Gospel: Matthew 28:1-10
1After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. (Oh sure, I’m always the other Mary. …) 2And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord was descending from heaven (hey! Up here! Hold on, I’m coming down. Descending, descending, descending…whew I made it)…An angel of the Lord came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow (Oh come on. More snow. Seriously??!). 4For fear of the angel, the guards shook and became like dead men (ooooooh no…*guards fall over*). 5But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, (into megaphone…he’s been raised from the dead!) and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee (he’s going ahead of you to galilee!); there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” (Hi! Hi there! It’s so good to see you! I love what you’ve done with your hair!) And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid (Don’t be afraid!); go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”*[1]
Alleluia, Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter!
Ooo, this is fun.
Good morning!
Good morning!
Okay, last one – this one comes from my son and has a head motion to it.
Sup?
Sup?
Dear people of God, it is so good to be with you and to laugh with you today. I know that whenever we gather like this, we all come from so many different places. Different places in life, different places in faith with belief and disbelief and confusion and awe. However you come to this place today, just know that we are so glad you are here. It’s so good to be together.
Grace, peace, and mercy are yours in the name of our risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
A couple of years ago, Pastor David Lose became the new senior pastor at Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. It is a rather large congregation with multiple campuses and many services, especially on holidays.
It was Easter Sunday and he was coming to the end of his sermon. After talking about the Easter story, he says to his congregation, “We come to church, to remind each other of Jesus’ promises and to learn to trust God. To trust that the future is in God’s hands. So that we can move beyond our fears and embrace the new life, the possibility, the future that God offers us. That’s what it means to be resurrection people…”
And then he slows down, gets real quiet and says, “At Easter, we learn that God’s story is not yet finished. And because of this, neither is ours. Anything and everything is possible … The tomb is empty…Christ is risen …..Merry Christmas…”
And then he gasps and says, “I mean…happy easter!”
And then he smiles and he laughs at himself. And the congregation laughs with him and with vulnerable joy and smile on his face, he simply says, “You guys, this is like my 5th service today, I’m so tired.”
It was really funny. Now, I’m sure in that gasp there was a split-second moment of panic and embarrassment – that he had flubbed the line at Easter. But it didn’t last long. He let his guard down and welcomed the full embrace of his humanity and the embrace of his congregation, and they joined in laughter together.
It was an accidental joke, a mistake if you will, but there was something about that moment that seemed to be the perfect way to mark Easter.
With laughter.
Like, for a tomb that’s just been opened, it felt like it just brought in an unexpected breath of fresh air. Some much needed laughter and joy on Easter morning.
Have you ever laughed so hard that you cried? I hope you have. I hope you have recently. There’s something magical about it, isn’t there? Something healing and restoring about it. One of my favorite comedian’s, Mike Birbiglia, says, that jokes, comedy, laughter at it’s best has the ability to make us all feel closer to one another.
Did you know that Aristotle called human beings the “laughing animal”? Aristotle thought that what separated humans from animals was not language or reason, but rather…laughter. In fact, he said we aren’t fully human until we’ve had our first laugh.
Now, it’s not true that animals don’t laugh, but it’s interesting to think about. Like, does my dog laugh? I kind of feel like he has…and I certainly hope he has a way to laugh.
Do my cats laugh?
No. No, they do not.
“Laughter, as one preacher says, opens up a joy that goes beyond words. There’s something divine in laughter that humanity is invited to share in. Laughing is participating in what God is (infectiously, subversively non-coercively but irresistibly) doing. And laughter – joyous, physically consuming, whole-body laughter – is at the heart of God.”[2] My favorite picture of my dad and my son together is when they both are bent over laughing together. It’s divine laughter right there in the frame.
But we don’t tend to laugh very much when we are reading the bible. And we don’t even tend to laugh very much just in this space – the sanctuary. For many people and for many years, inside the church building and inside worship is a very serious place. Where we need to be on our best behavior – with proper clothing and attitudes and demeanor.
And that’s for good reason. We engage in some of the most sacred acts in this place. Confession and forgiveness, baptism and holy communion. Praying for those who are sick or hurting or diminished by the world. We accompany our loved ones to the grave in this space. We are serious in this space. The gospel is serious. Seriously good news. And so we do talk about serious and sad and important things.
Too often when it comes to the bible or to church, we don’t think we can laugh. When I was in seminary, there was a piece of artwork displayed in the student center. It was a painting of Jesus laughing. And it was a controversy on campus. Some people loved it, but other couldn’t possibly imagine a world where Jesus…would be laughing.
But what if we are called to laugh in this place and when we read scripture? It’s been said that we confuse taking the bible and the gospel seriously with taking it solemnly. Many of us, myself included, put on our “I’m-reading-the-bible-now” voice, sometimes missing the possibility that at that very moment, maybe the bible is making a joke.[3]
Sometimes in the bible, God is the one who is laughing – like in Psalm 104, when God laughs and plays with God’s rubber-ducky known as Leviathan in the bathtub know as the sea. In the bible, Leviathan is supposed to be the big scary creature of the deep, but in Psalm 104, to God, he’s just a bath toy for God to laugh and play with.[4]
Sometimes in the bible, it’s the characters who are laughing. For example, one of God’s very first promises in the scriptures was to Abraham and Sarah and that they would have a child and from that child, they would have many descendants. As numerous as the stars. And they would have this child at the young age of like… 91. And Sarah laughs. It’s a protective laughter. Yeah, right, after all this time? No way. Even Abraham laughs so hard he falls on his face. But then when that promise came true, when what was impossible, unforeseeable happened – when Sarah gave birth to a child, Sarah says, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” It feels like a different kind of laughter this time. Like a laughter that has swept away sadness and cleared a path for joy – because the impossible, the unexpected has happen.
