HEALING LAUGHTER IN THE MINISTRY

CONSIDER THE VALUE OF LAUGHTER

Probably all of us have experienced how a well-timed joke has broken the tension in a group. Nothing builds community like some shared humor. Norman Cousins wrote a book describing how he had laughed his way to health. Laughter is an untapped health resource that we need to explore in more depth. If stress and negative emotions can suppress the immune system, laughter can help boost our immune system. Laughter not only reduces stress, which can damage the heart, but it can also lead to improved blood flow, which can help ward off high blood pressure. Some studies have indicated that intense laughter can lead to muscle relaxation for up to forty-five minutes. 

OK, be honest, as you are waiting in line at the grocery check-out line, how many of you sneak a peek at all the tabloid headlines? Lately, it seems to have moved beyond the tabloids and entered the world of electronics. Open your iPad and click on a news app.  How many of those headlines are designed to grab your attention? You click on the app only to discover the story itself is far less titillating. We have an appetite for this new form of public gossip.

Unfortunately, the church is not immune from scandal headlines both in the secular press and in church publications. And sometimes we are tempted to believe fake news about other Christian groups.

Take a moment and compose five tabloid headlines about churches, pastors, or Christian behavior that would attract attention and tempt cynics to believe them. You can get serious later but begin by having some wild, crazy fun. I’ll give some examples from my crazy imagination

1. Archeologists have discovered Jesus’ diary. Shocking details about bribing Roman guards at the cross.
2. Clergy secret society exposed. Who is really in charge of church hierarchies?
3. The truth behind the clergy collar. What are they really covering up?
4. Was Paul’s attitude towards women because he was jilted as a teenager?

Now get a little more serious but still have some fun.

1. Greed is good declares a secret clergy union.
2. Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptist confront each other in a public square. Who best demonstrates fruits of the flesh. The contest is on.
3. Jesus visited a major church last Sunday. Members are upset. Some threaten to leave.
4. The Supreme Court rules that churches must demonstrate love, justice, and mercy to receive tax-exempt status.

Finally, compose five headlines that you would like to see about the church.

1. The church is charged with excessive forgiveness. Seventy times Seven is an unreasonable criterion says society.
2. Members petition pastor to preach sermons that challenge members to be more faithful.
3. The church is full of hypocrites—you too are welcome.
4. First Church exposed as a community that insists on living in harmony with one another and loving other churches.
5. All doubters and believers are invited to share healthy food together.

Invite some friends to join you in constructing some fake news headlines and brainstorming how you might create a tabloid of fun.

LAUGHTER IS CRITICAL FOR A HEALTHY FAITH

The humor in the Scripture is of a subtler variety. Yet, as Ecclesiastes says, there is a time to laugh. Psalm 126 expresses laughter as the expression of grace when beyond expectations, God has restored and healed. Recall that Abraham and Sarah’s child was named Isaac or laughter in English. Laughter is the birth of promise in the face of the impossible.

In the tragic story of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, when out of obedience, Abraham was willing to sacrifice laughter, God intervened to preserve laughter as critical to our faith journey. We know the danger of fanaticism is that one’s belief system becomes so narrow that there is no freedom to question and grow. Laughter is what can give perspective.

On your spiritual journey, you need to be comfortable with acknowledging your pain and laughing at yourself when you have taken yourself too seriously. Between those poles, you will experience the presence of God and be able to convey that to those in need.

FIVE TYPES OF HUMOR FOR THE CARE OF OUR SOUL

Let me suggest several ways in which humor can be part of our souls’ journey.

First, we can help ourselves by occasionally looking for humor in some predicament within which we find ourselves.
My personal example: I might think to myself in frustration ”If I have to conduct one more wedding for a non-church couple who wants to make their wedding meaningful by writing their own vows and have music from Broadway as part of the ceremony, I think I might go and get a divorce myself.”

Remember, humor is not meant to be serious and makes use of exaggeration for effect.

Second, it’s important to find humor in other people’s behavior, especially if they are trying to intimidate you into doing their bidding.

I’ve decided that there are three types of wealthy members in my congregation.
There are wealthy members who genuinely feel blessed and want to support the church and do good with their resources.
 2.  there are wealthy members who are convinced that their wealth gives them special privileges as members.
And then some wealthy members have concluded that the pastor is an idiot and hope you have at least enough brains left to recognize what geniuses they are. It provides new evidence for the doctrine of the total depravity of man.

Third, laughing at yourself is a valuable practice. It can help deflate over-inflated piety or pompousness.

I am called by God.
I am hired by a congregation.
I am messed up by pride.
I am saved by Grace.
I guess God really is smarter than me.

Fourth, it helps to consider that what is happening may reflect God’s sense of humor.

God, if you wanted to teach me humility, couldn’t you have found an easier way than calling me to this congregation?

I accept the doctrine that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but did we have to gather so much evidence in one congregation?

Fifth, it helps to find some humor in the workings of the universe.

I understand that rain falls on the just and the unjust, but did it have to happen on the day of the church picnic? I know the Bible says that the meek shall inherit the earth. Why didn’t someone explain to me that that only takes place after the arrogant and the rich have died off?