The Bungee Cord   9-2-19

Hello,

     I was watching “Family Feud” the other day, as I often do just to lighten my mind, and the question that was asked was, “Name an event where it is not right to laugh out loud.”  When the answers were given, I was not shocked to hear a couple of the most popular ones to be “a funeral” and “a trial”.  But I was a little surprised to hear this one as being near the top: “a church worship service.”

       Maybe “surprised” is not the right word.  I think the right word would be “disappointed”.  It is disappointing to me that the weekly celebration of the greatest victory of all time, Jesus’ Easter victory over sin and death, has somehow become  known as a gathering where outbursts of laughter are deemed out of place.

     It is true that deep and profound matters are dealt with when Christians come together to worship on Sunday morning: the plight of the poor, the weight of our sins, the reality of failure, the emptiness of grief, the gloom of worthlessness, the prowling of death.  All very serious things.  

     But maybe when we come to church on Sunday morning, we see what happens to all of those serious and dour things.  When Christians bring the entirety of their lives with them to worship – the good and the bad, the easy and the hard, the smooth and the rough – nothing is swept under the rug.  Instead everything finds itself toe to toe with Jesus Christ….you know, the one who stretched out his arms, opened his heart and like a cosmic black hole of God’s grace drew into himself every enemy that might stake a claim on you or me, put an end to them on the cross, and then left them breathless in the tomb that he walked out of….and when those same things stand under the gaze of Jesus on the weekly anniversary of that tomb exit, like Steve Erkel nose to nose with Mike Tyson, they quiver and shake, because they know what is going to happen to them.  And in my mind, there is nothing in the world funnier than seeing the mighty ogres of this life cower and quake, slink their tails between their legs, and with terror in their eyes swirl, as if in a flushing toilet, deep into that Easter tomb’s abyss.

     I remember when I was a kid watching the TV Batman series, where Batman and Robin would take on the arrogant and sinister criminals of Gotham City.   I remember watching them tussle and wrangle with the likes of the Joker and the Riddler. And I remember laughing as the words “BAM!”, “SMASH!”, and “CRUNCH” lit up the screen.

     I am disappointed to hear that the world thinks that one of the top events that laughing out loud would be out of place is Sunday morning worship, because there’s a lot of “BAM!”, “SMASH!” and “CRUNCH!” going on.   Maybe we should invite someone who thinks that laughing out loud is out of place, and have them see if they can hold their laughter in!   

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Have a great week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger