Theology of Laughter

Sarah (whose story is told in book of Genesis) was an old woman when she learned she was going to have a son.  Reasonably enough, she laughed.  That got me to thinking about the theological meaning of laughter …

Laughter

Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7  and Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

Do you know what happened when Sarah laughed? Well, yes, God noticed and asked Abraham about it, and Sarah denied it; it is a nice bit of dialogue between God and Sarah. But do you know what happened when Sarah laughed?

According to Marshall Brain, writing in HowStuffWorks, about experiments in which subjects are monitored by EEG’s of their brain activity, here’s what happened when they heard something funny:

· The left side of the cortex (the layer of cells that covers the entire surface of the forebrain) analyzed the words and structure of the joke.

· The brain’s large frontal lobe, which is involved in social emotional responses, became very active.

· The right hemisphere of the cortex carried out the intellectual analysis required to “get” the joke.

· Brainwave activity then spread to the sensory processing area of the occipital lobe (the area on the back of the head that contains the cells that process visual signals).

· Stimulation of the motor sections evoked physical responses to the joke.

He goes on to say,

This is different from what happens with emotional responses. Emotional responses appear to be confined to specific areas of the brain, while laughter seems to be produced via a circuit that runs through many regions of the brain.

[Brain, Marshall.  "How Laughter Works."  01 April 2000.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://people.howstuffworks.com/laughter.htm>  14 June 2008. ]

The ancient writer who preserved this story about Sarah was not writing about brain activity or the neurological complexities of laughter. I think the preserver of this story was telling us something about the theological complexities of laughter.

Some laughter, we are told by those who study laughing, is an expression of superiority, a chance to feel better about yourself by mocking someone else. That’s not what Sarah was doing. Some laughter serves to relieve tension in a story or situation; that’s not Sarah, either.

Sarah’s laughter, and much of our laughter, comes from being surprised by a new frame or interpretation of something that has been in front of us all along. [In that sense, by the way, laughter is a close cousin to prophesy. Think of Mark Twain, Will Rogers, or Jon Steward of the Daily Show.] Sarah laughed because she ran into a new way of thinking about herself – as a parent – that absolutely contradicted the way she had been thinking – as an old and barren woman. The absurdity of that shift made her laugh. Or to be more accurate, it was recognizing that absurdity that occasioned her laughter.

To laugh authentically, we have to be able to step back enough from our own situation to see the contradiction, incongruity, or paradox that is the “point” of the joke. Ron Heifetz, a Harvard professor who studies leadership, calls this capacity the ability to “stand on the balcony.” Sarah has to have some perspective on her own situation if she is going to laugh at God’s promise.

We don’t always have that perspective when unexpected things happen to us. Sometimes we are flustered, embarrassed, or even humiliated by our failures, foibles, and flops. They are distinctly un-funny when they happen to us. After some time passes, though, and we have time to develop a little perspective, we can tell these tales with energy and humor, laughing at ourselves.

We need to acknowledge, though, that some situations and events never get funny; they are, literally, un-laughable. There is no amount of perspective or wisdom that can make the Holocaust funny, or the events of 9/11, or the collapse of the I-35 bridge last summer. There is a level of tragedy and suffering that no amount of distance and interpretation can transform into fodder for jokes.

If we set aside those embarrassing moments that make great funny stories later, and we set aside those events and situations that will never be funny in themselves (though the people who live through them may have some funny experiences even in the midst of tragedy or chaos) – if we set aside those things, then I’d like to suggest to you that Christianity is a barrel of laughs. Really.

There is probably no notion that is farther from the cultural expectation of religion in general and Christianity in particular. Religious people are expected to be humorless. But if we believe that laughter is a response to events and situations that are surprising, incongruous, or paradoxical – then we are talking about most of the events and situations in which we encounter God. God is full of surprises; if we are paying attention, we ought to be laughing out loud.

Children, of course, are quite skilled at this. When they encounter a surprise – anything from a game of peek-a-boo to encountering a giraffe at the zoo – when they encounter a surprise, they squeal with delighted laughter. Adults have not lost the ability either. Lottery winners laugh when they get the good news, and so do folks whose living rooms are redecorated for cable TV shows. One of my teachers in counseling class noticed that I often laughed when I got hold of a new idea from systems theory.

I believe that laughter of this kind signals a kind of mental and spiritual hospitality. Theologian Henri Nowen has described hospitality as making room for others. That’s an easy image to use when we are talking about physical space – moving over to make room in a pew, for example, or being sure we have rocking chairs for parents to rock their infants during worship. That’s why we have little chairs in Sunday School rooms and an elevator in the hallway.

But the idea of hospitality as making room is also about a kind of spaciousness and perspective about what we believe and how we do things. Curiously, laughter is often a sign that we have that kind of distance and perspective. When we can laugh in our families about the way mom always folds the tablecloths, or in church about the place where we always put the Christmas tree … when we can laugh about those things, we have enough space to welcome people who have different tablecloth-folding and Christmas tree-locating traditions.

Sarah’s laughter made space for amazing things to happen in her life, and in the lives of all the descendants that God promised to her and Abraham. Our laughter can do the same thing – make space for amazing things to happen in our lives. But a word of warning: when we make space for God, God notices and moves in with surprising requests and more surprising promises. And there’s no sense trying to deny it – just ask Sarah.

Prayer for June 15, 2008

Almighty and everlasting God, creator of all things seen and unseen, hear now our silent prayers, as we open our hearts to you in the sacred quietness.

God of faith and hope, we bring before you our prayers for those we have named this morning – we especially remember … Bring to each of them the gifts of mercy and grace that are most needed, according to your wisdom and love.

Holy One, we pray this morning for all the people who have been fathers to us, both men and women – those who sired us, those who raised us, those who loved, challenged, and corrected us.

We are grateful to you, our divine parent, for all of the people who have stepped into our lives to bring your love to us in human form. We thank you for the faith and fortitude they have shown, for the sacrifices and compromises they have made on our behalf, and for lessons they have taught us. Bless each of these, and fill them with the knowledge of the ways that they have contributed to our lives.

We acknowledge with special compassion those people whose care for us was limited by their own shortcomings and by the events and complications of their own lives. Bless them for their loving intentions, and give us loving hearts to receive their gifts gratefully, even as we also acknowledge our disappointment or loss.

We thank you, too, Gracious God, for the opportunity to offer nurture, encouragement, and mentoring to others. Help us all – men and women, old and young – to demonstrate the best of what fathering is: love, discipline, hope, and health. Forgive us when we fall short of these ideals, and give us persistence and patience to continue these relationships.

In a world where men’s work is often disrespected, underpaid, unrecognized, and devalued, we ask your particular blessing on the men who serve you and others faithfully, and on the women who respect, reward, recognize, and value them.

All these things we pray in the name of the one who honored his own father and invited men into the ministry of the church, even Jesus the Christ, and we pray together now in the words that he taught us …