SITTIN' DOWN MUSIC

Let the joy begin!

*AN INVITATION TO JOYFUL WORSHIP

(L=Leader, C=Children and Adults)

ALL: This is the day that the Lord has made!
We will rejoice - and laugh - in it!

*SONG #286                                                           This Is the Day!

*LET'S PRAY!

You may have heard about the little girl who was learning The Lord's Prayer, and she was doing pretty well, carefully repeating the lines just as her mom told her. One night she was ready to go solo, and launched in all by herself. She got everything just right, with just one little mistake: "Lead us not into temptation, she prayed, but deliver us some Email."

Let us pray together, concluding with the Lord's prayer, but not necessarily the one you're used to!

Hear us, God of joy, in our laughter and in our tears too, as we offer our prayer, Our Father in Heaven, let your holy name be known, let your kingdom come, and your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today the bread that we need, and forgive us our wrongs, and OK, we'll forgive those who have done wrong to us too. Do not lead us into trial, but save us from evil. For we want for you alone rule in our hearts; you have power to transform, and in the light of your smile is your glory. Amen.

This is the day (this is the day) that the Lord has made!
We will rejoice (we will rejoice) and be glad in it!
This is the day that the Lord has made!
We will rejoice and be glad in it!
This is the day (this is the day) that the Lord has made!

COME ON UP, KIDS!

*EASTER AFFIRMATION #226                                                He Lives!

A man who comes but once or twice a year was coming out of church last week, on Easter, and as he came by to shake my hand I pulled him aside and said quietly to him : "You need to join the Army of the Lord!"

The man replied, "I'm already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor."

Well how come I don't see you except at Christmas and Easter?"

He whispered back to , "I'm in the secret service."

Last Sunday WAS Easter, and so we need to sing a great Easter hymn today!

Alfred Ackley composed over 1500 hymns, secular songs and children songs . . . this one in the early days of the depression, in 1933.

You have heard of laugh therapy or that laughter is the best therapy. It's true, when we laugh, we release the Body's natural healing enzymes called endorphins. Singers get that kind of release when they sing. Runners and bikers get that running high endorphins. You get endorphins from hugs, from listening to music, from chocolate!

Humor is one of God's great gifts. It is one of the ways that God grants us healing.

William Willimon in his book, The Laugh Shall Be First, [Abingdon, 1986] says that "among all of God's creatures, human beings are the only animals who both laugh and weep-for we are the only animals who are struck with the difference between the way things are and the way things ought to be. In those priceless moments when we are struck with the incongruity of this world, humor results. A stern, smug gentleman slips on a banana peel and ends us sprawled on the sidewalk - we laugh; W.C. Fields throws a pie in the face of a haughty woman in an evening gown - we laugh." Humor is a wonderful way of holding up a mirror to see ourselves, including our many frailties, so that we can laugh at ourselves.

You may have heard of the man who had been shipwrecked on a remote island in the Pacific, and was alone for 20 years. When a ship finally arrived, his rescuers were impressed with the three buildings he had built and asked him about them.

"Well," the man replied, "this is my house, and that building over there is my church. It's a wonderful church and I hate to leave it."

"And what's the third building yonder?" a rescuer asked.

"Oh, that's the church I used to go to," the man replied.

We laugh . . . and we also cry a little.

Reinhold Niebuhr, the great theologian, says . . . that "the very essence of sin is taking ourselves too seriously." If that's true, the very essence of grace is to receive the gift of laughter, especially when the joke is on us, particularly when the most laughable incongruities consist of the gap between who we are and who God would have us be." [p. 10]

So to let us laugh our loud today, to see ourselves, to find grace, and just to have fun. And let's start with The Bible! Let's test your knowledge of the Good Book!

And now to fuel the Creationist/Evolutionist battles, here are three limericks from Genesis: [Biblical Limericks, D.R. Bensen, Ballentine, 1986]

There was an Old Man of the Void,
Who said, "I grow bored and annoyed;
I'll create Me a planet,
Then I shall man it -
I am tired of speaking unhoid."

Adam, we're told, was lonely, and so God created Eve from one of his ribs:
"Feeling empty? Just nap for an hour,"
Said the Lord, "and I'll show you My power."
God told no fib;
He served up a spare rib
(A dish Adam found sweet and sour.)

