In an interview with a London newspaper, actor Christopher Walken revealed that he likes to bring a little fun to a movie set by pretending that it’s his birthday. In the morning, as the makeup crew is preparing him for the shoot, he will act a little sad. Invariably, some kind-hearted makeup lady will ask if he’s feeling all right. Walken will mention off-handedly that today is his birthday, but he swears the makeup lady to secrecy. In a matter of hours, the cast and crew of the movie throw together a big birthday party for him, complete with cake and champagne. Everyone has a great time, and no one suspects that Walken planned the whole thing just to inject a little fun in his colleagues’ day. (1)
What a great idea! Who doesn’t like a party--even if it’s for no reason at all. In fact, if you look at some of the strange festivals we celebrate here in the U.S., you soon realize that people can come up with ANY excuse to have a good time.
According to the book Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, the citizens of Monte Rio, California, hold a yearly festival in honor of the “spring invasion of the banana slug.” Residents of Pasadena, California, hold a yearly Doo Dah Parade, which showcases a “garbage can drum corps.” The people of Myerstown, Pennsylvania hold a celebration every October 24th in honor of Bald Head Day. Backwards Day, in which people wear their clothes backward and walk backward, is a big celebration in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And the citizens of Millington, Tennessee are proud to host the yearly celebration of International Goat Day, which showcases the wonders of . . . well . . . goats! (2)
We never lose our taste for fun. It’s life-affirming. Market researchers report every year that the market keeps growing for Halloween costumes for adults. Why? Dressing up and pretending to be Superman or Cinderella or the Mummy is fun. “Adult” technologies, like cell phones and computers, come pre-loaded with video games on them. Why? More and more adults are giving themselves permission to have fun in their daily lives.
And there are endless possibilities for enjoyment in almost any facet of life. Except, it seems, in our worship of God. Author Robert Louis Stevenson once entered in his diary, as if he were recording an extraordinary phenomenon, “I have been to Church today, and am not depressed.” Ask the people you know to describe the average church service. I doubt you’ll hear the words “joy” or “fun” or “party” anywhere. In fact, we take on some strange mannerisms when we come to church. We walk a little more slowly, talk a little more quietly, exercise a little more restraint and a little less enthusiasm. As if somehow the church is a museum or a funeral home, not a meeting place where brothers and sisters celebrate the greatest joy on earth.
There is a fun article by Tim Sims and Dan Pegoda titled 101 Things to Do During a Dull Sermon. Here are ten of their suggestions:
- Pass a note to the organist asking whether he/she plays requests.
- See if a yawn really is contagious.
- Slap your neighbor. See if they turn the other cheek. If not, raise your hand and tell the preacher.
- Devise ways of climbing into the balcony without using the stairs.
- Listen for your pastor to use a word beginning with ‘A,’ then ‘B,’ and so on through the alphabet.
- Sit in the back row and roll a handful of marbles under the pews ahead of you. After the service, credit yourself with 10 points for every marble that made it to the front.
- Using church bulletins or visitor cards for raw materials, design, test and modify a collection of paper airplanes.
- Start from the back of the church and try to crawl all the way to the front, under the pews, without being noticed.
- Raise your hand and ask for permission to go to the rest room. (3)
You know, we wouldn’t find that list so funny if we didn’t relate to it. Many of us hear the words “God,” “religion,” or “church,” and we think “boring,” “obligation,” or “duty.” Somehow, we’ve forgotten the message of Psalm 16, that in God’s presence there is not just joy, but fullness of joy. A good example of joyless versus joyful worship comes from our passage today, Mark 2, verses 18-22: “Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, ‘How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?’
Jesus answered, ‘How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and on that day they will fast.
‘No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.’”
These people who confronted Jesus weren’t trying to be spoilsports. They were just curious. Because everyone knows that the way to please God is to be sorrowful. Serious equals pious. And fasting was meant to be a sorrowful, serious business. God ordained one day per year on which every faithful Jew was required to observe a fast, the Day of Atonement when they repented as a community for their sins. By the time of Jesus’ ministry, pious Jews required themselves to fast two days a week, Mondays and Thursdays. On fast days, the Pharisees made sure to look pale and unkempt. They would have rated a mention in People magazine’s “Worst Dressed List.” They wanted an outward expression of their inward sorrow. “Look at me, I’m doing something righteous for God. And it’s so NOT fun.” We can admire their discipline. But they were guilty of one joy-killing sin, a sin that we still commit today: they were more intent on obeying God than understanding God.
