Joyful Christianity (Midweek Message)

Joyful Christianity

A note to all of us on how we read the stories about Jesus in the Gospels—remember to look for Jesus’ humor, jokes, and peasant wit.  It will go a long way in opening his teaching to us.  In most of his parables and short sayings, there is an exuberance and irony that jump out from the page at us. 

“What is the Kingdom of God like?” Jesus answers in strange ways:  “Like a large unclean mustard weed!”  “Like an eccentric woman who loses a coin and looks all day for it, and then throws a party many times its value when she finds it!”  “Like a crooked household manager who creates a golden parachute for himself when he learns he is about to be sacked!” 

I believe that the “treasure hidden in a field” and the “pearl of great price” can only be revealed to our view when we laugh, and accept with happiness the pitiful incongruities in our pretensions. 

Kenneth S. Leong writes the following in his great book, The Zen Teachings of Jesus: 

“If we are to understand the spiritual truth of the Gospels, we must begin to observe their poetry and cosmic jokes.  Many Christians (and Buddhists also) have a tendency to undervalue joy, fun, laughter, and jokes, much to their detriment.  During one of my Zen classes, I ask my students to close their eyes and visualize Buddha.  After that, I also asked them to visualize Jesus Christ.  The I asked them what their pictures of Buddha and Christ were like.  Not surprisingly, most of them described Buddha as a smiling figure and Jesus Christ as a sober figure.

“[We must remember] the joyful Jesus.  Laughter, particularly in what we call the ‘real’ (translated as ‘joyless’) world, is a key ingredient to our spiritual health. …

“Joy is an ability of the soul.  It is not a natural instinct.  If it were, we should find most people joyful.  Rather, joy has to be learned.”  (pp. 22-23)

May we learn joy, and how to smile and laugh, and not take ourselves so seriously.  May we learn to get the jokes that Jesus tells us, again and again, in the Gospels. 

Grace and Peace,

--Fr. Tony+