Holy Humor Sunday 2025

Where would we be without laughter? I surely don’t want to know. Last year I was gifted a sign that says “life is better when you’re laughing.” I keep it on my desk as a reminder to not take myself too seriously and to remember that laughter in and of itself can be healing. It as as we will share in a moment carbonated holiness.

Humor can come in all kinds of ways, yes, even during worship. Last Sunday felt somewhat like a comedy of errors beginning when I received a spam call during the sermon that rang out loudly over the bluetooth speaker.

Another church in Finger Lakes UMC had similar problems with their sound system. The sound system at this church connected with the phone line of an elderly woman next door named Mabel. She never attended our church. But if she was on the phone during our service, occasionally one of her sentences would sometimes come through our sound system without her knowledge. These interruptions were of minor concern--until one Sunday her loud voice interrupted a key point I was making in my sermon. As I paused to let my big point sink in, Mabel's voice suddenly shouted, "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"

And sometimes, we mess up our words in the middle of the sermon, even when the sound system is working well. One pastor shared, “the pastor of my youth was a good preacher but had no sense of humor. So (at age 13) I was shocked one Sunday when Pastor Barber was preaching on John the Baptist and suddenly declared, "Then Jordan baptized Jesus in the John!" He kept going, unaware of what he'd just said. When I looked around the whole congregation just sat there, stone-faced. Their failure to react struck me as funnier than the pastor's blooper. I thought, "Didn't you just hear what Pastor Barber said?" That's how I learned that parishioners don't pay close attention to sermons.”

And sometimes our words carry a lot of weight.

I heard the story of how one Sunday after church, a young boy asked his parents to see the pastor right away.

“Pastor,” the boy says, “I heard you say today that our bodies came from the dust.”

“That’s right. I did,” the pastor says.

“And I heard you say that when we die, our bodies go back to dust.”

“Yes, I’m glad you were listening,” the pastor replies. “Why do you ask?”

“Well you better come over to our house right away and look under my bed, ’cause there’s someone either comin’ or goin’!”

Where would we be without laughter?

But have you ever felt like everyone else is laughing but you? Like there was this really great joke and the punchline just swung right on by you. Others are in hysterics and you are wondering how you somehow missed out.

Speaking of laughter, on the Sunday after Easter if you can’t tell we like to celebrate holy humor Sunday or bright Sunday, or the Sunday where we give thanks for laughter and joy and having a sense of humor.

But what about when there’s nothing to laugh at. For Thomas, the death of Jesus was no laughing matter. He steps out and by the time he gets back, Jesus has appeared but now is nowhere to be found.

Everyone around him is elated but Thomas just feels jaded and left in the dark. Why are they saying this? Did they get together and play some cruel joke on him? There is no way. This isn’t funny. Not one bit.

Thomas didn’t just want the punch line. He wanted proof. Jesus-in-the-flesh with wounds he could see and touch.

But when Jesus appears again and faces Thomas with the wounds still there, Thomas is surprised by more than the proof, he is surprised by Easter joy. But what kind of Easter joy?

Since the Middle ages, the Sunday after Easter was known for celebration of what was referred to by some as Risus (rice-is) Paschalis—Easter Laugh. Early orthodox communities began a tradition of gathering on the Monday following Resurrection Sunday to tell jokes as a way of marking Easter as the ultimate joke God played on Satan by defeating death with life.  Rev. Richard Fairchild said that Easter laughter is “The laughter of knowing that God is good. The laughter of the wonder of all that God does. Biblical humor is the humor of those who know love. It is not nasty or cruel. It focuses on our failings - our pride - our silly habits - our way of thinking and speaking, and by playing with these things - transforms them.”

The late Pope Francis also believed in humor. In fact, in the summer of last year, he had his own conclave of comedians as it came to be called. He invited comedians from all over the world and spent time thanking them for cultivating “the gift of making people laugh in the midst of so much gloomy news.” He said “in your own way, you have the ability to unite people because laughter is contagious. Playful fun and laughter are central to human life to express ourselves, to learn, and to give meaning to situations. It spreads peace in our hearts and among others helping us to overcome difficulties and everyday stress.”

The Pope gathered comedians from all over the world to thank them for the gift of laughter. In fact, he admitted that this was part of his daily prayers, praying every day that God would grant him a good sense of humor for it better helped him to approach situations with the right spirit.

When is the last time you have really laughed? I mean doubled over, tears in your eyes kinda laughed. I mean your sides might start hurting kinda laugh.

When I think of holy humor, I am often reminded of the first laugh in Scripture when Sarah was promised she would have a son in her old age. She laughed. Much later of course when she actually gave birth to Isaac, she said “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears of it will laugh with me.”

You ever had someone laughing at you and then try to smooth it over by saying “oh you know… I wasn’t laughing at you, but with you.”

The great Russian author, Dostoyevsky (dastoyevskee) once wrote, “If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know someone, don’t bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he’s a good person.”

What might your laughter reveal about you?

The language of the Easter laugh is not to humiliate or put anyone down. Rather, as Pope Francis said, “the laughter of humor is never against anyone but is always inclusive, purposeful, eliciting openness, sympathy, and empathy.” The Easter laugh isn’t laughing at or over someone but laughing with, sharing joy with. In so doing, it connects us.

In an interview with Sam Sanders in 2017, Sam was asked “what does humor give you that you find nowhere else?”

Sam said “It gives me connection. Everyone knows how to laugh, and everyone likes to be entertained, and everyone likes to see things that are funny and acknowledge the humor in them. And I cannot tell you how many times laughter has connected me with all different kinds of people throughout the country, of all kinds of political persuasions. And I honestly think that out of laughter, comes love. If I can laugh with you and we can see a commonality in humor, I can see you, and I can respect you, and I can love you. So I think those two emotions are really pretty closely linked. Like, name one time that you have had a good laugh, where you haven’t really, down beneath that feeling, felt some love too. There’s love there.”

The Easter laugh is about the love beneath the laughter. For Thomas, it was the love beneath the wounds.

Harvey Cox said “Easter is that moment when the laughter of the universe breaks through. It fades, of course, like a distant radio signal on a stormy night. A lot of noice and static crowds it out. But once we have heard it we know from then on that it is there. It is God’s last laugh.”

So may we keep laughing friends, keep holding on to humor, to connect with others through laughter, and to discover the current of holy love that runs beneath it all.

“Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.

Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.

Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good

and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,

but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.

Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,

nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”

Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor.

Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy,

and to be able to share it with others.”