“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:10-12)
“We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong.” (1 Corinthians 4:10)
No April Fool’s joke, Jesus said these words recorded in the gospel of John on the night of the Last Supper before going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Shortly after serving Judas Iscariot a piece of soaking bread and sending him on his way, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment – to love one another. Love fills us with joy, joy we want to share with others. One way joy manifests itself is through laughter. Let us become known as the church that laughs and loves together. On the Sunday after Easter, we will help resurrect an old custom and observe Holy Humor Sunday. This article from JoyfulNoiseletter.com explains.
Churches resurrect an old Easter custom – from The Joyful Noiseletter
Many American churches are resurrecting an old Easter custom begun by the Greeks in the early centuries of Christianity-"Holy Humor Sunday" celebrations of Jesus' resurrection on the Sunday after Easter.
For centuries in Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant countries, the week following Easter Sunday, including "Bright Sunday" (the Sunday after Easter), was observed by the faithful as "days of joy and laughter" with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.
Churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes on each other, drenched each other with water, told jokes, sang, and danced.
The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. "Risus paschalis - the Easter laugh," the early theologians called it.
In 1988 the Fellowship of Merry Christians began encouraging churches and prayer groups to resurrect Bright Sunday celebrations and call it "Holy Humor Sunday," with the theme: "Jesus is the LIFE of the party."
Many churches from different traditions responded enthusiastically. Holy Humor Sunday services are bringing back large crowds to churches on a Sunday when church attendance typically drops dramatically.
If you Google “Holy Humor Sunday” on the Internet, you’ll be amazed at how widespread Holy Humor Sunday celebrations on the Sunday after Easter have become among churches of all traditions. It’s clearly a movement of the Holy Spirit to shore up belief in the resurrection of Jesus.”
So come prepared with family-friendly, church-appropriate jokes to share on April 11. Come prepared to laugh and to love!
God’s Blessings, Pastor Laura
PS. Try mulling over this quote from Lorin D. Whittaker, MD – “A prominent doctor discovered that cheerful people resist disease better than chronic grumblers. He concluded that the surly bird gets the germ.”