Funny Thing Is...

Of Jokes and Memes...

So, today is the 1st of April, commonly called “April Fool’s Day.” Doing a bit of research, I found some interesting things on the history channel website. Firstly, it seems that, in 1700, British pranksters began popularizing the annual tradition of playing practical jokes on people on the first of April. Although celebrated, never seriously, over the last 300 years, the origins of this joke holiday remain a sort of mystery. Some scholars speculate that the tradition comes from France in 1582, when France changed from the Julian calendar to the more modern Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent. When word didn’t get around, and some people were still waiting to celebrate the new years closer to the end of March, people who were still ignorant of the change were the butt of jokes and hoaxes, like having paper fish put surreptitiously on the backs of these people as well as being called “poisson d’avril” or “April Fish” in French, so named after an easily caught fish and a gullible person. Yet other historians link it to several older traditions and pagan practices, based some on the ever-changing spring weather most of us are so familiar with. In fact, I am pretty sure that we here in Nebraska and Kansas have experienced our share of…odd weather, going from a lovely 75 degree day to biting cold, to include the possibility of snow within a day. April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with “hunting the gowk,” in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them. In modern times, people have gone to great lengths to create elaborate April Fools’ Day hoaxes, and some of them you may or may not have heard of. Newspapers, radio and TV stations and Web sites have participated in the April 1 tradition of reporting outrageous fictional claims that have fooled their audiences. In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees; numerous viewers were fooled. In 1985, Sports Illustrated tricked many of its readers when it ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour. In 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, duped people when it announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. In 1998, after Burger King advertised a “Left-Handed Whopper,” scores of clueless customers requested the fake sandwich. More recently, as many of us are familiar with the popularity of the internet, even YouTube, before being purchased by Google, pulled one of the biggest pranks in internet history. Back in the day and years before, there was an ongoing joke, where people on internet message boards would post a hyperlink (one of those things in blue text that when you click on it takes you to another website) supposedly to a helpful website, or other such thing, but in reality was a link to this video:

For those of you unaware, this is the music video for Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” When you clicked on the link and you got this video, the term used was “You just got ‘Rickrolled!’”

With all of the jokes and focus on today for April Fool’s Day, this begs the question: Does God have a sense of humor?

This leads me to understand three things:

God does have a sense of humor, although different from ours

Jesus also has a sense of humor, the same as the Father’s

Knowing these things brings us closer to Jesus, and therefore to the Father

Let’s take another look at the first of our Scripture readings today and see what Biblical evidence there is of these bold statements...

English Standard Version Chapter 5

5 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 5 This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

God DOES Have a Sense of Humor, But Different...

Firstly, let’s talk about what I mean when I say “sense of humor.” When we see something that makes us laugh, chuckle, or sometimes even groan, we can usually say that whatever it was, could be defined as “funny.” Consider my favorite joke: Two muffins are in an oven. One muffin says to the other “Is it me, or is it getting hot in here?” The other muffin exclaims “Holy smokes! A talking muffin!” Another good one is: There was a man who entered a local paper's pun contest.. He sent in ten different puns, in the hope that at least one of the puns would win. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did. Or, lastly: A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named 'Amal.' The other goes to a family in Spain, they name him Juan'. Years later; Juan sends a picture of himself to his mum. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wished she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, "But they are twins. If you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal.”

See what I mean? Well, we, as humans, were made in God’s image. God is creative, so we are creative. God loves, so we love. All good things about us come from God, right? Well, where do you think we get our sense of humor from? From God! Here’s the difference though: unlike our sense of humor, which can be self-deprecating, crass, or even downright cruel, as much as God’s love is more perfect than ours, so is God’s sense of humor better than ours. Heres what I mean: has anybody here ever heard of the show “America’s Funniest Home Video?” For those who are unaware, it’s an older TV show where people would send in funny home videos to have them voted on with the best video winning the originator a large cash prize. Too many of those videos, in my opinion, were of people getting injured, albeit while doing crazy or stupid things. Some of them were genuinely funny, but not many, and these were usually animal videos or videos of kids doing something cute or funny. In my experience, God’s humor is more ironic in nature, and always works to bring Him glory.

For those of you who didn’t know, I wasn’t always Adventist. Back then, after Stacy and I had first met, I was very vocal and upfront with her about the “fact” that I would NEVER convert to her faith (she was raised Adventist), and we all see how THAT worked out for me, as God had other plans! If you go back before that, after my divorce, I swore I would never remarry, and actually had the gall to tell God “Don’t bother sending anybody into my life. I am not getting married again, and that’s that!” Seems God had decided differently. If you had asked me, before July 2013, if I would ever be in ministry, I would have told you, probably laughing, that there would be absolutely NO chance of that happening, and again, we see that God had other plans for me. In fact, as I wrote this sermon, I began thinking on all of the things and events of my life that led me to where I am today, and realized that God was in it every step of the way, when I was following and seeking after Him, although He was quite adept at turning even my mistakes, failures, and downright defiance of His will to use for His glory.

