Bishop's letters: March 03 +James Laughter
“No-one laughs in church”. That was one of the main complaints to emerge from a survey of so-called “tweenagers” - the 10-14 year olds who are leaving our churches (or at least our Sunday Schools) in such alarming numbers.
According to recent research, two-thirds of the ten year olds who are currently involved with church life in this country will leave during the next two years. For them, “fun” is a core value - and not one they find much of in church.
Of course, there are plenty of honourable exceptions. I know several churches where laughter is definitely on the menu. But perhaps those tweenagers are right. On the whole, we do tend to make “religion” an awfully solemn and serious business. From the hushed tones of our voices to the dignified pace of our processions, we send out a clear message: this is no laughing matter. Giggle if you dare!
All of which is rather strange, since God undoubtedly has a good sense of humour. As people often point out, you only have to look at the creatures he has made (especially human beings) to realise that. There’s an old joke which goes “If you want to make God laugh - just tell him your plans”! And there’s a lovely “grace” for those who doubt God’s sense of humour:
We thank you Lord for drink and food and talk that follows after;
thus sharing all on earth that’s good we’ll share in heaven’s laughter.
We hope it’s true the word we’ve heard, a most persistent rumour
that what keeps you sane, good Lord, must be your sense of humour.
The Bible is full of humour. Some of it is rather lost on us, since comments and situations that would have been funny to a Hebrew mind don’t strike us as especially amusing. But, for example, a speaking donkey in the story of Balaam and Balak; camels trying to fit through the eyes of needles, and attempts to extract the speck of sawdust from your brother’s eye when there is a plank in your own would all have been hilarious to contemporaries. I imagine that Jesus laughed a lot. Of course, there were profoundly serious moments, for instance when he wept over Jerusalem and sweated blood in Gethsemane. But I certainly don’t think of him as earnest and intense, and was delighted when my teenage daughter recently gave me a picture entitled “The Laughing Jesus”.
Church life is also guaranteed to keep a smile on one’s face. If you read the “Church Times” you may know its weekly “St Gargoyles” cartoon which gently pokes fun at some of our more absurd and eccentric ways. One of the reasons why it provokes so much mirth is precisely because it is usually so close to the mark. As someone overheard a little girl saying to her friend in the playground at School, “You have to be very brave to go to church. My uncle said that last Sunday they had a canon in the pulpit, the choir murdered the anthem, and the organist drowned the choir”.
One of those “tweenagers” suggested that maybe churches should have a “Happy Week”. Amen to that - but I hope that, without becoming shallow or frivolous, it might last more than a week!
Bishop James
