March 30, 2013

Glynn Cardy

The Great Vigil of Easter

In the Orthodox tradition Easter begins with a laugh. It is God’s laugh in the face of despair and death. It is God’s laugh in the face of all that demeans and diminishes life.

So here’s a good laugh:

Wilson runs a nail factory and decides his business needs a bit of advertising. He has a chat with a friend who works in marketing, and he offers to make a television ad for Wilson's Nails.

"Give me a week," says the friend, "and I'll be back with a tape." A week goes by and the marketing executive comes to see Wilson. He puts a cassette in the video and presses play.

A Roman soldier is busy nailing Jesus to the cross. He turns to face the camera and says with a grin, "Use Wilson's Nails, they'll hold anything."

Wilson goes mad, shouting, "What is the matter with you? They'll never show that on television. Give it another try, but no more Romans crucifying Jesus!"

Another week goes by and the marketing man comes back to see Wilson with another tape. He puts it in the machine and hits play.

This time the camera pans out from a Roman standing with his arms folded to show Jesus on the cross. The Roman looks up at him and says, "Wilson's Nails, they'll hold anything."

Wilson is beside himself. "You don't understand. I don't want anything with Jesus on the cross! Now listen, I'll give you one last chance. Come back in a week with an advertisement that I can broadcast."

A week passes and Wilson waits impatiently. The marketing executive arrives and puts on the new video. A naked man with long hair, gasping for breath, is running across a field. About a dozen Roman soldiers come over the hill, hot on his trail. One of them turns to the camera and says, "If only we had used Wilson's Nails!"

The resurrection is God’s joke on those who think they had Jesus nailed down.

We know that laughter is powerful medicine. Physically it reduces blood sugar levels, helps blood vessels function better increasing the flow of oxygen to the heart and brain, and it reduces pain. Mentally it assists creativity and complex problem solving. It is a powerful adhesive in close relationships. Laughter establishes, or restores, a positive emotional climate and a sense of connection between people. In fact, some researchers believe that the major function of laughter is to bring people together. Send in the clowns.

Laughter is closely connected with spirituality, with the desire to find positive healing energy, and the sacred spaces needed for the nurture of wisdom, compassion, and joy. Just by laughing hope raises her head and smiles. Just by laughing the gloom seems to brighten. Just by laughing we can face our fears and find courage.

There is a scene from the third Harry Potter movie where the supernatural creature called a Boggart transforms into whatever the individual fears. The Boggart’s power is in fear. And the spell for dealing with it is one that transforms the Boggart into something that can be laughed at.

Pilate’s power to kill, Caiaphas’ power to judge, and the crowd’s power to condemn were all Boggarts that God laughed at and destroyed their power. The empty tomb was God’s laugh. God was laughing at death. God was laughing at fear and all its manifestations. God was laughing at all our little hierarchies and systems that elevate some and squash others. God was laughing at the way we dismiss the faithfulness and witness of powerless ones, like the women disciples. God’s laugh continues to echo down through the ages.

Laughter is iconoclastic. When we begin to take ourselves too seriously, when we make theological idols in our own image or in the image of how we think the world should be, when we make no room for the little ones – the children, the impoverished, the damaged, when we forget that it is all about, and only about, love and forgiveness – then we need the waves of mirth to break over us, tossing us about, destabilizing us, cleansing us, and reinvigorating us. When choosing a Church, look at whether there is any humour, any fun, and any merriment. Can they laugh at their own piety?

We know that laughter seriously annoys the seriously minded. When institutions want to impress upon us how important, accurate, and powerful they are humour has no place. That’s why clowns and comedy have a hard life under dictatorial regimes. That’s why satire has had such a hard life in the Church. That’s why the rise of a critical secularism and the permission it gives to comedians has been good news for faiths and for spirituality generally.

Nina, tonight you have been baptized into Christ. You haven’t suddenly been made holy. No, the truth is you’ve always been holy. You’ve always been accepted and loved by God and will always be, just as we will always be. Baptism declares the truth of what is: God’s riotous laugh in the face of every fear, hatred, and oppression - a laugh that embraces you, like it embraces us. Of course that embrace, if you let it, will bring challenges of its own. As F.D. Maurice said, Baptism invites you “to become who you are”. It invites you to join the iconoclastic laughing clowns of God.