Having a laugh...

The new Edinburgh ‘Comedy Festival’ is attracting comment….

‘When I first performed as a comedian at the Assembly Rooms back in 1997 there was a very large and healthy comedy scene that had been snowballing rapidly since the previous decade… Through the Nineties and into the Noughties that snowball became an avalanche.’
(Jackie Clune, Observer Review, 8th June 2008)

‘…this is the first year ever in which comedy has outweighed theatre – 32 percent of the total 2088 acts, versus 29 percent.
(Mark Monahan, Daily Telegraph 18 August 2008).

‘Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.’ (Ecclesiastes 7:3)

Comedy it seems is becoming increasingly dominant in popular culture. It has been dubbed the new ‘rock n’ roll’. So whereas the pathway to being cool and famous for those growing-up in the 60s & 70s was to get a guitar and join a band – now it’s to get a tight set of observational anecdotes and a mike. Comedians sell out vast stadiums at £25 a ticket. Digital TV channels show endless sitcoms and the hippest shows are those that make us laugh. Our appetite for the humorous is apparently insatiable.

A friend of mine commented on a well known Christian conference that many of the speakers would have held their own on the stand-up circuit. Talk after talk was jammed with content that kept the listeners laughing in the aisles. Indeed, my friend said, one of the main teachings of the week was that ‘we needed to laugh more in church’. The message was that church ought to produce a feel-good factor – thus the best kind of pastors, like the speakers on show, will make their congregations chuckle.

Now, of course, the purpose of church is not to glory in dourness or to create a ‘fun free’ zone in people’s lives. Godly humour is a gift, a wholesome & natural part of life – so Christians need not fear it. The Bible often contains irony designed to raise a smile*. However, food is also a God-given gift – but too much of a good thing can be a very bad thing. So laughter, if it starts to become the benchmark of a ‘good service’, can become a real danger.

Most churches in my limited experience have got the balance about right – but the pressure is there – entertain and the plaudits will come, give serious challenge and the response will often be more muted. So the insecure church leader thinks, ‘more funnies! – that’s what people like, that’ll make my ministry appreciated’. The tragedy being that the serious challenge is more often what we need – our life is a battle with sinful flesh and woe betide us if we are allowed to forget it.

The Bible knows the value of both laughter and seriousness – and it is the latter it gives a premium too (Ecc 7:1-6). So we need to be on our guard – the trend in culture is ‘make me laugh’ – and like all such trends it will push at the doors of our churches. Yes, let’s enjoy the gift the humour in church. Let’s not think that uptight joyless gloom is the stuff of authentic spirituality. But equally let’s not equate Biblical worship with wit, joy with jokes, or leadership with light entertainment.

*I would state the humorous element of the Bible no more strongly than this. I have heard some preachers present the Bible as almost a divine joke-book in defending their use of humour - a classic example, I think, of overstating your case.