April Fools

a sermon by Reverend Lynn Thomas Strauss

Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville, April 2, 2006

Before I begin this sermon in earnest, I want to reassure visitors that we rarely have this much fun in church on Sundays. We do share an occasional laugh in the service, but the amount of laughter we’ve heard this morning is rare.

This is one reason I decided to craft a service on foolishness and fun. Because generally, we UU’s take ourselves very, very seriously. I have preached on very serious topics of late, and I plan to do so again very soon…but for today, I hope visitors and members and friends alike will join in the fun.

Laughter is good for body and soul. Laughter is a needed balance to the stress and crisis in the world today. Spirituality is about creating balance in our lives. All work and no play puts our spirit out of balance.

UU’s are well-known as searchers for truth, today I would also encourage the search for excitement, sillyness, and fun.

Seems there was a guy who saved for twenty years to buy his dream car. He finally shells out a fortune for a brand-new high-powered Lamborghini. Recognizing the deeply felt significance of realizing his lifelong dream, he drives over to a nearby Catholic church and knocks on the parsonage door. “Father, I was wondering whether you’d be willing to say a blessing on my Lamborghini.” “Certainly my son, replies the priest, but what’s a Lamborghini?” “Sorry to have troubled you father, I just have a feeling you’re not the right man for the job.”

So he drives to his local UU church and finds the minister. “I was wondering whether you would be willing to say a blessing on my Lamborghini?” “Certainly replies the UU minister, I’d love to have a car like that myself, but what’s a blessing?”

It’s strange that ministers are expected to be so serious and deep most of the time, because the job of ministry is actually pretty funny sometimes. Each week, I’m supposed to sit at my desk and write something meaningful.

You try it and you’ll see that it can be pretty funny.

So, I sit down, preferably with a cup of Starbucks coffee, and after I clear off my waiting email messages, trying to discern which ones are hidden “viagra” salespitches…

I get to work on the serious business of sermon writing.

Then the phone rings…and someone wants me to officiate at a wedding for someone who once drove by a UU church and felt a certain wholistic attraction and believes wholeheartedly that if I will put this wedding on my calendar for next Saturday, there’s a strong possibility, no almost a certainty, that this couple will become UU in the year 2010.

Well, getting back to the serious business of sermon writing.

What does the congregation need to hear this week?, I ask myself. What is happening in the life of the congregation that is challenging to the spirit? Where is God or the holy at work in the lives of our good people?

I always do a fair amount of research before I begin writing. So this week, I found out that some religions are better at play than we are. In Hindu creation mythology, the world was created as an act of play by God. They argue that since God is perfect already, nothing else is needed or desired. The only possible explanation for creation then, is divine playfulness.

The tradition of holy fools maintains that folly is a more reliable means to communion with God than piety…or perhaps that folly is its own form of piety.

Buddhism also teaches playfulness. How else can you move from the premise that life is suffering to the possibility of enlightenment? UU minister Forrester Church says that religion is our response to the reality of having to live with the knowledge that we will die.

This is the ambiguity, the existential reality of the human condition. We know the preciousness and delight of living and we know that we too will die. So why not laugh?

Remember the movie with Robin Williams about Patch Adams, the doctor, clown…he said…”wearing a rubber nose wherever I go has changed my life”.

Hmm, I wonder?

At this juncture, some UU ministers might pass out rubber noses, I’m sure Sue would have gone for it, but no I still think Sunday morning is a time for a serious message.

For good or ill, we are inheritors of a religious and philosophical tradition that does not value play. Some of us grew up with a fairly stern approach to righteousness that sometimes carried prohibitions against card-playing or dancing…and that stressed the value of hard work. We still live with the Protestant ethic. I know this because of how many of you turned out yesterday to help with pulling out the ivy and honeysuckle around the church property…I know this by how many take care of the kitchen and bring food for the potlucks, and meet time and again to plan RE opportunities for our kids.

And I must say that I am comfortable with much of the Protestant ethic, I wouldn’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water…

I’m just saying wearing a rubber nose once in a while might not be a bad idea.

The good news is that we can justify the need for play and fun. Countless studies will support us. Even spiritual teachings. In Buddhism there is a saying “always maintain only a joyful mind” (and when you’re down, watch American Idol or the George Mason Patriots play)

Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron describes what often happens to us. We hear this teaching, “always maintain a joyful mind,” and we work really hard at it, watch ourselves suspiciously, catching every instance of imperfection, judging our efforts harshly…when we are not joyful enough.

