God and Laughter
I actually had that all cued-up for Sunday’s sermon… but it just didn’t fit. If you’re not familiar, let me set it up.
Monty Python’s Life of Brian is set up around a man… named Brian, who is contemporaneous to Jesus and develops an accidental cult following that is comically absurd. This particular scene begins with Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and Brian is part of the crowd who is far away and having difficulty hearing. They complain about it, but also start to make up some rather ridiculous takes on what they mis-hear.
Growing up, I had heard the Life of Brian was quite anti-Christian, dangerous, heretical. I even felt a little shameful when I finally watched it. And then, years later, I watched the Python’s discuss it in their documentary, and I heard them say something else. They took the criticism at the time, in stride, but had a slightly different take. They weren’t skewering Jesus. They weren’t trying to make fun of him or be sacrilegious about Jesus… they were poking fun at all the religious people around him over the years. And in so doing, they were holding a mirror up to me and shining a light on Jesus in some profound way.
You don’t have to like Life of Brian or the humor of Monty Python – Bridgette isn’t a particular fan either. But the idea of being able to laugh… at ourselves, while still taking Jesus seriously, is important. In fact, it hits on something I just read in the Introduction to C.S. Lewis’ The Weight of Glory. Lewis said, “We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously.”
Taking each other seriously does not mean we cannot laugh, cannot have “merriment.” The two, necessarily, go hand-in-hand. It’s when we see ourselves and each other in the light of Jesus, in the light of eternity, in the light of God’s love for us, that allows us to… laugh.
For those that weren’t with us on Sunday, laughter was the point. And even I was forced to laugh at myself. We take great… pride in leading a worship service on Sunday’s that is full of joy and love, where each component is done with excellence – whether it be music or sacraments or prayer or preaching or the presentation of news about our church or community. We try, quite hard, to do it all well.
The end of Sunday’s service was… not what was planned. Up on the screen was the song Wonderful Words of Life… and Kenton started playing Morning has Broken – like the bulletin said. Jim was in the booth, anxiously trying to match the two. Kenton, finally realizing what had happened, switched to the song on the screen. Meanwhile, many worshippers, knowing Morning has Broken, simply started singing it. Then, they transitioned to singing Wonderful Words, but the words on the screen, no longer matched where we were in the music… and finally, I simply stepped up to offer a Good Word (benediction) to relieve us all of the embarrassment.
And yet… every worshipper I talked to as they left… laughed. Many asked if it was intended! No, it was not. A brief look at Kenton or Jim, sweat pouring down, trying their best to get it all right would be all the confirmation you needed. (Do me a favor, continue to extend them, and all our musicians and AV team grace because it’s a hard job to wrangle us in our music, within the limitations or our technology – and they do a wonderful job!) Honestly, I wouldn’t have ever thought of that, much less tried to do that to them or to us.
And yet… it seems God did something in and among us that day. God gave us a chance to laugh. And as I anxiously stood there, offering a benediction, I realized… while this wasn’t the ending to the service I’d planned, or imagined, it was somehow… better.
God has a way of doing that… if we’re open to hearing and seeing it. Sarah seemed to be saying that in the end. Abraham seemed to be saying that in the end. They laughed and gave everyone else, thousands of years later, a good laugh. Is anything impossible for God?
Welcoming You to Grow in Jesus – one good laugh at a time!
Pastor Don