This year, the calendar has been fooling around with us quite a bit and has messed with our liturgical order. First, there was Ash Valentines’ Day, the beginning of Lent falling exactly on the holiday when couples like to go out for dinner and profess their love to each other. It happens every hundred years or so. Then, Easter falls on April Fool’s Day. And in between, the spirits of winter have been playing tricks with us. Finally, Good Friday fell on a full moon night. I wonder: what else will be in store for us in 2018? Yet, we also have to acknowledge that Fool’s Day is not so far from how some people felt back in the day when our Lord did “his thing.” I am sure there were folks who thought they had fallen victim to a not so funny joke. Some reported that Jesus, who had been cruelly executed 48 hours prior, was somehow, inexplicably, inconceivably, miraculously, against all odds, unbelievably, alive. And we know: you don’t joke about dead people. You don’t play tricks with people’s grief. You don’t fool around with folks who are mourning a loved one, barely holding it together. And yet, there were some women, hardly the type that would joke about those matters, who professed to have seen Him. They insisted they had seen Him. The Christian faith began on the verge of being a joke. But God had the last laugh.
Only if we acknowledge the volatile nature of that first moment of belief, the utter incredibleness of it all, only if we allow that someone could be fooling with us, daring us to fall for a joke, only then, our hearts will be ready for the greatest adventure of all: faith. Some people, esteemed teachers and scholars of the church have made fools of themselves by trying to dig into the bone marrow of the scriptures, attempting to prove that, indeed, Jesus was risen from the dead, it could not have been any other way, they say. Other people, critics and skeptics, including so-called theologians, have made fools of themselves by trying to go above and beyond the scriptures to prove that Jesus did not rise from the dead, that it was all a big myth, far from the truth and they bet their scholarly reputation on it, it could not have been any other way, they say. All the while, God is in stitches. He’s done it: he’s fooled them all! You can’t proof or disproof any of it. This Easter miracle is for people who are ready for the greatest adventure of all: faith.
So, God is laughing out loud in heaven. You probably know, don’t you, that Easter laughter has a long, storied tradition in the history of the Christian faith. Where did this tradition originate and why would anyone laugh when we are talking about matters of life and death? Early Christians customarily celebrated Easter with joy, laughter, and lots of jokes. The custom was rooted in the musings of the early church fathers. People like Saint Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom suggested that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. ‘Risus paschalis – the Easter laugh,” the early theologians called it. You could say, to them Easter was the ultimate Fool’s Day. Some theologians trace the custom to a famous Easter midnight sermon preached by John Chrysostom in the 4th century. Chrysostom was called “golden mouth” for his ability to preach and captivate people’s attention. In that famous Easter midnight sermon, he described a vision of Christ confronting the devil and laughing at him. So, don’t tell me those old church fathers had no sense of humor…
Of course, when you read the Easter stories, you get the feeling that the greatest miracle of scripture occurred in an atmosphere of heightened and oppressive anxiety. The gospels say that Jesus’ followers locked themselves in a room for fear of their lives. The women, we are told by Mark, were trembling and bewildered. Emotions were raw. You read these Easter narratives and you realize that these people were seriously traumatized. That’s probably the word we would use today. The disciples didn’t laugh; not even smile. And then it’s almost as if Jesus appears and says, “You thought I was dead for good, didn’t you? Gotcha!” And you almost feel like the ones brought back to life in this Easter story are really the disciples. It feels like they are all being raised from the dead. And Jesus is teaching all of us a lesson here: the real gospel can never be as dead serious as some religious groups and sects make it out to be. Where the real gospel is, laughter is never far away.
A few years ago, I had lunch with a pastor colleague and he asked me, “So what’s special about St. Peter’s?” Every congregation has something they focus on in their ministry and he wanted to know what our special calling is… He expected some ministry, I suppose. Well, I could have mentioned a few things, but I gave him a very spontaneous answer. I said, “We laugh a lot. We have a great sense of humor in our congregation.” He came from an evangelical background, and there was a bit of bewilderment in his reaction, and he said, “Never heard that one.”
But It think it’s an important one, and you know what? It is at its core connected to the miracle of Easter morning. On Easter, God is saying: respect the forces of evil, respect the pain that life brings and the hardships and death and all that, but please, don’t take them too seriously. I will give you the last laugh. Loosen up and give your facial muscles a good workout! On Easter, God is posting “lol, everybody!!!” Did you get that this morning? Laughter is not about taking things lightly, but about taking them not too seriously, I mean that.
There is a story, believed to be true, about a cake decorator who got her signals crossed. The wedding cake was supposed to display 1. John 4:18: “There is no fear in love; perfect love casts out fear.” Instead, the cake quoted the Gospel of John, same chapter, same verse, easy mistake. What does John 4:18 say? “For you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.” You want to be the bride at that wedding?
A number of years ago, after a stretch of tense times in our family, with worries about illness and just plain stress, Julia and I went to a movie and saw a bawdy British comedy with lots of slapstick humor. The film was constantly bordering on inappropriateness, as most British comedies are, and we laughed our hearts out, and we thought it was the greatest thing. It provided such wonderful comic relief! We were so confident in our good judgment that we encouraged an elderly relative to come and see the movie, and Julia went with her. The entire time she sat stone faced in the movie theater. And upon further review we thought – why did we laugh so hard the first time? It wasn’t that funny! But it provided much-needed relief!
In my family we have had some anxious and stress filled-times over the years, as frankly most families do. We have dealt with chronic illness, several plumbing-related indoor water leak disasters in the house, the subsequent clean ups and mold problems that needed to be solved, and overall, far too many doctor’s visits. One of the things I am eternally grateful for is that none of us have lost our sense of humor throughout this time, you probably know that. It is one of the graces God has provided. It is the resurrection force alive in our hearts. I am grateful for that. So, I encourage you: share something to laugh about today. Saint Chrysostom would approve, and Jesus too! Cause he is risen! No joke. Amen.