Have you heard the one about the minister, priest and rabbi having their usual cup of morning coffee together? On this particular morning they were discussing at which point life begins.

       “Life begins at conception,” the priest said emphatically.

       “No,” countered the rabbi, “life begins at birth.”

The minister finished coffee and finally said, “You’re both wrong. Life begins when the last child has left home and the dog dies!”

Can you imagine beginning an Easter sermon that way? Well, that’s what Lutheran preachers were expected to do on Easter Sundays, from the middle ages until the mid-1800’s. Why?  The old church believed that the one thing Satan could not stand was genuine laughter. Easter was God’s joke of outwitting the Prince of Darkness.

Of course there is some solid theology behind that belief. Laughter is a gift of God and is a means of grace. It does NOT mean that we can simply laugh our troubles away, but it is to say that a sense of humor, the ability to laugh at ourselves, and to keep a twinkle in the eye are some of the many gifts we have to help us face the struggles of life.

There also is a flip-side to the gift of humor and the healing power of laughter.  Humor can also be used as a weapon of put-downs, sarcasm, and verbally abusing another person. Often humor has a very thin edge to it. While I was in my theological education the group of us who lived in the male dormitory would usually go to the cafeteria together and the barbs, jokes, and humor was sent back and forth across the dining table.

Years later my roommate who happened to be from an unknown city in Northern Alberta called Edmonton, told me that for the first year he hated having dinner with me and the other students. Why? He particularly was afraid of my humor, because it was biting, sharp and he did not have the ability to toss it back. It was a wake-up call for me and after asking his forgiveness, we reconciled and was very happy when he was able to share his humor with me. Humor can be either a positive blessing, or a dangerous weapon.

Recognizing the power of the words and jokes we share, this morning lets focus on the positive aspects of healthy humor. If we use humor in a positive manner it can be “holy humor” reflecting it as one of God’s gifts for us.

Holy Humor is present in the Bible as Gerald read selections of stories that highlight exaggeration—one of the ancient forms of making your point. The old ages of the patriarchal/matriarchal men and women did not actually live to be 900+ years, and I don’t believe 100 year old men and 90 year old women conceived children. The point the writers were making was the with God all things are possible.

Jonah and the whale is not just a fishy story, it’s about rebelling against God, running away and then getting a second chance, just as the wicked city of Ninevah was given a 2^nd chance by God. The Jesus talking about the chance of a rich person able to get to heaven having the same probability as a “camel being able to pass through the eye of a needle.”

Actually Jesus was referring to a specific place, “The Gate of the Needle.” The city of Jerusalem, like all ancient cities was walled for defensive purposes and the main gates were closed at sunset and would not be re-opened until sunrise. However, they did need to make provision for individuals to get in and out of the city at night. They would have to leave their camel or horses or donkeys outside and there was a very narrow cut in the wall which would allow only one person at a time to enter. This after hours gate was called, “The Eye of the Needle.” They had the same concept at Fort Edmonton. The people would be laughing at the absurdity of what Jesus was saying because they knew the size of the gate and the size of a camel.

In the same manner Easter was viewed as God’s joke looking at the fearful, timid, running away behavior of the disciples before Easter and their fearless, courageous faith sharing after Easter. One contemporary commentator describes their behavior change as akin to the Taliban evangelizing in the Pentagon.

Beyond the Biblical background for humor there are good reasons for us to be able to laugh and have a good sense of humor. Laughter gives us the ability to relieve pressure.

Naturally, it happened at the busiest intersection during rush hour. The man’s car stalled. Obviously flustered, he got out and looked under the hood. And as he did the impatient driver in the car behind him began honking his horn. And he kept honking. After awhile, the man under the hood came back to the still honking man and calmly said, “I’ll make a deal with you. You are probably a better mechanic than I am, so you fix my car and I’ll come back here and keep honking the horn for you.”

Outside pressures can resolve pressures of impatience. Whether it’s a horn honking, child crying, or screaming at the top of you lungs, impatience does not usually solve things but only make matters worse. Keep cool. Count to 10 or 100 and let go of what is beyond your control

The magazine, The Scientific American: Mind  examines scientific findings of what affects our mind. Laughter, lightening up can reduce blood pressure, lessens the chance of having a stroke, and good humor has been researched to be a key to maintaining happy and healthy relationships.

My wife Lauressa had that knowledge without doing lots of research. In one of our first arguments, she smiled sweetly and calmly announced to me, “Dear, this argument will go much better, if you simply admit now that you are wrong.” Now, she gives me warning when I am beginning to bug her. She says softly, “I think I hear ice cracking.”

Most people say they want to be happy, and what they mean is that want to get the circumstances of their life right and then they will be happy.  If a parent’s child gets a 75 average, then mom or dad can be happy. If work is going well, then the parent will be happy. If the Oilers make the playoffs, then the fan will be happy. But, often, the circumstances of life do not always align with our happiness criteria.

Joy on the other hand does not depend on outside circumstances. Joy is an inner-attitude that draws its energy from different reality, the realm of God.  In the New Testament, Christians did NOT have great circumstances but they did have great joy. Christ told them that God loved them and absolutely nothing could separate them from that, not even death. The Good News was an attitude detergent that kept them from despair, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Are you a person whose life reveals deep joy and a good sense of humor?  Are you able to laugh at yourself when you make a mistake?  Jesus’ gift to us is a new level of consciousness which Jesus called the Kingdom of God, which enables us to live joyfully.

After Jesus gives his twelve the analogy about the vine and the branches, he says to them, “These things I have spoken to you that my joy  may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 5: 11).

I hope that each of us on this Holy Humor Sunday will be able to open our hearts wide to the joy of the Good News. Charles Schultz the creator of the comic strip “Peanuts” was a deeply spiritual Christian, who expressed his faith through the gentle humor of Charlie Brown, Lucy and all the rest. Charles Schultz said, “Humor is the proof of faith.”

May we have the faith to make room for God’s humor and joy in our lives.

John Henry Weinlick