Laughing Jesus
After the 8:30 service on Sunday, Mari stopped me and said -- "I've never heard of anyone saying that Jesus threw back his head and laughed." I was stunned. Mari has had decades of attending worship. On Monday I heard the same thing from Tim, another life long church attendee. We in the church have done a really lousy job of communicating the joy of Jesus.Yes, it is indeed true that Jesus worked hard -- he spent a lot of time on healing people and speaking -- so much that he would wear himself out and have to go off by himself and rest. Yes, Jesus got himself worked up more than once -- driving the moneychangers out of the temple, and expressing frustration with the disciples on a fairly regular basis. But I think that life around Jesus must have been a whole lot of fun -- and across the years the church has often done what it can to bleed the fun out of life in Christ. Shame on us.
One could argue that the main reason Jesus got killed was for "eating with tax collectors and sinners." Now -- you've gotta believe that such a group really knows how to have a good time (probably a whole lot of pretty good -- albeit off-color -- jokes). In one of the gospels he is called a "glutton and a drunkard." Now I don't think he was one - but I think they couldn't have made this charge unless he was having an awfully good time.
Around Broadway we have a good ol' time. It's not always easy. People in this congregation struggle on a daily basis -- some against illness, some against poverty, some against injustice -- heck some against all of these at the same darn time. And yet there is a lot of laughter. Truly. And we could use to laugh some more. That's my commitment for Lent this year -- to give up being morose!
I think Jesus, when you really think about it, was a person who must have had a lot of laughter around. Think of the feedings of the thousands. When once there was no food -- and now there is an abundance. That laughter should be coming down like a thunderstorm all around them.
Sara Maitland's book about a Joyful Theology challenges me to think that the proper response to life in this world is NOT gratitude (which I have often thought it to be) -- but Joy. I like that. It's not gratitude that God wants as much as joy in the world that we have and our life in one another.
I know that as mom struggled with cancer the last few years of her life...in the midst of those battles she seemed to make a conscious decision to do things that made her happy. I'm not saying she or anyone of this ever get this right...but I hope I can think about that joy -- that joy that I believe was in Jesus -- and find more of a place for it in my life.
I have a lot to be joyful about. Kathy, Conor and Jordan to start. And they give me a lot of reason and opportunity to laugh. And there is the people I'm blessed to work with. And there are the people I worship with. And there are my neighbors and circle of friends. Yes, yes, yes. There is a lot of joy around.
posted by Mike Mather at 7:24 PM
2 Comments:
I can see Jesus laughing the way that you see him. I think of my friend who had a brother in Rome studying for the priesthood. He lived in a house with several other Americans who were all there for the same reason. He told of a statue that was in the grand foyer of the old house that they were all housed in. This statue of Jesus portrayed him as heavy set. (Since I too am of heft, shall we say, I found it wonderful that someone would show a Jesus who had enjoyed a meal or two.)
Father Michael told his sister when she was visiting him that he would meet her for dinner and that she should come to the house and meet him by the Pasta Jesus. Since I cannot imagine a heaven without a really good mac and cheese, I love the idea of a Pasta Jesus and can we even think of sitting at a table where pasta is being served where there isn't laughter? Wouldn't Pasta Jesus be at the head of that table...laughing?
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