Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Holy Week humor




From Ekklesia:

A church in New Zealand is to put up an Easter billboard tomorrow showing a cartoon Jesus on a cross with the caption “Well this sucks. I wonder if they will remember anything I said…”

At Christmas the church made headlines around the world with a picture of Mary and Joseph in bed, causing the poster to be vandalised by local people.

Tomorrow, which is also April Fools Day, St Matthew’s in Auckland will put up its first billboard of the year, designed to use humour to encourage debate and discussion. The poster also draws attention to the tendency of some in the churches to focus exclusively on Jesus’ death as the expense of his teachings.

Christians who believe that Jesus’ words and example of love and forgiveness should be central to their faith have frequently expressed concern about the actions of some churches who they feel do not take their Bibles seriously, particularly with regard to issues of justice.

Glynn Cardy, Vicar of St Matthew’s, said: “There is a great tradition in the Eastern Church of cracking jokes at Easter. Laughing proclaims that despite the realities of suffering and death, the power of life, love and liberty is stronger. The tenacity of the human spirit is God given, and will not be overcome by the forces of oppression.”


What do you think about humor and the Holy?

7 comments:

Ann said...

Tomorrow is April Fool's - what is your favorite joke? Cartoon?

Ann said...

An oldie but still my fave:

What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?

A Hot Cross bunny.

dr.primrose said...

OT. Curious -- the schismatic blogs have ignored last week's adverse (to them) California Court of Appeal decision. Here's the story from the local Orange County (CA) paper - Newport Beach parish nearly out of options:

"The leaders of St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach, who have been fighting to keep the property after splitting from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, have nearly run out of legal options after being dealt another setback by a state appellate court, the diocese's attorney said today.

"A 2-1 ruling Friday by panel of the Fourth Appellate District, Third Division, reaffirmed that the diocese owns the church property.

"St. James leaders criticized the ruling, calling it a 'revolutionary' decision that deprived them of submitting evidence to a trial court.

"'This decision is not only stunning and overreaching, but it commits a grave injustice,' said St. James attorney Eric Sohlgren.

***

"Diocese attorney John R. Shiner said the state Supreme Court ruled the property belongs to the diocese.

"'It was sent back to the trial court and the trial court believed the California Supreme Court did not go that far in its ruling,' Shiner said.

"'We disagreed and we went back to the Court of Appeal and asked the Court of Appeal to order the trial court to enter an order in our favor indicating the property belongs to the diocese and the court of appeal ruled in our favor.'

"Now St. James has 30 days to appeal the appellate court's ruling to the state Supreme Court, but because it has already sided with the diocese, the likelihood of prevailing is dim, Shiner said."

IT said...

Perhaps reality is setting in with them, Primrose?

meanwhile, the cartoons are a nice touch Ann. I think humor always helps us through challenging times!

Paul said...

Our rector when I was in grad school used humor a lot, including the sermons. He used it to make a point, and he was very effective. I visited a couple of years ago and he was still at it, just a bit gray around the edges. As are we all.

I also learned a lot of jokes which took place at the pearly gates. Somehow, I only remember the dirty, unprintable ones. Alas.

Paul M

IT said...

What appears to be the ultimate in Lenten humor:

Lent Madness, where 32 saints are competed in pairs, each pair getting a blogpost describing the competition, by Rev. Tim Schenck.

The final faceoff was Julian of Norwich vs George Herbert. You'll have to read the post to see who won.

JCF said...

Jesus walks into an inn, puts three nails on the counter and says to the innkeeper, "Could you put me up for the night?"

Rim-SHOT!