Who are you and what have you done with my neighbor?

Quite a while ago, our neighbors said that they were going to drop into the parish I served to see what it was like.  We had known and come to love these neighbors as dear friends but it was a very different context than in worship.  Furthermore, they were already Christians and attended church regularly.  So it was a surprise when they did just what they said they would.  They showed up in my parish all cleaned up and wearing their Sunday best.  After the service I greeted them and got an odd question.  Who are you and what have you done with my neighbor?

We were neighbors.  We joked around and laughed a lot.  But on Sunday morning she did not see even a hint of this Larry Peters and saw someone very different.  The difference was the context.  In our back yards there could be and should be laughter and fun but in God's House it is serious business.  The pulpit is a place of serious business.  The altar is a place of serious business.  The rail is a place of serious business.  We do not make light of nor do we joke about the things of God.  This is an affront to God but even more so it is an arrogant presumption on our part.

Increasingly, pastors are being pushed into the roles of entertainer and MC and the things of God are rendered into amusements.  It is a sad state of affairs but it is getting worse.  Even when some wear vestments, they cannot resist deviating from the script to make a joke about something.  I was at a Eucharist for a District Convention once and the people instinctively stood for the Gospel but the pastor presiding at the service turned it into an occasion to laugh.  "Did I tell you to stand?"  he asked.  So we sat down.  Then he motioned us to rise and we all did.  Then he motioned us to sit and we all did.  Then he had us stand and sit as if it were a joke all the way around.  At that my lay delegate sitting next to me asked if we could just leave.  He was embarrassed.  He was also correct.  Nobody gains anything by making the things of God a joke or taking worship to be anything less than serious.  That is the root problem also of closed communion -- we do not take it seriously so it does not matter who communes.  Think about the serious promises made by parents when bringing their sons and daughters to baptism.  This is not a joke but serious business.

Because we are uncomfortable with the serious business of God's House, we nervously try to turn it into a joke that excuses our awkwardness and justifies our failing to stick to the script.  When we do this, we are telling people a lie -- that none of this is important, that none of this matters all that much, and that none of this is serious.  Could you imagine the mighty prophets of old trying to gain an audience with people and to win over their ears by turning This saith the Lord into a punch line?  Stop it.  Don't do it.  Save it for the Fellowship Hall.  Don't ruin the Divine Service.  Say the black and do the red.  Really.