Sermon Library
“God’s Last Laugh”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
April 11, 2010
Service Theme: Easter Message – 2010
Easter Message – 2010 God’s Last Laugh
What Is Easter?
Three guys just died and are at the pearly gates of heaven. St. Peter tells them that they can enter the gates if they can answer one simple question.
St. Peter asks the first man, “WHAT IS EASTER?” The man replies, “Oh, that’s easy, it’s the holiday in November when everybody gets together, eats turkey, and is thankful...”
“WRONG,” replies St. Peter, and proceeds to ask the second man the same question, “WHAT IS EASTER?”
The second man replies, “Oh, Easter is the holiday in December when we put up a nice tree, exchange presents, and celebrate the birth of Jesus.”
St. Peter looks at the second man, shakes his head in disgust, looks at the third man and asks, “WHAT IS EASTER?”
The third man smiles and looks St. Pete in the eye.
“I know what Easter is. Easter is the Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jesus and his disciples were eating at the last supper and He was later deceived and turned over to the Romans by one of his disciples. The Romans took Him and mocked him, made Him wear a crown of thorns, and then they crucified him on a cross. He was buried in a nearby cave which was sealed off by a large boulder.
St. Peter smiles and is just about to congratulate him when the man continues. And every year the boulder is moved aside so that Jesus can come out, and if He sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter.
An Old Story
I told this story on Easter many years ago and every once in awhile I will run into someone who remembers it. This time I want to make a few comments about it. First, when the time comes, I don’t think there is going to be a theological test. On the other hand and secondly, I think it remains very important to know about our religious roots, our personal faith and our spiritual paths. Lastly, laughter is really good for us and the world.
No Test
First, I do not think that God grades on a curve. The words God and grace are synonymous. The apostle Paul and Martin Luther reminded us that we are justified by faith through grace. God is great enough for everyone. There are some people who believe that they know God better than other people and sometimes they make up their own test. I am simply grateful that God does not have such a test. Jesus said in the sermon on the mountain, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you receive. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in our own eye?”
Know Your Faith
Second, know your faith and keep exploring your spirituality. I am concerned that there are too many people who have left religion in an old Sunday School closet somewhere. What they remember from the past no longer applies to them today in our twenty-first century existence. I know this is true for me. What I believe today is a long ways away from what I learned in Sunday School. Personally, I have been studying religion and particularly the life of Jesus ever since Sunday School and that has been a long time. I have learned today that there is a path of spirituality which makes a lot of progress with our theological understandings. It is often referred to as “progressive theology.”
Two proponent professors of this enlightened religion are Marcus Borg from Oregon State University and John Dominic Crossan, a former priest and monk. They wrote a book recently entitled The Last Week. It is a historical and contextual study of the last week of Jesus and utilizes all the new research and modern application that we know today about something which happened 2,000 years ago. In many ways, we know more about Jesus today than people did or were told 1,700 years when the Nicene Creed was dogmatically dictated.
Just one of their premises is that Jesus was not crucified for our sins, but because of the sins of the people of the time. Jesus’ mission was to reclaim the kingdom of God among the people of Israel, a kingdom of compassion, peace, equality and justice. This was in direct contract to the Roman kingdom of dominance and control and greed of the elite. Jesus was a voice for the common people of his day who were victims of a suppressive hierarchy. Jesus passion was compassion and justice. This is why Jesus was crucified. He upset the oppressive regime.
Today is Resurrection Sunday. It is Easter. Borg and Crossan also ask us to consider the more than probable parabolic and metaphorical projections of resurrection. There are many rational reasons to keep the spirit of Jesus alive in the minds and the memories of his followers. The stories of Jesus created many years after the death of Jesus have important personal and political motivations.
There are truths in our world which are greater than scientific and historical truth. The truth is, no matter what one’s view of resurrection may be, Jesus lives within our midst. Billions of people have believed this in the past and currently there are over two billion people in the world today who believe this in one way or another. This has to mean something.
Laughter is Good For Us
Third, Laughter is really good for us. There is another great scholar, from Harvard this time, who motivated a significant change in my own life. His name was Harvey Cox. He wrote a book entitled The Secular City which could have just have been entitled the Sacred City. I read this book in college and it changed my life and has much to do with why I am here with you this morning. When I was a sophomore in college I was an Economics major, but I received a D minus in my Micro-economics course and at the same time I got an A in the mandatory religion course and here I am. I wrote my term paper on Harvey Cox’s book the Secular City. His main point was that there is really no separation from the secular and the sacred. The world is all one and we can live a spiritual life in all that we do and where ever we may be. Life is spirit and spirit is life. I have looked a life differently ever since then. Professor Cox also wrote an article entitled God’s Last laugh.
In it he quoted the psalmist who wrote, “The Holy One who sits in the heavens shall laugh for God laughs at oppression and meanness. God laughs, it seems, because God knows how it all turns out in the end.” On the Christian calendar Easter is a feast of gladness. Grief turns into jubilation. Bitter defeat becomes exuberant hope. Even those who walk in the valley of the shadow of death know they need to fear no evil.
Laughter is a gift of grace. The irony is that laughter is typically born out of difficulty. Comedy is the other side and symbiotic with tragedy. Laughter helps us to endure the challenges of life. I have visited people in the hospital with serious illnesses and in spite of this, laughter often enters the conversation and usually initiated by the one who is the patient. I have been involved in hundreds of memorial services and I cannot think of any such service which did not include laughter along with the tears. When times are tough, we need to be real and face the challenge and then we need to laugh. Death and laughter put life into perspective. People cried on Friday and then laughed on Sunday.
Easter happens each time those who mourn rise up again to honor those they have lost by loving life more dearly. Easter happens every time we stand in solidarity with those who’ve lost all hope and say, “Hold on, we’re at your side.” And Easter happens when in spite of suffering and difficulty, we still say yes to life.
Death, Where Is Thy Sting?
The Apostle Paul quotes the prophet Hosea and states, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory, where is thy sting? But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15: 54-56) The life of Jesus ends in death and is portrayed in resurrection. This is a truth of life.
No matter what may be going on in our lives right now and even in devout remembrance of those loved ones who are no longer with us, as difficult as this is, there is something more. The Apostle Paul speaks to the Romans and proclaims, “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 38-39)
In the big picture, God, however we may perceive God, is going to come through. This is the Easter message. Holy laughter is a gift of grace. Easter is that moment when the laughter of the universe breaks through all of life, here and now, in the past and in the future. It is God’s promise. It is God’s last laugh.
A man asked God, “What is a million years like to you?” And God said, “Like one second.” Then the mortal asked, “What is a million dollars like to you?” And God said, “Like one penny.” To which the man asked, “Can I bother you for just one penny God?” “Of course,” said God, “Just a second.” Let us always keep the big picture in mind. In the end, God is. Relax, trust and live. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
http://www.Aspenchapel.org