HoHum:
A wise man said, “Joy in Christ requires a commitment to working at the Christian lifestyle. Salvation comes as a gif, but the joy of salvation demands disciplined action. Most Christians I know have just enough of the Gospel to make them miserable, but not enough to make them joyful. They know enough about the biblical message to keep them from doing the things which the world tempts them to do; but they do not have enough of a commitment to God to do those things through which they might experience the fullness of his joy.”
WBTU:
Humor is a natural medicine that we simply must have more of. Laughter may not cure cancer but it can surely lighten the sadness, confusion, hurt, and uncertainty that comes with cancer. Humor will probably not secure a job in a down economy. But it sure can ease the load and keep us from self pity and make our joblessness endurable so that we can count our many blessings. Humor may not be able to stop all the craziness and inhumanity in the world. But it can certainly serve as a reminder of the best and the most humane possibilities that endure in us as human beings.
Started this year talking about joy. One of the fruits of joy is holy laughter.
God wants us to laugh, in season and out of season. Does he really?
“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.” Proverbs 31:25
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:.... a time to weep and a time to laugh,...” Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4, NIV.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” Luke 6:21, NIV.
One of the foundational stories of the OT involves laughter.
Thesis: Let’s talk about this story of Sarah and Abraham
For instances:
Genesis 17:17, 19
It all started with Sarah and Abraham. In Genesis 16 and 17 we hear laughter for the first time in the Bible. In this chapter Abraham and Sarah are given new names (Abram= exalted father; Abraham= father of many and Sarai= my princess; Sarah= a princess) as the establishers of a new, free, and blessed people.
Now God has promised similar things before this to them. In Genesis 15 God promised that Abram would have a son. No son came so Sarai took matters into her own hands and gave her maidservant Hagar to Abram. Hagar conceived and gave birth to Ishmael. “Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.” Genesis 16:16, NIV.
In Genesis 17 God comes again to Abram (Abraham) and promises a son through Sarai (Sarah). Abraham thinks that Ishmael is the child of God’s promise but God tells him that the child is coming through Sarah. María del Carmen Bousada de Lara is the oldest verified mother in modern times; she was aged 66 years 358 days when she gave birth to twins on December 2006. Abraham is almost 100 and Sarah is 90.
Here God names the son Isaac= "he laughs”
Genesis 18:12-15
The Lord comes to Abraham through 3 men or angels. Abraham shows them hospitality and Sarah is preparing a meal for them while the 4 of them talk outside of the tent. Inside the tent Sarah overhears the promise of a son through her. We find Sarah laughing about this.
Now many are hard on Sarah here. At first glance is seems that God is rebuking Sarah for her laughter. Is Sarah’s laughter because of skepticism? Is it scoffing laughter? Is hers the kind of laughter that is unnatural in a situation like hers? A honest response would say No.
Who wouldn’t have laughed in Abraham’s and Sarah’s situations? They are decades beyond picking up their first Social Security retirement checks. They’ve been on Medicare so long they can’t remember not being on it. Think of it, Medicare benefits are going to cover the cost of a brand new baby? God has got to be kidding! They’re laughing instead of crying, they’re laughing instead of going crazy.
Now God does question Sarah. Why God doesn’t question Abraham, we don’t know. God calls out Sarah and shows her a lie on her part. But notice that as God and Sarah talk, God makes no judgment, even when Sarah denies that she laughed.
God wanted Sarah to laugh if nothing else for the name of the child, Isaac.
God might be saying, “Do you see how comical, how wonderfully funny you and all the rest of my creation is to me?”
Genesis 21:1-6
Even if there was some skepticism on Sarah’s part, we see that God fulfilled his promise. Isaac was born while Abraham was the age of 100 and Sarah the age of 90.
Has God ever made us laugh? Has God answered our prayers? God answered Sarah’s prayers. Is God’s timing perfect? Yes. And that made Sarah laugh.
She also laughed at the love God showed. All of the times she cried for a child, all those times she saw others’ children and hurt inside. She laughed because God did not forget. God cared about her.
Not only are Abraham and Sarah laughing but now everyone around is laughing. Vs. 6. Have we noticed how when we see someone laughing we want to be let in on the joke? That was Sarah’s plan. She had gotten a surprise gift and wanted to share her joy.
So what?
The Gift of humor- what are the benefits of laughter?
1. Laughing helps us not to take ourselves too seriously.
Rash judgment a few Wednesday night ago. My humor is kind of dry but I enjoy seeing people laugh. Sometimes a few minutes later but I enjoy it.
Being able to laugh at yourself may be a sign of an optimistic personality and a sense of humor, according to a 2011 study, and it might even improve your mood. Humor has also been identified as a possible factor in personal resilience. "If you can laugh at yourself, you can forgive yourself," Susan Sparks, author of "Laugh Your Way To Grace," "And if you can forgive yourself, you can forgive others."
“Happy is the person who can laugh at himself. He will never be short on entertainment”
Take God seriously but don’t take ourselves so seriously.
2. Laughter helps us heal physically, psychologically and spiritually
Norman Cousins has documented how he participated in his own healing by laughing himself into health. When he was discovered to have a heart ailment he began taking massive amounts of Vitamin C and making himself laugh. Later he would be burdened by “reactive arthritis” and he applied to same treatment. He wrote about it in Anatomy of An Illness. Cousins said that he made the joyous discovery that 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter had a painkilling effect and would give him at least 2 hours of pain free sleep.
3. Laughter helps us maintain balance in a world that is overly serious and miserable
A. In her memoir, Growing Up Laughing: My Story, Marlo Thomas tells how when she was growing up, her father, Danny Thomas, would ask her, “Anything funny happen at school today?” Largely because of her father influence Marlo included laughter and fun into the very fabric of her life. My grandfather did something similar for me.
B. In a world as harsh as razor blades, as brutal as a sledgehammer, and as humorlessly vindictive as a cobra, should we not try does of laughing to offset all of this misery?
4. Laughter helps individuals and communities stay sane.
Mental Health Benefits: Adds joy and zest to life, Eases anxiety and fear, Relieves stress, Improves mood, Enhances resilience
Social Benefits: Strengthens relationships, Attracts others to us, Enhances teamwork, Helps defuse conflict, Promotes group bonding
Maya Angelou recalls that before the Civil War in the South, slaves had a practice of going to the “Laughing Barrel” to express themselves. Laughing was not allowed on many plantations, so when they couldn’t help themselves, they’d go to a barrel and lean way over, as if they were trying to retrieve something, and laugh themselves silly.
5. Laughter empowers us to live more and more into the image of God in which we were created
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...”” Genesis 1:26, NIV.
Could it be that in laughing we behold an angle of God’s personality. it seems impossible to imagine God without a sense of humor. There are, of course, many times when He expects us to be serious. God doesn’t commit practical jokes. He doesn’t make fun of people. God does not laugh at sin. He is however, playful. He wants us to have joy! It’s often easy to picture God as a stern ruler who is always serious and never smiling, but this is far from the actual truth. After all, He created man in His image, so He’s capable of every emotion that humans are able to experience. A professor of Old Testament remarked one day, "Class, if you have never seen God smile nor heard Him laugh, you do not know Him very well."
Pre-school aged children don’t have to be told to laugh. They laugh naturally and a lot more often than adults do. In that stage of relative innocence they laugh. “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”” Luke 18:17, NIV.
