November 15, 2009
Rev. Linda Fernandes-Bailey

Fun and Faith

The last church that I served I was a Christian Educator in charge of the Sunday School program. It was a church that had a center isle and then steps leading to the altar. So, when the children would come up for the children’s message we would sit on the stairs together and when the message was over they would run down the center isle excited to get to Sunday School. Well, one day someone in the congregation approached me and said “Linda do the children have to run and make so much noise on the way to Sunday School?”  And so I said “Well scripture does say “Make a joyful noise to the Lord” “Yeah but doesn’t that mean singing hymns?” she asked “Well, if  hymns don’t make you feel joyful…then no…and shouldn’t we be glad the children are excited to run off to Sunday School?”

The encounter made me think that we take church and faith and God and religion too serious! Is there a connection between fun and faith?? Well this is what I’ve been pondering this week!

So, most Monday’s I take a walk in the woods with a friend of mine… A very serious friend. We tend to have deep and meaningful conversation while we walk. We talk about faith, God, church, our families…the things that are causing us angst. We stop and sit for a period of meditation. It’s all very serious. One day though we somehow got on the subject of FUN. AND of course began to have a SERIOUS conversation about FUN! What exactly is FUN we wondered….Are we having any? I want more I said! Doesn’t fun include lots of laughing? My friend wondered “Do people just get together and laugh…I mean what are they laughing about?” she wondered. “Well I think I wrote a list of what I thought was FUN in my journal…I wrote things like reading, hiking…they’re fun to me.” I said. “Reading…is reading fun?.” my friend wondered. “Well, it is for me!” I said. We don’t all have the same definition of fun do we?

So, when I went home that day I continued to think about FUN…started to wonder about FUN and FAITH and what that connection might be. HMMMM… Let me look up FUN in the dictionary I thought….Realizing WOW I must be in a bad place if I need to look up FUN in the dictionary! Shouldn’t I be able to just have FUN.  But it’s true I can be quite a serious person. I often wake up talking about things like world hunger, healthcare reform, war and justice you name it…Jim is in the bathroom getting ready for work when I bust in full of conversation…he looks at his watch blurry eyed and says “Linda it’s 7am do we really need to talk about this now?” So I needed a little help from the dictionary!!!

 The dictionary says Fun is light hearted pleasure, enjoyment, playful behavior. Stuart Brown (I’ll say more about him in a minute) says play is spontaneously done for its own sake…play has no purpose. What struck me immediately were the words lighthearted and purposeless. Yes, you heard that right NO PURPOSE. But wait what about living a Purpose driven life?  I don’t know about you but I know that when I am stressed and anxious I feel it in my chest. My chest begins to feel HEAVY and tight so the idea of being light hearted is very appealing to me I could almost feel the physical relief just thinking about it.

 I began to take this idea of FUN and play quite serious….LOL.

Now mind you I am not quite as crazy as you may think…at least not on this one because when I started doing a little research there are a lot of books and thoughts out there on the importance of play….(I think it’s fair to say we can use play and fun interchangeably). Many books address concern about the lack of play in our lives.  Even in the lives of children spontaneous play is in jeopardy as we schedule all their time and focus on achievement and accomplishments. We fear for their safety so most children don’t romp around in the woods the way they used…most of their time is scheduled and directed and this concerns those who take play serious. So now, there are books on being a playful parent and creating space for kids to do nothing and just play for the sake of play itself! In addition there were many books to encourage adults to make play an important part of their lives, including a website called “The Society of childlike grown-ups”. They describe themselves as a loose knit association of people around the world who are dedicated to becoming more playful, light hearted, creative, optimistic, and filled with wonder, exuberance, spirit of adventure and other qualities so often seen and admired in children. No dues…no forms…no meetings!!!

I love this! Some people are clearly on a mission to help people like me to lighten up!!!  Must be answering a call from God don’t ya think?

