Holy Humor Sunday 041507

3 UM women talking: our congregation is sometimes as few as 30 or 40

2^nd: that’s nothing, ours can be as low as 6 or 7

3^rd is a single woman in her 70s: huh, its so bad in our church some Sundays that when the minister says, dearly beloved, it makes me blush!

Scripture reading with actors and humor – John 20:19-31

What makes you laugh?

Do you think Jesus laughed? What made him laugh?

(tickled, friends, playing)

Do you think God laughs?

What makes God laugh? (our being here, our trusting Jesus, etc)

As we were preparing for this scripture reading, Dan asked me about wearing a costume, as if Jesus could not conceivably show up from the choir! Of course, if the old story is believed, it IS unlikely – the devil was originally an angel and on falling from the grace of heaven, landed in the choir!

But it did get me thinking about how and when Jesus shows up. I remember hearing a story about an abbot of a monastery that was lacking in monks, all getting old, no new recruits etc. Went to see a hermit in the woods nearby, a Jewish mystic: the messiah is one of you. Changed the way they behaved to one another, gradually many were attracted to the life of love….

Have you seen Jesus my Lord? (song) He’s here in plain view.

John’s sermon last week – Yes, But, therefore.

Yes, I believe Jesus is alive

BUT, like Thomas, I’d like some sign of it. Notice Jesus doesn’t really condemn T for his doubt, just accepts that’s what he needs.

Truth be told, we are yes but believers too. Most of us can’t see. We’re too rational. Since the enlightenment we’ve proved that knowledge is power, and have learned to equate truth with fact only. We have not realized that in reality truth and fact can be quite separate.

Some of us need tangible results to let resurrection happen to us too.

Some of us need time

Some need personal experience

Some don’t need much at all to let life overtake us!

When I realize that there can be a difference between believers, and a difference between truth and fact, I can let go the literal details of a Biblical story – Jesus showing up through a locked door defies rational thought, yes – it can’t be a FACT today. But it can be TRUE.

To see Jesus requires a level of trust we find hard, but as sure as I stand here (at least I think I am!) I believe it’s true that Jesus shows up Ta da!

Which brings me to the ‘therefore’

Yes I believe Jesus is alive

But I need a sign of it

Therefore someone has to show me Jesus.

Child in a cathedral staring at stained glass windows with their biblical characters and saints. Later someone asked her what is a saint, and she replied "a saint is a person who lets the light shine through"

Jesus shows up, unexpectedly,

and when we are afraid

Or locked up tight

Or doubting

Jesus shows up when Nicole lets the light through as she plays the prelude and sets the tone of safety

When the choir sings and opens the locked place in our heart

When Kathryn feeds the hungry, crossing the locked door of poverty and prejudice

When Jean visits the lonely, breaking the barrier of ageism

When Stephanie pops up unexpectedly with a cue card

Even when Dan makes us laugh!

ANYTIME any of us does something seemingly foolish for Christ’s sake.

Have you seen Jesus the Lord?

Have you BEEN Jesus for others?

What’s your YES, Jesus is alive story?

What’s your BUT doubt story

What’s your therefore story?

And the only way to move from but to therefore is to let God’s very breath fill you, to believe in life rather than death, to trust rather than fear. Of course we will doubt, that shows we’re thinking at least! I have lots of questions about traditional beliefs, as many of us have explored with "Living the Questions" series. But my doubt and questioning doesn’t change God’s trust in me, in us. Jesus came to a gathered group of disciples, just like us, and breathed….. on them. Giving them the very spirit, breath, power, of God.

And I believe that often laughter can be the way to experience that holy spirit. An older woman I read about said, "You don’t get too old to be funny. Humor helps you name the demons in your life, and once you’ve named them you can being to cope with what life has given you. When you laugh you deny them control, and you get a glimpse of God"

Four hundred years after Jesus, Augustine said "The Christian should be an alleluia from head to toe"!

If we were on trial for believing in Jesus, for being a follower of Jesus, would there be enough to convict us? Or are we still locked up in our safe little room?

One of the shortest and most powerful prayers I have every heard was this one I found this week: dear God, help me be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.

Pastoral Prayer leading to interrupted Lord’s prayer…

IRS interview with pastor re parishioner

Let us offer to God our gifts according to that which we reported on Schedule A as charitable giving

…after offering and prayer of dedication

Maggie’s story