Im going to reveal something very personal about myself this morning. When I was a child, one of my favorite programs was Hee Haw. Some of you may remember that show. It had a lot of bluegrass and country music. It had a lot of folks laying around in the hay, thinking about going down to the corner of town to watch the stop light turn green. It had other characters…I wont get into that.

Hee Haw also had Grady Nutt. Grady was a baptist preacher, a comedian, and he came to be known as the "prime minister of humor". I met Grady Nutt as a seminary student. Tragically, he died in the early 80s, in an airplane crash. Grady Nutt had a saying, "Laughter is the hand of God on the shoulder of a troubled world".

Thats where I want to start this morning, as we focus on Gods gift of joy, on this third Sunday of Advent. Laughter is the hand of God on the shoulder of a troubled world. Laughter is a gift of God, a gift that we need in these days, in these holidays, where all is not calm and all is not bright. The writer of the Proverbs knew about this gift and our need for it: A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17. 22).There is something about humor that brings us to life, and thats the thrust of the teaching of the prophet Isaiah. The desert shall rejoice and blossom

And sorrow and sighing shall flee awayCenturies later Jesus gathered some of his disciples and reassured them:Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

We all need something that brings us to life, like a desert rejoicing and blossoming.

Have you heard any good jokes lately? Just that comment is enough to bring us out of the doldrums, to lift our spirits, to fill us with anticipation. I heard a good one when Danny Morris was here, last winter. Its one of my favorites.

It is about a cantankerous, crabby old man. His neighbors avoided him. His four boys moved away from home as soon as they could. You get the picture. His poor wife was long suffering in her presence.

One night he went to bed and just slipped away.

His four boys were called in. "He was hard to live around, and no one could get along with him, but he was our pa. We owe him a decent burial, out in the meadow beyond the field."

They went out to the barn and found some boards and made a casket. They put the box on their shoulders and carried it out past the barn. As they passed through the gate, one of the boys bumped into the post and this caused them to drop the box. The casket broke open and the cantankerous, crabby old man sat straight up.

He had only been in a very deep…. sleep!

Life got back to normal. He lived two more years, just as ornery and mean as ever. The boys could go back to their homes, but his poor wife had to stay with him.

Then one night he went to bed and just slipped away.

His four boys were called in. "He was hard to live around, and no one could get along with him, but he was our pa. We owe him a decent burial, out in the meadow beyond the field."

They went out to the barn and found some boards and made a casket, and put the old man in it. They put the box on their shoulders and started out of the house. The old mans wife said, "Boys, when you get out by the barn&be careful going through that gate."

We need humor, we need joy in our lives. It s like the hand of God on the shoulder of a troubled world. It is like the desert rejoicing and blossoming. It is in the midst of laughter that sorrow and sighing flee away. The message of the prophet Isaiah is so relevant for us because it acknowledges the pain and the loss and the devastation the people had been through, and at the same time it points to something beyond the present.

Near the end of his life Jesus gathered his disciples and said to them, "you will weep and mourn, you will have pain, but your pain will be turned to joy. No one will take your joy from you…In the world you will have persecution". And then, he says, in the King James version, "Be of good cheer. For I have overcome the world". (John 16. 20, 33)

I like the words of Jim Harnish, a Methodist pastor in Tampa, Florida:

"The resonant laughter echoing from heaven is not cheap, shallowy, watery frivolity; it is rich, deep, vivid joy. It is gladness that comes from the same place as suffering; joy that comes from the same place as tears. It is the joy of men and women who face the suffering, injustice and pain of the world in all its fury, but have taken hold of something stronger, deeper and more powerful. They have grasped the assurance of the ultimate triumph of the goodness of God. They are of good cheer because they know that the power of God in Jesus Christ has overcome the world".

We believe in the ultimate triumph of the goodness of God. And as we listen to Handels Messiah this morning, and as we hear the lessons from scripture this afternoon, we will be reminded of the comfort of God, the trustworthiness of God, the providence of God, and yes, the ultimate triumph of God.

That is why we love the "Hallelujah Chorus". We rejoice, we laugh, even in the midst of pain and loss and devastation, we hear the deep resonant laughter of God, and we trust have a foretaste of a kingdom that will have no end, whose head is the Prince of Peace.

Sources:  Danny Morris, Spirits Laughing; James Harnish, Men at Mid-Life: Steering Through the Detours; for quote by Grady Nutt see Speedbumps, a newsletter about humor (for more information go to speedbumps@aol.com).