And of course there is the story of Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden fruit:

"The fruit of that Tree, do not try it!"
- Give an order, and Man will defy it.
Those very first bites
Left us laden with plights:
Sin, death, and opinions on diet.

 And in honor of church bulletins everywhere, here are some bulletin bloopers:

I know this is hard to believe, but I have some Irish blood in me. My great-grandmother was born in Ireland, migrated to England where she married a Smith, and her daughter married a Swartz, and her daughter married a Schneider, and the German heritage took over altogether. But my Irish great-grandmother means that I can tell an Irish joke or two:

Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me Irish Whiskey".
      Miraculously, a parking place appeared.
      Paddy looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one."

Father Murphy walks into a pub in Donegal, and says to the first man he meets, "Do you want to go to heaven?" The man said, "I do Father." The priest said, "Then stand over there against the wall." Then the priest asked the second man, "Do you want to got to heaven?" "Certainly, Father," was the man's reply. "Then stand over there against the wall," said the priest. Then Father Murphy walked up to O'Toole and said, "Do you want to go to heaven?" O'Toole said, "No, I don't Father."
       The priest said, "I don't believe this. You mean to tell me that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?"
       O'Toole said, "Oh, when I die, yes. I thought you were getting a group together to go right now."

With all due respect, we really must have a Pope joke or two, don't you think?

The Pope was visiting NY, and one day after his luggage had been loaded into the limo, he made a strange request of his driver. "Since becoming Pope, they never let me drive anymore, and I really like to drive. I'm away from Rome, and nobody will know, so what do you say I drive?

Against his better judgment, the driver reluctantly gets in the back seat, and the Pope floors it. Once on the expressway, he's going well over 100 mph.

"Please slow down, your Holiness!" cries the driver from the backseat. To no avail.

It doesn't take long, and there's a cop on his tail. The Pope pulls over, and the cop approaches until he sees who is driving. He goes back to his squad car and calls in.

"I need to talk to the Chief,," he tells the dispatcher. The Chief gets on and the cop says he's stopped a limo going 105.

"So bust him!" yells the Chief.

"I don't think we want to do that. This is someone very important."

"So? Arrest him!"

"No, I mean really important."

"Who ya got there, the Mayor?"

"Bigger"

"The Governor?"

"Bigger."

"Is it the President?"

"Still bigger."

"Well, who is it?" asked the Chief.

"I think it's God!" says the cop.

The Chief can't believe that, and says, "Just what makes you think it's God?!"

"He's got the Pope as a chauffeur."

And what could be better than a Pope joke that includes golf?

The Pope met with his Cardinals to discuss a proposal from the Prime Minister of Israel. "Your Holiness," said one of the Cardinals, "The Prime Minister wants to challenge you to a game of golf to show the friendship and ecumenical spirit shared by the Jewish and Catholic faiths."

The Pope thought it was a good idea, but had never held a golf club in his hand. "Don't we have a Cardinal to represent me?" he asked. "None that plays golf very well," the Cardinal replied. "But" he added, "there is a man named Jack Nicklaus, an American golfer who is a devout Catholic. We can offer to make him a Cardinal, then ask him to play Netanyahu as your personal representative. In addition to showing our spirit of cooperation, we will also win the match."

Everyone agreed it was a good idea. The call was made. Of course, Nicklaus was honored and agreed to play. The day after the match, Nicklaus reported to the Vatican to inform the Pope of the golf game.

"I have some good news and some bad news, Your Holiness" said the golfer. "Tell me the good news first, Cardinal Nicklaus" said the Pope.

"Well, Your Holiness, I don't like to brag, but even though I've played some pretty terrific rounds of golf in my life, this was the best I have ever played by far. I must have been inspired from above. My drives were long and true, my irons were accurate and my putting was perfect. With all due respect, my play was truly miraculous."

"There's bad news?" the Pope asked. "Yes" Nicklaus signed. "I lost to Rabbi Tiger Woods by three strokes."

 
And did you hear the one about Jesus in heaven . . .

