A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .
bright sunday
John 20:19-31, Preached at Congregational
It was following the resurrection and disciples were still
somewhat scattered about
Jesus and Moses were strolling by the
When they had finally reached shore, Moses slapped a consoling hand on Jesus' shoulder and said, "Don't worry about it, Lord. Last time you tried it, you didn't have holes in your feet."
After the birth of their child, an Episcopal priest, wearing his clerical collar, visited his wife in the hospital. He greeted her with a hug and a kiss. She commented on how the baby's nose looked just like his. They talked more and then he gave her another hug and kiss when he left. The wife's hospital roommate said, "Your priest sure is friendlier than mine!"
Jesus wept. We know that because the Bible tells us so. But did he laugh? God thunders. We know that. But does God have a sense of humor? God celebrated creation with a booming "That’s good!" But did the creation God called “good” include belly laughs and puns? Satire and irony? What about giggles and smiles? Or were those very human behaviors part of the legacy of that fruit-peddling serpent in the Garden?
You might be surprised at what a low opinion of humor Christians have had over the years. Or maybe not. As early as the 4th century, the influential church leader John of Chrysostom insisted Jesus never laughed. Through the centuries, artists overwhelmingly have followed the saint’s argument. How many paintings have you seen where the Son of God grins from ear to ear? Can those who would be Christ-like laugh and sin not? The Second Council of Constance in 1418 had a definite opinion: literally "Hell, no!" That medieval Christian council assigned to hell any minister or monk who spoke "jocular words such as provoke laughter." Well, actually, the council said, "Let him be anathema," which is a firmly non-jocular way of saying the same thing. No doubt, the stereotype of Christians as uptight and humorless is well earned. . . .
Jesus obviously got the joke. He used humor frequently in his
teaching. Jesus used "the weapon of wit and the saber of satire" in his
running verbal battles with the religious power structure, according to Randall
O’Brien of
This is all well and good, but why should we have a laugher of a service following Easter? What makes this appropriate, theologically appropriate, after Easter. Easter reveals God as no other event ever did. Only God can draw the greatest good out of the greatest evil. Of evil, Saint Thomas More once wrote, "The devil ... the proud spirit ... cannot endure to be mocked." Some of the people of the Middle Ages understood this and decided to have the last laugh on evil. In the Middle Ages some communities would throw a laughter party on Easter Sunday. Its purpose was simple: to celebrate God's triumph over evil. People would come back to church on Easter Sunday afternoon, which is the end of the Triduum, for Vespers and Benediction services. As a reward to the faithful after many serious Lenten homilies, the priest would insert funny stories, poems, and even off-color jokes into his sermon and would draw moral conclusions from them.
The ancient Russian Orthodox tradition was to sit around the Easter dinner table telling jokes. Like those 13th-Century Germans, they even told them in church. Why? Because they were imitating the cosmic joke that God pulled on Satan in the resurrection. Satan thought he had won, but then God raised up Jesus from the dead, and had the last word. And the world laughs at Satan's chagrin. Laughing at the Devil even has a name in theological tradition; it is called Risus Paschalis, "Easter laughter." German Protestant theologian Jurgen Moltmann, who wrote the book, The Theology of Joy, says, "The Easter laughter is rooted in the wholly unexpected and totally surprising 'reversal of all things.' God had brought this reversal about by raising Christ.... The expectation was for cosmic death, but what comes is eternal life."
And in scripture, witness is given for putting faith and
laughter together. In Psalm 126, the Hebrews praised God acts: "Then our mouth
was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy." Jesus promised
laughter to those who are favored by God: "Blessed are you who weep now, for you
will laugh."
Lk 6:21
With Jesus' resurrection, the old world with its iron laws and its fixed,
immutable patterns is no longer truly this world. Now it's a world wild with
possibility, where the laughter of God booms out, and the son of God steps forth
from a tomb…alive. And the laughter is contagious. When Jesus walks right
through the wall of fear behind which they are hiding themselves, and shows them
what he went through, and yet he is still alive, the disciples are seized by
this news, body and soul. They are totally transformed. Those disciples took
their joy and faith out across the Roman world and to any who would listen they
would say, "Do you remember the man who just, a short time ago, made his way
along the way of sorrows, the one who was followed by his mother and a group of
weeping women? Do you remember the sound of the hammer on the nails, the
wracking agony and the rattle of death as he breathed his last? Listen now! He
is alive!" Much of the world laughed, the laughter of scorn and ridicule. But
they who told the tale also laughed, and they were laughing because it was true.
They were laughing because they had come to discover, as the poet Alice Meynell
put it, "Our wayside planet, bears as its chief treasure, one forsaken grave."
And there were some in the church through all the ages who passed on the joy
from generation to generation, like a baton, daring to tell the world that the
very hinge of all of history turns right here. This is the reason for and source
of our Easter joy. We must never forget this, which makes me think of the older
couple reading in bed. The woman looks up from her book and says, “I’m in the
mood for ice cream. I want a vanilla sundae with chocolate sauce, peanuts, and a
maraschino cherry. While I’m up can I make one for you?” “Yes, but you stay
here,” says her husband. “I’ll go down and make them.” “No,” says the woman.
“I’ll make them. You are so absent minded. I know you’ll forget something.” “I
won’t forget,” says the man as he leaves. “You want a vanilla sundae with
chocolate sauce, peanuts, and a maraschino cherry.” She returns to her book and
twenty minutes later her husband comes back to bed with two ham sandwiches. She
takes her plate and a bite of her sandwich. “I knew you’d forget,” she says.
“You always do.” “What? What did I forget?” She holds up her plate, “Where’s the
mustard?”
A reporter asked a 104 year old man if he had any thoughts or advice on longevity. The man answered, "I drink a big glass of water at bedtime, so in the morning I have to get up." Hey, whatever it takes in order for us to get up in the morning.
May you find yourself rolled out of bed when the true and final Easter morning rises. Until then, may you find the humor in what happens, the joy in the journey, the laughter in your life, and the happiness in your heart. Be glad for what you've got; be happy and you'll be healed; for God is the king of comedy, and the Lord of laughter--just ask the Devil, the butt of the ultimate joke.
Return to Sermons (table of contents)
Return to Homepage of the Congregational Church of Boca Raton