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Christians get the last laugh with Easter
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A pastor in Clearwater, Fla., preached one of the shortest sermons ever recorded. The topic was “Sin.” He got up and said, “Don’t do it, Amen.” Then he sat down.

Why such a short sermon?  The reason was that his church was celebrating Holy Humor Sunday, which is a resurrection of an ancient custom called “Bright Sunday” (the Sunday after Easter), when early Christians had a day of joy and laughter to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes, had picnics, drenched one another with water, told jokes, danced and sang. After all, God had played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead.

In 1988, the Fellowship of Merry Christians began promoting the celebration of “Holy Humor Sunday” on the Sunday after Easter, with the theme, “Jesus is the life of the party.” The idea seems to be spreading.

Some churches celebrate “Holy Humor Sunday” with ushers dressed as clowns, bright streamers, smiley faces, multi-colored balloons and signs saying, “Smile! Jesus is alive.”

Two Mennonite churches in Kansas gather on the Sunday after Easter and sing silly songs about their church, reworded from popular musicals, such as “The Sound of Music.” Instead of singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music,” they sang, “The pews are alive with the sounds of Mennonites.”

A United Methodist Church in New Jersey had their choir sing in bathrobes and used the occasion to take up a collection for new choir robes.

A Christian church in Missouri advertised on their sign, “If you must sleep in the Sunday after Easter, sleep in here.” They provided sleeping bags on their back pews for those who wanted to take a nap during the service.

A church in Michigan celebrated “Holy Humor Sunday” with a series of baseball sketches in a “nine-inning” baseball service. A chicken mascot cheered on the congregation, and when the preacher got winded, he was replaced by two “relief preachers.” The pastor said, “It’s not sacrilegious — it’s good theology. After the pain of the crucifixion of Jesus, we want to celebrate the joy and fun of Jesus’ resurrection for more than just one day.”

A United Methodist church in New Jersey gave everyone in the congregation a kazoo, filled the sanctuary with helium balloons and allowed members to take turns telling clean jokes.

A Presbyterian church in Florida decorated the worship center with large butterflies, encouraged members to wear their brightest colors, and women had a “parade of hats” to display their unusual and colorful hats. After the service, members who had lost a loved one since the previous Easter released live butterflies in the church courtyard.

Why not? After all, Jesus is alive, Satan is defeated, and Christians get the last laugh!

(Copyright 2011 by Bob Rogers. Email: brogers@fbcrincon.com. Visit my blog at www.holyhumor.blogspot.com.)

Is there a church for a big woman with an itch?
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A pastor was called to be guest preacher at a church. He knew this church was different when the congregation ended every line of the hymn with the shout of “yeehah!”


As he stood to preach, he noticed that people were spread out on the pews. He would see a person, then a space, then another person, and another space. He wondered why nobody sat next to another person, when he noticed on the pew beside each person was a cowboy hat.


Another time this same preacher was invited to a new church in the city. He was surprised to see that everybody there looked like they had fallen face first into a tackle box, because they had piercings and earrings on every part of the body imaginable. A rock band was playing alternative music on the stage.


As different as these two churches were, they were both growing and reaching people for Christ.


Years ago I was pastor of a small country church in the backwoods of Mississippi. There was another Baptist church just five miles away in the town (population 600). The pastor’s wife at the town church asked me, “Why don’t our two churches merge?” I said, “There are people in my church who would not feel comfortable or fit in at your town church.” She said, “Oh, come on. We’re a small town church. What could be so different?”


I said, “Well, I got one really big woman in my church who, when she gets to feeling an itch, she pulls her dress halfway up and she scratches herself.”


The eyes of this pastor’s wife got really big and she said, “I see what you mean.”


I forgot to tell her about another woman in my church who saw a roach running across the wood floor, so she stomped on it with her bare foot, laughed and shouted, “Aha! I got him!”


Yep, the culture was definitely different where I was pastor.


Jesus upset the religious establishment because He crossed cultural barriers. He loved to eat with tax collectors and Gentiles and other strange people. Jesus walked into the land of Samaria, full of half-breed Jews who worshiped in weird ways and talked different and smelled different.


Jesus walked right up to a Samaritan woman at a well and started talking her language. He accepted her culture, but he let her know her sinful lifestyle had to change. Soon she had the whole town following Jesus (see John 4).


So what cultural barrier is keeping somebody in your community from hearing the gospel? If you tear down the cultural barriers to share Christ in your neighborhood, you may hear the angels shouting, “Yeehah!”


Copyright 2014 by Bob Rogers. Email: brogers@fbcrincon.com. Read this column each Friday in the Herald. Visit my blog at www.bobrogers.me.