In the mid 2010s standup comedy was so new in China that at the beginning of each show, the host would have to explain to the audience how to watch live comedy:

“If something is funny….you should laugh.”

“If something is REALLY funny……you should laugh AND clap.”

“And if something is not funny……..you should make fun of the comedian by sarcastically yelling ‘THAT’S FUNNY!’”

Now, comedy is one thing, but preaching is a totally different artform. You may have been going to church and watching sermons all your life without ever having had anyone explain to you how it works.

So, perhaps this will be a helpful explanation of the craft.

Despite what many consumeristic churchgoers and churches would have you believe, listening to a sermon is not some passive couch potato activity, like watching daytime soap operas. The congregation listening has two large responsibilities and if they fail to do their part than they’ll cripple the creative spirit of their pastor. She or he will spend so much time mopping up this failure on the part of the church members, that it will all but ensure a quality sermon can never be preached from the pulpit.

The first thing is listeners must have grace for what is being said from the pulpit. Give the poor speaker the benefit of the doubt, because just like in comedy, podcasting, live radio or television, a common rule of nature always also applies to preaching – If you talk for long enough, you’re going to eventually say something dumb.

What is said may not only be dumb, but also flat wrong. It could be a projection of the preacher’s disappointments or character flaws rather than some deep statement about love, God, and the universe. Thirty odd minutes is a lot of air time to fill each week, so as you watch this fallible human being struggle to do it, keep in mind failures are bound to happen.

The second responsibility of the congregation is perhaps even more difficult than the first and that is to assume the preacher’s good intentions when speaking from the pulpit. Though there’s an understandable mistrust of priests, pastors, politicians, cops, lawyers, doctors, dentists, sales people, booksellers, life coaches, cooks, chefs, principals and parking attendants, it’s also true that if you constantly assume someone’s ill intent your cognitive bias will quickly be confirmed. You’ll ignore all evidence to the contrary and lock in on what you thought in the first place.

But if somehow these two conditions are fulfilled, then the groundwork has been laid for the preacher to keep their end of the bargain.

***

For a very short time I had this bit I used to do. It was kind of avante garde, which is a familiar concept to me being the sophisticated person I am.

I would talk about things on stage in an overly nice and roundabout way, which is how I normally speak, but when I put a blanket over my head the truth would spill out unfiltered. The bit was called ‘The Honesty Blanket’, and this hacky prop comedy entertained the masses for about three weeks.

But don’t comedians always tell the truth on stage? Absolutely not! They also coddle and pander to these dumb and entitled audiences, just like any ordinary layman.

Though you may put them on a holy pedestal, I’m here to tell you that comedians are people too, susceptible to the pressures and whims of the group of strangers they stand before. Comedians slip up sometimes. They experience massive failures of integrity and in moments of weakness are tempted and lead astray like the rest of us. Some may even look the audience right in the eye and lie to them.

As an example, you’ll often hear a crowd full of stingy laughers be told “You guys are a lot fun…”, when what the comic should say is “I can’t wait to leave you people so I can visit the funeral next door where they’re having a far better time.”

Comics will hide from the truth, use vulgarity to cover the raw vulnerability of the truth. They’ll make “comedy” that’s “brave” to avoid the truth. They’ll avert their eyes, or fiddle with the mic stand, or make excuses for their beloved mother when it’d be truer and funnier just to throw her under the bus.

But at the end of it, they must try to tell the truth because the funniest jokes are always true (if not factually then at least emotionally). So, The Honesty Blanket, for all its crudeness, tapped into something deeper. It was a cop out and a cheat code to tell the truth. It was a cheap excuse, and a visual cue to the audience – Let him say it, he’s got the magic blanket on.

***

I was recently coaching someone for an upcoming sermon they were going to deliver and they commented “It feels like I’m wading into a minefield...”

If the congregation fulfills the above-mentioned conditions, giving the preacher their benefit of the doubt, this sets the stage for him or her to complete their end of the deal which is to enter into that minefield.

Frederick Beuchner in his book Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale opens with the story of Pontius Pilate’s day to day life. He is a man of power and intellect, and when a beaten up half-dead rabbi, who is supposedly King of the Jews, is dragged before him Pilate asks him the now famous question, “What is truth?” Christ’s answer was an uncomfortable silence. A non-answer as the answer. Nothing clean or cathartic about it.

You’ve got to be willing to wade into that minefield, to step on toes, to act the fool, to get blown to smithereens. In a world that wants certainty and solutions, snippets and pithy take-aways, the task of the preacher is to tell the truth. You must wrap your naked silly self in that blanket of honesty, for the sake of these people.

Church is superior to life online, not because it’s more entertaining (quite the contrary!), but rather it’s a place to be around live human beings and accept them for who they are as they accept you for who you are. A place to show grace, an environment to give others the benefit of the doubt, and on any given Sunday you may or may not see the preacher don the Honesty Blanket.

Lastly, if the pastor tries to tell a joke and it totally bombs, you can sarcastically mock him by yelling, “THAT’S FUNNY!!!”