Oh – and God told them to name the child Isaac. Isaac, which means… Laughter.
Sometimes in the bible, it’s the reader who is laughing.
Did you know that in the bible the Prophet Elisha is told to prophetically hide his underwear among rocks by the river?
Or did you know that a teenager falls out a window and dies because the Apostle Paul’s sermon was so boring?
Or just take this morning’s telling of the Easter story. Sure, we had some of our own humor layered over the top – but there is also humor baked into the story itself. An earth-shaking – stone-shattering entrance of Angel, who – you know – is just chillin’ on top of the massive stone they just moved. Or the guards who are supposed to make sure the dead guy stays dead are the ones who fall over like fainting goats at the sight of the angel. Or Jesus who said he would see them in Galilee, but apparently just couldn’t wait for the women to get there before joining the party with them, so he pops up unexpectedly out of nowhere, making a cameo in his own resurrection story.
What if the gospel…what if Easter…is a comedy. What if we’re supposed to laugh?
Frederick Buechner says that “The tragic is inevitable.” The tragic is inevitable. I doubt I have to say much more on that. We know it. We get it. Tragedy has it’s way of finding us all. But then he says, “The comic is the unforeseeable.”[5] That which we can’t imagine would or could ever happen. Tragedy is assumed. Tragedy is expected. Death comes for us all. Good Friday is a tragedy. But Comedy and laughter comes out of the unexpected thing that we couldn’t see, that never could have happened but did. It’s the surprise, the punchline, and it leads us to laughter and joy, hope and new life.
What if the gospel, what if Easter…is a comedy? What if we’re supposed to laugh?
Laughter is powerful, isn’t?
If you’ve ever been to a stand-up comedian show, the really good ones have this incredible power to turn strangers into family using nothing but words in a short amount of time. Vir Das, a stand-up comedian, says that at his shows, there is often a moment where something so unexpected, so un-orchestrated happens, and laughter and applause erupts… and the artist on stage and the audience both have this moment where they think, “Ah…I’m so glad we did this.”[6] That’s the power of the unexpected. The power of comedy. It can stitch a whole group of strangers together and all they can think is, “I’m so glad we did this.”
When Pastor David Lose wished his congregation a merry Christmas at Easter time it was perfect because it was unexpected and funny and it stitched them together in a way. But it was also perfect because Easter and Christmas belong together.
At Christmas time, we are given the promise that God’s whole purpose for creation was to be with us – revealed to us in the incarnation, in Jesus being born to us in a manger. In Holy Week, we discover just how far God will go to be with us – God will go to the cross with us and for us, to join us in suffering solidarity. On Good Friday, we see how much it costs God to be with us – it costs God everything. And then at Easter we learn the only thing that can separate us from that promise – which is nothing. Not even death. Easter is the ultimate “nothing can separate us from the love of God” moment. Easter is the fulfillment of Christmas. Christmas says, “God is with us.” Easter says, “God is with us…forever.”
It’s so good and so unexpected that all we can do is become like Sarah…and laugh.
In the beatitudes Jesus says, “Blessed are you who weep and mourn, for one day…one day…you will laugh.” And the truth is, I’m sure for some of us, it is hard to laugh today. For so many reasons, known and unknow. And that’s okay. But the easter promise is that someday you will laugh again.
I mean, what if it’s true. What if it’s really true? What if love is stronger than death. What if there is life beyond what we know? What if nothing really can separate us from the love of God?
Would that just be the best punchline of the story.
Some says the gospel is a love story. But what if it’s a romantic comedy.
Frederick Buechner again says “Is it possible, I wonder, to say that it is only when you hear the Gospel as a wild and marvelous joke that you really hear it at all? Heard as anything else the gospel is the church’s thing, the preacher’s thing, the lecturer’s thing. Heard as a joke -it can only be God’s thing.”[7]
“Resurrection comes at the moment that the whole story of everything could be lost.”[8]When the tragedy and end of Good Friday seems inevitable and there is no foreseeable future, Resurrection comes out of the unforeseeable. And in that way, resurrection is surprise. Resurrection is the punch line. Resurrection is the comedy in the RomCom story of God and God’s people. “It reveals God’s utter commitment to be with us, however determined we are to reject (and betray) the offer of love, the source of life, and the purpose of all (creation)…it’s Easter that changes everything. It’s Easter that shows God will never give up on us. It’s easter that demonstrate that this relationship, for which God created the universe and because of which Jesus died…this relationship is finally, ultimately, eternally unbreakable.”[9] The gospel says that one day we will laugh again and that day is today.
Good Friday takes our breath away, but on Easter…on Easter…we get to laugh again. The joke is on death, despair, and loneliness. Resurrection, life, joy, hope and love will have the last laugh.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
I’m so glad we did this.
God bless you and keep each one of you. Blessed and joyful Easter.
Amen.
[1] Some humor and fun and joy added.
[2] Sam Wells, One Day You Will Laugh, https://chapel-archives.oit.duke.edu/documents/sermons/March23OneDayYouWillLaugh11am.pdf
[3] Thomas G. Long, https://cepreaching.org/audio-sermons/saints/
[4] Rolf Jacobson and Karl Jacobson, Divine Laughter: Preaching and the Serious Business of Humor, pg. 45.
[5] Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, pg. 57.
[6] Vir Das was a guest on “Working It Out” podcast with Mike Birbiglia.
[7] Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, pg. 57.
[8] Wells, Samuel. Humbler Faith, Bigger God: Finding a Story to Live By (pp. 227-228). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
[9] Wells, Samuel. Humbler Faith, Bigger God: Finding a Story to Live By (pp. 227-228). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
Untying the Cerebral Knot 