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Focus on Lively Virtues Worthy of Cultivation:
The Power of Laughter  

sermon from the pulpit of 
Christ Presbyterian Church                    
a center of faith for abundant living
The Reverend Clyde E. Griffith, pastor

I think it was George Burns who said, "A good sermon should have a good beginning, and a good ending, and they should be as close together as possible."

I am reminded of an incident when I was serving as a missionary in the Ozark Mountains of Southwestern Missouri. I served a church that had several congregations. One time I would drive a total of about 95 miles and hold three services each Sunday. The first winter I was there, it snowed one weekend. Later they said it was the storm of the century. But, I was young and didn't know better. I got the car out and started on the 29 mile drive down little country lanes to the first preaching point. Well, it was icy and windy, and as I went through a small curve the car started sliding and went into a ditch along the side of the road. I hit the side of a snow wall and the car came to a stop. There was nothing I could do to get out. As luck would have it a guy came by in a four wheel drive truck and we worked to pull the car out of the ditch. And I continued my way to the little church. I reached the church about fifteen minutes late. -- And there was one other person there. This farmer greeted me as I came in. We exchanged pleasantries for a while, and I finally said, well I guess we won't be having church today.

The old farmer said, "Well, heck, preacher, even if only one cow shows up at feeding time, I feed it."

So, I was young, what did I know? I did the entire service. We sang all the songs, we prayed all the prayers, I preached my heart out. When it was over and we were leaving, I asked the old man, "How'd I do?"

He said, "It was OK, but if only one cow shows up at feedtime, I don't drop the full load on it."

They were afraid. 
What did all of this mean for them? 
For sure, the authorities would be coming after them now. What to do? They gathered behind locked doors - fearing the worst. So, there they were, wringing their hands, sighing "Ain't it awful?" When, lo and behold, the-e-e-e-re was Jesus.

Can't you just see and feel what happened?

"Oh man, you really did it this time! You really put one over on us! You got us good! And what about the others? Just wait until they get a load of this!"

The Risen Christ was the punch line of God's Great Surprise. The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest surprise in the history of humanity. Until then, once people died and were buried, they stayed put. There is no doubt in my mind that these disciples happy people when they encountered the Risen Christ. They must have been laughing and carrying on. They knew the joke was on them, because they hadn't believed what they had been told. And now the joke is on all those who refuse to believe. This is the Easter surprise, the Easter laugh, the Easter joy.

C.K. Chesterton wrote that "surprise is the secret of joy."

For centuries there has been a tradition passed on through some of our Christian Orthodox churches for the people to gather on the Monday after Easter to be joyful - to celebrate surprises - to tell jokes and stories - sharing laughter. And in it all, remembering the punch line of God's Greatest Surprise. When you think about it, that's what good jokes are. We are drawn in to a story about a situation we can identify with, and then we are hit with a conclusion we weren't expecting. That's what those disciples experienced that first Easter evening -- and that's what I hope we can experience here today.

Laughter has been called God's holy medicine -- the ancients thought it to be exercise for the soul.

What a great idea! Laughter is exercise for the soul!

In fact, there is a tremendous body of evidence being accumulated today in schools from Johns Hopkins to Stanford University Medical Schools and in countries all over the world -- evidence that supports this ancient idea: that laughter is exercise for the soul and actually affects our physical and mental health.

Maybe you saw the article in the current AARP newsletter about how doctors and nurses and hospitals are being taught what we already know: the title of the article is "It's No Joke: Humor Heals"!

You may have seen that movie, Patches. It's a real story about a real doctor, Patch Adams, and his work to introduce laughter therapy into medical institutions.

A whole field of study has arisen called psychoneuroimmunology -- studying the affects of love and laughter, the affects of attitude on a person's state of health.

