The Old South Church in Boston

To Laugh with Love

Sermon by Brooks Berndt

June 16, 2002
Genesis 21: 1-7

"The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me." And she said, "Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."

Every Christmas my father buys my mother a box of Fannie May chocolate. My mother always shares this gift with the rest of family, and typically my father ends up being the primary recipient of many chocolate covered turtles, almond bark bars, coconut balls, and any combination of chocolate with nuts. Sometimes my father will even pick up the unwrapped gift of Fannie May candy from underneath the tree and say, "Gee, I think this package was mistakenly addressed to your mom. It should be addressed to me." My father has a way of changing his voice so that it has a sort of naïve, innocent sound but which members of our family can instantly detect as an ill-conceived effort to be sly and self-serving. This is the kind of voice my father had when I told him I was preaching on Father's Day. "So are you going to mention anything about your wonderful father?" I told him I was thinking of preaching a sermon on the theme of laughter. "So would you like your father to provide you some material? Some jokes?" He then proceeded to tell me various jokes and anecdotes. The funny thing being that none of them were funny at all. My father is a math professor and no offense to David Vogan but math jokes just are not funny, at least to those of us lacking an appreciation for the nuances of the prime number sequence.

Despite his comedic failures, my father's relationship with me over the years has demonstrated one of the primary functions or effects of laughter: it draws people closer, it brings people together, it bonds us one to another. Humorist and Pianist Victor Borge once said, "Laughter is the closest distance between two people." In today's scripture reading, we get a sense of the important role of laughter not only between people but also between God and humanity. After a previous setback, Sarah's relationship with God deepens in faithfulness and joy through laughter. Earlier in the book of Genesis, Sarah had laughed in disbelief when God promised her a son. Sarah was ninety years old. The idea of giving birth at such an old age seemed ridiculous. Far from inspiring faith, God's words inspired doubt. God, however, gets the last laugh. Sarah not only gives birth, but she gives birth to a son whom God instructs Abraham to name "Isaac" which in Hebrew means "he laughs." In the end, the joke is not God's promise, it's Sarah's disbelief. For laughing in denial, she gets laughter as proof. Expecting nothing, she has joy to share. Sarah proclaims, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me."

I like today's scripture for three reasons. First, it depicts God with a sense of humor. God is a god of justice, a god of liberation, a god of love, and a god of laughter. Laughter is God's gift to us. It's our indispensable resource. It heals. It reconciles. It humanizes. Nothing lays old grudges to rest like a good laugh. Philosopher William James once said, "One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling." Or as another great philosopher named Jay Leno puts it, "You can't stay mad at somebody who makes you laugh." One can have the fiercest of arguments and then all of the sudden a joke clears the air. As soon as the first smile breaks, it's as if the enemy becomes human once more. You forget that you're a democrat and they're a republican or vice-versa as the case may be. Hey, you even forget that they're a Yankees fan. All that matters is that both of you have a funny bone.

In a sense, however, jokes and laughter are not always funny. Few things sting as much as an insulting remark, a racist joke, a sexist dig, or a homophobic snicker. Through the humiliation of laughter, people get pushed out of the human family. In our own country, this form of humiliation has often tried to push black people out of the human family. A whole industry of entertainment known as minstrelsy caricatured blacks as ignorant, foot-shuffling buffoons with wide eyes and big lips. For many white people, minstrel shows developed their sense of what black people were actually like. Some minstrel shows even billed themselves as authentic representations of plantation life. In more recent times, outspoken critics of the current entertainment industry like Spike Lee have compelled us to think about whether the legacy of black minstrelsy still lives. What are the common images of blacks in TV shows and movies? To what roles are black comedic actors typically confined?

Examples of the humiliation of laughter exist everywhere, and let us not forget that they exist in the Bible. Jesus experienced the humiliation of laughter. Mocked as the king of the Jews, crowned with thorns, clothed with a purple cloak, taunted, ridiculed, subjected to the worst forms of vulgarity. Jesus experienced not just physical violence. He experienced the kind of violence that destroys the soul, that destroys one's sense of self and personal dignity. Long after physical wounds have healed, these are the wounds that continue to fester and sting. So it is that laughter is a double-edged sword. Mark Twain once wrote that the human race "in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon--laughter… Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand." Like a sharp weapon, laughter can strike and sometimes it can wound a person severely.

