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The Easter Laugh

arkOne of my favorite pictures is of Jesus throwing his head in a glorious laugh so I love the old Easter custom begun by the Greeks in the early centuries of Christianity – “Holy Humor Sunday.” For centuries in Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant countries, the week following Easter Sunday, including “Bright Sunday” (the Sunday after Easter), was observed by the faithful as “days of and laughter” with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. Churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes on each other, drenched each other with water, told jokes, sang, and danced. The custom was rooted in the musings of early theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) that played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. “Risus paschalis – the Easter laugh,” the early theologians called it.

In 1988 the Fellowship of Merry Christians began encouraging churches and prayer groups to resurrect Bright Sunday celebrations and called it “Holy Humor Sunday,” with the theme: “Jesus is the LIFE of the .” Many times, I believe our and faith would benefit from a bit of levity and joy for we are often too straight-faced and straight-laced! The Lord's Supper ought to be more like a celebration than a funeral service. When “Family Circus” cartoonist Bil Keane first began putting religion into his work in the 1960s, some religious conservatives took offense at the irreverence of mentioning God in the funny pages. Later, when one of his young characters reinterpreted a commandment as “Humor thy father and thy mother” or threatened to tell his mother that a sibling at prayer is “goin' over her head,” he got accolades from the same group. The English writer G.K. Chesterton once said, “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. Never forget that Satan fell by force of gravity.”

JesusThe Fellowship of Merry Christians publishes a Joyful Noiseletter and here are some samples from it. * A paramedic said his most unusual 911 call came from a church, where an usher was concerned that an elderly man had passed out in a pew and appeared to be dead. What was so unusual about that? “Well,” the paramedic said, “we carried out four guys before we found the one who was dead.” * A good sermon should have a good beginning and a good ending, and they should be as close together as possible. A few years back, North Bay Community Church in Clearwater, FL, celebrated Holy Humor Sunday. The Rev. Daniel McDonald said, “Laughter releases tension, and we have enough of that these days. I think we all need to stop taking ourselves so seriously. We need to recognize that this is really God's world, and He has so much in store for us. We put too much emphasis on what's wrong and what's bad with it.” That Sunday Rev. McDonald “gave one of the world's shortest sermons. He announced that the focus of his talk would be on sin. ‘Don't do it,' he said from the pulpit. ‘Amen.' Then he sat down.” I think I've got my sermon for this Sunday! Rejoice and be glad this week, my friends, and be sure to have some fun and laugh! *

 

 

 

 

 

Author Info: Peggy Roberts Verified Senior Staff
Chaplain Peggy Roberts is Vice President of the Life Department here at Beatitudes. Peggy was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has served in pastoral ministry as well as being a hospice chaplain.

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