The Church needs to learn how to have Godly fun

It is right that the Church is a community that deals with serious issues, a community that takes serious things seriously; it is right that the Church looks to challenging injustice, healing the sick, freeing the oppressed and finding food and shelter for the poor and homeless. It is right that the Church takes these things seriously and it is right that the Church takes seriously its own capacity to get these things wrong; to oppress and to cause harm. But surely the Church is about serving the whole human being not just solving the problems.

Some of the Church is just serious or even miserable for no good reason - and some of the Church has a sense of fun that isn’t really as healthy as we might think. There is that 'worthy' sense of joy that many Christians get out of doing good to others and being good people. There is a sense of fun that, from the inside of the fold seems like wholesome, clean and holy fun. However, it is also a sense of fun that often comes across as dismissive or aloof to those on the outside - and as disingenuous to those who may be hurting, either in spite of or even because of their experience of Church.

I believe that what we need is more of that joy that digs deep into the well of human experience; that laughs alongside the broken hearted and the lost; that sees godliness in the laughter of the drunk and the deep holy reverence of the person who dances long into the night in celebration of the fleeting experience that is a human life. We need this more than the kind of joy that revels in judging itself superior to such lower people. We need the joy of singing our hearts out in the karaoke bars and in the back seats of cars; we need the joy of the ones singing football chants in the stadium as well as the ones who bristle with joy at the complex rhythms of a jazz tune or feel their hearts lift as the protest singer sings out ‘we shall overcome'. We need this so much more than the self righteous joy that will not laugh at a joke because it contains a rude word, that cannot bear the laughter of people with short skirts and long nails, that is immune – inoculated against the effects of a samba beat upon their feet and panics at the ambiguity of sophisticated humour.

Christ ate with sinners and associated with outcasts and in amongst all the other stuff was washed by prostitutes, met politics with satire, shared food and drink with friends and was accused of gluttony by religious leaders. He went to parties and told stories about banquets, weddings, new wine and young women.

Ecclesiastes said there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance - I wonder, what time is it for you and where do you find true joy in your life?

Humour is a funny thing

I wrote this for a local Church magazine and ironically posted it to the editor just hours before hearing about the death of Robin Williams... 

Funny is often associated with happy and yet many of the funniest people in the world have been quite sad people. Humour can be a difficult thing to spot when for one reason or another you cannot see the joke. Sometimes a joke may be used as a test of your knowledge of a group or culture; are you one of us? It can also be used as a handy shortcut to knowing how well a child's intelligence is developing. There is a close link between humour and intelligence. .Jokes can cause pain, they can be caused by pain, and at its best humour can be a healer of pain.

Stand up comedians and preachers actually share a lot in common. Both need to hold the attention of a group of people with their words; both rely on the ability to move people emotionally. Good preachers and good comedians rely very much on timing and the rhythm of their speech, the cadences and pace of their delivery, both have punch lines to deliver. The best of both are in the business of sharing grace. Perhaps though, one of the biggest differences is that historically congregations have been more polite about dull sermons than audiences have been about unfunny comedians. I am simultaneously grateful for and sorry about that.

But one of the funniest (funny peculiar) things about humour, is what it tells us about when we are tired. There are different kinds of tired. For example there is the, 'I've had a busy day doing exciting things' kind of tired, and there are those kinds of tired where we think, 'I've had enough today' or 'I can't do this anymore.' Those kinds of tired seriously reduce our capacity to get the joke, to engage in the humour of a situation. It is that kind of tiredness that leaves people grumpy and snappy and lacking in grace. Our capacity for intelligent thought is seriously reduced by fatigue and that in part is why it is tired people rather than sad people who often find it hardest to be funny.

And there is a theology to our humour. We can ask ourselves if our humour is full of grace and whether it is a healing kind rather than a hurting kind. We can also ask if our humour is gracious towards those with that deep sense of fatigue and sadness. Sometimes one of the most grace filled things we can do is to get the joke on someone else's behalf, not to expect them to laugh, but to know when to diffuse the situation with humour; to tell the joke they would have told if they had the emotional energy.

I hope you have all had moments of joyous laughter this summer, but for those who are not able to laugh right now, know that there are people out there looking after your sense of humour until you are ready to reclaim it.