Chodron writes; “the key to feeling at home with your body, mind, and emotions, to feeling worthy to live on this planet, comes from being able to lighten up. This earnestness, this seriousness about everything in our lives, including spiritual practice-this goal-oriented, we’re going to do it or else attitude, is the world’s greatest killjoy. There’s no sense of appreciation because we’re so solemn about everything.”

“Did you hear what the UU studying Zen meditation said to the hot dog vendor? “Make me one with everything”

Recently I heard a UU minister bemoan the fact that UU jokes are made by popular radio and television programs. “Why is everyone laughing at us? Seemed to be the question. The most well-known jokes about us are of course, are the references made by Garrison Keeler on Prairie Home Companion. Now how many of you think Keeler is not a UU himself? How many of you think he is a UU? I find we are pretty evenly divided on this question.

In the past few weeks, John Colbert, also made jokes at the expense of Unitarians on his Colbert Report. I missed that show, but I’d love to hear about it if any of you saw it. And of course, the Simpsons have also poked fun at us. Now that’s pretty good coverage, I think.

And perhaps we should take the hint and laugh more at ourselves.

Even our UUA President, the Reverend Bill Sinkford has called for us to accept the fact that only a fool would choose such a challenging religion as Unitarian Universalism.

A young Unitarian was visiting a Christian church when the pastor asked if she was saved. She whispered, “In my church, we aren’t allowed to get lost.”

The UUA has done some polling about our growth and influence. You might be surprised to know that statistics show that by the year 2012, just 6 years from now, 33% of all Protestants and 49% of all Catholics will be Unitarian Universalists. There will be a Green Party, A Women’s Party, and a Rainbow Coalition candidate on the ballot in every national election. The national budget will reflect a greater commitment to reducing poverty than increasing defense, and a Unitarian Universalist will be elected vice-president. Rev. Sinkford is confident that we will have billboard messages in all major cities in the US and Canada. If you have an idea for a billboard message, be sure and send it to him.

What do we need to do to put more fun and play in our lives? Let me count the ways. Dance more often, tell more jokes, sit down once a week and try to write something serious, hang out with teenagers (if they’ll let you) call your brother or sister more often and share childhood memories….wear a rubber nose, dye your hair, use your imagination more creatively, get a tattoo, choose weird friends, learn to meditate.

What’s been working for me lately is babysitting. My grandson, Noah is an adorable 9 month old. One day a week, I do nothing but play. I play peek-a-boo, “so big”, patty cake, I read books about colors and vegetables, and patting bunnies, I sit on the porch and rock…I push the stroller to the park and teach Noah how to go down the slide backward…

It’s the most fun I’ve had in years.

But we’re not all lucky enough to have babies in our lives…so we have to create our own fun and sillyness…find our own ways to take ourselves lightly…

One of our UU humorists is the writer Robert Fulghum, author of “Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten, and It was on Fire when I lay Down on it”. He offers this good idea for putting more fun in everyday life.

Having had too many too long airplane trips and boring conversations with seat mates, he once sat down next to a stranger and proposed a game. Just for the fun of it, Fulghum suggested, “Lets each of us make up an occupation and pretend to be that for the whole of the trip. His seatmate agreed and declared he was a spy and Fulghum decided to be a nun. It was one of the great conversations of his life, and he couldn’t wait until he got home and his wife asked him…”how was your flight, dear?”

So, I wish for you, for all of us, more times for play…more laughter, more sillyness. I thank Sue, and Herb and Noah and my brother, Lon, all those who bring more fun into my life. I wish for this congregation a continued light hearted spirit…a long appreciation of play and joyfulness. I hope for more celebrations, more church retreats, more children to show us how to play, how to move with abandon, how to come alive through play and laughter.

I want a religion that encourages us not to be just smart and effective and productive, but to be fully human, sometimes, I want us to laugh ourselves silly.

Oh, by the way, about that UUA poll, those statistics about the future of Unitarian Universalism and our influence on the Green party and women’s party and all those UU continental billboards…Not true, not yet, anyway!

And a final joke…

“Honey, it’s time to get up and get dressed for church!” I don’t want to go to church. I don’t think the people like me and I don’t like them. Give me two reasons why I should go to church today.” Well, one, it’s good for you, and two, you’re the minister!”

Go forth and Play!
Amen