Lighten Up, Light the World
Rev. Cynthia O’Brien
April 15, 2007
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven…
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance …
Ecclesiastes 3
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord…
"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."
Ephesians 5
We are 28 percent of the way through 2007, the Year of Discovery, and this month’s topic is Discover the Power to Make a Difference. Last Sunday we focused on the source of our power, Jesus Christ raised from the dead, and we learned about how God works with ordinary people with extraordinary results, like that Presbyterian Disaster Assistance team in Louisiana I told you about.
Speaking of PDA, we received an offering last week for One Great Hour of Sharing, which goes to disaster assistance and programs that help people help themselves in the neediest parts of the world. Your gifts last Sunday totaled $1300. Thank you so much.
After the crucifixion of Jesus, the disciples were a scattered, frightened band of fugitives. But within a week, they began to change into the most remarkable collection of human beings the world has ever seen.
Luke 24:51-52 “Now it came to pass, while Jesus blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”
Sherwood Wirt says: “Joy was what changed them. .. Joy was the atmosphere in the early church. It was euphoria, hilarity, unspeakable gladness. The believers had become aware that the bars of nature had been broken through by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.” [1]
In the early Greek Orthodox tradition, an Easter custom developed, in which on the day after Easter, clergy and laity gathered to tell jokes and stories. They even played jokes on each other. The theology behind this was that they were celebrating the greatest joke of all, the joke God had pulled on the devil – the Resurrection. Theologians called it Riscus paschalis, the Easter laugh.
We can so easily miss our Easter joy.
Once the comedian Groucho Marx was getting off an elevator and he happened to meet a clergyman. The clergyman came up to him, put out his hand and said, “I want to thank you for all the joy you’ve put into the world.” Groucho shook his hand and replied, “Thank you, Reverend. I want to thank you for all the joy you’ve taken out of it.” [2]
How often do we go around looking like Easter never happened?
In 390, Chrysostom preached a sermon against it. He said, “This world is not a theatre in which we can laugh, and we are not assembled together in order to burst into peals of laughter, but to weep for our sins… It is not God who gives us the chance to play, but the devil.” [3]
But more Christian theologians through the ages have had a joyful point of view. Martin Luther, a very serious professor and reformer, had a fun loving spirit and said that the Christian can and should be a joyful person.
Evangelist Paul Rader, pastor of Moody Church in Chicago in the 1920’s, said that laughter is from God. He said, “When God chooses a man, he puts laughter into his life. God is delighted to fill the hearts of men with laughter. The anointing oil that was poured upon the head of David put laughter into David’s life…. It is the oil of Jesus’ presence that makes holy laughter in life – not only in the disposition to laugh at a joke, but the ability to laugh at calamity, to laugh at death, to laugh at the victory which the devil thought he had won.” [4]
When our hearts are filled with laughter, we can face life squarely and approach the problems of our lives more creatively.
Bill died, leaving a will that provided $30,000 for an elaborate funeral. As the last of the visitors departed the services, his wife, Lynne, turned to her dearest friend, Sue, and said, "Well, I think Bill would be pleased."
"I'm sure you're right," replied Sue, who then lowered her voice and leaned in close. "How much did this really cost?"
"All of it," said Lynne. "All thirty thousand."
"No!" Sue exclaimed. "I mean, it was very nice, but $30,000?"
Lynne replied, "Yes. The funeral was $6,500; I donated $500 to the church, and the wake, food and drinks were another $500. The rest went for the Memorial Stone."
Sue computed quickly and asked, "$22,500 for a Memorial Stone? My goodness, how big is it?"
"Two and a half carats."
Perhaps when you have a sense of humor, you can face life more creatively!
Joseph Michelli, a psychologist at Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, often usues humor to help patients with cancer or depression. He says “Kids laugh 400 times a day. Adults laugh 16 times a day. We lose 384 laughs a day in a process I call adulteration.”
Albert Schweitzer was a doctor who used humor to combat depression and to keep from falling into a state of helplessness. He found that it not only helped him deal with stress, but it also seemed to positively affect the people around him. The stress involved with illness not only affects the patient, but it extends to the doctors and nurses who take care of these patients as well. He saw humor as being a vital nourishment for the hospital community.
King Solomon, who wrote the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. Solomon said, “A merry heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.” He also wrote the quote that heads up my page on MySpace: “A cheerful heart has a continuous feast.”
I heard a story about a man who worked for the IRS whose job it was to read all the letters that came into the department and decide who should receive them. He said, “Several times it was my pleasure to read letters from people who had just given their lives over to the Lord, and who wished to start their new lives with a clean slate by paying back money that they had cheated the government out of.”
He was commenting on this marvel of new life to one of his co-workers when they received an odd letter. The man who wrote it explained that he hadn’t been able to sleep well since 10 years ago when he had cheated on his income tax.
Enclosed with the letter were five one hundred dollar bills. The man concluded the letter by saying that if he didn’t sleep better now, he would send the rest.
Well, some people have to take baby steps to that place of joy. But others make a decision that they are going to lighten up, and it changes their lives.
You know George Forem an? Two time heavyweight boxing world champion, preacher, founder of youth centers and grill-master. George learned throughout his life to have a good attitude. But there was a particular day when he made a conscious effort to show it. It was when he returned to boxing at the age of 37. TV interviews were hard to get, and when you got on a sports show, they would only give you a few seconds. Athletes were unapproachable, and it seemed that Mik e Tyson wanted to kill everyone. George noticed when he watched TV that it was always the funny stuff that would make him stop flipping the remote. He writes, “I decided to meet everybody with a smile, so I would never have to put on an act. I was going to be the happiest man alive on TV.”
Even today, he says, “I tell my kids, ‘Keep your smile; it will be your health. There will be better students in college, but you can be the happiest about being there. Don’t let anyone beat you at this. Have it said when someone meets you, ‘I met the nicest person in the world,’ because you have a smile, joke, or time for the least of them.”
Jesus said, MT 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
And Paul continued the encouraging message when he wrote,
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord.
"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."
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