Stuart Brown is a doctor who was a workaholic for most of his career until he began to study play…that right, he’s a psychiatrist who went into the research field studying play. He has discovered some interesting things . Interestingly, he was in his sixties he began to embrace this idea of PLAY and now calls himself a student of play. Anyway, his research has found that people who play are healthier individuals who more easily adapt to life.  Play equips us to deal with life and actually makes us more resilient he claims. Conversely, those who are play deprived can become fixed and ridged, they don’t seek out novelty or newness, they lack adaptability and are more prone to depression. I found this fascinating! He even endorsed reading as play! AND he says during play we catch a glimpse of the DIVINE. According to Brown what connects play with Spirit is the timelessness of it…it’s outside of time. You know the feeling when you lose yourself in an activity or listening to music or whatever it is that is FUN for you suddenly you lose track of time. I think that’s how we connect to our spirit…to God…it’s that sense of timelessness…when we are not self oriented…or self conscious…we are lost in the moment…there is a spirit-filled sense about it. That’s the connection between FUN and FAITH.

Fun and faith are connected because we are created to play…to laugh…to enjoy life. I don’t think God wants us to be serious and driven all the time. It’s just not good for our soul.  Today’s scripture lesson from Matthew’s gospel tells us the children come to Jesus and the disciples “speak sternly to those who brought them.” And of course those who brought the children brought them so Jesus can bless them and pray with them. This is all very serious business. Well, I started to see the story in a different way.  I mean you can imagine the scene right? The disciples say “Get those kids out of here Jesus is about serious stuff…he’s teaching and preaching and healing people…those kids are too noisy…too playful.” And Jesus says “Wait a minute…bring the kids to me…I want to have some FUN I want to laugh and be playful…you disciples are way too serious!’ The kingdom of God is fun…lighten up…be like the children if you want to be part of it!

This is why I love this picture of Jesus laughing…too often our image of Jesus is so serious. But Jesus liked to have fun that’s why he attended so many dinner parties don’t you think? Think about it…the gospels often portray Jesus with friends and strangers sharing a meal. Do we picture these meals as serious too? We all know when we gather at table with friends and people we have just met there is usually fun and laughter!  The religious authorities questioned Jesus’ behavior, they called him a drunkard and a glutton because apparently his style of ministry was too much fun…faith is a serious matter! But Jesus shows us it’s both!  Yes it’s serious BUT we can’t dismiss the importance of Fun as we live as people of faith.

Somehow, when we come to adulthood we quickly lose our sense of play…of fun…of spontaneous moments of laughter when there is no purpose what so ever except to enjoy life. It’s hard being an adult and life weighs heavy on our souls. These are serious times we live in the economy worries us, wars frighten us, uncertainty causes us much anxiety, there is division everywhere…our families are falling apart, the list of concerns and worries are endless. We live in a culture now obsessed with busy-ness…scheduling every minute of everyday…purpose filled living.

So, it seems to me that Fun is the healing balm we need in these difficult times. We can’t wait until things calm down…We need to create a space for fun. Now I don’t mean schedule fun into our lives but find a way to live more spacious lives so that fun is spontaneous and natural…not planned and orderly. FUN is the very thing we need in the midst of chaos to remind us of the beauty of life and creation…to remind us our God is an awesome God and everyday is a gift.

Even people with religious callings are taking fun seriously! Brother Craig’s call is humor ministry I’d like to close with his words from Jennifer Leigh Selig’s book Thinking Outside the Church. 

He says: “When I started doing humor ministry a reporter asked me why I was doing this. I told him the truth. God wants us to lighten up. God wants us to be joyful, cheerful, and happy. God is loving and merciful and God wants what’s best for us…joy, cheerfulness, and happiness are best. God loves us. God wants our lives free of stress, tension, and anxiety. So, I guess I’m a monk with a mission…I’ll pray that people will lighten up, that they’ll laugh more, that they’ll give humor a more important place in their lives. These are my prayers. Of course, I pray cheerfully and laugh a little while I’m praying”  AMEN