Part I - A three part series on spirituality and humor
I don’t have much in common with Chris Rock. He is a rich, famous, African American comedian who is known for his laser-like wit and politically incorrect humor. I am not rich, famous, black, nor am I very funny. However, I get a lot of attention because we share the same name.
I like being associated with somebody who makes people laugh, even if his humor can be irreverent and crude. Humor is risky, precisely because it leans towards irreverence. That’s its nature. Perhaps that is why I trust it so much. It is really hard to be pretentious and funny at the same time. Pretentiousness leads to spiritual death. A good sense of humor signals a certain kind of humility, which is the basis of all good spirituality.
The word humor comes from the Indo European root ghom or “humus” in English. It literally means a “brown or black substance resulting from the partial decay of plant or animal matter.” This same root forms the words, humble, humility and humanity. They are all tied together, or at least they should be. It is no accident then that humor almost always has an earthy quality to it. For my money the best humor is body humor. Puns and word plays are fun if you are savvy enough to get the joke, but watching a successful business man dressed in a three-piece suit with brand new shiny shoes step in a big pile of shit is funny no matter what your status. It levels the playing field and somehow unites us.
In spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I have come to believe there is laughter at the center of the universe. The universal gift of laughter is derived from God. God is the original comedian. Proverbs tell us that we were created in laughter. Proverbs 8 gives us a rare behind the scenes look at what was happening during the act of creation.
“I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight.
rejoicing before him always.” (Prov. 8:30)
The word for “rejoicing” in this text is the Hebrew word sachaq, which means “to laugh” or “to play.” Quite literally, we were created in laughter. In the best sense of the word, God was playing around. Unfortunately, we don’t get the joke most of the time. As Robert Capon suggests, sin is not so much about “missing the mark,” as it is about “missing the point.” Because we take ourselves so seriously we often miss the punch line. We fail to get the cosmic joke, and as a result, our lack of levity leads to spiritual pretentiousness, which is fertile ground for the Fall.
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Kris Rocke
Serves as director of Center for Transforming Mission
Bumps into Reality by accident, most of the time
Heard God laugh once
