Laughing without a net

 

1 Peter 1: 3-9
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
April 12, 2026 – Holy Humor Sunday

Photo of a hand with light skin holding Rise, Artemis II microgravity indicator. A white ball with decorated with two eyes, pink cheeks, and a smile, with yellow circles to indicate craters, one labeled "Carroll", another labeled "Integrity". Rise is wearing a cap that looks like planet Earth, with a black brim decorated with yellow stars and a rocket blasting off.

A week ago Wednesday, on the beginning of Passover, I watched the Artemis II liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center to make its historic journey around the moon, going further than any other spaceflight before. Since there was Easter to prepare for, I caught snippets of the mission on social media: photos of the earth and moon, astronaut Christina Koch fixing the space toilet, the crew naming a crater for Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife Carroll. I heard the crew’s Easter greeting. I too felt moon joy.



Then on Monday, my day off, I watched a fun romp of a movie entitled “Chef”. It’s about a celebrity chef who gets knocked off his pedestal by a food blogger and loses his job, so he goes back to his roots, starts a food truck business with his best friend and his 9-year-old son, and they head out on the road. What surprised me was that throughout the movie I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I just couldn’t relax almost the whole time I was watching. I’d see someone crossing a street or the two men switching from the driver’s seat and think something horrible was about to happen.



Which is exactly what we all lived through this past Tuesday when the president of our country threatened Iran with utter destruction if he didn’t get his way. As one person on social media put it, it’s like living with an abusive husband walking around the house with a loaded gun in his hand, threatening to use it. But even after he puts it away, he continues to live in the house.



Now it’s Holy Humor Sunday and we’re supposed to laugh? I’m GenX. I’m used to dark humor but…I’m wearing a t-shirt today that reads “GenX raised on mixtapes, hose water, and neglect.” It’s like those 1st century Jesus people. They were raised on handwritten letters passed around Asia Minor, desert water, and neglect. They believed in Jesus with…no Jesus.



It’s why we have this 1st century letter addressed to people throughout the Jesus movement, that they are to rejoice even though they suffer through various trials. It is true that what we are living through is nothing like what these early followers of Jesus faced. Also, most of the Bible was written for marginalized, vulnerable people; we are not the Bible’s intended audience.



But let’s also not get into a competition about existential threats. When our nervous system gets hooked, when our emotions are dysregulated, when we are in our lizard brains, our bodies do not know how to distinguish one frightening thing from another. All we know, or at least all our bodies know, is that we are afraid, frustrated, anxious, and on edge.



That is when catharsis is necessary—to release all those emotions. Who cried Friday night when the Artemis II crew landed safely in the Pacific Ocean? The whole time they were up there it was like they had taken us with them. When it was time for them to reenter earth’s atmosphere, we held our breath for the six minutes it took for Integrity to regain communication capability. And when those first parachutes appeared, we knew everything was going to be okay. We knew that those heartstrings that stretched around the moon and back were coming back to us.



Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator, noting the close relationship between the crew and their devotion to their families, said, “To me, that’s a great example of why we go and do these missions. If you can’t take love to the stars then what are we doing, like, why would we even go? That’s why we send humans instead of robots sometimes; that’s why we have a first-hand witness … so we can share that experience.”



Learning about space all day is exhausting. I need a launch break.

So, I’m throwing a party in space. Can you help me planet?

I know what we could serve. A satellite dish.

Now I’m obsessed with the moon. You’re probably hoping it’s just a phase.

I’ve started listening to an astronaut playlist. My favorite band so far is the Nep-Tunes.

I checked out a book on antigravity and now I can’t put it down!

Sometimes I wonder why we still have not had extraterrestrial visitors come to our solar system. They probably read the reviews: only one star.

NASA is thinking about what to name the first interstellar currency but Starbucks was already taken.

Maybe one day we could have church in space. No pressure.

I know, it sounds like I’m addicted to space jokes but one day I’ll over comet.



Jesus didn’t die on the cross and rise from the dead just so we could wait for the other shoe to drop. Easter, resurrection, holy humor, Eastertide—it’s all catharsis for living through the absolute worst that life can dish out. Laughter, tears, empathy, vulnerability, compassion, moon joy—it’s where resistance and creativity, connection and courage are born. Even when we don’t know what’s ahead, we can laugh anyway, we can give thanks anyway, we can rejoice anyway. With an indescribable and glorious joy that no one can take away from us. Because we are receiving the outcome of our faith, our hope, our joy. The liberating of our souls.



In the words of astronaut Victor Glover: “In all of this emptiness, this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe. You have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. …Tell the world to keep this energy going. Let’s invest in togetherness.” Amen.

Benediction


Keep this energy going
Laughter, tears, empathy, vulnerability, compassion, moon joy—
it’s where resistance and creativity,
connection and courage are born.
It’s where the grave comes up empty
And we are reborn.
We are Easter people
And we laugh without a net.