We worshiped at Gold Hill Lutheran Church in Butte (Montana) yesterday where we heard a good sermon about the Lutheran take on baptism and the need for daily repentance and renewal. A good Lenten homily, but rather sobering.
The pastor at Gold Hill has a good sense of humor though. He is Tim Christensen, the same one who gained national - maybe world - attention when
a video of him went viral a couple of months ago.
We caught it several times on network national news. It was put on YouTube as well. By Monday evening it had something like a
million u-tube hits. (not sure
of the number, but lots)
You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbqVPt8zzWQ
You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbqVPt8zzWQ
It turns out Pastor Tim pulled
a bit of a 'hail Mary' play to show his love for the 49ers football
team as reported by Mashable. His favorite team, the San Francisco 49ers,
were in a playoff game that day. For
those of you who don't follow professional football - the National Football
League plays almost all of their games on Sunday and the starting time of games
coincides with traditional church time in a large part of the country. It's the reason many would give for not going
to church, I guess. Millions follow it "religiously".
While the short sermon and NFL passion were real, Tim wanted people to know it was all in fun, and
after he made his hasty exist, he returned to the sanctuary and did a full
worship service with liturgy and communion.
So, most people just got a good laugh out of it.
But
not all. By Tuesday he was getting
reactions from people around the country.
People called the church or put comments on Face-Book calling him some rather nasty names - said he was an abomination,
sacrilegious, a disgrace, (and worse) etc, etc. They were not interested in talking about it
and listening... Mary, the secretary who took lots of the calls, said, "they
mostly screamed into the phone".
I've seen surveys asking non-church goers why they don't go to church. Often one of the responses is that people in the church are too critical and humorless. Well, apparently there's some truth to that in some quarters of the church.
I've seen surveys asking non-church goers why they don't go to church. Often one of the responses is that people in the church are too critical and humorless. Well, apparently there's some truth to that in some quarters of the church.
Talking
to Pastor Tim yesterday, I asked him how that criticism affected him. He said it put him to tears a couple of times,
especially the criticism from people who said they were Christians. His family told him he really needed to stop
even looking at the comments. However,
he didn't get negatives from either his congregation or colleague Lutheran
pastors. "Over all it was about four
positives to one negative on the calls", he said.
Which
brings me to the point about humor. I have been thinking about humor and
laughter lately after I caught a little bit of a conversation on radio the
other day. A scientist who studies the brain was talking about the positive health effects of
laughter and humor. He made the comment
that laughter is not mentioned much in the Bible... He said only 29 times in
the old Testament - and most of those were negative - like sarcasm and such. I didn't check to see if that is a fact. I had
never really thought much about it. He
also said it is not clear from the Gospel texts if Jesus ever laughed. I have to think he did, as least the
scriptures record the words Joy and Blessed a lot (sometimes blessed is translated
as happy).
An example:
These
things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may
be full. John 15:11I guess if we are full of joy we would be bound to laugh, right?
And
I like this verse from the Old Testament:
Go, eat your food with gladness, and
drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do.
Ecclesiastes 9:7 (NIV)
What do you think? What
part does humor and laughter play in Christian life and worship?
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| Having a good laugh with the grand kids |
I read in a Bible commentary not long ago that some of the things that Jesus says in, for example, the Sermon on the Mount, would have been regarded as hilarious by a rural Galilean crowd. Their sense of humor was perhaps less sophisticated than ours. One example the author used was from Matthew 7, where Jesus says to "take the log out of your own eye" before you try to take the speck our of your neighbor's eye. The commentator said that the Galileans would have gotten a big laugh about the idea of someone having a log in his eye. They would have at least grinned at the idea that any parent would give his child a stoen when he asked for bread or a serpent when she asked for a fish. I guess that we have read so much of the gospel as "holy writ" for so long, it's hard for us to imagine Jesus as trying to work a little joke into a serious point. But he did so, just as our preachers do today, if they can. --Bruce McNab
ReplyDeleteThanks for another excellent post! Yes, laughter and humor does not seem to be a big part of our Christian traditions, yet, God created us with emotions including joy. After five years in India it is difficult to understand all the different avatars of their gods, but one has stood out for me and that is Ganesh (he's the one with an elephant head). He symbolizes joy, laughter, good fortune, arts, literature, music, etc. There were times after church that I wish we could have incorporated his attributes into Christianity. Ganesh reminds me of a poster which was popular in the 60s and 70s of a laughing Jesus. Laughing clubs are very popular in India because of the benefits people discover. Maybe more people would be attracted to Christianity if we smiled more often...
ReplyDeleteThanks to Gregory and Bruce for your comments.. I also got a laugh out the response from our good friend Jerene Mortenson, which I am copying here:
ReplyDeleteI have realized that there are a great many losses as a person gets older, dear friends die, they lose abilities, contacts become less frequent, illnesses, relationships break up as well as realizations there are dreams that won't be achieved. Sometimes we have to work at being happy.
I don't go to any sad movies, thus am skipping 12 Years a Slave even though I don't disapprove of it at all, it just isn't for me. ETC
But what I am doing is laughing, try to get in at least 15 minutes a day. Driving in the car when I am alone is a great time for it. And I am singing. Realized last month that the only time I was singing was at church. And I dance to a good waltz or polka right across the apartment. All these things are a great recipe to be happy. Baking a cake will do it too, but that isn't a wise idea when you are living alone without a freezer
Of course, mail is always good, so I have to get to some letter writing!
I can't say I feel grouchy much at all but your blog reminded me I am on the right track to be happy, work on it a bit.
Thanks for the encouragement to keep it up.
Interesting what songs come to mind when you deliberately decide to sing---lots of Sunday School songs for me and folk songs.
Emmanuel,
Jerene