Let me explain: obedience to God is a pathway to joy. But in order for us to obey God’s commands, we must understand God. And that requires a relationship with God, a relationship that, in its fullness, is only available through knowing God’s Son, Jesus Christ. When we know God, then we know that sincere worship and devotion flow from a sense of joy, not obligation. As Jesus explained to his followers in John 10, “I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” In fact, in Mark 2, Jesus is declaring himself to be the “life of the party.” He is saying to those who are fasting and mourning and trying so hard to please God, “You are in the presence of God. Enjoy it. Get in on the party. Celebrate with me while you have the chance.”
A few years ago, Pastor Mike Yaconelli got tired of the church. He had grown up believing that church was all about “doing” for God. Busyness and burnout were signs of one’s devotion. He writes that by age fifty, “My entire being ached for a God of rest. . .” To get away from the demands of church, Yaconelli took a retreat to L’Arche, a community for mentally handicapped individuals. And it was here that God gave Mike Yaconelli a glimpse of God’s grace. At L’Arche, he met people who knew how to worship God wholeheartedly, who lived every moment in a state of joy and peace. He writes, “I connected the amount of God’s grace I received with the quality of my performance. They could not perform, yet they ran in and out of the arms of Jesus with the full assurance that they were unequivocally loved by God while I stood on the sidelines wondering whether I was loved by God.” (4)
Are we, like Pastor Yaconelli, modern-day Pharisees? Listen to his words again: “I connected the amount of God’s grace I received with the quality of my performance.” Why did the people of L’Arche find such joy in their relationship with God? Because they let God do all the work. Grace is a gift. It is a blessing that flows in abundance from God. All we have to do is come into God’s presence and enjoy it.
In Romans 14, the apostle Paul writes a letter to the believers who are arguing over petty matters. In essence, Paul says, “Get over it!” In verses 17 and 18, he writes, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.”
The kingdom of God is about righteousness, peace, and joy. Why be sorrowful in the middle of a wedding feast? Why be a party pooper? Fanny Crosby was one of the most prolific hymn writers of the Christian church. In spite of a life of sorrows, Crosby’s hymns are full of hope and joy. “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” “Near the Cross,” “To God Be the Glory,” “Blessed Assurance” are just a few of her hymns that are sung regularly throughout the English-speaking world.
Crosby was blinded in early childhood by a clumsy doctor. She married a musician, Alexander Van Alstyne, but separated only two years later. During their marriage, Fanny gave birth to a stillborn child. It was the one heartbreak in her life that she never shared with others. But Fanny radiated joy in spite of her sorrows. She amazed her friends and colleagues with her boundless energy and her joy. She kept writing and working up until her death at age ninety-five. In her later years, Fanny commented, “There is nothing that could induce me to abandon my work. It means nothing to be eighty-four years of age, because I am still young! What is the use of growing old? People grow old because they are not cheerful, and cheerfulness is one of the greatest accomplishments in the world!” (5)
What was the source of Fanny Crosby’s great joy? To answer that question, let me quote the first line from one of her best-loved hymns:
“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O, what a foretaste of glory divine.
Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.”
That “foretaste of glory” is the joy that Jesus’ followers carry with them wherever they go. It is the knowledge that by God’s grace we are accepted and loved. So welcome to the never-ending party that flows from the kingdom of God.
1. Interview by Tiffany Rose in the London Independent, excerpted in The Week August 19, 2005, p.12.
2. Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Encyclopedia of the Bizarre (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2002), pp. 171-172.
3. from 101 Things To Do During A Dull Sermon by Tim Sims and Dan Pegoda
4. By Mike Yaconelli in Stories of Emergence, edited by Mike Yaconelli (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), p. 16.
5. Robert J. Morgan, Then Sings My Soul, Book 2 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2004), p. 209.