Holy Humor Sunday
I would like to start this morning by letting you know that I actually have three sermons that I could give today. 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 up the offering now, to see which sermon you’re gonna get 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, because God is the greatest source of joy in this world.
A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were constantly getting into trouble. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew it! If anything happened in town, their sons were probably involved. They boys' mother heard that a pastor in town was really good at dealing with 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. He couldn’t think of a thing to say. So, he just sat 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 was silent. 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 ran out of the room, ran to his house, 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, said, "We’re really in trouble this time. God is missing - and they think WE did it!"
Where is God? It’s so much easier when we think of God as being contained in one place. It’s easy to box up God, to define God, to make 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 are asking the same question. There they are, gathered together, their teacher having been struck down and murdered by the state. Then Peter tells them about his encounter with Mary and how they discovered that the grave was empty. So not only has Jesus been 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 dies and arrives at the Gates of Heaven. While she’s waiting for Saint Peter to greet her, she peeks through the Gates. She sees a beautiful banquet table. Sitting all around are her parents and all the other people she had loved and who had died before her. They see her and begin calling to her - "Hello" "How are you!” “We've been waiting for you!" "Good to see you". When Saint Peter comes by, the woman says to him "This is such a Wonderful place! How do I get in?" "You have to spell a word", Saint Peter tells her. "Which word?" the woman asks. "Love." The woman correctly spells "Love" and Saint Peter welcomes her into Heaven. About six months later, Saint Peter comes to the woman and asks her to watch the Gates of Heaven for a bit while he goes to the little angel’s room. While the woman is guarding the Gates of Heaven, her husband arrives. "I'm so surprised to see you", the woman says. "How have you been?" "Oh, I've been doing pretty well since you died," her husband says. "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 says. "Which word?" her husband asks. "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? Dang.
God does try to communicate with us in many ways. Maybe not always in ways we expect. 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, "I have to 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 is walking in the mountains just enjoying the scenery when he steps too close to the edge of the trail and starts to fall. In desperation he reaches out and grabs a limb of a gnarly old tree hanging onto the side of the cliff. He nervously assesses his situation. He’s about 100 feet down a sheer cliff and about 900 feet from the floor of the canyon below. If he slips again, he'll plummet to his death. Full of fear, he shouts, "Help me!" But there’s no answer. Again and again he shouts as loud as he can, but to no avail. Finally, he yells, "Is anybody up there?" A deep voice answers, "Yes, I'm up here." "Who is it?" "It's God" "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 keep searching for God: on top of mountains, in voices that we hear in those around us, in the healing we experience. In laughter and joy that comes to us like cool rain on a hot day. We keep searching for God. Sometimes it is our own ideas that place limits on God. God is big, large, powerful, joyful, glorious. And we can laugh at the frustration and in some ways futility of seeking to truly know God. And we can tell good religious jokes, because 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!