Easter 2 Hilarity Sun

For a number of years I’ve been reading about churches that celebrate what they call "Holy Hilarity" or "Holy Humor" Sunday. In some of these churches members of the congregation as well as the pastor come dressed in funny costumes, special decorations are put up, jokes are told and even the hymns are sometimes rewritten to go with the theme.

While I don’t know that any of these churches belong to our Lutheran denomination, I feel we should join in the ecumenical spirit and celebrate the day with them.

What I discovered as I read up on it, is that Holy Hilarity Sunday has ancient roots and excellent theology behind it. Early Christians continued their celebrations of the resurrection by feasting, telling jokes, and playing innocent tricks on each other. There is even mention of this in the writings of early church leaders like Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostrum and Augustine.

Clement X, prohibited it in the Roman Catholic Church. The German and Scandinavian piety of the churches of the Reformation unfortunately worked against it becoming a part of those churches practice. Many Orthodox churches have continued to celebrate the day without interruption though.

The celebration was re-introduced to the churches of the west in 1988 by the Fellowship of Merry Christians. The theme they suggested is "Jesus is the LIFE of the party."

And surely what more appropriate theme could be followed the Sunday after Easter? Jesus *is* the LIFE for us and having received that LIFE we should be in a party spirit.

It goes even deeper though. Jesus’ return to life and the empty tomb were truly God’s big joke played on satan. On Good Friday the devil thought he had won. Christ was dead. Sin and death were victorious. Humanity had no hope. This feeling continued right up to Jesus’ appearance to the ten disciples in the upper room as it would seem by their hiding in fear behind locked doors that they did not believe Mary Magdalene.

What a party spirit must have reigned once they got over the shock of seeing Jesus among them. Their grief was turned to joy, their fear was changed to courage, the doubts they had struggled with became a strong faith.

But, poor Thomas wasn’t there. He came late to the party - after Jesus had left. Can you imagine the scene he walked into? Instead of sitting Shiv'ah, the Jewish ritual for mourning, the other disciples greet him with the same ecstatic proclamation Mary gave, "We have seen the Lord." I can almost see them bouncing off the walls with their glee and merry making. I can see them gathering around Thomas trying their best to convince him of the Good News.

Of course, Thomas was a very human person, a person very like people today. Jesus being risen doesn’t make sense. It isn’t rational. It’s beyond belief. Surely, his fellow disciples must be suffering some mass delusion. They want a happy ending so badly they have convinced themselves of an impossibility.

We have no idea what happened during the week after this meeting. Did Thomas remain with the group, adamantly refusing to believe in something he hadn’t personally experienced? Did he go off alone to struggle with his doubts? Was he a damper on their celebration or was empathy something the Spirit worked in them? Things surely did not return to the way they were before Jesus appeared to the others.

What we do know is that Thomas was with the group a week later when Jesus returned and Jesus was willing to give him whatever proof he needed to finally believe completely. What holy hilarity must have descended then. And what holy hilarity must go on when any child of God, believer already or not, is able to see Jesus as resurrected Lord and have the struggle with doubt come to an end.

We have heard the proclamation, "We have seen the Lord", and we are invited now to join with God and all the saints of the Church in saying, "Ha ha...ha ha...ha" to the devil, sin and death. Let us join with them and with all our brothers and sisters who celebrate this Holy Hilarity Sunday by engaging in some merriment of our own.

"You know about Joseph of Arimithea, don’t you? He was the guy who help Jesus carry His cross and then offered a tomb for Jesus’ burial. A neighbor asked Joseph why he gave his beautiful hand-carved tomb to someone else.