by Manik Corea

“Laughter, merriment and fun were quite evidently intended to occupy a large place in the world. Yet on no subject under the sun has the church displayed more embarrassment and confusion.” So said the great Christian and English essayist, F W Boreham. And I think he had a point.

For some Christians, laughter and fun are antithetical to proper church life. At least, that was how I felt growing up.

Going to church and being involved in church activities were regular features of my family life as a child. And church was serious business. There were occasional interruptions of pure joy and fun like the annual church picnic or the Sunday School Christmas party (where you always got a Christmas present!), but those were few and far between. In fact, my mother used to make me and my brothers sit in the church for all of the services. Mum would pinch me if I fidgeted too much, or was too disruptive during the sermon. One certainly learnt to be serious and quiet during church service. I would never have imagined that the great God all of us worshipped would allow anything so sacrilegious as hearty laughter in the aisles. But how wrong I was.

My coming into the faith of my parents in my teenage years, and the work of God’s Holy Spirit in my life taught me that there was nothing particularly holy about being sombre in church. It was only after I came to know Christ in fuller measure, and surrendered my life to Him that I began to see that being joyful in the Spirit and being able to laugh in church were not necessarily conflicting or contradictory notions. It is hard to divorce laughter in our lives and churches from the joy of God that is also our strength.

Of course, that is not to say we should not have times where it is entirely appropriate to be serious and sombre in church. As Ecclesiastes 3:4 reminds us, there is a time to weep as there is a time to laugh. It is as true for life as it is for our times and seasons of worship in the church.

But we need to discover and value the need for humour and laughter that God has put in all of us. During my secondary school days, I used to meet with a number of other Christian students and a teacher who was also an elder at Calvary Charismatic Centre. I distinctly remember one afternoon, being with some of the student leaders of that little fellowship. One of us said something really funny, and before we knew it, we were all literally rolling about in laughter. But it was no ordinary joy or merriment that we were sharing. The full and almost uncontrollable laughter seemed to go on for many minutes, as we overflowed with being with one another and in the presence of God. It was my first real experience of the freely abounding joy of being in the family of God, expressed in the smiles and laughter of His people.

Does God have a sense of humour?

In my own experience, I can think of times when God has displayed a rich sense of humour in His dealings with me. One incident stands out in my mind.

It was the first week of my first year at university in London. I was still finding my way around college, not entirely sure where I had to go for one of my lectures. Totally unaware that a change of venues had been made, I went into a huge lecture hall and sat myself in the middle of a long row of chairs. Soon, the hall filled up with students. As the lecturer began, it quickly dawned on me that I was in the wrong lecture hall, and that the lecture was to last for two hours. I immediately contemplated getting up and walking out of the hall. But my courage left me when I realised that I had to squeeze past a whole row of students and cause a great deal of disruption. I was resigned to spending the next two hours listening to a subject I had no interest in. There seemed no other way out. In desperation, I cried to God to get me out.

About ten minutes into the lecture, a bell suddenly sounded in the hall. As it continued to ring, the lecturer announced that it was the sounding of a fire alarm. Calmly, everybody made their way out of the lecture hall into the courtyard. It turned out to be a routine fire drill, but I was free from the lecture and quickly found the hall I was supposed to be in. God has delivered me by a fire alarm! I’m sure there must have been a smile on the Father’s face as He rescued His shy and embarrassed child again. He might even have laughed, as I do when I think back to that incident. My father is fond of quoting: ‘God Himself must have laughed when He saw the ducks walk’. Indeed, the Bible does mention God laughing – often in the face of the derisive chants of His enemies (Psa 2:4 is a good example). But nowhere do we ever hear of God laughing at a joke or something funny.

And yet, it does not seem strange to me to think of Jesus, God as man, as One who knew how to laugh or had a sense of humour. Though the Gospels never specifically mention Jesus laughing, it seems implausible to me that children would so freely come to Him, if He was as some imagine, always serious and sombre in appearance. Yes, He was ‘acquainted with grief’ and we are clearly shown in the Gospels that He experienced the whole gamut of human feelings like anger, pity, broken-heartedness and courage. But why not laughter?

I find that I am not alone in wondering. Listen to the wisdom of G K Chesterton:

(Jesus) never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up to a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied it was His mirth.

The mirth of Christ – what a marvellous thought. And from my years of walking with God and reflecting on the Lord Jesus Christ – I almost suspect that Chesterton was right.

Beloved, let us praise God heartily in our laughter as He fills us with joy.

Manik Corea is serving with North American Missionary Society headquartered at Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. NAMS is a mission organisation that plants churches.

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