Does God Laugh?

Does God laugh?

Did Jesus?

Should we?

Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century church leader, believed laughter to be an enemy of humanity.

Quoting Gregory on the subject…

“It is equivalent in meaning to ‘frenzy’ or ‘madness’; for what else would anyone properly call laughter. It is neither speech or activity directed to any end, but an unseemly loss of bodily control—convulsions in the breath, paroxysms of the whole body, distention of the cheeks, exposure of the teeth, gums and palate, bending of the neck, unpredictable weakness in the voice, punctuated by gasps of breath; what else could this be, but madness? That is why, to laughter I said, You are mad, you are beside yourself, you have gone beyond the limits of sanity, deliberately behaving in an unseemly way, and distorting your appearance with passion, without accomplishing anything useful by the distortion.”

Wow. Fun guy to hang out with.

Another early church leader, John Chrysostom, declared that Jesus never laughed.

Hmmm.

The Council of Constance in the 1400’s declared there would be a special place reserved in hell for ministers who spoke “words such as to provoke laughter.”

Yikes!

Basil the Great said, “Raucous laughter and uncontrollable shaking of the body are not indicative of a well regulated soul, or of personal dignity, or self-mastery.”

I’m guessing Basil the Great wasn’t great to be around.

Just recently, I read a perspective that would have caused Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, and John Chrysostom to start twitching…

“There really isn’t anything frivolous about having fun. Without fun, marriages don’t work. When jobs aren’t fun, they become intolerable and dehumanizing. When children aren’t fun, they’re heartbreaking. When a church is not fun, religion becomes a drag.”

So, what do you think?

Does God laugh?

Should we?

How about in church?