It’s ok to laugh.

Back when I was attending the Episcopal Church, I heard a sermon that probably changed my views on religion and possibly also sparked my sense of comedy. I'm not sure of the title of the sermon but it dealt with how Christians are to be serious folk. The pulpit was no place for humor; it was a place where we battle heaven and hell together. I think he even used the verse in the Gospel were Jesus wept… then stated nowhere in the bible does it say Jesus laughed!

Now we always sat in the very back with my parents, on the wooden pews commonly found in these type churches. During the middle of this sermon, someone up front broke wind…..um, Farted! Wooden pews have a tendency to amplify this naturally occurring phenomenon. It got me and my brothers giggling as well as a few others of the not so dignified (and some of the dignified) members of the congregation.

Thus I made it a personal vendetta to find humor in God’s word. I did find some accounts of the Laughter of God and even some situations in the bible that were pretty whimsical. But the one account that gets me is Sarah. In Genesis 18, Sarah laughed. Hold on a second though, it’s not as funny as you may think… picture this Sarah was ease dropping on the Lord and Abraham’s conversation. The Lord told Abraham, in one years’ time, Sarah will have a baby!”  

Why would she laugh at this? This should be a joyous announcement from the Lord except that she is 90 years old. She describes herself in this chapter of Genesis as ‘worn-out’ old lady! So why did she laugh?

You ever laugh because you weren’t happy? You ever laugh because you were bitter about life or feeling cynical? Kind of like the old expression, “If you didn’t laugh, you’d cry?” It’s my opinion this is why Sarah was laughing.

Then God, in his loving way goes to Sarah and says, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Is anything impossible for God? How do you answer a question like that? If you say yes, you’re denying the very power of God! Of course nothing is impossible for God but that brings me to the next question. Why did he wait so long and make Sarah suffer with her infertility? And for us, why does he allow suffering and pain?

God didn’t even save Jesus the pain and the suffering yet Jesus believed there was nothing impossible with God. Jesus suffering was not in vain….God was working out his plan. Sarah was as unaware of the final outworking of God’s plans as we are, she would be long dead before her ancestors would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. We don’t know God’s plans, but we do know his character, that he works for good for those who love him.

Have you ever found it funny God called people like us to spread his word, to tell those around us of the Good News of Jesus Christ? Have you ever worried that you were not good enough to witness to people, to tell them about the Gospel? Have you ever had someone tell you that you are a hypocrite for calling yourself a Christian after all the things that you have done?

He chose Abraham and Sarah, who laughed because they could not understand the power of God. Instead of picking the great intellectuals of his day to spread the word Jesus chose some fishermen, a terrorist, a man whose previous job involved extorting money from people by force and a bunch of other unlikely characters.

God did not pick us for this job because of any great skill or talent that we might have but he chose us because he wanted to demonstrate that it is purely by his grace that we become Christians, not through any ability or good works of our own and once we have become a Christian we do not live by our own strength, we don’t work for God in our own strength but we should rely 100% on him.

Yes, there may be pain and suffering in our lives and we may not understand it now. It’s not funny but sometimes it’s easier to laugh than cry. Laugh because even though life can be tough God is tougher and we are his kids.

In the end it is God who will have the last laugh!