Yet, laughter can also serve as a weapon of defense and a mechanism of survival. A French philosopher named Penjon once spoke of laughter as an expression of freedom. He described it as "the echo of freedom." In oppressive circumstances, people often find the power to create humor of their own and to let their laughter reverberate in the chambers of their confinement. Gustavo Gutierrez, a priest who lives among of the poor of Lima, Peru and who has been called the father of liberation theology, once spoke about the importance of humor for the oppressed. He said:

I believe that one of the greatest victories of those who oppress the poor is if they can make the poor bitter. Bitterness makes us closed to other people. One thing I see and admire in poor persons is that they know how to keep up a certain capacity of happiness, and humor is an expression of happiness. The children in my neighborhood have a great sense of humor!

I suspect that many adults could learn a lot from the humor of children. According to one study, adults laugh up to 20 times a day while children laugh up to 200 times. Thus, in our story from Genesis, God's gift of laughter fittingly comes in the form of an infant child.

The generous nature of God's gift represents another reason why I like today's scripture. In teaching Sarah a lesson of faith, God gives a gift and gives it humorously. The generosity of this gesture becomes more apparent when one considers other methods of teaching. God could have given a fiery, long-winded lecture on the importance of faith and brought Sarah into line with a strict regimen of discipline and punishment for her faithlessness. God could have been the God of wrath in teaching the lesson. God could have used humor in a vindictive way, subjecting Sarah to public ridicule, contempt, and degradation. Yet, the God depicted in today's scripture uses humor to both teach and uplift Sarah in her faith. Whereas Sarah once lacked for faith, she now realizes God's miraculous power to bring joy into one's life in a very literal way: through the birth of Isaac, the living representation of laughter. Moreover, Sarah learns her lesson while laughing at her own folly and the wonder of God's blessing. With astonishment, she proclaims, "Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." For Sarah, to laugh with God is to laugh with love.

Herein lies the third reason I like today's scripture. It depicts a child of God laughing with God and it depicts this laughter as bringing them closer together. Distrust becomes trust. Doubt becomes belief. Faithlessness becomes faith. I feel that laughter not only brings us closer together as humans but also closer to God as Christians. If God is love and love expresses itself and makes itself known through the intimate intricacies of life that connect us one to another, then laughter must be an indispensable instrument of love, of God. As with many things, laughter poses a danger if used the wrong way, but so long as it is used in love, through God's Spirit, laughter serves as one of humanity's greatest assets.

Could it be that right now, on the other side of the world, an Israeli is discovering he can laugh with a Palestinian or an Indian is discovering she can joke peaceably with a Pakistani? Laughter seems a trivial aspect of life and yet such visions almost seem utopic. In a sense, perhaps they are utopic. Perhaps, each time old enemies become new friends through laughter, one catches a glimpse of the kingdom to come. Sure laughter might seem an almost insignificant speck within the broad scope of human affairs next to matters of oil and nuclear bombs, but I dare say that there are Palestinians at check points who know what it means to experience the humiliation of laughter just as there are Jews who know the pain of an anti-Semitic slur. If only all of humanity were to know what it means to laugh with love.

But let me not end on such a somber note. Let me conclude by telling one of my father's favorite jokes. There once was a man who wanted to buy a horse so he went to see a local horse-dealer. The horse-dealer greeted the man with a smile and showed him a number of horses, but the man was not satisfied. At last, the horse-dealer said, "I know. I've got just the right horse for you. It's a religious horse." So the two went down to the last stall and there was the religious horse. "What makes this horse so religious?" asked the man. "I'll tell you what it is," said the horse-dealer. "To get it go, you have to say, 'Praise the Lord.' To get it to stop, you have to say, 'Amen.'" The man was impressed and bought the horse immediately. He then rode off for a test drive. He sped across the desert having the time of his life but then all of the sudden he saw that he was approaching the edge of a cliff and he couldn't remember what he had to say in order to get the horse to stop. Sweat ran down his face. He was coming closer and closer to the edge. And then he remembered, and yelled with a loud shout, "Amen." The horse skidded to a stop inches from the edge. The man looked up, gave a sigh of relief, and said, "Praise the Lord."

Let us Pray:

Dear God of laughter and love and all that is beautiful in this world, thank you for the many opportunities you have given us to enjoy fellowship and worship with one another as Christians and as your children. In the name of your Son our Savior we pray. Amen.




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The Old South Church in Boston
645 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 536-1970