Actually, this is one of the secrets of this church. Recent studies show that church-goers tend to live longer and be healthier than others in the population. This doesn't mean that going to church is like an insurance policy whereby you automatically will be rewarded with good health and a long life. All of us get ill, and we do die. But, here in church we learn how to live now, we learn how to love, we learn how to survive, we learn how to have the courage to face each day. In fact, we might should say that is the goal of our church: to teach us how to live these days of our lives joyously and lovingly.

How important was "Laughter" to the development of the Jewish faith? Well, all Israelites traced their ancestry through one of the 12 tribes through one of the 12 brothers, to one father, Israel, to one grandfather named "Laughter!"

You remember the story. I have talked about it many times. Abraham and Sarah had almost given up.
They knew their days were numbered, their time was almost up, yet they still believed in living fully --
and they still believed that they still could give love unconditionally (even to any stranger that came along in the desert), and that the key to full life was doing what God would have them do. In fact, that's why they were out on the desert that day in the first place.

They didn't know why, but they knew that God wanted them there and that they were destined for something great.

Abraham and Sarah were people of tremendous faith -- it is what kept them going for so long -- and they were also realists. They knew what time it was.

They knew their biological alarm clock had gone off some time ago. You could say, they were both well past their prime. Sarah was well past menopause -- and she laughed when she thought of her husband -- it had been a long time since he had shown any interest at all. In fact, she was sure he wasn't even capable of it -- any more than she was.

Well, they found out their God was great enough to produce life out of barrenness. When the child was born they called him Isaac -- which is literally the word for "Laughter" -- they named this kid "Laughter" -- because that was the key to finding new life -- even in old age.

Later we hear Jesus telling his disciples,
"These things I have spoken, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

And Paul wrote the words we heard today, "Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say rejoice!"

How important is laughter to us today? If you have not heard me talk about this before, you will be very surprised to learn that research among cancer patients in Pittsburgh and Britain have found that the primary factor in predicting survival and disease-free intervals of cancer patients is not what you might think -- it is not "a fighting spirit" as you may have heard from time to time -- it is not family history (whether or not your parents or other relatives may have had cancer or not) -- it is not diet -- no, and you who have been there listen carefully, the primary factor in predicting survival and disease-free intervals of cancer is a sense of joy.

A sense of joy -- an ability to laugh and a frequent exercise of that ability. A sense of joy was even a more powerful predictor of survival than the location of the cancer, or even the number of cancerous sites.

Incredible? Yes! But, this isn't really news to some of you, is it?

There is hard evidence now through several scientific studies that laughter works like a medicine on our systems. It exercises our lungs and stimulates our circulation. It actually improves muscle tone - researchers calculate that 100 laughs equals about 10 minutes on a rowing machine.

It takes our minds off our troubles and massages our emotions. Laughter decreases tension. It reduces stress by lowering levels of cortisol -- a stress hormone that can weaken the immune system.

When we laugh, a sort of temporary anesthesia is released within us that blocks the pain as our attention is diverted. Surgeons have actually been able to perform certain procedures pain-free with no other anesthesia after a patient throughly enjoys a few moments of laughter.

Research has shown that laughter actually stimulates the immune system in complex ways. Significant increases in interferon-gamma -- a hormone that fights viruses and regulates cell growth - are found in the systems of people 12 hours after watching a humorous video tape. Laughter is one of the healthiest exercises you can do. It literally brings healing -- healing to the body as well as the soul.

Some of us were put on to this healing power of laughter after reading about the remarkable experience of Norman Cousins. He was enduring incredible pain and was diagnosed with a rare and fatal disease wherein his body's collagen deteriorated.

Collagen is the fibrous material that literally holds the body's cells together. As Norman Cousins said, his body was "becoming unstuck." And there was no cure.