Jesus is walking through heaven one day, a little bored, when he passes the Pearly Gates and sees St. Peter talking with an elderly gentleman and decides to go over and hear the man's tale.
"Where are you from, old man?" Jesus asks.
"Well, I lived my life on the shores of the Mediterranean," the old man replies.
"Hmmm. I spent some time there myself," says Jesus. "What did you do for a living?"
"Well, I was a poor carpenter," says the old man.
"Wow. So was I," says Jesus.
"And I had a son," says the old man. "Well, he wasn't my son really, but a miraculous spirit came into him and he became famous, and people talk about him all over the world."
Jesus is very excited, is sure he now knows who this man is, and can't hold back any longer. "Father!" he cries.
The old man falls into Jesus' outstretched arms. "Pinocchio!"

 You know you're getting old when . . .

For you WW II generation . . . a story about Winston Churchill.

It seems there was a political opponent of his, a woman, who said to him once, "If I were your wife, sir, I would put poison in your tea!" Without missing a beat, Churchill replied, "If you were my wife, madame, I would drink it."

We usually don't think of the Bible as a book of humor . . . and it's true that you couldn't fairly call it exactly a comedy. There are a lot of rules, and tragic history, and serious theology. But there is humor too, if you are open to finding it. Especially in the gospels, in the teachings of Jesus.

The musical, Godspell, told the story of Jesus and his teachings in a new way - in a way meant to make us hear familiar old stories in a radically new way. Humor makes us think - and Jesus wanted to make us think in new ways.

Godspell uses an ancient image - the image of a clown - to portray Jesus. While thinking of Jesus as a clown may seem strange at first, it makes sense. One writer has said, "Clowns represent the underdog, the lowly, the remnant people. Their foolishness is a call to unpretentiousness. They take incredible risks - balancing on tight ropes, eating fire, keeping silent, being poked by others, or getting soaked in water. Clowns are parables in themselves, spending great amounts of energy uncovering small things, then showing forth the hidden treasure of life (like the kingdom of God) and, surprisingly to us, giving their most cherished possessions to others."

". . . . the clown may be down and out, but he is also continually raised up by a spirit within, lifting our own spirits as he overcomes life's stumbling blocks. Clowns look at the world . . . inside out and upside down: the last shall be first, the smallest seed is the greatest tree, and those who work all day get paid the same as those who worked an hour. To the world, this is foolishness."

"Yet foolishness?the foolishness of God?is wiser than human beings. It brings light, laughter, joy, renewal, salvation, and life. "

So for the Scripture "reading" today we will see three scenes from Godspell. The first one is based on a passage from Luke about God giving good gifts to God's children. The second is a parable we all know well, but need to hear in a new way. And the last scene reminds us that followers of Jesus, this clown that turns the world upside down, and tells us who we are and who we can become, followers of Jesus are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Let's listen - and watch - for God's word to us today.

All Good Gifts Luke 11:11-13, James 1:17
A Parable: Two Sons and a Forgiving Dad Luke 15:11-32
Light of the World, Salt of the Earth Matthew 5:13-16

TALKING TO GOD

We've been talking a lot about our laughter, But here's a question for you: Do you know how to make God laugh?
Answer: Plan your day.

Our days are ultimately not in our hands, but in God's. And so in our prayers we seek not our will but God's, and to learn how we can better love one another no matter what each day brings.

Let us have a time of silence, and then I will lead us in prayer.

The $20 says, "Well, I've not done quite as well as you, but I have been to Atlantic City, Disneyland, and Starbucks."

They both turn to the $1 and ask, "How ?bout you? Where have you been?"

Not wanting to be outdone, the $1 says, "I've seen the whole country as well - going from church to church to church."

The $100 asks, "What's a church?"

"The Lord loves a cheerful giver," or a better translation might be, "The Lord loves a hilarious giver!" Let us give freely and gladly, out of a heart of joy and laughter.

 Somebody has well said that there are only two kinds of people in the world there are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good morning, Lord," and there are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good Lord, it's morning." May we be that first kind of person, at least most days, because we have heard the Good News of the love of God, a God who inspires true joy in living each day.

Let us stand and sing the closing hymn, Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee.

*GITTIN' UP AND GOIN' MUSIC