For centuries, Christians have celebrated the Easter season with jokes and laughter. The resurrection is viewed as God’s ultimate practical joke on Satan. Therefore, we’ll once again celebrate Holy Humor Sunday on April 14th. The story below serves two purposes. First, its humor promotes our upcoming Holy Humor worship service. But also, it is a humorous way to remind us of the necessity of our financial stewardship in order for the church to continue do the transformational ministry work that we do in Jesus’ name. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Comedian Flip Wilson plays the character Brother Leroy in a skit. It came time to receive the offering and Brother Leroy passed the collection plates. They came back empty, so he passed them again. They came back empty a 2nd time. Brother Leroy said, “Now I know that you all want this church to progress and do the work of Jesus in the community.” But there was no response. So, Brother Leroy shouted a little louder, “Now, before the church can progress it has to crawl!” The congregation started getting excited and shouted back, “Make it crawl Reverend! Make it crawl!” Then, Brother Leroy said, “After the church has crawled it can start to walk!” The congregation yelled back with excitement, “Make it walk Reverend! Make it walk!” “And after this church has walked,” Brother Leroy continued, “This church has got to run!” At this point the congregation was in a frenzy and hollered back, “Make it run Reverend! Make it run!” Then, Brother Leroy said, “Now sisters and brothers, in order for this church to run, its gonna need money, it takes money in order to run and do the work of Jesus in the community.” And the people yelled back, “Let it crawl Reverend! Let it crawl!” “There’s a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens…a time for laughing…and a time for dancing” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4b and 4d, CEV). Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

–Pastor Brad