Laughter is Carbonated Holiness | Tom Willadsen

thank you I need to start by explaining

that I really did get the memo from the

TEDx organizers and presenters are not

supposed to wear ties these are supposed

to be informal and engaging talks and

ties make it too formal and stuffy but I

have to confess I am a lifelong fan of

the Chicago Cubs and it’s October 29th

of 2016 and for the first time in my

life the Cubs are playing in the World

Series and I am thrilled and my day job

is I’m a Presbyterian minister and I’ll

just say that being a Cub fan is really

the best possible preparation for being

a Christian minister but my topic today

is laughter is carbonated holiness which

is a phrase that writer Annie Lamott

said and I think it’s really really a

good good way for us to think about

laughter because laughter has power

that’s one of the things I want you to

leave this talk with today is

recognizing laughter has power the other

thing is that worship and laughter are

this close together and with that I

present the picture you probably have

seen a reproduction of this picture

without my 21st century Edition three

things you need to notice about that

picture oh and I know which one you want

me to start with first but no first

thing you need to know is that this is

Adam Adam is the first human being his

his name comes from the Hebrew word

anima which means soil or earth the

first human being god made left-handed

okay who’s left-handed here huh about

10% of you yeah this is this is this is

all for us the second thing you need to

notice is Adam has a belly button now

let that sink in a little bit there are

two people on earth who probably should

not have belly buttons that would be

Adam and Eve because they were not

connected to their mothers now I made

this point to a gathering last month and

someone said well maybe God thought Adam

was like the Pillsbury Doughboy and just

gave him one of those little things I

don’t think so I think the artist got it

wrong

um the third thing I want you to notice

Adam is circumsized now think about this

he is the only person on earth right so

it’s a selfie okay and I did the

research metalwork wasn’t invented until

the fourth chapter of Genesis which

means either it was a sharp rock or

there was one of these creatures that

God made before humanity that that did

the deed most audiences they’re a little

edgy a little uncomfortable at that but

let me tell you when I made this point

to the National gathering of

Presbyterian women last summer they

loved it they loved the idea of of self

and a man inflicting pain on himself

okay and I’m gonna make that go away I

hope or someone will make that go away

because that’s kind of distracting my

topic is is laughter is carbonated

holiness and I really think it’s

important to understand what laughter is

how it works

and even how humor works when I was in

seminary I decided I would write a

project write a paper a year-long

project on humor in the Bible and I like

humor I understand how it works and I

figured I would find these

long-forgotten passages that go like

this and then the Israelites said unto

Moses tell us again the one about the

concubine the Pharaoh and the 40

serpents then they smote some

Philistines I figured the Bible’s full

of this this was really read all the

Bible right I didn’t find any any jokes

like that and what I found was that

humor is a very very difficult thing to

define it’s a very difficult thing to

study because everybody has their own

sense of humor and what I find funny

other people don’t find funny and then

to think about what it could mean that

the the people who first told and wrote

these stories originally what they would

have understood is humorous in different

cultures and what they would have

laughed at in in societies that we

really can’t reconstruct

it was simply beyond what I could do so

rather than studying humour in the Bible

I studied laughter and I found some

interesting things about laughter first

laughter is involuntary communication

now think about that

usually when we communicate it’s because

we’re talking we’re writing we’re in

control of that but laughter when it’s

genuine when it comes spontaneously it’s

involuntary laughter is also a very very

social thing this group of people about

I think a hundred of you bought tickets

for TEDx Oshkosh you’re much more likely

to laugh in a presentation like this in

a group of a hundred than if you were

alone because laughter is it’s about

communication and I’m sure I can’t prove

this I think I might have read it

somewhere but you can tell when laughter

is genuine and when it’s not even if

you’ve never heard this person laugh

before you know when they’re when

they’re laughing sincerely or when

they’re faking it laughter is

communication and it’s involuntary

communication and babies babies laugh

long before they can speak

babies are able to laugh and communicate

whoever’s tickling them or doing

whatever is making them laugh I’m liking