This leads us to this story in 1 Samuel 5. Eli was the high priest over all Israel. He was the latest in the line of Judges/Prophets/Priests of God. As had been done in the past, Eli tried to raise his sons to follow in his footsteps, as they were also priests of the Lord (1 Sam 1:3). The problem with these two, was that, according to Chapter 2, verse 12, they were “scoundrels’; they had no regard for the Lord.” They would actually steal from the offering to the Lord, taking in His name, that which was not theirs to take, or taking more than what they were supposed to take. Eli heard about this, as well as all of the other rotten business they were supposedly doing (like sleeping with the deaconesses and such), and he talked to them. He spoke to them, but did not follow up with them, nor remove them from office, knowing that they were not going to listen to him, and instead keep doing what they were doing. God brings in Samuel to replace Eli, deciding that Eli wasn’t doing his job in keeping his own sons in line, showing favoritism to them, and telling Eli, through Samuel, that he and his sons were going to die for their transgressions. Then comes the Philistines, who fight and make war with the Israelites. The Philistines are afraid of them because they have heard stories of the flight from Egypt. Even after all these years, the desolation that was once the great and proud nation of Egypt, was destroyed because of the God that the Israelites served, and that same God was allegedly walking with them whenever they carried the Ark. But in fighting, the Philistines won! And they captured the Ark. Of course, as priests of God, the two sons of Eli, Phinehas and Hophni died during the capture (they were with the Ark), and upon hearing the news, Eli died and Phinehas’s wife gave birth prematurely, and died shortly afterwards, declaring the name of her son Ichabod, saying “The Glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” (4:21-22). And thus the Philistines came into possession of the Ark of the Covenant, and like the nations of that day were wont to do, they took the artifacts of rival gods and put them in their own deity's temple, because that was proof that their god was stronger than their enemies’ gods. Except this wasn’t some false god they were dealing with. They were dealing with the Ark of the Father’s Covenant with Israel. And the next day, they found the statue of their deity fallen face down before the Ark, almost in a position of…worship?

Huh, wonder what happened there? That’s weird. No big deal, they said. Let’s put the statue back up and everything will be fine. And what did they find the next day?

Oops. Guess that wasn’t such a coincidence as they thought. You see, God mocked the Philistines and their idol worship in the most ironic way possible! He purposefully made the statue of the object of their worship (to them, the object of worship itself) fall before His might in worship of Him. If that’s not funny, I’m not sure what is. What’s better, is that the second time, as God is trying to get the attention of the Philistines, He goes as far as to sever the head and hands of their false god, in essence telling them that Dagon had neither the wisdom nor the strength to stand up to God. And was this done for its own sake? Of course not! It was done by God to bring Him glory and praise. Of course we also know that they didn’t get the hint until God began a mini-campaign of plagues reminiscent of the Plagues of Egypt to get them to take the Ark back.

And this isn’t the only Old Testament example of God’s humor…Check out Proverbs 11:22:

English Standard Version Chapter 11

22  Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout

is a beautiful woman without discretion.

Or, this example from Proverbs 21:9, which, if you knew anything about Solomon’s…marital lifestyle, is more than a little funny...

English Standard Version Chapter 21

9  It is better to live in a corner of the housetop

than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.

See what I mean? Gentlemen, did Solomon get it right?

I’d also like to take this time to show you all another example of God’s sense of humor. His choice of animals he created. Every one of these animals is one of God’s creations, strange and weird as they may be.

See? It’s almost like God had gotten done with all of the other animals and then looked at the remaining parts He had to work with and said to Himself “Hmm…yeah, this would be funny! Let’s give it a bill like a duck, make it lay eggs, have webbed feet, but have fur. OH, and let’s give the males a single venomous talon. Hehe…Australia is going to be fun...” I mean, some on! Most of the strange things we have seen in theanimal kingdom are from Australia: koalas, kangaroos, kiwi, etc...

