I can remember certain childhood moments of learning

 and insight. One of those is a moment when I realized how painful it was to laugh AT someone. I even remember the feeling of realizing that it wasn’t good and right to laugh at someone. Some laughter makes us feel good, and some laughter hurts. In my case, that learning came somewhere in the second half of elementary school at our diocesan summer camp. I don’t remember every detail, but I remember a boy carrying his tray of food through the dining hall, tripping on the leg of a chair, and falling down, making a mess as his food went flying.

In my defense, I can see, even now, why I laughed. It was a scene that could have come out of a comedy movie – a bit of live action slapstick. Except that this particular boy’s fall wasn’t choreographed to generate a laugh. I remember how mortified he was, how many laughed, and how he started to cry. I also remember one girl who went to help him right away, and the disapproving glare and comment of an adult leader who chastised our table on the way by to help. Laughter is powerful.

I’ve known that in other ways, positive ways too. I use humor, as you probably know by now, quite a bit. I was the subject of laughter at various stages in my own childhood and I learned that turning it around could be useful. Laughter can be a good defense mechanism. I have also learned that laughter can be used to diffuse tension, ease pain, and most importantly to bring joy. That last kind of laughter is the kind that most of us crave; the laughter of friends who can share a 20-year old inside joke; the laughter that comes from a realization of absurdity; the laughter that a truly clever joke pulls from our depths. Laughter is a great thing.

The Rev. Dr. Lauren Winner, the priest and scholar who was with us in the fall, recently published the book she was working on when she visited with us. Although her presentations weren’t on her book topic when she was with us, she shared some with the clergy of the diocese at our Clergy Conference that next week. The book, entitled Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God, is about seeing God in new ways. Lauren’s hope is to share new or forgotten images of God, including God as one who laughs.

Surprisingly for me (in some ways), as Dr. Winner studied the places where God laughs she found that more often than not, when God laughs, God laughs AT not WITH. Think of the old joke, “You want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans.” God tends to laugh at people who don’t think God is able or capable or willing to do a particular thing. She uses the example of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah that Sarah will bear a son in her old age. Both Abraham and Sarah laughed, but Abrahams was more joyful, where hers was scornful. God tends to join in with the joyful and rebuke the scornful.

I won’t recount the entire chapter on laughter, but I will say it was enlightening to consider God’s laughter, both it’s positive use and its challenges. Holy use of laughter can be and often is powerful. This is, in large part, why I love Holy Humor Sunday, and why I frequently use humor in sermons. Laughter can often open us up to the movement of the Spirit in powerful ways. I do think that God laughs with us in joyful laughter. God must delight when God’s children delight.

I also found it helpful to think about the power of laughter. I don’t often laugh at people the way I might have as a foolish child, at least not out loud. But there are times my chuckles aren’t generative. What about yours? How often is laughter in your heart coming from a life-giving place, and how often is it a subtly destructive force? How often do you use humor in a truly joyful way, and how often do you use it to cause pain, or to degrade another person? Lauren Winner wonders what it would be like to laugh with God, and I find that a very interesting thing to wonder along with her.

If you’re interested in the rest of the book, I would recommend it to you. It might just open up a new way for you to connect with God or liven up your prayer life. Regardless, find your way to some laughter this week – the good kind – the kind that makes you feel better and gives you hope. We were created for laughter, among other things, for a very good reason.

Tom+

Lord, to laugh in the midst of trial and to rejoice in the darkest valley is another way of saying, “Our hope is in you.” Fill us with laughter and joy while we work for peace and strive for justice… Help us to live so foolishly for you that we draw onlookers and those who would deride us. And while they watch and mock, change all our hearts that we might learn to laugh at the foolishness this world calls normal and run away with the circus that is real life. Amen. Prayers for December 21 and January 27, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, as shared in Wearing God.