Soaked in the Sacred

 

Yesterday, I shared an insight from Luis Alberto Urrea.  There is wisdom he shares with students in his writing class. “I always tell the students that laughter is the virus that infects you with humanity. And if you sit with somebody and laugh — not at them, but laugh with them wholeheartedly — how in the world can you get up from that table and say, Pssh, those people. You can’t. And if you’ve laughed with them, you’re going to cry with them, too. That laughter is a very dangerous portal for humanity.”

 

I am reminded of the line from the hymn, Won’t You Let Me Be Your Servant, “When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you.  I will share your joy and sorrow, till we’ve seen this journey though.” 

 

Who did you laugh with in July?  Note Urrea’s important distinction to laugh with rather than at?  This isn’t pulling someone or some group down to prop yourself up.  Too often this is the rhetoric of jeering and mocking and name calling that we hear all around us.  We are infected with a virus of anger that turns us toward hatred rather than humanity.  Urrea asks us to find another way.  This is the way of courage and conviction.  This is a way of Christ who did not mock the lame, he saw each person as a beloved of God.  This is the way of Christ who told Parables about stopping to tend for others, especially people who might be considered our enemies (The Good Samaritan).  This is the way of Christ who refused to refute or seek revenge when falsely accused by others.  And it is a lot easier to believe in or about Christ than live a Christ-shaped/soaked life.  We are quick to shout, “Amen” in church to such ideas of love and service, but out in the world, where others are watching and judging, we abandon such thoughts as fairy-tale-thinking. 

 

Today, I invite you to find your humanity through laughter, through sharing tears, through letting loose your light to connect to another’s light in ways that make a difference to you, others, and sends ripples out into the world.  Amen.