Holy Laughter
Are you serious? Laughter in church? Where will we end up if people suddenly come out of church and are happy, beaming, laughing and enjoying themselves? Holy God, that would spell the end of church as we know it! But don’t worry, there is not enough material in the Bible, I think, for a serious comedy session. I mean, the Bible was written almost entirely by cranky old men. How much humor do you expect? Women, don’t answer that question!
Also, by now you probably know all the Bible jokes already. Question: Did Eve ever have a date with Adam? Answer: No, she just had an apple and no cocktail! Question: How long did Cain hate his brother? Answer: As long as he was Abel! Question: How did God cure Moses' headache? Answer: He gave him two tablets! Question: Why didn't Noah go fishing? Answer: He only had two worms!
I noticed some people not laughing here in this congregation, and now I wonder… is it because you are so straightlaced or because you didn’t understand the joke for lack of – gasp! – biblical literacy!
No worries, I won’t torture you because I‘m running out of jokes already! Oh wait, I have an idea! Does laughing about others count or is that a sin? Let’s say, since I make the rules today, it counts for the Sunday of Holy Laughter. Is anybody here who wants to be laughed at? Any volunteers? Hands up?
O.K., I am playing it safe. I am going straight to the Old Testament. I will time travel into the 4th or 5th century B.C. and join the prophet Jonah who is sitting next to a broom tree feeling sorry for himself. I mean, what a poor chap, right? First, he had his vacation disrupted. Imagine this… he was on a ship in the Mediterranean when his cell phone rang and God called him up. “Yo, Jonah, I need you!” We love it when that happens, right? Work is calling… We find you wherever you are!!! We’ve got your number! I mean, there are not many people like some that I know who voluntarily, out of their own free will, work 24/7. Most of us, you know, like to cruise in the Mediterranean or somewhere else for a change.
So after that, it can’t possibly get any worse, right? But wait, then Jonah received a promotion he never asked for. “Jonah, the board decided that you will be our special envoy to New York (never mind that Nineveh was the name of the original city) and you will tell people in the Big Apple about the coming catastrophe and ask them to change their capitalist ways. Start on Wall Street! (Hint: like New Yorkers, people in Nineveh never listened to anyone telling them what to do. Go Knicks!) And then, by some unfortunate circumstance, Jonah landed not in the Big Apple but in the belly of a Big Fish. The fish was probably a metaphor for a subprime mortgage loan company, to be honest. It smelled so bad! It had an immoral stench! There, he spent three days and three nights in total darkness, amongst all the bankruptcy files and the corpses of people whose lives had been ruined. Now, are you feeling bad for Jonah? Because I am!
It can’t possibly get any worse, right? But wait, instead of dying in this miserable fishy joint amongst skyscrapers and loan sharks, he is suddenly spit out from the monster’s dungeon and gets a second chance to prove his ineptitude. What is worse than that? Do you know the feeling when life gives you another chance at proving your inadequacies? When fate is calling you back to doing something you are ill equipped to do? Are you feeling bad for Jonah now? Because I am!
It can’t possibly get worse, right? But wait, God is always good for a surprise turn of events. Now he gives Jonah something that he cannot possibly handle. I know, I know, some people say God never gives you more than you can handle. I hate to break it to you, but reading Jonah I’m not so sure. God decides to strike Jonah with an unbelievable challenge, the straw that breaks the camel’s back: SUCCESS!!! The one thing that he is incapable of handling! He gives him a heavy dose of success, sends him back to the Big Apple, asks him to preach to the people in the suits and plead for a change of lifestyle. In other words, Jonah became the true Wolf of Wall Street. And suddenly, according to this ancient tale, the people of the big city repent, change their ways and bingo, disaster is averted. Everybody is happy and claps Jonah on the back. “Thank you for telling us the truth, man!” “You’re the best!” “What took you so long?” “You will be an honorary citizen of New York!”
Now THAT Jonah could not handle. He breaks down and cries and pouts and sits next to a broom tree and is miserable, saying, “Lord why didn’t you just finish off these people? Why did you have to be so lenient? I hate you, God!” We can all relate to that, can we not? Sometimes people have it coming for them and they are so unethical over such long periods of time, and then, at the last minute, they get bailed out by some act of grace. How unfair is that?
By the way, we don’t know what happened to Jonah after all that happened. I think the tragedy is, he never got back on his Mediterranean Cruise. He became the causality of his own success. It’s no laughing matter, really! But I had to find something funny, you see. And if you haven’t been able to laugh at any of this - or at yourself for that matter, or at others for that matter, I have really BAD news for you now: there will be comedy in heaven! Amen.
