Gallows Humor

Here is my message from Maundy Thursday. The text was Romans 8:18-25, 31-39:

In the remarkable documentary Capturing the Friedmans, director Andrew Jarecki tells the story of the Friedman family of New York who get caught up in the preschool child molestation prosecutions, or we might say persecutions, of the 1980s. The father, Arnold, and later his son, Jesse, are both arrested and plead guilty to the charges that are made against them. But, the film does a great job in exploring the idea of justice and truth, and how the criminal justice system doesn’t always seek those things, and more importantly about the stories we make up and tell ourselves to justify the positions we have taken, even if the evidence doesn’t actually match what we say. But, there is one scene in the documentary, which consists of home movies the family took about their lives during this time, that hits home for today. Just before entering the courthouse for sentencing, the brothers are all standing outside the courtroom joking around with each other. The prosecutors witnessed this activity happening from a distance and said that it just proved their guilt, because if they were innocent they would not have laughing before this serious event taking place. In other words, their view of the issue impacted how they saw and interpreted what was happening. But in response to that accusation, one of the brothers said obviously the prosecutor had never heard of gallows humor, the humor we have when things appear desperate or even hopeless. The humor we have at times when we have to laugh otherwise we would have to cry.

Since today is also April fool’s day, it got me thinking about that film and the idea of humor in dark situations, and it made me wonder if there was any gallows humor on this night in Jesus’ life. On the surface it doesn’t appear to be so, it’s all pretty serious, at least according to our accounts.  And yet, I have to imagine that there had to have been something happening, not only because we tell jokes in situations like this just to cut the tension, but also because of the traditions of Judaism, after all it’s not like Jewish comedians are a rare thing. I think some of this comes about, and the plethora of Jewish comics, comes about because there is something about suffering that leads to humor. I think that’s why there is such a strong comedic tradition in black culture in our country as well. Suffering leads to humor. If you look at the background of many comedians, not all, but many, you’ll find some tragic events that have occurred in their history that have led them to tell jokes, because the alternative was to break down. Stephen Colbert’s father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash and he said it became his job to make his mother laugh. Indeed, the whole reason Jarecki came upon the story of the Friedmans was because he was doing a documentary on children’s party clowns in New York City, and David Friedman was one of the best. Suffering leads to humor.

Bread and Stones

Here is my sermon from Maundy Thursday.  The text was John 13:31-35:

In her autobiography, Wait Till Next Year, Doris Kearns Goodwin recounts how growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950’s she and her friends acted out the hearings being conducted by Senator Joe McCarthy.  “We had begun by transforming our living rooms into a counterpart of the Senate chamber,” she said.  “We set up a table facing a single chair in the middle of the room.  The person designated as the accused sat in the chair while the rest of us asked questions and made charges from behind the table.  As our accused fidgeted uneasily on the stand, we grew increasingly hostile, interrupting explanations with points of order, claiming we had documents and proof to back up our accusations.  We shouted and argued just as we had seen the counsel do on television,” she said.

“Day after day we played this treacherous game, even though one of us usually ended up running from the room in tears.  We accused one another of being poor sports, of cheating at games.  We exposed statements of the ‘accused’ which denigrated others.  Marilyn… accused Elaine of saying that the new girl on the block, Natalie, was fat; Elaine accused Marilyn of saying that Eileen was a crybaby…  Eddie accused Eileen of complaining that Elaine was too bossy.  Often these charges were true.  We did, indeed, talk behind one another’s backs, but we had never imagined that our slurring words, bad mouthed comments, and hurtful language would be made known to others….

“As the games progressed, they became even more vicious and mean-spirited.  Marilyn said she knew the truth about my family, that my real mother had died when I was born, and that my mother was really my grandmother.  Stung by the attack, I lashed back: ‘How can you say such a thing?  Your name isn’t even Greene.  It’s Greenberg.  You’re the one who’s hiding things, not me.’