by Pastor Laura Gentry
As you may know, I went to Clown Camp in LaCrosse last week. There, I was immersed in a culture of clowning that I previously knew little about. Now if I were not a laughter therapist, you would probably be saying to yourself: “What business does a pastor have being at Clown Camp?”
And that’s what I’d like to talk to you about today. What place DOES a clown have in the life of a Christian community? I mean, we come here to worship in a way that is done in “decency and order,” as Martin Luther would say. We want to be respectful to God and show our thanks and praise in a dignified manner because, after all, we are good Christians. That’s why we’re at church, isn’t it? We strive to follow the Ten Commandments and serve God with our whole lives. And we look really good, too. We certainly wouldn’t want to look foolish like a silly old clown.
But are we not fools already? If we’re honest with ourselves, our Christian piety is just a mask for our own shortcomings. At our core, the Bible says, we are sinful and unclean. So I’m going to do a demonstration for you about the foolishness of each one of us. (puts on cap and sets up make up table)
EYES
First of all, why would we want to put clown make up on our eyes. Our eyes are serious. They are pure and holy. Are they?
Jesus didn’t think so. (begins painting clown face on eyes) When he witnessed the behavior of the people, he said:
“For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.”
(Matthew 13:15)
Even with Jesus offering healing, their eyes were foolish and shut to the needs of others. Are not our eyes so foolish? We pass opportunities to help others nearly every day. How foolish.
Jesus also said:
Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. (Luke 11.34)
He used the term darkness to describe the sense of being lost and without direction. We have eyes and yet we too, end up wandering through life without the direction of faith.
Oh, and our eyes get us into trouble because of our judgmental nature. Jesus chastised his followers by saying:
Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor,* “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? (Matthew 7.3-4)
Why not just admit our eyes are quite foolish and unholy? A fool can admit his eyes are up to no good.
MOUTH
And why would we want silly clown paint on our mouths? Our mouths are pure. We sing God’s praises each Sunday. We profess our faith with our lips, reciting the Apostle’s Creed week after week. We speak to God in prayer. Why wouldn’t our mouths be holy? Are they?
Jesus didn’t think so. (begins painting clown face on mouth) In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was so angry he said:
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. ( Matthew 12.34)
Our mouths might have good intention but they speak evil—so much so that Jesus said this behavior was like a brood of vipers!
And when the disciples were getting their undies in a bundle about people not following the proper religious practices about cleaning their hands before eating, Jesus reminded them that:
It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.’ (Matthew 15.11)
In the book of James, there are many bad things said about our tongues. Take this passage, for example:
If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. (James 1.26)
Yes, if we take a hard look at ourselves, we must admit our tongues aren’t as controlled as they need to be and our mouths defile. We might as well be wearing foolish clown mouths, for that’s what Christ reveals.
NOSE
And what about our noses? Clowns are famous for their wacky red noses. How silly and undignified. Our noses are serious and wonderful. Are they? (begins attaching clown nose)
We tend to stick our serious and wonderful noses into the air as if we are better than other people. We can be so snooty that it is a stumbling block.
In Romans, Paul said not to:
“...think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Romans 12.3)
How come he knew that we are so prone to turning up our noses at other people and thinking ourselves more highly than we ought? Our noses are just as foolish as any red-nosed clown. Let’s just admit it.
HEAD
Okay, so maybe our faces aren’t so perfect and we’re on the foolish order, but who wants a big old clown wig? That’s just a bit too much. Our heads are far too dignified to be covered by such ridiculousness. Are they?
In Matthew, we read this:
But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? (Matthew 9.4)
Our heads are filled with wrong thoughts. Indeed, our heads are also foolish and may as well be covered in a foolish, rainbow wig.
And perhaps even a silly hat.
In a letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul summed up this reality. He wrote:
Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. (1 Corinthians 3.18)
He wanted them to take themselves less seriously. We are NOT wise, we are NOT holy. We are in great need of help! We must cling to Christ with all that is in us, admitting our foolish nature and not thinking we can impress God on our own. We’re as goofy as a clown. (takes off alb to reveal a whole clown outfit)
Paul strongly advocated this and often called himself a fool. He proclaimed:
We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. (1 Corinthians 4.10)
Clowns, you see, can be profound teachers because they remind us of who we really are. We are nothing but fools. We might think otherwise, but the clown hold a mirror up to us and show us how we are fools. Our eyes and foolish. Our mouths are foolish. Even our noses are foolish. And our heads are most definitely foolish. We have no holiness in us. And so we must learn to laugh at ourselves. (points to self and laughs hysterically)
But the great news is that in Christ, we are redeemed. In our Epistle lesson for today, Paul writes:
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (II Corinthians 5:17) We are brand new! We are free to be the clowns we really are! We are free to admit our incompetence. We are free to try and to fail and know we’ll get picked up again. We can dance and sing and be silly because we have been saved by the King of Kings—or perhaps we could even call him the Clown of Clowns. That’s what I learned at Clown Camp.
Now that I’m all dressed as a clown, I’m going to have to stay this way for the remainder of the worship service. Many forms of clown ministry have been developed all over the world and sometimes, entire worship services are facilitated by a gaggle of clowns. Go ahead and giggle at me if you feel like it but remember that you are just as silly as I am dressed like this. You and I both need Christ because without him, we are just bumbling fools.
And now I will close with the clown’s prayer:
As I stumble through this life,
help me to create more laughter than tears,
dispense more cheer than gloom,
spread more cheer than despair.
Never let me become so indifferent,
that I will fail to see the wonders in the eyes of a child,
or the twinkle in the eyes of the aged.
Never let me forget that my total effort is to cheer people,
make them happy, and forget momentarily,
all the unpleasantness in their lives.
And in my final moment,
may I hear You whisper:
“When you made My people smile,
you made Me smile.”
Amen
Here I am with some of the children and youth.
Here I am in a post-worship nursing home visit.
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