A Laugh
Are limericks suited to Lent?
Yes indeed, in both form and intent:
They’re a well-designed ploy
To bring insight and joy
With a final, uplifting event.
That’s not bad, methinks; it comes from a book by Christopher Brunelle (The Church Year in Limericks), via a column by Peter Marty in the Christian Century, passed on to me by an old friend over brunch.
A perfect limerick has 39 syllables, so it’s nearly the length of Lent. And the twist at the end—the witty revelation in the final line—brings a smile that is a smallish anticipation of the greatest plot twist of all.
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It seems right to say that God enjoys creation. Of course, we have no way of understanding what it means to be God (we can really understand only what God is not). Still it is clear that he did not have to create anything. Robert Farrar Capon, in his theological essay disguised as a cookbook, The Supper of the Lamb, says that the universe is like an orange peeling hanging on a chandelier in God’s kitchen. It doesn’t do anything for the kitchen; God just likes it.
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Did Jesus enjoy being human? Here we are on solid ground, and can unambiguously say yes. The Father willed for the Son to be incarnate; the Son in perfect obedience became human in the fullest sense. Being free of sin, there would be the complete awareness of integral being. He also suffered, to be sure, not only in his own flesh, but also in his love for others who endured possession, disease, and the consequences of human wickedness.
But the greater reality is, I think, the joy. Chesterton asks why Jesus had to go off alone to pray. He thinks it was in happiness: that he needed to share with his Father the sheer laughter of life. (And he went off alone because we, in our sinful state, are not ready to see the joy of God or the joy of perfect humanity.)
So in the meantime we have hints. We have, for instance, limericks.
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Out & about. Sunday, March 18, I am to preach at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, 5100 Ross Ave., Dallas. At 9:30 I will teach on the deadly sin of pride. If you’ve been wondering what pride is, I hope you’ll come join me.
On Wednesday, March 21, I will speak on “The Resurrected Friend” at St. Matthew’s at 7 p.m. You may come then, or earlier (6:30) for soup and salad (no reservation needed), or earlier still (6 p.m.) for Stations of the Cross.
On Friday, March 23, I am to give the “FaceTime” meditation at 6 p.m. at Church of the Incarnation, 3966 McKinney Ave., Dallas. The topic I’ve been asked to speak on is “Entering into the Sabbath Rest of God and the Rest of Christ”—appropriate for a Friday evening, the beginning of the weekly Sabbath.