It seems to me that when a congregation ceases to function well, one of the casualties of conflict is a loss of a sense of humor about itself.  I think the same thing is happening in our nation. We are aggrieved at almost anything and suffer a loss of ability to laugh at ourselves.

Psalm 146 may be instructive: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.  When his breath departs, he returns to the dust; on that very day his plans perish.”

Psalm 2 asks, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?”  When God sees our vaunted plans and plotting, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.”

A sense of humor is also one of God’s gifts.  Perhaps God’s first joke was using the medium of mud to mold us.  A reminder of what we are made of.

I like Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Don’t brag about your wisdom or strength or wealth.  If you feel you must brag, then have enough sense to brag about worshiping me, the Lord.  What I like best is showing kindness, justice and mercy to everyone on earth.”

Paul writes in I Cor. 1, “He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable and holy.  So, if you want to brag, do what the Scriptures say and brag about the Lord”.

We were created from dust, we shall return to dust and Christ will raise us again from the dust.