Maintaining a sense of humour and keeping the perspective of eternity can get us over many rough spots on the roadway of life. Nowhere are humour and perspective more needed than in the church.
During my now almost quarter of a century in the ordained ministry, I have found that some downright funny things can and do happen within the sacred confines of the church. These often do not appear to be funny while they are going on. Indeed, at the critical moment, they may very well be viewed with grave seriousness. It is often only in retrospect that they become funny and fodder for a good laugh.
For example, I once was filling in at a church in Birmingham, Ala. As in many Episcopal churches, it was the custom of this church to begin the service with a procession from the back of the church led by a boy carrying a cross, followed by choristers and officiating ministers.On this particular morning, an extremely young boy was leading the procession. As service time neared, he shifted his weight from foot to foot as he tried to hold the cross erect. Then, at the stroke of hour, the organist ended her prelude, and then without warning, he handed me the cross and announced in a voice audible throughout the church, “I’ve got to go to the bathroom.” Realising the dilemma in the back, the organist replayed the prelude, and five minutes later we went down the aisle to begin the service.
Or, to cite another example, several years ago at St. Luke’s, I glanced over at the pulpit and noticed that my sermon notes were missing. I whispered to an acolyte, “Go to my office quickly and bring the sheets of paper lying on the desk in my office.” Five minutes later, he came back with a stack of papers as tall as the Sears and Roebuck catalogue, none of which was the sermon for the day. So I sent him back a second time with more specific instructions. All the time, the clock continued to tick and the place in the service for the sermon drew nearer and nearer.
Notices for coming events were given. The hymn, which precedes the sermon, was sung—thank goodness it was a long one. Finally, at the end of the last stanza, he re-appeared, this time with the right piece of paper. All was well.
A still third example happened when there was a guest English preacher and visiting choir. A few minutes before the offertory anthem there was a loud pop in the rear of the building. You guessed it—the electric organ in use at the time had yielded up the ghost. Not be outdone, the choir stood up and sang the piece without accompaniment.In the words of Shakespeare, All’s well that ends well.
Certainly, not all the problems of life can be laughed away, but humour and perspective go along way towards making them at least tolerable. I am thinking of the humour that allows us to find the comic element in situations and people—especially in ourselves. I am thinking of the perspective that points us from the moment to the morrow, that causes us to see life from God’s vantage point. May we cultivate these two virtues as we seek to serve Him in His Holy Church.
O most loving Father, who willest us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of thee, and to cast all our care on thee, who carest for us; Preserver us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which thou hast manifested unto us in thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Rev. Victor H. Morgan is rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Blue Ridge.