There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die…a time to weep and a time to laugh – Ecclesiastes 3
From the very beginning, we were created in God’s image. What an immense honor it is to have the features of God, to be like Him. If we have a sense of humor, then the One who created us has a sense of humor as well. – Molly Law; editor, Christianity.com
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Get ready for HOLY HUMOR SUNDAY!
On Sunday, April 7th, we will do our best to lighten things up with a focus on joy and humor.
“Many American churches are resurrecting an old Easter custom begun by the Greeks in the early centuries of Christianity-“Holy Humor Sunday” celebrations of Jesus’ resurrection on the Sunday after Easter.
For centuries in Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant countries, the week following Easter Sunday, including “Bright Sunday” (the Sunday after Easter), was observed by the faithful as “days of joy and laughter” with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.
Churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes on each other, drenched each other with water, told jokes, sang, and danced.
The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. “Risus paschalis – the Easter laugh,” the early theologians called it.” https://www.joyfulnoiseletter.com/hhsunday.asp
Leave your heavy theological musings and deep reflective ponderings behind for an hour; and join in a celebration of God’s great gift to us of humor and mirth. Bring your favorite church/religion/God/Jesus/etc. jokes to share. Even Dad-Jokes are welcome.
Have a funny T-shirt? Wear it! A funny hat? Wear it! Bring a smile to your church family’s faces!
(Practical jokes are also welcome; as long as you remember to love your neighbor as yourself. Remember, do unto others as you would have them do unto you!)
Peace,
Pastor Layne