What’s So Funny?

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Eschatology Today ThreeOne of the most memorable homiletic “maxims” I learned in Bible College was, “If you’re going to tell people the truth, make them laugh, lest they turn and tear you to pieces.”  There is a place for humor in the pulpit, because once we start taking our place too seriously, we become boring, and even legalistic. Some pastors and teachers I’ve sat under over the past 35 years have taken our need to laugh to boring extremes by opening every sermon with a looked up preacher joke.  Some can be funny, but they usually sound canned. I’ve always considered humor a big part of my lifestyle, growing up on witty Cold war era satire   A little self- depravation is always good for the soul, I think. And  finding humor in life’s daily events can come natural, though I haven’t been able to share much of it on the job, working for a command group in the U.S. Army over the past number of years. Changing the name of my site from Eschatolotgy Today to Apocalypse (and other stuff) Now! was a move I made a few years ago to edge closer to humor. I actually lost Eschatology Today to an untended hack job my former webmaster allowed through  neglect. When forced to change, my humor found itself into our new masthead, Apocalypse (and other stuff) Now! You need a little American cinema culture and satire to get it.  I rewrote a few of the site’s teaching articles to reflect a bit more humor, though after awhile I sensed certain areas where humor spoke best and others where to leave it out. Bible prophecy is a serious subject, so I’ve found “other stuff” areas to write for laughs.  Three articles I post perennial on the site provide an opportunityShazbatz to laugh. The one I just ran as the front page feature, Shatzbatz Benai and the Quest of the Windy Dune, actually came to me in a dream while working as editorial development manager for Albury Publishing. I wrote it out over the next half year, embellishing what I saw in the dream. It has to do with spiritual direction, and the pitfalls we all experience when getting our eyes off God’s bouncing ball. The Semetic tone was in the dream. Pulpit Vacancy at Menlo Park was birthed out of simple experiences in the charismatic church. Nothing like that ever happened around me while pastoring and serving, but the potential from some of the hovercraft I’ve known over the years, birthed the joke out. Reverend Dimwitty has been a favorite character of mine over the past 20 years simply by reason of what can be seen on occasion when watching Christian TV.  In the right company, I give him hay seed voice. I plan on writing more humor in the near future, if for no other reason, it nurtures my soul. Yours too, I hope.

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