Since we are in the time of COVID-19, it seems like a day when laughter is a particularly good thing. The worship, conducted via Zoom, was recorded and may at some point be available online under Life's Journey UCC. Other than that I don't have a recording of the service.
Today I lead worship at Life's Journey UCC in Burlington, NC, so my friend Pastor Micah Royal could have a much needed time of rest and refreshment. Pastor Micah uses the narrative lectionary, so our texts for the day were:
Acts 1:1-14
Mark 6:7-13
Come Holy Spirit! Enter our hearts, soothe our hurts, and remind us that we can always laugh, because you have won everything for us. Amen.
Jesus said, “Who do people say that I am?”
And his disciples answered and said, “Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or one of the prophets.
And Jesus answered and said, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple.”
And Jesus answered and said, “What?”
You see, Jesus was a practical guy. He was keenly aware of human nature, he knew it inside and out. But he was nothing if not practical. He wanted people to understand his message and that is why he taught in stories. He would tell stories about ordinary things, and people could learn something about how God wanted them to live from those stories.
But Jesus also talked to his disciples and taught them more in depth. They hung out for three years and Jesus told them some very specific things. He taught them how to live like Jesus – how to live and work like God calls us to live even today.
NOW – there is always sorrow in life. We live in a broken world. And sometimes it is the very brokenness that allows us to make jokes, and laugh, and break up the sorrow.
But this year seems different, doesn’t it? The sorrow and the laughter and joy seem divided up in different ways. For example, we aren’t gathering together as a church… but a lot of families are finding they have more time together. And even if that, joys and sorrows are getting all swirled around as everything is different.
But today, in our lessons and because of a tradition called Bright Sunday or Holy Humor Sunday, we are particularly aware of our the we can defy the devil.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead – the Resurrection that we celebrated last week – we can LAUGH! We can laugh at corny jokes. We can laugh at our problems. We can laugh at every scary thing because Jesus has won the victory. We are loved, and we are safe, and we are safe in the care of Jesus.
In today’s reading, the disciples went out and, in their own way, laughed at the devil. Jesus has just been rejected in his own town and noted that a prophet is never recognized in their hometown. His healing was not received and the text is clear that it was because people didn’t believe it. They didn’t invite Jesus into their lives – and Jesus did not force his way in. That’s not how Jesus works.
But then Jesus tells his disciples… ok… here is what I can do. The people who have known me best, who have been my friends and my students, they can do these things.
So he sends them out two by two:
With a walking stick and a friend (who, according to Jewish law, can later serve as a witness to what was about to happen)
What was more remarkable is what they did not take:
No bread
No bag
No money
No extra clothing
They were going, literally, on faith. No money for bribes, no bags for collecting stuff, certainly no fashion statements!
They were not to force anyone.
He didn’t tell them to argue.
He didn’t even tell them they were responsible for what happened.
Just go into the towns, tell what you know, and do whatever you can to love the people.
And if people aren’t interested? Well, in his own hometown people were not interested in Jesus, and he did not fight them on it. He went and helped the people who were open to being helped.
And so the disciples were to do it also. Not forcing, not fighting, just going and staying with whomever showed the hospitality. Not the “best” people or the “right” people, but the ones who were willing.
And if nobody was willing?
They shake those sandals and go on their way.
You may recall that foot washing was a big deal as a sign of hospitality so shaking sandals might have been a way of demonstrating that there WAS dust. That they had not been offered the most basic of hospitality. That they were being sent away, not that they were leaving in a huff.
And when everything came together, they were able to drive out demons (maybe like healing people with psychological wounds) and lots of healing. There were plenty of people who wanted what they had to offer. They had what counted.
They had Jesus and what Jesus taught. They could laugh at the pain – it would not defeat them.
Can you imagine how exciting that must have been? I think it must have been really, really exciting.
It leads me to wonder… are we more able to laugh at the devil when things are strange and uncomfortable? Or maybe it’s that we just have more reason for it?
Last week I told Lisa that it feels like my worst self is constantly interacting with everybody else’s worst self.
I worry about
* what I don’t have (toilet paper anyone? Or hand sanitizer? Or N95 masks?),
* where I can’t go (just about anyplace, but most painfully for me this year, to Ethiopia),
* or the ways other people seem oblivious to the ramifications of various behaviors that increase the chance that they – OR I! – might end up terribly sick.
But I think that today, in the midst of all these worries and frustrations, we are being sent out into the world in new and strange ways.
Just like the disciples were.
And just like the disciples, I believe that we CAN find our ways to gracious goodness.
We can love each other.
We can trust God.
We can laugh at the devil as we remember and sing ALLELUIA! Because evil has been bested.
Jesus rose from the dead – was Resurrected – laughed at the requirement that all creatures must die and stay dead.
But Jesus was not created, not a creature. Jesus is the one through whom all of creation came to exist!
So this week, when your worst self shows up to interact with someone else’s worst self, remember that the disciples only had each other, and God,
AND IT WAS ENOUGH.
Remember that death could not hold Jesus, and that anxiety and fear need not hold you.
Remember, above all, that in Jesus you have the ultimate freedom. And then laugh in the face of evil.
AMEN.
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