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Good morning to you. A couple of weeks ago I was doing fairly odd things at a Palm Sunday service in a French village church. This is a church which is usually quite full, but on that particular Sunday it’s always hectic. Parking anywhere near is impossible, and if you want a seat you need to be quarter of an hour early. It’s standing room only after that. Making their way to the church, there are elderly people with walking sticks, and families with children, all carrying improbably large quantities of greenery. Mostly it’s branches hacked off the olive trees which grow in everyone’s garden. Some people bring the rather rarer palm fronds. Anyway, as we sang interminable ‘Hosannas’, this normally straight-faced congregation waved the greenery above their heads as the priest showered them with a watery blessing, and later again as the gospel story was read.
To be honest, I felt a bit ridiculous! And as I looked around, I confess I thought everyone else looked pretty silly as well! But afterwards, it made me reflect that a bit of relaxed humour in the presence of God is definitely a Good Thing. Being straight-faced and mostly straight-laced is missing out on some important aspects of our humanity. There’s nothing wrong with seriousness, solemnity, worshipful silent devotion, but if we are responding with our whole beings to a sense that we are created by the God of love, then leaving out our laughter and our ability to be ridiculous is putting religion into a boring, God-limiting box.
Let’s face it, whether or not we are people of faith, we can all rejoice in a bit of silliness and gentle humour. My prayer today: may God smile on us as we share a smile with others. Amen.