this laughter is involuntary

communication and it also has power it

also has power and I’m going to talk a

little bit about that power I talked

about I found three in the Bible what I

was studying laughter I found there are

really three reasons the occasions that

laughter is recorded in the Bible and by

far the most numerous the largest group

is laughter that comes at someone’s

expense laughter that ridicules

diminishes belittles humiliates some

examples the second chapter the the

second Psalm God sits enthroned in the

heavens and laughs at the plans of

mortals and the 31st chapter book of

proverbs where the the ideal wife is

described it says this worthy competent

woman can laugh at the problems of the

day because she’s better than that these

these problems don’t threaten her and

she can laugh them off

my favorite one laughter this this kind

of laughter comes from the book of Job

where it says the ostrich laughs at the

horse and it’s rider and I love to

picture this I presume that’s because

the ostrich can outrun someone on

horseback but I imagine an ostrich

running away today and looking over its

shoulder at this point I always realize

I don’t know do ostriches have shoulders

I don’t know but whatever whatever it is

it looks over an entity ha can’t catch

me I’m factor than you are the mocking

ostrich I love that that’s in the Bible

um there’s another passage on another

person who talks about how painful it is

to be laughed at and that’s the Prophet

Jeremiah when things were going really

well in Judah and Israel he foretold

doom and destruction and sure enough

Babylon came down and destroyed the

country when things were really bad

after the destruction and the people

were carried up into exile he started

preaching words of hope and

encouragement said God’s gonna come and

restore us he was always out of time

with people and he also complained a lot

about how awful it was to be God’s

prophet he said people mock me they make

mouths at me I am a laughingstock

because he has responded to God’s call

so you know and laughter that kind of

laughter is by far the most numerous

most common in the Bible last night we

were talking about how Jesus never

laughed and then I had to back up and

say wait a minute the Bible never

records Jesus as having laughed but

Jesus was laughed at there’s a story in

the first three Gospels of Matthew Mark

and Luke about how Jesus gets word that

this twelve year old girl is is very

sick and he goes to her house and when

he gets there he finds that the the

doorway is crowded with people mourning

and wailing because the girl has died

and he says don’t weep and mourn the

girl is not dead she’s only sleeping and

the very next words in the New Revised

Standard Version are and they laughed at

him knowing that she was dead they

laughed at Jesus because he was wrong

well Jesus got the last laugh he

in and said little girl get up and she

did great that’s a happy story but that

but that’s the first kind of first kind

of laughter and the power that laughter

has is to really diminish and harm other

people the second kind of laughter is

laughter as an emotional release this is

this is often contrasted with tears in

the Bible those of you who are between

the ages of 40 and 70 when I say to

everything turn turn turn there is a

season okay now stop and a time for

every purpose under heaven a time to

laugh and a time to weep laughter and

tears are often contrasted because both

of them are ways that we express

something emotion feeling passion spirit

somehow laughter is is how we get that

out some of you probably all of you have

laughed till you’ve cried I personally

and some other people I know have cried

until they’ve laughed and that kinda

laughter feels good when you’re done

with you have to take a deep breath and

it feels you just feel better because

you’ve gotten this stuff that’s been in

you you’ve been able to get it out now

last month in my church office I walked

in there were four people standing there

and they were laughing uproariously

about something I didn’t know what it

was someone had pulled a joke I didn’t

hear the joke I didn’t hear the

punchline but I was in this room with

four other people and I started laughing

laughter was contagious this kind of

laughter is contagious and it’s the

laughter of children at play

yes four year old what’s so funny it’ll

say just fun fun and funny of the same

things to preschoolers because they’re

always finding things to laugh at

children laughed between five and thirty

times more than more often than adults

every day so this laughter that’s

contrast with peers and Jesus says this

in the Sermon on the Mount he says

blessed are you who mourn and weep for

you will laugh and woe to you who are

laughing now for you will mourn and weep

so there’s that contrast in in the

second kind of laughter and that’s the

second most frequent kind of laughter

in the Bible now I’ve given this a

Laughter is Carbonated Holiness | Tom Willadsen | TEDxOshkosh