catch it like the
flu."
"When someone smiled at me today, I started
smiling, too."
"I passed around the corner, and someone saw my grin."
"When he smiled I realized I'd passed it on to
him."
"I thought about that smile. Then I realized its
worth."
"A single smile just like mine could travel the
whole earth."
"So if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it
undetected."
"Let's start an epidemic quick, and get the world
infected!"
This is a way of spreading the light and joy: smile,
laugh, share, hug, live in the joy of the resurrection! Amen.
What jokes did you bring to share today?
--
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Interrupting Cow
Interrupting...
..MOO!!
Q: What did the alien say to the garden?
A: Take me to your weeder!
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Otto.
Otto who?
Otto know. I’ve got amnesia.
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