Holy Humor Sunday

A pastor stood before the congregation and announced that she had three sermons that she
could give. "I have a $1000 sermon that will last about five minutes, next I have a $500 sermon that will take about 15 minutes and finally I have a $100 sermon that will take over an hour to give. Let’s take the offering to see which sermon I will be giving this morning."

Today we celebrate Holy Humor Sunday, also called Bright Sunday. This is an old, old tradition going back to medieval European times. In more recent years this custom is being revived in churches with help from a group called the Fellowship of Merry Christians located in Portage Michigan. So, let’s laugh together for great joy is held in the heart of God....

A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were exceedingly mischievous. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew that, if any mischief occurred in their town, their sons were probably involved. They boys' mother heard that a pastor in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The pastor agreed but asked to see them individually. So, the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the pastor in the afternoon. The pastor, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?" The boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there with his mouth hanging open, wide-eyed. So, the pastor repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God!!?" Again, the boy made no attempt to answer. So, the pastor raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, "WHERE IS GOD!?" The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, "What happened?" The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time. God is missing - and they think WE did it!"

Where is God? Somehow it is so much easier when we think of God contained in one place. It’s easy to box up God, define God, making sure that God is busy doing something else while we go off and do whatever we feel like doing.

It’s not too hard to imagine that the disciples were asking the same question. There they are, gathered together, their teacher having been struck down and murdered by the state. Then Peter told them about his encounter with Mary and how they discovered that the grave was empty. So not only was Jesus executed in humiliating fashion, but now someone has piled on the additional indignity of robbing his grave. And so, they gather together in secret. They lock the doors because fear is consuming them. Where is God, in the midst of all this pain, worry, and fear?

When Moses led the people out of Egypt into the wilderness, Moses promised that God went with them.

Where was God? At times God was in the smoke and pillar of fire that led the people. And then there were times when God spoke to Moses. While Moses is up talking to God (and as turns out, getting the 10 commandments), the people get busy and create a god of their own. They build a golden calf to worship and adore. Because it’s so much easier to have a God at hand. Tangible. Understandable. A golden calf is a lot easier than a God who calls us to love and to care for our neighbor. Give us the cow made of gold. But no. It’s much more difficult than that. God calls us to love and ethics. Love and ethics...

After a long illness, a woman died and arrived at the Gates of Heaven. While she was waiting for Saint Peter to greet her, she peeked through the Gates. She saw a beautiful banquet table. Sitting all around were her parents and all the other people she had loved and who had died before her. They saw her and began calling greetings to her - "Hello" "How are you!” “We've been waiting for you!" "Good to see you". When Saint Peter came by, the woman said to him "This is such a Wonderful place! How do I get in?" "You have to spell a word", Saint Peter told her. "Which word?" the woman asked. "Love. "The woman correctly spelled "Love" and Saint Peter welcomed her into Heaven. About six months later, Saint Peter came to the woman and asked her to watch the Gates of Heaven for a bit while he went to the little angel’s room. While the woman was guarding the Gates of Heaven, her husband arrived. "I'm surprised to see you", the woman said. "How have you been?" "Oh, I've been doing pretty well since you died," her husband told her. "I married the beautiful young nurse who took care of you while you were ill. And then I won the lottery. I sold the little house you and I lived in and bought a big mansion. And my wife and I traveled all around the world. We were on vacation, and I went water skiing today. I fell, the ski hit my head, and here I am. How do I get in?" "You have to spell a word", the woman told him. "Which word?" her husband asked. "Czechoslovakia.” Not so easy is it?

If only God were clearer and more direct! Why can’t God communicate directly with us, answer a few questions and then head back out again, give us a little breathing space. Maybe God could send an email.... One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the evil that was going on. God decided to send an angel down to Earth to check it out. So, God called one of the best angels and sent the angel to Earth for a while. When she returned, she told God, yes, it is bad on Earth, 95% is bad and 5% is good. Well, God thought for a moment and thought maybe a second angel better be sent to get another point of view. So, God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time too. When the angel returned, he went to God and said "Yes, the Earth is in decline. 95% is bad and 5% is good." God said this was not good. So, God decided to send e-mail to the 5% that were good. God wanted to encourage them, give them a little something to help them keep going. Do you know what that e-mail said?... Oh, you didn't get one either, huh? Bummer.

