Preachers and Punchlines


Abstract:
Sunday after Sunday, they get up and explain the punchline to God's best jokes, but nobody laughs.

Body:

Some friends and I were swapping jokes. Someone would tell a joke, and it would remind someone else of another they had heard, and we were all laughing so hard that our bellies hurt. And then I told a joke, and nobody laughed. They just kept sitting there, waiting for the punchline. "Do you get it?" I asked. "Um, I don't think so," someone said. So then I backed up, and explained why the joke was funny. And when I finished explaining, nobody laughed. They just raised their eyebrows and said, "ohhhhhh, yeah I get it." But nobody laughed.

That's why preachers feel a need to tell jokes in the sermon. Sunday after Sunday, they get up and explain the punchline, but nobody laughs. About the best you can hope for is that someone gets it. Tell the story of the rich young ruler, and when you get to the part "it is easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle than to enter the gates of heaven," if someone laughs uncomfortably, that person gets it. Everyone who nods is just humoring you.

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Posted: Sat - January 14, 2006 at 07:04 PM           |

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