Being around religion, religious people, and religious subject matter so much makes me all the more ready to laugh when I come across something that is funny, especially if religion is involved. I don’t want to make fun of religion, of course, or be disrespectful. But like most pastors I’ve met, I find a little bit of devilish humor in poking fun at stuffy religious topics now and then. Kind of a hobby you might say.
Like the preacher’s young daughter who noticed that her dad always bowed his head and closed his eyes just before launching into a sermon. So she asked him, “Why do you do that?” “Well, I’m praying that God will help me preach a good sermon.” She thought about that a moment, then said, “Why doesn’t God ever answer your prayer, Daddy?”
Or how about Pastor Susan who was shaking hands with Seldom-Seen-Steve after Easter services. He complimented her and said worship was amazing. Well, if he liked it so much, why didn’t she see him in attendance more often? “Well, I’m just following the Lord’s example,” he said, “and if he can rise up early one Sunday a year, that’s good enough for me!”
Or how about the two priests (no really, this is my last joke, I promise – keep reading, you’ve come this far already) who died and went to heaven, only to be told by St. Peter at the pearly gates that the computer was down, so they had to be sent back to earth for an extra week. “Plus,” said St. Pete, “you can go back as anybody you want and we won’t count any of this week against you.” The first priest said he wanted to be an eagle soaring high over the mountains for his bonus week on the earth. But the other priest, with a sly grin on his face, said, “You’re sure you won’t count anything against me?” And St. Peter said, “You’ve got my word – the computer’s down, we can’t keep track of you at all!” So the priest said, “Well, I’ve always wanted to be a real stud!” St. Peter said, “So be it!” and just like that both priests disappeared in a wisp of smoke.
Pretty soon, God came by to ask St. Peter the whereabouts of those two priests. “Well, we can track the first one pretty easily, for I sent him to Colorado and he’s soaring above the Rocky Mountains. But the other one’s going to be harder to locate.” “Why’s that?” asked the Lord. “Because he’s on a snow tire somewhere in North Dakota!”
Ok, Ok, I know, I promised funny, and I probably didn’t completely deliver to your satisfaction. But I’ll bet some of you will tell one of these jokes to someone else! And maybe, just maybe, one of you will cut and paste and send this to an uncle. We religious people are like that. When we have something good to say, we like to say it. When we are feeling good about our faith, our life, our church, we find it easy to talk about. And – now here comes the stewardship part — when we are excited about what our church is doing and can do together, we find it all that much easier to make our pledges, our commitments, and share our gifts.
There is so much good about what we are doing together at Family of Christ! There is so much that is worth supporting and building and enacting. Let us with joy and thanksgiving be ready to give our offerings cheerfully to fully fund all the exciting ministry that we love to do. And this coming Sunday, let’s be ready to share our pledges for 2013. It will be wonderful to launch ourselves into a new year of ministry with full support for the many ministry adventures that we hope to enjoy.
See you in church!
~ Pastor Josh
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