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A Divine Gift

Tuesday March 6 2018

The Very Rev Dr James Simpson reflects on the benefits of humour.

One Monday as I was packing my golf clubs into the car, a lady member of my Dornoch congregation said, as she passed: “I am glad to see you are going away to enjoy yourself on the golf-course, for you ministers cannot have much enjoyment.”

Had she seen the way I played that morning, the drives I mishit, the putts
 I missed, she might well have concluded 
I knew no joy in life whatsoever. How wrong she would have been. Though the ministry has its serious side, it fortunately also has its lighter side, plenty of sunshine, joy and humour, plenty of opportunity to exercise our ‘chuckle muscles’.

David Kossoff once wrote a piece about humour in the form of a prayer.

Lord I want to be serious about being funny.
Humour Lord, the sense of humour

Not included in the five senses census
(Play on words Lord, ignore it)

The other five senses are but the servants
Of the overlooked one!

A touch of heavenly genius Lord.

I would agree with Kossoff. Humour is a divine gift.

Humour and laughter, like faith, can help us transcend life’s heartbreaks and jumbled contradictions. Adversity being present in the world, I wonder if God sought to balance things out by giving us a sense of humour, the ability to perceive and appreciate the incongruous in life. I sometimes think of laughter as God’s hand on the shoulder of a troubled world.
 I honestly don’t think I could have survived in the ministry for forty years if I had not had a sense of humour, the ability to laugh at my own foibles and pretensions, and more quietly at other people’s foibles and pretensions.

As an old preacher once said, “If you could just sit on the wall and see yourself pass by, you would die laughing at the sight.”

I am sorry that sense of humour and common sense were not listed with the other five senses, for both these overlooked senses provide perspective.

Many years ago I was asked to give the annual lecture in honour of Professor William Barclay. Recalling his lively sense of humour, I decided to entitle the lecture “The Laugh Shall be First”. As I prepared, I could almost feel John Calvin breathing down my neck saying: “You ought to use this special occasion to speak about more weighty matters than laughter and humour.” But I have no regrets. Life for me is a blend of seriousness and humour, sense and nonsense, sacred moments and comic interludes.

During the seventh grinding week of the peace negotiations that finally led up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Senator George Mitchell, the American mediator, who was commuting weekly between Ireland and America, one Monday surprised those present, by saying, “This morning I want us to talk to each other about things other than politics. Over a cup of coffee, let us see if we can just have a good time together.” The conversation turned to fishing, family, sports, and the weather.

When someone mentioned opera, Senator Mitchell interjected. “I love listening to opera. When I return to America and put on La Boheme, I know Rodolfo is going to sing the same words every time. That prepares me for my return to Belfast, because the one thing I know is that I’m going to sit here and listen to you guys saying the same thing over and over again.” The representatives on both sides actually laughed. That light-hearted remark helped break the deadlock between long-time antagonists.

To help commissioners distinguish between ministers and elders present at the General Assembly, an elder once proposed that the ministers present should all wear clerical collars. The motion resulted in a very heated debate. A humorous remark by another commissioner finally eased the tension “Can I suggest that a good way to distinguish the elders from ministers, is to note who pays for the coffees at the coffee breaks. It is almost always the elders!”

In church life as well as political life,
 a light-hearted remark often achieves far more than criticism. We rightly speak of a saving sense of humour.

The Very Rev Dr James Simpson's books are published by Steve Savage Publishers