This leads me to my second point:

Jesus Also Had a Sense of Humor

You know, kids are funny. David and Chase, my sons, are a constant supply of laughter. Most of their antics are humorous in that they are in that stage of early teenage growth and development. For example, last summer, my family and I were in the large grocery store in Kearney. We were in the health food aisle when a very attractive woman and her behemoth body-building significant other walked into the aisle as well. David began gawking at the woman. The man noticed. David did not see the man notice. His attention was…elsewhere. I quickly asked David to kindly put his eyes back into his head, shut his open mouth, and look another direction before the man who looked like he ate entire cows for breakfast got angry. This was funny. Or how, since beginning puberty, both of my boys have lost the ability to walk across the room without tripping over themselves. This too, is funny. Or how Chase, when he was about three years old, and when I was deployed, thoroughly embarrassed Stacy and the woman at the checkout counter at the store asking what can only be described is a highly personal question as to the current status of the checkout woman’s menstrual cycle. Also funny. I’m no stranger to doing things that have caused laughter in others. When I was about 15, my mom, sister, and brother and I were planning our family’s next camping trip. My dad was working a lot, but we thought he had the time to drop us and our stuff off at the campground and then head back for work until his next few days off. At some time during the planning process, I spaced out. To this day, I still cannot remember what it was that I was thinking, but as the story goes, my mom asked me something to the effect of “Anthony, what do you think?” to which my response was simply “Moo.” Needless to say, I snapped out of my thoughts to my family laughing hysterically. Very funny.

“I’m like a snake hissing…*meow*” ~Stacy M. Krones, 31 March, 2017 (just after midnight)

This, was funny, and as promised, I will never let her live this one down. I love you Stacy.

My dad’s use of random made-up words, like, when mad at my brother and I, he told us to, and I’m quoting here:

“Shut your word-hole!” ~David R. Krones, ca. 1998

And for those of you wondering, yes, that was funny. Even my mom, who knew how much trouble my brother and I were in, began laughing out loud, which, of course, did not make him any happier. Funny isn’t strong enough of a word for this one... Also, please note that I chose this quote to put up on a PowerPoint slide: one day, my dad, or someone who knows him, will see this on some video, and give him a hard time about it. Parents, beware teasing your kids…they may one day have a small public following…Of course, this is all in good fun, as I love my dad very much, and have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for him.

You see, I say all this, because I am like my father, and we both have what has been described as an interesting sense of humor, and irony is our favorite kind to laugh at. I say this to explain that, like His Heavenly Father, Jesus also had a sense of humor, and a wonderfully sarcastic wit. Looking at most pictures of our Savior, He appears serene, or calm, or if it’s a picture of His Passion, horrifically in pain. But Jesus was not just fully God, but also fully man, just perfectly so. Which means that he laughed and smiled, and even told a joke or two. Don’t believe me? Well, turn with me to our second Scripture reading for today, Matthew 7:3-5:

English Standard Version Chapter 7

3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Do you see it? The exaggeration of the “log out of your own eye” is a device called hyperbole, or exaggerating to make a point, and not to be taken literally. In this verse, we see Jesus talking about how people often focus on the sins of others, when their own sin is usually far greater. He didn’t downplay the speck, but on the contrary, said it needs to be removed, but only after one has dealt with their own failings before God.

And that was the least of his sarcastic wit and humor!

Later on in Matthew, 23:24, while chastising the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, Jesus tells them:

English Standard Version Chapter 23

You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

Can you imagine such a visual? I can see more than a few of His followers trying to hide laughs at this imagery, while the Pharisees and scribes were getting their back-ends chewed out!

Probably my favorite use of Jesus’ humor was during His call of Nathanael as an apostle in John 1:46-47:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”

In each of these examples we see that Jesus was never mean, or cruel with His humor, but used it to bring His Father glory. In this way, our humor should reflect His, as Romans 8:28-29 tells us:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Did you catch that? For we, who are in Christ, are “to be conformed into the image of His Son...”

This leads me to my last point, where we get more serious:

Knowing That God and His Son Have a Sense of Humor Brings Us Closer to Him

Jesus told us in John’s Gospel 14:9 - Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Later on, He says in verse 20 - “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

Our whole purpose in this life is to serve others as Jesus served others. Christ is our Lord and Savior, as well as our example, which we constantly strive to emulate. We won’t always succeed, and in fact, we are destined to fail…constantly and miserably. After all, sanctification is the work of a lifetime, and nothing we can do will earn our way into Heaven. But that doesn’t stop us from allowing God to work within us. We can give over our hearts to Him, to allow Him to rule us and take over our lives, allowing us to live a holy life as adopted brothers and sisters, sharing in Christ’s inheritance.

If you have put your faith in Jesus, have you let Him have the throne of your heart, or do you hold back part of your own wants and will?

If you have not put your faith in Jesus, what is stopping you? He is calling you to Himself, all you have to do is accept Him as your personal Lord and Savior. Jesus is not an esoteric figure that has no idea of your life and struggles. As much as He was fully God, He was also fully man. He lived on this earth, telling the world about God’s Kingdom and that Salvation was through Himself. He died for you, and rose from the dead, conquering death and sin. Put your faith in and believe in Him that you may be saved from sin.

Let us pray.

AMEN