Chuckling and Church?

Imagine for a moment that we are playing a word game, a game of association. I say a word and you have to say the first thing that comes to mind. Ready?

Sharp. What did you think of? Knife, tongue, needle – or did you go straight to the opposite, blunt?

Ready for the next one…

Sport. Ball, bat, football, basketball…what was your association?

OK, here comes the clincher.

Church. What do you associate with the word ‘church’? Worship, prayer, singing, silence, boredom, God…there would be as many answers as there are people. But I’m wondering if you ever thought of the word ‘laughter’? Seriously.

I’ve been to many church services in my life and do you know the ones I remember the most? The ones where I had an emotional response. Now I’m not suggesting that church should be solely about how it makes me feel. That would be shallow and hollow at best, self-seeking and selfish at worst. But the fact remains that the moments of worship that stand out in my memory all have an emotional label attached. Those times when I cried, those times when I was angered or challenged – I remember them well. I also remember when I laughed.

But is it OK to laugh in church? Is it appropriate to have a quiet chuckle or a belly laugh during worship? Like a child who asks his parents if he can go to a party, the answer is the same – it depends. For the party, it depends on who is going, where it is, whether there will be adults in attendance. For laughter in church it depends on what sort of laughter, the motive behind it and the impact it has on the message being preached.

Just like word association can often result in opposites (say the word ‘black’ and most people will think ‘white’), let’s look at the times when it definitely wouldn’t be OK or appropriate to laugh in church.

Firstly, it’s not OK if it’s at someone else’s expense. Now I’m not talking about those times when someone makes a faux par that is just too funny not to giggle at. I’m talking about the hurtful, degrading kind of laughter that all of us are capable of, the teasing, taunting laughter that has the sole intention of bringing pain to the subject. That sort of laughter is definitely not OK in church – but then again, it’s not OK anywhere else either. We are supposed to build each other up, not tear each other down.

Another sort of laughter that would be inappropriate would be anything that is the result of an off-colour joke. We’ve all heard them, most of us have told them. Church is not the place. Perhaps that would be a good rule of thumb for us all – if we wouldn’t say it in the foyer to someone at church, then we shouldn’t say it at the footy ground or on the bus either.

So we’ve established laughter at someone else’s expense and laughter that is associated with anything that is not pure or good or lovely are not OK. But what about the rest of the spectrum of things that make us chuckle? What about those jokes that you could happily share with your grandmother? You know the ones – Which Bible character had no parents? Joshua, son of Nun. (OK, my joke repertoire is sadly lacking, but you get the point…) How do they stack up in church? Well, at this point the content is not in question – there’s nothing offensive or off-colour, nothing that pokes fun at someone else. But then we come to the impact it has. If you whispered this to your pew-mate at the peak of the pastor’s serious plea for people to make a commitment to Christ, well, let’s just say your timing is off. It wouldn’t be OK. It has the potential to detract from the worship experience of you, your mate and those around you. And all of us can attest to how hard it is to contain a fit of the giggles. The more they need to be contained, the funnier the situation seems until someone either makes an inappropriate snorting noise or spontaneously combusts. It’s not exactly conducive to worship. The joke may, however, be perfectly appropriate to share in the carpark or at the pot-luck lunch…just not during grace.

So that leaves us with a thorny question. Is any laughter OK in church? My answer would be yes. If we are created in the image of God, then there can be no argument that God has a sense of humour (just take a look at the platypus if you don’t believe me). So working on the premise that laughter and humour are not some evil force that need to be eradicated from our lives, how do we use this precious gift to bring glory to God?

Psalm 126 sheds some light on the subject. The Israelites had been held enslaved in Zion for many years. The Lord brought them out of captivity. Whilst they were in shock and disbelief at their good fortune, verse 2 tells us how they responded:
“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.” (NIV)

Were they worshipping? You bet! This was the sort of laughter that emerged from the well-spring of gratitude and joy from within their now free hearts. This was true worship.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I find something so overwhelming, so amazing, so unfathomable, my first response is to laugh. Not because I’m making fun of it or being silly, but because my finite mind is trying to comprehend something incomprehensible. My laughter is an expression of my awe. In the right place at the right time, that can be worship.

And what about those times when things are just plain funny? We had a Kids Church program recently that was a highlight for the entire congregation. One of the special features of Kids Church is that the adults come down the front for the adult’s story. The children are laughing even before we begin, just at the sight of their parents and grandparents sitting cross-legged on the floor, ready to listen to a story with a spiritual message. The paradox of the circumstance is not lost on them – or the adults for that matter.

The adults helped re-enact the story of the Unforgiving Servant, which can be found in Matthew 18. This particular story was chosen as it tied in beautifully with the theme of the day, forgiveness. Entering into the spirit of things, the adults gave a convincing performance that quite frankly, had everyone in stitches. It didn’t detract from the message. It didn’t take away from the moral of the story. In fact I would argue that it enhanced the message and emblazoned the moral on the hearts and minds of both adults and children that day. They won’t forget that particular parable in a hurry. It was worship – just a different sort of worship.

Those who would disagree with my perspective would probably use one word in their argument against laughter – reverence. But when did reverence come to only be associated with silence? According to the dictionary, reverence is “a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe” 1. Reverence is not the ability to sit through a sermon without making a squeak. It is not necessarily speaking only in hushed tones. Reverence, is in fact less of an action and more of an attitude. To me, that means it is possible for me to whisper and be irreverent, or enjoy a good belly laugh and be totally reverent to my God. It’s all a matter of heart posture.

So next time you feel the urge to laugh in church, run through a checklist and make sure it’s reverent kind of laughter, the kind that God would join in with rather than frown at. And if it’s still appropriate, go ahead and enjoy the wonderful and joyous experience of being a child of God. Because in heaven, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a lot of Godly laughter. Why don’t we get some practice here on earth? - It might just make today a day to remember.

1. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved April 25, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/reverence