God does try to communicate with us in many ways. Maybe not always in ways we expect. But in the fullness of time, Jesus arrived. Jesus was like us. Human. Vulnerable. He could talk to us. And yet Jesus was more than human, too. And the divinity within him shone through. Through him we could learn what it meant to live in the spirit of the Lord. He spoke of love and inclusion. He healed and spoke with power. Ah, now we get it....

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain and, gathering them around him, he taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the merciful, blessed are they that thirst for justice, blessed are you when persecuted, blessed are you when you suffer. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven. Then Simon Peter said, "Are we supposed to know this?" And Andrew said, "Do we have to write this down?" And Philip said, "I don't have any paper." And Bartholomew said, "Do we have to turn this in?" And James said, "Will we have a test on this?" And John said, "The other disciples didn't have to learn this." And Matthew said, "May I go to the bathroom?" And Judas said, "What does this have to do with real life?" Jesus wept.

Jesus’ words and wisdom are not always what we really want. It is easier to go on living the way we are living. To keep how we understand our world intact. To try to fit everything into a box. The disciples struggled with this a lot. They experienced Jesus’ divinity in special ways and yet they too were caught in their own preconceived notions. The disciples were always bugging Jesus about God. Show us God, they asked. Where is God?

There are the disciples, gathered, afraid, doors locked. And suddenly, Jesus appears in their midst. Yikes! It must have blown their minds! Because God is big like that. Big like someone being raised from the dead. Too big for us sometimes. God’s ideas are too much for us sometimes. The very idea of God is too much for our rational minds. Too complicated. We want something simpler, easier, more made by the rules, more in line with science, more related to our experience…

A man was walking in the mountains just enjoying the scenery when he stepped too close to the edge of the trail and started to fall. In desperation he reached out and grabbed a limb of a gnarly old tree hanging onto the side of the cliff. He nervously assessed his situation. He was about 100 feet down a sheer cliff and about 900 feet from the floor of the canyon below. If he should slip again, he'd plummet to his death. Full of fear, he cries out, "Help me!" But there was no answer. Again and again he cried out, but to no avail. Finally, he yelled, "Is anybody up there? "A deep voice replied, "Yes, I'm up here." "Who is it?" "It's the Lord" "Can you help me?" "Yes, I can help." "Help me!" "Let go." Looking around the man became full of panic. "What?!?!" "Let go. I will catch you." "Uh... Is there anybody else up there?"

This is the human experience. To want a God just big enough. Not too big. Not too unpredictable. Just enough. And so, given the human condition, God grants us one more essential gift. Laughter is a gift from God. A big gift. A gift that is large enough to encompass the absurdity of our human situation. Laughter can help us embrace the impossible. To live with a God who is both knowable and unfathomable and to laugh at our all too human attempts to pin God down, box God up or somehow reduce God to manageable size. We will keep searching for God: on top of mountains, in voices that we hear in those around us, in healing we experience. In laughter and joy that comes to us like cool rain on a hot day. We will keep searching for God. Sometimes it is our own ideas that place limits on God. God is big, large, powerful, joyful, glorious. And we will laugh at the frustration and in some ways futility of seeking to truly know God. And we will tell good religious jokes for jokes too sometimes point to the truth of our absurd situation. For we shall search and never find the end. We shall seek God and only find pieces and glimpses. We will never find the whole. It is absurd. And if we are lucky, we find moments of transcendence, moments where God is undeniable, right there in the room with us.

A notorious ne'er-do-well went to his reward, and he was terrified about what awaited him. He had spent years carrying on in saloons and chasing women. Now he was worried about paying the price. But when he got to the Pearly Gates, he was welcomed with open arms. "Are you sure you didn't make a mistake?" he asked Saint Peter. "No, sir," replied the Saint." There were never any records kept, and you are just as welcome as anyone." The man then noticed a large group standing together in a corner. Every few minutes they would start to cry and then kick the ground screaming. "What's wrong with those guys who are crying and kicking?" the new arrival asked. "Oh, them," replied Saint Peter. "They also thought we kept records."
Amen!