Preached by Reid Young, confirmand
Church, is a serious place isn’t it? We all dress up in our Sunday best, to come and pray for around an hour or so to God and his Son. I mean after all isn’t it worth it? The idea of an all powerful being who has complete control of us, is a little intimidating isn’t it? It’s a pretty scary idea that God can simply wave his magic wand and flood the world letting only 2 animals of each species, and one family survive.
So, it makes sense for us to come to church serious, and intimidated. Perhaps rightfully so, church is stereotypically a place where one would come to ask for forgiveness from God, and confess their wrongdoings in the most solemn of ways. I mean we might even be scared to come to church happy, joyful, and, filled with laughter for fear that God will be offended, or angered by it; the consequences are pretty strong, so it can be a lot of pressure to not slip up. But is it okay to have fun in Church? Is it acceptable to be joyful? Would it even be alright to laugh in Church?
I believe the answer to these questions is a simple yes. Yes it is alright to have fun in Church. Yes it is alright to by Joyful, and most importantly yes it is alright to laugh in church. I believe in a God who instead of being angry at us for laughing in Church will be laughing up their with us in heaven, instead of being mad that we aren’t serious, and mature will be not serious and immature with us. I believe in a God who has a good sense of humor, and can crack a few good ones up there to all the angels. I believe in a happy, irreverent, silly, and joyful God who laughs with us, and comes to church in his bathrobes.
To me, being confirmed means further becoming a part of the church, it means becoming a full member of the community, and it means accepting God, affirming my baptism and showing what I believe in.
Being a member of the church to me means becoming accepting the covenant of MCC, agreeing to look out, protect and take responsibility for other members. Going forward in the church I would like to see a few things happen. I would love to see a full time ordained Youth Minister join our church, I would like to go on Church mission trips to cool and new places, and I would like to start a church picnic or other fun community building events. I have plenty of other ideas but only have a limited amount of time so if you would like to talk to me you can talk to me after church or shoot me an email.
But maybe I could be wrong. Maybe the God I believe in is the same God in the Old Testament who strikes down people for doing something seemingly innocent like wearing two different types of fabric. If that’s the case what will God think of our irreverence, and joy? Will it make him angry? Will it make him sad? Will it make him disappointed? Or will it make him mad?
Even if my vision of God is wrong, I still think that it will not offend God to be joyful, happy, or filled with laughter. After all we were made in His image, wouldn’t that mean the Lord is just as irreverent, just as silly, just as joyful, and just as laughter filled as us? Heck, there are even times in the bible where Jesus was too joyful for an occasion, and cracks a few jokes. As Christians we devote our life to live by God, and Jesus so wouldn’t that mean that it’s acceptable to laugh, have fun, and be joyful in church just as God, and Jesus do?
In the scripture it says “Our mouths were filled with laughter” lets think about that. It doesn’t say “We then laughed”, it doesn’t say “We opened our mouth to laugh”, it doesn’t even say “We were very happy so we laughed”. It says “Our mouths were filled with laughter”. Their mouths were “filled with laughter” this implies that it was not them who was doing the laughter, but it was God doing the laughter through them. In this the verb is not being done by them, it is being done by someone else so one could assume that it was God who was laughing. So, if God was doing the laughing, and if we are made in God’s image why is it not okay to laugh, be joyful, or be happy?
Even though it could be acceptable to laugh, and be happy in church, one might ask “Why is it necessary to be happy, and laugh in Church?” I think that one of God’s greatest gift to us is the gift of joy, and the gift of laughter. I believe that it is not only acceptable to be happy, joyful, and filled with laughter in church, but it is necessary. It’s essential because God gave us this gift for a reason, if he gave us the gift of laughter and joy we should use it, and what better way to use it than to praise him, the eternal one? Instead of praising our creator, and his son with solemness seriousness, and fear, we should praise him with joy, happiness, and most importantly laughter. With all the great, wonderful things happening in our life, thanks to God why not thank him with our laughter, our joy, and our songs of thankfulness?