April 1, 2018 - Pr. Maurice Frontz
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Alleluia!
And Happy April Fool’s Day, too.
We are used to thinking of the Bible as a very serious
book.
But among the stories of terrible rebellion against God
and the proverbs to make you wise and the songs of
endless praise
are some quite funny stories.
The Bible has a sense of humor.
Consider in the very first chapter of the Gospel of John
–
Andrew tells his friend Nathaniel that he has found the
Messiah,
and his name is Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.
Nathaniel can’t help himself.
‘Can anything good
come out of Nazareth?’ he chortles,
and from the distance of two thousand years
we hear the derisive laughter of a slick urbanite
making a wisecrack at the expense of a hick town,
much as we might if a friend told us that the next
President
was going to be Hank from deepest darkest West by-God
Virginia.
It was too funny for even a serious guy like John the
Evangelist to leave out of his Gospel.
But it’s not just regional jokes which are part of the
Bible’s act.
Some of the parables of Jesus are great stuff.
I absolutely love Luke 16 and the story of the dishonest
manager,
who knew he was going to get fired and got his revenge
(and also made some much-needed friends)
by telling all his boss’s debtors that the boss was
feeling generous
and there was suddenly a discount.
In the end even the boss had to admit he’d been had.
Jesus gets you with the sense of humor, see.
The kicker is then he tells you
to use your money where it really matters,
to make friends with the poor people,
the people whose prayers God listens to,
so when you don’t have any money anymore,
(and you know when that is)
you’ve got a place to live – in heaven with them.
Sometimes, you know, comics have got a point.
If you were not at the Easter Vigil last night,
you missed some great funny stories.
You missed the great story of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego,
which I love every year.
The self-importance of Nebuchadnezzar,
the ridiculousness of his officials and courtiers,
all those satraps, prefects and governors,
and all the officials of the provinces,
bowing down to a golden statue
at the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum,
and entire musical ensemble.
And then the great reversal,
where the three men who refuse to worship the idols
are joined in the furnace of blazing fire by a fourth who
has the appearance of the god,
and they come forth, unharmed.
The great reversal when Nebuchadnezzar, the idolater,
becomes a god-fearer.
There is one story which I think is hilarious
which isn’t in the Easter Vigil,
but should be.
That is the story of Queen Esther,
the Jewish wife of the King of Persia
who saves her people.
The grand Vizier Haman hates the Jews,
and conspires to have them killed
and Esther’s cousin Mordecai,
who has Haman’s number and whom Haman hates,
hanged on a gallows on Haman’s property.
But Haman gets what’s coming to him.
The king is told by others of a time that Mordecai the
Jew
saved him from traitors in his midst.
The king asks ‘What has been done to honor him?’
Nothing, comes the reply.
And so he calls his counsellor Haman,
and asks, ‘What should be done to the man whom the king
delights to honor?’
Haman, self-important blowhard that he is, thinks it’s
all about him.
‘Whom would the king delight to honor other than me?’
And he suggests that the king’s robes and the king’s
horse and the king’s crown be brought,
and the honored one to be paraded around the city,
as he is acclaimed with the proclamation:
‘Thus shall it ever be done to the man whom the king
delights to honor!’
Of course, what happens next?
The king tells the flabbergasted grand Vizier to bestow
this honor upon Mordecai,
and to lead him around the city, acclaiming him as he
goes.
April Fool!
And Haman gets worse, too;
he is hanged on the gallows he has set up for Mordecai.
Mordecai is honored, Esther is honored,
the Jews win, and everyone lives happily ever after.
A charming comedy indeed.
Isn’t this supposed to be an Easter sermon?
Why all the jokes?
Certainly Easter is serious!
But it is God’s greatest joke of all.
In all of the stories of God’s deliverance,
there is always a bit of humor in there.
And theologically at least, God saves his greatest gotcha
for the third day,
the day after the Sabbath was over,
when the evil one, who thought he had gotten rid of Jesus
once at for all,
is hoisted on his own petard.
His greatest weapon, death itself,
is used against him,
and it is the death of him.
Just like that grand Vizier Haman,
who thought he had the perfect plot
to wreak vengeance on Mordecai and destroy the Jews,
and who is double-crossed and forced to honor his enemy
and is hung on the gallows he had intended for him,
so is the evil one finished on that same cross
which he has intended to destroy God and humanity.
and death has become not his greatest weapon,
but the salvation of God.
The devil is pictured all too often as a powerful force,
but to our eyes, he should be a ridiculous figure,
a dupe, an ape, a punchline,
truly a fool.
For Jesus is the one whom the king delights to honor,
and through him, God has acted to save us.
And so sin is forgiven, hope is restored, death is
destroyed,
and it’s time for a feast.
The feast of victory for our God!
‘When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,
then were we like those who dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
and our tongues with shouts of joy’
The worship that the devil thought was owed to him,
is given to Jesus.
‘Thus shall it ever be done to the man whom the king
delights to honor.’
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Alleluia!