Well, his pain came in spells. And during one of these spells he accidentally stumbled onto something quite helpful. He started laughing at something his wife had said, and noticed that his pain subsided. He read what little literature there was at the time on the subject and devised a treatment plan for himself that called for laugh therapy. He would watch old, funny Marx Brothers movies, clips from the old Candid Camera TV show, and cartoons, and anything they could find that would make him laugh. He found that if he laughed hard for ten minutes straight, he would enjoy about two hours of relief from pain. In addition to the anesthesia effect, laughing encourages the body to produce endorphins -- chemical substances that help the body to heal. And, to the amazement of all the medical doctors, Norman Cousins recovered from his incurable illness -- completely, totally. Now, we are not talking about magic. We are not talking about some miraculous recovery. It is all scientific, laughter has these positive effects on the body. Norman Cousins devoted the rest of his life, some twenty years or so, to working with a Medical School enabling, and encouraging studies, and collecting scientific evidence that proved his personal experience -- conclusively proving that laughter has legitimate positive effects on the physical and mental health of a person.

Twenty five years ago, C.K. Chesterton wrote:
I am all in favor of Laughing. Laughter has something in it in common with the ancient winds of faith and inspiration; it unfreezes pride and unwinds secrecy; it makes [people] forget themselves in the presence of something greater than themselves; something (as the common phrase goes about a joke) that they cannot resist.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say rejoice! 
The prophet Nehimiah says, The joy of the Lord is your strength! 
Norman Vincent Peale writes that the Bible emphasizes these things, "because it is known that the best way to clear the cobwebs from the mind, to gain relief from pain, to get the blood circulating, and the heart acting properly, and to keep blood pressure normal -- is to get joy pulsing throughout the body.... 
He goes on: Joy is a lubricant for belief. It frees the mind and unlocks the muscles. It puts us into rhythm. A truly joyous person is in God's rhythm the same as the heavenly bodies are in God's rhythmic process....
Your internal system of blood and heart and organs constitute a rhythm. And rhythm is another word for harmony; and harmony is another word for joy. Therefore, when you are joyful, you are in rhythm." In step with the rhythm of the universe.

Rejoice, again I say rejoice! 
The joy of the Lord is your strength. 
Laughter and that feeling of joy, seems to affect the blood that flows to the arteries and veins. Joy appears to actually improve circulation. Joy steps the chemical activity of the human body and helps pale cells become deep red again.

It is true: Joy is a preventive against anemia.

One researcher writes: "It is amazing how many cases of illness are corrected, if not healed, by the simple application of joy. Anemia tends to be present where there is a shortage of happiness; high blood pressure is likely to appear where there is an overabundance of that which reduces happiness -- monotony, anger, worry...
A contributing cause of arteriosclereosis is the thinking of old...frustration thoughts [negative, defeatist thoughts]. A preventative [to arteriosclereosis], and often a help in a cure, is the inflow of new thoughts, [happy thoughts] especially light-bringing thoughts of peace, happiness and enthusiasm. Long-held hate thoughts, fear thoughts, unhappiness thoughts, and other negative thoughts tend to take the spring out of life." This researcher concludes: "To be healthy, it is advantageous to be religious, if the religion is love-related and happiness-related."

In the face of the absurdity of God's message to them, Abraham and Sarah both laughed. And they gave birth to a whole people -- a whole faith whose granddaddy is Laughter. So we, too, can face our life filled with joy and expectant hope. Friends, believe me, it's OK to laugh in the face of God. God is not offended. I think God enjoys laughing as much as we do. In fact, I am sure that God joins our laughter as we face our future with hope and faith like Abraham and Sarah.

Our Christian faith is clear, our Christ has said his whole purpose, his whole reason for being is that his joy might dwell in you, and that your joy may be full. Rejoice in the Lord always; and again, I say rejoice! The joy of the Lord is your strength!

Friends, laughter is good medicine. Let us face life with a smile on our lips and joy in our hearts. Knowing that with God all things are possible.

Amen.

How to Live Healthier and Longer:
Focus on Lively Virtues Worthy of Cultivation:
Find Out About The Power of Prayer
Find Out About The Power of Attitude
Find Out About The Power of Ritual
Find Out About The Power of Community
Find Out About The Power of Forgiveness
Find Out About The Power  of Transcendence
Find Out About The Power of Laughter

References:

Healing Words
by Larry Dossey