Laughter in Difficult Times

Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7), Minstrel Man by Langston Hughes

When I was a kid, my parents had a subscription to Readers Digest. Apparently, it’s still around, who knew!? I enjoyed it as much as my parents did because I was a voracious reader. One of my favorite columns was Laughter is the Best Medicine. Does anyone remember that feature? These were funny stories or jokes submitted by readers and while I did not always completely understand what was funny about some of them, I enjoyed what was shared all the same. I remember hearing my parents laugh out loud occasionally as they read the magazine and it made me happy to hear it.

I grew up in the 1970’s and my father worked hard at his day job as a mason and in the evenings and weekends he worked a small farm. My mom raised 3 kids and helped with the farm until she got sick and then focused on simply breathing. They were focused on the serious business life and laughter was not a frequent occurrence in our house. It was the time as well of the Vietnam War, Watergate and later inflation and long gas lines and rationing among other difficult things.

Laughter often came with the delivery of Readers Digest in the mail, or when my aunt & uncle visited and started telling stories of growing up with my dad, or if my little brother did something to make us all laugh. It was joyous to hear the sound of laughter and to laugh and be silly with my friends. I remember in junior high and high school really enjoying going to my friends' homes for a slumber party and the amount of laughing that simply made our sides hurt and tears to flow. There is just something about laughter that makes us feel good.

And then there is the saying, that is no laughing matter. Things are just too difficult or serious or important to be laughing right now.

I think many of us are feeling like that in this turbulent and difficult time in our country and world.

I imagine Abraham and Sarah felt like not having a child, especially a male child as God had promised many years before, was no laughing matter. For a woman, then and now, there is much pressure and expectation to have children, to carry on your husband’s legacy and in this case, to build the people of God. Infertility brings shame and disappointment and often depression, anxiety. Being ostracized by others accompanies women, who for whatever reason, cannot have children. And now in their senior season, long past child bearing years, Abraham and Sarah had long given up on the idea of Sarah getting pregnant and delivering a son, even though years ago God promised it. Infertility is no laughing matter. It’s hard and heart breaking.

And when the 3 visitors said to Abraham that Sarah would get pregnant and have a son within the year, what else was Sarah’s reaction to be as she eavesdropped, but a laugh? I imagine it to be a laugh of disbelief at the utter nonsense - we’ve all done it. Ha! Seriously!? Are you kidding me? “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?"

Bible scholar Walter Bruegermann said, “ …this story shows what a scandal and difficulty faith is. Faith is not a reasonable act which fits into the normal scheme of life and perception. The promise … is not a conventional piece of wisdom that is easily accommodated to everything else. Embrace of this … requires shattering and discontinuity. Abraham and Sarah have by this time become accustomed to their barrenness. They are resigned to their closed future. They have accepted that hopelessness as “normal.” The … promise does not meet them in receptive hopefulness but in resistant hopelessness. This story embodies a statement of irony, for the total Abraham/Sarah story is about a call embraced. But in this central narrative, the call is not embraced. It is rejected as nonsensical. And indeed, if no new thing can intrude, if newness must be conjured from present resources, the promise announced here truly is nonsensical.”

Laughter in difficult times of life.

Sometimes like Sarah we laugh out of disbelief. Sometimes we laugh to make sense of what is happening. Sometimes we laugh from nervousness. Kurt Vonnegut said, “Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.” And Erma Bombeck wrote, “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”

In our own time, comedians share humor in many ways including being cultural critics in the face of difficult and disturbing news of all kinds. And now those like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are under attack by political leaders who don’t like what they are hearing. And often what the joke or funny story is about, is no laughing matter because of the serious implications and ways people and the environment are being hurt and destroyed.

And yet, like Sarah, laughter is needed. A relief. A way to respond to something we find so absurd or painful. Langston Hughes speaks to that in his poem that was read for you.

I’m not sure about you, but I’m guessing like me, lately it’s been hard to laugh. It somehow feels wrong given the realities of war, poverty, loss of so many kinds, continuing attacks on our democracy, environmental destruction and climate change and on and on. And that’s not to mention personal struggles that people are going through including grief, depression, illness, family struggles and more. Sometimes I feel guilty laughing or having a good time in the midst of so much suffering.

And maybe our comics have it right. We need to laugh sometimes like Sarah. In our pain, it helps us cope. And laughing has health benefits.

In the article 5 Unexpected Health Benefits of Smiling and Laughing (https://takecare.org/resources/5-unexpected-health-benefits-of-smiling-and-laughing/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23013533645&gbraid=0AAAAApFpMFCdlZiL3paND9krhPAVGpBQx&gclid=CjwKCAjw857RBhAgEiwAI-1yKOIsK-WXwlMtdbY9Ve6s-oddLsEW6yEJRARj8GKF2yyFVCs8iEPmMBoCG0IQAvD_BwE) researchers have found that laughing is good for our hearts and reduces the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies. It’s also a natural pain reliever as the hormone dopamine gets released into our blood stream during laughter. Laughter increases serotonin and can bring some relief to sadness and depression as well as releasing endorphins to help boost our mood. And it is contagious - have you noticed that when someone else is laughing, you start to laugh too? That’s your brain kind of co-regulating with someone else’s lightness, joy and it is hard to contain.

We need laughter in our lives as humans. Especially in hard times personally or on a community level. We cannot only live in seriousness, acute distress, fear and anxiety. We are in this for the long haul, just like Abraham and Sarah. Quick answers and fixes are not always possible which is hard for us in this time of sound bites and immediate reactions and pat answers of social media and culture. Holding on to our faith is essential.

UCC minister and commentator Cheryl Lindsey offers this, (https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-shall-i-be-fruitful/) “For a church facing acutely challenging times, the temptation may be to fixate on responding to the present threats with a quick and immediate response. Threats often cause us to seek safety and security or to fight for survival. Both are reasonable in the short term, but there is a lesson in the journey that Abram and Sarai take to become Abraham and Sarah. Transitions do not take us back to the place of comfort we have been but to the place of promise we are called to enter. How shall we be fruitful in this time and for the future? Some of us may need to prune and weed, deconstructing what no longer, and may have never, served the ministry of the gospel. Some may need to tend to depleted soil. Others may be ready to plant seeds for new life. Still others may be at a point of maturity and harvest time.

No matter the stage, it is likely to take more time than we would hope.”

It is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. I have already attended many Pride events this month - many of you know I am one of the organizers of Lyons Pride. Friday night was Queer Comedy Night in Lyons and yesterday was Boulder Pride. Central to these Pride celebrations is fun, laughter and what we call Queer Joy. Friday nights during the summer are full of activity in Lyons and all the restaurants with music stages have something happening. Near the end of our comedy show, a few people meandered into the venue and when the show was done talked to some of us. They said they came in because they could feel the joy and great vibe from the street and they felt drawn to come in even though they had no idea what was happening. That’s the power of laughter.

While there are certainly terrible things happening to undermine and take away rights, and attacks on the LGBTQ community happen way too often, Pride celebrations are just that - celebrations, a time to be joyful and laugh in and with community who also are experiencing difficulty and pain. While we fight to uphold rights, get some rights back, stand up to hateful comments and rhetoric, we find time to pause and have joy. We hold on to our faith in love, goodness and kindness in the world even as we face hardships, grief and loss.

So good people.

How are you embracing laughter and holding on to faith in these difficult times?

Hold on to laughter every day and may it fuel you as you continue on your journey, especially when things feel impossible, improbable, hopeless or unbearable. Tom Hanks shared, “... If there’s something that makes you laugh, then every day’s going to be okay.”

May it be so.