Letter #34: The Last Laugh

Our Haunted Shenanigans

Spong.

On my second date with your mother — when I was already pretty sure she was going to be your mother, though, of course, I had no idea you were going to be you — I said to her, “Listen, I ought to warn you. In any given situation, I’m going to say the funniest thing I can think of. If that’s going to offend you, you might want to get out now.” She said something like, “No, that’ll be fine.” And it was fine ever after.

Over time, in fact, I’ve come to believe a merry heart is holy. The Word has come down that the human tragedy is actually a divine comedy, so everything is funny except other people’s suffering.

We’ve been clowning around all week about the grim-faced Christian Judgment Brigade — and that’s all right with me. But since this is the last letter before our next essay arrives on Monday, I do want to acknowledge the serious dilemma haunting our shenanigans — the dilemma you hinted at when you said, quite wonderfully, “faith is so precious, its whispering voice so thin against the foghorns of the world.”

Recently, there was a meme flying about, a reworking of a 1922 cartoon called “The Descent of the Modernists.” It depicted a stairway leading down from Christianity to Atheism, and in this version, the first step of error was labeled “Paul isn’t Jesus.” I read that and thought, That’s wrong. Because Paul isn’t Jesus. How can the first step into heresy be the truth?

I’m not dismissing Paul in the least, just pointing out he has a different role to play than Christ himself. Jesus, as C. S. Lewis said, “died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.” But Paul is tasked with bringing men together in a church that will declare that happy news to the nations.

Therefore Jesus says, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” But Paul says, “Are you not to judge those inside [the church?] Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Paul, a man, can’t exercise God’s judgment. But he can protect the vessel that will carry God’s word to the world. He has to — because the world is always trying to remake that word in its own image.

Still, it’s a complicated business. When, for instance, progressives and conservatives read the story about the woman taken in adultery, progressives remember “I do not condemn you,” conservatives remember “Go and sin no more.” Only Christ can perfectly weave these threads into a single seamless garment that perhaps only Christ is fit to wear.

As for you and me, we’re not theologians or pastors, and definitely not saints. Our task is merely to seek the image of God within. We will sometimes err in that effort, no doubt. But speaking for myself, I would rather err on the side of merriment and love.

Yer Dad