Jesus said, “I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” — Luke 6:27

Anna and I gathered with friends last weekend to watch the 50th Anniversary Saturday Night Live special. Several times, I was in tears, gasping for air as I laughed at some skits. As I caught my breath after one star-studded performance, some of our friends admitted that they did not find the skit as hilarious as I obviously did. Laughter does not equal humor and humor does not equal laughter. Researcher Robert Provine, who was in the Psychology Department at University of Maryland-Baltimore county before his death in 2019, argued that this common misperception has been unduly influenced by the rise of stand-up comedy. His field observations revealed that most laughter in ordinary conversation is not generated by jokes at all. Rather, people laugh for a variety of reasons, and hearing something funny is only one of them.  People might also laugh to show subservience to those of greater power, or because others around them are laughing and they want to fit in.

As this Sunday’s gospel passage continues the Sermon on the Plain from last week, Luke describes how Jesus recites a list of challenges to hierarchies that humans have created. Instead of only talking to those who will agree with us, dealing with those whom we know will repay our loans, or only helping those who help us, we are called to peacefully address injustice, inequality, and necessities of life, within our neighborhood and throughout the whole world.

We pray to you, O God, to resist temptations to envy, greed, and jealousy, so that we can rejoice in other people’s gifts and graces, and to do our duty for the love of you who has called us into fellowship with him.*

*Inspired by “An Outline of the Faith,” The Book of Common Prayer, page 848.

Image from Chris Haston, NBC